My family attended an “Ugly Holiday Sweater New Years Eve Party” where the hostess gave me her two huge totes of left over yarn from when she decided that knitting was not for her – I feel so rich! Thank you Katie!
I was going to donate this sophisticated novelty yarn to the fiber club at the library when my daughter asked me to please make her a snowflake sweater instead with it – like the fancy sweaters from the party(!)
Well, she did say please.
So we looked at patterns on Ravelry to solidify her design ideas (slightly fitted sleeves with shoulder poof, v neck for putting it on easily over the head. I wondered if we should make it a sleeveless over dress so the turtle neck will take care of scratchy metalic yarn itch, and maybe use paisleys instead of snowflakes?)
I’m not sure where I’m going to find anything to match, so if it forms it’s own outfit, that makes things easier. Though matching is maybe not an issue, she wears pink everything, and jeans, so maybe I shouldn’t worry. It’s wilder than the 80’s in little girl clothes these days. Honestly, as long as she’s warm, modest and happy, I don’t care what she wears.
Which explains the tutus in the grocery store.
I printed 15 copies of the child croquis from Threads magazine, and she drew away with colored pencils that matched the yarn.
She’s understanding that you have to draw out your ideas to communicate them to Mom, that Mom has to measure her, that we might need to look at various references to find what we want. I know that this is a wonderful chance for her to learn about measurement, math, design, and communication – but I’m nervous. K can be a demanding customer. I can be a stubborn artisan. We still need to get along together while this is happening!
Now we get to my nerves. I don’t understand pink. Not in my bones. But I’m going to look at those yarns in black and white and try to sort them on their value, not just their hue. Perhaps that will help me get organized. K wears these colors all the time, perhaps she can give me some guidance (though her drawings used a lot more of colors than she actually has.)
These yarns were in the same tote, but that doesn’t mean they all were meant to go together. I’m not sure we are going to achieve unity of design here. Also, there is not enough of either the gold or the pink to be a main color – there is no nice Fibonacci sequence distribution here. But, I can always buy more yarn, not that it can match or anything of course.
One of my wild sweaters in my experimental college days featured crocheted paisleys embedded in a single crochet matrix, joined in knit fabric (the knit fabric was to save on yarn, and make the finished sweater more flexible.) It was the idea of Irish Crochet – where you make the motifs, arrange them, them join them into a fabric later. Only on another order of magnitude of scale.
I had K look over this reference book, she was most attracted to a large diamond/pineapple sort of motif. Perhaps that can decorate the front of the torso, like her sketch I put next to the book.
Perhaps my problem is; I associate these sorts of patterns with needlepoint chair backs.