In April, I lost my job. A job that had not been fun for a very long time. It’s a good thing, but scary at the same time to be 1) unemployed in this economy, 2) to be unemployed in the arts at this time of year…the time when summer students are being hired to fill in the gaps, and 3) to have a huge wealth of knowledge and skills that seem to get swept aside as soon as employers see my experience is with arts organizations. Which would normally lead me on a very long and detailed rant about the fact that artists are among the most educated, the most skilled and the least valued workers in this country, but I know I’m preaching to the converted here.
So what better than the Knitter’s Frolic to make it all better? I went with Emily, who very skillfully enabled me into a sweater’s worth of very lovely Tanis Fiber Arts Yellow Label DK in Olive.
Emily is very very good at this enabling thing...she should really go pro...
This is one of those magical colours. It’s definitely green in the skein, but in the ball and when swatched, it’s very complex greys with a soft greenish tone (like the green soapstone sculptures we were allowed to touch at the McMichael on school trips). We quickly decided that this yarn should be for my “Emancipation Sweater”, whatever sweater that happened to be. I had some ideas, but in the end I’ve decided that it should be one that I design.
And I’ve had plenty of time to design! In my head. Because of a shoulder injury I haven’t been able to knit…or draw…or write. I wish I could tell you an exciting story about a 3-story fall or the rare patch of mid-May black ice outside my apartment building…but the truth is I just slept funny one night. Resulting in over a month of pain and lack of function in the right side of my body. It’s slowly coming back…one row last weekend…4 rows on Wednesday…and then today…I attempted swatching.
Just like soapstone...
And played with stitches, cast ons and edgings…
See that built-in icord edging? After hours of trial and error: no seams, no twisting, no weird overlapping. It's perfect. This whole idea might just work!
This colourway was made for texture. I’m most attracted to the stitch patterns that mimic carved stone…tool marks…the mark of the hand.
This is the pre-beginning.
