Last week talented knitwear designer, fibre dyer extraordinaire and all around lovely lady Rachel Brown from Porpoise Knits tagged myself and the ever vivacious Allie of Champagne & Quiviut in a creative blog hop!
What a lovely idea and concept and a great way to get a peek at some amazing new crafty blogs. A huge Kettle Yarn Co. welcome to any new readers, and thanks for dropping by
As part of a chain of posts, to take part we all answer the same four questions and then introduce readers to two other amazing blogs of our choice.
So to start…
ISLINGTON – Prunella, Old Smoke & Light Squirelly
1. What am I working on?
As regular readers already know, I’ve started my glorious Naloa shawl by EastLondonKnit and have reluctantly put it on on hold while I move house over the next few weeks.
It is painful to wait as this first bit only took a couple of days and was so quick and easy – even for a lace luddite like me! I am dyeing to finish it now…but will wait for the start of the KAL on August 31st and the rest of you…!
click image for larger version
2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?
All the yarns I sell are personally wear tested to ensure the blends are luxurious and soft against the skin but ALSO long wearing, high quality and are ethically produced.
I’ve even created the wear chart above to help customers choose yarn for their projects.
Keep in mind that what I refer to as a 3 shave blend is something that can be worn ten or more times before you will even see one little pill! A yarn like Malabrigo Rasta would be a 1000 shave in my books…or would never even rate on a chart. 😉
3. Why do I create what I do?
This is a really tough question for me. I have always made things in one form or another and have a physical and emotional need to make things. It is just a part of me.
Dyeing yarn is such a natural progression from my MA in Fine Art Painting that it just makes too much sense not to do it. I love fibre and colour and the melding of the two into something practical and useful is unbelievably satisfying.
Detail of Noordzee Shawl by Rachel Brown in WESTMINSTER – baby camel/silk in ‘florence’ colourway
I was talking to someone the other day regarding the paintings I used to make and realised dyeing yarn for others to use encompasses a huge motivator for my creative process. With paintings I created ambiguous scenes which required viewers to bring their own interpretations to the piece. With yarn it is taken even further and I get to physically SEE what those interpretations have created in a way. It is magic.
When I design, the process is much more selfish. I design items I want or need and this means that the items need to be things I’d be happy to knit myself. This requires them to be somewhat simple and easy to knit as knitting for me is about relaxing and enjoying the process and techniques. I am much more interested in crafting something exceptionally well with well-considered details than recreating the wheel!
Brioche Hat and Brownlow Wristwarmers
4. How does my creative process work?
I am a natural pack rat and think my creations encompass this by melding bits and bobs of things that interest me…or that I like and covet.
I can be rather impulsive and horrifically particular when it comes to colour. I frequently get taken away by the process of dyeing, and often end up with new colourways because I simply cannot bear to take the hue where I’d intended and lose a lovely colour developed by chance. I have always found those unexpected discoveries the most exciting in a creative process and firmly believe in giving chance its fair due!
see, hear, speak, © 1999 Linda Lencovic, silver & copper pendant
My two tagged blogs
I’ve chosen two more knitting-related bloggers to continue the Creative Hop. Make sure to click through and follow the hop trail to discover new blogs!
1. Kate from the blog and podcast A Playful Day – Kate is a freelance writer, editor and social media developer with a serious passion for knitting.
2. Rachel at My Life in Knitwear – Rachel is a talented designer and tech editor working with a number of UK knitting magazines, specialist craft publishers and high profile independent designers. and has just had several designs published in the gorgeous new book The Knit Generation!
Acorn by Rachel Atkinson © Quail Publications, 2014
A HUGE thank you to Rachel for tagging me in this hop! Do check out the other amazing blogs in the trail of posts by following back on the previous posts…it is good fun! 😉
From the Purl Side 