What inspires me

Most of my thoughts on the blog so far have been directly about knitting or yarn. Sharing my projects and progress.

As the seasons change and the spring flowers take over the garden I thought I would share what is currently inspiring me.

In my very first post I wrote about how craft feeds the soul, the grounding factor that creates peace and provides escape. The action of making something, creating an idea in my head, and then using my hands to make that idea come to life.

This is definitely the driving force behind why I craft. It is my escape, my happy place and my creative outlet.

Everyday, out in the world, I take note of how colour occurs in nature. The combinations of colour and the vibrancy catch my eye. How amazing are these colours from my garden this morning!?!?!

How can seeing this beauty in nature not lead to inspiration?



To begin with it makes me happy. I put hard work into my garden throughout the year and these are the results of that work. Proud displays of the care that I have taken.

Flowers and foliage are also great guides on which to base colourways for yarn. Nature has a way of getting things right, so it is fun to try to capture that in dye.

I grab my camera out frequently to capture these types of images. Fuel for my creative fire.

What inspires you? Where does your craft inspiration come from?

Knitrospective - Shawls

What makes a great shawl? Colour? Shape? Size? Lace? Beads? Garter?

Shawls are a regular in my knitting rotation. I have a lot in my queue and library. Once I have completed one I am searching for the next one to cast on.

They are go-to accessory pieces, especially for my work wardrobe. Essential for combating the chill of air-conditioning and also for adding the "knitterly touch" to my outfits.

I began with small, one skein shawls like the Multnomah by Kate Ray, Mizzle by Patricia Martin and Pimpelliese by Christine Ebers.

Pimpelliese

I now enjoy larger multi-coloured, lace or beaded shawls. Although there is always a place for a more simple, one skein shawl in the knitting rotation (my recently knitted Reyna is an example of this).

Nuvem has been on my needles twice, and could definitely be knit again.

My Hope

The two most intricate shawls I have knit have not been for me, but made as special gifts. The My Hope for my sister on her wedding day and Bella Botanica for my mother-in-law for Christmas. Both had beading and lace work and I loved the process of knitting each of them. I know both have been worn numerous times, which makes me happy. What I am disappointed about it that in both cases I never took proper finished object pictures, only progress and blocking shots.

I think I will at some stage have to knit a lace and bead shawl for myself, but at the moment I am enjoying the squishy garter and fun colour combinations from patterns like Drachenfels and Moonraker by Melanie Berg.

Moonraker

A shawl that was in my queue for a very long time was Bloom, which I finished earlier this year. I wrote a full blog post on the finished object. I have worn it at work and received many compliments - it has some wow factor. I am thinking about yarn combinations for another one.

Bloom

So what is the best kind of shawl? It's much too difficult to decide, I guess I will have to keep knitting more to try out more patterns, colour combinations, shapes and techniques.