Wednesday, August 11, 2010

past, present & future

Last night I had THE most weird dream - so strange, I felt like it was really real...I woke up remembering all these details and they’ve been running through my mind all day and won’t go away!! Maybe if I tell you, it’ll disappear and not turn into a fixation.
It started when an old customer - well, I mean she wasn’t old, just I haven’t seen her in years - anyway, she had bought a knitting machine from me with the idea to design her own line of clothing - she was a handknitter and had seen me at a local fall fair, somewhere in the early 90's. She was very talented and artistic and came to her second lesson with a completed kid’s garment - wow!! I was blown away then and always impressed with what she did, but she’d moved away and I haven’t heard from her in probably 15 years, so why did I dream about her??
So, she has a problem with her knitting machine and brings it to my shop (that I had at the time) and I mean, brings it to me - still set up with the ribber and all and half her garment hanging off the machine - just dumps it down and yells, ‘fix this thing!’ I look at the knitting and I'm totally amazed at what she's creating... it’s wide rib with little random cables and hand transferred lace stitches, tons of stuff happening - the whole piece just enthrals me but I'm trying to pretend like I don't really notice - I can’t believe the time she must be spending to make this when she usually does fairisles with like about 19 colours with maybe a little intarsia motif - you know, usually you’re either a texture person or a colour person, not both - she tells me it’s the ‘city style’ that all the girls are crazy for right now - I don’t know what she means but turns out that’s the length of it, just above the knee, so I'm thinking 'Tumbleweed' from No 53 - she’s using a silk wool yarn that I’ve made a couple of things with (but not back then) but have since found it pills like crazy and I won’t use it ever again. And in the back of my mind I’m saying to myself, I’d try something like a denim cotton and, while she’s still there, I realize I’m planning to steal her design!! huh?? what’s that all about? yeah, and I looked like I did back then and of course, so did she because I don't know what she looks like now - crazy, right?
She eventually leaves with her machine - I’m not sure if I ever fixed it or not - and I wake up - now, I’ve got this design playing over and over in my head - it’s like an indecent obsession - okay, I’ll admit it, I do have 2 cones of a discontinued denim cotton I’ve been saving for something special and heck, with no deadlines anymore, what’s to stop me from just playing around with this....and I could use it for that ribber class at Inspiration 2010 in Cleveland in September.
You know, maybe it’s the weather - maybe it’s heat stroke or something...did I mention we’re actually having a REAL summer - days on end of 90F plus - usually, here in Thunder Bay, we say that this year, summer was on Tuesday...
My swatches are amazing!!!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Oh my gosh, you dream about machine knitting. No wonder I don't have the same wonderful inspiration that you do!!!
Glad to see and hear you on the blog - we missed you ;-)
Eileen