Dawn Brocco's Life & Design Blog

Finished the back of the new cardie Sunday night, including back of the neck shaping. And finished the last front section last night. Got the shoulders seamed up and picked up sts for one sleeve. This one is the small size at 39". The next sample will be a medium at 42". I think I'll wait for the Chester Farms Fine Merino yarn to be available and I'll swatch the cable pattern in that yarn to see if I can make the next sample in it. Then write the pattern as a generic heavy worsted / aran yarn weight pattern, but also list the yarns I used for the samples.

Working mostly on the Gazette issue yesterday and today - photos, layout, the color bits. I think I like that part best - choosing the colors for the cover and then selecting which of those colors will highlight titles, page numbers, and the Hoefler Text Ornaments I use in the Materials lists, then which colors will border the photos and important text boxes. I love playing with color! Of course, not until print sample pages, do I see if the colors selected print as I want them to. I often need to reselect colors, so that the photos and all the supporting colors work well together.

It was flurrying on hubby yesterday morning, as he was priming part of the house front! It was only Nov. 8th, so it's a fluke, yes, a fluke! That "won't" return for at least another month, right?!

I had my son redo the color in the cashmere scarf kit ad for the next (Winter) VK issue. He's got Photoshop and I haven't. I'm hoping the color prints out better next time in the mag. I think if I had time (and I don't) I'd submit an entirely different ad, as no orders have come in for the scarf kits yet. But the deadline is here and I've lost a lot of time being laid up from the surgeries. I'm hoping that colder weather brings sales or it'll take me forever to repay the investment of these 2 ads, plus interest!

I sent the new booklet (Love Collection) off to Unicorn Books and to Plymouth Yarns. I always send samples of my designs and books to the yarn companies whose yarns I design with, even though I purchase all my yarns - I don't ask for yarn support for my work.

I need to come up with the next design collection. I have wanted to do a book of mitten patterns, for awhile now, but other things need finishing first. Maybe socks - maybe the "The Best of the Heels and Toes Gazette"? That would work - trans-seasonal designs, not just winter wear... It might entice knitters to try sock knitting.

Socks were some of the first things I ever made for myself, after I taught myself to knit - not scarves. I did socks and sweaters - I dove right into the harder stuff, as I didn't think it was hard, and I still don't, one just needs to keep one's brain about oneself.

But then, none of my creativity up until that point had been anything one might consider to be mindless, like so much of today's knitting is - mindful, mindless, whatever, the result is the same - simpler things that the hands can make, while the brain rests from the drains of daily life. So, I was used to "involving" myself in my work, not looking for an escape. And yet, "involving" oneself in something that is enjoyable "is" an escape.

Spending time in one's head thinking about patterns and stitch counts and how deep to make that armhole, etc, is an escape from dealing with kids, and housework and jobs and co-workers and all the things that take us "outside" of ourselves.

In case the idea hasn't hit knitters yet, when you are knitting on something that doesn't require your brain to be there with you, it means your attention can well be given to other things and people. So, if you "really" want to escape, embroil yourself in an attention-involving project, and then your attention "can't" be pulled away to other things and people! It's easier for others to leave you alone if you're doing something that looks complex. But try and just sit and veg in front of the tv and they will inevitably say, "but mom you're just watching tv, you're not doing anything important!" rationalizing that it's OK for them to bother you. Well, nip that in the bud by casting on an aran sweater or a twisted stitch gauntlet mitten or Fair Isle "anything"! Then while away a couple hours happily not being bothered because "this project demands my attention". Let them sulk and maybe they'll learn to fend for themselves for a bit, or at the very least, you can deal with their problems and demands when "you" feel like it. Think of it, an entirely new approach for harried women to get time for themselves!