making time for making
Each Wednesday, I take stock of the projects I’m working on, and where my brain is at.
My primary focus for this week has been getting the new schematics for the Shawl Geometry Books finished, and diving headlong into laying out all of the patterns.
This may seem a little bit backwards – laying everything out before editing. But I find with knitting patterns that the clarity of a pattern is rather intrinsically tied to how the information is laid out. How the graphics, text, headings all interact with each other is just as important to the readability & understand-ability of a knitting pattern as the knitting pattern itself. And laying the pages out in something approximating their final layout, lets me treat the pattern (including the intro, instructions, photo, schematic, and tips) as one unit rather than many.
So a lot of my time this past week (and this coming week for that matter) was (and will be) spent staring at a computer screen. When this happens it’s super-much important for me to block out time for making this with my hands – something that exists outside of a computer screen – if I don’t, I end up a little disconnected from the world around me.
Luckily I have my summery wardrobe infusion to work on. I’ve been blocking out a couple evenings a week and in my calendar labeling them “making time for making.” Kind of like how writing goals down really does help you achieve them – making time for making really seems to help me get things made. (There’s a part of me totally rolling my eyes at myself over this.)
I re-drafted & tested my racer back tank top pattern, plus printed and taped out the Anna Maxi Dress pattern.
However, in light of yesterday’s rememberings that I don’t really like dresses. I’m revamping my plan for the Anna Maxi Dress. It’ll still be a dress, and still be a maxi dress, but I’m completely re-drafting the bodice. Once I have more of a solid plan, I’ll write about it in detail – but right now I’m at the totally legit post-it note math stage.
My new racer back tank top pattern has just a couple teeny tweaks I want to make, but other than that it’s good to go.
And I finished knitting my no longer neglected laceweight sweater over the weekend (totally winning a game of yarn chicken!), and just waiting for me to weave in the ends and give it a nice soak. Like I predicted, our weather here in NYC turned from rainy-spring into sunny-spring right around the time I bound off, so huzzah! for sunny spring weather. Maybe I’ll weave in the ends and give it a soak this afternoon?
May is a month of making, and forgetting about making, and remembering about forgetting
Each Wednesday, I take stock of the projects I’m working on, and where my brain is at.
There are some weeks when I come here to write my mid-week brain dump, I wake up with words on my tongue and a phone overflowing with photos.
While other weeks, I wake up positive that nothing has happened since last Wednesday, nothing new made, nothing new observed, or thought – but I come here only to find that this isn’t the case at all.
This morning was one of the latter mornings.
…
I woke up forgetting about: the pair of jeans I mended on Saturday, finishing up photographing the Shawl Geometry swatches(!), the first day of Me Made May, a couple late night knitting sessions & a finished sweater sleeve(!!), and printing off & taping out the Anna Dress pattern for my summer wardrobe infusion.
This morning I woke up having forgotten about all those things. Plus all the things that I didn’t photograph – moving, starting to create the schematics for the Shawl Geometry Books Update, writing a couple bonus articles for the Shawl Geometry Books Update, regular client work, having something of a social life, etc. etc.
Not to mention that May is the month for Me-Made-May – which every year I mean to pledge & participate in, and every year I never quite get around to it. And this year it is also the month for Mend It May, and #makermay over on Instagram.
So much making this month, and we’re only on the morning of the 4th day.
…
On mornings that I wake up with no words on my tongue, no recollection of any photos taken, or anything made – I wonder why I write this each week.
Then I come here and find myself with a plethora of things, and wonder how I could ever forget everything that has happened these past seven days.
And I remember, that I write this each week, to stop in and say hi, to find out what I have to say. I’ve had something to say every Wednesday morning for almost two years. This week probably isn’t the week of nothing.
And then I find myself promising to remember this pattern – promising to remember that I always have something to say – forgetting that forgetting this is the very next step.
when did making clothing by hand become the path of least resistance in my life?
Each Wednesday, I take stock of the projects I’m working on, and where my brain is at.
The main “making activity” of my week has been wet blocking Shawl Geometry swatches – which is turning into a rather large project.
Normally, this wouldn’t be such an endeavor. I’d block them on my bed, and it would probably take two or three round to get all the swatches wet blocked, but then that would be that.
However, I’m currently subletting and rather than sticking a whole bunch of pins into a mattress that is not mine – I’m blocking on a cork-board.
This has the added benefit of being able to block swatches overnight (the main drawback of blocking on a mattress is not being able to leave it overnight), but the downside is that I can only block a handful of swatches at a time. So, the whole process is taking a while. Le sigh.
So, I’ve been distracting myself by planning an infusion of summery clothing into my wardrobe.
But of course, when I was packing up the clothing I wasn’t taking on my trip with me, I didn’t really think this far ahead. I was more concerned about maximizing space efficiency over ease of unpacking. So everything is packed in vacuum seal bags, and nothing is packed by season.
So rather than going on a clothes hunting mission in my storage unit, which could very possibly be fruitless and just might end in tears – I’m planning an easy and breezy handmade summer wardrobe infusion.
Sort of like an extended Me-Made-May, or a truncated Self-Made Wardrobe Project, either way, a not “normal” way of adding clothing to your wardrobe.
And I’m sitting here wondering, when (for me) did making clothing by hand become the path of least resistance?!
Also! I scored the jackpot on recycled pattern paper – old theatrical lighting plots. Because of course, all my patterns are also in an unknown box in my storage unit…
Oh and! I am not forgetting about my laceweight sweater – it is sitting right next to me on my desk and getting a couple rounds added at a time. Luckily I’m working on the sleeves – so the rounds are short, and a couple rounds at a time for the past couple weeks, has resulted in getting about halfway down the second sleeve!
