One of the ongoing struggles in my making life is the balance of making for myself versus the podcast. Where in the conversation does the making fill my cup versus fit the needs of the podcast, and by extension, the teaching portion of Wool n’ Spinning.
The gentle tug-of-war that goes on between what I want to make and working exclusively with handspun began the day I turned on the camera to begin recording. Years ago, I remember standing at one of the first Fibres West festivals, which happens here locally to me. What is most wonderful about the festival is a celebration of spinning and weaving in particular. There is tons of yarn for knitting but there is a conscious decision to make sure that there are vendors catering to spinning and weaving, specifically.
That particular Fibres West, where I was standing, a woman sitting nearby was sharing about her cardigan. She had spun and knit the garment – at the time, this was revolutionary to me and I wonder about her, all these years later. I want to thank her for opening the world of spinning up to me – I’d never thought about using my handspun before that moment.
That might seem silly but it just hadn’t occured to me – and now, all these years later (more than 20), I can honestly say that she changed the course of my life..
Sometimes, though, I don’t want to work with handspun. I don’t want to count yardage and grist and calculate gauge changes. Often, I think of myself as a sleuth – figuring out that gauge or sett the handspun would be ideally knit or woven at, wondering about how to best finish the fabric to showcase the yarn best, or playing with differnt construction methods to maximize yardage. I often think about putting on a detective’s hat to figure it all out.
There are times when I want to look at a knitting pattern, look at the yarn the pattern calls for, and just knit the thing. No further thinking about yarn required. In my knitting life, I have done this maybe 2 -3 times. Maybe. More like 1 – 2 times.
This project was that. Pattern? Check. Yarn? Bought. Check. Gauge swatch? Check. Cast on? Check.
There were a few reasons for this, namely that the all-over colourwork means there is little room for gauge problems. Second, there are a many techniques in this pattern – braided cast on, steeking, and of course, the colourwork. It’s a gorgeous pattern and I would have liked (in another world) to spin for it – but that’s the crux of the matter. Would I really have wanted to?
Before I’d even cast on, the designer notes the fiddliness of the cast on. Needing a quiet place with lots of time to get started. Often, before casting on a garment, the decision-making that has gone into just making the yarn is the project. By the time the knitting comes, I just want to turn off my brain in any meaningful capacity and knit. I’ve done all the work already.
This pattern, and other examples like it, the project becomes the knitting. It’s complicated, takes time and the hundreds of decisions that come before can be made for me (colours, yarn structure, plying, etc).
The podcast focuses on working with handspun yarns. There are only so many hours in the day. I made an intentional decision years ago not to spend too much time on the podcast talking about non-handspun yarn. I enjoy this niche that I have carved out – I want to talk mostly about handspun.
Even though I have wanted to knit this sweater since the designer first announced its impending publication, and I bought it immediately upon release, it is still making time removed from making time with handspun. That’s the rub. It’s a choice to make something explicitly for me and there is always a bit of guilt associated witrh that.
