Fairies in the Garden is done!!!

Yes! ...Unlike the trees outside, which are slowly beginning to shower down their leaves, this Garden has been gaining leaves, and beads! Now completed, it is ready to be worn. When knitting in a free range style of using basic stitches to show off multiple yarns to their greatest advantage, it is possible to follow your creative spirit wherever it will lead you. Sometimes, yarns that appear to be perfect for play with others in a garment of this sort will opt out at the last minute. It is strange to me how this happens. Held together, the yarns seem to compliment each other in color and texture, but when the knitting begins, they start to fight each other. Many times a few rows have been frogged to remove the offending yarn. Many times has a project been set aside because something is missing, a particular kind of excitement that just the right yarn will lend to the others, bringing them alive. And that is where the passion lies in free ranging. In Fairies In The Garden, this spirit led me into new and wonderful territory. Until now, my embellished projects have had character beads. I searched space to find the right beads. I had it in mind to add little fairy pendants along with crystal, glass, and stone beads. However, the more I looked, it dawned on me that the cost of the fairies alone would make this a very pricey scarf. I also realized that they really wouldn't take the imagination anywhere. Was it really necessary to have metallic fairies cavorting in the fibers? After a bit of thought, I decided that the real treat for the imagination would be to simply imply that fairies would be found there.
Just as any mystical woodsy glen sparks the imagination to place mystical creatures there, my scarf, if I achieved that character, would suggest the same. So, how does one go about suggesting that this scarf would be favored by tiny creatures that by their very nature are unburdened? The scarf had to be weightless, like the web of a spider, soft as mist, full of hiding places and surprises, and glistening with beads hinting of dew and berries. Colors are reminiscent of soft morning light and springtime.

Sleeves or no sleeves?

Colder weather has hit us here in the South quickly this year. Just when the back porch was seducing me to languorous hours there enjoying the cooler temps and fresher air that fall heralds in. From mid-seventies to 60's overnight. Now, after waiting all summer for a fall in which to enjoy my Peach Orchard Cardi-Wrap in it's sleeveless glory, there is no doubt that this had to be reconsidered right away. So, it was decision time. The plan is to simply lace the sleeves onto the body of the wrap. This would seem ideal, as the sleeve has YO's at the sleeve slots. If I had done the body with the same, they could be added and removed as the whim takes me. So, now , a quick whip stitch, and those homeless parts will finally be attached!  You can make one of your own as I offer the pattern here:  Peach Orchard Cardi Wrap

Fairies in the Garden?

I don't know, ...I can't behave myself with color as my mentor, Jane Thornley, so expertly does. Forget about trying to stay within a color schematic. Colors come at me like the hundreds of little rainbows that flood my living room each morning as the sun kisses the prisms on my window sill. They seduce and drug me with their glorious playfulness and I am lured into yarny diversions that I had never conceived of in the planning stages. Not having quite accepted that this is what is to define my projects, I find myself helplessly without discipline or desire to defend against them.

Creativity comes from following our playful spirit. When I allow that to guide what I am doing, there is no telling what the end result will be. These are the yarns I started out with. Not necessarily determined to all be used, they simply awaited my impulsive decisions to be used or not. Several of those yarns that held promise never made the stage. I even added a chartreuse banana ribbon yarn that I dyed myself. When this project found the needles, I was determined to let it grow into whatever it wanted to become. Now, it is evolving into this:


That is my grandest exploration into hypertufa (that "concrete" ball) you see in the background.


Then this happened:



Yes! Leaves! They will dangle along with stray ribbony fringe amongst dewy drops of crystals and beads. I will keep you posted!