Do over. And then, do over again.

The title says it all.  *Sigh*  Do over.  And then do over again.

This is what happens when you don’t read the pattern.  Yes, I do have an excuse, several in fact, for being distracted right now, but really.  Not just once, but twice.

I tempted to skip straight to my artwork, but I’ll dish the knitting trauma first.  This is the first cuff for my Blue Moon Fiber Arts Rock and Weave Socks.  Lots of linen stitch, and very enjoyable it is to knit.  The colors are much prettier than the picture shows — the yarn is Colinette’s Jitterbug Sock Yarn in Popsicle.  The first mistake was understandable.  In my excitement to be at the end of the cuff, I cast off.  I was excited about trying the picot edge cast off for the first time.  I did it, only realizing after the fact that I was supposed to do the buttonholes first.

So, this morning, I frogged out my pretty picot edge, knit buttonholes and cast off again.  Oops!  Really.  Don’t you think I would have read the pattern better the second time through?  i’ve got to frog again, redo the buttonholes and continue in linen stitch for a bit before I get to cast off.  Oh the agony of it.  I resolve to be a better pattern reader in the future!

Work in my studio is going much better than the knitting right now!  I’m in the thick of my current book in the Pock-et-ful Round Robin.  I’m working in Lesley Wood’s Inspirations Book.  The minute I saw this book, I had two related ideas.   I scribbled them down right away.

The first is suggestion — I draw a great deal of inspiration from things that remotely suggest at something else.  Outlines.  Ideas.  Subconscious images that emerge.  All of these things call to me.  When I got down to work, one of the first things I did was to transfer an outline from a picture I took of a building when I was going to school in Germany over some text.

Suggestion.  I like that it’s unclear.  I draw inspiration from things that are less than black and white in their meaning.

The second idea that hit me immediately was the interplay between the words muse and amuse.  All of us who make art have muses.  I’m most often inspired by my daughter.  I won’t bore you.  Let’s just leave it at the fact that she is a creative genius at the age of nine.  And amuse.  I like to laugh.  Even at dark things.  And I’ve been in a dark mood, at least in terms of color, lately.  This is the background I have begun.

I’m hoping that somewhere in between muse and amuse, I’ll find the inspiration for this piece.  My table, like always, is a disaster area.  No matter how big of a space I start out with, it gets filled up with flotsam until I’m working in about 5 inches at the very edge of the table.

I have some images and leftover bits I’m playing with.

I also have this: The Culpeppers —  a treasured book from my childhood.  It has been eviscerated by Trouble, the stray dog I took in last fall.  In addition to lavishing the entire family with attention, she has chewed up all kinds of things, large and small, including three pounds of filet steak and a futon.  She is part German Shorthaired Pointer, so she likes to carry things around in her mouth.  Unlike a good bird dog, though, she likes to chew them up as well.  And so, this book, which was being read by Ellie, met it’s sad fate.

I love this book, though.  I rescued it.  Its sweet little line drawings have a very retro-feel, and I love the text.  I’m planning on dyeing a yarn colorway in these simple, sweet colors.  And I have a feeling that somewhere inside this book, I’ll find the inspiration I need to pull together all of my ideas into just the right artwork for Lesley’s book.