Welcome to Project Knitway or should I say Project Renottaway? It's my cyberspace place to post my favorite things...thoughts about family and creativity and design. One of my favorite things is making stuff, specifically clothing and accessories from fiber and metal. So you'll see a lot about that here. I also love spending time with my family, so there will be a bit about that too. When I'm not with my family or in my studio, I am most likely at nextdoor, my store. I have always had a store ever since I was a young woman. I started with a weaving store called the niddy noddy in Waukesha eons ago. I ended with nextdoor in Brookfield. It's my dream store filled with great clothing, especially denim. Really nice women work and shop there, it's a fun place to be. You can find us there every day and online at www.shopatnextdoor.com So come for a visit here and there.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Spring Fling, Summer Affair or Wool You Be Mine?

Every spring I stock my shelves in my studio with an array of cotton and bamboo yarns in beautiful colors. It's always a nice change after the long months of winter. But truthfully, my fling with these yarns is always short lived, especially this year with the average temperature being 55 degrees F. My real love affair is with wool...that's right, itchy, woolie, wool. I love how it feels, how it smells and how it knits up into wonderful, warm stuff. This year looks to be a great year for knitting with wool, as the powers that be in the fashion industry have declared that over sized sweater coats with bold patterns and fringes are finally back in style. The young fashionistas are also just discovering these "new looks" and this fiber called wool, so I plan to make hay while the sun shines, or as lately, it rains. 


I started this weekend with two luxurious days of uninterrupted time in my studio with a few ideas and a nice pile of wool yarns. My plan is to knit up a collection of wraps, scarves, hats, bags, jackets and coats for fall for my store. The look will be layered and belted and worn with jeans and boots, very 80's in feel. I can actually use words like ruana and poncho and fairisle and be instyle. To begin with I knit up a quick wrap in a natural tweed yarn just to get my feet wet. With left over scraps, I crocheted a hat and added a continuous scarf. Then I jumped in and knit up this long coat with a patterned border and collar. It's ok, but not quite what I had in mind. I'm going to knit it again, shorter and without the sleeves and maybe add fringe to the bottom as well. It's always a bit difficult when you first get started and sometimes a bit disappointing. But I find that the more I make, the more ideas I get. One thing leads to another...my fling to my affair.