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, November 10, 2011

The Parallel of this Story

I spend a lot of my time thinking about parallelograms, particularly rectangles. Rectangles are everywhere in life. I'm looking at one right now as I write this blog and you're looking at one as you read this. Not to brag, but I think I'm a rectangle expert. It's only because of my knitting machines and my obsession with designing knit wear on them. I'm always trying to come up with another way to make something from a rectangle. Yes, I can knit other shapes with my machines, squares, triangles, circles of sort, but rectangles are really where it is at. Look at any one of your favorite sweaters, and you'll see it's most likely just a bunch of rectangles put together. Lately I've been making a lot of ponchos from long pieces of knitting. They are just so satisfying to make and honestly I can't keep them in stock in my store. I love watching how the colors unfold and how this simple shape becomes a wonderful garment simply by folding it in half and sewing a few seams. I make them long, short, wide, narrow. I put them together right side out or wrong side out. Some have folded cowl collars and others have v necks. I even made one in green and gold to wear when the Packers play. This fall it's fashionable to wear a poncho...next fall who knows. By then you may be considered a square by the fashionistas. But as for me, I'll still be knitting and wearing my rectangles.