My Story Scarf...
A month or so ago I chanced upon a scarf which piqued my interest as a knitter - Jill McGee's My favourite things infinity scarf. What I particularly liked was the idea of designing one's own scarf while being part of world-wide group of 560 people (and counting) who had completed the project. Even more, I could leverage off their colour schemes, motifs, experiences, design choices and ideas and in doing so, share and develop my own. Here is a photo sequence of the scarf as construction progressed. (I used stash yarn as I have, well, enough ;-)
Patterns included:
Links to the patterns which I used can be found below:
Patterns included:
Links to the patterns which I used can be found below:
It is the second colour-work pattern that I have worked on. Here is a photo of the first project which I worked on. The pattern is by Michelle Hunter can be found at Colormatic (a beautiful - and easy - pattern in its own right) and can easily be incorporated into your version of the scarf should you choose to make one.
This project turned out to be great fun and VERY addictive. (I modified some of the source patterns so that they fitted the scarf.)
I loved working on this scarf so much that I have decided to use it as a prompt for a creative writing exercise and also to attempt another one (I saved so many different motifs - many of them are from Ravelry - that it seems a pity not to use more of them).
The purpose of the writing exercise was not to generate a piece of work with 'literary merit' but to use the process as one of self-discovery. Here's how it works:
1. Finish one 'panel' of the scarf.
2. Look at the colours you have chosen. (My first panel had a royal blue background with 'golden' hearts on it).
3. Write down the first 5 words that come to mind when you think of each colour. The purpose of this is to note down what arises spontaneously. It doesn't matter what the word or idea is
e.g. blue - royal, ocean deep, water, glossy
Do this for each colour you have used. Sometimes you might use the same colour on different panels and may evoke different responses for each use. Just note them all down without judgement.
4. Now write down the first 5 words which come to mind for each motif/design you have used, following the guidelines set up above.
5. Once all the panels and colours have been worked through, Write a sentence for each word list. Again the sentence should arise spontaneously and doesn't need to make sense or be analysed at this stage.
If it is too daunting to write a sentence for each word, choose the ones which appeal to you the most.
6. Once all the sentences are written down, put it away for a day or so, when you return, read through all your sentences try and look for patterns e.g.
Which colours/motifs have you tended to focus on? Why did you make this choice? How do you feel when you see the colour/motif? How do you feel when you have to write about this colour/motif?
The purpose is to uncover which colours and motifs have an 'emotional loading' (evoke emotional responses/feelings in you) and why.
If this process is disturbing in any way then please stop.
The exercise ideally should be enjoyable, fun and approached as a form of play. The idea behind it is to help you reconnect with your child-self.
I hope you enjoy this....
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