So I admit, I was whiny about my inability to get what I wanted with the redwood roving mix, but I keep thinking about color and I’m trying to understand it in terms of spinning.
This is made from some of my earlier handspun yarn that I mixed myself and liked. Some will think of it as Pepto-B, bubble gum, and berry & orange sherbet barf, but I think of it as campfire embers. This was also (in my mind at least) a success with taking a color I don’t really like (the pink) and mixing it up with others to tone it down. I’ve got some strong and opposing feelings about certain colors – some pinks and yellows I abhor, some I love, some that I abhor I love on others, or love knowing that others love them. This was also made up of souvenirs from nearly one coast to the other. The burgundy and bright orange were some crappy batts seconds from a now forgotten booth at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival and some goldish-lavenderish roving came from there as well; the pink was a bag of dyed Border Leicester locks from SuDan Farm at the Portland, OR farmer’s market. We were in Portland during one September when it was being its characteristic grey and damp self, and the colors in the market happily screamed out:
The booth with the locks also screamed out to me since it was the only one I saw with wooly goodness and I was immediately on it like the fly on sh*t. I first selected a bag of cheery bright yellow locks and then decided I wanted another to keep it company, but I’m not sure why I picked the pink – this particular pink falls into my category of not liking it, but glad it exists. But I think at the time it was just showing off at the moment in super-saturated glory amidst the grey. When I got home, it didn’t appeal to me so much, so I knew it would have to take second seat to some of my other more loved colors. However, I wanted to retain the bright warm mood to turn it into a garment or accessory best worn on grey days which my old city had aplenty. The yarn turned out to be pretty stiff and scratchy and felt most like baling twine, so it wasn’t going to be something I could wear next to my skin, but I didn’t have enough to make a sweater, so…. enter the vest.
This brings me to ranting territory, and by the way, the vest above is loosely based on the East-Knit Vest in 5 Sizes pattern by Kathy North – but I improvised most of it, so don’t use mine as a reference for the pattern. But, why are vests often inherently frumpy? I wish to exclude the long flowing designer-y ones, those that are more practical as an outer-garment, and anything for men or children and just focus on the basic waist-ish length knitted vest for women. There is almost no way that I can wear this and I don’t look like: a matronly frump, a homeschooler of the creepy variety, a media stereotype of a spinster in the making, an aging woman who still sleeps with teddy bears and a unicorn nightlight, someone who wears mom jeans, or someone who still wears what granny made in the ’70s even though she shouldn’t. Part of the problem could be that it doesn’t suit my body shape* and the yarn is bulky and loud and attention-grabbing, but there is still this [nearly audible to others] underlying drumbeat of frumpity dump dump, frumpity dump dump, frumpity dump dump…** whenever I wear it. I’m not particularly fashionable, I don’t give a damn how others judge the way I look, and I frequently wear a down vest, but I just can’t rock this one… I still wear it though, occasionally.
*My vintage dress dummy is not me – she/it has impossibly high tits, though we do share the same approximate waist size.
**Phrase coined by my old [former, not elderly] co-worker and knitting friend F. W.!
ASTITCHMATISM 