I made this

The creative process is a peculiar thing:  sometimes the lights are all on and sometimes they dim.  The more technique you know, the brighter the creative lights.  But technique isn't everything.  It's just experience.  You're probably muttering about now:  just experience?  Hard-won experience, but once it's yours, it's yours.

The last time I posted I'd made this book:

Yesterday I finished this sweater:

Artemis is modeling Murasaki Akai from the book Knit Kimono Too.  It fits her pretty well.  It fits me perfectly.  And every time I wander through my studio and see the sweater on Artemis, I think, "I made this."  Sure, experience led me to get the gauge just right.  To change the order of putting together the back so I could try the the back + fronts on for fit before picking up from the armholes for sleeves. 

To alter the sleeve stitch-decrease to row ratio so the sleeves fit me.

To add a three-needle-bind-off up the side seams and underarms so that the vertical vs. horizontal motif continues throughout the sweater.  And to figure out how to pick up and knit for that three-needle mod so that the seams hang just right.

To weave in the ends while knitting so I didn't have a zillion ends to weave in during finishing.

Experience also dictated that I work the first version of this in the yarn the designer used, Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece as a test-drive of the design.   Because somehow I knew I was going to make this more than once.  I have a plan for Murasaki Akai version 2, but it will have to wait for wool-knitting weather.  Suffice it to say it will be two colors of sport weight solid and one self-striping.


Writing and knitting shine the creative light on each other for me.  And occasionally there's an "I made this!" moment. 

Had to share.

LK