Start to Finish

As a public service, Gentle Readers, I’m here to announce that it’s not too early to start thinking about the weekend. In fact, my message today is an invitation to begin at the end and work backwards:

If your goal were to create a picture suitable for hanging, what If I challenged you to design your ideal frame first, and then fill in the middle?

If you had a really clear idea of what your completed knitting would specifically be, with all of the design, fit, yarn and finishing decisions made before you even cast on, how might the end result be different from when you’ve worked the other way around?

I have been asked many times to teach a class on finishing. For a long time I couldn’t see why I should, because lots of great classes about specific techniques are already available. It wasn’t until I realized that my design/planning process is very different from that of other designers that I understood what my “finishing” class should look like. And so that’s what I teach now: Planning ahead for Happy Endings.

I have learned that answering a series of questions for myself at the beginning of my knitting serves as a project management tool. It allows me to keep on time and under budget. To stay true to my vision, while remaining open to the possibilities.

Start to Finish is part show-and-tell, part wish list-building, and part project management. We discuss yarn, fit, design, and everything in between, with the stated goal of beautifully finished knitting. The process applies to any project, and all skill levels.

Best of all, there’s nothing to buy and no commitment. It’s a mental exercise that we practice together, and is yours to keep thereafter. The only preparation you need for class is to take yourself on an imaginary shopping trip. Visit your stash, your pattern queue, or your imagination to come up with something you’d like to knit. That’s all. It can be as complicated or as simple as you wish. Just bring your ideas, the pattern if you have it, or a photo. We’ll practice asking ourselves all the right questions to plan the project as if you are really going to make it, and see where the process takes us.

CLICK HERE to sign up for Start to Finish this Saturday, 03-20, 10AM - 1PM PST.

Tag Em and Bag Em

Here is the beginning of what became a pile of 20 zipper bags.  Not signifigant, except that the little tags attached to them had to be sewn on one at a time, amounting to 40 trips under the sewing machine needle, and a kajillion wee threads to snip.  It's a "little" job I've been blowing off for about 4 months, during which time I told my self quite convincingly that there would be plenty of time for it later.  Later arrived yesterday with a thud.  The dining room quickly became my own private sweatshop.

So why go to this much trouble?  Why does each project in the book have to travel in its own  little zipper bag?  Why does each bag have to sport my label and the project name, which corresponds to a hang-tag on each sample?

I have no idea, except to tell you that I have OCD for real, and I just don't know when to stop.  In my attempts to organize and protect my book samples, I have begun to act like a parent sending the children to summer camp for the first time.  I have tried to anticipate each sweater's every need while it is seperated from me, stopping short only of moth-prevention (though I am still wondering if I need to address that).  Who will take care of them?  Where will they be stored?  Will they get wrinkled/crushed/folded/spindled/mutilated?  What if someone tries to steam them and they get ruined?  I have completely lost perspective.  Does knowing this excuse my overzealous behavior?  Probably not.  So I just plead "Artist" and smile sweetly.  I just want it how I want it.  And the labels do look pretty cool.

I'm not suffering too badly.  Here is "Still Life with Gin, Tonic and Felted Roses", to illustrate that I do know how to celebrate.  This moment marked the completion of all the book knitting, at 2AM on Monday 10-20, to be precise.  I felt like it must be time for a little something.  Then I slept on my face without twitching for 4 hours and woke up in time to make my children pancakes before school.  I wanted them to celebrate, too. 

Now there are just a few more ends to weave in before the sweaters and I take our trip to Interweave Press on Friday.  Wonder what that will be like!

See Notes:

My latest project management/progress tracking mechanism is to put these dumb little notes all over the place.  Each one represents a task I need to accomplish before deadline, and has been placed conspicuously so that I can't ignore it.

Having lost all perspective, I don't know whether this is Organization or Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, nor do I care. 

I am really annoyed by the notes, both because they nag me, and because they occupy visual space that I need for other stuff, such as staring into nothingness.  Nothingness is of no use at all when some dumbass puts little notes all over it and turns it into Somethingness.  I predicted that this would be the case, and I was hoping that getting rid of each little note as I completed the task would be a gratifying and tangible landmark.  This was really brilliant thinking, except for one problem:  There are a bunch of things I forgot to make notes for.  So the first, like, 5 things I did after putting up the dumb little notes did not provide tangible gratification, or increase my visual space.  I'm going to stick with them, though, just to see if putting the notes into the little basket I have labeled "Done!" is going to encourage me as much as I thought.  I'll let you know.

Campbell asked me the other day what I was thinking about and I told him that I was a little worried I would run out of time for my project before getting done.  He told me that he thought I would make it, because I would "Purse Of Beer".  I knew that he meant "Persevere", but somehow the visual of a real live purse filled with beer was WAY more motivating.  If my kid believes in me, who am I to argue?  There's not much wrong in the world that a Purse Of Beer wouldn't cure.