Better Off the Hanger

A beautiful dress may look beautiful on a hanger, but that means nothing. It must be seen on the shoulders, with the movement of the arms, the legs, and the waist.— Coco Chanel

I finished my latest sweater experiment last week. I am undecided about it, but I am glad to see it finished. It was an interesting experiment using lots of different elements: a diagonal pattern for the central panel, sideways construction for the sides, and puffed sleeves. 

I think one of the reasons I am undecided about it is that I could not find a way to take a good photo of it on a hanger. It didn't seem to hang right, even after a long soak and block. It was also not that great looking when I draped it onto the couch:

To recap: I was trying to make a garment to mimic the feather frost I saw on my car windshield one day. I found a nice lace stitch called feather lace and experimented with knitting it on the diagonal to make the central panel:

After I finished knitting and blocking it, I was feeling kind of disappointed in it, but I felt better about it when I put it on. I think it's just one of those garments that looks better on a person than it does on a hanger. I'm still a bit undecided about it, but I am glad that it is finished. I may play around with some of the finishing features of it at a later date, but I think it's time for me to move onto something else:

I have been hungry to add some fresh activities to my days recently. To say I was stuck in a rut is a bit of an understatement: I think I felt marooned on a desert island without any sustenance. As I sat one evening mindlessly scrolling on my phone, I came across some watercolour courses being offered on Domestika and in a fit of desperation, I signed up for a few. It took me a couple of weeks to get the motivation together, but I finally sat down and started playing. My watercolour pans were a bit dirty, so I did a little bit of brush lettering to use up some of the paint I cleaned off the surface:

And then I played around with some palettes and some simple forms:

I really believed I needed to set aside several hours in a row for this activity, but it turns out that it worked best if I painted a few elements, then left them to dry for a bit while I did other things. It was pleasant: if I had a few spare minutes, I'd stop at the table and paint a few more things and then get up to make dinner or take a shower or do some chore... sort of like "drive-by painting." Given my lack of focus recently, this worked really well for me:

After I'd filled a page, I felt really good. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this yet, but the course I'm taking gave some good instruction about how I could convert it into cards, phone cases, stationery, etc. It might be fun to see what I could do with it:

And now I'm playing around with individual colours to see what I come up with. It's been nice to have something different to pour my attention into:

I'm sort of at loose ends with my knitting at the moment. I did have some ideas for some of the yarn in my stash, but I'm not feeling particularly inspired by it at the moment. I think I just need a bit of a break from it to recharge my imagination a bit. Besides, while I was digging out my paints and brushes, I was confronted by all of the other supplies I have languishing in my cupboards and drawers. I am by no means lacking for things to keep me busy.

The world seems like a roller coaster to me these days. I am spending a lot of my quiet time trying to remind myself of the good in the world, including those of you who take the time to come and visit me here at my blog. I'm grateful for you. I hope you are well. Have a good week.