I love to plan. I love to map out goals, ideas, projects, set deadlines, all of it. Often, I follow through, to some extent. And I'm okay with changing the plan as I go, because revising a plan is still part of the planning process.
This past year, I stumbled on to Stacy Elstone's "Stress Knits" YouTube channel and watched her share her projects. She embarked on a "Year of Andrea" and worked on projects by one designer for the year: Andrea Mowry. Her blog post on the year of projects is linked above, and the Podcast on YouTube is embedded at the bottom of her post. I was inspired by three things:
- narrowing the queue to include designs by one designer for this project (while still knitting other things too)
- exploring fit, style, colour and other elements while selecting one designer's patterns
- having a clear start and finish time (a year) for casting on and off
I went to my Ravelry Library and started searching by designer. I have a few favourites but wanted to select a designer whose patterns I already own. After a while, I settled on Shannon Cook. I love her designs, already own her books and many patterns. I also wanted someone I could relate to and support for her approach to knitting, herself, and the world in which we live. I follow Shannon on Instagram and pay attention to the inspiration behind her designs, her thoughts on inclusive community and other designers she supports, follows, and collaborates with. I realize I don't "know" her, I only know what she chooses to share; however, what she does share is thoughtful. Recent posts on size inclusive patterns (like Kapsel) reflect this.
Shannon is also Canadian. I wanted to plan to knit designs that support people that are local (although Vancouver is about as far away from me as England!). I also plan to knit many of her designs using stash yarn purchased at my LYS and/or Canadian yarn. Posts to come soon about each FO that I make as I work through the next few months - two are already off my needles and just need photos!
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