My love for Alice + Olivia grows. I seem to find A+O lust and inspiration everywhere. The other morning an two emails to be noted popped in and four looks graced my screen. The first from Knitscene, officially announcing the Spring 2014 issue, and the second, a few hours later, from A+O hoping to encourage further stimulation of the economy.
Immediately, the first look with the Annie Oversized Collor blocked Jacket–on the left–felt vaguely similar to the Van Doesburg Pullover, from Knitscene Spring 2014, a sweater that I noticed right away when I received my copy of Knitscene, also featuring my Lazulum Shell.
Maybe it is just the idea, the graphic color blocking that is the same, but I think it is more. Yes, the sleeves, silhouette, length, and even the colors are different … With the sweater, if you were to extend the body further, and add a little more positive ease, I think that you would essentially have the same thing. Okay, yes, one is a blazer, the other is a pullover but the beauty is in the details of both pieces, and the feeling, the movement and play of the colors and shapes strictly relegated to their space in the blazer, and playfully intermixed in the pullover. Or perhaps is is because I received two emails in the same morning.
I love over-sized. Chunky, bulky, voluminous. Yet, I have to admit that I am not a big fan of this trending cropped, yet over-sized look. I can also see that our eighties revival is here to stay for a while, and there are a few silhouettes in between that I feel that I can appreciate. But ballooned and cropped isn’t one of them. I am a sucker for A+O though, yet clearly this Annie coat is right dead center in this idea that I’m unable to get into bed with. I think that a LOT time and research–making patterns, testing, refitting, over and over again–goes into making their garments. And then in this their garments they are extremely fitting and flattering, even when they should not be.
I have come to realize something important over the past year as I have either made or bought new things. Some of the things I like just aren’t my style. After I have spent 40 hours, give or take, knitting a sweater I wind up with a beautiful garment that I will just never wear. Why? Why do I do this? Why cannot not see from the beginning that the relationship is sour. Why am I blinded by things that I don’t actually want?
I don’t want the everyday, I don’t want the mundane. It all comes back to style, and really finding and defining my own style.
I have really started thinking about what I want to make. So many hours, so much thought goes into making something. Okay, well that is not totally true. If you care about something, so much goes into it, into the details, into the craft. I don’t want to spend hours upon hours hand knitting something if I am not going to not only love it, but love wearing when I am finished making it.
I can go through just about any knitting magazine and find at least a couple of things I am dying to make, but do I really want them? Do they just look like fun to make? Is there something new in there that I want to learn?
The Van Doesburg Pullover and the Annie Oversized Collor blocked Jacket are both lovely pieces in their similarities and differences. I’m drawn to the contrast and a playful air in seriousness, the originality, personality, and femininity. I think that the Van Doesburg Pullover will need some modifications to pull it to the edgy level of the Annie Jacket, but I see in this sweater the personality of, well, me.
This is a piece that I want to make because I want to wear it, and yes, I will admit that I also see it as a bit of a challenge but nothing to push me over the edge. The technique I struggle with the most in knitting is colorwork. Keeping my tension even while changing colors and stitches fly off of my needles. I think that in addition to adding some length to the sweater and modifying the silhouette some, that when styled as I like it will showstopping. Carefully and cautiously I have thought about this, and I feel that I am ready to order my yarn.
As I click the “Complete Order” button, let me say that if I get done with this sweater on size 3 needles and I am never going to wear it,
I am going to be pissed …
and then I am going to need to reflect on just why that is.
Tarnished Copper - Formerly Project Hallway 