Imported from Two Books One Cover 8/08/2011

I'm having a lot of "learning opportunities" with the somewhat simple lace cowl currently on the needles but resolving these little roadblocks is giving me lots of confidence to venture out to more challenging designs.  Each project has given me little tidbits of knitting knowledge and now its time to start swimming in the deep end of the pool of the fiber arts. I have some ideas that I hope to incorporate into some patterns and take others and manipulate them to my liking. More about that in a few minutes...
Those of you who have Ravelry accounts, do you go through periods of wanting to be inspired and start favoring patterns that either inspire you or that instantly go onto your "someday I want to knit that" list? I looked back at my history and it shows a definite pattern of inspiration in blocks.
The last few weeks I'm looking at more lace shawls and lace garments. One that has been on the list to knit for some time is the Triangular Summer Shawl seen here.  I plan to hand spin Cormo and leave it undyed. Lace weight spinning is becoming my favorite lately so why not enjoy the spinning and knitting this beautiful shawl with my own handspun? The next is the Myrtle cardigan, and maybe the Batik pullover.
Tonight was the latest inspirational nudge. This started a few months ago when I had the opportunity to watch a documentary on the Bohus Stickning.  Further stimulation from other knitters on Ravelry led me to read "Poems of Color" from cover to cover tonight.  I'm already planning to dye the fiber to match the number of colors and spin it to make one of these magical garments of my ancestors. I'm part Swedish and it felt natural to attempt one of these sweaters the more I read about it. The fact that the ladies responsible for creating these works of art held true to only using the finest materials in the finest gauge makes it even more desirable for me to attempt. I love the hand of a fine gauge knitted item. The patterns call for a 60/40 % Rambouillet & Angora blend.  The idea of knitting an adult sweater on size 1,2, and 3 needles I think separates the weak at heart if the color work doesn't. I plan to knit a sample from the book Homespun Handknit called "Northern Lights".  I will test the color choices that I plan to use and hopefully it will turn out to be a matching accessory for the eventual sweater. I have some high grade ultra merino and Cormo that may turn out to be the fiber depending on some test swatches. I feel lucky to have have so many choices of near skin soft fiber to chose from to make one of these stunning sweaters. It might just inspire me to make a second pattern in the fiber I don't chose for the first. I begin to question, do I make the whole sweater blended wool/angora or just the colorwork? The fiber is uber soft already and the angora is added to give the halo on the yoke and to soften the wool but when the wool is already soft, should I make the body out of blended fiber too?  I guess the angora would even out any tension or short row blemishes in my technique. One downside to knitting such a fine gauge sweater. Usually I'm a stickler for being true to the pattern or technique but I already plan on using my own variation of colors so it is already not a true Bohus rather an inspired by Bohus Stickning.  I don't plan on changing the color chart layout and I intend to keep the look so it will be easily recognizable as what inspired the design. For those of you who know the Bohus designs, imagine a "Purple Shimmer" or the "Large Lace Collar" in multiple hued mostly Purple, black and white tones over a white sweater body....
The last thing I was contemplating is a variation on the Hanami stole where I modify the pattern into a 5 or 6 panel skirt. I saw where someone made the stole into a wedding dress and it validated my thoughts although I wanted to make it shorter and in the skirt style as opposed to the dress. The stole is pretty but in a skirt it would be so light and airy made from a light gauge yarn.
These are the thoughts running through my head lately since the knitting and spinning bug is keeping me looking forward to new fiber projects.