Tag, I’m it!

I was planning to introduce you all to Yelena Malcolm’s fabulous knitting/style blog when I ran her next guest blog post, but she kindly tagged me in the Creative Blog Hop last Friday, so I’ll give you a bit of a head start. Yelena’s not only a talented and prolific sweater knitter, but she has impeccable style. And while I don’t know if I could ever master trekking across NYC in high heels, Yelena has at least inspired me to wear them in my FO shots.

I’ve been a bit busy after a lovely weekend up in Maine spending time with some cousins (and not buying any yarn), so I’m a little late in jumping into this, but here goes:

What am I working on?

I’m generally a monogamous knitter, but with NY Sheep and Wool coming, I have to step up my game a little. I just finished up my Custom Fit gradient striped tank top, which I plan to blog about soon, and I’m moving on to fall garments. I’ll probably end up working on both of my Rhinebeck sweaters at the same time, which I hope will help and not slow my progress.

I’m planning to knit another Custom Fit sweater, and I’m pretty much going to copy Mollie/molliebatmit’s Moon River, though I’ll be using Astral Bath Tesseract in Tulpa.

I’m also planning on knitting Laura Aylor’s Rhinecliff in the Miss Babs Heartland Worsted I picked up at Rhinebeck last year. It’s such a sophisticated pattern, and you’ve gotta love the symmetry.

This is the main thing that’s on the needles at the moment. It’s the Aphasia scarf by Patti Waters, a beautiful Art Deco-inspired design, and I’m knitting it in Handmaiden Sea Silk in the Straw colorway, which is more of a shimmery gold with the silk content. It’s a pretty easy to memorize pattern and has become my go-to subway knitting as of late. There’s a deadline attached to this project, which I’ll discuss at a later date…

On the Indie Untangled front, I’ve been consumed by planning for the pre-Rhinebeck trunk show, preparing to send out the next batch of yarn ball logo bags and writing blog posts.

I’m also fortunate to have a fairly creative “day job” as a freelance writer/web producer to help pay the yarn bills (and I use the term Day Job loosely because I’m pretty much working at all hours these days). Today, I’m planning to write a roundup of interesting tabletop products and home decor seen at last week’s NY Now show for Newsday. I also have a few hotels to write about for Oyster.com, a site that compiles unbiased reviews of hundreds of hotels around the world. I don’t actually get to visit these places (Oyster’s photographers do that), but do love being able to “travel” without leaving home — and I also get to file away information for possible future trips.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

While I can’t say that my knitting is particularly different, I do feel like I’ve carved out a unique niche with this site. I want to help knitters discover all the wonderful independent dyers and creators out there, and do it in a fun, collaborative way.

Why do I write/create what I do?

When I was about four or five years old, I created “book versions” of my favorite movies, like My Fair Lady, and when I needed to find something to do when I spent time at my dad’s office, I played at starting a publishing house. So, writing has just always been something I did. I didn’t really do much creative writing beyond high school, but I can’t imagine work that doesn’t involve writing in some way. And I really enjoy getting to combine that with my love of knitting.

As far as knitting goes, several years ago I decided that I just really wanted to learn, especially passing by all the yarn shops that were popping up. I had a friend who, at the time, was working as a librarian and had arranged for someone to teach knitting at her branch. She ended up benefitting from the program herself, and was making all these cool hats and mitts. I asked her to teach me, and the rest is history.

How does my writing/creative process work?

I’m going to start with knitting for this question: Most of the time, I buy yarn with projects in mind. Of course, this doesn’t prevent me from picking up random skeins at fiber events, but I’ll at least try to match it up to something I plan to make… someday. As I mentioned above, I’m generally a monogamous knitter, and don’t usually have more than a couple of active WIPs going at one time. I tend to knit while watching TV, either whatever shows my husband and I are following or binge watching (I got quite a lot done when we went through Breaking Bad last summer) or Golden Girls reruns, though I have started to enjoy knitting in Madison Square Park while listening to knitting podcasts.

As far as writing, at a certain point in my day, I sit down, click off the Ravelry window and tackle whatever project is on my plate. For the blog, aside from the Friday What to Stash posts and the newsletter, I jot down ideas and then eventually will simply decide one week that it’s the best time to write and post it. I was thinking recently that I should probably have more of an editorial calendar, and that’s going to be my goal as I approach the six-month point (!) for Indie Untangled.

I hope you enjoyed this little change from my normal blogging routine. I’ve loved reading the creative hopping posts from some of the other folks I follow, including A Playful Day and Kettle Yarn Co. There are a few people who I would like to pass this task along to:

1. Alicia of Sweet Sheep Body Shoppe is not only the creator of delicious-smelling lotion bars, but she has a great blog, Woolen Diversions, where she discusses her knitting inspirations.

2. While I haven’t been bitten by the sewing bug (yet…), I love Rochelle of Lucky Lucille’s vintage aesthetic. She’s also recently added knitting to her list of pursuits, and she has such a fun and engaging writing style. I know that when I do haul out the sewing machine my mom bought me for Chanukah years ago that I’m going to be taking closer look.

3. I’ve long admired the work of Kristen at Skein Yarn and she has a fabulous blog and video podcast where she shares what she’s working on.