WIP musings 2

It’s been a fortnight since my last post went up and I still haven’t added any photos to them. Blogger Fail.

I just wanted to come on in and update on the WIP‘s and their musings. I may go off on a serious tangent about my recent rollercoaster of emotions ride.

WOODLAND RIPPLE BLANKET

It’s is coming along very nicely - really enjoying the process now with the colours that have been used for it. I’ve thought about how to break it down to manageable amounts and to meet the self imposed deadline which is end of 2020. I have just under 6 weeks to complete. I am in the middle of week 3 out of the 7 weeks that this was ran for on Lucy‘s blog (https://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/woodland-ripple.html)

I am using the original colours as I bought the yarn pack from www.woolwarehouse.com a few years ago. It took up so much room in my wardrobe that I decided to get it out and work on it.

The method is to really try to add 3 colours each day to get a week done but so far, it hasn’t worked because I’m being good with the ends and weaving them in after each block of colours. No doubt I will put it off for a few days as I can never locate the silly darning needle that seems to have legs or wings.

Or even there is a deep black hole everywhere that sucks up all the small items and possibly single socks.

BOJAGI SHAWL

I have made a lot of progress on this one even though I had to frog out a whole section as I didn’t follow the instructions properly. I am loving it and how it’s looking right now. The yarn I’m using is deep stash that I purchased from my first Edinburgh Yarn Festival. As in, I didn’t know anyone or had friends who had the same hobby as me. At the time I really wanted to buy from vendors who weren’t UK based. Little did I know that the person I supported was already a big name Indie Dyer but I still felt good that I did. Also, the fact that I had no idea how much to budget for the trip so my spending money was limited (including the fuel and food). Anyways, it is La Bien Aimee (https://www.labienaimee.com) merino singles base. I can’t remember the colourway name as I have lost the tag on them a long time ago as I wound them into a cake for another project and I didn’t like how it was coming out in the pattern.

Whist attending the festival, I didn’t have any projects in mind as I was very new to the upper end of the market. I’m talking about indie Dyers and pattern designers. I had no clue who was who in the podcasters lounge but I certainly got a few friendly smiles my way when I just looked up. However, as I was there alone, I felt ok about it but not safe. That is a matter for another day.

Going back to the shawl, it’s design by Yu Ra (https://www.knitboop.com/) she has amazing collection of patterns that are free and you can support her via Ko-Fi. Please do, she is a gem.

The section I’m on is almost done and then there is a glorious squishy garter stitch to finish it off which I’m very much looking forward to.

WAFFLING

this waffling section may end up being a bit long winded and messy with words.

So, I was contacted by an Assistant Editor of a UK knitting magazine over the summer to ask if I’d and a few others were interested in doing a MINI Question and Answer section.

Initially, I was very excited but I always reply to emails a few days later so I had the time to fully digest and to compose a cohesive response. I went back to re-read the email I felt a sudden disgusted emotion coming through. Not addressed personally. That alone was enough to make me feel even smaller and they really didn’t care much about who I am. The general gist of the email was quick to the point which is ok. I felt uncomfortable about it and read to be desperate to fill the space in the magazine.

Going on from the point that it wasn’t addressed personally I had the urge to ask them why? I had many questions running around my mind and a sneaky suspicion of the actual reason for reaching out to me. After speaking to a friend about it, they encouraged me to go ahead and ask those important questions and re-assess whether I‘d still go ahead and complete their MINI interview. I felt the rage for having to do this. I know I can be very blunt at times so I had to take some time to think about how to phrase a questions so it didn’t come across as being angry even though that is what I felt.

In their response to the questions, my suspicions was confirmed that they are trying to be better to be more inclusive in each issue. With that in mind, I thought ok. What next?

I had 2 sides of it. Business mind: great promotion opportunity. Inner self: tokenism.

I went ahead and did the interview. It was published in their November issue which is great in the lead up to Christmas however, I am not impressed with the space it takes. Leading me to feel all the feels again. I read a caption on Instagram which totally resonated with me. They talked about how we as BIPOC / BAME have to fight for equal space at the table. It’s rather annoying, frustrating and very heart breaking. It hurts every single time. I won‘t even talk about the first time that this happened to me. I’ve not been silenced on this matter but it’s another story for another time.

I had an interesting link but I haven‘t looked deeply enough to find out if it’s true enough. Time will tell.

I think it’s time to end this post before I go off on another rage. Be in the know, it wasn’t easy to tell this story and the feels are real.

TOP TIP

when you reach out to anyone please do give them a bit of background to the real reason why you got in touch with them. Tell them where you got their information from. Honesty is the best policy.