Mandate

On Monday I met Debbie Bliss. A trunk show organized by my favourite yarn store that is far too far away from me, Wool 'n Things. The owner, Gisele is wonderful. She listens to what her customers have to say and she's brought in so many different yarns over the two years she's been open. An incredible assortment of Debbie Bliss, Rowan, Fibre Artist, Koigu, Noro and plenty of sock yarns from heaven!

Debbie Bliss was lovely. Forthcoming. Generous. She discussed and showed us her process of coming into her ideas about her projects, either for books or seasonal yarns, actually the two are hand in hand. She discussed what she considers for each project: difficulty, sizing, ease of end use (or degree of difficulty for parents to dress children). She showed us her sketches with swatches and colour combinations. Then she had a few ladies in the audience put on her completed sweaters. For each sample sweater she discussed the yarn, the details of the pattern and everyone ooohed and awed at each.

Sizing seems to give her much grief. From what I gather, larger women want her designs for their sizes, but Debbie Bliss feels the line strays from the intent of the design when piece gets to a certain size. As well as cost of yarn and weight of project, she feels is not fair to the knitter. Even though there are knitting books out there for the larger and fuller figured woman, there is definitely a demand for those designs.

This is the beginnings of the Ribbon-Edged Cardigan. Found in the book Debbie Bliss Special Knits, page 28. In the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino yarn. For a special little girl I haven't met yet. I'm pretty lucky, I'm able to knit this one at work. I get about a button hole a day... Stay tuned for more length in another entry.

I decided to make it my mandate this year to try to meet as many knitwear designers I can. So, I've made a list for Gisele and I hope she considers a few!

Next month, the Yarn Harlot will be around. I missed her the last time and will not miss her this time.