I’ve been mourning the Great Karl Lagerfeld and reflecting on his remarkable life’s work. I doubt there will ever be another designer like him in our lifetime with his combination of creativity and output. Anyway, this has led me to realize it’s time to get back to couture inspirations for my knitting. After all, this blog became my way to share and learn in pursuit of knitting heirloom pieces I could not buy in a store. I am happy to say that I achieved some of my goals.
Isle by Kim Hargreaves
Isle styled like Lagerfeld's jacket from Chanel Paris Salzburg runway
My adaptation of Steed by Kim Hargreaves
Steed colors modeled on Lagerfeld's Plaid dress from Chanel F/W couture 2014
Then with my challenges of wearing my knits for 100 days in a row, I shifted my focus to everyday wardrobe staples. I still tried to keep up with trends and create beautiful fabric but my focus was on wearability:
Cherry leaf pattern similar to Lagerfeld top: Chanel Paris Soeul runway
Finally, with my head injury last year, I switched to small, manageable projects like socks and hats so that I could still craft in spite of dizziness and neck pain. I do love all of my projects, but I am back to feeling if I am going to spend time working on a garment, why not make it one that will be treasured forever?
My Design: Gabrielle in Winter inspired by Lagerfeld's 2013 Fall Winter Couture runway
One of the reasons I have been reflecting on my goals is that some of my concussion symptoms returned this week so I had to take off from work. This may have been triggered by the stress of both my cats developing IBD and the resulting struggle to hand feed them multiple times a day to keep them from starving. Anyway, it has been important to find a positive way to fill my time. I adore my students and miss them and of course it can be challenging to power through nausea, blurred vision and fatigue for large blocks of time. Especially when covered from head to foot with yummy tuna heated in the microwave one plate at a time to tempt the kitties to take a bite.
So I put together a binder of photos of some of my favorite projects and the couture inspirations to remind myself of all that I can accomplish although I am temporarily on pause. The binder has been a really fun project because it creates an immediacy with comparing images side by side of inspirations and completed projects. And then once you start putting in photos that inspire you, it easy to add more! I'm sorry a lot of the binder photos above in this blog were so dark. My vision is poor right now and if I were to wait to post this until I could edit them properly....... However in the moments when I've perked up, I have created a pinterest board for inspiration.
Perhaps it's time to brush up on my sewing so I can plan full outfits instead of knitting tops and cobbling wardrobe items together with them. This will also allow me to support some local California fabric makers. So here is a list of my 2019 goals:
1. Take sewing classes to create a template (sloper) of a well-fitting top and skirt. This way when I create a knit that needs a complimentary top or skirt, I can sew one without fiddling with a ton of patterns.
>2. Experiment with adding knitted or crocheted trim to sewn fabrics.
>3. Improve my crocheting lace skills.
>4. Sew a basic fitted top and add a knitted, crocheted, or embroidered element.
>5. Sew an Alabama Chanin pattern such as: The Basic Tank Dress
>6. Sew one Gertie pattern such as: The Short and Chic A line skirt
Biggest goal of all—rest up and get healthy again! It’s essay season and my students have lots of papers to write--they need me!