IS #21: Fiber Factor Fascination

Have you been keeping up with The Fiber Factor? The design competition funded by Skacel yarns has been really interesting to watch so far. If you go to their site, under the Contestants tab you can watch a little intro video about each of the 12 contestants. And man, are some of these people characters. It was really fascinating, as someone who applied to the competition, to see what it took to make it in.

Steve May sounds like he's BFFs with Stephen West. Talitha Kuomi sang in her video. Lauren Riker designs lingerie for young girls and dances burlesque. Katie Rempe seemed like someone I'd like to hang out with, she was fun and wacky. Similarly with Jennette Cross, plus I was totally jealous of her childhood. Rachel Henry goes to a knitting group almost every day of the week. I liked Jodie Gordan Lucas's 'queenie' story. John Ravet basically gave a mini art lesson in his intro video. Meghan Navoy is the youngest of the group, only 21. Natalie Larson seems a bit shy for a video competition. Terri Rosenthal has about a million dogs and cats at her farm. And finally, Tracy Purtscher had one of the best play-on-words reasons why she should be chosen, being "out standing in her field".

Now that the first challenge to "Knit Your Life" has been issued, some progress videos have started to be posted. It's been really fascinating hearing about each individual's design process. There are sketches, swatches, brainstorm clouds, inspiration boards, stories about family, photos, etc. So far I think I'm looking forward to seeing Talitha's design the most, I love the description of the top she's making, it sounds very funky and cool. Although I also really love the concept behind Rachel's shawl, which progresses through more complicated stitches as the shawl grows, mimicking the journey through skills learned from a beginning to advanced knitter. And Katie Rempe's was my favorite video of the bunch, she took a 'silent film' approach to it which was pretty much awesome. I recommend you watch all of the progress videos on that page, really, and can't wait for the rest to be posted or to see the designs! The fact that so many of them are choosing to design sweaters in the 22 days they had for this challenge is just insane to me. They must not have day jobs... I don't know where they find the time!

Beautiful Briny Sea

As for me, I've been trying to be monogamous to my shawl because I'm so close to being done I can taste it, but I'm certainly not there yet. That's 1.5 inches of ribbing. I need 3 inches. Sigh. I'm unofficially trying to finish this up before I head out on vacation on Wednesday, here's hoping I can do it!

What's been inspiring you lately?