Often when it comes to my yarn-work, I have difficulty going from a micro to macro view. Looking at the first row of a new project, I can only trust that the full garment will look good.

How Do Artist Go From a Micro to Macro View?

It’s not just knitting for me. It’s spinning and also even writing.

I get so focused on a tiny section of my work and can’t imagine that when it’s expanded out to an entire composition, that it will look quite good. Or bad.

The feature photo today is an old example of my self-doubt. I used to worry that a small nep or noil would totally ruin any yarn I created. I soon realized that I don’t even have to ply yarn to make those micro-mistakes completely disappear.

Even when I’ve started working someone else’s design, I’m amazed that they could envision what the end design could look like after knitting the first few rows. Once I started a Kaffe design and was convinced it was going to be complete shit. It required me to continuously look at the photo of the completed garment to realize it would all work out.

Writing an awkward first line of a blog entry. Or letting a few neps or noils go into my single when I’m spinning. I think that these inconsistencies will show up like a fluorescent, flashing beacon in the full piece. And also, when I look at the latest sock I cranked, I thought I was going to LOVE the fabric this new yarn was creating. Alas, I find it kind of boring and muddied now that it’s finished.

What I’ve had to learn to do is trust that the micro view isn’t a valid representation of the finished project.

But the worry and the distrust still rears it’s ugly head every once in a while.

Current Knitting/Spinning

Since the antique circular sock knitting machine was being so cooperative, I decided to try out one last experiment with the inexpensive yarn.

These are simple, no-ribbing, hung-hem socks. I made a man’s large sock using just one ball of the yarn. Here’s what I had left.

Surprisingly, I thought all this yarn was self-striping…but this one is just variegated. Fortunately, it didn’t pool or stripe in ugly ways, but I definitely won’t use this colorway for socks.

I also finished half the Jacob spinning of singles and started a new bobbin.

I’m looking forward to the random plying/marling of the two multi-colored singles. Not sure what I’ll do with the resulting yarn yet.