Journals

I'm currently laid up with a cold, so the knitting I was hoping to show off today is not quite done. Instead, I'm sharing some inspiration with you in the form of journals.


I've recently fallen in love with the idea of collecting random doodles, design ideas, and snippets of poetry in journals. Part of this inspiration comes from reading the beautifully drawn travel journal 'French Milk' and part from my desire to draw decently. As my organized nature wants to have a journal for each separate purpose, I've amassed a small collection of them over the past few months.


One of the first journals in my collection was the butterfly journal which became my 'happiness journal'. This little book is filled with lists of things I love, descriptions of moments that made me happy, and inspiring quotes and poems. For example, I have a page dedicated to reasons why I love Autumn and these two pages (below) record a favorite poem, Litany by Billy Collins. Happiness indeed.


One of the appeals of journals (and the reason I have so many) is that they come in different forms. I'm particularly happy to have found a set of Jill Bliss mini-journals at Target recently which are filled with graph paper. These are probably all destined to become design journals as I've already started filling one with design ides for an upcoming enameling class.


Finally, I can't talk about journals without mentioning the classic Moleskine. I really like unlined Moleskines as their heavy-weight paper is perfect for doodling in pen. My big Moleskine journal is filled with my attempts to create Celtic knots and I think some of the smaller ones will be filled with random sketches.


One or two of these journals will probably end up my purse for sketching and notes on-the-go. Hopefully with a little practice and encouragement, all of this journaling will result in greater creativity!

Updates & Inspiration

It is official: I have stalled out on the cardigan. Every sweater that I make goes through this period, but I did not expect to get to hit the wall so soon on this one. It is probably due to my short attention span for knitting this summer, aided by my new found enjoyment of embroidery. In the meantime, I've cast on a different Ysolda Teague pattern, Ishbel, to keep something going on the needles. I do not have anything interesting to photograph on that project yet, so I'm posting something inspiring instead:


This is a marble statue called 'Undine' that I saw in an art museum last week. I was so struck by the beauty of it, that I had to snap a photo on my iPhone. What I love the most is her face, the detail of the folds of the fabric yet you can still make out what lies underneath. I hope you find it as inspiring as I do!