Tuesday, April 10, 2007

LONDON CALLING

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Travel is one of my loves. Whether it's a humble road trip or an exotic excursion, count me in. You won't be surprised then to hear that I'm in London as you're reading this, scouting out the Victoria and Albert museum for at least the fifth time and wandering around the streets, taking pictures. How I came to be a-jaunting this time is not a simple tale. It all began with a phone call, one which I could not decipher no matter how hard I tried. I thought a friend might be playing a trick on me, delivering one of his amazing voices disguised as a tin can talking from the bottom of the ocean.

"Ha,ha, Steve! You'll have to do better than that', I said as I hung up. The phone rang again only this time I urged my hubby to deal with the jokster. Same thing happened, same sentence punctuated by a hang-up. Clunk. The phone rang for the third time, I answered it, and this time found a perfectly lovely, if unfamiliar, voice calling from Spain. I had hung up on someone calling from Spain, twice! To make my long story short(er), her name is Amal, a knitwear designer living partially in England and partially in Spain, inviting me to visit her at her Spanish finca. She had found my website, recognized a certain kinship in color and texture exploration and wanted to collaborate with me on her new venture to give workshops at her Spanish estate. The almond trees were blooming, she told me as I gazed out the window at solem fir trees and the monotony of a frozen earth. Her home is on the Casa Blanca coast, she said, a place I imagine to be vivid with light and growing things, and she so wanted to show me the beauty of her land, to discuss stitches, yarn and leap and romp in textured bliss as only two free range fiber nuts can. What could I say? Well, actually, I said..maybe later?

My first  Design sketchbook launched in London during the eighties. This is for a design called 'Nile Lotus'

Slap me silly but Easter was coming and how could I leave my hubby not only on his birthday (April Fool's) but without a bunny to hug? I explained how the timing wasn't good but we arranged for me to come after her workshop. In the emails that followed, we tentatively brainstormed workshops, are thinking of collaborating on a book, so many things. I can hardly wait to meet her. It's as if we've been friends forever and you can believe we'll be cooking up more than a feed of paella when we finaly connect.

The four days of London inbetween are only because I need a break before flying on—too many allergies, not that London's noted as the clean air capital of the world. I'm just certain that a dose of the Victoria&Albert museum is bound to cure whaever ails me. Twice I've flown to London solo to do inspiration jaunts. I also need photographs for one of my other books. Anyway, that's my excuse and 'm sticking with it. Besides, some of my earliest designing experiences were born in London. I'd trawl the museums and return to my (cramped) hotel room to sketch and knit. he photo above is a page from one of my first designs and here it is finished:

Amazing to look at it now and find those Rowan yarns as vibrant as they were nearly twenty years ago. I really loved this design, the cabled lotus stems made a great line as they grew up and into lotus buds. All the Egyptian-inspired colorwork came from the British museum. Here's the back:

Do you think the design's too 1980 to survive today? Hmm...no shoulder pads so maybe.