this is a big, big (in size and scope) all-koigu project. i may as well go all out, because i'm not entirely sure what else i would do with this yarn aside from this. i'm more ambivalent about it than a lot of people (but as much as some.) and i've seen the new koigu book and know that everyone was all in a slather about it but honestly i like what i am making better. if i didn't, i'd be making something out of the koigu book.
this is, in fact, only a partial representation of "phase one" of this project. it has three phases, not including assembly. the other phases are not striped. the question is, will this blog still be here when this project is finished? and the answer is, maybe not. i've decided that shortly (in the next six months or so) i will give it up. the whole thing's kinda beat.
that is not to say you will not see what the finished piece here looks like. because you will, on flickr. flickr lets me post much, much higher quality photos than any blog template could handle, so where actual images are concerned, flickr has the upper hand.
and what about the rest of it? well, you can put quite a bit of text on flickr too. this is not to say i'm moving my "knitting blog" to flickr. but i find that in the last few months i use this space only to reiterate in short form something i've written or experienced elsewhere, and that's getting dull - like writing a readers' digest large print version of everything i do and write.
when i have big, big things to say about textiles and fiber, i have the NOSHI knitting monograph series. i have been interviewing textile and fiber artists, and authors, for korean quarterly, and now i also have a column there, which ought to soak up some pop culture overflow as well. and, as ever, when i need to process something personal and twist it up a bit, i write short stories. but i have more streamlined venues for every kind of writing i do now, as well as a better format for posting pictures - so why stay here? plus, i'm tired of documenting every damned stitch i make.
we are, as most here know, in the midst of an international adoption. i don't plan to be a baby zombie blogger with a screen name like "urbanmama" or "hipmommy" or every other freaking exactly the same thing i see every freaking day on the internet. as far as i can tell, the next year of my life is going to be mostly filled up with finishing the KNITTING TAROT (and the bookwork is now 3/4 finished, so the light IS officially at the end of the tunnel) and sometime hopefully after we've made it to the bindery without hitting a welch's grape juice truck and ruining everything, we're going to go to the airport and get our baby, and then i'm gonna do that. and i'll have short stories and NOSHI and korean quarterly, and flickr (although i expect that when the kid comes some of those sets will be made private), and it's likely that not every sock or hat or teddy bear will get its day in the sun anymore, but they are part of the bigger picture, and they and their kind have had their fifteen minutes of fame.
having done this for what, four or five years? i can honestly say that blogging is no substitute for writing. i'm sure there's someone out there with the idea that the Last Knitblog Standing somehow wins the kitty, but anyone who thinks like that lost a long time ago. i know this blog means a lot to some people, and that means a lot to me. truly - for anyone who wants it, there should be as much of my writing available as usual, if not more. you may have to go to the bookstore or open the mail to get it, but it's also likely that there will be capital letters where they belong. that's when you KNOW i'm serious.
it's not happening yet, mind you. but if it hasn't dwindled to zero by the time the KNITTING TAROT is getting bound, packed up and moved out for sale (HOLIDAY SEASON 2007), i'll shut this blog down at the same time that the KT blog comes to its logical end. i felt it was the best thing to do, to write something about this early in the process, as i start to pull up my landing gear. i've met so many great real-life people that ben and i hardly have time to fit everybody into the rotation, and somehow that happened without ever even leaving my comments field turned on! but having made this decision, it feels really happy and exciting, because so many great things are happening for us right now and there was finally just no question in my mind anymore that this was a format i had outgrown.
in the meantime i will continue to update as usual - including, word has it, the possibility of a floor loom coming to settle here this spring!