Hankering for Yarn

Jane Austen and the Panda Bears

by Noreen on May 3rd, 2008

What on earth does Jane Austen have to do with Panda Bears?

Here’s the scoop - I have been working on a new Jane Austen spool knitter for weeks now.

It really hasn’t gone well. I have drawn the face at least 7 times, and each time, I have ended up sanding it off the spool knitter. argh.

I ended up painting layers of gesso on the spool knitter and just leaving the white ‘ghost of spool knitter future’ sitting on my desk.

I asked Jim to turn me another Jane Austen and he looked significantly over at the verrrrrrrrrrrry blank one. Oh okay!

sigh….

I have also been having trouble with 2 other spool knitters.

I painted and sanded off the paintings and painted again and sanded off again… and again. Ah, phooey.

I was looking at my blank spool knitters and feeling like they were mocking me. But then, a whisper of an idea started to unfurl…. earlier in the week, I had seen a pic of a panda bear online.

I love panda bears. I’ve designed all kinds of homages to them:

crocheted: (from my book:

Crocheted Teddy Bears

and woven on the potholder loom : from my book:

Potholder Loom Teddy Bears and Monkeys, too

It struck me that the simplicity and charm of the panda bear face would be wonderful on the spool knitters.

Bingo! I was totally inspired! So, I sat down and started painting.

I painted a Panda Bear 4 peg spool knitter:

and since two Panda Bears are better than one, I painted another one! This time, a 5 peg spool knitter:

Painting the panda bears in just black and white was very liberating. It made me realize that I wanted to work with just black and white and grey for the troublesome Jane Austen spool knitter.

It’s really clear to me that the spool knitters are very determined that they are going to be what THEY want to be, and I have to stand back and let them flow through me. When I try to push my concepts and ideas on them, they push back and refuse. Sigh.

So, when I let go, the spool knitters come to life in a delightful way. Which is exactly what has happened with the new Jane Austen spool knitter:

Isn’t it neat about synchronicity and how one thing can lead to another in the creative process? It’s like one thought or image can become the doorway for a whole cascade of ideas.

Have you had a strange pairing up of ideas that helped you to break through a stumbling block?

What’s your version of ‘Jane Austen and the Panda Bears’?

Image Source: Noreen Crone-Findlay(copyright) 

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