A friend was concerned about her AbFab kit. She had bought it at half price, and the colors ran pretty much the full range of primaries and secondaries, with just a touch of neutrals. She had changed the pattern stitch a bit (a variation of Feather and Fan), and she was having doubts, about a foot or two into the project. She spread the work out on the table and wanted to know what to do.
So we talked about it: This particular color way has a rich range of colors and intensities -- there isn‘t any unifying intensity or color to comfort you in the process with a sense of stability. By definition, there is a rich range of textures (it’s a Colinette AbFab kit). If you want it to look like the picture, you have to follow every single step of the instructions. If you change even one detail, it will look different from the picture. Because of the richness of all the parts, you won’t be able to predict how your changes will affect the outcome. By the same token, and for the same reason, the finished product will look precisely like itself -- and whether you like it or not is kind of up to you. Because of the richness of the pattern stitch, you won’t actually see the effect until you block the finished piece. If you take apart what you have already done, you will never know how it would have ended up. In the process, you will also weaken some of the yarns (like mohair and chenille) that don’t like to be fussed with too much. So you have to trust the kit, make your choices, and enjoy the process.
Kind of like life, she smiled. Yup.
So we talked about it: This particular color way has a rich range of colors and intensities -- there isn‘t any unifying intensity or color to comfort you in the process with a sense of stability. By definition, there is a rich range of textures (it’s a Colinette AbFab kit). If you want it to look like the picture, you have to follow every single step of the instructions. If you change even one detail, it will look different from the picture. Because of the richness of all the parts, you won’t be able to predict how your changes will affect the outcome. By the same token, and for the same reason, the finished product will look precisely like itself -- and whether you like it or not is kind of up to you. Because of the richness of the pattern stitch, you won’t actually see the effect until you block the finished piece. If you take apart what you have already done, you will never know how it would have ended up. In the process, you will also weaken some of the yarns (like mohair and chenille) that don’t like to be fussed with too much. So you have to trust the kit, make your choices, and enjoy the process.
Kind of like life, she smiled. Yup.
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