Knitting Lakeside

In November of this past year my now husband, then boyfriend, Nick, took me on a modest vacation to the woods of south-western Michigan, just an hour and a half away from our apartment in Chicago. It was my birthday and we were looking forward to a busy few days of hiking and kayaking together. But the weather had turned cold and wet and we spent the majority of our time alone in the Great Room of the rambling, old hotel in which we were staying, lounging on furniture fashioned from logs, flanked by double stone fireplaces; the only guests during an off-season weekend. Nick read, I knit; a circle scarf and the second sock of a fat woolly pair. It was peaceful and I felt tremendous contentment as I counted out my stitches. Toward the end of the trip he proposed to me while on a soggy, but wonderful hike after which we returned happily to our empty Great Room where he read and I knit. 

Beginnings

The start of this new blog for me is coming directly out of my desire to fill a troublesome hole in my creative life. I have always been a person who values handcraft, needlework especially. My mother taught me to sew when I was young and after college I picked up crochet, then knitting. Now, well into my thirties, I dabble in a number of different textile arts and I get a great deal of satisfaction from making things by hand. But no matter what medium I choose, my conundrum is usually the same...

When I go on the hunt for a new knitting or sewing pattern I find very little that suits my taste; which tends toward the simple, minimal, and relatively modern. Most patterns I look at call for stitch patterns or color combinations that, while technically stunning and challenging to create, do little for my personal sense of aesthetics. But give me a cashmere/wool blend sweater in a plain moss stitch or an A-line shift dress made from fine black linen and I'm as happy as a clam!

I've trolled the internet, and paged through endless books looking for projects that I love and I usually end up having to change elements in a chosen pattern or create my own patterns from scratch. Sometimes this works out well, other times its a disaster, every time its a process. I am starting Lakeside Needleworks as a way of sharing my search for a modern, minimal take on Handmade; to share my inspirations, my challenges, my projects and my progress. Cheers!  -EBS