Lost in lace

I'm not sure where the time has gone. Since returning from a month in Spain, the ideas have shifted to a more romantic, soft look. I have been exploring new color combinations, and the shapes have become longer and less structured. My trip to the Barcelona flea market in January, and the multitude of buttons I returned with have inspired me to use buttons as jewels, adding them to sweaters as a decorative element rather than relegating them to a strictly utilitarian role. And my collection of lace snippets from a trip to Hong Kong have been the inspiration for sweaters with lace insets.

Also new to the studio are t-shirts that incorporate beading and applique, soft stretch cotton with hand knit and crochet trim. I previewed these in San Francisco last weekend, and they received a warm welcome. So more to come for June in NYC.

I have stopped listening to the news, not even NPR. The squeeze on my psyche makes staying creative that much more difficult. I retreat to my own carefully crafted fantasy world, choosing to believe that human nature will seek out the beautiful and hand made.Call me Polyanna, but I play the "Glad Game" daily. Glad to have new ideas daily, glad to be inspired by life, glad to meet people along the way who get it.

New ideas for the new year

I am working my way through the new ideas crashing around in my brain for spring/summer. The "layered" sweaters are so much fun to make, that expanding the idea seems a must. So I'm thinking layer upon layer. Given the bulk of the winter sweaters, a rethinking needs to occur, above and beyond lighter weight yarns. Besides utilizing silk, cotton, linen, and bamboo, I am contemplating the incorporation of stretch silk chiffon, printed with custom designs and embroidered. I am also mulling over, from a conceptual point of view, re-interpreting the annual Pantone color guide for spring 2009. I relish the idea of taking the inspirational ramblings of the cognoscenti and actually interpreting the meaningless babble into a concrete form. The idea amuses me beyond imagining, but I'm crazy that way. All good ideas need a form, and a good narrative thread to carry them through to conception. Stay tuned! In the meantime, check out Pantone for a preview.

A snowy Sunday

With 8" of snow outside the door, I sit huddle in my corner, knitting away, getting orders done from Chicago and NY as well as new orders that have been coming in since we got back. I took the brazen step of cutting down the middle a sweater I had that had a request to become a cardigan. Fascinating act of daring-do. With the sweater on a mannequin, I took my large tailoring scissors and cut a swath straight up the middle. I then serged the edges to keep them from unraveling, sewed down a seam, and picked up stitches in the various layer colors. It worked! What was once a pullover with a cowl has now become a button up with a great buttoned collar. There is something great about fearlessness. What's the worst that can happen? You start again.
I have been getting lots of orders for bracelets and pins since being back, which is great. I love making them, a respite from the garments. Like sketching as opposed to a full blown painting. One of my goals for next year is to begin marketing the pins and bracelets to outlets other than the shows. We shall see. I sent 10 pins to Boston with Dahlia, who I met at the Artrider show in NYC. She currently has a scarf show up in her gallery, Dahlia, on Union Street, so we shall see. Always some new twist and turn.
Ideas for spring and summer are starting to crop up, still with layers, in silk, bamboo, cotton, linen. Hand dyed colors coupled with custom designed silk chiffon. My plan is to work out prototypes while we are out of the country mid-January through February. I am just now working out my schedule for next year, so stay tuned. As always, lots of new ideas brewing.
Happy holidays!
Sara

The end of 2008 is around the corner, and the sarasutton label is still going strong, despite these trying economic times. The year has been a madcap adventure, with new shows to try out and new ideas to develop. This was the year that spawned the layer sweaters, one of my wild spur of the moment inspirations debuted at the Bellevue Art Fair show in July. I was a wreck at that show, a new one that seemed daunting and sure to be a disaster. The new sweaters seemed too out there to be embraced. How wrong was I! It was a great success, and inspired me to become even more creative with the sweaters. From there we moved to Art in the High Desert, a new show in Bend, on the Deschutes. A beautiful venue with wonderful organizers and artists, but a quiet show, being a first year event. From there we headed to Lyndhurst in beautiful Tarrytown, NY. Saw our favorite supporters, including the always amazing Meredith Bernstein, literary agent extraordinaire and fashionista beyond compare. The show was not outstanding, but we made milk money and had enough great feedback to keep going. Then it was back to the studio, to replenish depleted stock and build up enough inventory for two back-to-back shows in December, Chicago One-of-a-Kind and Crafts Park Avenue. Both shows were a blast, with good sales despite the doom and gloom. We met incredible people in Chicago, both customers and other vendors. It is always such a great pleasure to have people try on the sweaters and fall in love with them.
Chicago is a huge venue, and we met some great people, including Jane and Ron, Adam and Halli, and Olive.