{"id":2627,"date":"2022-02-07T11:30:49","date_gmt":"2022-02-07T11:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aliceinknittingland.co.uk\/?p=2627"},"modified":"2022-02-07T11:30:49","modified_gmt":"2022-02-07T11:30:49","slug":"inspiration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aliceinknittingland.co.uk\/?p=2627","title":{"rendered":"Inspiration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Longer ago than I can remember &#8211; a few years at least &#8211; I decided to try not to buy anything new for a year. No new shoes or clothes. The only exception was undies (for obvious reasons). And it became second nature. It stuck. Even better, it has become very much the go-to position in our household, and I am very grateful for that. Clothes are generally bought in local charity shops, on online auction sites, and wherever we can find them. Or they are made. Sewn (my husband&#8217;s forte) or knitted (mine).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There were a couple of reasons for making the switch; the first being a burgeoning sense of horror at the waste in our society. I&#8217;m generally and genuinely shocked by the throw-away mindset actively encouraged by consumerism. And the second, hand-in-hand with the first, was a growing disillusionment with the poor quality of what was on offer in the shops, not to my mind reflected in the ridiculous cost. Expensive crap, not to put too fine a point on it, and mostly plastic-based (which we all know is the bane of our environment, right?) <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This isn&#8217;t remotely an attempt at evangelism, just an explanation for my own journey into the preloved, upcycled and handmade. Though if it happens to inspire similar in anyone else, I shall consider myself doubly blessed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Long before this particular turning point came knitting. And as I learnt to knit, I realised that I had very particular ideas about what I wanted to wear \/ create. I began with modifying patterns that were <em>almost<\/em> what I wanted, and ended as you see me now: designing my own. My designs are seldom terribly complicated &#8211; I like things to be quick and easy to make, and to design pieces that relatively inexperienced knitters feel moved to have a crack at. And they don&#8217;t always make it to published pattern stage. I have a life full of demands on my time and I have to be quite focused and decisive about what I will or will not follow up on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The result of this is that along with a gazillion WIPs, I have a LOT of one-off pieces. Some I will keep, but I simply cannot justify keeping them all. So there will be, in due course, occasional items of clothing and accessories appearing in my shop here. I will put out a warning that they&#8217;re coming on my social media before going live, to give anyone who would like to snap something up a chance to get there in time for a browse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And here is a picture for today&#8217;s inspiration. The preloved Boden skirt I bought on eBay, and I am about to start one of my striped cardigans to match it &#8211; aren&#8217;t the colours perfect?! The striped cardigan, incidentally, is a pattern that WILL be coming, in time for Spring. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you can&#8217;t find it, make it. And if you can&#8217;t make it, pay a knitter what they&#8217;re worth, (or understand how much you&#8217;re loved if someone knits it for you for free&#8230;) \ud83d\ude09 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"809\" src=\"https:\/\/aliceinknittingland.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/2022-02-07-11-21-30-654-1024x809.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2629\" srcset=\"https:\/\/aliceinknittingland.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/2022-02-07-11-21-30-654-1024x809.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/aliceinknittingland.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/2022-02-07-11-21-30-654-300x237.jpg 300w, https:\/\/aliceinknittingland.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/2022-02-07-11-21-30-654-768x607.jpg 768w, https:\/\/aliceinknittingland.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/2022-02-07-11-21-30-654-1536x1214.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/aliceinknittingland.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/2022-02-07-11-21-30-654-600x474.jpg 600w, https:\/\/aliceinknittingland.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/2022-02-07-11-21-30-654.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(All arranged on a coffee table covered with a  decade of Teddy&#8217;s scribbling off the edge of the paper, and a mug of turmeric and cumin tea in one of my most prized possessions &#8211; a beautiful coppery mug covered with mountains and trees, made by <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/dwyrydceramics.co.uk\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/dwyrydceramics.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\">Dwyryd Ceramics<\/a>, in case you were wondering.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Have a glorious week, and happy knitting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Longer ago than I can remember &#8211; a few years at least &#8211; I decided to try not to buy anything new for a year. No new shoes or clothes. The only exception was undies (for obvious reasons). And it became second nature. It stuck. Even better, it has become very much the go-to position [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[30],"tags":[48,51,136,148,165,220,234,260,269,282,365,517,518,474,480],"class_list":["post-2627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-alice-in-knittingland","tag-alice-neal","tag-crafts","tag-design","tag-drops-yarn","tag-handmade","tag-homemade","tag-knitspiration","tag-knitting","tag-knittingland","tag-preloved","tag-striped-alpaca-cardigan","tag-upcycled","tag-wool","tag-yarn"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Inspiration - Alice in Knittingland<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/aliceinknittingland.co.uk\/?p=2627\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Inspiration - Alice in Knittingland\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Longer ago than I can remember &#8211; a few years at least &#8211; I decided to try not to buy anything new for a year. 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