Earth. Fall 2023 Capsule Collection
Two Sweater Vest Knitting Patterns
The best thing about this work is that it evolves. Every time I post a new collection, the work expands beyond what I imagined it to be when it was just me in my head.
The work gets better with time, and there are new things to say.
The work tells me what it is about after I release it into the world, and I suppose that is the way it ought to be.
Here’s where it is today:
This collection is about hearing your own voice & listening to it. There’s a lot of external input, from social media, from friends, families, the structures that be, etc, which can be sometimes helpful, but it is our blessing that we all have an inner voice, and when we follow it, we end up with work like this, a physical garment in answer to the longing that is inside of us, one that we can put on externally to amplify that internal knowing.
The more we listen to ourselves the more authentic we become, the more we can bring our unique gifts into the world. Spirit works through all of us, inspiration comes to all of us, and if we are open to it, I believe that guidance from beyond can come though us and change the world for the better.
These garments are named for the earth, they have a very real, grounded, down to earth type style to them, and in that they invite us to listen to the earth. In the practice of making them, in the feelings the evoke, in the colors that we choose, in the transformations that happen while we work with our hands to create something that is a confident reflection of our inner voice.
This phenomenon where the work reveals itself after being released astounds me. I work on the projects for months, years even. Designing the garments, the yarn calls out, the colors come together, the visuals, I have in my mind, the ideas, they trickle in. I work on knitting the samples, and writing the patterns, I do my best, I learn new things, I expand my way of thinking.
Then when the physical manifestation is ready to come into the world, I announce its arrival.
I write some words, the ones I’ve gathered along the way, the ones that I learned while doing all the things, but something changes drastically when the patterns are released.
The work takes on a life of its own and cascades a wealth of new insights on me, new words come in and I get to put them into the world and form what the work is meant to be.
The first day of release for this collection, I woke with a start, after anxiety dreams of missing a train. turns out I was late for an appointment with the endocrinologist that I had waited months for, I had to reschedule for another 3 months from now.
What a way to bring in the day, jumping out bed, being disappointed and rushed, and then, also, the patterns I designed around the search for gender euphoria are released.
Patterns that I worked really hard on, and that the spark of was listening to my own voice. the question being, how do you want to feel when you get dressed? the answer came out as a physical manifestation, these vests.
The day of the photoshoot I had this idea of shedding my layers as we went, changing clothes and putting them all back on again. I knew it was tender and vulnerable, the dressing and undressing while genderqueer, and I wanted it to be documented, but the words about why didn’t come through until after I released the collection.
I create because I want the world to experience healing. I want to take everything that I’ve learned and am learning about the truth of this thing we call life to heal the generations that came before me, those in our current time, and the ones that will come after.
We need to listen to the voice that is calling us to expand beyond war, hatred, fear, and division.
To learn to live together in beauty.
This voice that lives inside of us can’t steer us wrong. Sometimes into difficult places, but it will never ask us to do anything unethical. It is the one that asks us to show up as our authentic and healing selves. it says, “ I don’t know everything, but I am committed to being here in a good way”. The one that speaks truth to power, because the truth is always right, even when it’s hard to hear.
We need to come together with a commitment to do better for our home, and each other. We need to stop cop city, end all genocides, abolish the prison and military industrial complex, knit sweaters, make art, protect the earth, listen to our intuition, and help each other along the way.
The Fall 2023 capsule collection features two sweater vest knitting patterns with textured stitches. Inspired by the colors of the earth, ochre and carnelian. In natural earth tones knit these two sweater vests for gender euphoria, for confidence, comfort, and style.
