Spinning a yarn

By Lazykate

Have you ever caught yourself, as a grown woman, a heterosexual woman at that, become slightly obsessed with another woman? At this point, I would like you all to say yes.

How is it that some women are effortlessly chic, they exude confidence or are able to put an outfit together in a way you never could. They might not be beautiful in the conventional sense but can demand the attention of all in a room. Perhaps they wear a beret in a way that makes you want to knit one immediately. Enter Lucinda Ledgerwood.

I don't wish to be overly Britaincentric so please for the rest of the world bear with me. Lucinda was one of the contestants in the British version of the Apprentice. She was bright and breezy - described by The Telegraph as Little Miss Sunshine. Unafraid of colour she wasn't intimidated by her more sombre rivals in their black power suits and shone out in her richly colored clothing. The combinations were unusual but worked, green and pink, red and black and white stripes. She had the confidence to carry off her own look which is hugely attractive and I feel I may not be the only one with a (slightly) unhealthy obsession with Lucinda - the amount of media coverage indicates that there are others with this guilty pleasure. Take a look at this video interview for a flavour of Lucinda's style.

What is has done, is inspire me to create yarn and garments that are more 'me'. Not to be scared of the colours I like - and I love red. Also, to design according to what I like rather than what is at the height of fashion. And as spinners and knitters, we are in an ideal place to make these things happen.

The beauty of handspun wool is that every piece of clothing we create is unique - something of ourselves goes into that yarn. The wool can be variegated or solid, chunky to our very own desire and knitted or felted into whatever we want, thanks to publications like this one with it's free patterns, or websites like Ravelry which we can trawl through to find designers with a like mind and download from there. These are exciting times for knitters who are now able to express themselves exactly how they wish and be inspired in a way they may never have been before.

And I am inspired to knit a red beret.

To read more about Lazykate's world of spinning visit her blog at lazyblog.lazykate.net