Knitting Muse Inspiration: Classic Ladies

A couple of pictures to help inspire your inner knitting muse. Enjoy!

My Inspiration Book

Long ago I use to have a tiny envelope filled with a few clippings of pictures from magazines. These were images that moved and inspired me. When I went off to CalArts, I pinned this pictures up on a cork board in my dorm room- my first inspiration board.

When I was a teacher and costume designer at Phoenix College, I collected more images that rotated on my design boards. I also taught my students to keep files of pictures that were interesting to them.

After I got married I looked at the files of pictures I've collected over the years and realized that they had grown too large to hang on boards. I didn't want them sitting in some drawer anymore. I wanted to find a way to be able to look at them all whenever I wanted. I also wanted it to be portable to go with me where I traveled.

Among my things I found a big 3-ring binder that was used to hold my copy of scripts. I emptied it out of its previous contents and began to but thick sheets of colored construction paper inside. On each page I glued my pictures. Soon I was going to the craft store to buy more paper and what started as a small envelope of images has now grown into a notebook that continues to grow.

I still keep an inspiration board, but when I add new images to the board I take the old ones down and give them a permanent home in my notebook.

I highly recommend an inspiration book to anyone, even if you are not the type of person that would normally have an inspiration board. It becomes a great reference and a way to help unblock you when you feel creatively stuck or in a slump.