The "Fieldnote Blanket" is about making local visible and documenting environment; the location that I am.
It is even a way I might describe myself.
It started as a scarf. The guideline set was to make one row each day for a year matching the color of the sky sometime in the first hour after sunrise. (Inspired by a project at Leafcutter Designs)
My definition of make for this project: choose a color, card the wool, spin yarn and knit.
It was a big scarf and I thought it might be better as a blanket. In 2018 I decided to make one row each day matching something in my environment and make more strips.
For 2019 I decided to not set any parameters, just to keep going. There is a row for autumn, a row for June which is all about pink roses for me, and a row for winter. And then, specifically for 2019, a row matching photos that I took last year. The colors that were documented.
A lot of pink, for flowers.
Red, for an assortment of berries.
Blues for the sky and the ocean.
Green for leaves and trees.
Gray for clouds, white for snow.
The roving is local; either from a local farm or at the very least, spun and dyed locally. A lot of the roving was collected before I learned about natural dyeing.
The yarn is spun with a locally made drop spindle, bumpy and lumpy and full of texture.
Today I realized it is full of emotion and moods, set in the tension and the twist.
Another kind of documentation.
I knit primarily with my favorite locally made needles. The wood is from a lilac tree harvested at the university I attended.
The yarn is "energized." This means that the twist hasn't been set by washing and it folds back on itself if the yarn isn't under tension.
For 2020 I want to add local color. I will spin white yarn and then dye it with plants from my garden or community and then knit a strip to add to the blanket.
Once all the strips are finished the plan is to full/felt the blanket.
The reality of my local life is that blankets need to be wash and wear.