F / W 2015: Lingon

Next up in the F / W Collection is another brand-new accessory pattern: the Lingon shawl. As with the other items in the collection, it will be available for download this Friday, November 13th.

Lingon is knit in one or two skeins of Swans Island Natural Colors Merino Fingering, a hand-dyed, organic merino that creates a soft, finely textured fabric. Additional details on the yarn and pattern can be found on Ravelry.

  

I discovered the music of Sigur Rós when I was fifteen. I listened to the album ( ) on repeat on my little silver Discman and headphones as I studied for chemistry exams in a deserted cafeteria, as I wrote short stories in my bedroom at 2 am, as I walked the mile to school in my Chucks and rainbow socks. This strange music was a key moment in my musical awakening: in a caught breath on the freeway overpass when the sun was shining and the sidewalk was covered in a crust of ice crystals, thrown suddenly into dazzling light. It was the sound of longing and joy and bitter cold, the pulls of a bow on a guitar creating a sound like music from inside a canyon. I had never heard anything so beautiful.

 It was there as I grew older, Takk... on repeat while I studied for my college calculus final and the snow fell in gentle drifts outside my dorm room window, my heart broken over a boy who didn't love me. And again, Valtari on repeat as I steamed yards and yards of red wool for the last piece in my senior collection for NYFA, as I cut and stitched little pieces of lace together into a gentle curve, as I lay on the couch in the magazine room at school and the shadows fell through the window in grey slanted lines.

And again, when Gobbledigook played as I walked down the aisle ten years later, to marry the kid who had taken me to my first Sigur Rós concert when we were seventeen, when we both sat in awe of the glitter of stage lights and the dark tangle of cords and instruments from which came all that vast, heartbreaking beauty.

And so, Lingon is a sort of a love letter to the possibilities of darkness and light; of curve and line. To the sparse and linear, as well as their inverse: the shape of a set of parenthesis, or a crown of berries, or a rising sun.

Happy Wednesday, friends.

<3

Cory

Model & Styling: Nicole Hood

Designer, Photographer & Styling: Cory Ellen Boberg

Ballgown: Day 10 (Or, Ballgowns & Hipster Headphones)

  

First off, thank you to everyone who has reached out to me on the blog, in person, or otherwise, with your encouragement and kind words - it's so great to know that you enjoy hearing about my process, and I hope my photos and thoughts inspire you as much as sharing them does for me!

Last night, I left my room a mess for the first time. I worked from the morning into the afternoon, taking breaks to help Sparklepants and Rockett with a few things to set up for their ballgown presentation. I hand-basted the back of my bodice together, and cut into my lace for the appliquéd front panel, and not much else: the end of the day came fast, and I left everything mid-thought to go watch the presentation.

Both of their gowns were absolutely stunning, and perfect for their design aesthetics, and so incredibly different from each other. It was really cool to see the gowns go from pieces of fabric on the table all the way to full outfits with hair and makeup, and both dresses really came alive on the body. I'm so proud of my ballgown buddies! I'm also excited (and slightly apprehensive?) for my turn to come up next.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying hand-basting things together. Someday the random pieces on my table will be a dress, too...

I looked like a total hipster yesterday, with my vintage shorts and crocheted top, Keds, and my big dorky headphones that I stole from Lumberjack so I don't disturb classes by blasting my music. Something that I've really appreciated about this process is how much music I've been getting to obsessively listen to, since I can't stream music at school and have to consciously choose new albums to load onto my phone every day. (Rdio saves my life omgggg)

I'm not sure I've ever mentioned it, but part of the reason this blog is called indie.knits is because of my love of music. Lumberjack and I used play guitar and sing together between classes, and go on dates to little indie music concerts around Seattle when we were in high school. (D'aw, our friendship is so old.)

I associate certain albums with very specific times in my life: finals of my freshman year of college was snowdrifts, calculus, and Radiohead's In Rainbows on repeat; the show at NYFA was steaming red wool crepe while listening to Sin Fang's Flowers; Iceland was insomnia and Phantogram's entire catalogue. I have an emotional - almost visceral - connection with good music, and the albums I've listened to while working on ballgown are almost like friends keeping me company. And, like friends, there will always be room in my life for a few more.

Happy Sunday!

<3
Cory

Post 201! A few things I love right now.

Miike Snow - a fantastic electropop group from Sweden that produces tracks that manage to evoke big city lights and big city alienation, frozen lakes and stretches of snow, and smoky little bars, simultaneously.  Probably my favorite tracks on their eponymous first album: Sylvia, for starting out with a simple piano and heading off into an orbit of synthesized otherworldly gorgeousness; and Animal, for maintaining a perfect balance between its shouty exuberance and laid-back tempo.  Plus, c'mon, who doesn't love a jackalope?

These little flowers I've been seeing everywhere.  When I leave for school in the morning they're folded up and look a little like ballet slippers.  They also happen to be just about my favorite color ever.

This is the first time that I've ever noticed them open.  Anyone know what they are?

Feeling better.  I also really like feeling better.  Still wearing the mask, though, which has produced a surprising number of kind words and "feel betters" in the last two days.

This dress, from goulash on Etsy.  Serious classy cute happening here.

Antique rose petal wrap bow belt.  I've been crushing on this and her obi belts in pretty much every color for about two years now.  From elizabethkelly on Etsy.

I haven't knit in about four days, between being sick and being busy with schoolwork.  Must make effort to remedy!  Must not blog instead of getting important things done!  Must not read style blogs in procrastination of homework!  Must be a good student!  Oh world, why don't you have more hours in the day?


Images copyright Miike Snow, goulash and Elizabeth Kelly Accessories