This weekend at Vogue Knitting Live, the three four finalists for The Fiber Factor were announced.  Alas, I was not among them.  Truth be told, I’m more than a bit relieved.  Although it would have been an honor/super exciting/challenging/etc. to continue competing into the final round … it has also been exhausting/sometimes frustrating/etc.  I’ve felt constrained by the challenge schedule — I have not submitted many design proposals lately, nor have I started new designs of my own, because of the increasingly intense challenges.  Now that I’m out of the running, I can relax — knit more for my own pleasure, and also feel free to make new commitments to other yarn companies and magazines. It also means I can enjoy next week’s stint at Stitches East (I’m helping out in A Hundred Raven’s booth!) without concern that I’m using up valuable design time. 

I had a great experience — no regrets there!  One of the best things I learned during this competition is that even if I don’t immediately have a good idea for a call (aka challenge), I can come up with something I’m proud of with a little extra effort. In the past if I read a call for submission and it didn’t appeal, I just let it pass by — there are more calls than I can possibly respond to, so I have focused on the ones that spark immediate design ideas for me.  With the Fiber Factor, I didn’t have that luxury, obviously — I had to buckle down and think of something no matter how ?wtf? I felt on when I first read the challenge description.  As a result, I’ve designed some of my best work to date.  I’m trying to take this lesson to heart — sometimes the less obvious/easy road leads to interesting places.

ANYway, I think/hope that judging for round six will go up next week.  In the mean time, please feast your eyes on my submission: the Carillon Cloche and Bow. (Please comment on the Ravelry page for Carillon if you’d like a PM when the pattern becomes available.)