Where Do You Get Your Inspiration?

We invited Sheila Derrington, Interweave’s fulfillment manager and digital circulation manager, to share her thoughts on <a href="https://shop.longthreadmedia.com/products/piecework-september-october-2015?utmsource=needleworktraditions.com&utmmedium=referral&utmcampaign=nt-gkb-bl-150811" target="blank">the newest issue of PieceWork.

I can’t watch TV or a movie without doing something with my hands--eating, working on needlework, or painting my nails, but I’m almost always working on a needlework project. The problem comes when I’ve finished a project and haven’t lined up another one to work on. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it drives me crazy! So I start perusing the materials I have in my chest of drawers, as well as the stash of patterns, pattern books, and magazines I have and something always jumps out at me as the next lucky project to work on.

Mimi Seyferth’s splendid socks evoke the gables of the real House of the Seven Gables in Salem, Massachusetts. Included in the photograph is an 1879 edition of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The House of the Seven Gables. Photos by Joe Coca.

So where do you get inspiration for your next project? Do you go to your favorite store to find a pattern? Or maybe you already have a stash of patterns to go through at home. How about books? I don’t mean project books, I mean literary works like those in the September/October literary-inspired issue of PieceWork! This issue brings us Arthur Conan Doyle’s socks, Nathaniel Hawthorne knitting for his cat (what??), Little Red Riding Hood’s red hood, and several more stories as well as patterns for the projects inspired by them.

Katrina King’s hat was inspired by a scene in George R.R. Martin’s third book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series.

There are so many books and short stories that can inspire us if we just open our minds and hearts to the full scope of what we’re reading. It makes me want to go back and re-read some of the books on the shelves in my office to see what I can find for inspiration. This issue of PieceWork is filled with needlework projects inspired by great books and short stories. And see the winners of our 2015 Pincushion contest! (I found inspiration there, too!) I just know that if you get a subscription today, you’ll love it!

--Sheila