The story of a Starry Night (part 5)

The Designer really wanted to release the pattern by the end of May.  This gave her something to aim for and to focus on when things did not go quite right! Trust me!  This happened on a regular basis. In fact, if things started going too smoothly, the Designer would start getting worried. However, the photos she had received from Rob made her smile every time she looked at them.

With just one more set of "How To" photos and video to make, the Designer sat down to carry on with them. The photos were taken, the video was made and the UK version of the pattern was finished! This made the Designer smile even more.

The next day was the release of the final part of her CAL so, she got up earlier than usual and released it early. The plan was to have nothing to do except work on "Starry Night" when she finished in the shop at lunchtime. Surprisingly enough, this all went to plan!

The pattern was translated to US terms and the listing was created on the Designers instant download pattern website, Rainbow Valley A second listing for the yarn packs was created on the Designers shop website, also Rainbow Valley The Designer notified a couple of groups she was in and went to bed!

The next morning the Designer woke up to discover lots of emails about pattern sales and yarn pack sales.

This made the Designer positively grin!

The story of a Starry Night (part 4)

The photoshoot was so much fun! While Rob was working his magic with the camera, the Designer was taking "behind the scenes" snaps with her phone. She then used her newly found skills so make a video with some of them!

She did get told off for not adding music to it but she was in the middle of a very steep learning curve! Rob also took some unexpected photos of her to use for new business cards!

The photos from the shoot arrived that weekend and the Designer promptly made the pattern cover. Now all she had to do was finish the pattern!

The story of a Starry Night (part 3)

The Designers day off from the shop fell on a rather warm and sunny day so it would have been silly not to take advantage and block Starry Night.

Blocking involves pinning item out into shape, wetting it and leaving it to dry naturally. As Starry Night was rather large, it also involved crawling around the lawn for just under 2 hours with a pot full of pins and a ruler! The Designer was very relieved when it was all done and she could sit to enjoy her coffee and recover.

Now it was the time of the really hard work! While much of this was done in the garden, it was not all about sitting back and smelling the flowers. The original Starry Night was frogged back to the big stars and remade so that it could be used to take "How To" photos to go into the pattern.

As parts of the pattern are quite tricky, the Designer decided to be very brave and drag her butt into the 21st century by also making videos. A "filming studio" was set up inside, a video editing program was downloaded and the bravery began!

Before too long, there where a number of videos uploaded to YouTube and the Designer was feeling very pleased with herself! The next job on the list was the photoshoot. Rob Morris, a friend of the Designer had offered to do this for her so she jumped at the chance and a date was arranged!

The story of a Starry Night (part 2)

After sitting in the bucket for rather a long time, the Starry Night project was let back out. However, instead of carrying on with the original project, the Designer started again.

The large stars were worked in the way as before but the joining was worked a little differently.

The other difference was that, instead of using Custard to create "The Starry Sky" part of the shawl, she used the outside of Banana Cream Hi. This meant that it gradually turned darker as it reached the top. This looked much more sky-like that the pale lavender of Custard and the Designer was happy with the finished effect. Next, the inside of Banana Cream Hi was used to carry on underneath the big stars and create the mountains.

The colours of the yarn fell perfectly into place and looked just like the sky between the stars and the mountains in the original painting. The Designer was very happy with this.

Banana Cream Hi was finally almost gone so it was now the turn of Custards replacement, Bilberry. Bilberry is a deep rich navy and much better suited to creating the buildings nestled underneath the mountains. As buildings were a bit difficult to create, the Designer came up with creating the illusion of buildings by just making "windows".

This worked well and, at last, the Designer was ready to complete the creation with a Sparkly Starry fringe! The next job was the blocking and photoshoot but that story will have to wait for another day!

The story of a Starry Night (part 1)

This is the story of a project that has been in and out of the WIP box for over 5 years!  It has been frogged and reworked more times than the designer cares to count.  It has been cussed at even more times than that.

Once upon a time, there was a Scheepjes Whirl called "Banana Cream Hi".  It arrived at a little yarn and craft shop called Rainbow Valley. This Whirl was clever, so when it found out that not only was the owner a designer but also that one of her favourite paintings was "The Starry Night", Banana Cream Hi shouted at her that he wanted to be a Starry Night as well, especially as he already looked so much like the painting.

The designer mulled this over and, after some time agreed. So the process was started. Then Banana Cream Hi said to his friend the "Custard" Whirlette, "Would you like to join in? You match me perfectly!". Of course, Custard agreed.

The stars were created from the middle of Banana Cream Hi and this worked really well.  The shading from the creamy banana colour to the brighter lemon created some variety in the stars. Then it was the turn of the swirls - which is where Custard came in. This did not go as planned. The whole project ended up in the F Bucket!!!!

In February 2022 the project gained a new purpose, and a deadline, as the designer wanted to wear it for her parents Diamond Wedding in August. Both Banana Cream Hi and Custard were replaced with scrap yarn.  They did not mind, they both knew that the repeated frogging was bad for them so they were to let the rif-raf take the fall! Eventually, the designer created the effect she was looking for.

The down side was that the relationship between Banana Cream Hi and Custard was not plain sailing.  Custard was too pale and did not bring the depth of colour that Starry Night required. Everything was just too insipid. The designer frogged again and made 7 full stars instead of 5.  This meant that the blue started coming through on the swirls. She still needed more blue.

With all of this going on, the designer did not get the finish and wear the shawl for her parents anniversary.

Discussions with her mother made her decide that Custard was just not up to the job, continuing with him would be a big mistake and spoil the whole effect.

The bottom of the painting was dark, not pale lavender which was Custards colour.

When she got home, the project went back into the bucket and there it stayed for quite some time!