Today's a very quiet day in Casa Bookish. I believe my parents are currently looking at marching penguins in Edinburgh Zoo (or possibly at shoppers on Glasgow's Buchanan Street - not that much difference, anyhow). I'm still in my jammies and have been working away on the body of my Pine cardigan. I might just reach the "put body on waste yarn" stage today. I'm almost excited. First, just a brief link. Sarah Palin quit her job as governor of Alaska earlier this month because she is not a quitter (and something about basketball and dead fish too). Vanity Fair out her resignation speech through the capable hands of their literary editor and their copy editor. The result is very colourful.

The Interweave Knits Fall 2009 Preview is up.  So far the consensus seems to be "it is not horrible". On preview, I like the Freyja pullover (although I don't get the spelling) and the Barcelona jacket (although I'm not sure about its fit on people with curves - it could end up looking very frumpy). The Trellis and Vine pullover is immensely wearable and, with longer sleeves, Rosamund's Cardigan is a must-knit (and I have the yarn already!). I would have liked to have seen a Eunny Jang pullover or cardigan - and maybe some fabulous lace shawl, but you can't get everything.  Now to wait for the Vogue preview..

At the moment, though, I'm really drawing my inspiration from North European and Scandinavian crafters: Petra O's blå sjal (blue shawl) with its lovely yellow edging, Sanne's Percy shawl pattern (rav) which is my next shawl project, Veera's fantastic and inspirational modern garden cardigan, Birgitte's strikingly blue Buttercup/Cornflower and Olesdatter's beautiful Rabarber (Rhubarb) cardigan. I think it is the way they approach colour and their chosen projects. Veera had An Idea and chose a colour which would support the idea rather than overshadow it; Petra used contrasting colours to showcase the contrasting lines of her shawl; and Birgitte went all out colourwise knowing that her chosen pattern could deal with a striking colour. Seriously inspirational stuff and they are making me think about how I can use colour in my forthcoming projects.

Where do you find inspiration for your projects? How do the work of other crafters make you reconsider how you approach your projects?