Designers Have Finally Discovered Wearables

For a number of years now, I have been following this industry.

I love wearable technology.  For starters, I have a fitbit on my wrist at almost all times. For someone who has a data obsession to begin with, there’s really nothing better than having  a constant flow of data. About myself, no less.

But beyond that, I have been keeping an eye on all wearable technology.

If the truth be known, we haven’t really found that huge breakthrough that brings it all mainstream and into the lives of every human being.  We are getting close, and this is my favorite time in any industry…when the possibilities are endless.

I was working in the field of marketing and advertising when the Internet came along.  I begged, pleaded, talked to superiors, made presentations, wrote papers, power points, sent emails telling anyone who would listen that this was the future of retail.  The future of basically everything.

The early reaction from executives…yes many VERY highly paid executives…was that the web was a passing fad.  Seriously.

But not everyone felt that way, and when more voices chimed in, things began to change.

I feel the same about wearable technology.

We basically have no idea where any of this is going, but it’s going somewhere. Now is the fun part..where all the entrepreneurs get to try things, where the experimenters get to experiment.

Last year, I made a vest using Adafruit’s circuitry. Here’s a link to the end result, but if you want to see the whole process, just click “previous” on the post and it will take you backward through the whole painful journey. (FYI…I wasn’t a STEM student…when I grew up STEM was part of a flower).

But now.

Ah, but now, people like Karl Lagerfeld are on board.  His whole spring 2017 fashion collection had a technology theme.  But my favorite is the large clutch.

I had to laugh at the reaction of the crowd.  Once you’ve built something, it’s not hard to understand how it’s done. But before, it’s a mystery held only by physicists.

The latest thing I’ve seen is this bag from Lisa Perry and Leo Villareal.

Again, it’s another bag that lights up, but trust me LED lights are fascinating to watch, and they are very bright.  We humans are so attracted to bright, shiny, flashy things.

Not everyone is working with the blinking lights though.  Here’s a great article from WIRED magazine about high tech fabric that helps to cool you down during a workout.

But by far my favorite so far has been this lovely fiber optic Cinderella gown from Zac Posen.  So lovely.

I haven’t given up on any of my sewing, quilting and embroidery.  But if I were ever to start over, this would be my new field.  Who knows?  I might have a third act left in me!

‘Tis the Season…Or is it?

rosesRunning around doing errands yesterday, I stopped in my tracks.  I pulled the car over and began to take pictures.  It’s a miracle.  Who sees roses this beautiful at Thanksgiving?

I did what I always do. I documented it.

The weather has been very disconcerting.  It was the warmest Nov. 17 in 40 years.

I remember being in Miami during the holidays one year.  It must have been around 20 years ago now.  I was about 2 blocks from South Beach, and we had been doing a photo shoot. But we wrapped a bit early and I had a free evening and found myself…midwestern girl…in a Walgreens in Miami Beach a couple of days before Christmas. I had received a call from friends who had gone sledding and skiing and were spending the weekend in Wisconsin.  Could I get home in time to meet them there, they asked.

I wandered the aisles, listening to the holiday music, taking in the lights, the decorations.

I was so lost.

I couldn’t imagine anyone being able to celebrate the holiday without at least the CHANCE of snow, and a cold breeze and a winter coat.  Walking outside, I was greeted with the soft warm breeze, and the tealest of teal ocean colors. It was breathtaking.

But not Christmas.

I had that same feeling again today, even though I am playing holiday music. The weather report calls for storms tomorrow and snow flurries on Saturday.  Maybe then, just maybe, things will start to feel a little bit more normal.

I have been working on the knitting that had me turned inside out.  I spent 45 minutes just studying the scarf, trying to recognize my mistakes.  Finally, in what seemed like a breakthrough, I realized that I was not paying attention to the wrong and right side of the pattern.

Once I had it figured out, I decided to continue and not rip out the incorrect stitches.  I decided that this scarf would be a great reminder of a difficult time.  Things leave scars.  My scarf would have a scar.  It’s not horrible.

right-side-knitting-mistakeAs you can see, on the right side of the fabric, it’s hardly noticeable.

wrong-side-knittingThe wrong side is much more obvious.  I decided that I didn’t want to go backward.

The only way to continue is to go forward.

I think I just might have a scarf by the time the snow falls.

And it’s time to get back to sewing too.

 

War and Peace and Knitting

War and Peace and KnittingRight before my mom went into the hospital for the last time, I began reading War and Peace. Honestly. I was about..oh, maybe 100 pages in. I had it at the hospital with me.

That was last February.

(I should mention that I love the Russian authors.  War and Peace is one of the great Russian novels that I haven’t read yet. Tolstoy is very different from Dostoevsky, but if you are looking for characters that embody the totality of the frail human condition, you can’t beat the Russians. They understand pain.)

Anyway, after she died, I put the book down and couldn’t look at it again until summer.  At that point I decided to throw it into a box headed for charity. Then I fished it out again. Then threw it back in. Fished it out. I wasn’t ready to walk away completely.

So it’s been sitting on my bedroom floor ever since.

At that same time last year, while in the waiting room at the hospital, I also started knitting a red scarf.

Now you should know a few things:

  1.  My mom taught me to knit.
  2. I am not very good, but find it very relaxing.
  3. I do OK with a simple pattern, but I don’t really know how to un-knit if I make a mistake.
  4. I made a mistake.

Not right away, you understand. I didn’t make the mistake in February.  Like War and Peace, I put the knitting project down and couldn’t look at it again.

The day after the election, I picked it up and tried to knit.

But I did it wrong.  Somewhere along the line, I was supposed to knit and I purled.  And where I was supposed to purl, I knitted.

An experienced knitter would know how to go backward, to reverse the stitches and fix the problem.  I can remember hundreds of times when my mom would rip the yarn out. But I am afraid to do that.

I am afraid I won’t be able to pick up those ripped stitches and continue.

I am left with something that feels like garbage and I don’t know how to fix it.

If I could go back in time and change it all, I would. If I could just abandon both projects I would.  But something in me longs for continuity, for clarity, for perseverance, closure, fortitude and maybe just a teensy bit of hope.

Now what?