It’s very very early days yet, but so far the most interesting thing to come out of The Fiber Factor (Skacel’s web-based knitting version of Project Runway) is a little off-Broadway show going on over at Mason-Dixon Knitting. The FF challenges are being announced online, with the contestants given an appropriate number of weeks to complete their entries, so it’s happening in real time. Ann decided to play along at home. The first challenge is to “knit your life.” My response would be a blank stare, with my mouth hanging slightly ajar. No idea. Ann, on the other hand, has responded with a cable sweater, knit from the top down, whereupon the cables go the way life goes. (“There’s no pattern to [this sweater], that’s for sure.”) So simple. So brilliant.

I can’t actually say that this is any more clever than what the official contestants have come up with, as I can’t sit through the individual videos where they announce their plans. (Anyone want to summarize for me?) But I’m looking forward to the moment where the finished pieces begin to appear. Most of all, though, I can’t wait to see what Ann decides about her hem: “Beginning to have superstitious feeling that I can’t ever cast off this hem. Maybe I’ll just leave the stitches on a holder down there. Don’t want to end anything too soon …”

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