Rabbit Hole

Currently I am working on a design that has been my best learning experience ever as a knitter, no, as a pattern writer, no, as a learner. Fannie Fouche has been written and rewritten so many times I've lost track.  I'm knitting the body for the third time.  The Providence yarn (Ball and Skein) has been incredibly patient and resilient.  I have reskeined it and soaked it in some Eucalan to remove the ramen noodle effect, and it is good as new.

I am deep, deep in the rabbit hole of armscye math : the construction, shape, grading and proportion. It is embarrassing to admit how fascinating it is.  I had the pleasure of chatting with Amy Herzog recently (she was a guest presenter at our guild meeting), and she seemed to understand my excitement, that or she's a brilliant (and polite) actress.

I have written a pattern algorithm for myself, a series of questions that determine how many stitches and rows are needed at any particular location on a set-in sleeve sweater.  The algorithm talks to the pattern template, which is written in CorelDraw : I can change the gauge in the algorithm, and all the numbers in the finished pattern change accordingly.  See why I'm so thrilled?  Tons of work up front, but the next time I want to write a pattern with this construction method it should go smoothly (she innocently and whistfully typed as the Pattern Gods chuckled heartily).

Fannie Fouche is constructed from the top down.  It has set-in sleeves that are knit at the same time as the yoke.  Why?  Because we can.  I am confident there are knitters up to the task. I am continually amazed at today's knitter : their Ravelry page states "just learned to knit last year", their project pages have fourteen pairs of lace socks, and they're on Sweater Seven of their Twelve-Sweaters-in-a-Year-Challenge ... in April.
  

Most Likely to Succeed



If bears had senior portraits



From the Archives

It's time to get my ducks in a row for taxes and for FAFSA, so I'm sorting through the file cabinet.  Naturally I'm sorting through the drawer that has old drawings, not the drawer that has pertinent tax stuff.  Here's a sketch from the early nineties.

Things I Learned from my Dad:

Do not follow convention unless it suits you perfectly.
Look at it from all sides, then decide.
Think.
Do.
Listen.
Make it if you can, if you want to.
Be honest and honorable.
Vote.

Wonder at love and family.
And wear sensible shoes.

Get Out

I think my office chair is trying to tell me something.  It is stuck in this position. 

Anyone got a good read on what it's saying?  (I have learned through the years that I often misinterpret body language.)

Ten Things about me, the High School Version

1.  I knit my first sweater in high school. It was a sweet teal 50's cardigan.  I wish I still had it.
2.  I used to stay after school in the sewing lab just about every day.
3.  Bridget Finnegan used to pass me hilarious notes with full illustration in Mr Stoykovich's Algebra II & Trig class.  Her notes keep coming, and they're even funnier today.
4.  Once a year I get together with my high school girlfriends for a long weekend.  It's a tradition we started about 5 years ago, and we all cherish the event.
5.  My family moved out of district in my sophomore year, but my parents paid tuition so that I could stay enrolled in my same school.  I was a commuter at the age of 16.
6.  I stunk at team sports.  Still do.  Especially if there's a ball involved.
7.  I currently live next door to the home where I lived  in 1982.

8.  Bridget started my love of cartooning.
9.  My second sweater was a bulky garter stitch pullover with a stockinette panel featuring a duplicate stitch deer.  It was my first self-designed sweater.
10.  Apparently I knew where I wanted to be and what I wanted to do from an early age.  It's so good to be here.

New Girl in Town

I don't remember when Dolly moved in - years ago.  My husband brought her home from a junk store.  And she's the best, all cardboard and rusty wing nuts, that darling figure, and a great sense of humor.  She sways back and forth (due to a loose joint at her base) as soon as I point the camera at her.  I should have named her Eileen.  She has been my trusty model for my sweaters and for my ideas.

But alas,  her figure is not quite the same as mine.  I needed the help of another girl, and she went on sale recently.  Meet Penny. 

The girls are modelling my latest pattern obsession, Butterick 6085.   Dolly's shirt is waiting for the right buttons (oddly there were no vintage plastic kelly green buttons in my extensive button collection).  Penny's yellow shirt needs sleeves and side seams, and surely there are no perfect yellow buttons in that drawer.

My first time with this shirt yielded a jumbo collar, even though I trimmed the points and the width.  It might be great on another gal as written, but it makes me self conscious.  "Make way, make way for the average sized woman with the huge collar!"  I find if I crinkle and rumple it up it's acceptable.  I like the fit of the rest of the pattern.

Modifications:  I made the neck opening wider all around, trimming about a half inch from the pattern tissue.  I trimmed the collar way back too, and I added a facing in the back to make it more finished.  I rounded the points on the yellow one, my favorite so far.

The girls are wearing thrifted skirts.  They are merino, and came from the Salvation Army with the pleat tacking still in place.  I'm embarrassed to say they cost $4.50.  For the pair.  I'll be giving generously to the SA this season.  They were a little big for me, so I am taking them in - the light grey one is done and came out slick.  The charcoal one shows how much I'll be taking in (I'll hide the work in the side seam).

Dolly is wearing a half slip refashioned from a thrifted polyester floor length skirt.

I hope these girls will get along.  Wouldn't that be horrible if they didn't?