AnotherPurl :: a knitter's life

Pattern making

I have been working on a shrug to go with the Sassy Ruffled Skirt awaiting finishing. It is along the lines of Shimmer in that it has ruffles and a patterened back, but the design elements are closer to that of the skirt - it is supposed to be a matched set after all. I am nearly done the arm shaping on the first sleeve and need to think about how I am going to incorporate a lacy element to the back.

One of my coworkers thinks I should submit it for publication, but to my mind this isn't different enough from either of its sources. The math portion is mostly about reworking for my peculiar gauge and the few things I wanted to include. The design portion is completely about lifting and modifying elements from one piece to fit the smaller footprint of a shrug over a skirt. It's not really an exercise in making a pattern so much as an advanced exercise in tweaking.

When is something new enough, original enough, to constitute its own pattern rather than a borrowing from the history of previous patterns?

When yarn shopping goes bad

I am not normally one to look a gift horse in the mouth and I love yarn. I love shopping for yarn. Running my hands over the piles of skeins (don't worry, they're clean!) and thinking of all of the wonderful projects (clothes) I could make from three or four generously sized skeins are definitely my idea of a good time.

For my birthday I was given a gift certificate to Mary Cole's Knit and Needlepoint on Newbury Street. I was pretty sure I had heard poor reviews of the store by knitters, but hadn't thought to ask my friends not to go there. So, I had a gift certificate and while it probably wasn't enough to buy an entire sweater's worth of yarn it should buy most of a tank top. Right?

I went last Saturday and the worst of the reviews were fairly close to on target. The place was horribly overpriced and you had to ask one of the employees for the price for nearly everything (their own labeled items had a price marked but without the $, so it wasn't always perfectly obvious). I saw some Jaeger Trinity, which I thought looked good, and in blue, one of my colors. I picked it up, because it had some generous yardage and should be enough to make a nice top. I spent more on the yarn than the value of the gift certificate! By comparison, according to Yarndex.com, I should have spent 13.39 of my own money for the four balls of Jaeger Trinity.

Ah well. At least it is pretty yarn.

Hippo (pre)Birthday to Baby

My coworker's baby shower was yesterday at the staff meeting, and there were a surprising amounts of oohs and awws over the little baby sweater. I had lazed so much on the sweater that I didn't even attempt to wash/block it until that morning, so it was still damp when I gave it to her.

But my experiment did prove one thing. This baby sweater (provided it is in a lingerie or mesh bag) should be able to go through a drier cycle just fine.

Picture time!

Project details:

Pattern: Daisy from Knitty.com

Yarn: Sirdar Cotton Rich DK in a denimy blue

Buttons: Hippo buttons from Circles

I really enjoyed this quick knit though I wished I had a little more yarn to make the hood. Though it occurs to me that a reasonable pattern modification would be to add some yarnovers in the unattached hood and then sew buttons onto the neckback. That way the top would be able to do both.

I also finished W (also from Knitty) and wore it to Circles. Maybe I'll get some pictures of that someday.

Emergency Baby!

I found out yesterday that one of my coworkers was going to be at the upcoming staff meeting and that we were going to be throwing a little baby shower for her. I don't know her very well, but she has opted not to be told the gender of her baby to be (which is what I plan on doing - either that or telling everyone I am having a boy regardless of gender to cut down on pink frilly things).

That leaves me Wednesday (today) through Sunday (blocking time) to start and finish a baby sweater. I went through about twenty or thirty sites this morning and my paltry stash of machine washable yarns. That's something I could stand to fix. I decided on Daisy, and this morning I cast on 109 stitches (give her something for the baby to briefly grow into). I am only about six rows in, because I didn't work on it over my lunch break. I'm hoping for about three or four uninterrupted knitting hours tonight and see where I am in the whole process. Maybe I'll just give up and knit a hat.

Knitting on the Common

Tonight my hubby and I are going to see Shakespeare on the Common's Taming of the Shrew. I am looking forward to it (and to knitting my skirt on the common), but at the same time I am trying to hold myself back. This play in its way is a feminist nightmare. I'm trying to set aside my feminist mindset at least until it is done and to look on the work as a historical depiction of how women were treated around 1620.

So, tonight, picnic on the Common with knitting and public theater. Tomorrow, crazed feminist rantings and hopefully a skirt only requiring elastic. Oh, and pictures. I really should put up some pictures (because no one reads this blog and never will if there aren't pictures).