Thursday, October 05, 2006

It all makes sense now!

It makes sense because it makes NONE! I am trying to write the patterns for the Radiance Cable Bag and the Super Stripe Socks. The time line on these two items plus Herman...oops...I mean Main Street Fair Isle from start to finish was two weeks? Three? I have decided that these kind of deadlines for these kinds of projects is a little narrow. I know this because my "sock pattern" looks like this:
Also on the "sock pattern" is some scrawl about finger printing Disney World passholders - all, not just annual passholders - a thing I find a bit intrusive frankly. But I'd go if you gave me tickets, especially this week when life seems surreal anyway. The weirder your life gets the more normal breakfast with Winnie the Pooh and Tigger seems. Then there is something about Oat Shortbread, which, I believe, goes back to the evening that Betsey brought in to drop-in the Oat Shortbread bars with the chocolate on top. The actual sock looks like this: Good thing for me it's at the store, since I apparently cast on somewhere between 52 and 56 stitches. I bet it's 52. I say that because at 6 sts per inch, 56 would be just over 9 inches which would be a bit loose even in rib. 52 would be closer to 8.5 inches, and would therefore make more sense. Confused? Well, join the club! I love the sock, by the way. I love the yarn, a 100% superfine merino superwash - gets no better than that. And a ton of colors even!
The "bag pattern" is worse, so bad in fact that I dare not show it. It's a sketch and some detail about what I did to make it into a bag. Really it's very straight forward, and includes information like cast-on, needle size and length of the bag, just nothing about gauge! There's notes about the attached I-cord bind off and the I-cord handle. But - students? - the teacher did not record her gauge. Feel free to use this against me for the next few weeks, it'll help keep me in line! This is all a marked departure from my traditional nursing type documentation method. It involves a little worksheet. There's columns for directions, numbers, and sizes, a space for schematics with detailed measurements, and usually one attached sheet of notebook paper with additional details. Radiance and Super have none of these things. Herman is on one of those sheets, and appears ready to be typed up - one size anyway. There's a page of color charts, and three of pattern details with percentages for yokes. The other sizes should be fairly straightforward to extrapolate. The moral of the story: Write First, Knit Later. I am going to apply this to all future projects, except maybe bags. They can, if simple, be written on the needles and not cause trouble later. Did I ever show you the bag lining?? It's perfect for the bag. I found it at Valley Fabrics and it is exactly what I wanted. There is a book launch at Valley Fabrics on Oct. 6 from 4-6 pm. The book is called Sew What! Skirts : 15 Simple Styles You Can Make with Fabulous Fabrics and is written by Francesca DenHartog who owns said fabric store. Cirilia in particular, take note! I have the book, and it is lovely!! Lots of ideas and styles, and a great deal of basic tailoring information including zipper insertion and waisband construction, as well as darts, and simple, fun hemming methods. I really try to stay out of Valley Fabrics. On the day I bought the bag lining, I had my husband take me. He was in a 15 minute parking space - double pressure - husband waiting in car AND a time limited space. I managed to get in and out with what I wanted in about five minutes. Don't get me wrong. I love fabric. I adore it, I would love nothing more than to take yet another great leap in crafting ADD and switch to some new fabric craft, or take up an old one obsessively. I've sewn forever. There's a quilted stained glass chicken in my kitchen on the wall. I never did top stitch him, but I love him just the same. I've made baby clothes for friends and family, many of which are still making the rounds even today. I've sewn costumes, dolls, you name it. I adore fabric. I lust after fabric. I retain a large fabric stash in my studio carefully stored in big plastic bins. If you say "fabric store" to any of the kids or Mr Wonderful, they instantly curl in the fetal position and suck their thumbs and can be heard to murmer "why..whyy???? whyyyyyy????". Wimps. A good sale day at JoAnn's was the best day of my week. Now JoAnn's has lost it's appeal. I'd have to haunt the Eastern Textile or Valley Fabrics...in fact, I could start right now, today...
Sunday at last pottery class I am going to take lots of pictures, even if I can only take pictures of the pottery - a lot of people seem all shy about being on the blog. Silly people. Then you can all sit back and know why I knit instead of wheel-throw stoneware!

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