Today is Mary-Alice's birthday, and so in honor of the day I present to you all Ballet
Very special thanks to photographer John Gruen for his wonderful work on this book. But the thanks for these socks all go to Mary Alice.
I am, at times, difficult to work for. Not because I am a driven task-master. Worse, I am a scatter-brained individual with "visions" that I then hand off to others to execute. In the early stages of a book those directions might say something like "CO 72 stitches, work half in patt, half st st, work until it's about 3 inches long, then email me. Oh, gauge is 11 sts/in, I was on a US 0. Have fun!". Lucky Mary Alice often gets the brunt of those kinds of directions and has never once let me down in spite of my obvious letting her down by providing such a direction. She trusts the vision, and I love her for that. So a very happy birthday, Mary Alice. We're all very grateful for the work you did on this book. It won't be soon forgotten. Your friendship is excelled only by your amazing skill and dedication as a sample knitter for an obvious flake of a knitter. (By the way, got any free time this year? I may have a couple things I need knitted up...)
These were the first socks in the new book to be designed. The yarn is Valley Yarns Huntington. I saw these socks very clearly as I was falling asleep one night. I grabbed a notebook that I keep by the bed (this has happened before, this half-asleep vision-quest stuff) and made a very quick little sketch and some notes. Time passed, as it has a habit of doing, and I tried to begin swatching for and working on other socks, but I just couldn't. These guys wanted to see daylight and I needed to let them. I think that was a good choice! What do you think?
5 comments:
YAY for birthday weeks!!! (mine, Mary-Alice's and oh yeah, yours....) Thanks for the sneak peak. I can't wait for a copy of the book.
Oh! I can't see for the tears in my eyes! AND it was NOT because you mentioned *******ton- a lovely little NE town! Shucks, you shouldn't have! Love ya back and happy, happy yourself!
I think that you're right about Mary Alice...she's amazing and I love her too! Happy Birthday (again) M.A!
Those are gorgeous. I just love cables!
I just got your 2-at-a-time book from the library and I thought it was great. I can't wait to try out your technique.
As far as the instructions you send go, I don't think it is a bad thing. It is probably an interesting challenge for your test knitters. Have they ever interpreted your instructions in a different way than you envisioned?
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