Girl clothes
None of my friends have been obliging me by having girl babies, until now. A friend from the newspaper is having a girl in March, and let me tell you, I had fun thinking up something to knit.
I finally settled on the Dragon Scale Cardigan in some discounted Debbie Bliss Cathay in a dusty rose color. The pattern is from the 2008 Interweave Knits Holiday issue.
I'm not going to be knitting this again. The directions tended to be complicated, which in and of itself is not a bad thing - but I wasn't too happy with how the magazine presented them. I understand the biggest part of that is space, which is a definite struggle for most people who are responsible for designing print publications.
My biggest issue came when I got to the directions for decreasing in pattern to create a sloping neckline. At the end of each row, you had to evaluate the pattern against one of six possible conditions to figure out what kind of decrease to do. This material was presented in paragraph form at the start of the pattern, and I think I would have used a table to organize it better, possibly with an example of a row in which each type of decrease occurred. Or, heck, chart it out and make the charts a downloadable feature on the Web site for those of us who felt like we needed a little extra instruction.
So I spent a great deal of time muttering at this pattern. Finally, the Fool said he thought he might knit this sweater for someone next, although he could see one of two things happening. Either he'd be as frustrated with it as I was, or he'd have no trouble with it at all, and I would have to bite him for that.
Nevertheless, I finished assembling it Tuesday morning, stopped at the fabric store to buy a 1/2-inch snap on my way to the restaurant for the baby shower/ lunch, and sewed the snap on in the restaurant lobby before the mom-to-be got there.
She loved it, so that's really what counts.
Now, my friend in Boston had a boy last week, so it's back to knitting for little guys.
I finally settled on the Dragon Scale Cardigan in some discounted Debbie Bliss Cathay in a dusty rose color. The pattern is from the 2008 Interweave Knits Holiday issue.
I'm not going to be knitting this again. The directions tended to be complicated, which in and of itself is not a bad thing - but I wasn't too happy with how the magazine presented them. I understand the biggest part of that is space, which is a definite struggle for most people who are responsible for designing print publications.
My biggest issue came when I got to the directions for decreasing in pattern to create a sloping neckline. At the end of each row, you had to evaluate the pattern against one of six possible conditions to figure out what kind of decrease to do. This material was presented in paragraph form at the start of the pattern, and I think I would have used a table to organize it better, possibly with an example of a row in which each type of decrease occurred. Or, heck, chart it out and make the charts a downloadable feature on the Web site for those of us who felt like we needed a little extra instruction.
So I spent a great deal of time muttering at this pattern. Finally, the Fool said he thought he might knit this sweater for someone next, although he could see one of two things happening. Either he'd be as frustrated with it as I was, or he'd have no trouble with it at all, and I would have to bite him for that.
Nevertheless, I finished assembling it Tuesday morning, stopped at the fabric store to buy a 1/2-inch snap on my way to the restaurant for the baby shower/ lunch, and sewed the snap on in the restaurant lobby before the mom-to-be got there.
She loved it, so that's really what counts.
Now, my friend in Boston had a boy last week, so it's back to knitting for little guys.
Comments
But then, I don't do much with lace and knit/purl textures. I can see color patterns more easily than textured patterns. And there are so many fun multicolored things for babies, it's enough to wish my friends were having a few.
At age 49, my friends are becoming grandparents for the most part. Life is funny that way.
ps, I went to the Minnesota Bluegrass and Old Time Music Festival this weekend and thought of you the entire time.