Forty-two: The Answer to Life the Universe and Everything

Don't you wish it were that simple? Perhaps not. I've always liked the number forty-two, being such a fan of Douglas Adams.

Yesterday was reasonably productive, from a delving and decluttering standpoint. A few highlights:

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We love books. Reading and owning a sizeable book collection has always been an important part of our identity, yet the impending requirement to downsize our possessions cannot, practically speaking, exclude the books.

Our initial estimate was that we could manage to take along enough to fill six of these smallish shelves:

Note what already takes up one sixth of our can't-live-without-'em space.

I have been forced to give careful thought to what actually makes it so important to me to own all these books - or any given book, for that matter.

1. Buying (when you can) rather than borrowing is something of a financial courtesy to the author, which in turn makes it more likely that good books will continue to be published.
2. Being surrounded by books makes me feel rich in ideas and wisdom and vicariously shared experiences. I love bookstores in very much the same way as yarn or fabric stores - for the sense of potential and possibility contained on those overflowing shelves. It is hard to imagine giving up either stash.
3. I identify myself as "the sort of person who is surrounded by books." This one bears careful examination, because it is perilously close to being attached to an object for the sake of status. A large and eclectic collection of great books creates an aura of knowledge and sophistication - "well-read" is an undeniably admirable quality. Would it say anything different about me if I no longer owned all those books I've read?
4. I want my children to grow up with books, to experience the delight of raiding the bookshelf on a rainy afternoon and discovering all those wonderful stories that I wish I could read again for the first time. It is also a way of passing on part of myself - because so much of how I see the world is influenced by the books I have read - my children can dip into that same well of story and idea and take away bits to become part of their own selves.

I think, in the end, there will be more than six shelves. But we have decided that what we can't keep, we will take to Whistler and donate to the local library which, last I checked, was woefully understocked. Not only will they then be shared, but they also won't feel so far away.

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I also dug up more yarn (big surprise.) This is Baghdad Blue from Peace Fleece:

Is it just me, or is this considerably more purple than blue? It was the first time I've been really stunned by the difference between the webstore's photo and the real life color. I'm not exactly complaining, because it's a beautiful color, scrumptious wool, and a company with a great cause, but I thought it might be worth a mention in case anyone reading plans to order it. Personally, I chose to see it as an opportunity to break away from my blue rut.

Here's the handpainted skeins in "heavenly blues" I bought to coordinate:

Also leaning strongly to purple.

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Finally, a shamefully UFO (I think it stalled about 2 years ago):

This is from Alice Starmore's Fishermen's Sweaters (worth having as eye candy even if you never knit a single thing from it). I made it a little ways into the armhole steeks when I began to have a sinking sensation about the quantity of yarn left.
This is a loose fitting sweater with long sleeves - am I really going to get the remainder of the bodice as well as two sleeves out of the yarn pictured here? I was not nearly so confident a knitter when I bought the supplies and basically put blind faith in the yardage calculations done by the woman at the LYS in Winnipeg. My gauge is on, or if anything, a little small (which is fine, since I am slender) and I am in a real quandry. It is a spectacular design, which I would love to finish, and a great learning experience in traditional gansey construction - just look at the way the pattern flows into the underarm gusset: It is also very labor intensive and I don't want to plug along blindly and wind up short a sleeve's worth. The navy yarn is Paton's Country Gardens DK (which does not appear to exist anymore) and the red and oatmeal are a King Cole merino superwash, which does, although I'm sure the original dyelots are long gone. What odds the King Cole navy would match this one if I were to run out? I guess there's only one way to find out.

Learning point here: make sure you have plenty of yardage when you substitute AND beware leaving a UFO so long that its yarn is discontinued.

Forty-three or You Can't Keep a Good Imagination Down

The descending numerical titles were starting to seem a little tedious - all the same, I can't resist the morbid fascination of watching time run out.

An alternate title would be "Avoidance is a Force to be Reckoned With" because yesterday at 5 pm when the last patient had left and I was staring morosely at the enormous stack of insurance forms and prescription refills on my desk, it came to me.

All at once, I knew exactly how the black silk dress was going to look. Bear with me, it looks a whole lot better inside my brain. (I wonder if you can take correspondence courses in fashion drawing.) I knew I wanted strong vertical lines skimming the body and accentuating (and in certain places creating the illusion of...) the curves. I had been mulling over a number of not-quite-right ideas, and then it hit me: cables.

I have been enamoured with cables for some time - I like to think it's a sort of primal connectedness with the knotwork of my Scottish / Viking heritage. An instance of "collective memory," perhaps. Also, cables and lattices have that whole sexy, curvy, semi-botanical, twining business going on.

Then, because I was still not ready to face The Stack, I went for a little cruise in blog land. And discovered that my cable brainwave is, in fact, up-to-the-minute trendy. This happens rather frequently to my brainwaves, and I find it spooky and mildly disturbing, because as much as I would like to believe that I am blessed with hipness and finely honed fashion instincts, it is far more likely that I have merely been ensnared by sneaky subliminal suggestion. So much for my noble efforts to avoid mass media manipulation by getting rid of cable TV.

However, my design will most assuredly not feature giant crystal-studded puffy sleeves, nor will it look like it had an accident with a chainsaw (not on purpose, anyway). So perhaps I am My Own Woman, after all. (This, and this I thought were very cool designs, though.)

Forty-four

days until we go. All of our multitudinous moves have been stressful, but there is something about this one that is so much more... final. And positive - we are looking forward enormously to living in Whistler full time. The thing is, it has to be done right this time - the condo we're moving to simply doesn't have the physical floorspace to hold boxes and boxes of didn't-quite-get-to-it crap. At some point in the near future, the house also has to stop looking like a Goodwill sorting station long enough to entice someone to buy it. Some days it all seems doable, and other days the anxiety rises like a wave and I have to curl up in a corner and knit to myself. The BBS, in particular works well - it is just the perfect combination of color and softness and simplicity to be very very soothing.

Creative knitting - aka original design - is rapidly grinding to a halt - anxiety is the mother of distraction, which tends to generate a lot of frogging and frustration.

Consequently, I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do with this, which arrived yesterday:
Black silk noil in DK weight, 1100 gms (around 3000 yds) of it from knitknackers on ebay (and a most excellent price, at that).
It was/is supposed to be a sexy little dress for a formal dinner next month. Just as soon as I finalize my brilliant original design. Since a dress is so much longer than a sweater, the physics of drape and elasticity have to be carefully plotted so as not to wind up with a saggy baggy mess. Also, I haven't worked with silk noil before, at least not in this weight. I'm not sure I have the mental agility for the challenge right at the moment.

Forty-five

days until we leave for Whistler. Happy 4th of July to our friends south of the border!

The BBS is back in action - right front was done, and I finished up the back after work yesterday.

At this point, I elected to try my first three needle bind-off for the sloped shoulder seam. Sewing together two bound-off, stepped shoulders inevitably produces a distressingly irregular and lumpy join - the three needle bind-off is easy, and produces a smooth, elegant, and sturdy seam. (I still don't fully understand why published patterns rarely include optimal finishing techniques - fear of intimidating the novice?)

A little close-up: See how cunningly the wrong side of the front is knitted to the right side of the back?

Perhaps sneaking a couple of minutes of knitting in the upstairs bathroom while admonishing the DD not to dissolve an entire bar of soap in the bath and splash it in her brother's eyes was not the way to go.

It did produce a fascinating (one might even say magical) mobius effect:

On the bright side, thanks to the miracle of super bulky knits, there's only 12 stitches to undo.

Forty-six

days left. I'm posting from the office today, so no photos - sorry.

09:52 - my 9:45 patient just called to say she's "stuck in traffic". Honestly - this is Moose Jaw - there's all of 2 cars on Main Street at the moment.

10:45 - after that late start, there was some unexpected counselling and a very anxious patient who wants answers that the test results have not clarified - now running 30 minutes behind. Sigh.

11:10 - a couple of no-shows and we're back on time. It's an awfully nice day out there - I think folks just decide they don't feel that bad after all. Calling to cancel would be a nice touch, though.

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So, about that burning creative urge I dropped everything to pursue - it didn't exactly work out. I decided after approximately 20 rows of intensive cabling that I really wished I had incorporated an integrated I-cord cast on and edges. Knit first, think later - that sort of thing. I spent another 15 rows or so of intensive cabling trying to convince myself that I could set aside perfectionism and love it the way it was, knowing full well I couldn't. Finally, I faced facts and bound off - it is now a large, undifferentiated swatch. Sometimes spontaneity is serendipitous and sometimes it's merely swatchful. (I think that's how afghans get started.) The original idea is still on, but with a little more forethought and planning next time around.

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Next up for the afternoon: hypertension, hemmorhoids and a looming battle with WCB. Oh the glamour.

Forty-seven

days to go. Just a little teaser today:
You know how sometimes an idea springs into your head fully formed and is so insistently cool that you simply must stop everything else and make it happen? Regular work on the BBS will resume shortly.

Forty-eight

days until we move to Whistler. Happy Canada Day to my fellow Canadians! We are so very blessed to call this wonderful country home, and so habitually self-deprecating that we don't celebrate and treasure it nearly enough.

Speaking of Whistler, CTV is launching a new series by that name. Apparently we are moving to a scandalous den of iniquity. Who knew? (Well, OK the clouds of marijuana and overt displays of wealth may have provided some clue, but it's always been just home to us.) It may be some time before we see it, since we chose to forego live television when we had children. With any luck it will come out on DVD like Corner Gas.

The BBS (big blue sweater) has reached the great armhole divide:

I took this photo in the low-angle early morning (told you I can't sleep in) light so as to highlight the lovely stitch textures.

Yesterday's packing project, which will continue today, was to wash, sort and vacuum pack my fabric stash.

I was an avid quilter before the kids came along, (and will be again someday) so have amassed a sizeable collection of cotton prints. Sadly, not nearly as sizeable as it once was, because when we moved to Winnipeg six years ago, our belongings sat in storage for a month and were apparently left out in a downpour before being sealed in the warehouse. When I opened my fabric collection, parts of it were wringing wet, and there was severe mildew damage to more than half. I was heartbroken, but due to some less than honest behaviour on the part of the moving company, had no recourse. A good share of them were vintage and therefore irreplaceable, in any case. I'm taking no chances this time.

Also in my fabric collection is a considerable amount of inexpensive polar fleece. This was bought shortly after moving to Winnipeg from Vancouver Island - I was a little freaked about the extreme prairie winters and being financially strapped at the time, had a rather over-ambitious notion about sewing fleece garments for the family. I also had a colicky baby, had to get back to work, etc. Never happened. But I dragged it all to Moose Jaw "just in case", and I've lately been thinking how cool it would be to have a fleece sweater with all the textural charm of a handknit. So I had a little go with the rotary cutter and made a swatch: I'm thinking of a crew necked pullover with big cables. I have 5 metres of the blue, which I picked up for next to nothing because it was a botched dye job - cut up and knitted, it just looks like subtly variegated yarn. Of course, none of this is going to get made for a while, but I wanted to satisfy myself that it was worth bringing along.

Forty-nine

days until we move. I might be a little panicked at the sudden drop into the forties were it not for a very productive day yesterday. Yes, the 10 bags did get filled - five flew over the fence, two into the recycling, and three to the Goodwill pile. And I did some knitting in between: Just look at that baby grow - this sweater is so much fun to knit. Much much more fun now that the Addis arrived - I was getting serious tendinitis after only a few rows with the cheapo plastic needles. What an amazing difference. I didn't mention before that I have elected to knit this guy all in one piece, rather than separate back and sides as per the pattern - I just couldn't bear the thought of those huge lumpy seams. Also, the whole thing is only 86 stitches around - seemed silly to split it up three ways. It does have set-in sleeves, and I'm going to do something I've always wanted to try - knit the sleeves in the round and fit the set-in seam with one round piece inside the other. That will eliminate the lumpy junction under the arm.

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I thought I'd post a few of the treasures, and also "treasures" I unearthed yesterday.

To start, this fascinating cotton print my in-laws brought back from Kenya a decade or so ago:

I still have no idea what to do with it, but I have faith that one day it will be exactly the right thing for something.

A cheap terracotta urn: This was purchased on our very first holiday as a couple, back in 1994. We were living on Vancouver Island at the time and drove down the coast, making it halfway down the Baja before time ran out and we had to turn around. This pot caused no end of domestic tension over how it was packed and whether the heaving of luggage on top of it was done carelessly and in a fashion likely to cause its demise. The pot made it home intact, and within a week, the cat knocked it over, breaking one of the handles. The sticks inside are cactus driftwood, picked up on the same trip. I thought, and still think, that weathered sticks naturally full of evenly spaced holes ought to be the starting point for an amazing piece of art. In 14 years, I have yet to come up with something, but I still really like the sticks, so they might come to Whistler. The pot will stay behind.

One of DH's "treasures":

This is "special" because it was a gift from his sister eons ago - a souvenir of her trip to New Zealand with her overbearing and chauvanistic then-fiance, whom she dumped a little while later and we all thought for the longest time she'd never get married, but then she did and all is well and.... Apparently, I am - at last - allowed to get rid of it.

The souvenirs of DH's four year posting to Germany:

That's it. No blown glass Christmas ornaments, no handcarved cuckoo clocks, just an assortment of receptacles for beer. He was single at the time.

Fifty

Such a nice round number. It sounds big, and comfortable in a plenty-of-time-yet sort of way. Almost, but not quite, big enough to assuage my growing sense of panic. I'm going with a round number theme for today's tasks: 10 green garbage bags of stuff will leave the house today - destined either for the dump or the Goodwill. Number one has already flown over the back fence to the garbage spot.

With a little knitting between bags, this guy should grow substantially today:
Look how big he's gotten already, with just a few minutes here and there - the magic of super bulky yarn.

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Thank-you for the lovely comments on the jewelry. I began dabbling in jewelry making about a year and a half ago - it started in the usual way - couldn't find anything I liked for an event, cruised ebay a bit, thought "I could do that", bought a few supplies, fell in love, bought a lot of supplies and got really creative, ventured into the world of business. Applying textile techniques in metal was a natural direction for me. I am experimenting with weaving:

Knitted lace:

And of course, crochet:
Somewhere along the way, gemstones and silversmithing and chainmail caught my attention too:I have loads of cool ideas percolating for knitting accessories - stitch markers in a non-tarnishing silver alloy (because wool accelerates the tarnish process for regular sterling), innovative hammered silver pendants to hold them, shawl pins, and the like. I'm trying to discipline myself to put most of the new project development on hold until after the move, but I may have a little sit at the bench before then, just to assuage the creative urge.

Fifty-one

days to go. This being one of my marathon office days, the blog will be short and the packing prep non-existent. Here's the project slated to come after the big blue cardigan: The silk arrived yesterday, and I was relieved to see that it is a lovely dark olive green, just like the color sample on the monitor. I am completely taken with the Roundabout Leaf Tank - in fact, I bought Knitting Nature largely for the love of that pattern. The ability of handknit garments to conform and grow seamlessly around an individual body fascinates me - there is something primal and organic and deeply satisfying about it. I have a persistent image of vines twining up a wood nymph's supple frame - one day I shall design a cabled sweater to bring that to life.

Fifty-two

That's how many days until we head for Whistler. (Ten of those are 12 hour long insanely busy office days, so they don't count as prep time.) In that span, all I have to do is condense 38 years and a couple thousand square feet of accumulated possessions into a tranquil, uncluttered 800 square foot condo's worth. Since our last three military moves have been rush jobs, complicated by newborn babes and such, decluttering never quite got done - in fact there are boxes in the basement unopened from two moves ago. It stops here. Hubby retires from the Air Force this summer and we take back our lives. Just as soon as I get a grip and break out of this insomnia / exhaustion / brain fog / overwhelmed inertia thing I've got going on.

Well, if you can't beat it, blog it. Or something like that. Decluttering is actually rather visually entertaining - we have collected some seriously weird stuff over the years. Surely it would be more fun, and way less lonely to chronicle the process. There will be knitting, of course, because that's how I keep myself motivated: "fill that garbage bag and you can do 3 rows on the blue sweater". (Which at this gauge is like, an inch - this baby will be done before I've made it down the first row of boxes.)

Here's what I accomplished today: (Crocheted silver, and the card was designed by photoediting one of my yarn photos.) Can you see a pattern of avoidance developing here? Actually, this is a very worthy project - a thank-you gift to my daughter's kindergarten teacher, and since this is the last day of school, it had to get done today. I leave the house in 5 minutes to pick her up and drop it off.

Deep Blue

The lacy tank is coming along, but the fiddly bits are more tedious than transcendant, and with all the upheaval and change happening, I really need a soothing and meditative project to unwind with. So I permitted myself to dive into this: Tahki's Baby Tweed, in a rich navy blue with flecks of turquoise and sky blue - soft luscious wool wrapped with a viscose thread. And knits at.... ahem *blush* 2 stitches to the inch. Consequently, I anticipate it will not take an inordinate amount of time to produce one of these: It's not a wildly original cutting edge design or even particularly challenging (although IK gives it a 3 out of 4) but it immediately caught my eye. This is the comfort cardigan I've wanted, well - all my life really. It will be soft and warm, with a homey, unpretentious nubbly texture, and is saturated with my happiest, most serene colors.

I know it's summer now, but we're moving to the coast mountains in a little over six weeks. This is what I will wrap around me in Whistler, when I creep out of bed before everyone else (because since having kids I can't sleep in to save my life) and there's just a little chill in the air, and I take my knitting and a cup of strong dark coffee and sit on the patio to listen to the birds and gaze at the mountain.

Knitting at the Ruby

But first, the lacy tank: After an hour or so with the stitch dictionary and the ever-growing swatch, I settled on KISS - keep it stocking stitch. I'm very pleased with how it's coming together, although this is my least favorite bit of any sleeveless garment. So flimsy and fiddly, and multiple balls of yarn going every which way. The bamboo and the Mystik DK are particularly tangle prone - once released from their ball bands they instantly disassemble themselves and attempt to throttle one another.

I'm leaning towards applied i-cord for the edgings - tidy, with a bit of body to it for structure.

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We have become enormous fans of the TV series Corner Gas. It's tremendously funny, in an off-handed sarcastic sort of way, and so very Canadian. Since our present posting in Moose Jaw is only an hour's drive from the shooting location in Rouleau, we figured we'd better get there before we left Saskatchewan.

Knitting at the Ruby Cafe:

We had a lovely day, ate delicious home-cooked burgers at the Dog River hotel, and took loads of souvenir photos of the kids (which I won't bore you with) at all the Dog River landmarks.

Finally, for a certain Austrian blogger who is surrounded by spectacular mountains but (for reasons I can't fathom) idolizes Saskatchewan:

Yup, it's flat. And buggy - hence the rather blotchy windscreen.

Shaping

The waist shaping is coming along nicely and, thankfully, actually fits my waist. It's always gratifying when the swatch really does translate into real life.
I'm so pleased with how subtle the integrated shaping looks. Here's a close-up:You can see the fan going from 6 eyelets down to 4 without any fuss or puckering. The bodice is going to be tricky because that's the part where the knit needs to cling and support and this bamboo yarn is the least elastic fibre I've ever worked with, the Mystik DK (cotton/viscose) being a close second. I swatched some stockinette and then some 2x2 ribbing above it - the ribs just splayed out limply, disinclined to provide so much as a hint of a pucker. Clearly "drapey" will be the order of the day, but there's a fine line between drapey and saggy. Judicious application of crochet may be in order for the edgings. Also a careful search of the stitch dictionary for something purported to produce a "firm but elastic fabric." Fortuitously, I'm long waisted, so there are several more inches in which to ponder my next move.

Speaking of pondering, this is what's rattling around in my fevered brain at the moment:

Original designs:

• DD's flaming coral dragon dress. Still working on the specifics of the dragon and refining the exact dimensions of the dress.
• More Dulaan sweaters, experimenting with using my color wheel to choose combinations I don't normally work with. This will also be a good place to try out EZ's various in-the-round sleeve and neckline shapings.
• A blue and cream Scandinavian cardigan, incorporating traditional motifs from my Swedish heritage, as well as original motifs reflecting the Whistler area, such as bears.
• Something with wide knitted tartan borders. (The other half of my ethnic heritage is Scottish).
• A cardigan utilizing the Baghdad Blue that recently arrived from Peace Fleece - with a complex two stranded mosaic pattern for the cuffs and borders, incorporating the two skeins of handpainted blue / green I bought to accompany it.
• A cabled outerwear vest from recycled Sari Silk knitted along with grey wool.
• More explorations into innovative cable and knotwork designs - resolve to thoroughly learn Elsebeth Lavold's techniques.
• A traditional Fair Isle cardigan, with authentic Shetland jumper wool, utilizing a colorway chosen from one of my botanical photographs. Gnarled tree bark with colorful lichens comes to mind.
• A black lace slip dress.

Patterns pending to knit:

• The Roundabout Leaf Tank from Knitting Nature, in Estelle's aran weight silk. I'm going to knit this one as written because I love the design, but I envision dizzying possibilities for the theme of coiling a knitted strip up the body.
• The cabled riding jacket from Loop-d-Loop. And possibly everything else Teva Durham has designed.
• The Shetland Tea Shawl from A Gathering of Lace. Morehouse merino laceweight in charcoal gray - exactly the color of the mountain mist.
• Debbie Bliss sweaters for the DD and the DS.
• The big comfy cardigan from the cover of last fall's Knitscene - in a yummy dark blue.
• The flouncy skirt from the Louet Sales ads. (This will be my first knitted skirt - I am fervently hoping it will not sag in the shape of my bum-print when I get up from demurely sipping wine on the sunny Val d'Isere patio.)
• A big scribble lace scarf using that glorious skein of Fleece Artist thick/thin merino I've been hoarding.

And socks. Always socks.

Clarification

I realize, thanks to Charity, that I may have been overly cryptic about the origins of my most recent project. It was originally supposed to be this, from the current issue of VK: It was also supposed to be mostly in a variety of Louet Sales wools, (plus a bit of mohair and linen). I choose bamboo and cotton/viscose (as well as the mohair and linen): Pretty much the opposite end of the elasticity spectrum. I had my doubts about the pattern too, as it went along - the crocheted seams stick out quite a bit more than they seemed to in the photo, and to my eyes looked more lumpy and unfinished than fetching. I may be a purist, but I like the bumpy bits in my knitting to be stitchwork, like cables and such, not seams. If something is going to be patchwork, I prefer to pick up stitches along the edge to knit with, or at the very least graft an invisible join.

I persisted though, until I got to the bodice. Despite matching the weight of the recommended yarn, the pattern gauge had the bodice knit like armour.In retrospect, I think the printed gauge may have been wrong, because the bodice was also knitting up to be about right for a six year old. By that time, however, I was sick to death of the thing, and not the least bit motivated to do a bunch more swatching and calculating, so the bag went to the back of the stash and I moved on to happier things for a while.

Thing is, they are nice yarns, not overly cheap, and I still really wanted a sleeveless summer top from them. So I decided to design my own:

(Clearly, I have no training in fashion sketching, but you get the general drift). I chose a traditional Shetland lace pattern from Barbara Walker's first Treasury of Knitting Patterns and after playing with the swatch and the calculator for a while, worked out that I could start with the 18 stitch repeat as written, in the circumference of my hips, and by contracting the repeats down to 12 stitches, would attain my waist circumference. Like Eunny, I am presently fascinated with the idea of using stitch patterns to achieve seamless shaping.

And there you have it - I am presently working on the waist shaping. The bodice will be solid - probably plain stockinette, to contrast the busyness of the lace and to have the option of wearing it with just a bra on hot summer days.

Waistland

Truly, I need a dress form. Because stretching my free hand as far in front of me as I can get to snap an upside down shot of my waist while the kids try to jiggle my arm is simply not as entertaining as it looks. DH believes there will not be room in our (admittedly small) new digs for a replica of my headless torso. I'm trying to think of this in a positive light - ie. he is clearly not pining to add a live-in mistress or a third child to the household. On the other hand, it sounds awfully like the wrong answer to the question: Do you think my torso looks fat? Think about it.

Nevertheless, it was clear to me that I have reached the iliac crest and am ready to leave the pelvis and head for the waist. I am accomplishing this by contracting the wave motifs from 18 stitch repeats down to 12 - this allows the flow and line of the waves to continue uninterrupted, and according to my swatch calculations will bring the circumference down to precisely that of my waist. The stitch pattern has so much give, I could probably get away with contracting them all at once, however I have elected to do the ones on the sides first, and move in towards the centre over the course of several pattern repeats.

Finally:

A slightly belated Father's Day gift all the way from England. Who could resist a cheese recommendation from a guy whose dog knits?

More Thinking

I was reading the Village Knittiot at work yesterday, and just about fell off my chair. And then had to shut down and leave it to read at home, because profound personal epiphanies are inconvenient things to have in the middle of a busy work day. I've been circling the same conclusion myself, just not quite ready to look it square in the eye in such a clearly articulated fashion.

This phrase: "sometimes when your path is so clear you don’t necessarily have to know your own self because you know your path" is absolutely, painfully true. In fact, I have used the certainty of my path as a substitute self. A great deal of badly needed external approval was generated by knowing what I was going to be, and mine was one of the "big three" success professions approved for the academically gifted. Growing up, I clung to the supposed superiority of having a certain destiny as a way to assuage my perceived lack of intrinsic worth, both spiritual and social.

It all leads inexorably to the terrifying question: If not for this, would I be Good Enough? And it follows logically that "until I am satisfied with just being me, I will never be satisfied with any path I take, because at that heart of it all, I am my path."

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Speaking of restlessness, I am lately consumed with the notion of a little black lace dress over a pale cream silk slip. Crochet cotton? Fingering weight cotton with nylon for elasticity? Cotton with elastic? Handpainted silk? Wool/silk laceweight? Scribble lace a la Debbie New? Do I have time to finish it before the event? Until it gels, I can see this will involve a fair bit of staring blankly into space at random moments throughout the day.

So Far, So Good

Turns out that the Mystik DK has considerably better manners when knitted at a reasonable gauge. The stitch pattern will lend itself nicely to integrated shaping of the torso (took a bit of trial and error with the swatch to figure out how), and as for the bust - something will come to me. I have to see how the body looks before I'll know whether a fancy freeform bust section would be subtly avant garde or just plain silly.

Funny, I've avoided ripple stitch in any medium for years, because it reminds me too much of bad acrylic afghans, one of which, in burnt orange, harvest gold, and brown, I spent much of my childhood not finishing. They say overcoming your fears builds character.

Ending and Beginning

Here, as promised, is the finished and modified tunic:
I have to admit, as boring and plain as the pattern was to knit, the sizing is exactly as it purported to be, and the set in sleeves fit like a dream. If I were to do it again (Not), I would knit it in the round and use EZ's false seam up the sides for reinforcement. I made flawless selvedged edges and wove them together in perfect alignment exactly as prescribed in The Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques - and I still just don't like the way seams look on a hand knitted garment, no matter how well done.

As for the cuffs -

I decided in the end that the knotwork idea just wouldn't suit this situation, and since the remainder of the trim was crochet, I opted for a simple openwork crochet pattern. I'm really pleased with the effect - dare I say it - I think I prefer it to the original.

To keep the deeply slit neckline from gaping (I suspect my cotton / microfibre yarn is a tad heavier than the recommended cashmere blend) I added small loops to the trim and devised this double spiral in hammered sterling silver.

I think it harmonizes nicely with the overall effect.

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That being done, I plan to get this other monkey off my back (both from VK - hmm.....) and since my other current design project (the dragon dress) must be laboriously plotted stitch by stitch on paper, I felt like something a little more fit-as-I-go. This will be a riff on waves and shells, and possibly venture into freeform a bit.

The yarns: Eden Madil (bamboo - lovely but it splits easily), Estelle Mystik DK (cotton/viscose - I hate hate hate working with it, but it's pretty and wasn't all that cheap), and a cotton/linen laceweight of uncertain parentage. I'm fervently hoping I won't have to frog all the little pieces of the ill-fated original in order to retrieve enough yarn - there's a fair bit as yet untouched.

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Last, but certainly not least, since this is Father's Day I will take the opportunity to profess my undying love for my darling husband and incomparable father of my children (even if he is at this very moment nagging me about my Diaper Genie twisting technique.)