Lots and Lots of Stuff

Today's post has a lot of content, so buckle up poodles.

Old Topic
A kind blog reader (thanks Maribeth) sent me the following link that is very timely regarding women using their husband's e-mail address. See how topical this blog can be?

Detroit Free Press Article

Abercrombie & Fitch Knockoff
Here's a picture of my first attempt at a knockoff that I described yesterday:



A closeup of the neck will show what I accidentally made up.



I didn't know how I was going to finish the neck. After knitting the shaping of the neck opening, I realized I didn't want to make it much smaller, so I couldn't use a standard ribbed v-neck. I decided to pick up and knit stitches all the way around, do a purl row to make a hem crease, and then stockinette for an inch that would be tacked to the inside of the sweater. Just like a standard hemmed buttonband.

When I realized I would have to shape the "v" into the folded back piece of fabric, I decided to just cast off after the first stockinette row. This created a very simple finished edging with a slight roll, that didn't take away very much neck opening space. Easy to do, and I like the result.

Fair Isle Desires
I know this is heresy to some of the great blog writers out there, but I've never been a big fan of Fair Isle sweaters. Don't get me wrong, I am amazed at the skill and diligence and time to create those masterpieces, and I also love the color combinations of the masters like Ron and Alice, but I rarely found a pattern that I felt I would look good in...at least good enough to justify all the work and expense of making one.

That was until I saw the pattern for Donegal by Alice Starmore (the Earth colorway, not the one in blues). I loved the colors, the pattern and I decided I had to make it. Over the years, I've been able to slowly work on this sweater until I got up to the middle of the sleeve steek opening, and I've lost interest.



One of these days I'll be able to finish this sucker, but unless I block/stretch it a LOT, it will probably need to be a gift for someone smaller than me.

Fair Isle Design Attempt
A couple of years ago as I was training to get my private pilot's license, I decided to try and create a Fair Isle design of my own with an aviation theme. I started by graphing out some attempts and ended up with this graph:



Then I attempted to swatch it to check the colors and this is the result:



I wasn't overly thrilled with all the colors, and I didn't like the way the helicopter looked (yes the upper right square was supposed to be a helicopter), so I never continued, but one of these days I'll make revisions to the design and colors and make a kids sweater design. I used DK weight Shetland wool, and I may decide to switch to jumper weight to get more definition.

Fashion Trailblazer
Finally, as I was rifling through my knitting stuff, I realized that I had made a gay version of the London Beanie years ago, and didn't even realize how forward-thinking I was (not to mention how queer). I don't wear this hat very often (i.e., never), but I still enjoyed making it in rainbow colors.