Monday, January 11, 2010

happy new decade!

It’s a new decade! What do we call it? - I’m going with ‘twenty ten’! We’ve come a long way and a lot has happened since Y2K. Did you notice we even have Paypal on the KNITWORDS website?
Knitting has come a long way from what the world thought of as something only grannies did to keep themselves busy - did you know there is an app for knitting that you can get for your iphone or ipod touch? It’s called ForgetMeKnit ($2.99, sites.google.com/site/kromsware) - I’d guess it’s actually for hand knitting, but I’m sure you could use it as a machine knitter as well - you can keep track of concurrent projects and save notes about each project. Of course, since I neither have a cell phone or even a plain ipod, I won’t be using it, but I have learned to never say never - who knows, I may even get on Ravelry one of these days!
We’ve wrapped up No 52 and got it sent off to print last night, so today’s a ‘clean up the office’ day - boy, I sure have a lot of jobs I don’t really like...stuffing envelopes for renewal notices is another biggie on the ‘do not like’ side...but somebody’s gotta do it.
Right after I get this done, I’m going to do something I do like - remake one of my favourite garments from No 52 - since you don’t know too much about what’s in there yet, you probably won’t be able to guess what it is, but I’ll give you a hint - it has ruffles, it’s a cardi and I made the original for Sue J at BT Yarns - I made sure to use a colour I’d never (there’s that word), trust me, ever wear - it was called ‘sour apple green’ and I think of it as wow, in-your-face-acid-green, but lots of people like it. Sue had it on sale and I was originally going to try and over-dye it, but when she said she liked it and would wear it, I made it for her and now I’m sorry, because I still want one, only not that colour, so...I do have a really pretty, my colour of green (olive, of course), WCD still on my shelf that I know I’ll get a lot of use from, so here goes.
I think I’ll break down and give you a little preview - I actually did 2 little cardi’s in WCD - that’s wool crepe deluxe in case you’re wondering - for No 52 following on the theme from No 50 when I had ‘Wild Side’ and ‘Flouncing Around’ (see ‘the same but different’ below) - then as now, I took the same basic shape, but changed up the bands and edges to show how it could be optioned to make it look quite different. One thing to note about these patterns, they are all interchangeable and you can take the size from one and make the other - for example, 'Peachy Keen' is sized for finished bust at 34.5 (38, 41, 44) inches and 'Frill Ride' is sized at 36 (39, 42.5) inches, which means there are 7 sizes for each
pattern, but I split them up so it would be easier to follow. So, in No 52 we have a fitted round-neck cardi, set-in sleeve with either plain bands and 1X1 rib for waist and sleeve edge or a very nice double bed hem with a chained edge that gives a more tailored look. Ruffles are all the rage right now, so, added bonus - two styles of ruffles that are hand sewn on the fronts so they can be removed later when everyone is tired of ruffles - or just plain don’t make them if you don’t like them - and you’ll still have a great little cardi that’s a true classic.
Hope you like!

2 comments:

Ev said...

Mary Anne,
These garments are absolutely exquisite and I am so looking forward to receiving #52. I'm leaning towards the sour apple green color, and I love that you've made the sizes between patterns interchangable - brilliant(as usual)!! :)

TracyKM said...

Is WCD the same as Velveen? I see those used a lot in Knitwords. But I can't seem to find Velveen on the Bonnie Triola website. Could you point me in the right direction, and/or suggest some substitutions? Thanks!