trashy or sassy???

Been pretty busy lately, working on No 49, our next issue - it’s our summer publication and is always the most popular, first one to sell out - I guess because new subscribers almost always order a back issue or two and most often, they pick a summer one, maybe because they live in a warm climate. Probably looking for lightweight stuff, I guess - don’t really know, but anyway - summer it is, and actually for me, the most difficult. We don’t get really hot weather here and it will usually only be in mid-afternoon, so not worth too much worrying about. Anyway, I’m sure you’ll be happy with what we have - hint - this issue is all about options - intended or otherwise... tell you more about it later!
I’m supposed to be finishing up an article right now on successful yarn substitution and it’s almost finished, but I needed to take a break - actually, other thoughts keep intruding! Hope the boss doesn’t find out! I’m also - in my spare time - working on a few extra things for the seminars at the end of April.
I’ve always been secretly attracted to animal print - I say secretly because it seems sort of trashy - you know like you see some blonde bimbo in a comedy sketch or in a country music video, with tight pants, too tight leopard top and a cigarette, in a double-wide...on ‘What Not To Wear’, there's some poor lady with leopard pants and a furry leopard jacket and you kind of die inside for her because you know what they’re gonna say! I do have a pair of skin print pj’s that I got from VS a long time ago that I still love! and on my recent trip to MSP, I picked up a leopard (??) print cami. You might remember, last Fall I got the cutest animal print pumps that went perfectly with an outfit I’d already made. It’s been winter here for a long time, so they’ve been hanging on a shoe rack on the back of the door to my sewing room...oh, and another confession, my glasses have a tortise-shell frame that's kinda the same thing!
Now,way back in 1996, I bought these sweet skin print buttons, on sale - I was going to knit something to go with them. I did knit a fairisle skin print - not sure what animal it was - that I cut’n’sewed into a vest. By the time it was finished, I decided the buttons would be overkill and had put them away for the next time skin prints made a comeback.
Now, back to knitting - I get a germ of an idea and I play around with it. I saw a cute little cardy last year with a double ruffle on a deep vee neck that’s been in the back of my mind since then. I actually took that idea and somehow it turned into a cardy, yes, with a deep vee neck, yes, but the ruffle ended up as a peplum thing below the waist and around the bottom of elbow-length, fitted sleeves. Totally cute and I love it! But that double ruffle was still playing in the back of my mind. So, to divert my mind from the writer’s block, I began experimenting with this ruffle idea again.
Here’s what I’ve got so far - 3 new edges!!!you’ll have to wait to see the end of the story - will it be in No 49 or be held over for No 50? will I use the buttons or save them for the next time I get an animal notion?