My friend from the Great Lakes Fiber Show sent me this photo of some of her flock – it’s lambing season! I’m a suburban girl, never owned livestock (although I would like to have goats some day…) but I just love the sheep. Aren’t they beautiful – isn’t this an astounding photo? The colors are so rich and deep, the expressions on the faces are so frank. Maybe I’ll get to pet one or two of these wooly bundles in June when I’m out in Ohio?
IT FITS!
The Suit Fits – all hail the suit – the suit fits!!
My most excellent friend Alicia stopped by (she works a block from my house and is a perfect fit model – how’s THAT for service?), tried on the suit and it looked as though I’d made it for her. I’m too good of a friend to pop out with a camera, there will be photos enough of it on the model when it’s photographed in CA. I can’t tell you what it meant for me to have this fit so well!
First of all, it’s a weight off my mind. Whenever we take a risk it’s a breath-holding experience – not that I have a lot of breath to play around with these days.
Second, it was gratifying that the HOURS and HOURS of math, the pattern drafting, the ripping out and reknitting the seat of the damned suit 4 or 5 times really paid off!
Third, it really is quite a simple pattern, minimal shaping, and it’s very flattering! I think I’m going to do a few more suits off of this basic pattern – maybe with lace panels, etc., fun stuff to knit up and a little more wearable than the basic knit bikini… I’m Queen of the World!
EGYPTIAN BRAINSTORM
I had a brainstorm about my Egyptian dress. I want to work it in Classic Elite Provence – mostly because I love it, but also because it’s Egyptian cotton (get it… with remarkable memory (for cotton) and the colors are bright and strong.
But collar portion of the dress needs some oomph, and didn’t relish the thought of doing a whole stringing-beads-and-charting-it thing. I want it to be a pretty simple dress.
So as I was wandering through some yarn I’d received from a company, swatching up fun stuff, I remembered the amazing silks I’d received from Tilli Thomas.
I had seen images of this yarn, but it didn’t strike a chord with me until I saw it in person at TNNA. Actually, this yarn is the reason I lost my cell phone – when I stopped to cut a few strands from the Wall of Yarn I set my phone down and then forgot it. Damn. Then I was absolutely in love. I’m not the biggest glitz yarn fan, but this is just remarkable.
Anyway, I’m going to get warm, rich tones to work well with the dress colors, make the dress a tank dress and the collar will be a separate piece – perhaps shawl-like – I’ll fiddle with it. I need to do a few shawls and scarves for the book, so this will allow me to bring a few pieces together nicely. Now I need to find a use for the amazing chenille blend they do. Rich, rich, rich. I gained 10 pounds just fondling the yarn.