Pictures!



This is the first part of my Christmas present to my mother, successfully completed. JaWool has been modified a bit recently and now contains a small percentage of acrylic in addition to the wool (majority) and the nylon (small percentage). At first I thought I'd not like it, but the yarn is a bit loftier than an all-wool yarn and does work up into a pleasant pair of socks.


And this is the sweater! The top of the picture is where the neckband will eventually attach. (I have to keep reminding myself that because all the other sweaters I have made are bottom-up). Even though this is officially called the Fibonacci, I keep thinking of it as "The Happy Artichoke Sweater" from the name of Alexandra's erstwhile blog.

It DOES make me happy. The colors are just the sort of colors I like, and I love the idea of the Fibonacci striping and how the colors that get the "big block" of 10 rows go in the same sequence as they do in the smaller stripes.

Whenever I knit up a pattern like this - one of the free, online patterns - or one of the small, self-published, directly-sold-by-the-designer patterns, I think about how I really should drop my subscription to Vogue Knits and perhaps Knitters and use that money instead to buy more self-published patterns. Because although Vogue of late has provided me a share of entertainment, it's mainly entertainment as laughing at the art design used to showcase the designs. (A lot of them are showing up on You Knit What? and honestly, I think part of it is just foolish art design - some of the patterns would not be all that bad if they were shown in realistic settings and without bizarre accessories like Queen Susan's Horn being shown with a tartan-style throw. And if things were made up in more subtle colors...). But then again, there are a lot of things in most of the mags (I exempt Interweave; their editors and I seem to be more on the same wavelength) that either do not interest me or would look ridiculous on me (largish woman aged 36 who is a college professor. Tailored works for me. Classic or borderline "folkloric" works for me. Things that do not work for me: ruffles.Bared patches that should be bared on someone with my body fat percentage and lack-of-melanin combination. Fringe and asymmetry. Styles more suited for Cruella de Vil or Glass Ceiling Barbie.)