I've been working on things.

1. The sleeves of the Greek pullover. (No picture; they still don't look like much yet). I'm doing both at once, which is my MO when the sleeves are shaped identically - that way, I don't get one thing knit, and then having to knit the Exact. Same. Thing. again. I'm probably about 4" or 5" in.

Once these are done, I just need to knit the i-cord ties (I-cord, shudder - 2, 40" long ties for my size. I think I'm going to have to do that while reading in order to avoid going crackers.) I'll probably block it while knitting the i-cord ties because then it will be ready to assemble.

I'll be glad to have this done.

2. The Landscape Shawl:



I just started the "moss stitch" section (section 4). It has gotten slow now because it's so big. (The coasters are about 3" on a side, if you're trying to guess the scale. And that's a 47" long needle it's on.)

3. I cut the pieces for, and laid out the rest of, the current quilt top (the one with the bright patches and brown sashing). Didn't get a picture of it because I was doing it on my dining room floor while waiting on the service guy (who, as it turned out, I didn't need) so I picked it up and stacked them into piles by row (and pinned them, and attached a slip of paper with the row-number to each stack). I may get this done this weekend and then I need to study my pieces of large fabric in my stash to see if I have something appropriate for a backing.

4. I ironed the fabric for the next quilt top. (I'm going to do the Straits of Georgia quilt out of the autumn-print fabric I was talking about). This should be a fast quilt as it's mostly strip-pieced. (I'm thinking I will complete BOTH quilts and then take them to be quilted in a single trip.)

(Oh, and that Staples ad that they just ran, with the parents (mom AND dad) dressed up in cheerleader dresses trying to get their kids psyched up for school - seriously disturbing.)

I also have received, and perused, both the fall Vogue Knitting and the fall Interweave.

Pretty happy with the fall Interweave - lots of nice stuff in there (but generally, fall issues are my favorite). I really like the Hedgerow coat and I have some yarn in the stash that should work for it (some Ultra Alpaca bought cheap from Elann, in a nice green-with-gold overtones [Elann called it "Verdigris"])

I also think the cover sweater is really cute. And I have to admit I'm happy to see some of the familiar models back - both the "cover girl" and the possibly-mixed-race lady with the really tightly curled "fluffy" hairdo (I can't describe it well but it's really cute - if I had hair that would do that, that's how I'd wear it.)

Also a fan of the Cobblestone Pullover - it's the kind of simple thing that I'd wear a lot and probably enjoy making.

And there's a sock pattern, and lots of nice cabled things. If this is suggestive of how Eunny Jang's going to edit the magazine, I'm really glad she's editor. (And may she stay on for a good long while!)

Vogue Knitting I'm more mixed on. There are some cute things in this issue, and it seems they've finally taken to heart that a size 42" or 44" isn't really and truly a plus size to be relegated to only the ugly bulky weight designs (I think all the patterns I liked went up to my size). I liked 10 and 11, 40, 42, and 44.

They also re-ran the famous Enchanted Forest sweater but although I like it, I'd never make it - it's one size fits all and the finished size is like 58", and biggish woman + hugely oversized sweater is not a good look for me.

However, I could have done without the cover-after-cover trope that they did. (I was reminded of the old cartoon gag where a present is wrapped in a series of nested, progressively smaller, boxes.)

And there was a quotation in the (copious) interviews (again: it's kind of the celebrity-culture in knitting. Yes, I think Kaffe Fassett and others have interesting things to say but so much of the interviews seemed to be gossip, name dropping, and ego stroking) that got me:

"One of our biggest issues is the inundation of free patterns on the Internet, whether they're ripped off, or designed but poorly written, or not checked"

(emphasis added). Later in the quotation, there is the comment that "instruction writing [in the free patterns] is so poor."

This is from an editor of Vogue.

Now, I understand, 100%, protecting copyright - if a pattern is demonstrably ripped off, it should come down. And I agree that professional designers have every right to make a living from their work. And I do have a different level of expectations when I buy, say, a Fiber Trends pattern vs. printing one out off of someone's blog.

but this is coming from VOGUE. Do they know their reputation re: typographical errors in the knitting community? How many people have complained on Knitter's Review about the difficulty of locating errata for Vogue, or even getting technical assistance?

I'VE griped about it, and I don't use Vogue products all that much. (Their "Knitting on the Go" books are kind of known to be loaded with typos, and there's no online site that I know of that contains any kind of usable errata.)

I just don't like to see the slamming of the amateur designers - many of whom will go on to become professionals - because they share some of their work for free. If someone wants to share a pattern for free, they should be allowed to. And they shouldn't be subject to scorn from the "industry."

That would be like me, as a botany prof, complaining because some guy who spent all his free time out in the woods and knew the plants well was helping my students to identify plants. Or my complaining about all the books that "teach ecology for free" in the library.

I'd feel a little less snarky about it if Vogue patterns were always clear and typo-free. But they're not! So it's kind of a "kettle, meet pot" situation in my mind.