T & A & a Pattern

After a shocking dry spell, my mailbox finally decided to deliver. In one day, I received the summer 09 copy of Interweave Knits and "A Stitch in Time vol. 1". This is a book I ordered from Amazon a while ago. It was ordered in some sort of "The Three Faces of Eve" moment, because for the life of me, I can't actually remember ordering it.



This book is fantastic. It's a new version of a book published in the 1972. The original was a compilation of over 100 patterns printed in the UK between 1920 and 1949. The new version includes 60 of the original patterns with rewritten versions in larger sizes and new yarns. It's wonderful to see the two patterns side by side. I love the old sales pitches. "The young girl looks her sweetest in a butterfly collar." This collar is the size of a large hawk.
While vintage patterns are fun to peruse, I often find it a little hard to see myself knitting them. I can't imagine knitting a floor length gown on size 4 needles. I don't think I'd make it through the 600 stitch cast on. Despite a few costume pieces, This book has a surprising number of really wearable garments. There are at least 5 things I'd love to knit, and probably another 10 that I'd knit if knitting was all I did, and I had an unlimited supply of yarn. There's another reason I love this book. In my grandma's heyday, before very tall teenagers dominated the runways, clothing was all about T&A. I've spent a number of years hating my Ts and ignoring my A. Clothing that's meant for flat chested runway models does not do my figure justice. Patterns from the 30's, 40's, 50's and some of the 60's are much more flattering for me.
Interweave Knits also has some good summer knits. I like this issue. There's a pretty little cardigan form Connie Chang Chinchio (winner of the most alliteration in a knitwear designer's name award), and an incredible entrelac lace skirt by Annie Modesitt. The other thing that caught my eye was a baby cardigan from the staff projects section. I was very excited about knitting this for my little man until Nicole, from "Stash and Burn", referred to this sweater as the "Loppem for babies." On second glance, she's right. Maybe there's a small part of me that wants to be matchy matchy with my son, but there's a bigger part that doesn't want to leave emotional scars. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to change the pattern. I wanted a different cable pattern, long sleeves, a bigger size, different yarn, more buttons, a different yoke....... and so I present to you the ( in progress) "Mathless Cardigan". I gave up on knitting from a pattern, and hit the drawing board.


I don't want to spoil the surprise, so I'll save the description and pattern for another post. I will tell you that it's the easiest pattern ever. All of the major numbers in the pattern are divisible by 5. I have a rather antagonistic relationship numbers. I'll leave it at that.