Shopping my stash

The Vogue patterns I acquired at 70% off from Mill End have been sitting on my desk for a week now. I stare at them lovingly trying to decide exactly what I'll do with them. Well, yesterday I decided to clean up my desk (a futile task, I might add). It netted two results - I found two bills I'd neglected to pay in my bill paying cycle and more interestingly, a big pile of patterns (including those I'd ordered and then stashed in a box somewhere.) Because I need to concentrate on general summer wear, I put away the evening dresses by Tom and Linda Platt (just too pretty to pass up) and Vera Wang (IF Evelyn ever decides to get married, I'm betting this will be the gown I make for her).

I took the others and went to shop my stash. Most of the fabric has been aging for long enough that I don't know when or where it was acquired.


Shorts out of blue rayon batik fabric and Vogue cap sleeve top in cotton/lycra from Mill End



Saf-t-Pockets reversible pants in two rayon batiks


Very aged stash gauze will be made into cool new McCall's skirt


New fabric, new patterns: Loes Hinse cruise pants in Cotton chambray with black weft threads, from Mill End and Saf-t-Pockets jacket in CNT rayon batik recently acquired at the Sewing Expo in Puyallup.



The revelation I have from this little outing is that I have some lovely fabrics, but not a lot for coordinating more than a single outfit. I guess I'll just have to get some more fabric...


Shopping the UFO pile

We had a lovely afternoon (and into the evening, as it turned out) with Dianne and John on Sunday. After brunch, Tom and John went out to work on the pool and Dianne and I settled down to knit. We were discussing how often knit patterns have mistakes. Some can be attributed to the author. Others may be a result of the publisher. Sometimes it's both.

In the Spring 2004 Vogue Knitting, Shirley Paden's Traveling Shells Cardigan spoke to me. I found some stash cotton on a cone that worked to the same gauge and started knitting away. Then I started "tearing out my hair" because the lace pattern, as it was published, had me working two odd or right side rows (and two other things I don't quite recall). I wrote Vogue Knitting, but got NO response. I posted on some discussion sites - nothing. Finally I did a google search for Shirley Paden. Maybe she had a website. Nope. Then I found her listed as an instructor for an upcoming class at a New York City yarn shop. They had an email, so I wrote them requesting information on reaching Shirley Paden. Two days later I received a phone call.

After some discussion, we determined where there were mistakes and what they should have been. Shirley offered to fax me the original pattern as she had submitted it to Vogue. Turns out the editors had edited out some important information - like the pattern repeat was rows 2-19 in the chart and had mislabeled a row (that one I sorted out for myself.)

With the corrections the one piece front and back was a breeze. Then I started the sleeves and then I set the project aside with second sleeve on the needles, and through the move to West Linn have misplaced, sleeve, yarn and needles, but I have the body, which I've decided will make a lovely vest. So one UFO is on its way to FO status.

What's wrong with this picture?