I took this photo a few weeks ago, at a moment when I was surprisingly happy, considering that I was sitting in a car

In one of the comments on my last post, Janet asked if I could direct her to some posts about the Selva Skirt.  There is a category for it (look on the lower right hand part of the page), but there aren't many posts to be found, simply because the Selva Skirt pattern was created for publication in a magazine, and hence was unbloggable before publication. Well, it's after publication now, and since at least one person is interested in how Selva came about, I thought I would provide a few details.  I often look through stitch dictionaries for inspiration, and in this case, the skirt was absolutely inspired by the stitch pattern, Hearts of Oak from Barbara Walker's Fourth Treasury of Knitting Patterns.  I thought the texture of this stitch pattern was fascinating, and after swatching, I thought its density would be perfect for a fitted knit skirt that would hide a few posterior, shall we say, imperfections.  (Plus I hate wearing G-strings-- not required for Selva, ladies!)  Also, as I recall (the themes that Interweave provided to designers for the Winter 2007 issue are no longer online), one of the suggested themes for that issue was tailored, fitted garments, which seemed perfect for Selva.  Above is the wrong side of the swatch I sent off to Interweave Knits with my pattern submission, back in February '07; the photo is crap because it was an afterthought, taken with my cellphone camera in my car just before I put the submission materials in the mail. While swatching, I also found that the Hearts of Oak chart has a number of errors.  The most important part of the chart, the pattern repeat, is correct, but the outer edges of the chart are not.  Always be aware that errors may be (and probably are) present in published charts and patterns! In the case of this stitch pattern, I debated which side to use for the right side; both sides are really cool.  One reason I decided to go with the "right" side was the waistband.  As I was swatching, I had started to think about how I would do the waistband decreases, and had concluded two things:  first, that working the decreases into the stitch pattern would require a better mind than mine, and second, switching to a less dense stitch pattern, like stockinette or ribbing or, well, just about anything, would mean losing that nice tight fabric just when it would be great to have a bit of a girdle effect, across the tummy and hips.  So after examining both sides of the swatch, I decided that the V-shaped knit sections on the right side were just begging to be extended into long ribbons to form the waistband, and with some experimenting, I came up with what you see at the top of the above swatch:  the ribbons include decreases and increases, and thus retain at least some of the density of the Hearts of Oak pattern. Next:  The evolution of Selva's design after she was accepted by Interweave Knits for their Winter 2008 issue.

Deadline knitting isn't good news for the blog, which I why I have some old news to share today.  I worked up a design for some stranded knitting awhile back, and knit up a s

I've had several yarn deliveries in the past week.  The RYC Cashsoft has arrived and when I have a moment, I'll try to figure out how to work one or both colors into my Wyvern Wrap.  The other yarn?  Doesn't look like much, I know

Have you ever knit something and as it progressed, found yourself liking the unblocked texture so much that you wanted to leave it that way?  I'm not talking about the lace that just looks like a lumpy mass until it's

I figure I won't be living in a house adorned with putti* forever, so I'd better make use of them while I can.  I especially like the spiderwebs, which I've concluded must be good luck here in Italy, as no one seems willing to remove them.

I truly am pleased with how the Chinese Lace Pullover turned out--and now, it's time to move on.  Not that I haven't done so--the projects have been lining up--but at the moment I have five (5!) non-bloggable ones hanging around:  an unacceptable situation.  If the non-bloggables all get rejected by the various editors considering them, I will suddenly have a wealth of material t

Although I've been knitting furiously for the past week, little or none of it has been bloggable (bad news).  However, by next week, I should have 2 or 3 completed pattern submissions to send off to knitty in time for the deadline for their July issue (good news).  My limited experience with submissions for publication, whether print or online, has been that rejections are to be expected (bad news).  I've heard that knitty's editor, Amy Singer, at least lets you know quickly whether your pattern will be used (good news), and if NOT (bad news), then I will be posting those patterns here on my blog, instead (good news). I haven't given up on Chinese Lace, and the other day I was flipping through the yellowing pages of 1500 Patterns, a softcover "Knitting Encyclopedia" from Mon Tricot that I've had for about 20 years, when I found this.  Look familiar?  Aside from using k2togs instead of SSKs, it is a block of four pattern lines from Chinese Lace, and that lovely diagonal has me thinking I might resurrect this idea--or at least the mock wrap part of it, combined with C.L. sleeves.