Glamatron

While most of the knitting I do is practical (I’m the queen of the baby-blanket-as-shower-gift), when I do the aesthetic thing for myself, it’s generally something weird-looking and often biologically inspired. A few thoughts on my current knitting obsessions:

 First,  a BIG thank you to John Koval at Churchmouse Yarns and Teas for providing me with the pattern for a scarf I’ve been lusting after for months. I love the bioform shape, and unlike those skinny “spiral scarves,” this will actually hold up to a big body (the spiral knit ones make me look like a rhino trying to hide behind a piece of fusilli…not attractive, to say the least) - yet another example of my favourite fashion rule: never wear anything more exotic than you are. I finally wrote to them in despair and - yay! - they sell their house pattern for 1.50. I can’t wait to try it out!

Second, Maggie outdid herself and got me Knitting Nature by Norah Gaughan. I’m totally in love with the Starfish Shawl (again, something that can be worn by the big bodied, unlike a lot of the patterns in there…if you don’t believe me, do a quick websearch for her patterns - there are a lot of amazing knitters who made beautiful versions of her works and really shouldn’t be wearing it). I’ve been looking for errata for it, since almost all the other patterns have errata associated, but can’t find anyone who’s actually made it.
In the process of searching though, I did find the blog of the most fashion-conservative knitter I’ve ever run across: Sknitty. I totally agree with her about some things: weird / unfortunate placement of patterns on sweaters, for example. And besides, she has great cat photos. And a few things I disagree with are just her perspective because of her body-type and looks:  unlike her(she describes herself as a pear), my invert-triangle body does wonderfully with sweater knit short skirts - makes me look all legs and bust, and creates the illusion of a waist-line. 

But some of her grumps I just don’t get: it seems like every other piece was too odd, or combined two different functions (gasp!) or just wasn’t something you could wear outside of Manhattan. Wha-? I’m biased - to me the fun of knitting is not to make something I could buy at the Gap, thanks much.  But in addition, it seems to me a mistake to limit oneself to unimaginative clothing just because one isn’t in Manhattan (see for example the upsurge of interest in Leslie and the Ly-s post the “W” articlette) - it’s like people who stop being interested in fashion because they’re a mom, or they’re overweight, or they just got engaged. A body is beautiful biology folks; make the most of it. 

I’ve now managed to avoid cleaning the fridge for almost an hour - see knitting has lots of uses!