Yarnageddon

Based on a True Sweater

Feb 10, 2006

Panic On The Streets Of Vancouver

Hm... I can see why the Smiths used "London" instead. It really does sound better.

Hey folks, guess what? I'm speaking on a panel at Northern Voice on Saturday! About knit blogging! AAAAH hahahaha hahahaha HAHAHAHA HAAAaaaaaaa!!!!!!!

Having reread old Life in Hell comics recently, I feel that it would be appropriate to make a joke about doing an interpretive dance to demonstrate how I feel about this speaking gig. However, I can't think of how to formulate such a joke - perhaps it doesn't work if you're not a rabbit. Instead I will post this dubious old photo of myself and hope that the my-head-is-on-fire hair and wild-eyed facial expression (humor me here) will hint at my turmoil.

And now, I will stop gibbering incoherently.

Two things:

First, thank you so much for all the awesome comments about the Saturn Sweater! Unfortunatley, there will be no pattern. I took precisely zero notes, and so much of it was ripped, reknit, re-ripped, re-reknit... and so on. It was 100% made up on the fly. The essential design elements:

- a raglan cardigan with a shallow v-neck and really long sleeves
- lots of waist shaping, worked at 8 different points around the sweater
- short-row bust darts
- 7 inches of 2x2 ribbing for the collar, and 2x2 ribbing for the button bands

There is one question from the comments I can answer, which was Deb's question about yarn substitution. I don't know of any yarn that could be substituted for this yarn, as far as weight and texture go. It's DK to worsted weight, I got about 20 sts/4 inches on a 4 mm needle, and the fabric is pretty dense. The yarn is a very springy 2-ply wool, with a bit of thick & thin action. Manos is not similar, for the following reasons: it is much thicker, it is a single ply, and it has a very different drape. Actually, having had the privilege to work with handspun yarn from 3 different spinners (Spunky Eclectic, Insubordiknit, and Lanas de Libelula), I have to conclude that nothing is as nice as handspun yarn. Nuthin'.

Secondly, have you seen this??
Knitted graffiti. Go look, it will make you happy.

7 Comments:

At 7:51 a.m., Anonymous Anonymous said...

You're right, that did make me happy.

As does that great picture of you.

Good luck with the speaking--you'll do great.

 
At 8:05 a.m., Blogger Visa Lisa said...

Oh my lord! That knitted graffiti thing sure did make me happy! And I looooove that picture of you. You look so album cover! And the being on a panel thing - You GO girl! I'm counting on you to represent knitters all over, AND bloggers! (My blog is so not JUST a knitting blog, and I think that's important to point out for me) XOXOXOXO from little ol' me.

 
At 1:29 p.m., Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey Mandy! Your sweater (and short hair) look great! Love the colours and the fit is spot on - a wonderful final product after all that ripping and re-knitting! Thanks for the link to the Northern Voice site. It looks interesting and I'll keep it in mind for next year as I hope to start a blog soon. Good luck with your presentation and enjoy the conference.

 
At 2:15 a.m., Anonymous Anonymous said...

Mandy! your... hair... so... HOT!
i love it longer and black too.
so many hairstyles, so little time.
and i can tell that photo is not current, for so many reasons... what a lovely sweater!
heh heh
good luck on saturday!
i'm certain you will rock the house down.

 
At 5:33 a.m., Blogger Erin said...

I just got to reading your blog and the Saturn sweater looks great on you! So add one more to your list of compliments!

 
At 8:29 a.m., Blogger jodi said...

I like how you bolded the words "old photo" so we wouldn't think you'd gone and changed your hair again. It sure looked great like that, though.

I've been thinking about seeing if I can join up with that guerilla knitting group, or starting a similar group here. Step one, teaching all my art school colleagues to knit, is already in progress. Mwah ah ah.

 
At 10:15 p.m., Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sooooo.... how did it go?

 

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