Miss Maggie

The Maggie Grey sweater:

some details shared

I'm using Knit Picks yarn for this design– Swish Worsted in Squirrel Heather. It's pleasantly soft to touch and the color is very appealing to me. It doesn't really remind me of squirrels so much as it makes me think of my cat Mist. Sometimes, though, I think she thinks she's a squirrel and they might think she is too. We have this one squirrel that hangs out on the deck and likes to stare in the window and doesn't seem very bothered when Mist stares back. And now that I completely went off topic there for a minute... back on track.
I'm very curious to see how Maggie Grey comes out. I'm trying a different sweater construction, one that I've actually never even knit before never mind tried to design. So far it seems to be working smoothly. I mean, smoothly enough now considering how many times I ripped the ribbed edge during the first two days. Gah, I'm not going to forget that!

There will be buttons on the Maggie Grey sweater, although not functioning buttons. It's a pullover, it has wide sleeves, it might have a funnel or turtleneck (but I'm not sure yet). It is definitely an experiment and I will be ecstatic if it looks exactly as I'd sketched it out. Wait... I take that back... Considering my sketching abilities I might be very bummed if it looked exactly as I'd drawn it. I highly doubt it will really come out being a perfect replica of my original idea. And that is totally ok with me.

Scotch Mary...

...is blocking! I wet blocked the sweater today. You can see in the photo at left how patchy the coloring is with the soaking wet yarn. I have a feeling it may take a while to dry since it's so nasty out. The house is warm enough, but the humid chill gets into your bones and I'm sure the yarn is affected too. The buttons I ordered for Mary finally arrived, so as soon as the sweater is completely dry I'll sew those on and thread the i-cord through the eyelets. You can't really see the eyelet panels in this photo. When I arranged the design I opted for placing the eyelets on the sides at the underarms, but just to the back of the side markers. I felt like the ties would be less likely to get in your way and feel uncomfortable under your armpits this way.

Personal Stuff
I went and got an eye exam today. My prescription got worse. I had a feeling that was going to be the deal. I was told the new prescription would make me see "significantly better." You know how at an eye exam you have to look at that chart full of letters? The first line usually has one lone "E" and then the letters get progressively smaller on each lower line. Well, with my glasses on I could only read the second largest line of letters. I'd say that's bad. Driving has really been scaring me recently, so this exam was definitely over due. My prescription hadn't changed in about 8 years. I could tell within the last few months that it had worsened. I don't think that's good. I held steady for so long and now it's going bad? I've been doing a lot more knitting and spending more time on the computer writing patterns, so I'm thinking maybe there's a connection there. I am going to try and seriously cut back my time on the computer, which is going to be very hard. I really prefer writing my patterns down directly in a computer program because it saves time later. However, maybe I should embrace this as a chance to get a nice notebook, some colored pencils, and start a pretty little design notebook.

Tags: Fiddleknits, Swish, design, sweater

0 members like this

Comment

You need to be a member of Knitting Community to add comments!

Join Knitting Community

Comment by cherylbwaters on March 3, 2010 at 7:34pm: Yep, up until my mid-40s, I took my glasses off to read. I didn't know there was a problem until one night I went to rub one of my eyes and I couldn't see the book I a was reading. So then I put a hand over one eye, then the other and realized my reading vision was going.

But Erica, I now understand why you are so concerned about your vision. You are still very young. ♥c

Comment by Susan the Blue Lake Knitter on March 3, 2010 at 6:43pm: This is gradually happening to me... my vision was about 20/300...I still can't see at a distance with glasses, but my vision is more easily corrected... and of course I need bifocals... this started happened in my mid-40s. --S

Comment by Erica Jackofsky on March 3, 2010 at 6:33pm: I so wish my eyes were getting better instead of worse! Your DH is so lucky! I have a feeling the only way mine will get better is from surgery, but the idea of that kinda gives me the creeps.... I'm fine with glasses as long as they work.... although I'm constantly paranoid that I'll break of lose my glasses and then be completely helpless... :o(

Comment by cherylbwaters on March 3, 2010 at 6:26pm: Oh, wow, Erica. I knew you said you had some serious vision problems. At least it appears to be correctable right now. I started wearing glasses when I was 8 or 9 but my vision has never been that bad. My DH has gotten his second site. Some people actually have their eye site get better as they get older. My mother had this and now my DH. His eyes used to be worse than mine. Now we will be going somewhere and he is reading street signs without his glasses when I can't read it with mine on.

Comment by Erica Jackofsky on March 3, 2010 at 5:41pm: oh I can definitely sympathize with your son. I've had glasses since I was 7 and it's not a very fun thing for a kid to be so dependent on them. I'm not 100% sure what my prescription is now, I plan on asking for the exact numbers tomorrow when I go pick out frames. However, I know what the current prescription in my glasses is.... 20/675 .... and now it's worse :o(

Comment by cherylbwaters on March 3, 2010 at 4:57pm: Erica, I know it can be disheartening to find out about your eyes. I can certainly sympathize with you. But I do have story about my No. 3 son. His eyes are very bad and have been for a long time. His vision has been 20/400+ in both eyes since he was fairly young. He says he can't even remember the last time he could see the big E on the chart. When he was in grade school, he and one of his brothers had a scuffle and No. 3's glasses were broken. He was sick so the next day he went to my office with me. He was still at an age where he liked to push the elevator buttons and asked if he could hit the button. I told him it was okay. Well, he had to put his face about 4 inches from the numbers and had to move his head up and down to read the buttons. I felt so bad. Although I new his eyes were very bad, I hadn't realized how bad 20/400 was.

But back to Scotch Mary. She is beautiful. I can't wait to see her modeled.

Comment by Susan the Blue Lake Knitter on March 3, 2010 at 9:41am: I guess I was confused... I know you talked about some buttons, and just thought it was detail... but we enjoy detail shots, anyway. Thanks. --S

Comment by Erica Jackofsky on March 3, 2010 at 9:28am: Ooooh. I got some buttons, but they're just cute little plain ones. Maggie Grey has some detail around the buttons, which is why I was confused. :) I will have close ups on both tho since I like detail shots.

Comment by Susan the Blue Lake Knitter on March 3, 2010 at 9:26am: I thought you got something special for Scotch Mary... that is the one I was asking about. --S

Comment by Erica Jackofsky on March 3, 2010 at 9:13am: I was actually never a huge fan of turtlenecks either, although I have a very long neck.
Close up of the buttons on Scotch Mary? or Maggie Grey?