June 19, 2012

After All These Years

On Friday night I got to reflecting that I really love my Flow. It's that Norah Gaughan tank I knit from Berroco Seduce that I made a few years ago.  At the time I wasn't surprised that I was in love with the pattern.  I love Norah Gaughan's patterns with a deep and powerful love that is unabated by time.  It is one of the greatest tragedies of my knitting life that I am not brave enough or cute enough or shaped right enough to wear some of the things she designs that I love the most. When I'm knitting I try to be sensitive to my body type.  Knitting is too slow to knit things that are doomed to be unflattering - and while I am petite (5'1") I have broad square shoulders, virtually no neck and an ample awning over the front porch - if you catch my meaning.  There's also an almost criminal shortage of a waist. (I've tried to file charges, but can't figure out who to blame.)  Mostly I know what this means.  It means that in a boat neck or square neck I look like I have missed my calling as the worlds littlest linebacker.  It means that anything that hangs from the bust makes me look like all of me is as big as my bust (which I'm not - or at least not quite.)  

It's taken me years to learn that I need my knitted stuff to have a hint of a waist to compensate for my lack of one, and that I look best in vee necks (even though I like them less) or fairly deep scoops (even though I like them less) and that really, if I can get some knitted stuff with an empire waist, I should do that straightaway, because it makes it seem as though I'm remarkably thinner than I am, which is always a bonus. 

Flow had a pretty deep scoop, and the right kind of shoulders, and clings in a little where I should have a waist in a way that's flattering. It's also green, so it fits in nicely with my whole fashion strategy, which is that I like to dress like a tree.  (Brown on bottom, green, orange or red on top.)   I wear it enough that in the summer it's practically a uniform, and on Friday it occurred to me that I could use another one (in another colour, maybe orangey red)  and resolved to make one to wear at the retreat this weekend.  (I leave Thursday.)  I got online to refresh my memory about how much yarn it takes, and then it happened.

I decided to not just check that, but also to have a search around Ravelry for a summer knitted thing that met all my criteria.  Vee neck, empire waist, a little shaping... I was online for about three minutes before I had an encounter with Lizette that was like being hit by a mac truck - no, wait, it was like being hit by a mac truck full of yarn - in that it hurt, but I liked it.  Lizette  has everything I want, except that it's a little longer than I need it to be (what with me being short and all) but that just means less knitting, and with that, I resolved to go to the yarn shop the next day and see what could be done.

At this point, it is important to note a few things. 

1. I did not abandon my plan to knit Flow.  I was still going to knit flow by Thursday before I got on the plane.

2. I added a whole other garment, and resolved to knit that by Thursday too.

3. Even though I'm still knitting Omelet.

4. Even though I'm stealth knitting something else.

5. These decisions, followed through on when I bought a metric ton of yarn at the shop Saturday, didn't just seem totally and completely reasonable... they seemed INSPIRED.

6. Last night when I realized I'd bought thirteen balls of yarn and not yet knit up one whole ball, I was SHOCKED.

7. That means that after 41 years knitting,  I'm still totally out of it. 

(PS, because someone will ask, that's Hempathy in Hazel for the Lizette, and Samea (in the colour enchantingly named 806-0015) for the Flow. They were sadly out of Seduce, and I have trouble delaying gratification. Apparently.)

Posted by Stephanie at June 19, 2012 2:20 PM