They're Baaack!!

Dear Mom,
Look what I found in the flower garden today.

The Japanese beetle war is ON!

Love, Bonnie Jo

I did it!

Dear Mom,

I achieved my self-imposed deadline of having this dress (a grown up version of the Young Lady's "Tights are the Enemy" top-which she has NEVER worn, by the way) finished in time to wear this weekend. A relief. With a magazine deadline hanging over my head, I was beginning to make myself nervous. But I did it, the magazine knitting is moving along at a very good clip, and I am breathing easier now, knowing that I will have no problems (read that late night marathon knitting sessions) getting the pattern writing and knitting done. Wait. Let me be honest. Since most nights are late night knitting sessions, I should say all night knitting sessions. But, as I said, that won't need to happen.

The dress looks nice, but I've noticed a trend. When making things for myself, it seems that I have a tendency to make things slightly looser than they need to be. I can be critical of both my shape and the dress's when trying it on, and certainly neither are perfect, but, oh well. I think I quote Popeye when I says, "I yam what I yam."

The REALLY nice thing about this design is that it is worked from the top down and I could try it on and make adjustments as I worked on it. A REALLY REALLY nice thing that saved me a lot of grief. I've done a few top-down designs in the past, and in some ways it is a bit more fiddly to get going, but as a whole, there are less surprises in the fit and I am able to PLAN out design details, symmetry, and shaping better. Some of the time anyway. I suppose it all depends on what the thing I am designing is. Which is just one part of why knitting is interesting to me. The possibilities are endless.

To dress it up, I knit beads into the neckline, at the point where the bodice flares into the skirt, and at the hem.

Yesterday, with so many ideas floating around in my head and then subsequently on random sheets of paper, I went out and bought myself a 7"x 9" notebook of graph paper that I will dedicate to sketching out design ideas when they come to me. I've already filled in 3 pages, both sides, with multiple designs per page. The excitement of fresh ideas and creative possibilities! And at the same time, the challenge of balancing that with real life. Keeps things interesting.

Love,

Kim