Scene: A conversation between me and my Easton Cardigan, hanging on a mannequin
Cardigan: Um, I dunno. You're the writer. You designed me and created me. The ball's in your court!
Me: OK. Well, then, here is a little back story. I wanted a cardigan of my own making to wear at a fiber retreat later this month. I had another one in the works, but it has problems. I saw another designer do a simple pullover using granny squares, and I thought it would look great as a cardigan, using two contrasting colors and two kinds of granny square, neither of which is the traditional granny square. (I sort of hate the traditional granny square.)
Cardigan: That didn't take much prodding. Keep going.
Me: Well, I had some nice budget yarn in two complementary colors, in sufficient quantity for a cardigan. (Two cardigans, actually. Maybe I'll make another design....) Once I decided it was time to move forward, I got quite excited about it. I put aside two other designs I was working on--that were giving me difficulty anyway--to make it. I created the front and back panels very quickly, pieced them together, and hung them on the mannequin to ask the help of dear Mr. Gravity in how the pieces hang. (No, I didn't offer burnt offerings up to the god of Gravity, although it doesn't sound like a bad idea.)
Cardigan: Sounds like all was going well!
Me: Well, I also completed the sleeves quickly--stripes in the same colors as the squares--but they didn't match up! Ahime! After careful examination, I recognized that counting errors had caused my troubles, and I had committed those errors on both sleeves. I wound up reworking both, but that still didn't take all that long.
Cardigan: Where do you stand now?
Me: Almost done reworking the second sleeve. Piecing it together and then finishing with edging, collar, waistband, and buttons will be a piece of cake.
Cardigan: Yeah, yeah.....call me when it's done.
THE NEXT DAY
Me: I've finally got you pieced together and all the finishing done. You look quite nice, if I do say so myself!
Cardigan: No thanks to you! Gray tweed and rust tweed together? What were you thinking?
Me: Um, I was thinking those are two color ways that complement each other quite nicely.
Cardigan: Color way? What the heck is a color way?!
Me: Shhh! You don't want to anger the Yarn Police! It's what yarn people call a color. I don't know why. I would say the colors are this and that striped, but they would come up with a fanciful name and call it a color way. So you have two solid-color yarns with a tweed effect, so they are called gray tweed and rust tweed.
Cardigan: Feh!
Me: Don't give me any attitude, you! You know what frogging is, don't you?
Cardigan: Yeah, I know! It's what you did to my sleeves before you made them over.
Me: And now they're much happier and healthier sleeves.
Cardigan: What an able-ist attitude! You hated my sleeves because they were different!
Me: Your sleeves were not people with disabilities. Your sleeves were components that did not match each other because I myself had made counting errors when creating them. So I recreated them anew. Call me cruel if you will, but would you rather languish at the bottom of a storage bin and be passed around from one thrift shop to another, or be worn with pride among other yarn crafters?
Cardigan: Oh, shut up and show the pictures! I'm done with you!
Me: Just one more thing--sewing in loose ends. This will be a pinch and sting......
LATE THE NEXT DAY
Cardigan: What now?
Me: I just have to adjust the neck. Hold still.
Cardigan: I will not hold still! I thought you were done!
Me: And I thought life would be beautiful. Shut up and let me do this!
Cardigan: This had better be worth it!
 |
| The finished product! Finally! |
It was worth it.
