KnittingFool

I present the latest swatchbox crop: 

•  Pineapple - bobble-like
• Bells and Bell-Ropes - bells are just modified leaves
• Joyous Stripes - great way to use left over yarn.  The pattern calls for five colors, but there is no need to restrict the colors to five.
• Embossed Bell - this is a pleat effect.  I wonder what this would look like if it were done in some extreme variation — instead of cast-on 8 stitches, cast-on 24 stitches and do secreases on all rows after that.
• Fuchsia - variation on a bell pattern.
• Mrs. Hunter’s Lace - not lace by my standards.  This is a gathered stitch followed by a yarnover.
• Star Cluster - a more extreme version of the gathered stitch paired with a double yarnover.
• Peacock’s Tail - rack ‘em up.  It looks like a set of pool balls more than a peacock’s tail.
• Quatrefoil Eyelet - simple eyelet, easy
• Fractured Lattice - more interesting that the simple symmetric lattice patterns.
• Zigzag Eyelet - simple eyelet, easy
• Dots and Dashes II - boring, why bother.
• Shell Mesh - open work that looks almost unsturctured.  Too sloppy to please me.
• Berry in a Box - structured and lacy with good texture.
• Pine Tree I - this is a like a mix of open work with a cable-like effect.  Would work well as a panel with one or two repeats of the pattern.
• Pine Tree II - similar to Pine Trees I except with a little less depth in the pattern becuase it is using a stockinette stitch background.
• Lily of the Valley - this is a version of the old standby that includes bobbles, openwork and lots of increase/decrease shaping.  May work best as a single panel rather than an all-over pattern.
• Dragon Skin - good use fo increase decrease shaping to create a pleasing surface.
• Wave and Shield - interesting, highly textured pattrn that looks somewhat like a cable.
• Openwork Knit Hourglass - good openwork, lacy pattern. 
• Openwork Purl Hourglass - simlar to the knit version of this pattern; the purl version has a little more depth.
• Filligree I - this results in a highly textured fabric with the appearance of rib waves. 
• Candle Flames - this is a beautiful version of an over-all leaf pattern.
• Syncopated Brioche - this is brioche used to create a checkered effect. 
• Embossed Diamond - this is a minimalist version of the leaf pattern.
• Shell Cross - open work with depth.
• Closely-wrapped Stitch - this stitch results in a subtle diagonal pattern across the fabric.
• Double Wing Openwork - this results in an cable-like pattern with a few eyelets at the base of each ‘wing.’
• Double Wing - almost the same as the Double Wing Openwork, lacks the eyelets.
• Bobbles - a basic bobble on garter stitch background.
• Long Stitch - this results in an overall pattern of flattened diamond shapes.
• Openwork Bobble - bobbles surrounded by eyelet diamonds.
• Blackberry Bobble - groups bobbles to emulate the shape of berries or clusters of grapes.
• Embossed Leaf II - this is a simple version of the leaf pattern.
• Jumping Eyelets - this results in narrow columns of alternating eyelets.
• Puff - this is a loose bobble.
• Waterfall - this results in columns of diagonally arranged eyelets.
• Welting Fantastic - this pattern uses increases and decreases to make garter stitch waves. 

I’m getting ready to go to Stitches in Schaumberg this month.  I went for the first time last year (much overdue).  I intended to write about it last year, but I had one of those experiences that evoked feelings that can only be described by that old saying, “A goose just walked over my grave.”  I ran into someone that I had not seen since my first year at college.  A chance meeting that gave me the chills. 

I showed up for a Stitches class in the morning, early like I always am.  My father believed that if you weren’t 15 minutes early you were late.  He enforced that fiercely; being early is like a disease with me.  A woman came in a few minutes later.  She kept making nervous chit chat.  The phrases she used were annoying familiar; excessively polite; and scripted, as if she was reading from a Miss Manners textbook.  It took a few minutes and then things rushed together.  I couldn’t see her name tag clearly, so I tried to judge the shape of the name, the contour of the letters.  The shape fit the name I had in mind.  And then the memory of the face came back.  She had not changed much.  Older, heavier, but very like she had been.  And when I was almost sure I asked, “Were you in Carbondale in 1973?”  The look on her face answered the question even before that her words came, “Yes, how did you know?” “I was there.” “Forgive me, I don’t recognize you.  Who are you?”  “Elaine.” And then she remembered me.  And I knew for sure it was Valerie Jane [last name withheld]. 

She came over to sit next to me.  She asked all the polite questions and we exchanged the abbreviated versions of our life stories.  I had completed college; she had not.  I married and had kids; she had not.  It was not just her appearance that had not change much.  Her whole life had change only superficially. 

The only shocker was her current profession.  She was an insurance salesman.  Shocker?  Just wait.  She sold insurance to a niche market:  adult entertainment.  I had to hold back a laugh although it must have showed on my face because she launched into a justification that boiled down to “They need insurance too.”  Yeah sure, Tony Soprano needs insurance, too.  What a hoot.  That explains a lot about insurance rates.

I could almost write a book about Valerie Jane.  She could have been a psychology case study.  Usually, she was Valerie, the overly officious, tedious, mistress of idle polite chit chat with her mother pushing all her remote control buttons.  But sometimes she was Jane.  Jane was more normal, a regular 18 year old looking to enjoy life and get laid.  She would even refer to herself by the two names in the third person.  I more than once witnessed an argument between the two.  That was creepy.  I don’t know if she had a true multiple personality, but she sure had something going on.  Perhaps Valerie stays home to knit and Jane goes out to strip joints to sell insurance.  That presents an image.

There were 5 or 6 girls thrown together by chance in a college dorm in the summer of 1973.  I have so many memories of the troubles caused by Valerie and Jane trying to manipulate the events of that summer.  Until finally the rest of us figured out what was going on (sort of).   The story is far to long and complex to tell here. 

Just to be catish:  She borrowed a copy of the winter craft issue of a magazine that had a favorite afghan stitch cape pattern in it and she never gave it back.  I’m still miffed about that.  Maybe I’m the crazy one!  Thirty-five years later and I’m still not letting go of that grievance.

I tried to explain to my husband how badly running into Valerie Jane had shaken me.  I even left Stitches early, missing one of the classes I had paid for.  I know it sounds paranoid, but she scares me a little.  I wanted to put the distance back between us.  I still can’t put it all in words.  However, I am going back to Stitches.  She may be there again because it is not so far from where she lives.  It’s just a risk.  Fortunately, the place is big enough to hide in.  But if I do run into her, I won’t miss the chance to ask where that cape pattern is.