Caroline Fryar

Potentially, a better reincarnation?

I’d spent so much time making Bertrand Louises that I had half-brioche stitch on my mind– and so, the clear solution for all of these un-give-away-able (well, Maggie was able to give one away when someone complimented it at a show or something) neon yellow headbands, was to turn them into a big, fat, cozy, super-double-warm headband.

“You look like a Puritan,” said Mom.

And then, “You’ve never looked so Swedish.”

Anyway, this one. Well. It’s available. For sale. If you’re interested in having a warm head. And in High Visibility! i.e. in having no-one hit you whilst riding your bike.

(Is that– “start selling on Etsy furreal“– a New Year’s Resolution? Well. What do you think?)

Nothing, nothing excites a knitter in the summer like the prospect of the onset of fall. There he– and here I am trying out Martha Nussbaum’s jarring method of, “That’s not the pronoun you were expecting, was it!? Well, philosophy pertains to females, and men knit, too!”– sits, needles & cotton/linen/silk (or wool, for the obstinate, like me) in lap, wishing for crisper garments and crisper weather, for the damp & cold, and the wool that protects against it (something really, really pleasurably smug, in our pantoporos protection against the elements– until you realize the tent leaks, at least).

Cranking the A/C. Thinking about leaves and woodsmoke and pot roast. (Anyone who has read any of Jared Flood Autumnal Eulogies– or this odd Ralph Lauren photoessay I once found in middle school?– knows what I am talking about.)

None of this happens, at least in the Carolinas, until, say, Halloween. That is two months from now. But, as the Yarn Harlot noted earlier this month, even if it isn’t emotionally time to talk about Fall, it certainly is the knitterly time to do so.

Enter the Fall issue of Twist Collective (heck, enter the back-issues! God knows I’ve A: been in love with them ever since they got off the ground, B: been too much of a terrible, unventing cheapskate to ever actually pay for a pattern), an issue I read pretty much as soon as it launched (ie, in the early hours of August 1st), which then made me dream of friendship-and-sharing-a-beer-with-famous-knitters (that is embarrassing, and, according to my mother, worrisome).

But this issue has patterns that are so pretty, I actually might pay for them. Let’s discuss:

I am itching to knit a Stratocumulus,

because the neck treatment is so darn clever, and pretty, and ruffled-without-being-ruffles, and I have never ever seen anything like it. And I look at a lot of sweaters.

And then another one I really want is Kiloran,

(oh, look, now they are breaking up– but she is still in pink, they are still speaking French, and there is still une bicyclette, so my attention is still held)

which is less “oh, what interesting knitting, a fine technique, clever construction!” and more, “I really want to wear that dress. On a cold day in October. I cannot wait to wear that dress.” A rather fine compliment for any piece of clothing.

I think cityscape would be really fun to make & wear:

And I think the idea behind Orange Pop (namely: show the reverse side, on the outside!) is simply genius:

But the cable pattern on Tern

is something I cannot figure out or understand.

And the fact that the cables lift up to become the waist-tie-loops in Aliquot:

is nothing short of inspired. I am going to remember & replicate that design element. Someday.

Way to go, Twist-Ladies (and, perhaps, Gentlemen? I am trying to be conscious of the sexism– and racism– that is inherent to knitting-as-a-hobby. More on that later). You blew my mind. Yet again. I am going to start a back-to-school Big Project very, very soon.

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On another fall-time note, since school starts tomorrow, I’ll be shifting the blog into ever-lower gears, until the work eventually overcomes me, and I cease to write at all. In an attempt to preempt this (or maybe, rolling over and playing dead; ramping it down before it’s necessary), I’ll be switching to posting every other day.

Not to be too predictable.