Moving right along…
Okay. Regarding the whole Debbie Bliss thing, I’m just going to plod ahead and make a huge sweater for the kid to grow into. There. That’s settled and I feel much better. Of course it’s natural when you read about someone having a problem like mine with this pattern to wonder if they’re measuring wrong, or reading centimeter instructions as inches and all that. I would probably think the same thing. But because I know I measured right and I know the instructions are in inches and still way too big, and I know I’m knitting to gauge and it’s still way off from the specs, I found myself feeling defensive when reading comments that I may well have left on someone else’s blog under the same circumstances. All last night I resisted the urge to post an entry that went something like, “It’s not me! It’s Debbie Bliss! I swear I measured right!!!” I’m not sure why I care that much, why I felt so defensive. But I did. Which is interesting.
I visited a friend in the hospital yesterday. She’s in danger of delivering a very very premature baby and she’s on serious monitoring and bedrest to try to prevent that. She’s a knitwear designer, and understands every stitch you could think of, and every fiber, in ways I never will. This in spite of the fact that she doesn’t know how to hand knit. She machine knits, and she knows how to give others specs for hand knitting, but she doesn’t know how to physically do it herself. Since she’s stuck in the hospital, alternately bored and terrified, I figured knitting might help. I brought her needles and yarn yesterday, and the basic instructions from the VK site. That’s how I learned, so with her much greater understanding of the mechanics of knitting, she should have no problem learning that way. At the very least, she now has weapons to wield against the awful interns.
The supersized baby sweater is not subway knitting (it’s got cables, etc. Too complicated for me to work on when there are distractions), so I’m dividing my mindless or near-mindless knitting time among three projects right now. I finished the body for my mom’s sweater last night and now need to do the second sleeve, then join it all, figure out how to make a scoop neckline in the round, and hopefully have it done before too much more time has passed. The body for my brother’s sweater is still many many inches away from joining, but I keep plugging away at it. The third project is my monster sweater. I’m only four inches away from a finished first sleeve. Maybe I’ll have that ready to post tomorrow. I really want to be able to wear it this fall.
I know all of these things will fit because I wrote the damn patterns. Take that, Debbie! (Okay, that’s the last jab at her, I swear. She’s very talented. She just has some quality control issues and maybe shouldn’t let assistants proofread patterns for print or whatever it is that’s going on over there. I’ve heard similar complaints from a number of knitters. I will now leave her alone.)
It isn’t you !
Debbie Bliss has a reputation for designing HUGE children’s jumpers[sweaters] and rather close fitting women’s garments.
She must have enormous children !
Posted by: Emma
My problem is I always assume new babies are about the size of teaspoons, and I make these teeny tiny sweaters that they wear for about twenty minutes before they’re too big. The kid will be big enough to wear it eventually, and by then Ma will be WAY excited to have a new item to put on baby.
Posted by: Rachael
I’m having flashbacks of my mom buying me clothes and shoes that were too big for me, while reciting the mantra, “You’ll grow into it/them.” I think you made the right decision–if I were a new mom I would appreciate the planning-ahead gesture. Now show us a picture!
Posted by: Em
Interesting humans-as-monkeys tidbit: my six-year old son absolutely refuses to believe that people are animals too. He’s not having any of that. He actually gets angry at me when I try to explain about all the generations and humans slowly evolving from primates. NO WAY! is his point of view. Isn’t that weird, in a way? I always thought an opinion like that would surely have something to do with being raised in a society that held strongly advocated man’s superiority, or within a religious, doctrinaire environment (we’re très secular, and don’t know any creationists). It seems like this thought is just too big to fit into his head.
Posted by: marrije
I know that what you are doing for your friend means so much! Wonderful!
Somehow I have managed never to have seen your blog until now. My compliments. I say: if you edit, love to rescue dogs *and* knit, you rock!
Posted by: Sharon
It isn’t you !
Debbie Bliss has a reputation for designing HUGE children’s jumpers[sweaters] and rather close fitting women’s garments.
She must have enormous children !
Posted by: Emma
My problem is I always assume new babies are about the size of teaspoons, and I make these teeny tiny sweaters that they wear for about twenty minutes before they’re too big. The kid will be big enough to wear it eventually, and by then Ma will be WAY excited to have a new item to put on baby.
Posted by: Rachael
I’m having flashbacks of my mom buying me clothes and shoes that were too big for me, while reciting the mantra, “You’ll grow into it/them.” I think you made the right decision–if I were a new mom I would appreciate the planning-ahead gesture. Now show us a picture!
Posted by: Em
Interesting humans-as-monkeys tidbit: my six-year old son absolutely refuses to believe that people are animals too. He’s not having any of that. He actually gets angry at me when I try to explain about all the generations and humans slowly evolving from primates. NO WAY! is his point of view. Isn’t that weird, in a way? I always thought an opinion like that would surely have something to do with being raised in a society that held strongly advocated man’s superiority, or within a religious, doctrinaire environment (we’re très secular, and don’t know any creationists). It seems like this thought is just too big to fit into his head.
Posted by: marrije
I know that what you are doing for your friend means so much! Wonderful!
Somehow I have managed never to have seen your blog until now. My compliments. I say: if you edit, love to rescue dogs *and* knit, you rock!
Posted by: Sharon