Way back last late summer, something called the Olympics happened. It seems like a long time ago, really, how the time she flies…

There was a fun knitting twist to all this on the Rav and I was part of a team! My mission: fully complete a sample during the Games. My Mystery Project?

Sandrine…

I had lots of fun making these vague pictures, trying to camouflage my work, but not so much fun knitting. Not only was the yarn I picked not cooperating in a good way, I decided to change the neckline about half-way through my romp. I actually flipped a coin (sportsmanship type characteristic, I thought!) to choose which way to continue. I won (or lost) the toss, depending on how you look at it because it meant that I had to abandon the current version and start over right from the beginning.

Now designing sweaters just isn’t a walk in the park. A race sometimes, depending on the deadlines one might have, but then there might appear a moment where you absolutely have to choose the path for the greater good. And that can be a massive biotch…

But I started over and I was glad.

I didn’t reach the finish line with the rest of my Team! I wasn’t even in the back 40. And looking back on a lot of the projects I put together the last couple of years, and I saw that some of them were knit over and over and realized knitting was like…Music. Like learning to play, accurately and beautifully, a fine instrument, that only with repetition and commitment might make a recital worth listening to.

Thinking about this as music makes so much sense to me and I imagine John Legend (a great fave) sitting down at the piano and composing, knowing that he doesn’t even expect to get it right the first time. In fact, it’d would be a miracle to just place one’s hands on the keys and play a toally finished song. I see in my mind’s eye the practice, the rehearsals, the lights then action. And voila, music is.

Lots of you have written asking about how Sandrine looks without a blouse underneath so here’s a picture for you. Mariah is wearing just her very interesting tattoos under the sweater here. She is quite shapely too for those of you who were wondering how it would look on a very curvaceous woman. :)

While I’m waiting for the Chicago area’s first above- freezing temperature in 5 days, I’m knitting something warm and comfortable and colorful! By the time the crocus are pushing their way through the chill spring air, maybe I’ll be wearing a bright welcome…

The Body of my current Stockinette St project is FINI!

(Except for the pockets, hee.)

I don’t know why, but when a major portion of a garment gets to this stage, it just seems like a natural thing to stop and do some happy dance.

The front lace panels were extended all the way to the hem this time. I love the way the lace waves the colorplays in this yarn.

Paula writes: “Your reference to the shoulder being more stable with set-in sleeves – is this why you didn’t begin the lace pattern on the basic chic hoodie till further down on the sleeve? I’ve seen some raglans where the lace pattern starts up at the neck and was wondering if you tried this and found that it spread too much under the stretch over the shoulder?“

That’s a great idea! I like it. But in the case of the Basic Chic Hoodie lace detailing, it was actually a design decision instead of a structural one. You can see that the pattern wants to go UP in the middle, so I took advantage of that characteristic by starting the lace further down from the neckline. It makes a medallion, of sorts when done this way, and the position at the top of the arm looks like a crest (actually slightly above where I have a tatoo!)

For this version, I might omit the sleeve lace and leave all the focus on the front band. What do you think?

  Monday Morning Mirth  
 
 
OSCAR: the morning after…

Here at Chez Chic, you know we love our awards shows!
 
Where else can you get the chance to see goddesses with almost unlimited budgets still looking like always the bridesmaid sometimes the bride?
 
Where somebody must’ve been busy pitching the little mermaid look even though it would’ve been better off left closeted in davy jones locker, etc, etc…

Our favorite this year, call us callow if you must.
 
Yes, it’s not even a dress, but WHO in there ever-green loving mind could resist 115 carats of stone-cold emerald? (Well played my Angelina…) Who were your rants/raves?