Dawn Brocco's Life and Design Blog

This past Saturday was my birthday - 49 - am sliding into AARP-land - no, no, no, no, no!!

Hubby took me shopping. Shopping is always a hit or miss thing and most often, it's a miss. But I did get half the things I needed - another bra in white just like the one I have in black, which is almost infinitely comfortable, as in I can wear it most of the day without it bothering me! I've never had a comfortable bra, 'til now, and what a treat it is, I can't tell you.

And, finally, after a couple of shopping failures, a pair of size 6 straight leg pants - really soft fabric, covered waistband - how I hate itchy bits at he waist! - and, just the right length, which they called "short". Ahem, excuse me, I'm not short. I'm 5'4", which is average.

I also need shoes and a dress for those blue-moon occasions when I need to look nice. I tried on the large floral Isaac Mizrahi cotton dress in Target. Loved how it fit, liked the pink color of the flowers (though bright) but the green they used was far too acid for me. If they had just had a muted version, more old-fashioned roses, instead of the on-acid dipped version....

And shoes - ha - both Kohl's and Target had nothing. So, a 50% success, and that''s as much as I can usually hope for.

Sunday was a waste - from 3 pm to bedtime spent in peri-M hell. It continued on Monday and surely will test me later on today/this evening as well. Doesn't matter what I take or which cream I use. When they say that peri-M and M majorly change a woman's life, they ain't joking - I cant work at all when I'm laid up with this nonsense, never mind write a blog post! I wouldn't wish this on anyone.

On the knitting side of things, I bought 3 patterns from a long-standing *country-style* designer, to see how she sized for children. I had read a forum post from a fan who loved the way the sweaters always fit perfectly, no matter the size. So, I wanted to see for myself.

To my horror, a stranded lice-patterned (traditional-style) pullover was knit in PIECES. The sweater is a folk sweater, Norwegian-derived, always knit in the round. How many knitters WANT to knit colorwork on WS rows for the whole thing?

If you knit it in the round to the armholes, you then have 2 choices, knit the yoke back and forth or add armhole steeks and continue around. I prefer the latter. I think the latter scares too many knitters, STILL, after ALL these years! I mean, knitters have been doing it in wool knits for eons, so why do knitters fear that it won't work?

If you choose the former, at least the amount of flat knitting is far less than if you knit the entire thing flat.

I could go on about the patterns, but I won't. I rarely (like this is the only time) buy other designers' patterns, so I'm not familiar with the formatting, style and verbiage of other designers' patterns. It does make me very proud about the quality of my patterns, though.

Off to see how much I can get done today before crashing and burning....