Cate

Friday, March 17, 2006

Remember this, my knitting muse?

Left: Blouse from anthropologie. Right: Beginnings of Cate in Kidsilk Haze

This is progress from the last 3 weeks. Whadya think so far? Kinda sorta like the original? I spent 2 of that swatching about a dozen different patterns for the hem, all of them some type of lace, all of them abandoned because I just couldn't make up my mind which looked best. It was hard to judge with the black yarn. Then I reminded myself that the reason why I was drawn to this blouse in the first place was because of its minimalist straight lines. It was settled: plain ol' stockinette and reverse stockinette.

For the reverse stockinette rows in the hem, I held yarn double for more visible stripes. Same for the thick vertical stripes in the body.

I worked the hem in size 3 needles, then switched to size 6 for the body, which I will make a little long, and no shaping. I want it to drape some over the hem/obi. I might make this a boatneck too.

It'll be interesting to see how this turns out. Honestly at the start, after finishing the hem, I was feeling rather unenthusiastic about it. But as the fabric grows, so does my opinion of it.

And I've named this Cate, as in Cate Blanchett. I love that actress and the name. Simple and clean. Normally I'd say that "Kate" looks better than "Cate", but "Kate" now leads me to "Katie" which then leads me to "Tom" which then makes me think "crazy wackjob" and my knit deserves better associations.

In other news, I just discovered through my referral logs that I am a member of some "Southern Knit Bloggers" webring. How odd, considering I never signed up to join and I am not southern. Not at the moment. Not southern geographically anyways. (I grew up in various parts of the Deep South: Tennessee, Louisiana, Georgia)

I'm not politically southern either. Most definitely not religiously southern.

Nor linguistically, for that matter, although I did use to say things like "fixin' to," like "I'm fixin' to go to the store," but then I came up North for college and got laughed at.

Maybe I'm a little southern gastronomically speaking...but only for very NICHE southern dishes like boiled crawfish and beignets.

But Oh I'm DEFINITELY southern climatically speaking. Every single year around this time, when March rolls around, I begin hyperventilating because March up north heralds not the start of spring, but the start of THREE MORE MONTHS of cold, hard, barren and perhaps even snowy blizzardy weather. Spring is what, this Monday right? I'm going to be scratching my eyes out in 30 degree weather. Where are all the bees? Where is all the pollen? The wonderful faint scent of WISTERIA in the air? Not here my friends, not here. And then I threaten to move back south.

Sigh. If only Boston had Atlanta weather, or if only Atlanta looked more like Boston.

Comments [11]
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Friday, March 17, 2006 1:38:08 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
OOhh! I love Cate. She's so pretty. I'm drooling. I can't wait to see her finished and am curious how you will work out the sleeves. Are you going to make a pattern for it?

I feel your pain (I also live in Boston) with the cold. Last week spoiled me.
Friday, March 17, 2006 2:32:20 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
Cate looks beautiful! I really like the name (and it's namesake). I can't wait to see what neckline you use. I second Kelly's pattern question. No pressure though :)

I'm sorry the weather in Boston is getting you down a bit. Maybe there'll be a warm snap somtime soon. At least one can hope!
Friday, March 17, 2006 2:49:53 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
Beautiful--I am so impressed with your inspired creation.
Friday, March 17, 2006 3:38:20 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
Your Cate is beautiful. I think it would look lovely with a boatneck.

I hear you on wanting winter to be over. We've had it rather easy where I live until this week, which has brought us a foot and a half of snow. Will it ever end?!?

Friday, March 17, 2006 3:39:38 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
I like!
Friday, March 17, 2006 6:04:00 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
I'm not sure I follow that whole Kate --> Tom thing, but Cate is looking mighty spiffy! Very clever of you to double the yarn to make some sections stand out. I look forward to more!
Friday, March 17, 2006 6:49:37 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
wow, that's very impressive and cool looking! I'm so hesitant making another KSH sweater after Aimee. Mine keeps bunching up in the yo-sections, I stopped wearing it because I'm tired of tugging it down. I started to feel like Captain Picard (of the Starship Enterprise. He always tugged his uniform top. Ok, to much geek info ;-))
Friday, March 17, 2006 8:47:20 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
I like what I see so far! Maybe you'll even submit this to MagKnits or offer the pattern here at your blog or something. :)
Saturday, March 18, 2006 9:24:37 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
Cate is looking very cool. And good name choice too, since Cate B. is quite the fashionista. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out!
Monday, March 20, 2006 4:21:38 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
Perfect name - I can see the beautiful and graceful Cate wearing this in fact.
Tuesday, March 28, 2006 10:39:53 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
I can commiserate with the Boston weather thing, too. I originally hail from Texas, but ended up in Boston, too - and while I like that we get more than two seasons up here, I don't like that the intermediate seasons only seem to last two weeks each :)

I would love to knit Cate too - please say you'll have a pattern written up when you're done!
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