Yes, you read it right: ADDD. Attention design deficit disorder.

Mostly, I enjoy designing garments. I love sweaters with an interest detail or two, but still very wearable. I want to enjoy what I’m knitting, but what I love most about hand-made items is function. First and foremost, it must be destined for use!

Oh, but I love a satisfying quick accessory project, too! Cowls, berets, fingerless mitts. And stripes, I can never have enough!

I like cables and fair-isle. I love to do intarsia and intricate lace. There’s nothing like interesting construction; inside out, sideways, picked up stitches off an edge. And colorwork-did I mention I love fair-isle? Embroidery, twisted stitches, dropped stitches, pleats and ruffles: bring it on! And texture, and, and…

It didn’t occur to me until just the other day, that I have pieces in 4 fall issues of different knitting magazines! I guess I was more productive than I realized about 6 months ago. These 4 pieces are all very dissimilar, and very much represent the kind of designer I am: ADDD.

The first of these fall pieces appears in Knitscene Fall, 2012.

Rizzed Raglan

Rizzed (“ribbed” + “zipper”), is a top down, seamless ribbed raglan, featuring a zipper at one of the raglan seams. It also contains one of my favorite details in clothing, the thumbhole. I am 34, and am pretty sure I’m not going to get tired of thumbholes any time soon.

Next up: Pirouette Gloves

One of the inspiration themes for this issue of Interweave Knits had to do with felting. I can’t tell you exactly how I ended up with this design. It doesn’t especially reflect my personal style, although the colors I swatched in were black and white, which would be closer to what I’d wear. I wanted to design a felted piece, but I had never actually felted anything! Certainly, I understood the concept behind felting, and that knowing gauge before and after the felting process is crucial. A small project of some sort seemed like a good bet. And, hey, what about a project that was both felted and non felted? What sort of item might that be? Oh, how about cuffs on a pair of gloves? Oooh, and they should have a keyhole! Ooooh, and the cuffs should be layered, and when you wear them, it’ll look like you have a miniature ballerina on your hand!

I love how Interweave ended up styling little Pirouette Gloves. As you can see, my original colors were changed to a more muted palette, and more in line with Interweave’s distinctive good taste. Per usual, when I’m working on a piece involving buttons, I took the finished gloves with me to purchase the buttons, spent an hour holding up a variety next to the gloves, and ended up leaving the store with at least 5 different options. I laid a different button on each glove, put them in separate rooms, and walked by them occasionally. After several days of this, the choice was eventually narrowed down to vintage orange round buttons. It kind of makes them look like they belong in a vegetable garden, picking turnips or something, no?

Coming soon, installment 3 of my exciting fall ADDD collection…

So, I’m in the process of moving cross-country. I’m already here in Charlotte (yes, as in North Carolina, the new anti-gay state–boo!!), but Kirk and Olivia are still back in Iowa City. Things are pretty chaotic at the moment; I’m now living in a rental house while we do some house hunting for something not quite so “subdivision” as the rental house is. I have no furniture, not even a single chair. I did splurge and spend 7 bucks on a camping mat so I’m not totally “roughing it”.

My set-up includes: coffee maker, refrigerator well stocked with beer, frozen burritos, and condiments; camping mat and suitcases upstairs in the bedroom, and temporary craft room in the dining area. I am moving to Charlotte for a yarn related job (yay, exciting!), so I have come well stocked with knitting books, all my needles and crochet hooks, plenty of yarn, my swift and ball winder, etc, etc. Because all my other stuff is still back in Iowa, I have no table on which to attach the swift and ball winder. Bummer! The kitchen counters are too thick for the clamps, but luckily there is a spare bathroom with a counter-top sink that is the perfect thickness. So I currently have a really awesome bathroom/yarn ball winding room. I could, like, wind a yarn ball, and then jump in the shower, and I’d only have to walk 2 feet; how convenient!

Anyway, back on topic. So, a couple of weeks ago, Kirk and were busy packing boxes. Moving is something I’ve done a fair amount of over the past 15 years, but every time I do it, memories are stirred; old photos and books, childhood stuffed animals, knickknacks…

Something I’ve been moving around with me for many years, is a bottle of Dom Perignon, 1985.

This was a gift from my old friend, Brendan Lynch, for my 19th birthday. (Brendan, are you out there?) It also came with a sweet Scottish tweed newsboy cap that I still wear today. As many times as I’ve been desperate for a drink of booze at 3 a.m. over the years (after 2 am when stores in Iowa stop selling), I never did break down and bust out the Dom. I think I wanted to save it for some sort of special occasion. Although I’ve had a few of those over the years, I have somehow managed to  refrain from opening this bottle.

It was a night or two before I was to set out on my 20 hour drive from Iowa to The South, that Kirk suggested we open the champagne. Just for fun, he checked online to see how much a bottle from the year 1985 was selling for; something like 200 bucks, he found out. Well, gosh, that was exciting! We were about to consume sought after, expensive beverages!

I let Kirk do the honors. Pardon the crappy pictures of our rental house, particularly around moving time.

Ooooh, we have foam. And bubbles! Vintage bubbles!

Now, unfortunately the photo chronicle ends here. If I had kept going as I should have, I would now insert a picture of Kirk with an unpleasant, scrunched up look on his face as he takes his first sip. The flavor experience from this vintage beverage is not what it should have been. It was sour and kind of rotten tasting. That didn’t actually stop me from trying several small sips, just to make sure this was actually happening. I’m not the classiest person ever, after all, and thought maybe people who actually drink this stuff prefer stinky champagne. But, alas, it was determined our lower class taste buds were correct in their assessment that this bottle of garbage was, in fact, trashed.

The problem, my friends, is bottle storage. Specifically, this bottle was stored upright at times, keeping the cork from staying wet. This is what ultimately killed the Dom. How was I to know? I’m just a vodka drinking simpleton from Iowa.

The one-liner of wisdom for the day: always keep your cork wet.