Polar Vortex Chic and Other Knitting Fables

York was pretty sure that his latest birthday present was some kind of comment on how he'd refused to stop at a store so his girlfriend could buy a new tape measure the time they were on a road trip and she'd lost the one she had, and when she complained about it, scoffed that she didn't need one anyway.

Althea had thought she was tapped out design-wise until one day she realized how much inspiration lay in common kitchen supplies. From making tinfoil masques to recreating banana bunch shapes to knitting with the roll of twine in the utility drawer, the possibilities were endless!

Althea planned to do an entire line of sweaters that could do double duty as pot scrubbers.

Althea also found inspiration in the mat and toilet seat cover in the bathroom.

And then, Althea thought, when she'd exhausted both kitchen and bathroom as a design source, she'd move on to the garbage bins on the porch and knit with found objects. She was so thrilled with this new direction in her work she thought she might just donate all her yarn stash to other, less gifted knitwear designers than herself.

After a January 2014 visit to Montana, Marcella had decided to design a whole line of outfits that had the look people got when it was so brutally cold outside that people stopped giving a shit about what they looked like. She called it "Polar Vortex chic" and was confident it could be the next big thing in winter outerwear fashions.

Marcel was sure his sweater made from Jane Fonda's upcycled eighties-era workout wear was innovative and daring enough to win the "Upcycled Fashion" aware at his design academy, but for extra insurance he crated a modern halo that he thought captured the spirit of aerobic exercise.

Carey had always been a big Tetris fan.

Lorna had heard every designer should have a recognizable trademark, and had decided hers would be the fringe.

Lorna was toying with the idea of calling her design company "Fringe Theory" and of making garments that consisted entirely of fringe. It was, she thought, a design element with a lot of scope.