Apocalyptic Casual Style and Other Knitting Fables

"Afghan patterns are too pretty to just sit on the couch, so I adapted one to make this great top! I think it's fantastic, especially with the gumball armband I made. What do you think? Hey, do you have any more LSD? I'm out."




Ramona felt her new Apocalyptic Casual line had turned out quite well.





Ever the thrifty mom, Lesia made herself a wrap out of her children's discard toys and yarn from their outgrown mittens. Now, she thought, she just had to figure out a way to upcycle her husband's holey socks.





Nadia combined mesh from her grocery shopping bags, upholstery fabric from her couch, tassels from all her cushions, and leftover paint from the guest room renovation to make a statement about who she really was: a miserably unhappy housewife who needed to lock up the liquor cabinet and put the fact that she'd once flunked out of design school behind her.





Kim made every effort to wear the latest in secretarial wear, and so far her boss's only comment had been, "Kim, your bra is showing. Please fasten your coat. No, I don't care if it is too warm in here for that, you should have worn something suited to a temperature-controlled environment." Kim decided she was jealous.





Lillian was just waiting for her hair to finish setting in the appropriate bouffant style before she went out in the world and strutted her stuff in her new crocheted ensemble.





Rocco soon learned that the first rule of Knitting & Fighting Club is that you don't use a stitch gauge.




Ever since he'd lost his job as an accountant, Richard had left his gray suits hanging in his closet and embarked on a quest to discover what his sartorial style really was.





Susana's grandma, besides being a former swimsuit model, had always been one not to waste anything, and when Susana inherited her grandmother's crocheted afghans, she thought the best way to honour her grandmother's memory was to put them to good use as a fetching bikini and coverup combo.





Christie had finally figured out how to stay warm and avoid any possibility of bruising during falls at the weekly Teen Fun Skate at the local rink. Now, she thought, she was already to go to the skate and meet some boys!


Coming up: Look for the Bergère de France Magazine #167 tomorrow morning.

Two Toys, One Knitting Project

Designer Susan B. Anderson has published a new book this spring, Topsy-Turvy Inside-Out Knit Toys: Magical Two-in-One Reversible Projects
, and the designs in it are not only topsy-turvy and inside out, they're adorable. This stop motion video shows the toys being turned inside out. Anderson's main area of focus as a designer is on making children's toys, and her work is generally very cute. Check out her other designs on Ravelry.

I'm reminded of how much I loved those reversible princess/Cinderella dolls I sometimes saw as a child, and thinking I'm going to have to subvert that unanswered childhood desire into making a few such toys for my three-year-old grandniece and her new sibling, who will be joining us in July.

Mad Knitted Style

If you watch Mad Men, you've almost certainly admired the costuming. Have you ever wondered if you could knit a replica of a Mad Men costume piece? If you have, get in line. There are loads of knitters making Mad Men-inspired projects. It's no surprise, of course. Mad Men is a show as much admired for its fantastically detailed and period accurate costuming and set design as it is for its excellent writing and acting. So many of those costumes look so damn good that the show has been a huge and pervasive fashion influence, with Banana Republic even partnering with Mad Men's costume design Janie Bryant to introduce entire Mad Men-esque clothing lines. A sewing pattern for a blouse I was making last fall referenced the show in its instructions.

I am finding as the sixties wear on in the world of the show that the costumes and set designs are becoming, though no less historically correct and impeccably rendered, less visually appealing. My theory is that this has less to do with changing and less classic fashions of the late sixties than with Janie Bryant's efforts to depict the ever-growing complexity, moral compromises, tension, and pain of some of the main characters' lives. Janie Bryant's work is setting a whole new standard for costume design — not only do her costumes recreate the look of an era and the very specific socio-economic status of each character while remaining grounded in realism (i.e., the characters don't get whole new wardrobes each season), but they also point up the show's narrative and themes and even add poetic layers to them. Fashion bloggers Tom and Lorenzo are doing a wonderful series of Mad Style posts in which they analyze the costumes; if you are a fan who hasn't read these posts, I can't recommend them enough. Tom and Lorenzo were actually one of my sources of inspiration for launching this blog; I wanted to write about knitting and knitting-related matters in the kind of smart, insightful, and entertaining way that they do about style.

But I digress. If you'd like to plan a Mad Men knitting project, there are a couple of approaches to take. The first way is to recreate a Mad Men knitwear item exactly. It won't be too hard to do. Sweaters such as these, worn by Don and Megan Draper, are classics and will look perfectly appropriate in 2013. There will be a lot of really similar patterns available on Ravelry or in the public library or in your own pattern collection that are very much like these and can be adapted into a near-pefect replica.





Sweaters such as those above are less elegant but have their own appeal, especially if you like a little hipster kitsch in your wardrobe. Love that "dorky but loveable" stepdad thing you're working there, Henry Francis.





If you like Peter Campbell's secretary Hildy's mittens from the season three episode "The Grown Ups", the blogger at Very Pink has recreated them nearly exactly and generously shared the pattern with us all. She even went to the trouble of recreating the "waking up Pete" shot, which made my day. I find the shot with the dog much more appealing the the one with Peter. That dog probably has a better understanding of the concept of fidelity and more self-control than Peter Campbell ever will.




Another route to creating a Mad Men style project is to make a knitted replica of a Mad Men costume that's not knitted. The blogger at Skiff Vintage Knitting Patterns did an excellent job of recreating Peggy Olsen's fantastic little office dress as a sweater, and says she may go all the way for a future project and knit an entire dress like it.

These are some wonderful Mad Men looks I'd love to see rendered in yarn.





...and here's a look I have seen rendered in yarn, and wish I hadn't. I keep imagining Jessica Paré's expression when she was shown this and told she was going to be wearing it in this episode.





The other route to Mad Men knitted style is to consider the Mad Men look a starting point and proceed from there to create a version that is updated and/or customized to the individual looks and style of the wearer.

Best of luck with your Mad Men-inspired knitting endeavours, and feel free to post about or link to your efforts in the comments!

Creative Knitting Summer 2013: A Review

Let's have a look at the designs in Creative Knitting's Summer 2013 issue!





Love this pillow. It's simple yet pretty and effective. I can imagine it working in any room of my house if it were in the right colours.





I also like this little rug. Though I'm not sure I could stand to have anyone wipe their feet on it.





The description of this little cardi makes a point naming the ruffles as a design feature, but they're actually the one aspect of this sweater I don't care much for. They're just sort of... sitting there, adding bulk. The rest of the design is very nice.





Nice simple shawl. This is a design you use a beautiful, excellent quality yarn for, something that can stand on its own with just a simple pattern.





Very much like this little lace-trimmed open cardigan. It's well-shaped, it's just feminine enough to be pretty without being too frilly for most women's tastes, and it's so simple it will go with many a summer outfit.





This pair of socks is supposed to be a sock knitter's beginner pair. They're not a bad pair to start with if you like the bobby sock cut and don't always wind up with chafed heels when you wear them.





These pot holders are supposed to be another beginner project, this time to learn the basics of double knitting. They look like a beginner project too. If you like them go ahead, but if not I promise you, you can find an easy double knitting project you do like by quickly searching on Ravelry.





This little boy's sailor sweater is kind of cute, though the pictorial design looks a little crude to me.





I like this little dress, hat and backpack, though I would put the pockets higher on the dress and I wouldn't make all three items for the same child. While you can always make a two-item matching knitted set, making a three-item knitted set nearly always looks like overkill and like the knitter was trying desperately to use up all the yarn of that kind. Or just didn't know when to stop.





Pretty pullover. I'd shorten these sleeves by a few inches or so. Right at the elbow is an awkward-looking sleeve length that tends to look dowdy, like the mid-calf skirt length.





Jewelry made out of yarn never looks right to me — it's always just too crude looking. That said, the red poppy necklace is one of the best rendered knitted jewelry examples I've ever seen. The choker's flowers don't actually look like flowers to me.





Cute hat! I like the pansy design.





Very pretty shawl. I love those tulips in the back.





These slippers are another technical exercise because they involve three stitch patterns. They're not bad, though I'm not crazy about them. It's almost impossible to find slippers, even non-knitted slippers, that have any style to them. They're all so shapeless and juvenile looking, and they all make your feet like something that fell off The Muppet Show sewing table. Make these in your favourite colour and add buttons you really like and you'll probably be pretty happy with them.





The yarn used here is pretty, the stitches are pretty... but I just can't sign off on that twisted front. It's going to add bulk in the front and probably just look like it's on wrong a lot of the time.





I really don't like the buttons on this otherwise quite pretty lace shrug. They look lopsided and distractingly random, for one thing. It looks like the buttons on the right button up the sleeve, but do the buttons on the left side actually have any purpose?





Very much like this simple, pretty little top, but the top decorative band is going to be awkwardly placed on many women. However, it can be easily raised or lowered, or left off altogether.





I like this top, but don't like the vest. It looks just plain unfinished. It apparently has a racer back (mentioned in the description but now shown here), which I can't imagine would help matters.





I rather like this one; the concept is clever and fairly well done on the whole. It is a little on the boxy and shapeless side, but that could be corrected, along with the colour combination, which does not do this sweater any favours.





I do rather like this cover up and matching beach bag. It's knitted in cotton, which would be so absorbent and comfortable on a hot day.





Not a bad simple hooded pullover. Though I bet most boys or young men would choose different colours for it.





This is rather clownish and unfinished looking, although let me tell you, it looks better than I would ever have thought a horizontally striped drape front cardigan could look. The stripes have been kept relatively subtle by their narrowness and colourway. Must remember that trick.





This is another technique demonstration piece. This time the item is a way to learn some decorative weaving techniques; the decorative touches you see here are made by interlacing and twisting yarn through the surface of the garment after it's completed. I can't say I care for this design. The decorative touches are detracting, rather than adding, and the shape isn't great, although maybe this sample is just a little too big for this model. I think I'd like it better in another colourway — this one's a little crude.