He Who Has Many Eyes and other knitting fables

Ewan loved the new ski mask he'd made so much that he wore it everywhere, until the day he wore it into a bank and everyone overreacted. He didn't understand what the fuss was about. As he later disgustedly told his cellmate in holding, sure he'd had a ski mask on and a shotgun in his hand, but as everyone knew, Colorado was both a great place to ski and an open carry state.

During the subsequent trial Ewan got a lot of social media support from many fellow ski mask lovers, which he really appreciated, but also some less welcome overtures from other mask devotees, such as the guy who referred to himself He Who Has Many Eyes. But then, Ewan reflected, when you become a public figure during a fight for justice, there were bound to be some freaks coming out of the woodwork who didn't really understand the cause.

After the trial, Ewan yielded a point and quit wearing his ski masks into banks, liquor and convenience stores, and the like, but he insisted that his two sons continue to wear their sweater and ski mask sets to school. They'd never learn rugged individualism any younger.

Far from being embarrassed by the onset of puberty, Imogene not only embraced and broadcast it but continued to do so long after she was past adolescence.

A serious yardage miscalculation and reckless overuse of yarn at the beginning end of her project led Shea to run out of yarn long before her dress was finished, but she felt that, with the addition of a crocheted modesty panel made from the leftover scraps, the old window sheer she'd had lying around did very nicely for the skirt.

Kesia loved her new meditation suit. The hip pads helped her to sit upright and the detail over her navel area helped her remember to focus her energy on her hara.

Leonora took the next step in her quest to simplify her life when she did away with backpacks by beginning to knit backpacks into all her sweaters. Her next task, she decided, would be to figure out how to do without shoes.

Nyssa wasn't about to compromise her sense of style by wearing knitted caps in cold weather. Wearing knitted wigs with coordinated lipstick was just as warm and much more distingueée.

After his 325th viewing of A Clockwork Orange, Denny put together a Halloween costume to pay tribute to his favourite movie. His friends told him it was very Bauhaus, then directed him into the women's washroom just to be jerks.

Eulalie's new line of gravewear-inspired lingerie didn't seem to be taking off.

Bergère de France Magazine 182: A Review

I've allowed myself to get sadly behind on my Bergère de France Magazine reviews -- at present there are four issues on the waiting list. However, here is my review of the first of the four, and I'm going to try to do one a week until I'm caught up. Let's have a look at the patterns contained in issue 182, which is a winter issue for children aged 0-2.

Patterns #01 Girl's Cardigan, and #02 Boy's Cardigan. These are... undistinguished.

Patterns #03 Boy's Cardigan, and #04 Girl's Roll Edge Cardigan. Again, these are nothing special.

Patterns #05 Girl's Cardigan and Hat, and #06 Boy's Cardigan and Hat. Classic baby wear.

Pattern #07 Sleeveless Jacket. I'd have named this the Shapeless Jacket.

Pattern #08 Hooded Sleeveless Jacket. This one's basic but it's fine that way. Bouclé pieces really do need to be kept simple as the detail doesn't show effectively anyway.

Pattern #09 Sleeveless Fair Isle Jacket. This one's quite cute.

Pattern #10 Hooded Jacket. Another simple bouclé jacket.

Patterns #11 Boy's Hooded Jacket, #12 Girl's Hooded Jacket. Not bad, although they do look unnecessarily bulky. Surely the sleeves could have a little shaping?

Pattern #12 Dungarees. These are pretty cute. The appliquéd patches on the blue version are a nice touch.

Pattern #13 Fair Isle Dungarees. These aren't bad. I think I'd like the heart waist band better if it had another couple of stripes above and below.

Patterns #16 Dress, #17 Dress, and #18 Dress. Designating these three versions of the same dress as three different patterns is really pushing it, Bergère de France. Especially when the dress is so slapdash. It looks like a charity pupil uniform from a turn-of-the-last-century convent school.

Patterns #19 Dress, and #20 Openwork Dress. This must be the "dress uniform" that the aforementioned charity pupils from a turn-of-the-last-century convent school would have worn for class and cathedral services. The previous uniform must have been what they wore when on dish washing and floor scrubbing detail.

Patterns #21 through #28, assorted hats and slippers. These aren't terrible, but there really are so many cuter cat hat and slipper designs out there.

Patterns #29 through #35. Here's an assortment of boy's and girl's embroidered blankets, toy bees, sleeping bags, and a "product holder". I like the blankets, but the bees creep me out a little (why the glasses on the boy bee and the belt on the girl bee?), the sleeping bags look crude and slapped together, and the hanging stuff holder would stretch all to hell if it got any significant amount of use.

Nappy Holder. This is another item I wouldn't knit, because it would stretch out and doesn't look like anything special anyway. Some things really ought to be sewn.

Pattern #36, Hooded Jacket. This is a cute piece. I like the fastenings, which give a rather classic item a modern feel.

Knitscene Handmade 2016: A Review

The ever-prolific Interweave Press has just introduced yet another title to the roster of knitting magazines they publish, though this one is a special issue rather than a new quarterly publication. The first issue of Knitscene Handmade is out, and, according to the Knitting Daily website, it "pays homage to the creative life". It also contains 28 new knitting patterns, so let's have a look at those.

Grasslands Tee. Good shaping and some nice detailing.

Nederland Vest. Pretty basic.

Vail Cardigan. That ruffle is rather too over the top for me. It would make me feel as though I were wearing a pillow sham. One from a 1940s bordello, no less.

Breckenridge Sweater. Classic design, and I'm loving the stitchwork on the front of this one.

Spirit Lake Shawl. This is a rather pretty, fun piece.

Winter Park Shawl. Attractive and versatile little shawl.

Pearl Street Mitts. These are attractive and interesting, and yet plain enough that a man would be willing to wear them. I'm loving the subtle play of colour in these, but then linen stitch does tend to create such lovely effects with colour.

City Park Hat. Nice looking cap, though it does deserve a better colourway.

Timber Trail Hat. Nice hat. Love the diamond effect.

Manitou Springs Set. This is a rather interesting effect, reminding me of that "scratch board art" I remember doing as a child, in which an image was created by scratching through a black coating to reveal the layer of colour below it.

Durango Socks. Classic socks.

Rist Canyon Beanie. A simple, functional, ribbed cap. But then sometimes simple and functional is all one wants.

South Platte Cowl. Very pretty. The yarn choice works beautifully with the rippled texture.

Edora Cowl. The lacework and tabs on this one work quite well together, though I wouldn't have expected that they would, and they lend this simple cowl interest and even style.

Bingham Hill Cowl. Great stitchwork and a very attractive play of colour.

Happy Jack Cowl. Some attractive and interesting stitchwork in this one.

Eastern Plains Cowl. Oooh, love the texture in this one, and it looks like the warmest, most comfortable thing to wear.

Loveland Cowl. This one has great design and an offbeat yet masterful colourway.

Reservoir Ridge Cowls. Some nice texture in this one, and that is a great use of a gradient colour effect.

Spruce Creek Scarf. Love the stitchwork in this one, which has a "classic with a modern twist" feel to it.

Dillon Scarf. This issue's patterns are definitely strong on stitchwork.

Cheyenne Mountain Monkey Sleep Sack & Hat. I don't think I'd care to make, or dress up a baby in, what looks more than a little too much like a potato sack, but the hat is undeniably cute.

Red Feather Sweater. This is maybe a little too basic and squarish to be appealing.

Silverthorne Baby Blanket. Quite a nice piece of minimalist contemporary design. The texture of the gray section and the careful finishing keep it from looking too simple.

Front Range Raglan. You can't go wrong with a classic cabled cardigan at any age.