"The best-laid plans of mice and men go oft awry"

This title, a line from a Robert Burn poem, describes July 2012 design activities. My intended offering, Amelia, will be August's instead...  and so it goes for best-laid plans.  I like to have things neat and tidy – working on one thing at a time, making lists, looking ahead, making plans – but the truth is some of my best ideas have come out of turn, out of left field, seemingly out of no where ... and when they do, happily, I've learned to let them.

Dorothy I had been hard at work on Amelia (a 2-color, raglan sleeve, lace?, garter stitch? number), when I received an email from a ravelry follower asking for more detailed pictures of Dorothy. Eager to accommodate the request  (I hadn't thought of Dorothy for a while), I went back for a closer look. Still lovin' her for sure, but in the year since her release my work has taken some turns.  I found myself fixated on her update.  I wanted her longer, more shaped, and wasn't she a delightful candidate for reworking on circular needles? (I'm lovin' circular needles these days.)  But wait... more pondering...

wouldn't a much better candidate for this all out remake be Emma? Or at least her chevron lace?? A week of trials followed.  Still intrigued, it didn't take me too long to dismantle Amelia and reset sights on this new project, now appropriately renamed Katherine (Dorothy's mother) – and to modify my planning queue accordingly.

Katherine has turned out to be a chevron lace summer shell, longer than both Dorothy or Emma, with shaping more reminiscent of Margareta,and, yes, worked on circular needles.  With luck (and best-laid plans), I'll have her launched next week.

And just to satisfy my however-futile, list requirement, a brief bulleted recap: 

  • Dorothy remains on it, needing some new pictures after gentle circular reworking, 
  • as does dear Amelia, who may or may not end up as I envision her now. We shall see.

On a separate note, in the midst of July's upheaval came an invitation from Robin Hunter, who asked if she could interview me for her designer-series blog.  Needless to say I was delighted to accept – in the midst of reassessment, a bit of self-assessment!  You'll find that conversation here.