Mr. Gumby

Today, I forced myself to start grading my babydoll top pattern. I started designating Thursdays as days to concentrate on original designing, but I've been filling them mostly with Christmas knitting. I did work a round on the A4A baby blanket, since that leaves only 3 more to go. I'm not a multi-project knitter; I like to finish projects before starting new ones. So writing up this pattern, which I've decided to call Quietude, is something I have to get past before I can start on any of those other projects I posted about a couple weeks ago.

I would love to write up patterns the way that I think about them, which is "Cast on the stitches for the width of the back, knit down 2/3 of the armhole depth, then do the last 1/3 with increases for the armholes every right side row..." but I know from direct personal experience that the knitters who buy patterns want stitch-by-stitch instructions. But I also want to provide a reasonable array of sizes (although this pattern is only going up to a 40 inch bust) and I'm not all that happy with the way I handle the row numbering. For online download sales, it would probably work to write up each size individually, but I'm also selling this pattern in hardcopy at the store I work in, and the owner is not going to multiply the number of copies she buys by 5 sizes.

I got through the armhole shaping on the back and right front before my brain started to hurt too much, but I should be able to finish it tomorrow. Then I'll have to photograph the piece. The friend I wanted to use as a model didn't end up coming down for Christmas, so I may have to use my dressmaking form. But it's a deep magenta color, which won't show up the lace patterning very well. I will look for a big white t-shirt to pin over it.