Good Ideas Gone Bad

Have you ever tried designing a garment that should have been good, but just didn't work out?

Thin Lines Between Excellent and Awful
I mentioned briefly about the one good garment in the most recent Vogue Knitting by Brandon Mably. One of the things I like about it, is that the colors and design are like a finely balanced mobile. Any changes in color, texture or pattern might have resulted in something like this:



But the Vogue sweater (sorry, I couldn't find an on-line picture of it) had all the hallmarks of a very fine sweater indeed. I'd recommend checking out Brandon's book of designs. I've owned it for a while and take some inspiration from it.

Another example of good ideas gone awry is in this little gem.



It uses some of the same modular design ideas as one of my designs (Fiestaware), but there is no care in color selection of balance of patterning. The result is truly awful.

Here's my version of modular design.



Knitting
Quick update on this one. I finished another cable cross-over, but still have a few to go.

God I wish I could put more time into my knitting during the week.

Readers' Comments/Questions
Carol S. mentions two magazines I forgot, Spin-Off and Piecework.

I'm not a fan of Piecework, because mostly it doesn't apply to me, but I do like Spin-Off a lot. It's one of the few magazines that I read cover to cover when I get it.

Lisa asks why I didn't mention the Rowan magazines.

I honestly don't consider them magazines. I consider them more like knitting books. I actually like the Rowan issues and pick them up as well, although I've missed a few over the years.

I liked both Marilyn's and Stephanie's philosophy on purchasing/subscribing to knitting magazines. I am currently a lot like Stephanie in how I enjoy spotting a new magazine, and I wish I were more like Marilyn in not feeling compelled to own every issue of every magazine.

One last question...does anyone know why I had a huge spike in hits yesterday? They were almost double what they usually are, and I couldn't see why based on the origination of the hits. Was I mentioned on a list somewhere?