I get it, though, I guess. The piece in question is a cardigan for an American Girl Doll and so I suppose to the extent that you want to squeeze more lace into a smaller area maybe? I don't know. What I'm beginning to think about is how this pattern would look if you stretched it out by adding "purl across" rows between the actual lacework. Would that alteration make it look so different from the original or might it make sizing it up for an actual-sized little girl more simple? It wouldn't be strictly "purl across" though it would be more of a knit the knits and purl the purls, a knit as you find it. I think I need to give it a shot, do a swatch and see how it looks.
At this moment I'm so close to finishing the first doll cardigan it's absolute laziness that's keeping it from being done. I'm having a temper tantrum about it. Is it the cardigan or is it my new knitting bag?
What! A new knitting bag! Yeah... My mother-in-law (who is delightful and one of the top ten mother-in-laws on earth, I'm reasonably sure) got me a new knitting bag for Christmas. I love bags. I crave and hoard them. My collection of reusable grocery bags is prodigious. I have tote bags by the billion and several knitting bags. Now, personally, my preference is to be project-monogamous when possible. At this moment I have a long-term when-I'm-not-doing-anything-else sock yarn blanket and the altar cloth, as well as whatever else I'm doing. Those two projects aren't in bags, though, they're in my plaster drawer tower/personal side table. Let me tell you about this bag she got me. I don't know where she got it from or what brand it is or anything. It's probably from LTD or something (not that there's anything wrong with that). It's six holes in the top, through which you can have active yarn. Do you know what I mean? Let me show you a picture.
See? Okay. So...alright. I don't really like those holes because I switch bags often and these holes sort of tie your project to the bag for the duration of its knitting. Still, at first I thought maybe it was really clever because those holes are over top of what looks like three separate zippers pockets that are distinct from the larger inside of the bag. I'll show you a picture.
Cool? No. You see, these aren't pockets really. They're sort of hammocks. They're open at the top and bottom end to the rest of the bag so it's not like your ball of yarn stays in there nice and tidy. You ball of yarn is inevitably going to fall into the chasm that is the rest of your bag. The...I suppose you might call it the main entrance to the bag is on the opposite side from the three zippered hammocks. It runs the width of the bag rather than the height like the three zippered sections. Honestly, I don't know whether I'm attempting to use the bag incorrectly or what. At first I thought it might be useful because I was doing both doll sleeves simultaneously and so I was trying to use the zippered pockets to keep the two balls of yarn apart, but then I discovered that my balls (hehehe...balls) had fallen into the bigger part of the bag, which is when I discovered the more hammock-like properties of what had previously seemed to be pockets.
What this all amounts to, it would seem, is that I just can't use this bag. It confuses and saddens me. Happily, my MIL also gave me a $20 gift code to Knit Picks. It's the perfect gift for a knitter. I don't like to sound ungrateful or rude, but unless a knitter gives you a specific request or you've overhead one of us say "oh man, I'd love to have this specific thing!", please don't attempt to buy us tools. I'll amend that. Don't attempt to buy me tools. I'm super specific and really picky. Maybe I'm the only knitter on earth who feels this way. I'd like to think that I'm not.
I'll probably find a use for this bag. Maybe I can tack the bottom of the hammock closed so that it's an actual pocket and the yarn won't get lost in the bag and tangled around a pen. Yes, that happened.
In the meantime, I'll have to switch things out of this bag. I need to block out the parts of the cardigan that are done so that I can finish off the collar and sew it all together. While that's on, I want to swatch out my lace idea and see how it works and get started figuring out how to upsize this bad girl. Looks like I've got my plate full!
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