When you were a kid, did you ever think you could use an umbrella for a parachute?
Did it ever occur to you that you should try jumping off the roof with an open one… just to test your theory?
Just in case … you know… it might actually work?
I mean the physics are there. It's a short drop. You're just a kid, you don't weigh much…
It's all very enticing, doing some real science in your own back yard.
Well, I'm not a kid anymore.
(You can say THAT again.)
Well, I'm not a kid anymore.
(Literalist.)
Pedant.
(Flake.)
Obfuscater.
(You don't even know what that means.)
Oh yes I do.
Now let me get on with my story.
(Oh, so it's to be fiction is it?)
Nope. All true.
(I'll be the judge of that.)
Be my guest.
Since I'm not a kid anymore, and I know a little more about physics, I confine my experiments to things I think might actually work.… if I'm lucky.
So, at Thanksgiving, I noticed something sitting on an end table.
I grabbed it, like it was public property and took photos of it.
Sort of like the knitting paparazzi.
Full of rudeness and disregard for the conventions of polite society.
Turns out it belonged to my great niece.
Right there, right then, I discovered a powerful urge to try to duplicate its design.
Oh, not the fabric, I'm not THAT stupid. But the shape? Loved it.
So I set to with a certain amount of trepidation.
Notice how things started out rather optimistically, and began to deteriorate toward the end.
I was full of angst that I was wasting my yarn and my time.
But I gave it my best shot.
I felted it a little bit ago.
The results are mixed.
I sort of got the general idea.
It needs to be wider.
And probably bigger overall.
But I sort of got the triangle shape on the sides… which is what I really like about the original.
It's hard to see once it's felted.
AND there's the enormous hurdle of sewing a zipper into it. Something I have resisted with all my knitterly soul ever since I have begun felting purses.
I guess this is where I stop running and see what I'm made of.
If I can master the zipper, I think I will cast on another one with modifications to size and see if I can get even closer to what I had in mind.
And the good news?
No bones were broken in this experiment.
(Let's reserve our evaluation until the zipper is in shall we? Mayhem may still be in the cards.)
Thanks for your vote of confidence.
(Any time.)
*****
PS… a note to Parett… my dear friend, would that I could help you with your project. But alas, I too am pattern challenged. And crochet patterns are even more inscrutable to me than knitting ones. So I must regretfully say that I won't be much help to you. So sorry. Said pattern challenge problem is why I end up making up my own. Sigh….
Right there, right then, I discovered a powerful urge to try to duplicate its design.
Oh, not the fabric, I'm not THAT stupid. But the shape? Loved it.
So I set to with a certain amount of trepidation.
Notice how things started out rather optimistically, and began to deteriorate toward the end.
I was full of angst that I was wasting my yarn and my time.
But I gave it my best shot.
I felted it a little bit ago.
The results are mixed.
I sort of got the general idea.
It needs to be wider.
And probably bigger overall.
But I sort of got the triangle shape on the sides… which is what I really like about the original.
It's hard to see once it's felted.
AND there's the enormous hurdle of sewing a zipper into it. Something I have resisted with all my knitterly soul ever since I have begun felting purses.
I guess this is where I stop running and see what I'm made of.
If I can master the zipper, I think I will cast on another one with modifications to size and see if I can get even closer to what I had in mind.
And the good news?
No bones were broken in this experiment.
(Let's reserve our evaluation until the zipper is in shall we? Mayhem may still be in the cards.)
Thanks for your vote of confidence.
(Any time.)
*****
PS… a note to Parett… my dear friend, would that I could help you with your project. But alas, I too am pattern challenged. And crochet patterns are even more inscrutable to me than knitting ones. So I must regretfully say that I won't be much help to you. So sorry. Said pattern challenge problem is why I end up making up my own. Sigh….