Harmony – An Agreement of the Parts

This is a picture of a cape that I recently finished knitting and the story of its making.

It all started in July when I visited the state fair. I went there to see the fiber exhibits. I am thinking about entering something next year, and I wanted to see the competition. I saw this beautiful cape entered in the knitting category. You really couldn’t get close to the exhibits as they were roped off. I’m sure no one wants the public handling their work. I wanted to remember how it looked so I could make something similar. I took a couple pictures. It looked like a feather and fan stitch and I was sure I could find a similar pattern.

I searched on the knitting sites, like Ravelry, using all the key terms I could think of. There were lots of examples but none had the pretty rib neckline that I liked.

When I enlarged the picture to see the details, I was surprised to see that I could read the name of the knitter who had entered it! I’m pretty good at internet stalking, so I entered her name. I found her on LinkedIn but I don’t have a profile there. When I entered her name into Ravelry I hit the jackpot! She had an account and she sold patterns!

I wrote her a note, asking if the pattern was for sale, on the Ravelry message system. I checked back often, but no response. After about two months I thought that perhaps she didn’t check her Ravelry messages all that often. And then I realized that I hadn’t checked mine for a while. Happily, there was a message back.

It turns out that the pattern is a free pattern from Drops. The black and white version entered in the state fair was this pattern knit with Scarfie yarn. Not only did I have the pattern but also proof that it could be knit with yarn unlike that specified in the pattern.

I had this yarn, called Puzzle, in color Crossword in my stash. I decided to try the pattern in its smallest size just to see what happened. It was a good project for my zoom knitting group.

There are a number of things that made this is very good project.

1. The pattern was FREE, my favorite kind of pattern.
2. The yarn is from my STASH!
3. The pattern was one I had not knit often, feather and fan.
4. The repeats were of a length that was easy enough for social knitting but also not boring.
5. I learned how that pattern sizes work.

I gave the cape to a young woman who was the perfect model.

This was a very fun project. From tracking done the pattern and choosing the yarn to finding the right recipient, the parts all worked together – the definition of Harmony.

As always, your polite and helpful comments are welcome.