A mixed post today. First on knitting, I’ve embarked on a quickie project – a pullover for Younger Daughter. I’m starting with this commercial pattern, the Empire Waist Top Down Pullover, from Vermont Fiber Designs (#172):
But I’m making two changes. The first is that I’m knitting it in Cascade Yarns UltraPima cotton DK. The original is written for a wool or wool blend DK. That means that the piece will be more massy and less elastic than the original designer’s intent. The other is that I’m shortening the sleeves. I’m moving the garter stitch band up somewhat, so that it aligns better with the band at the waist, and proceeding with the belled sleeves from there, so that the whole sleeve is closer to 3/4 length than back-of-knuckles length.
And here’s my initial progress on the back:
On the yarn – I like it. It’s relatively painless for a multistrand cotton DK. It isn’t splitty, and it’s a bit more forgiving in stitch irregularity appearance than is Cotton Classic, my go-to all-cotton DK. It’s also shinier than the Cotton Classic.
On the pattern – I note that the range of sizes it includes is superior, from extra small all the way up to 6X. This does make for a confusing pattern presentation though. I made a photocopy and have highlighted all of my chosen size notations. Those who struggle with tiny type will probably want to photo-enlarge this one, too. (To reassure copyright protection advocates, under Fair Use provisions I can do this provided I own the original, and either keep the resulting copy with my original, or destroy it after I’m finished. I cannot give away, sell or otherwise share the copy).
So far the pattern has presented no problems, although I would not call this a pattern for those who have not worked from an classic style one before. For example, you’ll need to know that a hypothetical direction that states something like “increase 0(2,4) stitches 0(3,1) times” means that for the smallest size, you’d increase nothing no times (in effect, skip this direction); for the middle size increase 2 stitches 3 times; for largest third size you need to increase 4 stitches 1 time. The “increase 0” direction can cause distress.
I’ll keep posting progress here as I wade deeper into the project.
On the India Travelogue side of the house, I present more monsoon scenes and contrasts. First, It’s been pretty uniformly cloudy here over the past month, with only one morning showing a breakthrough sun. But there have been many afternoons of spectacular cloudscapes. This is a view over my shoulder:
And here’s the promised view of the hills near Younger Daughter’s school, near Manas Lake in the Bhukum area on Pune’s outskirts:
Contrast this lush verdure with a dusty shot of the same area taken this past January. And January isn’t even the depths of the dry season. The driest time is May and the beginning of June, just before the rains arrive in mid-June.
String-Or-Nothing 
I love the empire-waisted pullover. I’m the wrong shape, alas! Your target daughter is lucky.
People’s understanding of copyright can be very strange. When a local knitter suggested that our municipal library should have a collection of knitting books available for loan, I commented that it would be hard to finish an item within the 2 week loan period. Her reply – ‘But you can photocopy it.’ Couldn’t, or wouldn’t, understand that each item in a pattern book would be copyright, not just the collection of patterns.
I also photocopy patterns in my own collection for my own use. I blow them up so I can read them easily, and I annotate them heavily. The original remains in my collection. No breach.
Yup. About 10 years ago I was part of an underground group that collected data on needlework pattern piracy. I am very familiar with the can-do and cannot-do associated with copyright. I try to point out responsible behavior whenever I have a chance because there are still lots of folks unclear on the concept.