It’s been a while since I blogged about knitting– a subject none of you care about. Of course you may all treat this as an open thread. 🙂
I finished a sweater coat for me, started a new one for Jim and began thinking about my next project. Thinking about projects involves running google searches on sweaters and seeing what’s out there. Sometimes I sort of imitate those designs. Today, I google searched men’s sweaters. I usual, I found a cute sweater idea. But I’m blogging because the sweater is botched both in implementation and advertising copy.
The cute sweater is shown to the right. Cute elements: Nice traditional fair isle pattern. The sweater is doubly fair isle: The knitting technique of carrying along two colors and alternating which color you work is called “fair isle” . That specific appearance is also called fair isle.
It’s a cute sweater so you might be wondering: what’s botched about the Ralph Lauren sweater. Take a careful look on the side seam. Notice the patterns don’t match at the side seams? You’d think for $179 on sale or $250 original price Ralph Lauren’s sweater assemblers would take the time to make sure they line up the patterns before seaming.
But no.
If you entered this in the county fair, the judges would ding you for that. Oh… well…
But the more egregious error is in the copy. Here’s how it reads:
Our handsome classic-fitting golf vest is crafted in a supremely soft blend of linen, merino wool, cotton, cashmere and silk, intarsia-knit with a preppy Fair Isle design for polished style.
Intarsia?! Intarsia?!!!! This is not intarsia-knit. The cute child’s sweater shown to the below is intarsia knit. 
Purlbee discusses the difference between fair-isle and intarsia.
Ok. I got that off my chest. Sometime in the next few months I will probably post a rant about a copy writer mistaking knitting for crochet or vice a versa.
Feel free to post rants about anything. This includes global warming rants, hobby based rants or whatever. But Dr. Shoos/Cadbury: I’ve added your name in the plugin that makes you wait. So you will need to pause between rants. This applies to two other people. You know who you are.
Not a rant, but a bit of advice:
If you are in Durham, NC on a Saturday, hit up Triangle brewery. From 1-3 they have a free tour and free beer on tap. I recommend their Blue Moon style. I missed out on the Habanero Brew, which won’t be in for a couple months. Maybe next time I’m in town. Also, they have no air conditioning, so you can experience global warming as you imbibe.
Oh, and careful where you park. My nephew might tow your car.
The cuteness of the knit red sweater that my daughter wore as a toddler failed to deter the moths. When we found it in the old-clothes pile, it had more of them than the Albert Hall.
But! My dad took this on, finding matching yarn and darning every last one. Looks great, again. Now we just have to wait until the right little person comes along…
Thanks Grandpa! (Great-granpops, some day, maybe)
Mhhhmmmm beer! I may have to highlight some homebrew. The guys have perfected their various techniques. (Oh. We grow hops in our back yard. Jim’s brother’s planted some in their back yard this spring.)
AMac– To prevent more moths while you wait for the right little person, wash carefully, then store the sweater in a plastic bag along with a mothball. You’ll have to wash again before wearing but it’s worth it.
Oh– most wools are hand washable, but sometimes the dyes aren’t. (I always laundry methods on the test on the gauge swatch which most knitters need to knit up to make the sweater in the first place. I find yarns manufacturers suggest drycleaning often launder just fine– but it’s better to test on a 4″ swatch than the whole sweater. )
On the subject of breweries, if you’re on the East Coast, but don’t make it down to NC, try the Dogfish Head Brewery in Milton, DE. A charming little town about 30 minutes from Rehoboth Beach. Even the locals call the town “Mayberry-like”.
If you want something that’s a beer and a meal all in one, try the 90 Minute IPA (300 calories, 9% alcohol).
If you want a shot of something too, try the 120 Minute (18% alcohol).
Unfortunately, reservations required.
http://www.dogfish.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogfish_Head_Brewery
Just as an FYI the UAH daily dataset has been looking very high all month, few people might be in for a suprise when Dr Spencer publishes the monthly values early next month. To my naked eye it appears to be with some rather warm patches in the Pacific, something unusual seems to be happening.
Most likely a transient phenomena though.
dorlomin–That is quite a dramatic runup on channel 5!
JohnM– My two brother’s in laws favorite is IPA. They’ve been brewing on and off since college and are back on an “on” stage. Robert likes to add even more hops. Jim and I periodically pester them into making ESBs. I’ll have to show some off.
dorlomin (Comment #77923)
June 25th, 2011 at 1:14 pm
Just as an FYI the UAH daily dataset has been looking very high all month
————————
But the SST values had been dropping as the channel 5 temps shot up – very strange.
FYI — Over the past few days, the new sea level paleoreconstruction paper (Kemp11, PNAS) has triggered more Tiljander controversy, at Climate Audit, RealClimate (Update 2), and my blog. Also discussion at WUWT and Judy Curry’s.
Family and work are both making claims for the next few days, so no commentary/threadjacking on the subject from me, here. Anyway, I’ve said my piece.
I will try to make sure I check out the beer when I move my daughter to her dorm at UNCCH ths August. Boris do they have the IPA or some of the heavier stouts?
Yes, John. They have an IPA and a Stout. And an interesting bourbon type beer.
“So you will need to pause between rants. This applies to two other people. You know who you are.” If I fail, if I succeed – At least I live as I believe – No matter what you take from me (Lucia)- You can’t take away my dignity 😉
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHRERLEM2eE
Andrew
RE: lucia (Comment #77920)
“To prevent more moths while you wait for the right little person, wash carefully, then store the sweater in a plastic bag along with a mothball. You’ll have to wash again before wearing but it’s worth it.”
Another alternative to moth balls is storing wool with a scented fabric softener sheet. It is very effective at repelling insects while far less repellant to humans.
ivp0–
I’ve never tried that.
Nick–
I googled. So, it looks like “Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott” is going to shun him at the meeting. That’s good.
I was unaware of the numerous variants of Sudoku including this one (which I suspect makes it easier to solve the puzzles, but harder to create the puzzles.) Wikipedia fails to mention his name on their page on Sudoku variants: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudoku#Variants
While Lucia’s blog does not generally embrace policy issues, and I may be asked to stick to my knitting, or knot (sic!), China’s cancelling of the billion dollar Airbus order over EU CO2 emissions taxes interests me. Especially since China is often held up by the NYT and others as a shining example of green progress.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/c4ce5aa0-9e4b-11e0-8e61-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1QOmEKLZk
Andrew_KY
Of course not. I just prefer to keep my comments blocks from being perpetually derailed.
Just back from a two week self-driven tour of the UK. 5 days in London (hotel near Paddington), thence Portsmouth, Oxford, Bath, Cotswolds, Malvern, Iron Bridge, northern Wales, Chester, Wakefield, York, Langshaw, Scotland, Kingussie, Inverness, Clianlaric, Edinburgh, Heathrow, to EWR.
Bitter at whatever the temperature is delicious and 2 pints seemed about right. I’m mystified as to why anyone would snicker at it, or its serving temperature.
I can also now understand what they mean by “the fizzy stuff.”
“perpetually derailed”
Exaggeration. And I would be careful about acknowledging dignity in others, too. Dangerous idea, Lucia. Next you’ll be talking about rights like Life and Liberty and where these come from.
Andrew
Mothballs used to be naphthalene, which is just about as carcinogenic as benzene. Now they are made up from 1,4-dichlorobenzene, the same stuff used in urinal cakes (Yum!). I don’t doubt that nasty scented dryer sheets do the trick. The key is to make an air-tight seal with the plastic bag.
I prefer DDT because it is non-toxic to humans (we must think of the grandchildren)
Howard–
I suspect washing to get out eggs and sealing in a plastic bag may be enough in any case.
I guess your readers ARE interested in knitting.
Myself, I truly admire knitters because I never had the knack.
I like to crochet when I’m inspired enough to take on a simple project. I like washable synthetics. Can’t go wrong with an afghan for the sofa. Negligible pilling. Can stand up to heavy human and dog abuse.
“Take a careful look on the side seam. Notice the patterns don’t match at the side seams? You’d think for $179 on sale or $250 original price Ralph Lauren’s sweater assemblers would take the time to make sure they line up the patterns before seaming.”
_____
Lucia,
About 5 years ago I bought a similar, but better quality, “fair isle†sweater for $30 at an L L Bean sale. It may be the only clothing item I have that has appreciated in value.
Howard said in Comment #77944
“Mothballs used to be naphthalene, which is just about as carcinogenic as benzene.”
_______
Years ago a friend put moth balls in his attic to repel squirrels. He said the moth balls repelled both his family and the squirrels.
I have heard of people using moth balls to keep snakes away. I don’t know if it works, but I think I would prefer the snakes.
“Take a careful look on the side seam. Notice the patterns don’t match at the side seams?”
The horizontal patterns in general have some similarities to some migraine ophthalmic auras. The patterns not matching at the seams makes the correlation even more accurate.
Mjeff,
interesting comment. First occurrence of opthalmic aura at our place was spouse’s which she described as you suggest. We didn’t know what it was and were relieved to find it medically well-known and not a cause for alarm. I did think it strange that a natural phenomenon could produce a jagged line, but that’s how she described it.
In the aura, can you really get a jog (step change) or offset in the saw-teeth?
j ferguson,
“In the aura, can you really get a jog (step change) or offset in the saw-teeth?”
The aura may rapidly grow, vibrate, and be offset. The following description mentions the zigzag pattern which may resemble the pattern on the sweater to some extent: “The area of jagged, zigzag lights are constantly in motion, flashing over a 15 to 30 minute time frame. The area involved often starts small near the center of the vision, then moves outward slowly. Or, it may start temporally and move toward the center of vision. There is a scotoma, or a blind spot, in the area of the disturbance which is seen in the same field of vision of both eyes. A migraine headache may, or may not, follow this aura.”
Matching patterns at seams is apparently oh-so-last-century.
Just look at any Madras-checkered or tartan-patterned garment in the shop.
Of course, matching patterns always requires using more fabric and careful assembly, which is probably the reason for leaving it out altogether.
The knitting business with the unfortunate name:
http://www.cylex-uk.co.uk/company/knitters—sewers-world-14033110.html
EW–
With madras shorts and shirts I suspect the main reason to not match patterns on side seams is saving fabric and also time. The cutters cut and fill a bins. The sewers just pull stuff out. No one makes any attempt to match– but even more importantly, once everything is in a bin, the amount of time to locate fronts and back that could possibly match is much to long. If you look at side seams on inexpensive (and even medium priced) madras shorts, you can see the plaids don’t come close to matching. The person sewing couldn’t have shifted to create a match because no one even tried when cutting.
With knitting, I suspect it’s only time, and only a little time at that. Examining the pieces on that sweater, it’s clear the machines were programmed to create pieces where the patterns might match. If a buyer picked those peices apart and reseamed, they could have a vest with matching side seams. But the manufacturer did not budget the 30 extra seconds it would take to match the patterns. It’s sort of a shame given that the fiber is expensive and the pattern is cute.
Richard–
Do you mean knitpicks? They are very popular. I get their catalog and have bought yarn from them many times.