Hound's Tooth 101

Hi Knitters,
Yesterday I picked up a copy of Knit.1 at Barnes and Noble. There is a lot of good stuff to check out in this issue. Yay to Adina Klein, the new Editor in Chief! When I got to this page with the attractive hound's tooth jacket by Mari Lynn Patrick, who is a very talented designer, I remembered something from my past. I am not afraid of sharing this hound's tooth disaster with you, my dear knitting friends, because if you have been knitting as long as I have, surely you have a few skeletons in your closet as well. I know I am not alone.
How completely unflattering is this sweater on me? Wow, that's hard to look at!
Let's go back to about 1987. I was in graduate school and was working as a program assistant for the school of education at the UW. I was in charge of contacting school districts and placing student teachers in classrooms around the Madison area. I vividly remember working on this Very Easy, Very Vogue hound's tooth sweater set while I was working on these placements. Did I just say sweater set, you ask? Why yes, believe it or not I knitted this bad boy up with a very short hound's tooth skirt to match. I'll give you a second to stop laughing.
I can't find the skirt, I am so mad about that. I would have slapped that on for you to get the full effect. The sweater is absolutely huge in width, but that was the style then. Huge, voluminous on top and skinny on the bottom was the trend, which has come back in style only it is much more flattering today. This is not a good shape for my build at all but I unfortunately went along with it anyway.

I pulled the waist in behind my back for the above shot to create some type of shape. Fitted Knits, this is not. I remember wearing the skirt and sweater with black tights to my program assistant job. That is so funny to me. The other people in that office were very granola-type academics, basically hippies. This is Madison we're talking about here. Then I show up wearing the full hound's tooth shabang! What was I thinking? Clearly not much. I remember feeling really proud of the two stranded color work I had achieved. I think this was my first attempt at this technique. It kills me that I actually thought I looked good in this sweater. I asked my seventh grade son to take pictures of me at about 6:30am on our front lawn. He is a good sport. My kids thought this sweater was so funny, and they couldn't believe it when I told them it had a matching skirt and that I actually wore it out in public. We all had a good laugh at my expense.

Maybe in 2027 a mother will pull out an old knitted outfit from 2007 and her children will get a good giggle at her expense, too. I can't even imagine what the knitted future will bring.

On another note, my seven-year-old daughter had 10-inches cut from her hair yesterday to donate to Locks of Love. I am very proud of her for doing this. It was her own idea. Her cousin had this done and so she was inspired to do the same. I gave her every chance to change her mind but she was determined. I loved her long brown pony tails and I will miss them. Now she looks adorable with her chin-length bob. There is something so warming about the thought that her hair will be made into a beautiful wig for someone in need of a little comfort.

best, susie