No Head for Figures

You would think, would you not, that a man who grew up watching "Sesame Street" and graduated from Harvard would able to count to three?

Usually I can. Here, I'll demonstrate.

Three Abigails.



Three pieces of chocolate.



Three...men in ties.



Alas, my obvious facility with higher mathematics deserted me when I began the first sleeve on Abigail's Tomten Jacket. Carefully noting Elizabeth's instructions to decrease two stitches every third ridge, I sped off and before I knew it came to the cuff.

And then I realized I had in fact been decreasing every second ridge. The sleeve would have fit Abby perfectly if she had the shoulders of a parakeet and the arms of a Smurf.

On the second try, with the aid of a notebook and row counter, I got it right.

And I'm quite pleased with the pseudo-Egyptian stylized thingies I put just above the cuff. It's a lotus, maybe. Or a stalk of blooming papyrus. Or Ftatateeta beseeching Osiris to send down a bowl of ice cream. Something of that sort.

Men of Color

So listen, who else is going to the Kaffe Fassett/Brandon Mably double-header this weekend? I'll definitely be at Brandon's Saturday workshop (I can't make it on Sunday, or I'd go then, too) and I'll be at Kaffe's talk in the evening. They're both appearing on the north side courtesy of Arcadia Knitting.

I talked to Kathy and apparently there are still some seats left for both. There's more information on their Web site. Kathy says there will copies available of Kaffe's new book and he'll be doing a signing.

There truly aren't many people I'd line up for, Kaffe's one of them. An original, and an inspiration. Of course, since I consider the blue I've added to Abigail's oatmeal-colored Tomten to be a Riot of Color, you might not know it. Maybe after this weekend things will be a little different.