My Spicy Yarn: April 2010

Spring has finally sprung, so this is a perfect time to spring this new post.

Several years ago I was taking belly dancing classes, yes I did say belly dancing, I designed a few costumes. One costume in particular was very whimsical, flowery, with a goddess touch.

About a year ago while visiting San Francisco, I went to a Yves St. Laurent show at the De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. I was walking thru the exhibit admiring his creations and there it was my belly dancing costume!! The only difference was mine had tons of sparkle and his was a wedding dress.

Now my head was spinning with inspiration!! I immediately started sketching only this time with knitting in mind. I channeled fairies, flowers, white, lacy and gauzy fabric all with a bit of naughtiness.

When I got back to NJ I started going thru yarn stash for inspiration colors and stitch pattern books for the stitch. I found the colors, the stitch, and another book filled with flowers, leaves, and butterflies called "100 Flowers to Knit & Crochet" By Lesley Stanfield. The stitch I found is from the book "Knitting Lace of Estonia" By Nancy Bush. I immediately began swatching and fell in love! I mean how could I not with a stitch called "Double Fig", the forbidden fruit of all things.

Now that I had the swatch and gauge, I decided to make a hat. Why you ask, cause they are cute and flirty. Also, it was going to be a great challenge to keep the pattern going while decreasing. Needless to say it turned out beautiful!!

Next I moved on to the top that I designed based on one of my pj tops, which just happened to be similar to my sketch. After beginning the top, I realized I had to modify the design. The decreases at the sides weren't looking right. I finished the top by adding adjustable straps. The bottom came next, a tie at the sides g-string. It only seemed right, right?

My next move was to take my "inspiration colors" to Michael's to get embroidery floss for the flowers and such.

I made flowers, leaves, butterflies and bees! After making a lot, I started the painstaking process of placing them on the hat, top and bottom. Once all the adornments were perfectly placed I sewed them all in place.

Are you ready? Good, but first you must look at this door. Close your eyes and imagine the