Sunday, August 12, 2007

da Bolero

Greetings !

All I can say is that I fell in love the moment I gazed on Nora Gaughan's Capecho or "Bolero" as we like to call it. (Vogue Winter 06/7)

At first, since I was knitting it for ChloƩ, I made a paper pattern and sent it to her (She's Atlantic, I'm Pacific). The basic module of the design is a pentagon, here is my pattern for one pentagon:























It is 5" on each side. I printed 10 pentagons + 2 for the sleeves and taped them together to get an idea. There had been a lot of posts on line that complained that it didn't fit and that it came out huge. The pattern was so complex, that I wasn't about to have a problem. I shipped it off in a big box that weighed "nothing" for Clo to try. It was pretty hard to tell what it was going to look like because the paper was rigid and poked out in non-yarn like ways. Who knew what it would look like? She thought it would work! OK, I'll try ..... an Xsm

As I am a methodical mathematical scientific illustrator in my day life, I approached the study of our Bolero in the same manner. Take a look at my pattern notes for one side of the 5 sided pentagon:



















This story will go on for some time, so I will leave you with a picture of the partially knitted first pentagon. BTW choosing a gorgeous dark brown and delicious wool makes it even MORE impossible.














My part of this blog will read like the Arabian nights of knitting, so zzzzzzzzzz and back to my daughter, ChloƩ. How's your knitting group going and your sweater ?

mom

PS: Click on the pictures to enlarge

1 comment:

Renee said...

Oh lawdy!!! That pentagon bolero is the most exquisite thing I have seen! I wish my mum could knit me something so beautiful. That yarn selection was so much better than they used in the mag - the model helps to make it look extra sassy too.