The “Spokane Ferocity” was designed to be a fun wear-with-a-t-shirt-and-jeans sort of thing. Maybe “dress it up or down” like in the fashion magazines. Mostly, it was a design challenge! A marvelous learning experience as I fussed along merrily with calculations and swatches and graph paper. Rather than try to detail the journey, I thought I would pick a few “postcard” views:

1) Unexpected Delight: the piece of cable I used as a single motif that came out looking like a wild spider

2) Unexpected Dilemma: how do you make a color change in a cable pattern flow organically?

3) Foresight Rewarded: I think I have finally grasped the fact that the human body is round – not flat like the paper on which I sketch my design – so I left a little “dead space” at the edges and the piece when worn looks rather as I expected it to (without motifs lost in the underarm region or the split hitting in an unfortunate place)

4) Recovery From Lack of Foresight: all that amazing yarn ends up being rather heavy (cables, acrylics, bramble stitch in Noro) hanging from 3” straps of bamboo yarn (read: great danger of garment stretching over time!!), so I used a linen stitch for the bodice and then threaded ribbon along the straps to reinforce them (the fact that the linen stitch gave me serviceable strands to thread through was sheer luck!)

5) Praise For Crab Stitch: I love crab stitch edging! So tidy and stabilizing – like a good governess or administrative assistant

It is always a relief when the garment I have designed – with such an investment of time and a gutsy chunk of disposable income – turns out to be wearable! I even find I can wear it with either side as the front, as I originally desired – though I confess that intending a piece to be reversible or somehow wearable in different ways is one of my favorite safe-guards. It gives me a second chance if the “front” is catastrophic.

So, resister the “Spokane Ferocity” as a success, possibly even a wardrobe staple (I have kind of an odd wardrobe).

As always, thanks to Sarah for some good advice along the way.