Weekend Update

Tada! I couldn't put my Ming Jacket down; The pattern is by Doris Chan. I really enjoyed making it. Once again, I like top down construction. I tried it on as I went along for the length of the sleeves and the placement of the lace bottom. Now if the weather would cooperate and give me a nice (and warm) spring day, I might get to wear it. The Nashua Creative Focus Linen, a cotton linen blend, was a pleasure to work with and I would totally work with it again.
I started the Bella Paquita by Marnie MacLean in Berroco Touche. This is one of the more unique patterns I've ever worked with. Most of the pattern is done in charts like in the picture above. I messed up the first time around (thank goodness I began with the sleeves). I ignored the designer's notes that the yellow lines are 2" pieces of fabric and the red lines are 10 st squares. The yellow lines popped out more, so that's what I based my stitch count on. WRONG! Back on track now.
Gina, one of my Westport Yarns students, introduced me to the Mamy Bag on Ravelry. It's a very retro looking bag made up of 43 hexagons. The only problem with the pattern is that it's written in French and there is no translation. I asked around for any French interpreters and a relative of Diane's gave it a whirl.

Then I discovered Bing Translator. So freaking cool! You type in the sentence you want to translate in one box and it puts the English version (in this case) in an adjacent box. I had a lot of fun translating part of the pattern. There's still a lot on interpretation to be added and some words the translator didn't know. When I related the story at dinner, one of my daughters informed me in a very "ho hum voice" that this type of translator exists on Google and other places as well. Ahhh, so jaded at such a young age. She couldn't take my excitement away, I still thought it was way cool.

At any rate, this will be an upcoming class at Westport Yarns, beginning the end of May.