"The best-laid plans of mice and men go oft awry"

This title, a line from a Robert Burn poem, describes July 2012 design activities. My intended offering, Amelia, will be August's instead...  and so it goes for best-laid plans.  I like to have things neat and tidy – working on one thing at a time, making lists, looking ahead, making plans – but the truth is some of my best ideas have come out of turn, out of left field, seemingly out of no where ... and when they do, happily, I've learned to let them.

Dorothy I had been hard at work on Amelia (a 2-color, raglan sleeve, lace?, garter stitch? number), when I received an email from a ravelry follower asking for more detailed pictures of Dorothy. Eager to accommodate the request  (I hadn't thought of Dorothy for a while), I went back for a closer look. Still lovin' her for sure, but in the year since her release my work has taken some turns.  I found myself fixated on her update.  I wanted her longer, more shaped, and wasn't she a delightful candidate for reworking on circular needles? (I'm lovin' circular needles these days.)  But wait... more pondering...

wouldn't a much better candidate for this all out remake be Emma? Or at least her chevron lace?? A week of trials followed.  Still intrigued, it didn't take me too long to dismantle Amelia and reset sights on this new project, now appropriately renamed Katherine (Dorothy's mother) – and to modify my planning queue accordingly.

Katherine has turned out to be a chevron lace summer shell, longer than both Dorothy or Emma, with shaping more reminiscent of Margareta,and, yes, worked on circular needles.  With luck (and best-laid plans), I'll have her launched next week.

And just to satisfy my however-futile, list requirement, a brief bulleted recap: 

• Dorothy remains on it, needing some new pictures after gentle circular reworking, 
• as does dear Amelia, who may or may not end up as I envision her now. We shall see.

On a separate note, in the midst of July's upheaval came an invitation from Robin Hunter, who asked if she could interview me for her designer-series blog.  Needless to say I was delighted to accept – in the midst of reassessment, a bit of self-assessment!  You'll find that conversation here.

Margareta revealed

Meet Margareta, this design the namesake of my grand-aunt, dad's aunt.  She was not only my grandmother's sister, but her sister-in-law as well!  How possible? Sisters of one family married brothers of another!  How fun is that, and a bit risky too for relationships overall – but so it goes in matters of the heart.

Margareta is a two-color, short-sleeved tee worked in fingering-weight wool – light and airy for warm days and nights. Its sleeves and shoulders are worked in ribbon lace – an easily mastered 9 stitch by 20 row repeat – in a complimentary color that provides a fresh pop and textural companion – a bit of frosting – to the stockinette stitch simplicity of its lower bodice. This tee is slim-fitting, shaped, and extends mid-hip in length. Worked bottom-up, the lower portion begins as one piece on circular needles, until the starting point of the lace at the underarm where it splits and each side is worked separately.

Click here for pattern details. You'll find this pattern for sale on Ravelry.