Saturday, April 26, 2003

I loved Barbies when I was little. I can't remember how many I had -- maybe four? At the time, I coveted all the brand-new Barbie stuff; in the late 1970s, that girl was all about beach living. (One word: Malibu.) But what I had was an incongruous mix of new and old and homemade. (Sort of like my style now! Are we destined to become our Barbies?) I was given a bunch of my cousins' Barbie stuff from the 1960s, which I now realize was the best stuff. Plus, my aunt knitted some clothes for my Barbies, and even at the time I knew that was pretty amazing. I still have one Barbie (somewhere), and she still wears those clothes: there was a mint green fitted long-sleeved minidress; a pink sleeveless top with two horizonal mint green stripes, with a matching pink slim knee-length skirt; a long-sleeved burgundy sweater with a white stripe and a blue-green stripe; and the ultimate item that still blows my mind, a navy blue mohair coat (with a hood) that buttoned up the front. Wow. Anyway, did you know that Barbie herself is a knitter? There is a vintage outfit available out there called "Knitting Pretty" that includes a knitted twin set, a tiny pair of scissors, and a teeny tiny how-to book:



I've finished my first sock and I'm almost halfway through the second! I'm loving the Regia Crazy Color yarn and just want to knit everything with it, because of the colours. The socks I'm making are based on this pattern, and they're ribbed down to the toe. For my next pair, I'm going to have an inch or two of ribbing at the top but do the rest in stockinette. I'm so slow, and all that ribbing is driving me crazy!

Ms. magazine has a story about Sleater-Kinney that you can read online here.

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