Stephanie Klose

I’m delighted to announce that my first downloadable knitting pattern, Herkimer, is live on Ravelry. It’s a seamless cabled cardigan knit in Ultra Alpaca and sized from 32″ to 53 1/4″. I did the actual knitting a while ago, so I’ve really been enjoying getting to show it off. And the fact that I’m in a position to do so is due to my very good luck having friends with the skills I needed to make this pattern happen: Carolyn and her prowess with the camera, Jenn and her math-whiz tech-editing skills, and Jackie‘s graphic design know-how.

Carolyn took the pictures while I was in Chicago earlier this summer, and she and Jenn were nice enough to wander around downtown Chicago with me while I looked for the kind of picturesque urban grit I had in mind for a background. (I had no idea the city was so clean and shiny! All the talk of gangsters and stockyards had led me to believe there’d be more dirt.) But we found this lovely brick wall, and Carolyn went to work while I stood there awkwardly, trying to look like a normal human wearing a sweater. She’s such a good photographer that the final shots look natural, but Jenn got a few camera photos of us at work.

Chicago has the nicest back alleys I’ve ever seen. There was a Maserati just out of the shot. (But what do I do with my hands?)