Brave New Knits: My Milk Maiden

Pattern: Milk Maiden
Source: Brave New Knits

I've been waiting what feels like ages to post about this here knit.

I couldn't believe it when Julie Turjoman asked if I'd like to be included in her book about knitters and the interwebby blogosphere. I was so very, very excited! But it was, of course, all to be secret knitting.

I began work on Milk Maiden in early spring of 2009. At that time, the museum I work at had an exhibition featuring printwork of a number of Dutch masters. In particular, Lucas van Leyden's Milk Maid caught my attention.
While my own Milk Maiden isn't a totally faithful repro of van Leyden's barefoot farmworker, I took a few pieces of ephemeral inspiration from his engraving.

It's a fairly basic bottom-up raglan construction (you can't stop me on those sweaters!), with a bit of a fun twist with the ribbing on the bust and wee bit of lace detail knit separately and then stitched on afterward.

These pictures were taken around May 2009, just before I mailed the pullover off to Julie for photoging and promotional purposes.

It's really very cool to see the same piece I knit being worn by a real model!

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you, dear readers. If not for your continued support, I wouldn't have been much of a blogger. Would have missed out on so much inspiration. Certainly wouldn't have caught Julie's eye - it's all thanks to you that she thought to contact me, and I got to be involved in this great book.

Thanks so very much!