One knitting pattern designer I’m an admirer of but somehow don’t mention here very often is Kirsten Johnstone. And one pattern I’ve been looking at repeatedly since it released is Hane, pictured above left. There’s something really appealing about it and yet … the tomboy in me rejects the ruffle outright, while the obnoxious pragmatist in me can’t get past the dangling bits. I imagine them getting on my nerves brushing up against my arms, or getting caught somehow in a file drawer or a door or the blender or I don’t know! And how do you put on a jacket? Because jackets are pretty much not optional where I live, especially if you’re gonna wear short sleeves. But there’s still another part of me that likes something about this, would like for the tomboy and the pragmatist to shut the hell up, and wants to figure out a way to make it just a little bit funkier. I came across the photo of this Asos top, above right, with its exaggerated ruffle sleeves, and it sent me back to look at Hane again. For the first time, I saw the note about there being six options to choose from, pictured in the schematic below. So now I’m wondering — what if you knitted Model C a bit oversized and really went to town with the ruffles? (Working it so they’re fully attached, of course — no danglers. The pragmatist will not budge on that one.) Charcoal grey? There’s still the jacket problem, but tomboy probably wouldn’t let me out of the house anyway.