swimming in fabric

Finally, the pictures of the shirt (both the making of and the finished product) and one picture of the purse I made as a bit of an afterthought. So yes, it is a lot of fabric and a lot of pattern. I think the absurd amount of pattern is the real issue for me. It is the type of thing where I had to go out and look for fabric in a large pattern and it was darn near impossible. I’m a lady who sews in solids and wears solids, so this is a bit of a departure from my everyday. But so comfortable and so easy! I’ve also pretty much managed to devise a mini-dress pattern (in my head at least) with significant influence from the sleeve make up of this shirt. After over a decade of avoiding sewing with knits I think I may have found a new fabric to love.

 

the case for gauge and an accurate pdf

Enter the Tessuti Favorite Top. Looks easy enough, yes? No. Not when your dang pdf printed version is giving you 9cm for every 10cm you should have. This entails a sad amount of math for me. Admittedly, math in any amount is enough to make me sad.

But wait! What is this I spy? Lucky for me they did a part 2 to their original post. In it there is a little doodle with the measurements I should be getting.

This is a lesson in measure twice, cut once. Really. Had I not double checked all this it would have been a really irritating mini-disaster. All of my numbers were falling at least 2-7cm short of what they should have been! At that rate, the shirt would have looked mighty foolish, indeed.

Now there is just the small matter of chalking everything on to the fabric in a way that makes sense.

A quick update. The top is done. It is, perhaps, the most comfortable thing I’ve ever worn. Also, I feel like this is why older women gravitate towards caftans so frequently. Admittedly, I do feel about 95% ridiculous in this (it could be because of the size of the top, or because the top is so nice and I haven’t even bothered to comb my hair today so I look a bit silly to begin with). I’ll go so far as to try to style it in the most subtle way tomorrow and actually leave the house in it. We shall see how that goes.

 

one pound of super value

Or more accurately, three pounds of super value. Bless my parents for being able to search out yarn bargains where ever they go. To be sure, the phrase super value is not overstating in the least.

The latest addition to the apartment-that-used-to-be-for-living-in-but-is-now-mostly-for-the-storing-of-craft-items is a set of three bags. Mostly generic looking bags. Really, the only hint at their past life is the well worn plastic with holes poked (or rather nibbled, as in by wee mice) and a sticker that tells me that these were made in Turkey (a land of many wonders, I am sure). My only problem is what to make with them.

To assure you that there is, indeed, knitting going on around here (and not just squirreling away of affordable yarns) I will report that my designs on a Damson have been tossed in a most unceremonious way. After ten attempts and ten abysmal, disheartening failures (causing me to question my mettle as a knitter) I gave in and moved on. Not something that a gal as stubborn as I  can do easily, it took a great deal of whiskey to accept the decision. In Damson’s stead there will be an Ishbel. Thankfully not a step down by any means. A fact for which the malabrigo will be pleased, I am sure.

 

book two

It appears, based on the first two selections of 2010, that the books selected for knitting 20th century novels will all be gems. I just finished reading the selection for February 1st – March 15 (I know, I’m a little ahead at this point) and it was amazing! If you ever happen across a copy of Robertson Davies’ Fifth Business, I suggest you snap it up and have a read.

Looks like that clears up 2 of the 10, for number 23 at least. Looking at it now, it seems like a mighty daunting list.

 

weekly roundup

This is likely more than a week. I have a poor concept of time.

 

the owls are probably mostly what they seem

The hedgehog and I have been watching a decent amount of the Twin Peaks recently, or we were until the library wanted their copy back. Also recently, I finished owls by Kate Davies. It was pretty much a breeze to knit because the yarn was just so darned chunky. It would have been done a lot sooner had I not taken a break because I was put off by the short rows. I made an earnest attempt at learning Japanese short rows, which ps are so confusing. Later I relented and just did them the easy way. Had I skipped right to this step I would have finished the sweater significantly sooner.

 

spiders

Unnerving. Yes, this is the word I would typically use to describe spiders that grow to the size of an inch or two.

But, for some reason, the second you tell me that you can harvest the golden silk from these spiders and weave it . . . . well, then we have a completely different story.

 

book one

I know I said that the photography part of the list might be the easy one . . . but I’m really not too sure. Ravelry has a book club (who knew!?) and I thought that it would be a good way to get some of my required reading done. The book selection for January was The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett.

Turns out I don’t hate mystery novels as much as I had assumed! When I was younger I kept it confined to Sherlock Holmes, Poirot, maybe a little Miss Marple for good measure. But that was as far as it went.

I could solely base my high opinion on the sheer amount of witty banter in the book.  It was such a quick read and so much fun. And really, I can respect characters that drink as much as these folks did. My goodness!

 

the december roll

Number 15 might be the easy one.

 

mail!

I went to check my mail yesterday and was met with this pretty surprise!

If there is a surefire way to win me over it’s to wrap things in brown paper and write cute notes on kitten paper. Seriously, that kitten has made it’s way onto my fridge. So cute! When I finally unwrapped the package I was met with this little gem!

Another big huge super duper dinosaur size thank you hug to both Keiko Lynn and Blueberry Deluxe! You folks are so wonderful.