Lent 2011 - Days #4-6

So I took a bunch of photos of my outfit on Saturday (Day #4) (122 to be exact), but as I was wearing a sweater design I'm planning to submit for publication, I can't show any of them to you. But if it helps at all, I wore the same denim skirt all weekend. No Pants Tip #1: If you're not going to wear pants, you're going to need more than one weekend casual skirt-wear.

Day #5 (it was late - so I didn't feel like taking a real photo): Denim Skirt Black Wool Tights: WarmLegWear.com Slippers: French Press Slippers, made by me. Sweater: Vivian, made by me.

Early last week I finally felted the slippers I knit in October. They are super cozy and I've been wearing them non-stop when at home. It was worth all the spit-splicing I had to do to finish them!

No Pants Tip #2: Superman had it right after all. Do your tights have a tendency to migrate downward during the day? An extra pair of underwear on top of the tights helps keep them in place. (Yeah, I just wrote about underwear on the internet - that deserves a superhero pose)

Sweater:FLOGS jacket, made by me

Skirt: Anne Taylor Loft (gift from Grandparents)

Wool Tights: WarmLegWear.com

Boots: Naturalizers, Macy's

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Unrelated to pants, I've been watching the news coverage on Japan, and have been really struck by the devastation, perhaps moreso than usual because I have friends in Japan. If you'd like to donate to something other than the usual Red Cross/Doctors without Borders, may I suggest joining my friend Carlo (and myself) in his donation to Shelterbox?

Purple People

Remember back in January when I said I was in a Purple Phase? It's still going strong apparently. Case in point:

Your honors, I rest my case.

Completion, Progress, and Learning

Completion:

As promised about a week ago - here's my finished a-line skirt. I had to do some adjusting to the waistband (because my waist is not rectanglular), but I love the finished product. It isn't a fabric I would normally pick out or wear, but somehow, here it works.

Progress:

Whenever I'm knitting a sweater, I'll periodically ask Mr. Cleaver "Does it looks like a sweater yet?" Answer right now? : Yes!

Learning:

I mentioned last week I was drafting a tee and trying my first knit-sewing experience. The sewing part was okay, but the tee fit terribly. It was about 2 inches too short (not even counting hemming), the neckline was off, and it was bunching at the arms in an altogether unattractive way.

Mistakes seem less daunting when you have Cadbury creme eggs.

I wandered around the house in a shirt full of pins for about a half an hour trying to figure out where I went wrong.  I'll admit that the instructions for this one aren't terribly detailed - I'd suggest measuring a lot of your store-bought shirts first for things like length - and I was dissapointed that there were no alteration suggestions in the book, then I realized what I needed - the full bust adjustment.  So I've totally redrafted the top for version 2.0 and purchased some more (probably inappropriately thick interlock) jersey and will hopefully cut it out later this week.

Vivian Row 117+147+88 & the MIL dress

A little over a month in and it's really starting to look like something now. Of course as quickly as they go, I'm not a big fan of knitting sleeves, I can't wait until everything is joined up and I'm working on the yoke - otherwise know as the home stretch. I'd said I'm trying to get it done before it's too warm to wear it, but really, this is Maine (despite our total lack of snow right now).

Unto sewing news.

This is the dress I finished back in January.  My mother-in-law requested and purchased the fabric  for it in the fall of 2008. After accidentally cutting out half the fabric upside down I purchased a close-match fabric and was too-afraid to cut it out for a while, but finally overcome with guilt and with the MIL’s birthday approaching, I finally cut out it again and then sewed the whole thing up in one (long) day.

The pattern is Simplicity 3673, though it's a bit unrecognizable as I merged two sizes between the bust and hips and added 6 inches to the hem, but otherwise made no adjustments.

Can’t say the corduroy is my favorite to sew (and may have been the cause of the issues with my Brother sewing machine), but the dress turned out well and is a pretty good fit – though if requested I may make some slight adjustments to the back darts.

Speaking of sewing machines, if all goes well I will be picking up a shiny new machine tomorrow!

Vivian Row 117 + 55

Moving along quite nicely.

Going to Marden's tonight for some discount fabric shopping with my Sweater Knit-Along buddy.

Vivian Row 58

I love the part of a project when it suddenly starts to look like something! Of course at this point, that something could be anything, but something it is :)

Vivian Row 24

Does anyone find that after frogging*  a section of knitting that you try to knit faster afterward to make up for "lost time"? I do it all the time and I don't think it works.

*Frogging: to remove the needles and pull out knitted stitches.  So-called because you rip-it rip-it rip-it.

Turning New Leaves

Last night after work, I picked up my 2010 calendar for the home-front (think I have a thing for sheep?), along with a new comic book and sewing book. It was a good night.

So this morning I did the annual shift of birthdays, etc. to the new calendar. I always love going back over the prior year's pages and seeing what I did - things like a Pink Martini concert, a trip to New York, and a lot of rehearsal days.  I used to just tear out my favorite pictures and recycle the rest, but now I like to hold on to the calendar as a simple momento of what happened that year.

In other news, I think I've officially shifted from a blue-green phase to a purple phase. (I'll be casting on that dark purple Eco-Wool later today for a Vivian knit-a-long I'm doing with my friend Maggie.)  Does anyone else do this? Get obsessed with a color, then move on to another, and so on? My phases usually last for about 5-6 months, then I ban myself from buying the shade for a while and then I'll usually come back to it again. (My last purple phase was Oct 2007-May 2008) Maybe I can talk myself into a yellow phase next.

In other other news, I got my 400th comment on my last post, from the lovely Jen at Pretty Little Pictures. I always love hearing from my readers, so thanks to you all for brightening my day 400 times!