Prezzies!

J's family was here this weekend. His mom has quickly figured out that the way to my heart is through lots of fiberous presents. She's a smart one! (Just in case she's reading this, I would like her even if she didn't give me stuff. But it sure doesn't hurt.)

Self-striping sock yarn (wool blend on the left, cotton on the right):
Despite all the sock yarn I have managed to quickly accumulate in the short time since I started knitting socks, I didn't yet have any self-patterning stuff. Goody!

These ones are alpaca-silk laceweight blends:
The blue stuff is Alpaca with a Twist Fino (and such a lovely rich bluey color) and the white is handspun by J's mum herself.

Now I need some good ideas for lacey projects.

My own mom was also here this weekend (although SHE didn't bring me any presents, harumph! Just kidding Mom. Thanks for the gift of life and all.). She suddenly decided she needed to start knitting something, even though she eschewed knitting decades ago, so I gave her a leftover skein of Knitpicks Sierra bulky blue yarn and some size 10 1/2s (that I think actually originally belonged to her mother, how quaint) and she was off and running. Apparently knitting is like riding a bike, I didn't need to remind her how to do anything. She was so cute!

(Update on the bridesmaids' dresses - several family members and a mild panic attack have combined to convince me that retail is my friend. You will hear no more from me of trying to create my entire wedding from scratch, promise. I'll leave that kind of thing to Martha Stewart and her thousands of employees.)

Dressing down

After making that last dress, that was purportedly a mock-up for potential bridesmaid dresses, I decided that it wasn't at all the right kind of bridesmaid dress pattern. And then I saw this Vogue pattern, below, which reminded me of some cute dresses by J. Crew and Thread.

So I made another mock-up. Now, some of you might remember that part of the point of this whole thing was the saving money aspect of it, and now I've probably spent at least $60 on these two "mock-up" dresses, and am not any closer to having a single actual bridesmaid dress. Although I do own a cute duro-style dress of my own making now, at least. This second mock-up I made in Sienna's size (the fact that I made the first dress in my own size, despite the fact that none of the bridesmaids are the same size as me, ought to be a clue that I really had only selfish motivations behind that first creation), and again sacrificing work and sleep, managed to finish it in a few short days before flying out to Chicago to see Sienna over this last weekend. I am proud to relate that the dress looked awesome on her! Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture, and I think a good chunk of this awesomeness may be due to her ginormous ta-tas, as it doesn't look so good on me:


Bleh.

Up-close of the neato cotton fabric print of the mock-up:
Oh, and that pale green somewhat baggy somewhat cowl of the last post now has a new home with Sienna, and as predicted, it looked much better on her than on me. All of that under-arm bagginess was magically taken up by her, guess what, ample ta-tas.
I'm starting to get a little weirded out by the number of times I have talked about Sienna's bosom on this blog, which is supposedly about knitting, not about Sienna or her various body parts. Also, all evidence to the contrary, I swear that I'm straight. No more boob-talk, I promise! All posts from here on out will be strictly G-rated good ol' fashioned fiberous fun.

In case you thought I had forsaken knitting for bridesmaid dress mock-ups, here's evidence that Clapotis is Clapotising along.

And I also just broke my moratorium on no yarn buying in August by ordering a ton of Noro Cash Iroha, Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, and Fleece Artist Merino Sock. Well, it's almost September, right? Maybe if the yarn doesn't show up until September it doesn't count as buying it in August, yeah, that's it.

Somewhat undecided

After months of complaining I have finished the Somewhat Cowl (pattern by Wendy over at Knit and Tonic). I think I realized after a few inches into it that it was going to come out too big on the top. I know she actually published a revised pattern since a lot of people were having this problem, but by that point it was already too big. And then I realized not too long after that, that I was having to put a blanket between the sweater and my legs while knitting it, since the alpaca yarn was itching me too much. So the chances of me wearing this sweater seemed slim from the get-go. Since I wasn't so crazy about the yarn, it seemed pointless to frog it and re-make it smaller. Great logic, right? It's so much better to have an itchy sweater that doesn't fit than an itchy sweater that does. So it languished on the shelf unfinished for a long time. Then I had the idea that maybe I could give it to someone who is a little bigger than me on the top, which is when I thought of the aforementioned large-knockered bridesmaids. So I picked it up again with the idea of giving it to Sienna, which gave me new motiviation to finish it, since I'm going to see her in Chicago next week.

But now that it's done, it doesn't seem quite so bad as I was expecting. I took several pictures of myself wearing it this morning to try to demonstrate the bagginess of the top part, and was having a hard time getting this bagginess to show up in a picture, which made me think, maybe it's really not so big after all, if it seems to look OK in the picture. So now I'm blocking it to see if I can make the itchiness go away too. Anyway here it is:

See, it doesn't look so bad there, does it? It does kind of make me look like I have no waist, which is unfortunate since I have giant hips and my waist is really much smaller than those hips, I swear, but this sweater kind of makes me look much more tree-trunk shaped.

I do actually have pictures that show the bagginess a little more than that one, but blogger is insisting on turning them all sideways when I try to upload them and I don't know how to fix it, so I just deleted them all. You'll have to take my word for it.

So I'm still undecided about this sweater - I think I'll end up giving it to Sienna since I said I would, and it would probably look cuter on her anyway, and then I'll have an excuse to make another one for myself that actually fits with Knitpicks Shine. I've seen a few versions in this yarn and I think it looks delicious.

cheating

Do you ever feel like you are cheating on a work in progress if you start something else before finishing it? Something snazzier, more exciting, faster? Sure, it won't keep you warm and comfortable the way that long-sleeved stockinette pullover will, but look how many yarn-overs and twisted stitches! I felt like I was cheating on J's sweater when I made those turquoise socks, and the minute I finished those I felt remorse for ignoring the sweater, so I faithfully knit another inch or so of that mind-numbing K4 P2, until I was lured away by the call of the Clapotis. But the last few days I've been cheating on knitting altogether. The first episodes of Project Runway have convinced me that if all those contestents can sew a besequined outfit for an ice-skating poodle, or whatever they were doing, in just 24 hours, I can surely complete a simple dress with detailed instructions in the comfort of my own home. And I did! After putting the first few bits aside a few weeks ago when I got to the point where I would have to get the iron out to continue (yes, I am incredibly lazy), I picked it back up on Sunday, and with the minor sacrifices of sleep, work, and bathing, I have just completed it. Here it is, hot off the presses (I even figured out how to use the self-timer on my camera, so I don't have to subject you to the bathroom mirror pictures).