IMAG0435

IMAG0435
Originally uploaded by bareblueskin

Breathing Life into Emmaline

I started Emmaline, a lovely empire waist short sleeve top knit in bulky organic cotton, last April hoping to wear it in summer and have my very first adult sized finished garment. I've blogged about this a few times, and Emmaline slipped into the pile of unfinished projects due to size confusion. I didn't really want to make a garment in my current size, knowing that I was changing. It looks like I put it down some time in the fall. I know I've tried to pick it up a few times and been nervous about where I had left off. I have completed the top raglan portion and knit and bound off both sleeves, tried on, and gone back and modified the bind off so my arms won't turn blue from circulation issues.

Now, I've lost over 20 pounds since starting this project. You would think the arms would be loose by now, right? No such luck. They do fit properly though, and that makes me think that they were still too tight before. I had planned to modify the torso area and put in some ease to account for my stomach, but I've changed my mind. I'm going to knit as written and try it on in stages. I'm sure the finished garment will loosen up during the wearing of it, and I'd rather have things a little snug than baggy. A first for me!

In the past week I've made quite a bit of progress. I fixed my confusing stitch count, moved past the one purl stitch row, and started the more fitted torso section. I also took care of all the ends under the arms to make sure I was measuring properly - there were some loose stitches there that needed sewing up.

Taking a peek at my Ravelry project page, I started this project April 17, 2010. Let's see if I can finish knitting this and have a FINISH for the 17th...

FO: Cabled Chapeau

The lovely Cabled Chapeau. I finished this hat back in December, wrote the majority of this post in January, and here it is, April 5th. And it's raining, not snowing, so no need for the hat. But oh, how I love this hat! I wore it on the cold, but not arctic, winter days here in New England. it was quick to knit (when I spent time knitting), soft and conforming, and most importantly, big enough for my head! We have big heads in my family and most feminine hats squeeze the dickens out of my head. That said, I'm sure other patterns can be customized to accommodate my cranium but I loved this pattern from the start - big cables, flexible brim, and covers my ears.



Knitting the brim was a a bit odd. I couldn't figure out what doing short rows in the middle would do to the shape. I just couldn't picture it. Also, the way the pattern is written, the two long edges are not the same length, and I thought they would be since they just fit on the inside and outside of the hat. Weird. I just kept on going with the pattern instructions and tried not to question it.

Once I finished all the pieces they cuddled up together in a bag on the couch as I tried to gather up my nerve to tackle the brim. I did have another hat to follow for brim shape, but I was anxious about doing it wrong. Then I realized if I didn't cut something, I wouldn't have a hat to wear when I went home for Christmas. And of course, I wanted to show off my handiwork!

I would have made the knit piece for the brim smaller but I just sewed it in father on the inside so I wouldn't have a baggy brim. If I make this hat again (and I think my friends back home are preparing to put in their orders) I will figure out how to make the knit piece a bit smaller, and use the cardboard template I made for the brim as a guide.

It's time to give this hat a wash in the sink and put it in with my other winter things. Or maybe I'll wear it on particularly chilling spring days...it is the perfect shade of blue!

Here is a photo of me and my big sister after the crazy northeast storm that made getting home from Christmas an adventure. Instead of flying from Rochester to Boston, I rode with my sister and brother-in-law to Montclair, NJ, then took the commuter rail in to NYC, then a Bolt bus to Boston, and then the subway home. A roundabout way of getting home after the holidays, but better than waiting for the snow to clear. I know this photo doesn't show off the hat all that well, but you get the picture!

Blog or Journal?

I think I need to make a decision on whether to journal, or to blog. I find the allure of paper hard to resist, and I like having an archival copy of my thoughts, insignificant as they may be, to reflect on in future times. I like seeing the ink on the paper, worn pages, books bursting with my effort. I’ve always struggled with keeping an electronic version of this, since the format of blogging does not match up with my paper record, and I can’t paint on a website. I always meant to print out the pages, to keep them in some hard format, but then isn’t that wasting resources and storage space? How many apartments will I move those boxes to?

So far I have one box of journals in my closet. I think it contains only the writing journals since my move to Boston in 2000. That means that there is a box in my parents’ house containing my formative years, highly productive high school days, when I took up journaling as a mission, and probably part of my turbulent college years, where things turned dark and multimedia expressive.

I would like to find a more expressive blog format, so I might be changing hosts soon after watching fellow bloggers go through this quest.

There are things I want to record and remember that haven’t been written anywhere, just some thoughts.

Just this year:

-Fitting into smaller jeans – a size I never really believed possible, and now I’m looking beyond it to new numbers

-the death of my best friend’s mother

-finding the strength of self preservation, and learning it has a price

-missing my family so much at times it hurts, even at this stage in my adult life. I think this is something I will never lose, and I'm grateful to have that bond

-feeling able to stand on my own financial feet and take the changes as they come
-having so many friends that my social calendar swells and overlaps

Funny, now that I'm thinking I should stop blogging, I've written a bunch of draft posts and have 4 finished items to post too. So for now, conscious duality.

What was old is new again

My suit fits!!!! I bought it in June 2004, it has been too small since 2005 and  I have moved it 4 apartments. What a way to kick off my spring cleaning weekend, with a closet clear out session resulting in clothes that fit!