Monday, March 05, 2007

Reanimated Corpse

Oh look, she's back! She's back and she's all done with the Damned Thing. It's been defeated, killed up real nice, and stuffed in an envelope all pretty for the AntiCraft girls to mock at their leisure. Thus far they haven't set fire to it and danced around the flames but they got plenty of time before their book goes to press.

Now that this deadline and one for The Fucking Catalog (a dreaded work deadline) are all done I can get back to bidness. Bidness meaning posting crap and actually (shudder in horror) visiting other blogs. "Wow!" you're thinking, "I get to make fun of Sev on my blog as well as hers!" See, I'm flexible and accomodating, which sadly does not explain my single status.

My textiles teacher will be thrilled that I now have real honest-to-Jah drawings in my sketchbook instead of "Why me?" and "I suck!" written on the pages in marker surrounded by slightly oily forehead prints from relentlessly pounding myself on the head with it. Getting a project done will also be another bonus.

On to stuff. Real knitted stuff!

Stop pointing and laughing. At least stop laughing; the pointing I can deal with.

Off to the left is the finished one-piece wool getup from the cover of Weldon's Pretty Undies. The odious color (It was the only thing I had enough of that wasn't white) and the buttoned crotch put me in mind of a Big Girl Onesie, but since it's meant to be under a sweater and wool skirt it's not too bad. I'll deal.

I had to knit it about 2 inches longer from the waist to the underarm and it seems strangely wide considering how sleek the cover photo is. I was afraid I'd run out of the blue wool so I used some white in the same blend. The pattern only came in one size, 34"-36" bust but this thing fits about a 42" chest and 46" behind, for no real reason except to possibly bug the living snot out of me. Right gauge, right needle size, giant underwear. Go figure. I was hoping for at least a 38"-40" chest and having it be a bit clingy and tight on top but the extra-roomy ass wasn't planned for at all. I'm guessing it has to do with the yarn being a sorta springy wool/nylon blend so it went a litle wide. Next time I'll try a US size 2 needle instead of a 3.

I'm thinking I'll try it in a slinky nylon or silk yarn sometime. I kinda want to try knitting just the bottoms in a slinky yarn, but without the crotch buttons.

This next exhibit is the 1885 Gentleman's Stocking that I've been fiddling with for several months off & on. I discovered that, yes, these things are meant to be worn above the knee and your knickerbockers are supposed to be buttoned on below the knee, but since I'm not gonna dress like that even if I had one of those giant old-timey bikes I had to stop a bit shorter than the pattern says. You can see that since the heel I've had to pick up several thousand more stitches for the gusset and as I try to decrease them they fall off the other needles, which is great barrels of fun when you're trying to do a plaid colorwork pattern at the same time. I'm using short dpns that I think are really meant for little crap like gloves, so these are going to be a royal pain in the ass to knit until I get a couple more inches along.

I found some of the tan yarn I was missing for the Body Count Mittens I've been pretending to work on. I had knitted this really half-assed stocking hat out of some random handspun years ago and I've never worn it because some of the yarn is pretty damned itchy. I'll frog it and use the yarn for other stuff but in the meantime I can start on mitten #2, since it's now way too warm to wear mittens. Go me! *does spazzy little dance*

No new progress on the Ribbed Blouse at the moment. I'm just all-fired happy I've got a few less things on my UFO pile.

Watch out for new lace patterns being scrawled up.