Finally, something that fits

I've been knitting away on the Simple Knitted Bodice, and I finished up the lace panel this evening. The lace was very simple to work and a fun change from all the stockinette. I hadn't tried it on since before I joined it in the round, so I was kinda nervous about whether it was too small. In fact, I only dropped down to size 5 needles on the lace panel out of paranoia. I slipped all the stitches onto waste yarn and pulled the sweater on, and it fits!

It's nice and close-fitting, which is exactly what I was wanting. I've seen some pretty big, drapey examples of this sweater, and given my body shape, that's exactly what I was hoping to avoid.

I used the advanced "Tripod Made of a Stack of Kleenex Boxes Combined with Camera Autotimer"(tm) method of bathroom mirror photography for these shots. Also, I really need to clean my bathroom mirror.

So now there's a bunch of stockinette to knit along with some hip shaping to fit around my big butt, and I'll just keep trying it on til it's the length I want. Yippie!

'Coz every girl crazy 'bout a sharp-dressed man

I managed to finish the scarf for Jag just before the wedding that was happening just before he left for his trip to San Francisco. Whew. He wanted a shorter scarf, so this one is about 54", but there's yarn left and I can perform some surgery and make it longer if necessary. (I'm a short scarf person myself, I either wrap once or cross the ends at my neck and zip my coat over them, and I hate having long ends dangling around.)

Here he is in all his pre-wedding sartorial splendor (with tie, sans suit jacket):

Striking the "I say, what time is it according to my imaginary watch, so that I may not miss a pressing business engagement?" Catalog Pose:

And again, with the "I shall now gaze pensively into the middle distance and think deep thoughts" Catalog Pose.

And now I can go back to working on the Simple Knitted Bodice and the arrow lace socks!

Toothsomeness

Despite being stuck at home for the vast majority of my evening and weekend time this past week due to on-call duty for work (tonight is my last night!), I've gotten much less knitting done than I had hoped. Knitting is a form of relaxation for many people, but I find that I need to BE relaxed to knit. If I'm nervous and agitated (like when I'm expecting my cell phone to ring at any moment), I tend to spend time either puttering around cleaning the house or poking around online reading blogs, window-shopping for yarn, and obsessively checking the monitoring system.

I have the following to show for the past week or so of effort. First, a partly finished scarf for my sweetie. This is not a surprise gift; he approved the pattern and the yarn, and in fact wound the yarn himself using my swift and ball-winder. How cool is it for someone who knits to have an SO who WINDS HIS OWN YARN, and who knows what Ravelry is??? Words fail.

This is the ever-popular My So Called Scarf, in "Verdes" Malabrigo. It's making itself plaid, which is totally unexpected. I have about 21" done.

I tried on the Simple Knitted Bodice, decided it would stretch across my boobage, proceeded to join it in the round, and am working on the purl ridges before the lace panel. I'm still not sure how well it will ultimately fit me, but time will tell.

Another exciting development in my life is that one of my two remaining wisdom teeth (which have been quietly residing in the back of my mouth for lo these many years) has decided to make its presence known by becoming extremely hurty. A trip to the dentist resulted in an immediate referral to an oral surgeon, and there will be some extractions in my near future. With good drugs, I hope.

On the cool side, I did get a copy of the X-rays to take to the oral surgeon. I get really excited over medical test results: I pore over my bloodwork printouts and compare the results from year to year, I love knowing my blood sugar level and blood pressure; I even requested a photo capture from a procedure that ends with "-oscopy", if you know what I mean. (Hahahaha, "ends"). Of the two teeth, the one which is completely sideways and crunching into my other teeth is the one that doesn't hurt. Go figure!

Trying it on only helps if you know what you're doing

I've been tooling along on the Simple Knitted Bodice, and I came to the point where I'm supposed to separate the sleeves and put the whole thing on waste yarn to try it on for size to ensure a "perfect fit". So I dutifully slipped all 300+ stitches onto waste yarn, and here are the results. (Today, for variety, I feature the celestial-themed half-bathroom's mirror.)

Will it fit? I have no frigging idea. None. If I keep to the pattern directions for this size, I'll separate the sleeves now, and the v-neck will join in the round after 10 more rows. The sleeves feel like they might or might not be too tight around my upper arm flab, but that depends on how wide the neckline ends up and how far the shoulders are pushed out (which determines how far the starts of the sleeves are moved down my arms).

On the other hand, both garments I've knitted so far have been on the too-big side, and the yarn I'm using is 50% alpaca, which means it will likely stretch and grow. Also, most people who have made this pattern have complained about it being too big, and I would prefer that it be fairly fitted. So I think I'll just stick with the directions for this size, and cry a lot if it doesn't fit later on. That sounds like a plan. I may run out of yarn in any case; the yoke has used up an entire 215-yard hank so far.

Thankfully, the cranberry scones I made this morning from a recipe in the King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion did not require any fitting:

This is a great recipe from a great cookbook, and definitely the best scones I've ever made. The directions called for buttermilk powder, which is unusual (luckily I tend to keep this on hand) and baking at 450 for 7 minutes, then turning off the oven and leaving the oven closed for 8-10 minutes more. The egg-wash-and-turbinado-sugar topping made a lovely crunchy top.

I picked up the dried berries for the scones, some Port, cat food, yummy whole wheat bread, chocolate covered orange jelly candies, granola, oatmeal, and a couple other interesting things when me and Jag stopped at the Cary Trader Joe's for the first time this weekend. They have some really great stuff, but I won't be going again on a Saturday afternoon unless I'm willing to face murder charges. I thought the Squirrel Hill Giant Eagle in Pittsburgh had the slowest-moving, most annoying shoppers on earth, but the Cary yuppies and their screaming spawn take first prize.

Knitting frenzy

I used to make fun of people who posted bathroom mirror pictures of knitting FOs on their blogs/in forums/etc. So here I am like the giant dumbass I am, camera in hand, in my guest bathroom. When it's dark out, no one else is nearby, and you want to take an in-focus picture of something you made without resorting to a flash, the bathroom mirror is about the only option.

My first picture was a little off.

Then I figured out how to angle the camera.

This is Calorimetry from Knitty, in Moda Dea Tweedle Dee I picked up on a whim at AC Moore. It's a chunky, tweedy, single-ply, mostly acrylic yarn with a little wool, and it comes in some very pretty colors. The pattern is a snap: I cast on around 5:30pm and bound off around 3 hours later, with a break for dinner in between. I reduced the number of stitches to 100, as is recommended by just about everyone who's made this pattern, but it's still a little large. I like it better with the front flipped back like a brim:

I'm getting a lot of mileage out of those silver celtic knotwork buttons I bought for a sweater and never used.

I'm pleasantly surprised by the yarn selection at AC Moore these days. There are some very nice 100% acrylics (James Brett Marble and Caron Simply Soft Shadows come in some really great colors), and there's a good selection of Paton's Classic Merino, Shetland Chunky and Soy Wool Stripes/Solids. I also bought some Moda Dea (aka Coats and Clark) Washable Wool, which is a soft 100% superwash merino wool with a cabled construction, to make some worsted-weight house socks for a friend of mine.

I've been on a multi-project knitting spree lately. I cast on for the Simple Knitted Bodice in Ultra Alpaca in Prune Mix (which is impossible to photograph, it's a brown/purple),

and I've started the lace section on the partner to the eyeball-searing Arrow Lace sock that's been languishing alone. Lace is fun. I must knit more lace.

I'm also working on finishing up the fun-fur Princess Snowball cat bed from Stitch N Bitch. I do have a photo, but it's of someone wearing it as a toupee at an entertaining New Year's Eve gathering. I'll save that picture as future blackmail fodder instead.