Well, well, well.

Well, well, well.  Will you look at that.  

                                       

This is the last picture of the sweater.  

And this is a shot from this morning.  As you can see, a lot of work has been done since Friday.  I had a wonderful time.  It wasn't all perfect and not everything went my way.

That little bar is where I was changing yarns and picked up the wrong yarn after a mere three stitches.  I found the problem after knitting two rows.  It was two rows I was almost happy to do because I.  Am. Knitting. Again, it should be noted that the alternating colours are not as severe as the picture looks.  It is a much warmer, softer colouration and I think it will be okay.

I am now at the teeth knashing point where I have to decide on how long I want the sweater to be. Amy is a little longer in the torso and has a full bust, so I have added an extra three inches of knitting to the front length and I am just now debating if that is enough.  There still is the slighly lower back hem to knit and I know she wants that feature.

I have two rows to go till the lace is at a nicely balanced place to finish it on the front bands, but I think after that, the short row back will get knit.  

I feel wonderful after that long, frutiless sit waiting for resolution to my hand trouble.  

Even better, along with knitting, I finished skirt number one on the sew yourself new clothes journey.  I had a particular piece of fabric, bought sometime in the long before.  It was remnanat that I couldn't pass up.  It was a nice weight for pants or a skirt and was 4 dollars or something like that.    I wanted to use it to see if what I planned for a skirt made without purchasing a pattern would work for my body and the shaping I was going to need to make it look right.  I wanted too, to see if I like wearing skirts anymore.  

It is a lot of years since I wore a skirt other than the dress for Scott and Amy's wedding and the long skirt ensemble I wore for Anthony and Olga's  weddding.  In fact, that is probably it for wearing the things that are not pants for the last 20 years.   I missed the entire cute little dress period that seems to be slowing just the tiniest bit.  That is okay though.  I think I hit the long skirt period, which always was much more my style anyway.  Long skirt, slightly cropped sweater, a la Jacqueline Cieslak Designs  is a look I might be able to wear.  And I haven't been able to wear a look for decades, since the design silhouettes first started being more fitted.

You know what the interesting thing about the sewing plans has been?  I have been looking outside the usual traditional pattern companies for patterns.  They just never seem to have what appeals to me in my size.  I found several companies via pintrest.  Helen's Closet I have already told you about, but I have also found Style Arc and Made by Rae to name a couple.  I also found  Sew Liberated via the Knit Girllls Vlog and guess who I keep bumping into on those pattern websites?  Jacqueline Cieslak. Here and here, where she is wearing what sure looks like an Estuary Skirt pattern from Sew Liberated. Running into her like this all over the place just makes me want to knit her designs all the more.  This is a person who understands exactly where my head is.

Today is supposed to be hot here, so I am kind of doing things in with a mind to what I can do in the late afternoon overly warm house.  There will be knitting.  There will be sewing.  There will be book reading in the afternoon.  All serious decisions will be made before noon and zero serious decisions after lunch.