Wednesday 16 September 2020

Thinking About a Knitted Wardrobe

My day started all wrong this morning.  Not really.  It started differently.  I woke at 5:30 and faced with the choice to get up at 5:30 or go back to bed, I went back to bed.  And then I slept in till almost 8.  I hate when I do that.  I really do.  It feels like I lost half my day.  Since I am retired and the whole day is mine and mine alone, I am working on lettng go the idea that I lost anything.  The day is mine.  Everything is just going to be a little later than usual in comparison to the clock.  

I knit quite a bit more on my Myrtle sweater yesterday and have made a decision about sleeves.  Sleeves are going to be modified and the sweater is going to be longer, but not overly long.  

I am going to compare lengths against my Granito


Which I dearly love to wear, but I make absolutely certain that I have a top that stays well tucked in on as well.  It isn't quite long enough to keep my lower back cozy.  I do think about making it longer. I have the yarn but there are so many interesting things to knit and I wear this one a lot even so.

I realized this was the perfect sweater to judge length against yesterday when I wore Granito.  

I find myself thinking about what else my wardrobe needs as I knit.  Making the leggings helped so much that it is hard to imagine I need more, but I do want a few more of those and I would like several other pairs of pants.  The Wilandra pants, spoken of so highly by Amy Beth at the FatSuirrel Speaks Podcast and I am determined to have a pair of Winslow pants to wear with my completed Myrtle as well.  There is still a great need to replace the t shirts that I am so utterly sick of with a bunch of comfortable shirts and tops too.  

But I am also taking a critical look at my sweater wardrobe.  I know.  You wouldn't think I need to but I wear sweaters pretty intensively. So many of them are looking worn out or are really worn out.  I have avoided having a generation of sweaters equivalent to painting pants only by the need for felt for things around the house (my potholders, my coasters, bags of everything for a carryall).  There will be a couple more sweaters that go the way of the felting this year, and that means I have to think about what to replace them with.

One of the things that is on it's last legs is a tunic sweater 


I finished in early 2016.  I wear this all the time.  I wear it several times a week or I did till I finished that greigey green sweater early in 2019.  The yarn this taupe tunic was made from did not wear particularly well, and it looks very shabby now.  When it goes, there will be a definite hole in my wardrobe.  So I need another tunic and probably two. 

I wore my Willard sweater, the cozy blue sweater I worked on last winter, the other day, and that reminded me that I want/need more sweaters I can just pop over my head and call it good.  I need/want two simple pullovers.

I need some vests too, to wear over those shirts I will be sewing shortly. Sometimes sleeveless is the best knit to wear.  Baking days and when I am doing a lot of cooking and veggie chopping really reauire a vest if you also want to stay cozy. I purchased Cat Bordhi's Wherewithall vest pattern a few weeks ago and just this morning I purchased her Versatildes pattern e book because I love love love the cables on the vests.  And now that I understand how she got there, I think I love them even more.  These are brilliant.

Then there is also the stuff that is smaller and simpler to knit.  I want a couple more simple cowls like the Huj Tub I knit last winter.  


I love this thing and I have some really great yarns to make them with.  They are perfect to wear when you can't have ends hanging but want to keep your neck warm.  Again, great to wear with the shirts I will be sewing.    

I need some more wristwarmers too.  I have a pair on the needles right now from the inimitable Cat Bordhi's collection, Cat's Family of Fingerless Mitts but I can sure use more than one pair.  I could use a few pairs of wrist bands as well, to wear during the day.  Nothing like keeping the pulse points warm in winter to stave off the cold.  

And mittens.  I don't go out much but I want a pair of mittens that are long in the cuff to wear with my green coat (eeeeep, I need to finish that).  

Some of the stuff I have on my needles right now will fill those needs but not all. I am glad I have this time to think through what I will knit next but I  need to stop thinking right now.  It is time to just go and knit.





   

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