Yarn Along: Hitchhiking with Toast

I finished a bunch of stuff in the last little while here, and thought I'd share.

~making~

First up is Boo's vest.  I had intended to make it later in the season, so he could wear it as a Christmas vest (ours is January 7, so I thought I had a lot of time to spare) but he kept asking me and asking me when it was going to be done, so I figured, might as well get cracking.  It was a surprisingly fast make; I finished it in about a week.

He is super happy with it, and already wore it to church on Sunday (with a red t-shirt underneath, naturally)

 

I also finished my husband's wool kombu.  He somehow managed to lose his other one in the late spring, so I knew that was going to have to go on my sewing list for the fall (he says it fell off his bike, which begs the question why it was not securely stowed in his saddle bags, but whatever.  To say I was annoyed about this would be an understatement).  

I decided to use wool melton with a china silk lining to give it some extra heft and warmth, as he complains of cold a lot in the winter.  The combination was kind of a beast to work with.  The melton was great--it needed steam to press, but the stitches really sank into the fabric nicely.  The silk, however, wowza.  That was hard to handle.  It slipped all over the place, didn't want to stay on grain, was difficult to line up with the melton on the seams and so forth.  I was seriously doubting my sanity by the end of this project.  

But it turned out well in the end.  I hand worked the button holes, as usual, and used some buttons I bought this summer for the purpose.  My husband is a happy camper, I think!

It looks a little too wide in the shoulders on the photos, but I think it doesn't really look that way in real life.  I used the same pattern as for his first wool kombu, as well as the linen one I made him last summer for warm weather.  (It is a doctor's coat pattern without the sleeves or collar and shortened quite a bit--it works great for a kombu!  I got that tip from Fr. Andrew Damick when we were in seminary and lived next door to them)

And lastly, a Coco dress!  I admit, this is probably not the most flattering thing I've made or own, but lately I find myself in a different frame of mind, sartorially speaking, and this simple style of dress in a muted tone is really my jam right now.  I've worn this dress a ton since making it, and have made several more in shades of blue.

I lengthened the pattern by 8" (I split the difference between the two lengthen lines) and used the 3/4" sleeve.  I graded the top from a 5 to an 8 at the hips, which was a pretty large grade, but the sizing worked out.  Oh the joys of being a pear-shape.  I've gained a couple of pounds this fall, and it is all in my backside. 

I ordered a linen Japanese-style apron that I plan to wear over it.  Because apparently my current sartorial mood reads: Vikings.  (I just started watching that series--I'm a little late to the party, but it is a good one!  I tried it a few years ago and couldn't get into it, but I'm kind of hooked now)

And  yes, I know those kind of aprons are really easy to make yourself, but I'm just kind of out of steam for certain kinds of projects right now.

I also finished my Hitchhiker scarf!  It only took me a year.  To be fair, I only worked on it here and there, and used it as my traveling project because it was small and mindless.  I intend to give it as a gift to a friend.

It turned out rather well, I think.

The colors of the scarf don't really suit me, but I think they will look great on my friend, who has beautiful silver hair and a slightly different skin tone from me.

It does coordinate nicely with the dress, though!

I should probably say that my first attempt at this dress was a pajama that I've been wearing every night (it is short sleeved and knee length).  I used a Riley Blake print for it that rolled a bit on the edges, but oh man, this jersey was a rolling monster.  I tried pockets for this iteration, which were totally frustrating to install, and I ended up taking one of them off because it looked so bad.  I kind of like the asymmetry.  They are almost totally non-functional, however, because the jersey is so light-weight, so I left them off the blue versions.

I have gotten a lot of compliments on this dress when I've worn it, so I think it looks better in person than in the photos.

~reading~

I'm reading The Garden Cottage Diaries: My Year in the Eighteenth Century and it is totally fascinating.  

I have a couple of quibbles with some of her historical anachronisms (there are bound to be some in an experiment like hers, and she acknowledges most of them, but there were one or two that I just said, um, no.) 

The most glaring is her breezy statement that a woman of her standing (she bases her lifestyle on a low middle-class ancestor of hers) wouldn't have worn stays, as they would have been too expensive.  That is like saying a modern woman wouldn't wear a bra, because she couldn't afford it.  There are specific examples of garments like unboned jumps that were worn at home in place of stays some times, but mostly, women wore stays.

That said, I really love the book, I've learned a lot, and am eager to try my hand at bannocks!

I'm also more than 80% of the way through War and Peace!  I finally passed the part I've been anticipating, and it was good, but not quite as beautiful or lyrical as I expecting.  The movie version did a better job of translating those scenes.  That said, the book has some really wonderful parts that didn't make the movie, so I'm glad I read it.  My goal is to finish it before the Nativity fast.

~watching~

I had to give up the two shows I started on abc.com because they would only let me watch the first episodes for free.  Not cool, abc, not cool.  We don't have a television, so I can't sign in with a provider, and I don't want to pay $2.99 an episode on amazon when it will probably go to netflix in the summer.  Although I did get my husband into Designated Survivor, so we might pay for that one.

So I'm just watching Blindspot (and it is so good!) and catching up on Vikings.  I had another endoscopy this week, so I watched some old CSI: NY episodes while I was waiting for my brain to come back from anesthesia hiatus, and have enjoyed revisiting that show again.  

Linking with Ginny for Yarn Along!