Yarn Along: August

~knitting~

Welp, it only took me four years, but I finally finished my Gemini!  Whew!!  I cannot believe it took me this long to get this sweater off needles.  Wait, I can.  Here's why.  

REASON NUMMER 1: fingering weight linen yarn.  'nuff said.  I had a pretty hard time getting gauge with this yarn.  I think I ended up on size 2 needles.

REASON NUMMER 2! That bleepety bleep lace panel.  I was so confident that I could manage it--it is 17 stitches wide, by 16 rows, and it was written out in addition to charted.  Yeah, I can totally do that.  *snort*  I mean, yes, I did actually do it, but I realized that most of my knitting projects are things I can do while doing something else.  Not this one.  I literally had to sit in a quiet place, with my pattern and a pen and something to mark lines, and keep track of every.freaking.line.  Since it is all knit in one, until the sleeves come off the needles, it is a lot of stitches.  Tiny tiny stitches in unpleasant yarn.  Even once the sleeves were off it was still a lot.  Plus the button band was knit in one with the sweater, so I had to keep track of button hole rows too.

Sometimes I thought my brain might explode.  I nearly frogged it several times, only to realize I was further than I thought and I just needed to soldier on already.  By this summer, I was like, enough already, I HAVE to finish this sucker.  I was concerned about the raglan sleeves, since I now know that they don't fit me that well, but I was pleasantly surprised by this pattern.  

This sweater is designed to be worn front or back (so the lace in the front or back.  I like it both ways).  My two complaints are that the fabric is looser than is ideal (obviously I need to wear a different bra!) and it doesn't look that good on me untucked.  

I also had to reknit the sleeves because they came out too short and oddly bell shaped at the bottom on the first go.  I added 6 more 6-row decreases before starting the edge and that was about right.  They are maybe slightly too long now, but I tried them on as I went and it seemed right before I blocked it.

I am pleased with how the lace panel came out, but man.  So much brain exploding.

The "wrong" side rows were at least super easy to keep track of, and honestly, I've seen worse lace panels.  This one wasn't super hard, I just never memorized the pattern, and couldn't "read" where I was in it at any given point, so I was always nervous about losing my place.  I did mark everything, but if I set it aside for longer than a day, I had to spend some time figuring out where I was again.

As I said, it looks better tucked in, and I do like the closely spaced buttons on the back (although one or two holes are slightly too big and the buttons want to slide out.  I may need to cinch a couple of them).  I blocked it in the washer and laid it flat to dry, and when it was mostly dry, I chucked it in the dryer on medium for about 10 minutes to soften it, because it was pretty crispy feeling.  The dryer helped, but some of my woven ends didn't like that.  It was super hard to weave in the ends neatly because of the way the fiber behaved.  I still have a couple of skeins left, and I honestly don't know what to do with them.  The color is so pretty, but the fiber, man.  Maybe a simple shawl or scarf.

That said, I might like to try this pattern (sans lace panel) in a lightweight wool, because I do actually like the fit of it quite a bit.  It would be easy to modify that panel for a different stitch pattern or leave it off all together.  I'm glad I made it, because it was a challenge for me on many different levels, and I learned a lot.

~reading~

I finished Volatile Bodies, and started Purity and Danger.  I expected to like P&D a lot more than I am--so far she seems to be having an argument with 19th century anthropologists.  I keep waiting for the real meat to arrive at the table, because it's all been fizzy drinks to now.  

I'm still noodling that essay on bodies and women, aging, expectations, etc, so these books are proving helpful, but they are also dense.  I'm nearly there on the essay.  I need to make another pass or two at it before I share it here.

I'm also re-reading MOBY when I can't handle anything else.  Jamie and Claire just make it all better.  

I bought Nora Ephron's two books of essays for some down time reading later this month and am looking forward to them.

~sewing~

Not much, to be honest.  Birdie's godmother came down for two days in July for a sewing workshop with me, and we made a ton of garments in two days' time.  It took me a bit to recover from the intensity of drafting, cutting, fitting, and sewing all those things!  (For the record, we made her newly ordained deacon husband a linen kombu, three skirts (one was a refashion and just needed a new waistband), five simple shirts, as well as refitting a few of my Dottie Angel frocks for her.  I have no photographic evidence of this sewing intensive, because there wasn't any time to stop and take a picture!  It was the best stash diving experience ever, as we only used stuff from my bin for her clothes (wide linen selvages, remnants, some gifted fabric, and other odds and ends I had to cut down for something else or use up)

I did squeeze out a shirt for Birdie's namesday last month, and cut down one of my Birch dresses for her birthday dress later this month (but haven't sewn it up yet).  

I used the Lazy Daisy Jones pattern and just cut it shorter for a shirt.  I really like this as a shirt pattern (less as a dress), and will probably make more of them, as Birdie is starting to want to wear separates more often.  The fabric was a remnant gifted to me, so I only had enough for the shirt.  It was a quick 30 minute sew.

 I cut down my grey flannel dress into a pencil skirt.  It just okay.  I lined it with some dark gray bemberg I had in the bin, which wasn't too bad.  The skirt was a pain to fit because my skirt pattern needs to be redrafted, I think.  I'm not totally happy with the result (for a variety of reasons), but we'll see how it feels come December.  It was a good exercise in using what fabric I have on hand rather than buying new.

Sometime in early July, I also changed the pleats on my chambray everyday skirt to a center box pleat like my other summer skirts and am much happier with the result.  It was a bit pesky to do, but I got way more wear out of it that way.  I also replaced the back elastics (again!) with 12" ones, since that seems a better fit at the moment.  I think my basic issue with this skirt is not sizing but fabric.  I loved this fabric as a dress, but it just doesn't behave that well as a skirt.  I should try again next summer with a different chambray.  I have several candidates in mind, starting with the Kaufman Essex line.

~watching~

Finally caught up on a bunch of movies I've been meaning to see this year.  Early Man is the latest Aardman production (think Wallace and Gromit) and it is so cute and hilariously funny.  Just what you'd expect from Nick Park.  

I also (FINALLY!) saw Black Panther and it totally lived up to the hype (although I was about 15 or 20 minutes in before I thought that).

I finished both seasons of Berlin Station and it was pretty intense, but Richard Armitage was worth the ride.  My main complaint about the show is the language is pretty over the top, and I also didn't appreciate some of the grittier aspects of it, but the writing was superb, and I really enjoyed the ensemble cast.

Woody Allen's Wonder Wheel was interesting.  I've never really gotten into Woody Allen's films, so I wasn't prepared to like this as much as I did.  It felt like a play, and I liked Justin Timberlake's narrator speaking to the camera in the 4th wall.  Kate Winslet was amazing in it.  

I also finished season two of The Path (also excellent, but taking a break before finishing season 3).  I also finished season five of The Americans, and am eager for the final season.  I may even pony up for it instead of waiting to next summer for it to go prime.  

I went back to NYPD Blue's first season this week and it holds up quite well.  I loved that show when it was on, but I don't think I watched the last two or three seasons because I was overseas and then didn't have a television when I got back.

On another note, speaking of women and the conflicted messages we get about our bodies (see under reading), I ran across this yesterday and fist bumped the air.  Yes, yes, yes.  

Next on my queue is series two of The Hollow Crown (the second set of Henry plays by Shakespeare).  I adored the first series; I think we've established how much I like the Henry IV//V triology and the cast of series two looks equally amazing.

That's all she wrote!  Linking with Ginny for Yarn Along.