Yarn Along: Wearing All the Summer Knits!

~knitting~

The temperatures have finally dropped enough for me to wear the pieces I finished over the summer! 

The first is the Lightweight Pullover that I started in the late spring and worked steadily on over the summer. 

I finished it sometime in August, I think, but it was eleventy billion degrees at the time, so I just blocked it and put it away for colder weather. 

I'm actually pretty pleased with how it turned out.  I cropped the body, obviously, but didn't make any other changes to the pattern.

The second is the Pabaigh by Kate Davies, started in June, finished last week.  I like it with a few caveats.  I ended up reblocking the hem after wearing it for a few hours because I didn't like how it wanted to bubble and roll in at the bottom, creating a visual muffin-top.  Not a good look for me.  

I think with the reblocked hem, it will end up being a really great piece for me, since it is perfect for those days when you need a light jacket.  I don't always want to wear a full coat, so this is great for that. 

My changes were to make the funnel neck significantly shorter (the pattern asks for a whopping 14 1/2" finished length).  I made mine around 11" and that is about right.  I have a short neck and any longer would have swamped me.  I made a small error on the back near the back neck, because I was short a stitch and made the increase in the middle of the row, but the increase was very visible after a few rows, so I tried to go back and fix it a few times with a crochet hook and only succeeded in making worse.  I don't think it is terribly noticeable at a distance, and it does make it easy to tell the back from the front, but I'm annoyed with myself that I couldn't make it perfect.  Oh well.

The gauge on this sweater was higher than I usually knit (something like 26 sts per 4 inches) but I was able to keep steady work on it, and it gave me confidence to try finer gauge pieces in the future.  I really liked the construction on this too.  Kate is so good at that.

 

I still haven't worn the textured shawl I finished in July, but will do so soon!  I am also plugging away at my Doocot and enjoying it very much.  Kate Davies is a wizard.

~reading~

Still plugging away at Mary Eberstadt's first book.  I've been falling asleep much earlier in the evenings lately, so I haven't made as much progress as I would have liked.  I made some progress on Scruton's Notes from Underground, although I confess I'm not as into it as I thought I'd be.  I'm sort of gritting my teeth through it at this point.

~sewing~

Made a burgundy skirt on the same block as my olive twill, from the same fabric line, but I don't love it.  The fit is different for some reason, and I can't muster the energy to figure out why.  Incidentally, the olive twill turned out to be the surprise hit of the season.  I wore it regularly all summer and well into September.

I did a bunch of little mending projects that don't warrant photographs.

~watching~

I seem to go back to CSI: NY when I need a mental break but still want to watch something.  The series hit Amazon prime last month and I've been rewatching the whole thing from the beginning.  Somehow I never saw the first two seasons when it aired, so it was interesting to watch those for the first time.  I'm now in season 3 and the cases are a bit more familiar.  Enough time has passed since the show aired that it is an interesting window into the early-to-mid naughts, particularly as I was living abroad for part of that time.

This school year is really kicking my keister (already! I know!), and I find I'm mentally worn out from trying to keep up with everything.

This is my theme song this school year:

Oddly, it always puts me in the mindset of the Cold War and East Germany.  For some reason it escaped me until recently that it was a Queen song, and not sung by a West German band.  It just has that West End Girls vibe for me.  I dare you not to have that mind virus in your head now.  You're welcome. 😉

~writing~

The good news is that I completed the massive edit I've been plugging away at all summer, and finally have my word count down to an acceptable number for the interested party.  I am grateful for being made to do it--it made me a better editor, and I hope the book is better for the tightness of the prose.  Hopefully the interested party will think so too!

That's all for me.  Linking with Ginny for Yarn Along.