Blue Heather Doocot

I finally finished my Doocot sweater!  This sweater was a constant game of yarn chicken, it must be said.  I had six skeins of denim heather Swish (worsted) in my stash that I wanted to use up, and thought this pattern might just make it, but ordered two more skeins just to be safe. 

I got most of the body and sleeves done on those eight skeins, but ran out in the middle of the ribbing in early December, and had to wait quite a while for the final skein to arrive. 

Then it was the holidays and I didn't have time to pick up this project until last week.  I finished the ribbing on the bottom and the neck ribbing in fairly short order and then spent an hour or so seaming the sleeves on day last week. 

I wet blocked it, but didn't aggressively block the ribbing so it has a more fitted look than the design suggests, which I prefer.  I probably could have made a size one and been fine, but the two is good.

I'm actually quite chuffed with this sweater--it turned out way better than expected, and I'm now rethinking my plans for the Quince and Co. chickadee yarn I bought in December with a gift card from last Christmas!  (Although, given my tension and the fact that I knit this with supposedly worsted weight yarn at 22 stitch gauge, I'm not sure what the chickadee fabric will look like.  Swatch, swatch, and swatch again!)  The chickadee is about the color of my scarf, for reference.

My original plan was to make another Carbeth pullover, but I think I like the versatility of this weight of sweater, and would like to make a cowl-necked version out of the Chickadee yarn which means dropping the front neckline slightly.  In the meantime, however, I have something else I need to work on first, so I can consider my options while I finish that project. 

The green wool skirt is another recent thrifted find; I thrifted a Sag Harbor wool skirt earlier this fall and love the way it fits, so I've been watching ebay and snagging a few more in other colors as I find them, since I know the size is good.  

This one is longer than the other three I have, and I originally planned to take it up to match the just-above-the-knee length of the others, but I'm kind of digging the midi length for this skirt, so I think I'll leave it.  My only regret is that it doesn't have pockets (the other skirts do) but I feel so snazzy in this outfit, I don't even care that much.  I'll take that for a win!

The amount of petersham I cut off the waistband edge.  I left the full length of the waistband, however, in case I need to let it out again in the future.

 I also took in my rust cord skirt yesterday, because I'm really missing it in my closet.  The best way to have done it would have been to completely reconstruct it, but I knew I'd never get it done if I had to unpick everything, so I did a sort of lazy alteration that will do for now.  I took the waistband off the back of the skirt, and then pinched out half an inch or so down the center back from the waist to the hem.  

I pin-basted, checked the fit, pinched out another half inch (for a total of just over an inch), sewed up the seam, finger-pressed it to the side, and then reattached the waistband and resewed the hem.  I really need to redo my whole skirt sloper, but that is a project for another day.  (I also want to see where my body "lands" so to speak, since I've been up and down and up and down for the past 6-8 months.  The alteration I just did can be undone again if need be).