you're going to see the pictures below and think "wow, she's all done with flair!" but no, sorry. i am not.
before blocking...
after blocking...
i knew this yarn would grow upon blocking (according to my swatch which could have lied but didn't, thankfully) so i knit to the length proscribed in the pattern and bound off. then i blocked to see if it would look good on me, and it didn't. 10 inches in length is not nearly enough for a tall woman like myself. it was way too cropped and made me look all stumpy. sadness. i thought i was done!
after a week of mulling it over, i decided that 1) the yarn was too beautiful to waste and 2) this is my first major knit since the birth of the peanut so i want to wear it all the time. therefore, cropped was not going to cut it. so i had to cut it. yes, you heard me. i tried to frog it but the fibers were too sticky to make that worthwhile. i threaded in a smaller size circular needle as a life line and cut off the bottom with some scissors.
what i ripped out
it was scary but worth it. i'm now going to knit on it to 12.5 inches and then do 1.5 inches of seed stitch. that is just the right amount of length for a girl of my height.
to distract from the negative progress on flair, here's a swiffer cover.
exciting, i know. it works great but is a little large once wet and washed. the one i'm knitting now is a smaller version of the one i found on ravelry. (here's the one that i really made.) i can share the information here if you like. just let me know. i love the fact that these things save me time and money. for really-o. it's so much easier to use one of these than my wet mop and bucket.
on saturday next, we all leave on vacation for a whole week! i'm so excited! we're going to the outer banks in north carolina with my side of the family, and staying at a house with a pool that's only a block away from the ocean. i'll be reading and knitting the whole time. i can't wait.
oh, and there was some interest in the peanut last time i posted. she's great. teething like mad (she has 4 teeth coming in at once, no joke.) and changing up her nap schedule to boot.
mmmmmm
we've been taking her out to the park as much as possible.
two seconds before i flipped out the screen
and she really loves looking at herself on the camera's screen.
after
here are two videos to top off this post! hopefully it'll be enough to tide you over till late next week. i've got freelance to get done before the popknits submission deadline on the 15th of june. if you're planning on submitting, don't forget!
you may have noticed that my twitter feed lately has been filled with the doom and gloom of apartment hunting in NYC. it's probably the WORST time to be looking to move (what with all the recent college grads coming to make their way in the world) and i was feeling pretty low last week. it's a long story which i can't get into here, but the good news is that we've worked something out to let us stay here till october. looking for a new place in fall will be much easier especially with all of this advanced notice. i feel so relieved! i also think that i may have lost about 5 pounds with all the worrying. now i can get back to my regularly scheduled program.
i have two FO updates to clue you in on. first is a skirt that i finished two weeks ago.
madras skirt
i've had this madras print in my stash for almost 8 years now! i remember buying it when i first moved here and i was living with my grandparents in new jersey. now you remember my last skirt and the issues i had with it? here's what i did differently.
redrafted the pattern bringing in the waist an inch, the hem up two inches, and the rise the same both front and back. i also drafted another piece to make facings for the waist (sorry i don't have pics of those. i will do better next time!)
yes, i even did the glue stick zipper thing and it was awesome. worked like a charm.
the only thing that i'll do differently next time is to rip out some of the seam on the zipper before sewing because i could not move the zipper down to sew around it without doing that. ripping while in the midst of sewing is near impossible. i'll do it before hand.
all in all, i love it! i'm going to do the exact same thing on my next skirt, whenever i get around to it.
so i'll confess that there was a little bit of secret knitting going on which is why my updates were pretty sparse last month. i participated in the circle of friends blanket for our fellow spider, amanda.
amanda's baby blanket
she really loves it and we were so happy to make it for her!
progress on flair continues! it's really my only active project right now and i'm almost done with sleeve #1. i should be done with this thing before we go on vacation june 7. can't wait to get south and enjoy some beach and reading time!
** i love how i finally get my pictures off my camera and am ready to upload them and flickr is down. that's typical of my week.
i know it's been a while! it feels like ages to me. last week was a total blur but i did get a lot of knitting done while being blindsided by other things around here. first off, do i have any readers in sunset park, brooklyn? we're thinking about moving there and i would love to hear more about it.
so i've been knitting, doing freelance, answering popknits questions, and being a mom these past couple of weeks and it's been stressful but rewarding. rewarding for you all as well because i have two (actually 2+!) FOs to show you.
first, the long awaited peanut pants are done! why do gauge swatches lie? i swear that my gauge swatch told me that these would shrink a lot more than they did. oh well, better too big than too small right? she can wear them in the fall or even next year!
peanut modeling her pants
the pattern was very easy to follow. (ravelry) it's one of those plug-in-the-numbers type deal which means you can use it with any yarn. the only thing that i messed up was that i read the short-row bottom directions wrong. in the end, i made a much more roomy bottom than i would have liked but it wasn't a deal breaker.
the pants were great for traveling. i knit on them during the few times that i've been on the subway in the last few months. it was a here and there project and did the job well.
two weeks ago, my dear friend kaitlyn gave birth to her second daughter (congrats kaitlyn!) so i decided to cast-on for something for little cassie.
elijah was a great stash-busting project! (ravelry) i used some leftover bubblegum pink cotton-ease and i think that he's just perfect.
close-up
big thanks to ysolda for making this pattern SO easy to follow. i did it all with two circular needles and even then it was easy to change the pattern from dpns. i can't wait to give it to cassie.
now what? i'm going to pick flair back up tonight and then i'm going to cast-on for another quickie project. i bought a swiffer mop last week (in violation of my proctor and gamble boycott) and want to make some knit covers for it. i'm hoping to keep the floors a little cleaner over the next few months. i mopped the floors last week and was a little disgusted with myself. i should be better about that seeing as the peanut is always picking food off the floor!
later this week i'll bring you the last bit of FO goodness, a spidery baby blanket and a new skirt! (peek over at flickr if you want a preview.)
