yes, it’s hot outside so this is the most you’re finally going to get of flair. thank god for air conditioning. it’s soupy out there!

complete

so here’s the basic details. it took about 10 skeins of ming (50g balls) and i have some leftover that i can make cowls out of for christmas presents. i adjusted the pattern for my gauge, added some short rows for the bust area, and used snaps instead of buttonholes.

snaps

for the collar, i used this technique that rebecca talked about on her blog to make the back of the collar a little higher than the front. i also made it longer because it was WAY too short as written.

all in all, it’s a fine knit. i’m not 100% happy with it. i don’t think that the neckline is very flattering on me and i wish it were double-breasted like the pattern (but that’s my own fault because i didn’t measure myself ahead of time.) i will still wear it though because the yarn is beautiful and it DOES fit regardless of my knitting flaws. i learned a lot of great lessons on top-down shaping (again) and i think that i’m finally ready to design something for myself. we’ll see!

finally, here it is on ravelry.

on to the next thing! i did cast-on for the frock camisole but have yet to take pictures. i got a little sidelined this week… i got lasik eye surgery on monday! put me out of commission for 24 hours but i can now see 20/20 on my own. i’m so happy. more details on flickr.

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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!

hiccups are hilarious from gleek on Vimeo.

p.s. i love how near the end of this video she sort of forgets what she’s laughing about those babies have short memories.

cruising peanut from gleek on Vimeo.

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this post is brought to you by grand theft auto 4 which arrived on our doorstep this afternoon. hallelujah!

thanks to everyone for your warm wishes and support for the launch of popknits. it’s been a labor of love for some time now and i’m really excited and especially nervous to see it live online and getting pattern proposals already! haven’t seen any sock proposals yet, hint hint, but you never know what’s going to come in the door in june.

anyway, let’s get back to blog business. i have a small amount of progress to report.

mmmm, i love this fabric

flair is coming along nicely. i had one hiccup and had to frog back a little but not much. i did end up putting short row bust shaping in…

and i think it was a good idea! it fits well and will be even better once it’s blocked (everything’s a little tight right now.) i’m feeling positive about it.

one leg done, the other started

the peanut pants are creeping along slowly. i was on leg island there for a while, but i feel a renewed energy to knit them. they seem HUGE right now but according to the swatch they will shrink considerably.

garter stitch cuff

i opted for an easy peasy garter stitch cuff. nothing big here.

in other crafty news, i hope to sew this weekend! i’ve been meaning to drag out my sewing machine for over a week now but it just hasn’t happened yet. i got some great fabric for skirts at brooklyn general.

new fabric

and i also have one from the stash that i’m using (sorry no pic.) tonight, i’m casting on for elijah (ravelry) as well. there’s a certain baby being born right now that will be lonely without it. hopefully i’ll have some pics later this week.

here are a few peanut pics to end the post.. i love shots of her eating!

cheesy!

this is what she looks like after eating mac & cheese. the hair! yuck. i can never give her mac & cheese for lunch. it always has to be dinner so that she can be bathed afterward.

messy

i gave her lentils recently. she sorta liked them but they ended up everywhere. next time, they will be mashed.

books!

and she could spend hours looking at her books. it’s one of her favorite activities!

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ok, i’ve got a spare 8 minutes before i need to get in the shower so i thought that i would throw this post up and be on with the day.

started two new projects last weekend. one i’m crazy about. the other i think that i was crazy to start.

first, the love:

the ming is lovely

started flair by knitandtonic wendy. full details on ravelry. the good things? the yarn. ming from artfibers is just luscious in every way possible. soft and shiny, and the colors are amazing! i’m enjoying knitting with it so far. the drape is going to be very serious so i decided not to do buttons/buttonholes. i’m going to do snaps instead. i have some large sew-on ones from joann.com and i’m going to back them with felt before putting them on. should work. we’ll see.

sorry about the overexposure

looks good in seed stitch too! happy day.

the not-so-in-love:

cotton hell

a bath puff (ravelry). boring and hard on my hand. i can’t believe that there are several people on ravelry who have made SEVERAL of these. i want to claw my eyes out and it’s only the second row. i’m going to finish it though and move on. i need a bath puff. if it turns out to be a horrible bath puff, i’ll chuck it and buy a new one for $3 at the pharmacy. no biggie.

i have good video of the peanut crawling but that will take me at least 15 minutes to upload. in the meantime, look who’s trying to stand?! good lord.

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