3 new projects .... not being so good now!!

Tonight I put the finishing touches on the first outfit I've sewn in almost four years. The last thing I sewed was my wedding dress. Boy was there a lot of cleaning to be done on the sewing machine and serger! I only have a photo of the jacket right now, but maybe I can get someone to take a photo of the whole outfit when I wear it tomorrow. Next up on the sewing front is a wrap dress. That one shouldn't take as long. Might even have it done this weekend.



There has been quite a bit of knitting going on, even with the sewing distracting me a bit. One of my nieces wanted to learn to knit when Paul and I visited over Thanksgiving, so I looked up a yarn store in their area and bought her some ribbon yarn to make a capelet with. She's doing so good! When I left, she had 7" of her 44" rectangle done. By the time we got home and called to let the family know we'd made it ok, she was at 25"!! And thus, another knitter is born.

Since I had purchased her the yarn to make her capelet, I decided to pick up something to make my other niece and nephew something. Brian will be getting a "Basic Cable" hat from Stitch n Bitch Nation. I love the way the yarn I chose is working up. This won't take long at all ... will probably have it finished up this weekend.



Megan is getting a pair of "Marvelous Mitts". I had to cast these on 3 times before I got the color combination right! I purchased 2 skeins of Jitterbug to make them. One variegated purples/blues, and the other looked almost solid greens. When knit together, the project looked like a jumble of colors and you couldn't distinguish the pattern at all. What seemed in the hank like fairly solid green tones, knit up with some purple, orange, etc. So I frogged the mitt, grabbed the leftover purple I had from the Mermaid jacket and cast on again. This time it seemed like the green skein had even more purple in it. The pattern was showing up a bit better, but that bit of purple in the background was obscuring it just enough that I wasn't happy. Back to the frog pond it went. Next, I grabbed a skein of bright green Palette and cast on again using the variegated purples. Bingo! This time you can definitely see the pattern and the background. I'm quite happy with the mitts now, and hope Megan likes them.



I did manage to get quite a bit done on the Russian Coat during the trip. I've finished with the bodice pieces. Since the pattern resulted in a coat with a 44" bust measurement, and I'm a 32", I decided to try to make it a bit smaller by changing gauge. That route worked out ok until I took a good look at the sleeve length. Making each hex smaller resulted in sleeves that will be too short. I think I've figured out a way to add some hexes and triangles in the right sequence to lengthen them, and hope that they won't wind up too long now. We shall know soon.



I grew tired of the hexes, so decided to cast on for the skirt for the ride home. The circular I took with me is a 29" I think, so right now this looks more like one of those ruffle scarves than a coat.



Instead of taking one of the smaller projects I already have on the needles with me along with the coat, I decided to cast on a new project. I know! You don't even have to say it. At this rate, my WIP count will never get below 10. I chose to cast on Zarah from one of the many Elsebeth Lavold books in my library, and am using her Angora yarn to knit it in. I only did 1 repeat of the peplum so far, but I'm really loving this yarn and the pattern is pretty easy to follow.



Wish me luck finishing a couple of these projects before I succomb to the cast on bug again :o)