Work in Progress

Okay, I'm out of the swing of "Work in Progress Wednesday". I'm blaming the fact that our leader, MrsH, went on a cruise and left us all home in the cold and dark.

Also, not much work here to show, but I'd rather shift the blame to someone else, so let's not dwell on my shortcomings.

Knitting

KM is having a fingerless mitts Knit ALong (KAL in knit-speak) that ends February 14th. What a great idea! I thought I'd use the Pastaza left over from my super-warm hat:



and make a pair of mitts to match the hat that would fit over my favorite black gloves.



That way my hands could be as warm as my head, and it would all be matchy-matchy, using the same yarn and stitch pattern.

Except I lost one of the knitting needles at someone else's house. I've looked for it a couple of times, but I've discovered that there's a limit to how many times you can go to someone's house and start taking apart their furniture, even if the person IS a knitter and understands about double point needles dropping into cushions. Whoops.

Another group I've joined is Poppins Vest-uary, which involves knitting/crocheting/sewing a vest during the month of February.

This is how far I've gotten with that.



I have a pattern in mind, but I don't currently own that pattern. Maybe I should sew something instead -- it's faster.

And, speaking of sewing, we have actually honest-to-goodness work in progress in that field.

SEWING

The kids have a feis on Saturday, and when Thalia tried on her dress a few days ago (for the first time since November) we discovered that the bodice is too small. In particular, it's too short, giving the dress a bit of an Empire waistline. So, after discussing it with the school dressmaker, last night I took it apart:



I took off the collar, cuffs and cape so I could throw the main part of the bodice in the washing machine -- these dresses aren't washable when there's stiffening in them, but if you remove the stiffening you can FINALLY get them in a washing machine. We use underarm shields and Febreeze, but the dresses are so hot that the girls sweat all over, and it's sort of ... funky ... to have all of that old sweat in the polyester fabric.

Lengthening the bodice is just a matter of sewing it back together with a smaller seam allowance at the waist. But, the question is, should I try to alter the underarm dimension, which is a little snug? That will involve messing around with the armscye, and that can be perilous -- I'll end up taking apart the sleeve. I have just enough experience with this blue fabric to know that it crawls all over the place when you try to sew it. I'm not sure I'm up to whipping this together in the next 2 days.

On the other hand, think of how much I'd learn about fitting a dress. Hmmm, it's tempting....