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June 17, 2005

The knit parade

I bet you're wondering what happened to all of those slutty summer knits? They're all coming along, but I've never been too good at the finishing things. Some of them are getting close though, so here's the rundown:

CamoCleo has been stalled with just the boob triangles to go for a while now, because I ran out of the black cotton and only the one yarn store has it, and they have been closed a lot this summer. But they were open today and I got another ball, so she'll be finished soon. I'm still working on Pete's sweater too, but I'm not going to show any more progress on that because I'm still thinking about maybe submitting it somewhere.

The Sexie halter is in the home stretch. Just need to make those boob parts and I can wear this bad girl out. This has been really slow going, because I'm knitting the ribbon yarn on smaller needles than I should in order to get gauge, so it's painful on the hands to work on it for too long. The resulting fabric is very dense and very stretchy, so I've made it a size that will be a little too small. I want it to really fit like a corset. If this top performs as advertised then I will definitely be making another, maybe in olive green.

Does anybody else do this? In order to sustain momentum on a project that is taking forever, I sometimes imagine the garment as an important part of my fantasy future life, and I kid myself that this will keep me motivated to finish it fast. I imagine myself performing in a stellar manner in a job interview, wearing this sweater. Oh, my conference paper will be so well received when I'm wearing this cardigan. That pop star wants to shag me, and all because I'm such hot stuff in my Sexie halter. Am I just a big loser or do you guys do that too?

[Okay, I'm not really the kind of girl who fantasizes about shagging pop stars; I prefer to concentrate my fantasy energy on people I might actually have a remote chance of shagging. However, thanks to Cara and her letter to Bono, the subject of sleeping with Bono, and whether he farts in the bed, comes up fairly often in my household. Because we are twelve years old and fart jokes are still funny. I can't tell you how many times I've cried "why can't you be more like Bono?" in bed. Or worst of all, "why can't you be less like Jimmy Page and more like Bono?" when Pete made awful flappy aging-guitar-wanker faces at me. Did I mention we are twelve years old? Sometimes we laugh so hard in bed that it gets in the way of having sex. Most of the time we're not laughing about Bono. Only, um, certain times.]

Right. This was supposed to be about my fantasy life where my garments perform magic for me. Well, I've also made good progress on Evening Diamonds redux:

This would be the same top I already completed only to find it was too big. Out of the same yarn with which I once knit a different top 3 times before realizing that it was always going to be too big. I think it's going to fit this time; all I did was switch to a smaller needle, it's like magic! Or like math. Equally baffling and mysterious.

I am ready to cast off for the back and make the halter part on this as well. I got a lot done on it in the car on the way to Athens and back, but do you think I've picked it up since? No way! Here's further proof that I'm nothing but a big ol' slut:

Tivoli. This top is exactly what I had in mind when I stupidly made that top down raglan out of a heavy stiff cotton yarn (which has since found a better life as CamoCleo). I needed to add some shaping to get rid of the frump factor, and Grumperina has kindly done the work for me. I'm going to make another one with three-quarter sleeves later on. This is working up pretty quickly, but it wasn't long before it was tossed aside for this.

Soleil. I'm going to continue the lace up to just under the bodice instead of doing just the three rounds at the hem, and just live with the fact that the side shaping will cock up the lace pattern a bit. Because Soleil is a little too elegant (read: not slutty) for me as is. I'm also going to considerably narrow the shoulder straps because I don't have very broad shoulders.

I also spent a few minutes the other night banging out a half-assed translation of this free Phildar pattern. I'm making some changes here too, knitting it in the round instead of flat. And I'm going to do the increases and decreases that I like, not some fancy French increases and decreases (fancy French increases and decreases, of course, are any whose descriptions contain words that don't appear in my handy-dandy knitting terms language converter thingy). Of course after translating the pattern I had to start the shirt right away.

You know, to check that my French is okay. You can see that I only get about an inch into any one project before starting a new one these days. I just can't commit. I need to get something done to submit to fall Knitty as well, but all I can think right now is that I have to cast on for Orangina! Now! It's a sickness. But I'll be the best dressed slut in the looney bin, that's for damned sure.

Posted by jodi at June 17, 2005 07:50 PM | categories:  sticks and string

Comments

Posted by: anna at June 18, 2005 02:05 AM

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