I'm Back

I can't believe it's been so long since I posted. I've been dealing with family medical stuff, and then suddenly it was me being the "sickie." I'm sure most of you are familiar with the reality that whether one is ill or just recovering from a small procedure, the basic work of keeping the household running must continue anyway, and we know how that works. It would really be a luxury to just get to let everything go for a while, and I must say I did my best to let that happen, but all I achieved was letting some of my favorite things go by the wayside for a while, including my blog. I also seemed to lose my will to create for a time, but it's slowly returning as well, and I have been knitting anyway. Maybe not really the will to create, but there was just no decision-making happening, and what is the creative process if not a string of decisions?

I will also admit that I had no idea that I would really, really need to take it easy for as long as I did, even thought I had been told. As my nearest and dearest often says, I think I know it all, and I just don't listen. I do have to admit, he was pretty much correct there, as he often is. I do want to say a great big thank you to all of you who have sent such kind wishes. I really appreciate it, and I hope to be back to normal (?) very soon, if not right now.

Since it's cold again, I naturally have had the urge to make some warm things to wear. The zebra print knit top I made was such a yucky knit fabric mitigated only by its really great print, but I liked the pattern blend I used of FSG#1960 with a cut-on very long funnel neck, and I repeated it in another, beefier knit, and I've been wearing it with great pleasure. Now getting a picture of it that pleases me is another thing altogether, but I finally decided that it just isn't going to get any better than this. So, we will all suffer together.

I bought some interesting knit fabric a while back that is a very deep plum, and fairly sheer. I decided it would make a very nice overblouse, and used an older Vogue pattern for the basic shape. I decided it needed something, and tried a tie collar, which was dowdy in the extreme, so I thought the time had come for an unusual approach, so I took some HugSnug rayon seam binding that I got on a 100 yd. roll from the Pendleton outlet, and which just happens to match the lace fabric, and started making loops along the collar. It's definitely different, and I like the way it turned out. I'm using the former tie collar as a belt. I edged the sleeves with the seam binding as well, using it almost like a flat piping. You can see a close up below, and the colors are pretty true, at least on my monitor.

Here's the overblouse, over the blue top, which is NOT what I plan to wear it with, but it needs something with a collar, and I have nothing the right color and style, and it's too see-through to wear alone. The pants are another pair from my favorite Burda pattern, and the fabric is not what I had hoped. It's a polyester microfiber, but it's not nearly as nice as the fabric I bought a few years ago that I thought was very similar. This is drapier, and it's horribly staticky, and nothing seems to help. It doesn't actually crawl up your legs when worn, but it attracts every cat hair and dust mote within a 3-block region, and it seems unwilling to shed wrinkles. Now if polyester wants to wrinkle, what is the point?

I have been knitting away on my nephew's Xmas sweater, which will match his Dad's in style, but in a different color, and I'm getting close to dividing for the armscyes. It's going faster since it's smaller, but I'm making it a little large so he can wear it for at least a few years.