Simple Knitted Bodice=Done!

I did some weird things, like I purposely knit the sleeves shorter, thinking they would stretch out over time...but curiously they have not. Perhaps time will take care of that. I liked knitting this. The beads were new to me and were sort of difficult to knit with, especially when I was doing the sleeves and the little lace insert. I purposely knit that tigher on size 2 mm needles (yes, to get gauge, I know, weird) and like the effect but it took me 3 weeks to do each panel and then about 3 hours to finish up the rest of the sleeve. Three weeks for 3 inches. Three hours for about 10 more. Now done. (praise be)

Now I am working full-tilt on that sweater named "Joy" from Rowan's Vintage Style. Lots of teeny stitches to the inch aren't slowing me down. I decided not to do the beads, but rather the purls. Honestly, now that I've been working on it a bit, the purls don't really show up as much as I'd like, since the yarn is a heathery mix (Yorkshire Tweed 4-ply). But it's okay and subtle and most likely a lot more pleasant to knit with purls than with beads.

My house is for sale. I know I changed the subject suddenly there. It's on my mind and just came out. I am sad about the house. One day I came home and there was a huge sign out front. (They never seemed that big from the road.) I knew it was coming but it's not easy. When the wind blows, the sign rattles. I think, I know, I have a theory. When things get difficult for me, I start to knit a lot. I took up knitting as a form of denial.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. I'm okay with it.

I'M ALL ABOUT IT. (Betcha you all are sick of me saying that!)

It isn't like I don't have a few old sweaters and socks sitting around waiting for finishing. And when I say Finishing I mean like, I am still in the knitting phase, not finishing, as in needs sewing up. Not only that, but I have some socks I've been working on since I was 36! (Well that was only a few months ago.) And there was this Kim Hargreaves sweater I started last Spring, but once I got all the pieces knited and basted together, I thought, "Nah. Maybe? Nah....maybe? Nah." So, it sits. I feel a little guilty about that but not really. One has to cut her losses sometimes. Besides it was cotton yarn. Pretty low on the yarn totem pole of loss.

Anyway, I wanted to start something new so I did. I am like spoiled child. Give me that new yarn--I am bored! Bored with silk and beads! Bored with cashmere! Sigh.

This low point apparently coincided with my suss cousins yarn purchase. The purchase of crazy yarn in hopes of not being bored. And bored I wasn't. But happy doesn't describe what I was either. More disappointed. The yarn, it was not good, no good, awful.

And so, boo hoo, I was forced to start a different project, the name of which escapes me. It's that Amelie-inspired sweater from Vintage Style (Rowan). I started and am musing on whether to use beads as called for in the pattern or just do a purl stitch instead. The purl stitch might make the fabric looser than I want, I don't know. Maybe swatching would be a good idea!