Here is my latest project hot off the needles – two dresses in one!

I figure this should blow the eyes off the co-workers tomorrow! I was advised on Friday that some of them have started a pool on what colours I will come in wearing on Mondays… 😉

It was actually a surprisingly quick knit… although working with the Suede was rather hot yesterday in the 29 celsius/two million celsius with the humidex and smog alert (did I really need to know that) temperatures – 27 C inside my apartment. Trip to buy an A/C unit scheduled for Tuesday (wish me luck!)

Yarn: Berroco Suede (9 skeins approx)
Colours: hot pink, hot lime, black, dark purple and “tricolour” purple
Needle size: 5 mm
Started: 30 May 2007
Finished: 3 June 2007
Pattern: by me, inspired by Trapeze Tank in Knitters’ Magazine Spring 2005 (see my post on 30 May, last photo, for what the actual pattern looks like in “real life”.

so far so good… I just started it at 2 this afternoon and cooked dinner and did some cleaning in between! (it’s now 7:30).

This is my stab at the Tomato from the No Sheep for You blog – thought I would jump on the bandwagon.

I am subbing in a chequerboard pattern for the fair isle bit and thought I’d put some on the sleeves as well. The main colour is deep purple, with coral and light teal as the contrast colours.

Yarn: Mission Falls 1824 cotton
Needles: 4.5 mm addi turbos

Thought I’d break down and get DH to take some photos (I *hate* being photographed…). Glad to see that the dress still glows despite the grey day outside…

It’s official – I have now graduated to the ranks of those who knit while using public transit! It certainly relaxes me while heading to work – and I’ve ended up having quite a few interesting conversations with other crafters as a result! (despite the odd looks I get from some other people who are perhaps scared of pointy objects…)

This is my first travel project – it will be a tank top when finished. I work on it only on the TTC – started about 3 weeks ago:

Purdy, ain’t it?

Yarn: Lana Grossa Elastico (stretchy cotton/scrylic blend)
Needles: 3.25 – 3.75 mm circular.

I’m very much liking the colour combo for side 1… and here is the colour combo for side 2:

A couple of glitches:

(a) I don’t have enough of either of these colors to finish the whole side… so I will have to sub in some black;

(b) I just realised that instead of two purple Suede, I bought one purple and one tricolour. Oh well. It will make for a more interesting dress, I suppose. LYS has none of the colours I picked originally left and I’m not too big on the colours they had in stock.

I hope to finish this dress tomorrow and start on something else.. hmm… the Bacardi, a Tomato, a “spicy” fitted T-shirt from Fitted Knits, a minidress from a vintage “hostess gown” pattern… too many choices, too little time! (but, too much yarn as well, if that’s possible!)

Is it a bird?

Is it a plane?

…ahem… none of the above… it’s

SUPER SWING DRESS!!!

Or, hopefully it will be super!

Picture this, but longer and swingier:

Both are modified from a pattern in Knitter’s Universe mag from 2005.

Both are made with Berroco Suede on 5 mm addis (which are, in themselves, superthings!)

Stay tuned…

The rainbow dress (based on the Rectangular Fitted Tunic from Stephanie Japel’s Fitted Knits) is done! For specs, see below:

Self-portrait

Front of dress

Back of Dress

self-portrait

How it went: I’m more or less happy with the outcome. Not as fitted as I wanted it – this was a side effect of working with so many different yarns. The tunic part of the dress is knitted from side to side (which I loved) and then I added short row shaping at the sides and bottom for the skirt. This was partly a stashbuster and partly a way to try out some new yarns. The experiment in this regard worked quite well, I think. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out considering that I used quite wildly differing weights and types of yarn.

Specs:

Yarns:
Berger Du Nord Belle Print (100% silk)- worsted weight
Fleece Artist merino sock yarn – sock weight
Fleece Artist sea wool (100% merino)- sock weight
Handmaiden Sea Silk – fingering weight
Claudia Handpaints (100% merino) – sock weight
Handmaiden Silken – DK/worsted weight
Alchemy (100% silk)- fingering weight
Needful Elba (100% nylon – ribbon)
S.R. Kerzner “Sari” ribbon (polyamide)
Rowan Calmer (cotton/acrylic) – worsted weight
Romni linen (100% linen)

Needle sizes:

3.25 mm, 3.75 mm, 4.0 mm, 4.25 mm

Other notions: 6 buttons

Finished size: 35″ bust, 32 inches long at longest point.

Pattern:

For the “bodice” and most of the dress, I adapted the Rectangular Fitted tunic pattern by Stephanie Japel with the following changes:

* instead of the “morse code” pattern, I put in black stripes with linen to separate the colours. [I love the morse code pattern but didn’t think it would show well with so many colours)

* I made the “small” size but increased the length to 26″, excluding the hem.

* instead of seaming the sides, I used a provisional cast on and then 3 needle bindoff.

To make the “skirt”:

(a) I added some short row shaping to the bottom of each side of the tunic (starting from the hip shaping down)… the short rows were worked in 4 stitch increments)

(b) I then added short rows to the bottom by dividing each piece in half (both front and back) and working short rows in 4 stitch increments – deepest point of the triangles to the outside.

(c) I then added more short row shaping to the bottom, reversing so that the deepest part of the triangles faced to the middle.

As a result of this dress, I now have 3 new favourite yarns:

(a) the Berger du Nord Belle Print (which was sent to me as part of an online swap. Thanks, Ruth! )

(b) Handmaiden Silken

(c) Handmaiden Sea Silk (I know, I know… I’ve jumped onto the Handmaiden bandwagon).

…or, What I Did Over the May two-four weekend! a work in progress:

This is a dress I’m trying to make based on the Rectangular fitted tunic from Fitted Knits by Stefanie Japel. I know, I know – it’s looking a bit rough! Rather overzealously, I thought I might actually finish the dress. I did, however, have a few other things to do! (sigh).

It is fun for me to see how it is coming together although I’m not quite sure how the finished product will look. Colourful, at any rate. 😉 The working title is either “Muppet Explosion” or “Pride Dress”. At this point the length is 26″ approx so I will have to add some more short rows along the bottom (and another sleeve, I guess).

Oh… and due to the work on this, I did not manage to drink a twofer on the long weekend – only a 6. I did however watch the Bob and Doug reunion which was worth a laugh (“take off, eh?”)

Julie McC tagged me in what I gather is a virtual chain letter (am I showing my age here? Do chain letters still exist in paper form?). So, in order to avoid bad knitting karma, I’m passing along the message -TAG – you’re it! (see below).

Please see the end of the post for the Rules.

And, if anyone else is interested (?!) please feel free to post a comment to this post with your 7 things.

Now, to see if I can come up with seven things about myself! Hmm…

1. I have a black thumb, meaning that I kill everything green and living that I touch and am banned from going anywhere near the flower boxes on the balcony!

2. I worked as an exotic dancer for 3 years to save enough money to put myself through graduate education (a cliche, I know, I know…)

3. I taught myself to knit when I was 12 because my grandmother (rest her soul) refused to teach me.

4. Being greek-canadian, I actually do break plates on occasion – to make mosaic covered furniture (see 2006 page on this blog if interested).

5. I used to smoke 3 25-packs of cigarettes a day (see #2, above). I am now down to 1 pack of 25 (Dunhills, if there is anyone else out there foolish enough to keep smoking).

6. My favourite humourist is David Sedaris, followed very closely by Rick Mercer.

7. My favourite breakfast is a toasted all-dressed bagel with peanut butter and crisp bacon. In a pinch, pretty much any other type of bagel will do unless it is fruit flavoured (I do not believe in fruit flavoured bagels).

PHEW!!!

***************************************************
The rules (as posted on Julie’s blog) are here:

List 7 random things about yourself on your blog.
Tag 7 others.
Leave a comment on their blog to direct them to your site to get the rules.

Probably, just like the real life tag game, there are no “tag-backs”. (Or is it “punch buggy, no punch backs…” – ah, all of these fond memories lost in the mists of time…

And… the lucky winners are… (drum roll, please…):

PrairieGirl
RaeKnits
Haley
Clarabelle
Jocelyn
Carol
Sonya

I suspect now I will go down from 8 readers to 1 (there is one reader with no blog). SIGH. And – my apologies if I’ve tagged someone who has already been tagged. Apparently this tag game has gone rampant and many of those I tried had already been hit.

Cheers!

I seem to have gone colour-mad! First I started this:

(the wonderful – and decivingly simple – Bacardi pattern by Barbara Gregory in No Sheep for You… and thanks to Barbara for preparing me a chart with my personal colours!)…

…but then starting hitting the stash and got some wonderful small samples in a swap from an online acquaintance from Knitty. Also, bought another book called “Fitted Knits” by Stephanie Japel:

So, now I have started turning this:

…into this:

The finished product, goddess willing, will be a dress. And then it will be back to the Bacardi…