Little progress

I am away on business so there is not much to talk about...
Although I did manage to get the front of the Luna Shell completed last night. It took just over three skeins of the Elann Luna in chocolate fudge (I think I have 8 skeins, so I´ll be good to go for the shell). I am hoping to get the back done in just under 3 skeins for a total of 6, so that I have two whole skeins of the brown left to add to the 8 skeins of the same yarn in liquid teal for a cardi. That is going to be a tight squeeze and the cardi may end up with 3/4 sleeves (hopefully at least that long!).
So far (knock on wood) my wrists are fine and I will continue on as long as that is the case...

In sewing news, I had planned to take the HP 3 Graces shirt pattern with me to trace off in my hotel room but I managed to forget that at home... which means no progress on the mini-wardrobe. Ugh!!!!
Status:
Skirt - pattern traced
3 Graces top - nothing done
BWOF blouse - still on the fence if I like the pattern for the fabric
2nd BWOF top - ditto!

If I remember correctly, there is a cute top pattern in one of my older Easy Fashion magazines. I´ll look for that tonight and hopefully substitute one or both of the previously picked patterns.
I really need to get cracking on this because I have my March Jacket as well. Here, I´ve got the lining sewn and the fashion fabric cut out save for the collar (fabric decision pending).

My dad is coming for dinner next friday and I really want to get some more stuff done in the apartment and I REALLY need to clean the place so that is what I will be doing this weekend. Have I mentioned I hate cleaning??? I would rather install lighting or paint stuff than clean my apartment and that is exactly why it is in such a sorry state...
No, I am not going to show you a picture of my grimy place instead I will leave you with a picture from my trip to Australia in November 2009:

Sydney harbour

WIP: Luna Shell

This is the random WIP I pulled from my lovely pink WIP basket (I will do a show and tell in an upcoming post!):



Luna shell

 According to Ravelry I started this in May 2010 with high hopes of making a cute little twinset with the shell in brown with turquoise trim and the cardigan in turquoise with brown trim. It languished in the WIP basket after my old problem (pain in the wrists when knitting with cotton) reared it´s ugly head, again!
Because I wasn´t in the mood for something new, I pulled this out after finishing my Clapotis. As long as I don´t knit on it excessively, I hope I will be fine!
As always I use a knitting pattern as a loose guideline only and change lots of things. Since I tend to need more room in a top for the girls than most patterns provide, I decided to try something new for this shell: I split the number of stitches into thirds and increased one stitch at each of the two marked points. 4 rows after that I increased one to the left and one to the right of that mark and every 4 rows after that, I increased one stitch before the first and one stitch after the second and repeat for the second marked point. This forms a subtle upside down triangle below each "girl"! :-)

I am ready to decrease for the armholes next.

On a different note: I love the way my pictures with the white background look. Like the knitting is floating in the air. Instead it´s just my white coffee table... lol

Sewing Plans for March

I have been thinking about what to sew next and this is what I came up with:
- March Jacket: obviously! I´ve already cut out the lining and will cut out the fashion fabric after I sew the lining up to check the fit. Since PR is doing a Lined Jacket Contest, I will try to finish in time and enter.PR is also doing a Mini-Wardrobe Contest designed around an item already in the closet and I sewed a pair of pants a couple of weeks ago (brown with cream pinstripes) that go perfectly with the jacket. This got me thinking about some coordinating fabrics in my stash.... more on that later

- a loungewear suit (Vogue 2064; a Donna Karan pattern): my closet is sorely lacking in the comfortable loungewear department and I have the suitable fabric earmarked for this pattern



  I will be making Views A and D (the jacket out of a teal jersey and the pants out of a chocolate brown jersey)
- trying to recreate the look of the following dress will be another challenge for march


 last year, in NYC I bought a gorgeous wool knit in a heathered brown at Metro Textile that seems stable enough for this dress. I have shirt pattern that would probably work, I´ll see once I get it muslined.
- Inspiration: Embellished knits at Grosgrain
  I have two turtlenecks (at least) that I hate wearing as they are but they´re definitely in too good condition to throw out (both Tommy Hilfiger cotton sweaters). I want to refashion these in some way.

Ok, that´s enough for now, I hope I can finish all that in March!

Jacket-a-Month March - McCalls 5759

This months jacket is McCalls 5759

in a large cream and brown houndstooth faux fur

from stoffe.de. I have 2 metres of it, bought for
€9,99/m. The lining will be a chocolate colored acetate (I think). This is another jacket WIP from about 1.5 years ago. The pattern is cut out.
No idea yet, what type of buttons to use, but I will decide soon, because I need to order buttons for a knitting WIP (soon to be FO, just needs those buttons) anyway. I´m thinking leather buttons in dark brown.

WIP: Clapotis

Here you see my current WIP. A Clapotis (my first, and yes it has taken me eons to join the craze!) in madelinetosh tosh DK in the colorway "Baltic".



I bought 4 skeins quite a while ago for some sort of scarf/shrug. And there it sat in my stash for months, forgotten and neglected (poor baby...) until I watched the first SATC movie and fell in love with that huge red scarf Carrie wears in the scene where she moves back to her old apartment after the disastrous wedding. I wanted to make a similar scarf and dug into my stash, because the yarn budget is tight at the moment. So I stumbled upon the gorgeous blue and obscenely soft merino and cast on:
first: 1x1 rib about 8 in. wide with plans to put fringe on the finished scarf. I didn´t feel the love and ripped...
second: 2x2 rib with same thoughts on fringe... again not feeling the love... rip the second
third: Clapotis!!!! And I love it! I am knitting the scarf with the same number of increases and decreases but added a couple repeats to the straight sections.
The straight sections are finished now and tonight, once I plant myself on the couch in front of the TV, I will begin the decreases, hoping to finish before the weather becomes too warm for a merino scarf...