Mission (almost) accomplished

Sometimes I am almost willing to admit that I do not lack self-discipline*.  Remember my three WIPs from recent entries?

NO. 1 - FINISHED!!!!!!**

Finished, blocked, done, almost forgotten about.  Not my favourite project in the world, although I'm reasonably satisfied as to how it turned out in the end. 

Lace-up sides result solely from my impeccable fashion sense and have nothing to do with any sizing problems, nothing what-so-ever.

They DO look nice though, don't they? 

PATTERN: my own improvisation, 100% cotton, +/- 300g, 3 mm crochet hook.  I don't like it enough to give it a proper name. 

NO. 2 - FINISHED

Believe it or not, my knitting mojo held and I finished Iris a good few days ago.  It's stretched for blocking now, waiting for any half-decent weather that would allow me to snap some pics. 

BTW, I almost ruined the shawl at the very last step.  A new (to me) bind off technique, described in a tutorial as stretchy and perfect for lace, turned out to create an edge that is very beautiful and...  completely inelastic.  It is also impossible to undo without destroying the yarn so now it's either some very complicated knitting surgery on lace yarn or ignoring the problem and letting it stay as is.  Bound off edge in this particular project is short, so it doesn't look quite so bad.  I think it will pass muster, but only just.  In the end, no harm done, but my joy at finishing the knit is tainted. 

NO. 3 - 90% done. 

On hold for 24-48 hours.  Not my fault.  Too boring to explain. 

Anyway, I'm damn proud of myself.  I really, really, really felt like ditching all those WIPs and starting something new.  I deserve a medal.  Or a cake.

Or a teeny, tiny, super quick sock...

* Do not ask me about cleaning, though.  Or sweets.  Somehow my self-discipline never stretches that far.
** Relief directly proportional to the number of exclamation marks

Do sunshine and crochet mix?

That was a rhetorical question.  In my, not at all humble, opinion, they most certainly do not.  I made decent progress on my striped beach tunic, but today the sun came out and, well, not a single stitch so far... 

I'm not ashamed.  This is Ireland, which means that you have to make the most of rain-free days.  There aren't that many. 

I'm in the process of filling my brand new raised beds.  As you can see from the picture below, this is a slow, gradual process.

At the moment, I can't quite afford to buy topsoil, so I have to do things the hard way.  In a far corner of our new property, there is a small hill covered with grass and nettles, and once you strip the greens you find plenty of topsoil mixed with building rubble.  Once again, this is Ireland, rural Ireland, so by 'building rubble' you can substitute 'stones'.  Lots and lots of stones, big ones, small ones, mixed with some rubbish and even bits of broken glass.  I sift through it all shovelful by shovelful and then trawl buckets of topsoil across the garden and into the beds.  See?  Slow process.  It takes me about two days to fill one bed but hey, I'll get there in the end. 

I'd get there sooner, but someone keeps scratching my precious soil away. 

I didn't catch the culprit red-handed but I'm 99% sure it's the chickens*.  They act fast, the little monsters.  I finished filling less than an hour before taking the picture! 

Anyway, there's still some crafting planned for the evening.  I'm a few rows away from finishing second part of the tunic.  At this stage, I have to juggle between four balls of yarn which drives me up the wall.

Just one thing worries me.  It's hard to see on the picture, but the tunic looks very, very small.  A child's garment, rather than adult woman's.  NOT funny.  I'm putting a lot of faith into fabulous stretching qualities of cotton - how much do you think it will grow in blocking? 

I have a plan B up my sleeve - crocheting little inserts on the sides to make the tunic more roomy - because no matter what happens, I am NOT frogging this thing.  I never had a chance to tell you (what with the Internet starvation and the Big Move), but this is my fourth attempt at this design and I simply can't stomach another.  No can do.  Whatever I end up with this time, stays.  Please send stretchy thoughts my way.

* Or neighbours' dog.  But since he's probably the only thing standing between our chickens and Mr Fox during daytime, I won't hold grudge. 

Positive ease

One thing that I keep forgetting about is that positive ease is good.  Unless you have a perfect, gymmed up body, positive ease is ALWAYS better than zero ease.  Case to prove the point?  Here you go. 

My partner's Mum, W., is staying with us this month and since she is about two dress sizes smaller than me, I lost no time in coaxing her to model for me.  Right after she put Negativium on I knew that it's going to stay hers.

On me, Negativium looks just about right.  If I remember to hold my belly in and not to slouch, everything's fine, more or less. 

When W. puts it on, she instantly looks stunning.  The word here is EFFORTLESS. 

Positive ease, that's the key.

In my defense, I had only limited amount of yarn for this design, so I had to be stingy with any extra fabric. 

To tell you the truth, parting with Negativium didn't actually break my heart.  I bought the yarn because I found a bargain too good to pass by and colours are not exactly mine.  Plus, earning brownie points with (almost) mother-in-law is always a good thing :).

By the way, this time I managed to get a good shot from the back.  Just in case you wondered why the pattern is called Negativium...

In other news, here's my puppy (she's nine months old, so technically still a puppy) sleeping on three paws for a pillow.  I should've added a dog-shaming message saying I ATE THE FLOOR...

Finished! - Negativium

With Carefree Blue officially done, it was time to get Negativium off the blocking mat (ekhm... carpet...) and back to the workshop.

Initially, I wanted to add a few decorative elements (like crochet chains threaded through the fabric) but in the end I decided to keep things simple. I stitched two parts together and voila, I had another hand-knitted garment in my wardrobe.

Despite my worries of Negativium being too small, it fits perfectly.  Too perfectly, in fact - there is exactly zero ease in all the crucial areas and I'm seriously unsure if I have body for this anymore.  After seeing pictures from the photo shoot (and, believe me, instantly deleting a few), I decided to say a tearful farewell to my beloved sweets.  Wish me luck, and strong will.

Negativium was knitted on straight 3.5 mm needles, with three skeins of cotton worked simultaneously and fourth added at neckline (x2).  It ate up slightly over 300g of yarn.  Where colours meet, I simply knitted two yarns together although now I think that intarsia technique would probably work better.

PATTERN:

My own.  I charted stitches up as I went so I can write up a pattern if anyone is interested.