Fiberly One

I forgot to link to the rest of the dress up pictures.

Monday and Tuesday we were at sea.

When we travel, Tom actually gets up early (for him) and both days we headed for the dining room for breakfast. We dined with seasoned cruisers. For one couple the cruise was the third of four for the year. The omelets were a little salty and service was marginal.

Every day is chock full of activities, but most didn’t really interest us, so we walked around the Promenade deck, wandered around the ship and settled in on the Lido deck to people-watch – and I knit. And the tank top started taking shape.

In our wanderings, we found the Hudson room and dropped in on the bingo game, only to be chased out by really bad jokes on the part of the “Bingo Brit.”

Monday was the first formal dress night. It’s so rare we really get dressed up it was quite an event.
 

After the Broadway revue show with the young Zaandam singers and dancers (better than an amateur, but not quite professional in quality), we arrived back to the room to a snake and a note to move the clocks forward one hour.

Tuesday we got regular updates on tropical storm Paul, that was fading, but was in our path, so the captain slowed our progress so we didn’t sail smack into him, but that meant that our 7am arrival in Puerto Vallarta would be delayed to 2pm.

It was a lazy day around the ship and that evening we had the best dinner at the Pinnacle Grill, a steak and seafood restaurant on board. The atmosphere was very relaxed, the service excellent and the food was fabulous.

Back at the room was an ray and another note to move the clocks forward an hour.
 

Finished
The red carpet dress is now a dress.

Unfinished

I ran into an issue with the cruise version of the reunion dress. Interestingly, the pattern envelope for the dress didn’t have a real model. Could it be that the designers never really tried to make the dress or perhaps they ran into the same issue I did – the lightweight silk on the bias paired with the not so flowy zipper created a serious right hip bulge. After consulting with the Fiberly Friends, I decided that an alternate closure was in order. So the plan is to close with covered buttons and button loops. However, it may not make it for the cruise only seven days away because 1) the “bloom” has gone off the project at the moment and 2) there are vests and bowties that must be made. It’s possible I’ll get to it…but I’m not going to get stress out of it when I now have a back up dress.

Back up

I haven’t been dress shopping in a very long time. It was quite an experience. I was sorely disappointed in Nordstrom. The selection is minimal, and very, very spendy. So I forged ahead to formerly-Meier & Frank-now-Macy’s, where I found not only a good dress department, but a one-day dress sale. So I piled a dozen dresses on my arm and headed to the dressing room. The dress that hands-down was the best fit was really on sale. So end the end I got a $185 silk dress for 70 percent off! The only issue was that quite a lot of the beads had fallen off, but with some silk thread, a small needle, my trusty needle threader (my very favorite notion),the beads and sequins provided, and extra beads from my stash, the dress is now fully beaded.  

It’s October! Where does the time go? (I think I’ve asked that before…)

Red Carpet Dress progress
I received the balance of the La Luz yarn from Chez Casuelle on Saturday and piece one of the 2-piece red carpet dress is done. I’m quite pleased with the results. Now on to the top. I’ve made a few false starts. I’ve decided to use Soleil for the shaping, using the original pattern (zigzag and eyelet lace). Soleil is knit in the round so there was the obligatory twisting the row (twice) – I frogged 10 and then 4 rows. After knitting the parasol lace for the bottom, I decided it would be too large so zip! went all 14 rows of the pattern. I reknit the bottom on one size smaller needles changing to the larger needles for the body. Next I had to figure out where to shift the sides, since the zigzag needed to start in the middle of a pattern repeat. But the decisions have been made.

Other crusiewear
Carolyn wrote in her blog that there seems to be a slowdown in sewing. She attributes it to striking sewing machines. For me it’s pattern layout avoidance. I think it’s due, in part, to the reluctance to cut into such nice clean pieces of fabric. It’s also due to the knowedge that if I screw up on this step, that may be it for the project.

But time is slipping away and if I plan to fulfill my ambitions, I need to just do IT! A few weeks ago, I did start the cutting phase and got two shirts for Tom cut. Then I started on the chiffon for my dress and stopped. I’d pinned it to paper, but clearly not used enough pins or the right cutting tool and the first piece was very askew. So thinking it through (for a couple of weeks), yesterday I laid out the rest of the pieces with lots of pins and used the microserrated shears I bought in Scotland, and had at it.

The dress is now well and truly on it’s way. I’ve got the top chiffon pieces gathered and pinned to their respective crèpe pieces. That just leaves the midriff and skirt pieces to underline. Next I’ll hand baste all pieces together and then I can sew. I’m feeling more and more confident as I think this through.

Then I’ll work on two tuxedo vests and bowties for Tom. Seems the ones I made in a previous life have found their way into a black hole along with my Threads magazine collection, so I extended my ambitions. I just figure that if I don’t get to the shirts, Tom can wear the reunion shirt and an RTW shirt for the “informal” evenings.

Finally, there are the buttons on the sports jacket we bought for Tom that need to be replaced. Not a big project, but a project nonetheless.

When I first saw the Red Carpet Dress, I thought “pretty, but probably not.” Though I have to say Dianne’s first reaction was that I would knit it and it turns out she was right. This is, however, the first time I’ve really deviated from the shape of a pattern, so it’s involved a lot of planning. I started it on Friday with some Fiesta La Luz silk (the yarn used in the original pattern) that I had stashed for an entirely different project. Problem is I only had two hanks. But I figured the advantage of hand dyed yarn is by it’s nature it’s not perfectly evenly dyed, so I wasn’t too concerned about not having all one dyelot. And on to the internet I went to find a site with the yarn in color cherry.

I was on a roll on Saturday and had knit one and a half of my two now-balls. I was running out of yarn, but really wanted to continue. So I checked LYS Abundant Yarn’s site guessing if anyone would have it, they would and they did – in cherry. I think I did a pretty good job of knitting in the new dyelot.

It’s turning out to be quite a quick knit, because the skirt front is done. The top of the skirt is a k2tog, yo lace to be folded over as casing for the elastic. I’ve picked up purl bumps on the inside and will graft the top to the picked up stitches after I’ve completed and sewn up the side seams. I thought a lace “casing” would be less bulky than stockinette.

I’ll start on the back with what is left, but will have to wait a week for my internet purchase because Abundant Yarn as much of the yarn as I had.

Oh well. It’s not like there aren’t any other projects I can work on.

Shirts
I love to knit and I love to sew. What I don’t really like—arguably the most important step of the sewing—is laying and cutting out patterns. I’m not sure why. But it’s a step that can’t be ignored, so I spent the equivalent of a day cutting out shirts for Tom. Hopefully in the not too distant future, he’ll have three new dog shirts and two new dress shirts. The latter will be for the cruise which is only a month away.

Dresses
There will be two formal dinners at the above-mentioned cruise. My original plan was to sew two evening dresses, but as is my wont to do, I have switched gears. Dress number one is still going to be a silk version of the Reunion Dress in a burgundy chiffon over black crêpe de chine. (I think I need to get that cut out pretty darn soon…). I’ve decided to knit dress number two (that’s where the real ambition comes in). I’ve started the “red carpet dress” from Greetings from Knit Cafe.

However, after starting it, and thinking about how nice the dress looks on the slender, tall model, I realized, my short pear shape may not do it as much justice, so I’ve decided to do some modifications. It will be a two piece dress to camouflage the larger part of the pear and to make the top of the pear look a little wider. My plan is to knit the skirt to above the trellis lace panels, then knit even and add a small casing for elastic. Then I’ll knit the zigzag lace panel in a top has neck shaping and shoulders. But I haven’t quite decide which pattern to use—Jewelled shell, Soleil, Ballet Camisole, or Picovoli. Any opinions?

At any rate, here’s what I’ve done so far.

Wedding gifts
My saving grace here is that I figure I have the first year to give wedding gifts—especially since the first was an elopement and the second we can’t attend because we will be leaving for the cruise on the date. Vogue 7955 has inspired me, so I’ve ordered some doupioni silk from Fabric.com.

So many ideas…