Oh dear.

Dance shenanigans took up the majority of last weekend and while there are still practices to go before our trip to Florida and Nutcracker practice after, recital week is done. The boys looked great in their shirts and, while I did get a great picture of them, I didn't ask their moms if I could put them on the blog. I'm sure it would be fine, but I'd rather be on the side of respectfulness. Anywho, I helped watch littles for the first half of the show, did the Mother Daughter dance with Iris, and pretty much chilled out backstage and knit for the second half. That resulted in Brickless being finished last week, but it has yet to be blocked, so no picture today.

I also did some more Project Make-related mapping, this one outlining the kinds of clothes I normally wear every day, arranged by season. The back of the page has fabric manipulation techniques (seams, zippers, pleats, etc.) that I want to learn. Even if I don't use everything I've written down as something I want to learn, each one will be another tool in my toolbox.

When sewing attacks!
...you wouldn't think flamingos were so aggressive.

The map was helpful when putting the elastic around the neck and arms of this little shirt, pointing me toward a new way of doing it that even used a stitch on my sewing machine that I've never used before. Unfortunately, the stiff linen prevented the elastic from drawing up as much as I wanted it to, so that was not the right method for this fabric, but I'm pretty sure that I could now put elastic into a pair of underwear without much trouble. While there's some disappointment about this shirt not fitting properly, I did learn something from it, at least. I'll rip the seam in the morning and try again. I like the simple construction of this shirt, but I think I'm going to like it better if I can get the neckline to work like it should.

And because the DaVinci Disorder won't let me really finish a project before planning the next six, I dove into the very modest fabric stash for some shirt fabric. I'm thinking "Fall Colors Outfit-a-long" using this year's Pantone Fall Colors as inspiration for something that I'm actually going to wear. Just when I thought I wasn't going to find anything, I came across a few yards of the above flannel. My two favorite comfy cotton button-ups are wearing out and this plaid looks to be a suitable replacement. I would wear the heck out of a shirt like that and I think I'm going to pair it with the Silky B Cashmere that I got at Stitches because what goes better with a plaid flannel shirt than a silk/cashmere shawl? I ask you.

I haven't had my act together about posting new techniques for you lately, for which I apologize. I'll get back to it, but it might not be until we get back from Florida.

Oh dear...
What am I going to knit in Florida?