Ms. Create (It's always about the sticks and string...)

Not the brightest crayon in the box....

Not much going on here.  I'm working on a Carnival Top now.  Actually, I've been working on it for awhile.  I started knitting the large size with some Caron Simply Soft Tweed, and noticed after knitting through two skeins that even I wasn't big enough to wear the monstrosity I was making.  Ooops.  Plus I didn't like the tweed either.  (yes, sometimes it takes me awhile).

Switched to Cascade Sierra Quatro (a blend of cotton and wool) that I bought at a close-out sale, and started the size medium.

 
Love these short rows.  They break up the monotony of the garter stitch.

Oh - plus....

I may not have enough yarn for this one....  Livin' on the edge of insanity!  Join me?

Next!! Summer Tee?

Oranje is officially finished!  I basted the zipper in by back-stitching in two lines down each side of the zipper, and I didn't bother sewing it.  I used to quilt all the time so my hand sewing skills are pretty good.

 
If I feel at some point the zipper is coming loose, I can always take it for a visit to the sewing room. I could not take any pictures outside as it is still too hot and humid, but I was able to take a few inside with the air conditioning.  Disclaimer:  pictures that include me in them are not always that great.  Be warned.  I am not to blame if you go blind.  HA! 

 
neck detail/closed zipper

 
open zipper sleeves down

 
closed zipper/sleeve detail.

You'll notice I made the sleeves long enough so I could turn them up and show the lining if I wanted to.  Love long sleeves (better to cover up my man hands.... bwaaa).

 
Someone walked by me and said, "Hey, those are Cincinnati Bengals colors."  I froze.  What?!

By way of background. . .  I may live in Columbus, but I am originally from Cleveland and we are all about the Browns.  In Columbus you root for either Cleveland or Cincinnati, and definitely the Ohio State Buckeyes.  I know these are the colors of a sports team (hockey?) in Canada named the Oranje, right?  But can they also be Bengals colors?  If that is the case, good thing I am in Columbus.  DOH!

and with that, Oranje is finished...

 
and I am off to find a summer tee that hopefully I can finish while it is still summer.  chortle.

Zipper Mojo with a touch of a Sunrise Circle....

All the seams are done on Oranje!

It fits me nicely too, although it's 100 degrees and humid outside, so, kind of hard to get a shot.  I will do it at some point tho.  

All I have left to do is the zipper.

I actually had a nice black zipper picked out, but somehow in the knitting when I decided it would be awesome to make this a little longer, I forgot that the zipper could not also comply.  Doh!

So I found this big bundle of coat zippers I bought for cheap at a rental unit sale and decided to dye one black.  It was a little on the long side, but ve have vays of making ze zippers shorter.  It didn't dye well, kind of like a darkey brown.  ugh.  Here they both are.  Wouldn't the black one be so much better?

And then something weird happened.  As I was lamenting the black zipper and laying it up against Oranje, it was long enough.  Huh?  What just happened?  I think the knitting fairies visited me.  I am in the process of basting it on now.

Oh - and since I was doing all that seaming, I decided to finish my Sunrise Circle Jacket that's been sitting for a year.  oops.

and I even had the frog closure for it laying in the basket.  Have no idea when I got that, but fabulous find!  LOL

Now... if only it wasn't hot as Hades outside I would have more pics..... 

Oranje, hems and seams

All is going well!  No more unraveling and I was able to knit on the button bands:

 
which consisted of 5 knit rows of orange, followed by two knit rows of white, one white purl row (the turning row), two more knit rows of white and 10 knit rows of orange (enough to cover the inside edges) and cast off loosely.

And I believe I am finally ready to start sewing all the seams.

 
I decided to use thread instead of yarn to make a neater seam.

 
why yes, I have every color of thread imagineable, why wouldn't I have this orange?  HA!

 
oh - this may take awhile.....

 
next we get to figure out how to whack the zipper in this!!!

A Time to Cut, part two

So after much review and reading up on the different types of steek reinforcement, I decided to go with the crochet reinforcement.  The deciding factor was that I am using 100% feltable wool with no superwashing or chemicals added in.  According to literature, I shouldn't even need reinforcement (yeah, right - that was never happening).  In any event, here's my crochet reinforcements:

I had some trouble finding the right stitch to crochet through on the stranded bits, but the orange was easy.  I am now supposed to cut through these "purl bumps":

Note: if you are following along and using a method other than crochet, where you cut is very different.  Please check your instructions.

Okay.  Did that with some issues:

again, problems in the colored bits.  The purl bumps were hard to find and I know I cut more than what I should have.  This might have been avoided if when weaving the ends in I would have had the foresight to not weave over the steek stitches.  Yep - let's just say that foresight was not in the cards for me this go round.  The steek stitches were filthy with weaved-in ends.

Onward.... and to more issues.  While picking up the stitches for the "button bands" (I'm doing a zipper - Lord help me) it started unraveling in the trouble colored parts.  I stopped at this point to clutch my chest and utter some obscenities...

see how it's all coming apart?

Okay - the only recourse I could think of was to whip out the sewing machine.  Why wasn't it felting?  Why is this happening to me?  Felt Felt Felt... then.....  a lightbulb.  I can make it felt, can't I?  I can felt those edges somehow, right?  Into the sewing/fiber room I go looking for something.....  oh ... YES - I do have something!

and the front side looks nice too.  Not bad after whacking it to within an inch of its life with this little handy tool (new in the package - what was my plan for it???)  The only fuzzy bits are on the back side:

and it's looking like I can pick up stitches now without it unraveling... very much.

Stay tuned, we're going for the button bands next!!