Experiment #3

This one's my favorite by far--I'm so jazzed that today I began #4, #5, #6, and #7. I think. I'm not really sure--I did so much cutting and ironing and pinning today that I really don't know HOW many I've got ready to go.

OK--so I started out with an off-white waffle-weave henley, men's Extra Huge (XXL, or maybe XXXL).

I wasn't sure how it was going to act when I cut it off. Would it begin to unravel? I don't know nothing 'bout working with no knits (nor about birthin' no babies, but never mind).

 I cut it off and then abused the cut-off piece, tugging on it and wadding it up and twisting it, just to see what happened. Not much of anything, if you don't count the biting and scratching and saying, "ow! You're hurting me!" So I ripped off the cuffs on the sleeves, too. I could have cut them off but wanted the sleeves to stay really long, so I ripped out the threads and removed the cuffs. Then I dumped the whole thang in a purple (Procion MX grape) dyebath. No photo of that step, but you have a good imagination and can visualize Things Turning Grape-Colored. It was FABULOUS!

Then I started stitching it. I rolled the cut edges to the outside and whip-stitched them with doubled floss, all six strands (for 12 strands--not that it matters; I just wanted that fullness so the colors would show up). I knotted the threads on the outside, where it would show.

And here it is. My Favorite So Far:

 Quite a bit longer in the back to keep my lower back warm--

remember how I said I figured that out after the first one?

It's more symmetrical across the back than this. 

Since I couldn't see it, I didn't adjust it so it would show better. Sorry.

Now I just have to get new photos of #2--I've gone back and done a bunch of applique because it was just way, way too boring.

Photos. Ahh, photos. You'd think that, living with a photographer, it would be easy-peasy to get photos of everything. The problems are 1) time and 2) lighting. In the evenings, we go to Starbucks to relax before dinner. If we don't get photos while we're there, it's too dark to take them outside when we get home. Inside, it's tough to get the colors right because of the colored walls (even though he adjusted the white balance before he took these, the colors still came out wonky, and I had to go back and adjust them all before I uploaded them). I can't use the self-timer on my little camera and take them myself because I get really irritated with not having a blank wall against which to stand and take them--everything is messy-looking, even when it's not actually messy--the stuff on the wall interferes with what I'm trying to show, and--well, I get grouchy trying to do it.

Anyway, we got these taken just moments ago so I could show you. We'll eat dinner in an hour or so--about 10 pm these days--and then I'll get to stitch some more on #4, I hope.

XO

P.S.  Good grief, what an evening. Larry escaped, so we had to get a flashlight and go look for him and get him back in the backyard. This was after we got home from going to get floss: we went to get floss, and we were almost there--all the way across town--when I realized I'd left my list at home. Since I ended up buying 80 skeins of floss, the answers are no, yes, and yes. No, I couldn't remember what I needed. Yes, I had to have the list, and yes, we drove home and got the list and went back. This afternoon when I took a shower, there was no hot water. Brrrrr. We waited to re-light the pilot until we got home from getting the floss, but the hot water heater doesn't seem to be getting any gas, and we have no idea why. The meter looks fine (you always have to wonder if someone's backed into it in the alley). I hate dealing with gas stuff--I was poisoned by natural gas when I was a kid, so it's reallyreallyreally scary to me. So no hot water until we can figure out what's going on. Sigh.