What I Finished This Weekend

Remember this sweater I bought at the consignment store? It was about $11, I think:

Way too dull, right? Plus I had all these fibers I'd had for yearsandyearsandyears:

So I got a big blunt needle and started sewing (not knitting or crocheting) the fibers in, and I finished it yesterday. It could use a lot more--I have some fuchsia that would look fabulous--but I got tired of it and wanted to do something else, and it looks cool enough that I can live with it. Sorry about the color shift--I think the one below is truer to the actual colors. But, no: I did not dye it.

 I added in sparkly purple and sparkly orange and green, and some nubbly orange and just whatever I had in colors that worked.

 I think that nubbly orange yarn down in the lower left-hand corner of the photo above was a gift from Reenie Hanlin over at Material Whirled. Thanks again, Reenie! It's fabulous, and what you can't see is that it has some sparkly purple bits spun into it.

This is the back. I love the sparkly purple over the purple t-shirt fabric in the middle. I don't like the way they did that fabric--while it's a cool idea to work it in with the yarn, it's too stretchy and tight and makes it fit too snugly around the middle: if you don't stand up straight and hold in your stomach, it's going to look tacky and poochy. I hate it when clothes demand things of you, don't you? But it's OK--you have to wear this over another shirt, anyway--too open-weave for anything else unless you're 22 and wild and have fancy-schmancy underwear. I think it wanted to be a rockstar sweater. Alas, it lives in Midland, Texas, and will be worn with a journal skirt instead of spandex.

Today I'm working on another Joy Jacket--I shortened that purple one, and now I have the other three to do: I love the shorter, less dumpy-looking length, so I'm sucking it up and doing the others (I hate that kind of altering since it's just rote. I can't do it on the machine because I would hate the way it looked, so I have to do it by hand, and I have to pin it first, and I'm such a klutz with pins that if they're in *anything*, they're going to be in me, too. It's guaranteed. Lots and lots of sticking myself). But the results will be worth it~~

Then I'll get some other things ready to work on. I know it's silly, but I'm kind of frantic here: the contractors come a week from today, and they'll be replacing that window in the sewing studio (replacing the wall, pretty much), and that room will have to be empty all week. The idea that I might run out of things to stitch and not be able to get to My Stuff kind of freaks me out, never mind that all the stuff will still be in the house; it's not like it's going into storage in Anchorage or something. Still. I feel like I have to have a stack of stuff, all with little attached bags of thread and needles and beads or whatever, piled up and waiting, safely. Sheesh. I make myself soooooo tired.

XO