pencil skirt

This darling woven fabric with red flowers scattered on a cream background that I found in Grandma's fabric stash whispered 'pencil skirt' to me when I brought it back to MA. The idea's been around for a while, and now it's finally a reality!

pattern: vogue V8916 view e size bigger-than-14

modifications: french seams on lining, slit in back, 2" waistband, interfaced primary fabric (fusible) to give it more body, extended invisible zipper through waistband

next time: sew waistband on before attempting to sew on zipper, make waistband darts

winter weather knitting

Knitting is one of those crafts I come to when the weather is cold, good for keeping my hands busy while watching TV, be it the Daily Show with my roommates, an episode of NOVA (last night I watched this fascinating program about the decoding of Mayan hieroglyphs) or the flavor-of-the-month in online lecture series (at the moment, Yale's Frontiers and Controversies in Astrophysics).

Here are the most recent fruits of my needles:

Pattern: Meg by Berroco
Yarn: Zara, a dk weight white merino that I got many many years ago from the Wooly Monmouth
Notable: My first completed sweater!
Remaining finish work: Needs fabric dye, or whitening--some of the skeins yellowed, which I only noticed after completion.

Pattern: Knitty's Corazon by Joeli Caparco
Yarn: Leftovers of Zara from the above sweater, plus a skein of Jojoland's Splatter Dash in color code 028 that I got at Mind's Eye Yarns
Notable: Learned magic loop and basic color work with this project.  Also, I needed mittens!