Finally a finished sweater

I finally finished this lace sweater I've been working on for so long. It's taken me forever to get it finished up, but I was determined to have it out of the way before the next semester starts back up. This is one project I can cross off the list at least.

It's a pattern from the 1930s that I found on Ravelry, although I can no longer find the link to the pdf. For those of you with Ravelry accounts it's called the 5 O'clock Surplice. I used a lace weight alpaca/silk blend yarn that I found at (one of our very few remaining) local yarn shops. It's incredibly soft yarn, as one might expect from silk and alpaca. I used one 875 yd skein (and a few extra feet) for this sweater, and I still have one skein left. I'm going to dig around and see if I can find another pattern to use the other skein for, since it feels so nice. It's alright to have two sweaters in the same yarn, right?? I just have to make sure that they look different enough that it's slightly less odd to have two sweaters in the same yarn. It's a teensy bit shorter than I was expecting, but think it will look really cute with my super-high waisted, 1930s lounge pants (especially my black ones).

While I have spent a great deal of time knitting in the last week, I managed to fit in a bit of baking (and lots of celebrating for my friend's wedding, my 24th birthday, and Christmas). I made a couple of batches of scones for my boyfriend's roommates: peppermint scones and chocolate-almond-butterscotch scones. They both turned out pretty well, but the latter was definitely the crowd favorite. The guys left me a nice note the next morning.

The wedding I went to was for a swing-dancing friend of mine, and as such there was lots of fun, vintage fashion that showed up to help them celebrate.

This lovely lady, in a stunning 1930s, burgundy velvet dress, is responsible for the beautiful suit the groom wore. She did an absolutely incredible job, making sure there was a perfectly tailored groom on the big day. The lining of the jacket and the back of the vest were really vibrant, bright coral, and the vest back was a giant polka-dot print. I would also like to commend her on her amazing welt pockets. She was very proud of them, as well she should be. They were perfect. She also altered the shorter 1940s dress that the bride changed into later, for ease of dancing of course.

Some of my favorite ladies. 

Her aunt (my mom's best friend) altered this 1930s wedding gown for her.

Finally, for my birthday I gifted myself with a pair of remix shoes. I've been lusting after these for months and now they are mine.

They are a bit darker than this in real life, a bit more mahogany, but they're absolutely lovely and I really want another pair. I'll take a picture of mine sometime soon. I'll be wearing them frequently. We all went out for sushi on my birthday, stuffing our faces with deliciousness, and then all walked down to have a look at the restaurant that my guy and his brother are getting ready to open. He got an urge to go see a movie, so the two of us went to go see The Adventures of Tintin. I hadn't been to the movies in months and months, and this movie was a lot of fun. The animation was pretty impressive as well. Overall, 24 was a pretty fun birthday. Now it's back to work on the next few projects on the list....

I finally have time to work on some things!

Hello all,

I've been MIA for quite some time now, as graduate school this semester has taken a serious toll on my time for sewing, etcetera. I turned in my last paper for my sociolinguistics class on Tuesday night, however, and I am officially finished until the second week of January. Despite the fact that the holiday season is always a busy one (with parties and family events and the like) I finally have a bit more time to finish up some projects and start new ones. I did some repair work on the boyfriend's favorite tie and smoking jacket last night, have to fix a dress that had too much Christmas party last weekend before I take it to the cleaners, and have gotten to work on the final sleeve for my merlot colored sweater. Just to remind you all what it looks like...

I'm much, much farther than that now, but I have yet to take another in progress picture. I can hopefully get it put together in the next two days and will take photos then.

Once I get this out of the way it's back to work on this suit...

I'd like to be able to wear it at some point next semester, while it's still cold. I'm not keeping my fingers crossed, but here's hoping. I've also got a pair of short-stays in the line up for break. They're for a friend of mine. The project list is much longer than this obviously, but these three are top priority. Casey is making me really want to start another sweater, but we'll see how that works out. That would require buying yarn, and I have so many fabric projects to get through I should really do those first. It's just such a cute sweater!