Surprisingly, it was a fairly productive weekend for my work basket. I realized on Friday that the first day of school for Evie is just a few short weeks away, which means I've got to get her uniform sorted. While I was in Missouri I bought enough of a beautiful lightweight wool material to make two dresses and one or possibly two skirts, depending on the style, and I'm hoping that that will pretty much set her up for at least fall and winter. We picked up the required light blue polo shirts last week and I'm still looking for a few peter pan collar type blouses in the right blue - oh how I wish their uniform shirts were white, so much easier to find - and, other than some new tights to fit her new grew-two-inches-this-summer-height, that should be it.
So with kids lounging on the couch feeling sleepy and quiet on Saturday, I cut out the first dress. I've decided to use the same pattern I used for her back to school dress last year with a few modifications. I'll stitch down the pleats further on the front and will do buttons all the way down the back since, you know, we can't have out underware showing in kindergarten, can we. I haven't decided on the second dress. I have this pattern, which I loved the first time around,
but I've been wanting to make this dress for ages, and it seems very uniform-y and warm for winter.
Also, I love this dress, so I'm kind of thinking of altering one of the other two, or finding something similar to it pattern-wise.
After I'd cut out the dress, the monkeys were still crazy quiet (gotta love Netflix for sick days) so I also cut out a tunic for myself, I picked this up a few months ago and it will be my first try with her adult patterns. Lisette is from the same designer as the Oliver + S patterns and I've become so addicted to those that I figure her grownup patterns should be good too. I used the scraps from that to cut out a third pattern (See! I told you! Productive!) for a doll dress for Eliza. I'm planning on making a uniform dress for her too but I want to make sure I have all of the actual uniform pieces cut out before I use up any of my precious navy fabric.
Evelyn is still not quite sure about the whole uniform thing. She keeps saying things like "I'll wear my blue dress, but not every day?" And when I explain that yes, every school day she does have to wear it, but that she can change when she gets home she looks at me quizzically and says "but some days I can wear other things to school. Like pink." So this should be interesting. I'm hoping that if Eliza has a uniform, it will be a little bit better. I'm secretly excited about the uniform thing, partly because I think they are sweet looking but also because I hate the long, drawn out 'what should I wear today' drama that was starting to occur on preschool mornings.
I also - I'm telling you, quiet weekends are great for project starting! - made a good start on Briton's Christmas/solstice sweater. Briton picked out the colors and the pattern a few weeks ago and I spent a few hours on Friday starting the sweater only to find a few inches in that I just couldn't make sense of the pattern we'd chosen. I'm sure it would work, but since I'm trying out the whole knitting stripes thing, I felt like I needed a more concrete idea of where the sweater was going. So I ripped it all out and went to the library for Knitting Without Tears. I have checked that book out no less than 10 times and have yet to make anything from it. I read about Elizabeth Zimmerman all the time in knitting books and on Raverly but a) the pictures in the book always looked a little dated and b) I always seemed to get overwhelmed by the text. But everyone else seems to find her instructions god-like so I gave it one more try and for some reason, I got it this time.
So, fingers crossed, the blue and blue striped raglan sleeved sweater is well on its way. I have realized, however, that I did not order enough wool. I'm trying to hold off on ordering it until I figure out what I'm making for Evie so that it can all come in one package. Right now it's between this and this (but with shortened sleeves). What do you think? I can't decide.
It's rainy again today and, much as I'd like to stay inside and knit another few stripes, I think the natives are finally getting restless, so we'll probably head out to the Natural History Museum. We lost a hat there a few weeks ago that they are holding for us in lost and found, so we need to go anyway and a rainy day is always a good excuse.
What's in your workbasket? What are you working on these days? And which sweater should I choose for Evie? I really can not decide! Ack!