so last night i took off the crochet edging, and tried the tank on. and it still just doesn’t suit me. so i threw it in the wash to see if it’ll hang differently after it’s been laundered. otherwise, it’s going to be a cat cushion, since it’s rather comfy.

i tried to better arrange my loose patterns into binders, and figure out what to start on next. i think legwarmers, but i’m not sure what yarn i want to use.

and rebecca has still not shown up and i am so impatient!

so i stayed up much later last night than i normally do, finishing my little tank thing. based on the finished measurements, i made it a size smaller than i would normally, and it’s still too large in places. which could be due to my decision to not mess with adding short rows in even though i really should have. blecch. after i seamed the two pieces together it looked rather unfinished, so i thought maybe i’d add a little crochet around the edges, like the original pattern (the sigma tank on knitty) calls for. but apparently i’m a much tighter crocheter than knitter, because it ended up gathering the fabric up most unfortunately. blecch. there was a good part – i used the kitchener stitch to graft the shoulder straps together, and it turned out pretty well for my first time. it wasn’t invisible, but it looked like it was supposed to be there. i’m happy with it, because i keep reading things online about how difficult and troublesome and potentially ugly kitchenering can be. so, it didn’t come out invisible, but it did come out looking good, so there. well, and actually, i’ve decided i liked the reverse side better (the side i was intending to make the inside), and it is pretty hard to notice the grafting on that side.

so, tonight…well actually i might take a break tonight. or maybe not. but the next task is to remove the tiny bit of crochet i added, and re-think how i want to finish it. the edges look a bit raw as they are now, so i might try crocheting around with a larger hook? and it hangs rather loosely around my waist, it looks rather awful, so i’m wondering if i could get away with, erm, re-doing the seams a little further in, and then cutting away the excess. i’m not completely sold on this, because i worked so hard on it that i don’t want to ruin it if it can at all be saved. we’ll see.

christ!mass was pretty good to me this year. i didn’t get mountains of yarn from my secret santa like last year, but i did get two gift certificates that were/will be used for yarn. my mom gave me one for joann’s, and i bought some oddments – two balls of sugar ‘n cream, one skein of red heart and one pound of caron. the sugar ‘n cream was to make the vintage bathing cap from knitty, and a scarf or slippers or something to go with. well, i finished the cap saturday, and it’s not too pretty. at least, not on me. it looks cute off, but on….not so flattering. oh well. good thing i like silly hats.

i started a tank while i was home for christ!mass. i intended to use knitty’s sigma tank pattern. (can you tell i like knitty?) and i pretty much did use the pattern, but after some adjustments. i think maybe i’m just slow or something, but the diagram looked like the neckline was lower in front, and i couldn’t tell where in the pattern that was accomplished. i’m probably missing something, but it read to me like the front neckline would knit up the same as the back. and i really liked the idea of a lower front. and then i wanted to put stick a chart in. so i figured up the front half of the pattern, to be sure i centered the chart properly since it was my first time inserting a chart. and then i realized there was little reason to refigure the whole pattern at that point, and just jotted down the instructions for the back, and adjusted the neckline. i think i also changed the way the decreases were done, or were intended to be done. and i also ended up writing the pattern out line by line to make sure it matched, because i just get finicky about “knit to 20 inches” – well, when i’m not knitting something up in one piece and have to worry about matching pieces up for sewing. it’s not that i mind knitting in the round, because i don’t. but i also don’t mind side seams, and it took a couple hours to work out the pattern to my satisfaction and i just didn’t want to work on it any more to make it round again. plus i wanted to start knitting. because i’m impatient. anyway. i was using some unidentified light blue skein that greg’s mom had given me, and the yarn in her stash that was identified was mostly caron or red heart, so i picked up one of each to match when i ran out. i finished the back piece up yesterday, except for the shoulder stitches that need to be grafted, and started the front. and ran out of the first skein, and it turned out the caron was the best match. so now i’m impatient to get to the chart. i’m so close.

greg’s mother gave me another gift card that i’m going to put toward the cotton-ease i’ll need for knitty’s sitcom chic. which is so!cute! but i haven’t decided what color i want yet.

for christ!mass, i made my mother and my aunt scarves using bernat boa, because i wanted an excuse to use it again, and i liked my boa scarf so much. my aunt’s was striped with fun fur, and for my mom’s i just held it with cotton-ease. pretty cinchy, but since neither of them really knit they were very impressed. hee.

and i’m still waiting for rebecca 26 to show up. maybe it’ll be there when i get home today.