Boobalicious Tank from Big Girl Knits is FINISHED!

And I am so glad! After all the knitting, ripping out, knitting, ripping out, trying to figure out the instructions...it's finished!!



I had even gone down a size when I knit, but I think the pattern is rather generous, plus the cotton yarn is heavy.


It doesn't look too bad, although, I sewed it up as knitted, and well, it was a big Looonngg and droopy. Plus, there were these weird poochy things under the arms. I guess I'm not quite as well endowed as the target knitter!








So, I attacked it with my sewing machine and serger, and the end result it something I can wear.










I would like to make this again, but I will definately not use the increases at the underarms. I would also taper the straps with more decreases, because by the time I'd taken more than 3" off, they were a bit wide!

Look at all the knitting that I cut off!

I got my Big Bag swap today!!

Oooo, and it's so Pretty!! My bag was knit by Elizabeth! The colors are PERfect, and there were such wonderful goodies! There was a beautiful piece of batik fabric, Elizabeth says it was dyed by a local artist, AND Elizabeth herself dyed the lovely yarn hanks!! Very impressive! There was divine tea, and thankfully some row counters (I definately need those!) as well as a book that looks good and spooky. A bar of Dagoba chocolate with Lavender in it (I absolutely adore that brand!) and some Eucolan wash topped it off! What a great swap, I have to say this one was easily my very favorite! Thank you thank you Thank you Elizabeth! To check out all the cool bags that are being swapped, go to the Big Bag Kal Swap!

Knitted Kitty part Deux!

Here is my second Knitted Kitty to swap on Ravelry. I named her Snapple because she looks so much like my own kitty! And I discovered that I can't wrap my mind around intarsia in garter stitch, how embarrassing! I can do it in stockinette, so her little back patch is stockinette and the rest in garter stitch. I can't tell you who it's for, but it's getting posted today, so hopefully she'll get it soon!

Boobalicious Tank from Big Girl Knits, or, Publish Errata, Dammit!

So I've been slogging along knitting the Boobalicious Tank from Big Girl Knits. I really like it. I think it will look great. BUT.....WTF???? Errors. ERRORS!! I had checked thru Ravelry, and was prepared, but this is ridiculous! I went to the publisher's page for Errata; the "fix" was exactly the same as the printed instructions, which even I could tell were not correct. THEN I found a really big error when it came to knitting the 2 straps...omitted 20 rows from 1 side! That would just look silly!

2 months after I emailed the publisher about how lame their errata page was, I got a response asking me for the corrections I felt were needed. Well, 2 pages later, the dude tells me it's a little too involved for him, and he'll send it to the authors. Fine.

This past weekend, I managed to nearly finish the back, and as I was knitting, panic hit. I checked the front; yep, I had totally screwed the straps! Had to rip out the strap, because when I had tried to correct the authors mistake, I made my own and forgot to swap the sides the decrease would occur on. URRGGHH!! But hey, that's what knitting is about, right, learning from our mistakes, becoming more proficient so I can actually figure out what to do to fix things. I actually feel very sorry for anyone like me, anyone who can knit from the pattern, but doesn't really have enough experience to recognize mistakes right away.

Can you believe it, I actually am interested in buying the second book that's coming out? Glutton for punishment, I guess!

New Tattoos, new projects!

Over the weekend my lovely daughter got her very first tattoo! It is a pueblo american rendition of an owl, which is her spirit animal. She is going to start college in the fall, in the archaeology program. Several summers ago, she went to an archaeological field school in Colorado, where they got to dig in actual ancient pueblo sites, and work in the lab with artifacts, and it was then that she found her spirit animal. In support, I will get the same ink myself, as soon as I have the $$

At the museum, we are finally dismantling the 3 shows we've had up since February, and are prepping things for the Senior Fine Art Majors exhibit, which opens in 2 weeks. In the meantime, the director and myself are travelling to Chicago for the Spring Board Meeting of the museum. Aforementioned daughter and I are driving, as well as my parents in their own car, and we're going to make a mini-vacation of it, visiting the Frank Lloyd Wright houses, and in general shopping and sight-seeing!

Clothing for Real Women!

Maybe you have been wondering what has kept me too busy to blog lately? Well, I am furiously working on my "spring collection" of clothing!

They are original, one of a kind pieces made from recycled clothing I find at thrift shops, vintage tablecloths, vintage fabrics, and a little bit of new fabrics. I love thrift shopping, but it always upsets me when I find really gorgeous linen shirts or pants from great makers in size 4, size 6, size small....I am not a small!!


So, I decided, I really love this fabric, why not treat it as such?? So, last summer as an experiment, a gallery owner here in town featured a small 16 piece collection of my clothing, tops and dresses. She sold out of the tops in a week!! This May, we have an arts festival, and I am determined to do even better...I currently have 22 tops alone cut out, and many dresses.

I piece together the fabric from the recycled clothes, and try to keep some of the fun details like shell buttons, pockets, nice deep hems, whatever. The bonus is, the sizing is rather free, but it starts at a plus size 1X, which means whatever doesn't sell, goes straight into my closet!


The labels and hangtags tell it all: Red Panty Designs! because it takes a strong, confident woman to wear red panties, and I am nothing if not confident!

Some of the other fabrics I use are those wonderful block printed or batik bedspreads you get in hippie stores, you know the ones! I love those fabrics, and I like the feeling of a swirly top or dress!

I name all my pieces, and I can tell you pretty much on each piece, "this was a J Jill skirt and an Chico's blouse", or "this was a vintage tablecloth". It's a lot of fun, and the women who have bought a top or dress have told me how great they feel and how many compliments they get when they wear a Red Panty Design. So, that's my current project, and I'm working hard!