Crochet, knitting, astronomy & life in general.

Friday, June 18, 2010

Deadly Nightshade sleeves

Ahhhh... the post-qual slump! Well, not quite. I did finish my general qualifying exam on Tuesday (and I won't know if I pass until next week, argh!), but I still have to pass a thesis qual which will involve presenting my thesis topic and answering questions related to it. I'm also attending a conference at the Perimeter Institute next week, and have to prepare a poster for that. Sooo... I'm not exactly going to be able to relax for the next month or so.

Anyway, I thought I'd talk to you today about a project that was the embodiment of how much I hate finishing. This is the Belladonna Sleeves (Ravelry link) by Erssie Major from Anticraft, a book I really can't praise enough... I mean, this is my second project from this book, which is more than I can say for most of my books (with the exception of Son of Stitch 'n Bitch and Crochet Me).



So the pattern is basically supposed to represent a belladonna (or deadly nightshade) plant with a fluted opening for the cuffs symbolizing the flower and these big ol' bobbles that are supposed to be like the berries. Well, I'm not so much into bobbles (they remind me too much of pimples), so I decided to forgo those in my version, and I'm very happy with that decision. I also didn't decrease for the ribbing (probably a mistake), or change needle size, but I did sew an elastic ribbon into the tops, which seems to prevent any slippage problems.



The yarn I used was Plymouth Yarn Baby Alpaca Worsted Glow, a lovely lovely lovely soft worsted alpaca with little shiny threads woven throughout. The colour is a beautiful dark plum, but I don't know what the name of the colourway is. Unfortunately, I think this particular yarn has been discontinued, but I got it from WEBS at a discount.

The reason this project is the embodiment of how much I hate finishing is that it took me from April 14th to April 30th to actually knit the sleeves, but I didn't actually finish sewing in the elastics until May 19th... Yes, that's right. It took me longer to sew in a couple of elastic bands than to knit two whole sleeves. I don't know why... I already had all the materials, and when I actually sat down to do it, it probably took less than an hour. I guess this is why I should just stick to projects where it's done as soon as it comes off the needles with maybe a couple of ends to sew in. I just have no patience for all that non-knitting (or crocheting) stuff!

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