More Show and Tell

I’m sorry I missed my Friday homeschool post. Life just got a bit busy, but most of all I got distracted. O well.

Harvest continues on, and continues to go very well. As the corn, I’m sure, is nearing the halfway point, I’m at the point where I’d like my husband back. I can see he’s been taking extra steps to try to make life easier on me. For instance, he’ll walk up to the house to pick up his lunch, rather than me walking out to the semi to hand it to him. On Saturday Silje and David each got a turn to ride the tractor with him for a few hours and they both had so so much fun! Elias is still too young to go by himself, and we haven’t figured out logistically how I can go out there, as sitting in the tractor with a big tummy and a baby on my lap would work exactly. Not to mention Silje and David wouldn’t fit in there, and while one of them could ride in the combine with their grandpa, we try not to have a ratio of one kid per adult in the large machinery. On top of that, I just don’t enjoy riding the tractor when I’m this pregnant.

All that to say, Elias has really been missing his Daddy, and when Knut stops in, even if it’s just for 2 minutes, Elias attaches himself to his Daddy and we have to peel him off of Knut in a crying fit when he has to go again. While the other kids are often awake when Knut heads off to work, Elias rarely is. While the other kids get rides with Knut, Elias doesn’t. I think Elias is ready to have his Daddy back too.

As for me, I’m still knitting up a storm when I’m too sore to be up and about, and have even gotten a little sewing done, but nothing I can show here. There is one knitting project, though, that is finally ready to be shown. Finally.

This is the little lilac dress that has been in the works pretty much all summer, and is finally off of my “almost finished” pile. It was knit up in size 3-6 months, and was knit with dk weight pima cotton yarn.

I didn’t finish the bonnet, and probably won’t. The sizing was all off, and it had to be taken apart. I could up the needle size and make it the right size, but it just doesn’t seem to me to be the right bonnet pattern for this dress, and as I’ve been looking at different hat patterns, I can’t find one that seems just right for this project. So I’m tentatively calling this project done. Every dress doesn’t need a matching bonnet, does it?

This faux-wrap dress with a light purple velvet ribbon looks so simple and sweet which is why I picked it. However, the way the pattern was written made me pull out more hair than any other pattern I’ve ever encountered. Knitting up the pieces was easy, and not complicated. However, assembling the dress took far too long. I had to attach the sleeves 4 (yes…4!) different times, redoing it over and over. Things that could have easily been knit in the round without seams, or with edging attached was not. Everything was knit separately, and attached one by one. Would you believe I spent 2 evenings watching a movie and working on this, as well as one Sunday afternoon naptime just doing finishing work on this piece. That’s the same amount of time that I worked on the entire pink sweater/bonnet set that was previously posted, and that was from start to finish.

However, I do like it, and I hope it fits after all of this trouble. I will not be doing this pattern again, but a different version of this dress might be the first pattern I actually try to write. I’ve had the goal for a few years to write up my own knitting pattern, and I feel I’m nearing that point, though I think I won’t attempt it until next year sometime. I think I’ll see if I can write a dress similar to this, but in a much easier way to understand, as well as a few style changes, and probably using a different weight yarn. So really not this dress at all, but thinking of this dress sets my mind thinking “If I were to design this pattern, I would have the sleeves like this, the skirt like this, and I’d make it so you could do it this way…”

So, there it is. If I decide to make a bonnet for it, I’ll show you…but don’t hold your breath!