A couple of newer projects I haven't talked about yet.

I made a skirt (no picture...if there's huge demand for a picture I'll take one the first time I wear it) over break and just finished the hemming yesterday evening (I tend to hand-hem things; I think it looks neater). It's just a simple, fairly straight, slightly-below-knee-length skirt in a dark hunter-green polyester tweed (polyester, yes, but nice polyester: it looks like wool but is not so heavy and is easier to care for). This was one of the purchases at the Sewing Studio's New Year's Day sale- it was originally something like $20 a yard and I got it for about five. (Sometimes, it's almost faster - and less expensive - for me to make things like skirts than it is for me to search the malls and shops. Very often, when I want something specific, what is "in fashion" for that season isn't it. I remember when I was 13, wanting a plain grey preferably-wool cardigan very much - and trolling through TWO malls plus some stand-alone shops for one, and it was a year when the "in" colors for women were black, white, navy blue, and red. And the "in" fabric was that sort of waffley cotton stuff [if I remember correctly]. I finally found a cardigan in the men's section at a Sym's where my dad was shopping for a suit.

Incidentally, I still have that cardigan - it's developed a few tiny holes I had to repair (I think I had moths one season I lived in Ann Arbor) and it's got a little tatty over the years- but I still wear it occasionally. And yeah, I've had it for 25 years now.

(Funny thought: that sweater is older than some of my students.)

I like to buy things that don't go out of style. Or if they do, they look merely eccentric on me, rather than ludicrous (which is how some of the women's sweaters circa 1984 would look on me today had I just settled and bought one of those).

But anyway: good plain green skirt. I did alter the pattern slightly to insert a pocket in the non-zipper side, because I greatly prefer having a place to put my keys so I don't lose them. (I don't like carrying a purse into class).

I'm also knitting another pair of the simple ribbed socks from the beginning of Vintage Knitted Socks - the Oak Ribbed Sock this time. I'm using some of the Opal Rainforest III collection - the one called "Lily, the Sweet-tooth" (or at least that's how it's translated, I think). The butterfly it's patterned after looks a lot like the yellow color form of the tiger swallowtail.

The socks are coming out quite pretty; the colors almost have kind of a "vintage" feel to them - the soft blue and yellow against the black.

I think an exploration of ribbed socks - there are an awful lots of types of ribbing out there - is a good way to use some of the self-patterning yarns I've accumulated. The results are a bit more interesting to make (and less baggy to wear) than just the plain "rib 2 inches then do stockinette for the rest of the leg" type sock pattern.

I do still want to swatch for the Airy Cardigan; I have the yarn sitting on my coffee table with the pattern but just haven't gotten around to it.