Roughly Six Hours of the Wrong Stitch!

Life is so good, making my own skirt on vacation to wear to dinner, and thinking how smart I am to have brought the knitting along, too, so I can get that last sleeve finished for that awesome sweater...and then THIS happens:


The one on the right would be the correct sleeve done in K1P1 for 21 inches. The one on the left would be what I started on my Asheville flight a couple of months ago and spent several hours during this vacation doing, which is stockinette stitch. I was wondering why this sleeve was so much bigger than the first one, and why the edge curled up...DOH!

The Close-ups

Just to show you how wacky that fold over elastic is - and I never did a zig-zag stitch by hand, but it's functional, so I'll take it. (And do you know how hard it is to stitch elastic by hand when you're stretching it to gather the fabric? Really hard after a coconut punch!)


I guess I can check the internet for solid colors of this elastic, but I'm thinking now that the Mardi Gras dress should be an actual dress, which would be this skirt combined with the white top I'm wearing in the previous post. I'll have to do a serious swayback adjustment...


Now off to work on that knitted sweater sleeve - I got about 8 inches of 21 done after I finished the skirt!

Alabama Chanin Fitted Skirt - Done!

I am so proud that I cut this skirt out of 4 red T-shirts and packed it in my carry-on bag, started stitching it here the day we left, and finished it in St. Lucia while sitting on the beach.


I sewed a couple of hours for 2 days each, and wore it to dinner Wednesday and Thursday nights with different tops.


I found the foldable elastic Natalie Chanin recommends at Hancock, but they didn't have 1.5", so I used 1" instead. They also didn't have any solids, just wacky printed elastic, so mine is green and yellow, which looks weird with red thread zig-zagged over it, but nobody'll see it anyway - not even you! (I just realized I need some close-up pics - will get those tomorrow and then you can see the elastic.)


The knots were a little uncomfortable on my skin after a couple of hours, but that's how I found out I had a sunburn - doh!


I need to experiment with different tops, but I threw on my original AC top just to see - plus they coordinate! Close-up pics tomorrow...

Paradise....?

An in-room iPad with hotel information....and a giant can of bug spray? To be honest, it was camouflaged in a decorative bamboo container, but it's still kind of jarring when you pull it out.

Relaxing

This is a reLAXing vacation where there are no alarms, no schedules, no nothing....but drinking coconut punches and sewing on the beach (is that weird?). And I finished the red skirt tonite in time for dinner!

St. Lucia

This is from the Tet Paul Nature Trail looking toward Petite Piton (the smaller of the 2 mountains) - do you see the double rainbow? One for each decade we've been married!

Alabama Chanin Corset - Done! Skirt on the Way...

It only took about 15 minutes to redo each armhole - I undid the binding over the front princess seam and took another 1/2" out from the middle front and side front pieces.


And I think using a larger size for the back was silly - it's too big.


Oh well, it's still going on vacation with me (20th wedding anniversary trip - woohoo!)


I need something for the plane trip besides knitting a sleeve in the round for 9 more inches, so I discovered I had about 6 red intramural soccer T-shirts from all the years the boys played.


And those are just custom-made for the Alabama Chanin "short skirt!" If this turns out well, it'll be the bottom half of my Mardi Gras dress.


One last thing: have you ever left your phone somewhere? I left mine in a restaurant by accident, but turned right around and went back to get it. They were cleaning up for the night (we were the next-to-last people to leave), and the waitress had it waiting for me. The next day I went to pull up a picture, and look what I found:


They apparently took a picture of the restaurant with my phone - huh?! Was it to be funny? I find it kind of ominous. Has that ever happened to you? (That made me think of the vacationers who developed their pictures to find the housekeeping staff used their toothbrushes and took pictures of themselves! I guess this could've been worse...)