At Her Leisure

The DFWCG Sporting Sunday event was held on Sunday, and I wore my 1918 sateen dress again. This year instead of the 1920 tuxedo sweater, I wore the 1919 cape sweater with vest front over it. I didn't wear the cape sweater for long because it was about 80 degrees Fahrenheit out, but I got pictures and enjoyed wearing it while I did.





The wool is very nice, and it's fluffy and cushiony. I did find I need to tack the belt to the vest front because every time I lifted my arms, it pulled out from under the belt, and I'd have to tuck it back in.

Here's the Ravelry page: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/MCBurbage/1919-cape-sweater.

There were seven of us at the event, ranging from 1870's to 1970's. Two of us were in 1910's. One wore a 1920's bathing suit. We played horseshoes with complete disregard for the rules and a singular lack of competitive spirit and then played Bocce ball in a similar way. I took my croquet set but didn't end up setting it up.

A long weekend with a good deal of travel is good for needlework projects.

I made the little laundry cross-stitch and all the buttons for my 1919 cape sweater. I started the first of the Christmas ornaments for the year.



marianme already posted about our weekend here: https://marianme.dreamwidth.org/459361.html. I had a grand time. The travel was fairly smooth, and everything went pretty well the whole weekend. I didn't take pictures, but that's the norm for me. I'll refer you to Kim's pictures here: https://flickr.com/photos/7181690@N03/albums/72177720324115022/

It's the first time I've been to the ball in five years, and it was so nice to be back. I danced everything except the Minuet for lack of a partner and "Ely Waltz," which is a circle mixer. I'm not very fond of circle mixers, and they're a very inefficient use of the floor space. There were enough dancers to be a bit tight around the edge of the floor, but of course the whole center of the floor is empty. I suppose you could set up two sets in concentric circles, but I've never seen anyone do it. I wore my embroidered 1800's dress again, and it was quite nice to dance in.

I finished the stripes for the lower edge of the 1919 cape sweater. Those were some very long rows. I didn't pick up the 640 stitches that it called for because 1) that number didn't actually make sense and 2) I didn't want the back to look quite so much like a ruffle as it does in the pattern image. I picked up all the cast off stitches and three stitches for every four rows along the ends of the rows instead of one stitch for every row. I ended up with about 610 stitches, which were still quite enough to be getting on with. With that the knitting is done, and I just have some crochet bits and weaving in ends and sewing on the collar left. It's getting close.

Last week I saw an ad from Knit Picks that they were having a clearance sale. I looked at it, even though I really don't want to be buying things right now, and was displeased to see that the yarn I'm using for the 1919 cape sweater was on the list. The price wasn't super low so I don't know if it's really on clearance or the filter was just showing things that were on any sale, but as usual I really wasn't sure I had enough yarn. I decided that meant I needed to get through as much of the cape as I could as fast as I could to see whether I needed to order more before they ran out.

I knit madly all weekend and through the week until yesterday. By then I had the two large half-body pieces, the belt, and most of the collar knit. All that was left was finishing the last few rows of the collar and the edging around the neck and front plus the lower edge. With where I am now, I have 1.5 balls left, and I estimate that the bottom edge will take a full ball. That leaves half a ball for the neck edge crochet, which ought to be enough. And so I should be fine with what I've got.

Thud.

Now to make up a few days on the cross-stitching that I've been neglecting while I hit the knitting so hard. At least plain garter stitch is good for reading so I finished a few books over the weekend and this week.

I finished the first piece of the 1919 cape sweater.



A modern pattern might have made the curve a little more rounded by making more transitions in the number of rows between decreases, but I think it probably won't be obvious in wearing.

I cast on the second piece, and it's now a whopping eight rows long.

I finished the knitting on my 1901 bicycling sweater yesterday. I'd like to get it assembled over the weekend, but we'll see. I also just kind of want to work on the "Street Scene" cross-stitch today.

Knowing I was close to finishing the bicycling sweater, I cast on a 1919 cape sweater that I think will be really cool. I'm about fifty rows into it. It's garter stitch like so many c. 1920 sweaters seem to be, which makes it super easy. At some point it might not be a particularly portable project because it's basically made in two pieces with just the collar and belt done separately. We shall see. At any rate, I hope it will make good winter knitting when a pile of wool in the lap isn't so objectionable.

I made some knitting progress this week.

1. I finally sewed together the pieces of the red sweater to go with the cabled cardigan I made a few months ago. That project is now finished.

2. I finished knitting the front of the 1901 bicycling sweater. So much ribbing. I cast on the back and am a dozen rows into it.

I've been working some on the plain shell sweater to go with my cabled cardigan. I'm now past the narrowing for the armscyes on the back. Just 25 more rows, and I'll be dividing for the placket. My second ball of yarn is getting small but not microscopic yet. I'm withholding judgement on whether I will have enough to do the sleeves as written.

I finished the sweater I was making. Another one off the current projects list. I overbought on yarn, but I did need one of the extra balls. Hopefully I can find something worth making with almost-but-not-quite 100g of marled tan/ivory fingering weight wool.

Pictures later.

I was starting to wonder if I actually needed to buy the extra yarn for my current sweater, but I ran out of the original batch halfway through the collar. So, yes, I needed more, but no, I didn’t need another two balls. Now I’ve finished the knitting and the pressing. I should sew it all together some time this week.

I cast on the shell to go with the red cabled cardigan I finished a couple of months ago. It will make a very good blind knitting project.