Ce-ce-Celia!

Pattern: Diagonal Stitch Top from Adrienne Vittadini Spring 2005
Yarn: Rowan Linen Drape, 4 balls
Gauge: approx 20 sts = 4in on US5 needles

I wore this to work today paired with white capri pants and ballet flats, feeling a little like Audrey Hepburn if Audrey Hepburn would be the type of gal to ever be caught with unbelievable shine (or grease, however you choose to put it), or a hairdo that's impersonating a dog playing dead. It was that hot today. You walk out and it feels like you someone slapped your face with a warm wet towel, and then tried to muzzle you with it. Am I back home in Atlanta? Did someone set fire to it again?

But really I'm not complaining. Ever since winter squashed spring into a no-show, I've been loving the heat. BRING IT ON.

I'd like to thank Carolyn again for the generous gift of Linen Drape. I think it made a fabulous yarn substitition for Celia which orginally calls for silk. I made other modifications too, sizing being one. Also because I cast on less stitches than the smallest size, I sort of just willy nilly decided how many decreases/increases I wanted for waist shaping. I did only one set for the waist. For the neck shaping, I followed the pattern but left out just a few decreases so that the overall circumference of the neckhole would be consistent with the smallest size. I'm small everywhere EXCEPT my head, which is the size of a dirigible, so no sizing modifications can be made there.

I must lament on one thing though: I SUCK AT NECKSHAPING. I don't know what happened but the front neck is just, yuck. A little more Jaggedy Cliffs and a lot less Gentle Green Slope. I've always suspected from past pieces that my neck shaping was yuck. Now I know beyond a reasonable doubt it is yuck. Binding off in a middle of a row = yuck. I haven't been able to learn from past yucks. Even with a row of single crochet finishing didn't hide the fact that it is so yuck. Yuck.

I usually like my PORTRAITS taken in natural light, because flash is so yuck, but the flash really made the eyelets pop, so I went with it.

What else, what else. That's it. I really like this piece and would definitely do it again. But not anytime soon because I am putting a stopper on projects for me. From now one, it's baby all the time, all the way.

Change of topic: You know what really made me smile today? The commute into work. Why? Were the trains actually on time, air conditioned, and not at all crowded? No. Was every other commuter carrying and reading the latest Harry Potter book? Yes. Dude, it was SO CUTE to see men, full-grown adult men, balding men, men in suits, men with a Blackberry clipped to their belts, sitting on the train with their briefcases on their laps and their noses buried in that book. It totally made my day.

...Carolyn who sent over 6 skeins of Rowan linen drape for free. Free! Thank you Carolyn! This is what one skein has produced so far:

Another from Adrienne V. Spring 05, this one I call 'Celia,' the name of the original yarn to use. It is 100% silk. I dislike silk. It gives off that tell-tale stink, is expensive, doesn't drape well on sticks like me, and comes out of a bug's anus. I had been thinking of using Cotton Fleece again for this and then Linen Drape came along, et voila.

...Allegra, for abandoning you yet again.

...Jeannine, an old buddy from college whom I haven't seen since graduation day. Actually I think the last place we saw each other was at the ice cream shop on Hope St (?) the day before graduation and you said very sternly to me, "Shh! Say no goodbyes!" and well, we didn't. Now Jeannine is in Amsterdam and I am in Boston. We email occassionally and tried to meet up when I was in the area last November (unsuccessful). Long gap of silence until yesterday when I get an email saying she found this site while surfing other knitting blogs, hee hee. So hello Jeannine, I miss you, send brownies.

...London. Love you, London. Hate you, Bush. At the end of the day I blame everything on him.