Valor in good company

Valor, standing for the right.

It took four hands, two chopsticks, and my largest crochet hook to switch out Valor's feet. I'd put on as much of his armor as I could without help, but the dark elastic slightly stained his arms, so we're holding off on armoring him until I can make him a skin-colored undershirt with elbow-length sleeves that will prevent staining.

I now know why knights had pages to help them get dressed. It took me the better part of half an hour to figure out what goes where and get it arranged properly. At first I had his gaiters on his arms, and I couldn't figure out what to do with the two long "belts" until I looked at the pictures on the company website. They wind around his gaiters.

Close-up of his sword. I don't know if it's big enough to be a claymore, but it's definitely a two-handed sword of some sort. I looked on Wikipedia and ended up more confused than when I started.

Valor with Legolas and Gimli. Gimli seems a little suspicious, but I think Legolas is glad to have another elf on the team.

Valor and Celeste. I don't know if she's playing a battle hymn or a Celtic lullaby.

He's here, a day sooner than I expected!

No pictures yet, because he's sitting blind, bald, and naked on the dining room table. I had to run to Michael's to pick up more kneaded eraser to use as eye putty. Middlest is in the middle of things (tee hee) otherwise engaged at the moment. But here's a picture of his box.

And here's a picture of all of the stuff that came home with me from Michael's.

Fall-themed "art" that will go on my desk at work, two different brands of kneadable eraser, a package of washi tape with musical notes, and a small mannequin that will go to one of my dolls. I just don't know which one yet.

Valor is stateside, and through customs.

He's somewhere between the post office in Chicago and here, with delivery scheduled by 8:00pm on Friday.

Squee!

We have a tracking number for Valor.

The email said "delivery" tomorrow, but I think they meant "shipping" tomorrow, because the EMS number is coming up empty. So maybe I will have a doll at the end of the week?

Fore and aft.

The front of Justice's shirt, showing the silk bow at her neck.

The back view, showing off the buttons.

The back view with vests and shirt.

The front view, as she models no more pictures, please, I'm late for an appointment.

And with no pretense at modesty whatsoever, I am in love with her socks.

Halfway done with her second stocking.

The first fit like a dream, which made working on this one oh so easy. I'm almost halfway through the heel flap and would love to begin the heel gussets before I go to bed, but I'm thinking it's going to have to wait until tomorrow.

There are buttons sewn on Justice's shirt, and half a snap in place.

I've been going back and forth with the doll company. There have been delays, but he's scheduled to ship out on Monday the 2nd. Korea is gearing up for their Thanksgiving celebration. This is my first order from Withdoll, and it I've been significantly reassured that Middlest knows them to be a highly reputable company.

I'm having a few sinus issues. The antihistamine is working, but not as well as I would like. Still, I'm thankful. Without it, I'd be dealing with a full-blown sinus infection about now. Heading to bed shortly.

Houston, we have a vest! And bloomers!

The back view of the vest.

The back view of the bloomers (with the tails of the vest flipped up). I modified that shorts pattern I bought from DG Requiem's Etsy shop.

And the vest front, with her arms flopped out to either side, showing how nicely the vest flares out at the hip.

I have since begun a peasant blouse for her out of leftover quilt fabric. Right now Justice is back up on my dresser with Blessing and the tinies, wearing her bloomers and an inside-out blouse, vest halves tossed onto her lap. Theoretically I could have finished it tonight, but realistically I was done.

I've also measured her and roughed out a schematic for a pair of knee high stockings, but I haven't chosen the yarn or swatched. It feels great to finally have her in something of my own making. Middlest had generously loaned her a lovely pair of slacks, hoodie, hat, and Chucks. And I am ever so thankful. But I couldn't really see who this one is when she was wearing borrowed clothing.

Catching up with y'all.

Since my post ten days ago, I've frogged that vest back (which I thought was black, but turned out to be navy blue, verging on midnight blue) and whipped up a new one in the same dark green as the first vest half. I did not like the feel of the fabric. The blue yarn needs to be worked on 5-0's or maybe 6-0's. I've cast on the front, worked three rows, and set it aside for a few quick household chores.

I saw something at Knit Night that I want to get for Blessing's yarn basket. I even have a picture of it, but my phone is sulking in the charger.

It's almost bedtime, so I'm going to surprise everyone, myself most of all, and not even think about fighting the urge to fall asleep.

Night, y'all.

Black, right?

This is the yarn I am using for the second half of Justice's vest. Photographed in the very bright incandescent light of my bedroom.

This is what I saw as I sat in Relief Society this morning, photographed in the very bright fluorescent light of the classroom.

That's not grey. And it's not Prussian blue. What it is, is darkest navy, almost midnight blue. So I guess I may be forgiven for thinking it was black. And it will still look wonderful with the dark green of the first vest half.

And now if you will excuse me, I have knitting to do.

Done.

The finished but as yet unblocked doll vest, part one.

I'm eight rows in on the second piece, which is black, which means that I'll have to slow down and work with plenty of light if I don't want to botch it entirely. Even though I now know how to modify the pattern, the second piece may take as long as the first one did with all of its frogging, recalculating, and intermittently patient slogging.

I'm going to try to put in two more rows before calling it a day.

So maybe worth 500 words.

Justice's first vest half, ready for the I-cord ties and bind-off. That tiny spot dead center is intentional. A tie from the second vest half will pass through it to adjust the fit at her waist.

You ask, was it a royal pain to pick up a loop from each garter stitch bump all along the top edge? Yes. Yes, it was. The designer (as we've previously established, not me) is brilliant. But right now I kinda want to pelt her with marshmallows. Big fluffy ones. Not little fossilized ones. (Because my kids asked.)

I picked up the stitches for the armscye bind-off before church and during Sunday School. I finished it and wove in the ends during Relief Society. I will probably start the ties in a few minutes, although I doubt I'll finish before bedtime. At some point I will need to pick up stitches around the other three sides and finish them off, but I am severely tempted to cast on the second vest half instead. And I may end up redoing the armscye bind-off. It's a little more snug than I would like. Maybe that will be my reward for slogging around the borders of this vest.

Mostly fixed.

The side panel is done, and most of the ends are woven in. My final task before crashing last night was to pick out the woven-in ends at the shoulder and frog back to where I have two separate sections. Tonight I'll adjust the length of the shoulder straps, fore and aft, and finish it out properly.

Today has been mostly about napping and quilt blocks.

I did buy two patterns online, one for a Victorian walking dress and the other for a steampunk outfit. She credited my shipping and sent me PDFs.

Can't. Wait.

Knitting progress, of a sort.

I worked the first vest all the way to the waist, then tried it on Justice to see what needed tweaking. I ended up frogging it all the way to the armscye, eliminating the underarm increases, and now I'm creeping slowly along to the waist, improvising the central decreases and making notes so I can replicate this on the second half of the vest.

I'm still having fun. I'm definitely learning a lot. And I'm heading back to my knitting now.

So, this happened today.

TheKid (my junior attorney) came up to my desk right after I got there and said that he and his daughter had been out this weekend and found a book she thought I might like. She's six, but apparently she's pretty impressed that some grownups still play with dolls.

The book was originally published in 1957. This is a 1985 reprint. The story is charming. I handed it to Fourthborn to read after I got home from Knit Night, and she noticed that some of the pages had been cut out. So I consulted the Google & Thummim, and there's a whole series of these books. About half of them are still in print and available, presumably, through Amazon.

There has also been a bushel of knitting on the doll vest, which I want to get back to, so this is all you get for now.

Out of sorts.

I spent I don't know how long gathering up my laceweight from my studio, random bags, project bags, et al. And then I sorted them roughly by color. There are ten of them.

Three in that bookcase. The other two shoe boxes are filled with sock-weight yarn.

Six in bins on the bed, at least for the next hour or so. And one more in my studio, filled entirely with bright yellow Gloss Lace yarn, the rest of which is in one of those boxes. While I was sorting, I found a ball of black Rowan Fine Lace like I'm using for the darker green half of the doll vest.

I really could use a couple more shoe boxes, but this will do for now. This is going to make sweater design ever so much easier. No idea why I didn't think of it sooner. I've had my yarn sorted by weight for ten years or more. (Line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a stash.)

These are the yarns that I'm using.

Debbie Bliss Rialto Lace (100% merino) in Leaf. Rowan Fine Lace (80% baby suri alpaca, 20% merino) in a discontinued shade of medium-dark green. The pattern is Cat Bordhi's "Investments" from Reversible Knitting. There's still not enough to photograph in a way that would make sense.

I paused the dark green at the end of row 53 and am playing catch-up with the light green.

Gotta go. The yarn is calling.

Still nothing to see here.

There are now 46 rows in the dark green and 40 in the light. I'm still enjoying the project. It's one where time goes all wobbly. Individual rows take just a few minutes. Adding noticeable length seems to take forever, and then bang! it's there.

I'm resisting the temptation to grab Justice and my 10 to the inch graph paper and my tape measure and start roughing out a sweater for her. I'm hoping to have this vest nearly done by the time my new umbrella swift arrives next week, so that I can plan her sweater and not feel like I'm cheating, or that I have too many plates spinning.

I'm also resisting the temptation to buy another case of clear shoeboxes and sort out all of my laceweight by color. It would certainly make it easier to see what I have, and where there are gaps to fill in.

Swift to its close...

One of my favorite hymns. But little relation to the fact that I just ordered a wooden umbrella swift that doesn't have to be clamped to a table. After 33 years, my blue plastic and metal swift just wants to collapse in a pile on the table and bewail its decrepitude.

My Knit Picks order arrived at work today, and I just wanted to jump into the middle of all that yarny goodness and get high on wool fumes. These colors are so beautiful. Particularly the greens.

Regarding the two-part vest that I'm knitting, I finished the 40th row on the light green piece, and as soon as I post here and on the main blog, I'm going to put in a few rows on the dark green piece before calling it a day.

No pics ~ of anything ~ at this time.

Nothing to see here.

34 rows done in the light green; 25 rows done in the dark green. A batch of fat-free (and hopefully not flavor-free) banana bread cooling on top of the stove. I'm going to try to hit 40 rows on the light green before I crash.

The vintage velvet ribbons came today, and they're gorgeous (as usual), and I don't feel like photographing them right now.

All my pants are sassy pants tonight/

Thus far no childbirth words.

I'm working both pieces of the Cat Bordhi reversible vest, one per 0000 circ. I've completed 25 rows in the pale green (the same one I used for the lattice pattern on Avery's sweater) and 22 rows in the darker green. I find it interesting that the latter is hairier, and there are random bits sticking out all over. The pale green is quite smooth. Both are a pleasure to knit. I think the texture contrast will ultimately prove as satisfying to the eye as the color contrast.

I've thought a little (a very little) about how I want to paint that letter B for Blessing's corner of the world. On the one hand, spray paint is fast. On the other, it involves going outside. Which involves putting on a bra. If I go with a craft paint from my studio, then I have to decide on a color (the spray paint is leftover from repainting the mirror frame in the master bathroom, so I know it will fit in) and decide where I want to paint, and wait for it to dry, then spritz it with sealer. Spray paint is one and done.

This would probably be a good time to open the box with the sandpaper and smooth some edges. It's out here in the living room, and Fourthborn is awake. It's also almost 11:00, and I could get away with stepping out on the front porch without getting dressed for company. Bonus: I could spray the wasp nest and the hornet nest when I'm done. Pretty sure those beasties are sleeping as soundly as Middlest right now.