My Venus is finished!



I don't think my chest looks so particularly enormous in real life...ignore that. Here are my modifications, if I'm remembering correctly:

1. I worked six decrease and increase rows instead of two, with six rows between each. (My row gauge was a tiny bit off, since I used size 8s--size 9s made a less opaque fabric than I was looking for.)
2. I lengthened the body by three inches (I made the 44" size, so have about 5" negative ease, but it basically fits like a fitted T-shirt--it's not overwhelmingly clingy).
3. I left off the final increase row for the shell, and BO after row 33.
4. The fronts are only 11.5" from the underarm--they were originally WAAAY too long--and are 32 sts at the widest point.
5. I decreased in the back to 64 sts.
6. The back seam is 14" (there's a bit more give in the back than in the collar).
7. For the sleeves, I picked up 72 sts around the armhole, worked two rounds in st st, then worked the short rows that corresponded to my stitch count twice. I worked two decs at the underarm every other row until I had 64 sts, then half an inch of 1x1 ribbing.

In general I think this is pretty successful. I definitely like having sleeves--however tiny, they do make it feel more "office- appropriate". Plus I have big arms. =p





And there are the finished socks--Phineas for Mark in Araucania Ranco (which was supposed to become Spring Forwards for ME!) and Leyburns for me in Plymouth Happy Feet's Lisa Frank colorway. (Just in time for me to not wear socks for six months.) In works-in-progress, the Berlin socks are going well--still can't get that lace pattern memorized!--and the shawl is going great after I decided to frog the acrylic and start again with the cashmere I recycled last year. This is going to be yummy... Oh, and I'm officially 30% done with the afghan. (Did the math and everything. The eighty-one squares alone will be about 84.5" square, and I'd like it to be a minimum of 88". So once I finish the squares, I'll be 97% done as far as size goes. This does not count seaming. Right. Hmm. But I'll be able to do some of that as I go, plus doing four squares at a time is a total life-saver. Factoring that in makes things more complicated.)

The office is almost entirely cleaned out, thanks to lots of work on Mark's part--looks like we'll have an ersatz dining room very soon. It will be nice not to have to eat in front of the television. I'm still not sure where my practice space will be. In the summer it gets way too hot upstairs (think upper 80s), so I don't plan on spending too much time up there during the day. Maybe we'll keep the keyboard downstairs for now. I really haven't been practicing much lately--headaches, back issues, laziness--but I have a lesson tomorrow and ought to have something to show for it... things were really weird yesterday vocally, so I couldn't do much even though my neck is feeling mostly better. Today definitely.