More Showers

Last Saturday was my best friends second bridal shower. I shall not get into how I feel about there being a second shower, especially since it was a "personal" shower (i.e. everyone, including elderly relatives, had to bring panties + lingerie for the bride), parties take a massive toll on my health, and the fact that I had already put approx. 50+ hours into my gift for the first shower. I will let you draw your own conclusions about my mood that day.... I feel I should mention this second shower was not the brides decision. She is such a lovely person and good friend, and it was for that reason that I attended (albeit, under-protest). Anyways, enough grumbling! 

I wasn't sure what one wears to a panty-party, but I figured a vintage nightgown set was a good choice. This soft mint green nightgown+jacket is so comfortable and I'm pretty sure everyone just thought it was a dress. With the surging prices on vintage dresses, vintage nightwear is a relatively cheap alternative and can be styled to look dress-like. I paired mine with a thin black belt, vintage-style hat, and some striped flats.  

Suffering with chronic illness means parties are hard. Like, really hard. I'm still recovering days later, even though I took 2 days beforehand to rest up. I'm also recovering from a hand/wrist strain that happened last week. Recovering is so boring! I'm limited with what I can do with my hands at the moment so my normal diversions are off-limits (including video editing). Luckily, I have a touchscreen computer so I can still read blogs and look at instagram without the hand-strain caused by using a mouse. Hopefully in a few days, I will be back to normal.

I did finish some knitting projects before the hand-strain (actually, I'm still doing a little bit of knitting as it helps to loosen up my hands and isn't what caused the injury in the first place). The first project finished was this Edwardian sweater. The pattern is a free one from a 1918 "Columbia Books of Yarns". I mistakenly knit the entire sweater on the wrong sized needles (whoops!), but it turned out ok in the end. The arms are a bit snug/short, but the sweater is still very wearable and I prefer 3/4 or 1/2 length sleeves anyways. 

This was the original illustration for the pattern:

Yeah... mine didn't really turn out like the picture. Oh well. Live and learn. 

I love the yarn I used on the cuffs/collar, but I would never use the main yarn again. The splits, pills, and matted bits in the yarn ruined the smoothness of my knitting.  It was a mess and it does make the sweater look less well knit than it is. The camera shows up the yarn flaws more than it looks in person, so I still plan on wearing it, just perhaps not on days when I will be photographed. For more details on the project, check out my ravelry project page. 

The other project I finished is a 1950's bolero. It's so cute but I have yet to photograph it, so stay tuned for that!

I hope everyone is having a great week so far.

That's All.