On Clothing:

I am knitting a shrug today. I am doing it in a Sugar n’ Cream by Lily. It is cotton in purple called Grape. I’m using double moss stitch for the most part. The cuffs are ribbed and collar and edge is garter stitch. I purchased the yarn on sale and when I got it home found it the perfect shade to go with a sleeveless summer dress I got at the thrift store.

We have no air conditioning so I like to have a few cool sundresses for the very hot weather. But I also like to keep my pale skin out of the sun. I needed something to cover my arms when I went outside. So I looked up knittingpatterncentral.com and looked over the patterns that they have there for free and made my choice. I changed it a little to my liking and I’m a third of the way done with it already. I can’t wait to see it finished and paired up with the sun dress.

Although I dress Victorian/ Edwardian/ Gothic a lot of the time I do like to mix it up and add something totally different in when the mood strikes me. I am also way past the ‘shock them’ phase of my life. I spent many of my days shocking people and the novelty does wear off after a few decades. So I also have dull standard clothing in my closet. I spent a lot of time during my cancer treatments in dull standard clothing. I looked at it this way. I didn’t want to remember being so very sick in my favorite clothing and have bad memories attached to them.

Today is wash day at my house so it also means repairs. Buttons to replace and the like. I took a frayed collar off a men’s white shirt and I’ll close up the neck seam again and add some lace where the collar had been. And I’ll have a new Victorian blouse. I like remaking clothing to fit my needs and wants.

I tend to have a lot of projects going at the same time. The older I get the more my hands hurt when I work at something for too long. So I work at one thing for a while and then move to something else. I’m making tatted lace for a mourning handkerchief and soon some lace for that collar. I’m knitting that shrug and putting together a number of craft and sewing projects.

Anyway for most of my time today, I am knitting a shrug.