Monday, September 17, 2007

How Long does it Take Cotton to Dry!

Saturday afternoon I soaked the cotton vest, squeezed out as much water as I could and laid it out to dry and be blocked. It's Monday night - the vest is still damp! I've never had something (including all the other cotton items I've made) take this long to dry. The air must be very humid. So you get a picture on the blocking mats.



It's from Knitters magazine from this spring. I can't find the issue so I can't give you the exact number but, if you're like me, you have the Knitter's magazines hanging out in your house somewhere so you can look it up if you can't wait until I find my issue. I used Bernat's Cotton Twist yarn. It comes in big skeins and is fairly cheap. I used less than 2 skeins so it cost around $15. I wanted something to throw on and look a bit dressier than just a turtle neck. I changed it a couple ways. I increased the width a bit by adding rows to the side panels and I added length. I don't like short stuff. I added about 2 inches of length to it. Now all I need to do is hunt up some buttons. I'm thinking a light colored wood.

I've got a couple other things to show you. The first is a tunic I made on the knitting machine. I took the design from an afghan, designed a tunic and played around a bit to get the design work on the tunic. I've worn this thing a million times. It's got some metallic thread running through the rose color. It's made from a thin cotton yarn and feels like pajamas when I wear it. I usually wear it with close fitting knit black pants and black boots. For a big person I look good in this.

Next a vest I sewed several years ago. You may be thinking, big deal, a vest. Well, take a look at the front. The blue design wasn't on the material when I bought it. I bought a long length of black material and a big spool of variegated blue sulky thread. I drew the basic vest outlines on the material, then I spent hours and hours sewing rows of two different designs - the leaves and the row of stripes. This was a fun vest to wear when I'd teach at a sewing show because people couldn't believe someone would spend all that time.
Well, at least this post is a little less depressing than yesterday's post. But to clarify just a tad on yesterday's post. Every once in a while out senator will contact the family to say they're still working toward getting the hostages home so the family isn't totally ignored but most days it feels like they're ignored and that's tough for them.
Finally, I got a candy bar this weekend that I can't believe! It's from the Cost Plus World Market. I like dark chocolate. This bar is ridiculously dark. If you like dark chocolate give this a try. It's Colombian - "Dark Chocolate Santander" 70% cacao. YUM!

No comments: