Knitting 911
Eric and I have to attend a ‘black tie optional’ dinner in 10 days (oh yippee) and I’m panicking. After I finally determined what the heck ‘black tie optional’ means for a woman, I did a quick closet survey and found absolutely nothing appropriate. (Big surprise for someone who lives in jeans, right?) Anyway, I do have a long black skirt that usually works well with a fancy top. So I shopped for five agonizing hours yesterday trying to find the right top, and still came up empty-handed. Well, not totally empty-handed….you see, at the height of my frustration I realized I was across the street from a knitting store. Aha — I immediately got the bright idea to knit myself a fancy top for this function. Do I dare? Of course I do!
This wasn’t my favorite yarn shop but it served its purpose in this emergency I guess. I came out with enough (I hope) Berroco Gem to make a top with 3/4-length sleeves.
Last night at Borders, the other BeeGees helped me make a couple of vital decisions and I did several swatches in different stitch patterns. I have one I like now and I’m designing the top myself on my new Knitware Sweater design software. I actually have the pattern done and it’s hot off the printer. I hope I can get this knitted in time. I was hoping to get a bulky yarn so it would knit up faster, but Gem is a worsted/Aran weight ribbon. I’m actually getting 4.5 stitches to the inch on size 8 needles. I want it to be a rather open fabric so the black cami underneath will show. The yarn is variegated blue, lavender and gold…. Does this sound appropriate for a formal dinner event? I keep imagining that it’ll look a bit cheap or not dressy enough. There was another colorway of Gem that I liked a lot more, with red, orange and gold, but they didn’t have enough of it. I guess I’ll knit on it for a few days and then if I’m not happy with it I’ll make another shopping excursion. I’d rather break my leg than have to do that again, so I sure hope this works!
Pix later if I’m brave enough.
