Knitting and Sewing

My aunt Ann's funeral was yesterday. It left me with a lot of thoughts about funerals, which may coalesce into a blog post someday. Or not. I do remember, at her husband's funeral, my stepmother's grandmother commenting that she was sad that her husband was gone, but it was so nice to see everyone. I suppose that is the way it goes.

I was thinking about what to wear yesterday and decided I needed a new dress. I had acquired some black corduroy in a fabric buying frenzy with the intention of making a Retro Jumper. Looking at the directions, it seemed feasible to make in a couple of days, so...I did! Here is it with my patented Terrible Mirror Picture:

To be honest, I think it is more flattering in person than in the picture.

I finished another dress a few days ago:

This is the same pattern that I used for this dress, but the long sleeve version. I made the bodice an inch longer and several sizes smaller, but left the skirt the same size (I gathered it a bit more). I've already popped armhole seams so I need to shore those up, but otherwise I'm completely in love with this dress.

Knitting: A few months ago, Stef offered me some Manos del Uruguay, which wasn't working out for her. When she offered, she used words along the lines of "I know you usually knit for that annual Euchre Tournament. I have all this yarn you might like to have." So when it came time to think about knitting this year, it seemed very reasonable to use the yarn (whether she meant it that way or not).

So I have in the works, a scarf:

The stitch pattern is Pinnacle Chevron. It took much too long to get comfortable knitting this stitch, but I love how it is coming out. I will probably make a hat to go with this.

And, the ubiquitous Clapotis:

This is going to be hard to give up, I have to say. The color is gorgeous and it is a perfect match (to me) of yarn to pattern.