The day started with me collecting her from her hotel in town at 9:30. From there we went to a cafe called A Bite to Eat to meet with two other Canberra bloggers, Jejune and Georgie. Lulu also joined us. Here she is with the sock I was working on.
A marvellous, tea and coffee fuelled morning was had by all.
After that, RoseRed and I returned home to invade Sean's peace and quiet by spending an afternoon doing what we do best - knitting and talking. There was a huge task facing us in the long afternoon ahead. I was to join all three pieces of the steeked jacket and RoseRed was to be the Support Crew. Let me just say, I think I may have struggled to cope without her assistance. Honestly, every time I struggled to grasp some aspect of the next step, RoseRed would act as my sounding board and provide infinitely sensible advice and feedback.
Here are all three pieces ready to go.
The last time I post a shot like this, the body was a good four inches shorter. It fits me much better now. Those bits of red yarn are where stitches at the underarm on each piece have been isolated for grafting together later.
This is an action shot of me making my way around the SIX HUNDRED AND SEVEN stitches that you end up with when you join the arms to the body. Holy shit.And yes, that's right. You can, if you look closely, see that I have three circular needles on the go at once. My nice long addi turbo is not long enough to hold all stitches. So I have one long needle around one half, one around another half and one holding the sleeve until I get to it. I'm down to just two circulars now. Infinitely easier. Oh and full credit to RoseRed for that. I nearly chucked it all in for a pair of socks when I realised I needed a much longer needle and didn't have one (because my Knit Picks Options set doesn't include a 3.75mm). But RoseRed came to the rescue again.
Here I am, much later in the afternoon, still working my way around that first round. It took hours. Now that I'm settled into it, we think I'll fly through it all but that first round (which was also aided by a lifeline, again not my idea and a damn good one) took forever.
Finally, here it is. All three pieces united for the first time in the 8.5 months since I started this project. If I look drained and washed out, it's because I was. All that talking and concentrated knitting really knocked me around!
That's one hell of a big job successfully done. Are you proud, Julie? Sean was worried I was going to get stuck and kept telling me to call you. I said if I had called you at what would have been 3am your time, you'd have told me where to shove the jacket. Am I right?After that, we joined Sean and Mr RoseRed for dinner at a very nice restaurant called Sabayon and ate and drank very, very happily. Thanks for a brilliant day RoseRed. Loved every minute of it.
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The Southern Summer of Socks blog will up be updated some time today with the text we wrote yesterday. Be sure to check it out if you're interested.
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Any other Canberrans going to see Tori Amos tonight? I've dubbed today Tori Day. Sixteen years since I first fell in love, she is finally playing Canberra and even though I don't feel particularly well today, I won't find it hard to muster all my reserves tonight for a fabulous night. I read a while ago she's "as fashionable as carbs" now days, but I don't care. I still love her.
Bells
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