Spring Break?

Perhaps in our case it should be called "getting-closer-to-the-end-of-winter break" because spring seems a looonnnggg way off yet.... After my last post about tempting Murphy with my rubber boots, he indeed gave me the bird and demanded that it snow..... it wasn't a blizzard, exactly, but it snowed (slushed is more like) for 5 days straight... bastard!

In order to prove that he couldn't scare me... I knit a dress..... and it turned out wonderfully....

It's called "Suspension Dress" from the book that I posted about last time. I made some minor modifications when I knit the dress. The designer had made a note on the pattern page of Ravelry, that there seemed to be an error in the length of the bodice portion. Her intention was that the bodice extend 1-2 inches below the bust (approximately  6"). The Pattern stated 10-ish inches...... I went with the designer and knit the bodice 6 inches, sort of.... I apparently still can't measure (there's a good joke about women and measurements equalling 6 inches, but I'm trying to keep this clean.... ish), so I actually knit 5 inches and didn't notice until I was too far into the skirt to bother going back.... I went with the 5 inches and the bodice grew to 6" when I washed the dress so it was all good. The only other modification (other than yarn substitution) was to add a crochet eyelet row at the top of the dress (I did a **dc, ch1, skip next sc** around the top). The sleeve section was not fitting me very well and I thought that if I was able to thread some ribbon through the top it would solve the problem.... and it really did... I think it added a special touch.

And Eli took the photos... he's getting pretty good at it!

Today, as another tick on my battle board against Murphy, the kids and I made some tie dye shirts..... They turned out great! I am particularly thrilled with Chey's. She saw some iron on transfers when we were shopping for the dye at Michael's and decided she wanted a hummingbird on her shirt. I found a great picture and printed it on iron-on transfer paper...... cute eh? I've never done tie-dye before and am a little worried about how permanent the dye will be as I chose not to allow it to stand for the 6 hours the box recommended (I wanted it slightly faded)..... I'm also unhappy with the waste.... I sort of wish I had purchased all of the dyes and bottles separately so that I could mix strengths and colours to my taste... instead the kit came with pre-filled bottles of dye (just add water) and 90% of it went down the drain..... I think that although it would have been more expensive, initially, I would have saved money in the long run..... assuming I decide to do this again (how many tie dye shirts does a person need?)....

After the pain of some posed pictures.... they got silly-er.....