What to wear?

The Warehouse is a bad place. I think I've mentioned that before. What I am less likely to have mentioned is that in spite of being aware of the problems, the pitfalls, the dodgy ethics and general badness of it all, I myself am bad in the Warehouse.

Which could explain why one Sunday with two (too) many children around me and a pile of supposedly useful things in my arms, I spotted long sleeved v neck t-shirts for just $12 each and bought a purple one and a black one without even trying them on. The shape of the v was nice, not too high and not indecently deep. If you wonder why I didn't bother trying them on, then obviously you have never taken small children shopping with you. To the Warehouse. On Sunday. Or any day.

Now, the neck was indeed just right.

But as we do not live in a society where fertility goddesses are the desired phsyique and all women aim for a big rounded tummy like mine, and indeed such a tummy displayed prominently is seen as at least bad taste, if not actually rude and disgusting. As we do not live in that kind of society, I'm all for minimising the big tummy look and the Warehouse t-shirts, er, maximised the big tummy look.

Making them part of a special collection I've built up over the years of t-shirts which I like the colour of and the neck line but which need cover over the tummy. You would think I might have learnt. I sort of have. I hadn't made this mistake for five years until now.

The cardi I made last year goes over all of these t-shirts nicely, but it is too warm. Only works for outside. So, in the interests of wearing my new and old t-shirts together with my various bottoms which are all waiting patiently in the wardrobe from last winter, I decided I needed to make myself some thinner knitwear.

This is the short version...

Lots of looking at patterns and wool at our local wool shop.

Lots more.

A visit to the posh (or posh for wetville) clothes shop next door to try on some readymade things. They all looked fabulous. They would at those prices. Helped with honing my ideas though.

Back to the wool shop.

Back home.

More thinking. It occurs to me to measure the cardi I made last year. I learnt something big then. Like an extra 15cm big. If I do a tension sample for a jersey, and it looks like I need to change needle size, then I should do a tension sample on the new needles and then see which one is closer to the specifications. hmmmmm. Just as well the cardi was a wrap one. There sure is lots of crossover.

I could go on a lot. I could go into a diatribe on the people who issued Vintage Twist in lovely colours and knitting patterns and then stopped making it, leaving just 6 balls of the gorgeous stuff and a pattern which no other wool fits well with. Oh ooops I did.

But here are some pics of the final decision process: The second picture in this post is the cardi I made last year. That's a stylish model over the age of fourteen wearing it, not me. Mine is chocolate-y black. The first picture is a pattern I considered only it would also be too hot. The wool in that picture is either the one I have chosen, or a similar colourway.

I'm sure you're all hanging off your seats with excitement now, especially people who came here looking for how to kill a rooster or some leftwing politics. Those of you on breadmaking kicks might make it to the end though. I have decided to use last year's pattern book and make the wrap cardi again, only this time using the standard 5.5mm needles and the Patons Jet wool and omitting the sleeves, allowing me to cover my tummy but not get too hot.

That's the plan.

So that's how I have come to be once more spending my evenings on the only partially lost art of knitting, reconnecting with local businesses through the infinite patience of Shona who owns Pins and Needles here in Wetville and the learning the skill of doing either no tension samples, or two.