take a deep breath...

So I finally finished my not-so-fiery-kinda-watery bolero (IK Summer '05) in Wool Ease Blue Mist. I appealed to every religious pantheon for a decent fit. While I actually attained proper gauge (which was no small miracle, given the number of times I changed needles and had to frog and re-frog), being the space cadet I can be, I mistakenly cast on for the smallest size. While I'm certainly on the shortish-smallish size, I think the last time I was a 31" bust was in pre-pubescence. Not that I'm endowed, because I'm certainly not. (Hey, they may be small, but they're hard-working, employed boobs! They grew two babies into big, healthy toddlers!) I'm just kinda broad, is all. Broad enough that 31" for a bolero was going to require serious appealing to any and every deity in order to fit. By the time I realized what I'd done, I was starting to pick up stitches for the edging and was wondering why the piece looked so eensy-weensy. That would be because it indeed WAS eensy-weensy! I started to sweat bullets as I tried it on (and ironically enough, that had nothing to do with our 90 plus degree heat, not that I'm complaining; I'm grateful we're not dealing with any hurricanes) and held my breath and chest and arm flab in...and let out a sigh of relief. It fit! Okay, it's a little tight, but all the better to hold the arm flab in check, right? The actual color is somewhere in between the overexposed and underexposed shots, and the neckline isn't so droopy IRL. I sorta wore the bolero to death today, so the neck line went on strike. How is that possible (ie: wearing wool!) in 90 degree weather, you might ask? Well, the class I attend at the university is built like a cryogenic lab; the temperature in the room is never allowed to surpass sub-Arctic temps. So much the better for me...I get to beat the heat AND show off my knitting??! What could be better? It's like Fantasy Island! This was a totally fun and quick knit, and I've already got two more shrug-ardigan morphs in the queue...you guessed it, to wear on Fantasy Island. Hey, you have to take advantage of opportunities like this in the tropics. I've sort of used that as my excuse to justify my, ahem, lack of (any) progress on Christmas gifts. Come on, I still have four more months, right?? And I already finished a few gifts (Okay, okay, two, but that's a hell of a lot more than the none I managed to craft last year, right? Although, I hadn't learned to knit yet last year, and maybe that would've made a difference in my ((lack of )) motivation/procrastination cycle. But I digress...) In some semblance of Christmas spirit, I at least finished the holiday dishcloth (please excuse the beheaded Suzy Ducken) I'd been working on. It's so lame that I'm not sure that it counts as a legitimate FO, but if it's off the needles, it's here, so there you have it. Up next, Glampyre's minisweater aka" the boobholder", but I really don't want to have to launch into another discourse about the lack thereof and their duly employed status. Just suffice it to say that they will be held in this cute shrug.