WIP Wednesday: Finally Sewing Again!

This past week has held a lot of moments to make things work. I sailed right through the stockinette section of the Ishbel shawl by Ysolda Teague, but then I kept having problems getting the lace to line up. I seriously started the lace and undid it about 4 times. Ugh. It had to sit in the corner for about a week and think about what it had done, but last Friday I was determined to get it worked out and by Sunday it was smooth sailing. Now it's finished, so you will see this one soon.

My Rose Street Cardigan is also moving right along, but that ribbed bottom edge feels like it's taking an absolute age, lol. I knit ribbing as a necessary evil - dang English style knitting. This has become the perfect mindless project to grab when I'm on a video call or something else that I need to pay more attention to something other than a knitting chart, and as such I am sailing right through the body of this sweater faster than any other fingering weight project I've ever done, which is pretty cool. I'm already about to start the neckline decreases.

I also started my Chrystanthemum frutescens Socks back on Valentine's Day and they've proven to be a bit of a challenge as well. That picot edge, while cute, is easily the fiddly-est cuff I've ever knitted in my life. I managed to get it done and move onto the lace, but pretty much immediately my counts were off. Now I'm trying to decide if I frog back the lace section and start again or just keep moving forward.

And on the most momentous news - I actually sewed something! I'm now closer to having an actually wearable New England dress. I had got to the point of adding the zipper on the side about a month ago and tried it on to discover the extra 2.5 inches of length I added needed to be removed. I still don't understand how I was so off - I did a mock up and everything. But I just could not get in the mood to unpick a serged edge in black linen fabric, you know? Well, I finally buckled down last weekend and got it unpicked, made the changes, and installed the lapped zipper. I'm now onto the sleeves, which feels like a bit of a miracle considering I started this project in November. I'm ready to get this done so I can actually sew other things again. I'm having a time where I look in my closet and wish I had different things than I do, so I really want to start making those things a reality. I just won't allow myself to change projects until this one is finished not only because it's the responsible thing to do, but also because my serger is threaded with black thread and I don't want to change it back for this dress, lol. Sewists will understand my struggle. So I'm hoping to finish this dress this week and then move on to some of the other things I would like to be wearing.

And in completely different news, I am trying to grow flax in my back yard! I got the idea from Engineering Knits and since I got a spinning wheel I figured why not give it a go? So this is my flax bed I set up a few weeks ago and it's coming in pretty well.I'm just hoping it doesn't get too hot for it too soon.