Finished Objects: Manos Mini and Simplicity 6407

My Manos Mini! It seems like I finished it before I even began.



Most of this dress was knitted on an hour and a half drive down to Santa Cruz last weekend. I ended up using size 11 needles for the dress and switched to 8s for the sleeve ribbing. Also, I only used 3 skeins of Manos! It think it is finally cold enough to start wearing this.


I also did some sewing on Tuesday, which is my day off. I bought a couple of patterns on Ebay a couple of weeks ago, including this stunner:



I was really attracted to the pockets and the dolman sleeves. I LOVE this dress. It is so comfortable and I love the mystery material- some kind of stiff synthetic jersey. I shop at Discount Fabrics, and often their labeling of fabrics is a bit mystifying.



This is the first time I have sewn in a very long time, except for some simple alterations here and there. Naturally, I stained the thing while cooking on the second day I wore it, so I may have to make another.



I have to add a picture of my new shoes! These are from the shop, by Richard Tyler, but they look like the YSL shoes that cost about 7 times more. I love the brown croc against the purple dress.

My Manos Mini-dress and More

About a week ago, I saw an amazing knitted dress on Craftster an I just couldn't stop thinking about it. Then, on Thursday, I walked into my local yarn shop, Noe Knit, and saw this amazing emerald green shade of Manos de Uruguay. I visited the yarn on Friday, and then again on Sunday. On Monday, I bought a skein, and started swatching for a Manos Mini-dress!




This will be my first time knitting without a pattern. I hope it turns out to be something that I will want to wear, especially since the Manos yarn is not cheap. I see myself wearing it in the fall opaque tights and boots. I am knitting it at a loose gauge on size 13 needles, so if all goes well, it should be a quickie. I am doing a top-down raglan, and have already taken the arm hole stitches off the needles.

I am a few more inches into my saffron cables. I have started the fifth of 18 skeins and am still on schedule. Here's my slow progress:



Rusted root is going slowly. It's in my purse and I get a couple rows done here and there, but nothing photo-worthy. I changed the leaf lace into a diamond pattern and am switching to bigger needles when I am on the sleeve stitches, so that they will be extra poofy. The needle switching is tedious and can take some of the blame for my sluggish pace.