This is what Elspeth looks like moments before she is ripped back to the arm holes.

I have had the worst time deciding when to stop making pattern repeats on the raglan armholes. I started by leaving them out if there wasn’t going to be room to make a complete slanty. But it looked like I had left something out. So I ripped. After studing the picture, I decided to put as much as would fit. But it looked like a mistake when there was only one YO. So I ripped. Finally, I settled on: If at least half of the pattern will fit, that is, at least two YOs neither of which interferes with the raglan decreases, I will put it in. Then I had to rip because I counted wrong. And one of the cats (I’m not naming any names. She knows who she is.) bit my yarn in half. Twice. AND they took my red scissors. They were on the table and now I can’t find them anywhere. I expect them to turn up in the dog’s bed in an attempt to frame him for a crime he didn’t commit. I finally finished Elspeth’s back yesterday.

At my present rate, I should be finished with this tiny, little jacket by late September. *weeping* That does not include the time I will need to spend persuading my mom to put the crochetted edging on for me. I forgot about the stupid edging. *gnashing of teeth* I suppose this is fine. It’s not like I’ve finished the dress I wanted to wear it with. I’ve gotten to a point where I need to turn on the iron. But when I turn on the iron, I need to be prepared to iron the pile of clean clothes that is waiting to be ironed and hung up. And I just don’t want to.

Want to see something else sad?

I like the new place mats, though.

Empire Dreams has been reduced to the sum of its parts. I wasn’t happy with the legnth before or after the place to put the bow. Since I need to legnthen it in both places and the bottom has that little scalloped edge (otherwise I could have gone back to the tie place and just made it longer and then added to the bottom) I decided to pull it all out. Naturally, I wasn’t able to make this decision until after I had sewn it all together. You haven’t really lived until you have un-seamed a sweater. As I ripped and pulled and wound and questioned what I was doing, I further justified my decision by telling myself that I didn’t really like how loose the gauge was and I should have made a smaller size and that maybe I wanted to put garter stitch on the bottom and leave out the tie all together. I’m not sure if I am going to remake the sweater in the book or change a bunch of stuff and just make a knit shirt to wear with my skirts. I’ve decided not to decide until i’ve finished Elspeth.

If the yarn for Michael’s cardigan comes first, I’ll be off the decision-making hook ’til next spring!