Another Quick (and Exciting) Update

Remember that knitting group that is expecting to see my lace coat finished? Well, they're meeting this Sunday. So I realized I had better sit down and finish things up. I knew there wasn't much left to do, but I was so geared up for quilting and had that familiar feeling of not wanting to finish a project. (Not because I'm dreading the work, but I think because I don't want the project to end. Sort of not want to finish a book you're enjoying reading.)

Anyway, all that is to say it's a good thing I had a deadline to push me to finish. First thing to do was graft the underarm stitches. I had the stitches sitting on my very fancy stitch holders (aka paper clips), eight from the sleeve, eight from the bodice. I transferred the stitches to some double pointed needles,

and then grafted them together. When I finished the first, I tried to evaluate my work by looking at the graft:

I couldn't find it!! (Can you?). I gave myself an A.

Then it was time to work in the ends. It wasn't too bad. I try to minimize them while knitting, and that helps. Working in ends in lace is a little nerve wracking because there isn't really any place to hide them. One trick I used was to untwist the strand into its composite plies and working them in separately:

This way you spread the bulk around and even though you have double the ends to work in, they're each less noticeable.

I finished all that last night, and then this morning I got up early (thanks to Troy unfathomably having the need to talk to me at 7 am--doesn't he know better by now?) and blocked this baby.

Not surprisingly, I did a little bit of a rush job (and was still a little late for work), but I had always figured I'd be touching this up with an iron. I thought the hem ruffle would need the most work, but it looks ok.

I did try on the coat before blocking. I was very happy with the sleeves, which I thought might be too short while I was knitting them. Even though I added an extra repeat to the skirt, now I'm thinking I should have added two or three. And the waistband seemed to hit a little high, but that may change a lot after blocking. We'll see!

And the final thing: I need to find buttons. I've shopped around a bit, but not seen anything that I really thought would be good. On the other hand, I have yet to raid the big button jar, so maybe I already have something. The pattern calls for two buttons, placed at the top and bottom of the waistband, but I think it would also be nice with a row of maybe six or eight small buttons. I'd better find something quick...Sunday is a'coming!