New Years Eve is my birthday! I turned 28 on Saturday! As if it being New Years Eve wasn’t a good enough reason to finish my Short Row Sweater, I knew I wanted a fun outfit to wear, even if we were just spending the evening chilling with a few friends at Blue Door Pub in St Paul.

Short Row Sweater!

I love this sweater. It’s so fun, unique, and interesting, and I styled it almost like a vest over a long sleeved tshirt and high wasted skirt.

Cute!

From the front it looks like a pretty normal tshirt. Thank god, because when I finished knitting this top it looked like a mini shirt! I was really scared about the length. I knew it would grow a bit because I used fingering weight yarn instead of the DK weight the pattern calls for, but kept the needles at 5s. Blocking added at least 5 inches!

From the Back!

And the back is just so fun. Putting this top together was a little bit challenging! The pattern is really helpful with pictures and diagrams, though, so I figured it out with relative ease.

From the Side!

And I’m in love with the yarn! Knit Picks Stroll Glimmer in Peacock. It’s beautiful! Just a tiny bit of shimmery glitter that you can’t even feel. It’s just super soft yarn that is really drapey and lovely. I just cast on another sweater with it a couple days ago!

Pattern: Short Row Sweater by Purl Soho

Yarn: Knit Picks Stroll Glimmer in Peacock

Needles: Size 5 24″ and 16″

Ravelry Project Page

Related Sweatshop Love:

• November 23, 2011 -- WIP Wednesday (for once!)
• November 29, 2011 -- Thanksgiving Knitting
• August 16, 2010 -- NYC Crafty Adventures; Tender Buttons, The Lion Brand Store, Purl SoHo, and Brooklyn General
• May 13, 2010 -- FO: Fishnet Anklets

I did my Where’s Waldo how-to last week, and after Halloween night I do not understand why I haven’t done this costume before!

Where

Is

Waldo?

Because it’s just a tshirt, jeans, and a stocking cap. I mean, seriously. I was more dressed down than I am when I go out normally. Bonus? I look adorable in black framed glasses!

I knit the hat with some worsted red and white yarn and size 13 needles. I just threw it together, since those materials are pretty forgiving! And I wore my The Only Way To Scarf Scarf, which just happened to be red and white.

Photo-booth!

One of the parties we hit that night had a photo-booth! I’m with, from left to right, Elizabeth, a Chilean miner, me, of course, Waldo-ed out, Rachel and Paul as 80s zombies, and Cherryl, a super hot greaser.

So from now on I must work knitting into all my Halloween costumes. Good thing I don’t have to worry about that for a while!

Related Sweatshop Love:

• October 29, 2010 -- Where’s Waldo?
• October 11, 2010 -- The Only Way to Scarf Pattern
• November 2, 2009 -- A Cupcake and Chris Kimball: A Match Made in Heaven
• October 31, 2009 -- One Year and 200 Posts

Built By Wendy Knit Dress

(remember when it was 80 degrees last week? that is when I was running around in this fun knit dress.)

I swear I have non Built By Wendy patterns. I know it doesn’t look like that, since ALL of my finished garments have been Built By Wendy, (this dress and this top) but it just goes to show how adorable her patterns are.

Take a peek at this dress, for instance.

It’s simple and easy to wear. I threw in some silly striping and a front seem to get an off center stripe pattern, just for fun.

The neckline is super flattering. The length is windy day proof (tested it myself!).

(see my knee injury? left over from my fall a few weeks ago!)

And, above all, this dress was SO easy to throw together! I was nervous because sewing with knits is supposed to be hard and puckery and I’d need a serger, whatever that is. But I had no problems! At least any that I can see. Which is all that matters, right?

Built By Wendy Knit Dress Side View

Pretty Princess!

With the stripes in the fabric I knew I had to play with them or ignore them and hope it all worked out. I decided to play with them! I changed the direction of the stripes for the side panels and split them up for the front panels, just to make it a little more interesting.

Racer-back

The racer-back shape is really flattering, too! Shows off my shoulders while allowing for large armholes. GREAT for super hot summer days when you can’t help but sweat, but don’t really want everyone knowing about it.

I’m in love. I want 6 more. And will probably make 6 more. It’s the perfect dress for summer. I love outfits that involve one piece.

I was planning on rocking this dress this past weekend at Colleen’s bachelorette party Saturday night but the weather could not hold out. I rebounded with this not-very-interesting look:

Styling Green Tights

Twin Cities Headband in Blackberry

Black shirt, bubble skirt, green tights, purple shoes, Twin Cities Headband in Blackberry. Not that interesting.

I was not foreseeing, however, everyone else at the bachelorette party to be wearing jeans. When you wear green tights you know you are going to stand out a little bit, especially in the suburbs.

But when you are wearing green tights with 12 other girls wearing jeans you feel a little silly.

Thanks a lot, ladies.

The headband rocks, though.

Related Sweatshop Love:

• September 17, 2011 -- The Sweatshop on Fiberstory.TV
• April 12, 2011 -- 16 FOs: Twin Cities Headbands
• April 5, 2011 -- Renegade Brooklyn Prep, Part 2 – Twin Cities Headbands
• December 23, 2010 -- Hot DAMN I Knit a Lot This Holiday Season!

Twin Cities Headband!

(Just a quick warning: All of the pictures in this post are of me oogling my kitty, Pudge Rodriguez)

Monday I blogged about the new Twin Cities Knit Kits, which I’m in love with and can’t stop looking at in amazement from the other side of the room.

And, more importantly, can’t stop wearing.

And that are flying off the shelves! Get yours at The Sweatshop Etsy Page before they are gone.

I don’t think I’ve left the house without a Twin Cities headband on my head or Twin Cities socks on my feet.

Saturday my friend Jamie (<- follow immediately, and at Nice Jumpshot, too) had a launch party for the new Chicago culture blog Tremble Tremble and I seized the opportunity to yet again style my Twin Cities headband.

All weekend I was frantically putting together the kits. I was sticking stickers to something right up to the party opening bell tequila shot, so of course I didn’t notice that I royally screwed up the hem on this skirt.

This is one of the skirts I picked up at the estate sale in Portland, which didn’t remotely fit in Portland but magically fit Saturday night. The only problem? The hem had fallen out.

Lumpy Skirt

Clearly I couldn’t be bothered to pin it in place or measure anything before sewing it up, because that is one lumpy hem. I tried to just follow the holes left by the first hem. Sigh.

But the rest of this outfit is rockin! It’s the first time I’ve worn footless tights. I don’t really understand the point of footless tights, but I had them and thank god I had the foresight to wear them with heels so I didn’t look real stubby. The fuchsia tights look great with the flamingo Twin Cities headband!

Ouchies

I would hate to see how my knees would have looked if I wasn’t wearing tights when I beefed it down the stairs later that night! I spent all of Sunday under ice packs.

So. Stupid.

And, upon arriving back home after the party, I drunkenly washed the blood out of my tights but didn’t manage to wash my face. I had my priorities straight!

Pre-Knee Bust Up

At least I was looking cute beforehand!

Headband: Twin Cities Headband in Flamingo

Deep V Lace T-Shirt: Target a million years ago

Polka Dot Vintage Wrap Skirt: Portland estate sale

Fuchsia Footless Tights: Target

Pointy Black Heels: Payless

Related Sweatshop Love:

• January 23, 2012 -- Anti-Kitty Blocking Mats
• January 19, 2012 -- Cooking Up a Storm
• October 28, 2011 -- Twelve Aidez Inches and Counting! KAL Update
• October 10, 2011 -- Fall KAL Aidez – Let’s Swatch!

Mrs Darcy: Ready for a Night Out!

We are all freaking out about the weather in Chicago right now. As I’m writing this it’s 73 degrees. The windows are open with summer blowing through them.

So looking at these pictures of me wearing layers and layers of clothes is kinda funny.

And, in the interest of full disclosure, I did not keep Mrs Darcy on for long. Even Saturday night, when I rocked this outfit for a night out with friends, it was way too warm in the bar for this wool sweater.

This wool sweater I’ve accepted, warts and all. The warts being how freaking curly the front edges are.

See them? They’ve been haunting me. But, whatevs. They are there. There is no changing it now. There is no fixing it now.

The accentuate my neckline, right?

Kinda?

Boobs

I mean, look at that accentuated neckline. That is all the curled edges of the sweater.

Hey Skinny Lady

The best thing about this sweater is how flattering it is! Between the twisted rib center panels and the deep V-neck, I’m practically see-through when I’m in this sweater. In a good way.

It’s a little cutsey. But I’m a little cutsey, so I don’t fight it.

Sweater: Mrs Darcy Cardigan

Top: H&M, a million years ago, dyed a few times

Tank: Prague

Skirt: Target, pinned up to make shorter

Tights: Target

Shoes: My mommy bought them for me!

Related Sweatshop Love:

• March 15, 2010 -- FO: Mrs Darcy Cardigan; My March Sweater