Here's another progress shot - after hours and hours of knitting. Thank goodness I really like this yarn because I am holding it a lot. Honest and true - I've been a tee tiny bit worried about how this dress would look on me. I am of a somewhat zaftig shape and of course, the prettiest dresses are always for the slimmest trimmest girls. I had a gut feeling that this dress would work with my (ahem) fuller figure anyway and took the plunge. Being able to try the bodice on frequently kept my spirits high as I custom fit all those inches of short row bust darts, but when I'd done the smocking around the middle I began to worry that I'd look like a tank in this dress. A clay colored tank. A knitted clay colored tank.Still I persevered and last night I tried the dress on. It's still a little too short to photograph on me, but there's enough skirt to anchor the bodice now and it actually looks great on me. I shan't ever look like the model in the book, but I will look like a good version of my zaftig self. And there is nothing so wonderful as making something that makes you look like a good version of yourself.
I'm also working on all those New Year's Resolutions to Improve Myself - perhaps silly at this stage in life, but always reassuring. The possibility of becoming ... More Cool ... is such an upper. I will end up with lots of lists; of things I'm grateful for, of things I wish to let go of, and of things I wish to add to my life, but the crux of the matter is: I would like to live more truly. To be more fundamentally honest. Not that I tell lies, but often I act them, or I stay silent (really! Really I can shut up) or I just make stupid choices driven by something that isn't true - by an imagined fear or dread and yet, if I ever ask myself what is going to happen if I stay true ... and if I then actually answer myself ... the fearful threat is what? a frown? somebody gets mad at me? So what? He isn't going to hit me. She isn't going to fire me. That angry person will just get angry and for goodness sake - most of the time that anger is their issue, not either my issue or my responsibility.
So. 2011 is for standing up straighter and being less worried about anything at all until I'm actually confronted with it. The rest of the time I'm going to just please myself.
So. Happy New Year you all. May you stand up straight and be your own special self.
Its looking beautiful. Can't wait to see how it progresses. I love the middle.
ReplyDelete"...making something that makes you look like a good version of yourself"...I like it! Just what I aim to do each time I knit something. Sadly, I usually fall down somewhere along the line. Yay for you for knitting this wonderful dress that hits the mark! Can't wait to see photos of it on you.
ReplyDeleteI also quite like your Resolutions of standing up straighter and being less worried. Too many of us (myself included) tend to be "people-pleasers", doing and saying things which we know others will approve of whether or not it is something we actually feel comfortable about. Yes, time to stand up for our own principles and be ourselves without being concerned at the reaction it will cause. Good one!