Body Progress

These pictures will make sense as you read this. I'm tired of trying to get them where I want them!

I have cast on, knitted the trim, decreased to the body, and worked my first decrease for the waist on my Sea Shell. The mistakes I made getting going on both my sleeves didn't plague me this time, so I have apparently internalized the pattern.

I have made my sleeves slightly shorter than the pattern, and will have to assess the body once I get a bit further. I am very short waisted, so I always want to avoid having too much that calls attention to that in a negative way. Because I have long legs I tend to emphasize that by keeping tops shorter and favoring sleeves that are shorter if they are above the elbow. By keeping the sleeve length more proportionate to my body I can keep myself from looking too body-length challenged.

We got up early again this morning so I got to knit for 15 minutes. It was kind of a cheat because I had already used some of that 15 minutes to tidy up my jewelry, but no one was here to know that. I got the idea to redo my jewelry shelf the other day using one of those stair-step shelves you buy for kitchen shelves. When I went to the Container Store (one of my favorite stops) they had a stainless steel one. I had measured my shelf and knew I would only need half of the pair so bought it with the thought that I could use the other half in the cabinet next to the stove where the spice overflow, salt and pepper, olive oil, etc. live. I arranged that Friday morning because I had to get it off the counter before the cleaning guy came. It is lovely and makes a rather limited space very attractive and useful.

So today to the jewelry. I have a beautiful box which Mitch bought for me at my request, but it was wasted in the closet because I never closed it so you couldn't see the lovely top. It didn't take long to take out my current arrangement and replace it with my nifty shelf. Hopefully this will forestall the panic I often feel when I can't immediately find the pin I'm looking for. I wear a pin almost every day and when I walk into my closet to get one I almost always know what I want (occasionally my first choice doesn't work, but I've been doing this a while!), but since I have no system, I often have to dig around looking for one. Sometimes I forget to take them off my clothes and I have to go look in the laundry.

But now they all sit proudly on their shelves! This suits the dimensionality of some of them, and the flatness of others. I feel badly when I forget about one of them and don't wear it for a while. That cool almost-circle one at the top was given to me by my sister Sally many, many years ago and is still a great pin; with necklines currently being fairly low it is a challenge to wear.