Fleurette re-fleur-ified

I came, I frogged, I re-knit. The Fleurette jacket, the one that would have fit me back in the days when my cousin called me "Beanpole," is now starting to resemble a wearable garment.

By increasing stitches just before doing the lace panel, it now fits around my hips. Increases on the sides make the top part fit, too. I think if I ever did this again, I'd decrease on the front every 6th row instead of every 4th. I ceased decreasing several inches before reaching the shoulder -- otherwise this jacket would have had skinny little shoulder straps and I might have been forced set fire to the project after all. Since the neighbors might be a teensy bit worried if they spotted me dancing around a flaming pile of purple yarn in the middle of the vegetable patch, I think that's a good thing.

I've now got the shoulder seams done up (the 3-needle bind-off that I'd planned to use just was so not happening with this cotton/linen yarn) and have started the sleeves.

And because the paper I've been writing all summer is now finished, edited, and submitted (crossing all fingers 'cause I really need to get the publication thing going), I rewarded myself -- does starting another project count as a reward? -- by getting out the Rowan Tweed that I won in a scavenger hunt on Ravelry and started the 198 yds of Heaven (Ravelry link) kerchief that I've been hankering to do for a while. The set up rows were painful for no good reason except that my direction-following skills seemed to have gone on vacation without me. When I finally counted the stitches and did what the directions said to do, everything started going well.

The yarn is a silk and cotton blend, a little stiff and papery and not terribly forgiving, but it will soften and mellow after washing. The pattern has both charts and written directions, and while there are a couple of peculiarities about the chart (like -- the center stitch is shown clear over on the left side.. huh?) the rest is smooth sailing.