Shame on me!

I know, I know.  It's been a month and a half since my last blog entry here.  I apologize.  It is certainly not for lack of wanting to post...mostly it's a lack of internet.  We no longer have a computer in my house and so I have to come to my mom's house and use hers.  It just makes it more troublesome and gives me one more excuse to be lazy and not do anything about it.  That's not to say I haven't been crocheting.  Oh, no.  I have definitely been crocheting.

Now.  Ever since I got back into crocheting 3.5 years ago, I have had my eye on this:

Vashti Braha's Renaissance Tunic

isn't it fantastic!?

(more of Vashti's awesome designs can be found on her blog, Designing Vashti.  Go check her out!)

Well, I finally felt ready skill-wise to tackle it.  I went with a different color scheme - not that the original isn't pretty, but I wanted something that felt more me.  I picked out Caron's Simply Soft in Dark Sage for my main color, Raspberry for one of the accents, and then I bought some Caron Simply Soft Shadows (on clearance!  Woohoo!)  in Dark Moss to accomplish the striping on the sleeves and bottom of the tunic.  I started this project on February 9th, and finished all the major crocheting and seaming on March 12th. (I finally sewed on the button and snaps yesterday!)  There was a gap of about a week and a half where I stumped myself trying to figure out what I wanted to do with the sleeves (like their length and flare etc).  I managed to overcome that, and then as I was working the peplum (the bottom part) I decided I wanted to add some waist shaping that was not really in the pattern.  I have a figure that does not lend itself very well to empire waists - typically I look pregnant.  While I do want that look one day, I want it when I'm actually pregnant!!  So I simply added a few more rows before I started the increase rows.  The result I got was the one I wanted - the peplum hangs straight to my waist and then flares out gently over my hips.

I have a couple of pictures of the tunic while it was blocking.  They're not the best but they give the general idea of the colorwork and shaping.  I am hoping to get some good pictures of me wearing it today or tomorrow. 

But have a look at these for now...

I've also been busy working on my 3rd shawl for 10 Shawls in 2010 challenge.  I bought my first Malabrigo Lace.  It's interesting to work with - it's very, very soft, but it's the first time I've used a single ply yarn and that has taken some getting used to.  The colorway is Verde Que Te Quiero Verde, I'm working with a C hook.  The pattern was actually a chart by a Russian designer - very easily memorized! 

The way the variegation is working up makes me think of dragon scales...

it's going to look awesome once it's blocked.  I've also got some beads I want to add to the edging, if they'll look right.  We'll see.