After too much time spent thinking about it, rather than just doing it, I made an appointment with the DH over the weekend to make a duct tape dress form, according to  one of the methods in Threads  magazine. The article dates back to the Feb/March issue of 1998, but the highlights of the various methods are featured on-line here.

The advantages of a custom form are obvious. No more guesswork on the number inches of stitches here and there. A faster route from idea to finished object, hopefully with fewer detours.  

I put on the best-fitting bra I own and then donned an old over-sized t-shirt - destined to become part of the form. The DH wrapped lengths of duct tape around me while I thought about good posture and wondered increasingly whether I would ever get out of this straight jacket.

The bust was the most difficult part. To get the proper contour, it helps not only to use short lengths of tape but to split the width. We used some plastic wrap at the neck and extended the tape over it to mark the neckline. And the DH cut the sleeves of the t-shirt along the underarm seams, (where do you want me to cut?) overlapped the fabric, (what do you want me to do, exactly?) and wrapped tape over the arms a little way so we got good definition at the armhole. (Now, hold still.)

After the tape form was cut up the back, I hung it on a wooden hanger while I re-taped it closed. Then I jury-rigged some solid Styrofoam on the inside so that it pushed up against the hanger at the neck and rested on a second, narrow piece of Styrofoam set on the floor at the other end. I got out the foam insulation and sprayed enough through the neck to  "glue" together the hangar, the Styrofoam, and the dress form.  The foam expands, so I sprayed a little at a time and left it overnight to cure.

 It's best to wear gloves when you use the foam and spread newspaper on the floor where you're working. (I used the foam in the basement.) If you get foam on your hands, have some acetone nail polish remover handy to wipe it off quickly. Otherwise the residue will stay on your hands for days.  And it's not great for the skin.

The form now has a solid core. I have switched to stuffing with fiber fill, reaching in through the bottom, the neck, and the arms to fill little air pockets and prevent cave-ins. A couple more bags of fluff and a Styrofoam base ought to do it.

This morning, after I used up all the available fiberfill and started to write this post, friend Carole called on a knitting matter. And as it turned out, way-ahead Carole already has a duct-tape dress form of her own and swears by it. So now I'm really getting excited, because I already have a project in mind for mine. 

 

The perfect birthday cake. I can fill in any number I want.

Even better, the guys gave me the gift of yarn, in a gift certificate.

Choices, choices. I think I can handle it.

 

My fascination with brioche stitch continues. This cloche uses the two-color brioche rib featured in The Elegant Knitter. It looks pretty good, but it didn't pass the ultimate test, the winter walk in New England, complete with wind off the water. This little number needs a little more depth to cover the ears and a little more hold. So it's back to the frog pond for this one. Brioche stitch is famous for stretch.
Here's a shot of the "test" conditions from a vantage point under the hat.

                                                  

 

As in, it's Sunday night already?

Today, I had a wonderful experience introducing seven knitters to lace through an adaptation of the leafy, lacy scarf in The Elegant Knitter.

Above, we see Ellen, Jen, and Pat (l-r) browsing after the workshop broke up. It went so fast that I almost missed a chance to get any photos. And what's that Pat has in her hands? Could it be a copy of The Well-Knit Home? 

Owner Betsy and staff member Stephanie, herself a formidable knitting resource, hosted me and six other knitters for lunch and lace. We did cover a lot of ground  - the ebb and flow of lace through its various mechanisms, with the yarn over, and the complementary decreases. Then there was the "insurance" against mistakes; the markers  between pattern repeats, the "lifeline" and the seemingly endless counting of stitches.

We worked on size 8 needles with Feza kid mohair metallic yarn in a variety of jewel tones. Loved the colors. We began in the center of the scarf with a provisional cast-on in waste yarn and worked through one pattern repeat. Before we called it a day, we unzipped the waste yarn, picked up stitches on the bottom and began knitting the other way. After a few pattern repeats they all will learn that knitting lace can get addictive.