Sebright Bantam Dress

Sebright Bantam Dress in Einband

I finally finished this dress, which had been waiting for me to pick it back up again for a couple of months, and just in time for it to be the last FO of 2018! Looking back, I didn't actually do much knitting this year - according to ravelry, just over 4000 yards in 7 completed projects - and here's the breakdown:

• 2 of them were the same basic 2 x 2 rib hat (one for me, one for my mom, both of which I didn't take pictures of)
• 2 more were testknits (Satinel & rumo)
• 2 were gifts for my auntie Kit: chrysanthemum shawl by Francoise Danoy followed by a bolero she commissioned from me to wear to her son's wedding (for which I also forgot to take a finished photo of her wearing... I've really been falling off the wagon lately!)
• Which leaves this 1 project that I made 100% for me: this Sebright Bantam dress, which was inspired by the silver Sebright Bantam chickens I saw at Center Island way back in the summer. Here's a photo of a silver Sebright hen from Wikimedia Commons (attribution in caption), because I failed to take a picture of the ones on the island.

Taken by Mark Robinson from Wikimedia Commons under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. No changes made to the original image.

Aren't they sweet? And their plumage absolutely beautiful? So I decided to make a dress that was like their feathers. It came out more mermaid-like than I had envisioned, but I like the look of the mitered diamonds, and it's my first time working with this technique, so I'd say I did a pretty good job!

Which is not to say that there aren't a couple of things I would do differently next time, namely:

• It's a bit tighter than I'd like. The fit is actually perfect, but because of the yarn/needle/construction combo, the smallest diamonds aren't as stretchy as they could've been if I'd kept the smallest needle size a 4mm or even just maybe 3.75mm instead of the 3.5mm I went with. Which means the dress is a bit difficult to take off - it's a tight squeeze out even if I take the both arms over the head approach. It works. It's just a touch awkward.
• The Einband isn't great for next to skin wear, for me.
• I suspect this issue would be solved if I used a slightly larger needle size for the smallest diamonds though, because then I'd be able to comfortably wear a full slip under this dress. As it is, I can wear a half slip, which is still good because the lower/larger diamonds are a bit sheer.
• I underestimated how many rows of diamonds I'd need for the full length of the dress so that it would be long enough for my taste, so next time, maybe also knit a full row of diamonds more for both of the two larger needle sizes so that less of the dress is at the smallest diamond level.

That's basically it, though! Not too bad for a wildly experimental run where I had no idea what I was going to do for the neckline. I like the varied textures I ended up with, and I also used up some mystery mohair-like yarn I got from a stash swap - whoot! To be honest, I suppose the biggest issue right now as far as this dress goes is: where do I wear it?

I'm going for a haircut soon, I promise

I've also been working on what was originally supposed to be a really lacy baby pink dress, but just ripped back most of the skirt portion because it wasn't looking how I wanted it to look, so that'll have to wait till next year to be completed. I'm not even sure I like the bodice part of it, but it's a construction I wanted to try, and I had an idea in mind for how I wanted it to be, so I'm going to roll with it and see how it turns out once I finish the new skirt.

Here's to hoping I'll do more knitting in 2019! I'd really like to make some more comfortable dresses with some of my superwash merino stash (of which there is more than I'd like to admit), for soft, next-to-skin wear, so there's a mood going forward! I've also really been slacking with regards to keeping track of my reading & film-watching, so I want to get back on that.

November & December

I... want to say my November list is incomplete, but it might be accurate?

November

1. A Single Man (2009)
2. The Handmaiden (2016)
3. The Birds (1963)
4. Oldboy (2003)

Lots of movies for December! I think I kept a better log of December, so this should be relatively accurate

December

1. Ólafur Arnalds
• Oh my.
• I also love that Arnalds posts the scores for many of his tracks on his website for free download.
2. Book Club (2018)
• I don't really know what I was expecting, but it was definitely something less inane than this. I couldn't even get the fun, light-hearted romcom feels out of it because the characters and situations irked me so much!
3. The Exterminating Angel (1962)
• Really enjoyed this one!
4. The Wailing (2016)
• SO MUCH IS GOING ON. I want to learn more about Korean shamanism (Possessed might be a good performance to go to, in that case? And that's coming up at the Toronto Fringe Festival), but also the history of Christianity in Korea. I thought it was going to be a pretty straightforward, "oh, you went after & killed the wrong person because of your racial prejudice against Japanese people (for... obvious historical reasons) and didn't even try to consider all the factors before doing so" plot that's meant to raise the discussion of racial attitudes towards Japanese in Korea, but WHOA did this ever go beyond my expectations!
5. After the Storm (2016)
• It was alright. But I watched another one a few days after that also featured Hiroshi Abe and was also him in this sort of role, with a similar enough sort of non-traditional nuclear family setup situation that it made me wonder if this is a theme that's coming out of Japanese cinema right now?
6. Train to Busan (2016)
• This was such a fun zombie movie! I don't know what I went in thinking it would be, but this was so fast-paced and exciting and just all around a fun movie! The actors slamming full force into the glass and all that was spectacular and I loved it, and that escalator scene was pure gold.
• I couldn't stop seeing the dad as the character from Coffee Prince though, since that's the role I associate him with since I watched that years ago.
• So... does the zombie deer only eat other deer, or does it also zombify humans and other animals?
7. Crazy Rich Asians (2018)
• Not as great as I was expecting it to be considering the hype and the rave reviews about how hilarious it was that I heard from coworkers, but it was a fun movie and I'd watch a sequel. I'm hoping the huge success of this movie will spur producers & directors to create more films that have a more diverse cast!
8. El Sur (1983)
• Hmmm... it was very slow. And it didn't end the way it was meant to because of budget cuts, according to the insert (when the girl would go to the South and presumably find out more about her father's past). I also neglected to read the novella the DVD came with, so that's on me.
9. Blow-Up (1966)
• Interesting! Also weird.
10. Let's Talk About Death (over Dinner) by Michael Hebb
• I'm so miffed I couldn't go to the talk by Hebb when he was in Toronto! I really enjoyed this book with its prompts and Hebb's experiences with people's answers throughout the death dinners he has hosted. I'd love to get one going in a community setting at the library!
11. Maurice (1987)
• Lovely film. I haven't read the novel it's based on.
12. The Third Murder (2017)
• Another Kore-eda film. Beautifully shot! And the ambiguity of where truth lies in this film was an interesting decision that reflects the judicial process pictured.
13. Quiero Volver (2018) by TINI (Martina Stroessel)
14. Talk to Yourself Like a Buddhist by Cynthia Kane
15. Still Walking (2008)
• This is the other family-centred film that also featured Hiroshi Abe as the down and out father.
16. Departures (2008)
• I loved the way this film places death firmly into the realm of the living, in the sense that it's going to happen and the discrimination people in the funerary industry face only serves to generate more pain in the face of loss than if we were to fully embrace the sendoff and have professionals who care about what they do, do the service for us.
17. The Mother of All Questions by Rebecca Solnit
18. Call Them by Their True Names by Rebecca Solnit
19. Unscrewed: Women, Sex, Power, and How to Stop Letting the System Screw Us All by Jaclyn Friedman
• I should probably just let the above three marinate for a bit in my head before talking about it, especially since I didn't really read the first two deeply (on e-book, in between work...)

October

I didn't keep track of this too well these past few months... and apparently also forgot to change these from drafts to published posts. I don't think this October list is complete, but it'll have to do.

1. Half the Picture (2018)
• I didn't realize the investigation into the sexism of the film industry was so incredibly recent. I know there has been increasing awareness of the challenges women in the industry face especially as of late, but I was surprised to find out how bringing everything to light in a systematic manner has basically taken place over the past couple of years.
2. The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Long-Lost Home by Maryrose Wood
• Finally! The last installment of the Incorrigibles series! It was fairly obvious Wood was going to work around the curse that way, but I still enjoyed it all quite a bit. The cover gives away a little bit of the plot, but you don't realize it until you get to it.
3. Does it Fart? The Definitive Field Guide to Animal Flatulence by Nick Caruso and Dani Rabaiotti, illustrated by Ethan Kocak
• I hope no one's surprised I'm reading this, or to find out I experienced no hesitation whatsoever putting myself on hold for this the moment I saw we had recently acquired the title.
• I was actually expecting a bit more information about flatulence in each of the animals rather than a cursory yes/no plus a bit of interesting information about each animal's flatulence or lack thereof, but it's a fun book nonetheless. Just not exactly what I was expecting (though I suppose expecting a more serious investigation into animal flatulence might've been a tall order).
4. Mean by Myriam Gurba
• What a powerful memoir! The thread that follows Gurba through from the very beginning of the book to the very end, and the constant writing and rewriting and making sense of what happened and her ties to the murdered Sophia, made this incredibly difficult to put down until the end. There's a line in there at the very beginning, where she addresses our desire to know all of the story, and how there's this feeling that if we know everything, the story - the victim - might belong to us in a way: she doesn't.
• I don't know if Gurba is actually mean, because she's not that mean in this memoir, and I'm kind of confused why she chose this as the title.
5. Gross Anatomy by Mara Altman
• You kind of have to admire Altman for going to the lengths she did to figure out what's with her body. She's informative and hilarious, and I'm left wishing for more information about everything (which is great because it means reading this will inspire people to actually go out and maybe find out more about their own bodies). Talking more openly about bodies and how - I forget who said this - our bodies are such leaky vessels would do a lot to dispel misconceptions of how our bodies are supposed to work, as well as probably calm a lot of women because, surprise! there is such a wide variety of body shapes and types, and there is bodily discharge, and it's not always an issue.
• Also, puppy fumigation? Well, at least ancient Greek women could decide how far up to stick the straw.
6. Racial Diversity in the Romance Fiction Industry (Public Libraries Online)
7. The Wrong Way to Save Your Life: Essays by Megan Stielstra
• As someone who also has a lot of fear about a lot of things, this resonates with me a lot.
8. Horror movies:
• Dawn of the Dead (2004)
• Cabin in the Woods (2012)
• Sinister (2012) & Sinister II (2015)
• Insidious (2010) (TERRIFYING)
9. Forests Emerge as a Major Overlooked Climate Factor (Quanta Magazine)
• I remember reading about how vital trees are to moving water around to areas that are nowhere near bodies of water in The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben