Pretty noticable progress.

so here's the three jacket pieces seamed together.  I learned to do the mattress stitch for this, which I really liked.  nice clean invisible seam.

Blocking it was a problem, cuz the thing is big.  in the end I just laid out some garbage bags.  I washed it and then pinned it out.  it took about a day to dry.

there's a tiny part of me that wishes I'd knitted in wool, since you never have to reblock wool...

Painted the wings on while it was still pinned down.  there's a few things I wish I'd done differently.  I printed out a stencil I found online and then painted over it with a sponge and a brush.  however the detail lines of the feathers of the wings got smudged and didn't come out very well.  in the end I had to mix in a little blue to the white and paint in the lines to get the details.  I'd thought about mixing some water with the paint and putting it in a little spray bottle, and I think that might have worked better.  And they should have been painted a bit higher up, closer to the edge.





The armwarmers were just at tube knitted on double pointed needles.  I cast on 60 stitches which was perfect, and they're 11 1/4" long.  each one took almost exactly one skein of yarn. I'd thought about decreasing to taper for my arm getting narrower, but I didn't want to do that and mess with the ribbed pattern.  I didn't need to anyways, because the ribs make sure it fits snugly all the way down my arm.










I have sewn the shoulders together, just a basic whip stitch. So now I'm just making the trim.  I have most of one skein left, and then the ends of a few others from the armwarmer and whatnot.  I have ordered more yarn just out of paranoia, and if I end up not needing it I can do the shrug I want for the fanart thing.  I ordered plenty for that.  and I got some more of the yarn I used for my River Tam vest, because Amanda wants one.   So, for the trim, I'm taking a very basic approach which may or may not work.  I'm knitting a long strip of fabric 8 stitches across in stockinette so it curls. I'll sew it together to make a tube, iron it flat and sew it on.  this is based on the suggestion that I got on the super pretty Rinoa cosplay I found that the trim looked like I-cord.  I did learn how to do it, but it doesn't seem like it works with as wide as I want it. honestly, the bits of yarn I have left will probably go further than I think, and I probably didn't need to get more yarn, but I really do want to do the shrug.

The wings are a bit too far down on the jacket.  they're closer to the middle of my back then my shoulders.  part of that is because the straps are pretty long.  I can shorten them, but I'm afraid of losing too much jacket length.  so I'll take a look at it and see what I think.  I don't think it's the end of the world.  It might be fixable, or it might just be fine the way it is.