Verity

Last year, I beta read Code Name Verity. I was obsessed. I am still obsessed. It's fantatsic, and when it comes out, everyone should read it. I am dreadful about giving a proper description, but it's about two young women, a spy an a pilot in WWII. I went as the spy for Halloween last year.

The orange sweater is nearly a character in its own right in the book, and I became obsessed with the idea of knitting it, and I don't even wear orange. It was super fast knitting, despite knitting with sockweight yarn and fairly small needles. (I think they were 4s. I appear to have forgotten, and didn't keep track in Ravelry.)

There was rather a ridiculous amount of detail that went into things. I spent days running about trying to find stockings with seams before giving up and painting stockings on with foundation and eyeliner. (How ridiculously period appropriate.)

I bought the skirt, unlike the other person who has assembled this outfit. Two friends make fake early 40's francs, carte d'idenite, and a ration book. The lipstick has "code" written in it, and there was more code on my hand, which I have taken offline as it was a bit spoilery. The painted fingernails are entirely in character.

The sweater pattern came from The Vintage Knitting Lady, it is genuinely old. I went with Bestway 1605; I knit long sleeves and the crew neck. Figuring out the pattern was easy, I love knitting both cables and lace, and it was pretty. Finding the right shade of orange was harder, and I nearly went Eidos Aster (I would have called the sweater The Form of Truth, then, because it really would be irresistible), which I still think is lovely, but it cost rather a lot of money, and in the end I went with Knit Picks Palette in Salsa Heather. Salsa Heather is lovely, it looks like orange from far away, but up close, you can see that it's actually made by spinning yellow threads and red threads together. The pattern has only one size, amazingly, and I made it fit me.