No Sleep, No Progress

O sleep, O gentle sleep, Nature's soft nurse, how have I frightened thee. That thou no more will weigh my eyelids down, And steep my senses in forgetfulness?” ― William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 2

I've been having trouble sleeping recently. I have no trouble falling asleep, but staying asleep has been challenging. I am cautious in saying that it's getting better: I've been waking up at 3:30am one morning, then 5:30am the next, then 4:30am the day after that... I've even DREAMED about waking up too early. What the heck is up with that?

Luckily, I had nowhere to be and nothing much pressing to do with this weekend, so I've been catching up a bit. I woke up at 6:00am this morning, which is somewhat of a triumph, even if it's on a Sunday morning. At least I have had time for naps, and I have a good role model for that:

The crappy part about being awake so early is knowing that I would be too tired later to do any of the things I want to do. Consequently, that meant that I didn't get as much work done on my crochet top as I'd hoped. I did spend a lot of time lying in bed thinking about it... "I wonder if it's too long? Should I change the neckline? Is it going to be too small...?" and other such musings to keep me awake. One early morning, I actually got up and picked it up to see if it was in fact too long, and I deduced that, yes, it was definitely too long and I would have to rip back a whole bunch of work and do it over. That made for a grumpy morning...

... until I got up the next day and tried it again after I'd put a bra on. It's amazing how differently everything fits when you've got one on. Bras change everything, folks.

Bra or not, I did decide that the neckline was definitely too high up. The original design is more of a boatneck style, and while I don't mind that kind of neckline, I think the fabric lends itself more to a square neckline for me:

I don't mind ripping back crochet projects that much, because after all is said and done, you only have ONE loop to put back on the hook, as opposed to ALL THOSE LOOPS you have to put back onto your knitting needles after you rip back your work. It was slightly more irritating to rip this project back because of the two strands you have to keep track of in tapestry crochet. But I am definitely glad I did it and it worked back up relatively quickly:

I've made it past the top of the shoulder and am now working down the back. The neck looks a wee bit low, but I'll be adding a ribbed collar to it and I can play with the depth of it as I go. I need to look up how I work the corners to retain the square shape, but I'll worry about that once I get there:

I've made so many modifications to this that the chart is looking a bit like a tattered old crossword puzzle. It's a free pattern, so I could probably share my modified chart, but it's such a mess that I don't know if I can be bothered:

I'll admit that I'm still a wee bit nervous that I'm going to finish this thing and I'll try it on and find out it doesn't fit. I've been measuring it over and over, but I'm not that experienced with crochet garments, so my confidence is not what it could be. Still, it will be somewhat of a triumph if it at least LOOKS like a wearable garment, but it would sure be nice to be able to enjoy wearing it...

It would also sure be nice to work on something else for a change. Oddly, the only way to finish a project is to keep working on it, even if it feels like an eternity. I'll stop whining and keep going on it... right after we finish our nap:

Have a good week!