Knits & Wovens

I've MOVED!

2009-03-15T18:47:00.005-03:00

January 2010 edit: I've decided to close the comments on this blog - I've been getting is a bunch of spam. If you want to comment on something here, all of these posts have been imported into the Wordpress blog (link below) with open commenting!

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Last notice folks - come join me over at http://knitsnwovens.wordpress.com and update your feed readers! There may be a SWAP to see... (ok, not by the end of April, but definitely soon! :D)

Vintage Pattern Eye Candy

2009-02-14T11:22:00.004-04:00

NOTICE: I have moved this blog over to knitsnwovens.wordpress.com - please update your bookmarks and RSS feed readers. I'm finding posting the same thing in both blogs to be a lot more work than I thought, so I may only do this once more before I quit updating this one.

Life has gotten in the way this week - sadly I've got nothing of my own projects to show, so I'm bringing back the "3 random vintage patterns in my stash" post! Like I need an excuse to play with them ;).

McCall's 3988, size 14, bust 34, 1956. I really like the collar on this one (sans lace). The skirt is actually 3 rectangles, pleated into the bodice - surprisingly the dress only calls for 3 7/8 to 4 5/8 yards of fabric depending on view and width (the latter being the sleeved version with 35" wide fabric) - I was expecting > 5 with that poof! The bodice has both underarm darts and pleats at the waist - which I guess would be why they are recommending really light weight fabrics (cotton shears, printed silk or cotton, linen, broadcloth, etc) - the unstitched pleats would pop out in a heavier weight fabric. But couldn't you see view B in a medium weight wool?

Butterick 1879, size 15, bust 33 (why yes, we did just go up a size and down a measurement! could be because it's labelled a "Junior Miss Wedding Gown and Veil"), no date, unprinted pattern priced at 25 cents on the instruction sheet, but 50 cents on the pattern envelope! It came in an envelope hand addressed to "Mrs. John C. Crouse" with the only address as "Town". At least I think that's what it says. Return address "Education Department, Women's Missionary Society of the United Lutheran Church in America, 723 Muhlenberg Bldg. (1228 Spruce St.), Philadelphia, PA" - I wonder if the Society actually sold Butterick patterns, or if someone was using office stationary to give something to a friend ;).
Butterick 4366, size small (12-14, bust 30-32), no date, unprinted pattern, also listed as 50 cents on the envelope, but the style of both the envelope and instruction sheet is different from the wedding dress. Could be different "lines", but I'm thinking different years as well. Described as "(A)Long cape for evening wear has a deep V yoke in back. Attached hood has a face-framing cuff effect. (B)Shorter length cape for daytime wear. (C)This version is suitable for rainwear in a plastic fabric. All are "Quick and Easy" to sew." Ah, I missed the little sketch of the woman in her plastic raincoat and rubber boots! Can you imagine trying to get plastic through a Singer sewing machine?

This might actually have been a bad idea - who wants to make boring wool pants now?

SWAP #4, and New Blog

2009-02-07T18:05:00.005-04:00

MOVING NOTICE!

I've been playing around over at wordpress.com, and I really like some of the features there - so I've imported this blog to http://knitsnwovens.wordpress.com! I'll continue to update both blogs for the rest of the month to hopefully catch everybody who reads, so if you have an RSS feeder (like Bloglines or Google Reader), you'll want to take this one off when you add the wordpress version, or you'll end up with double posts for a little while.

So back to our regularly scheduled horrible winter light pics (actually it turned out to be horrible winter twilight pics, because I was just that slow with the hand stitching!)...

SWAP Item #4 is done!! No, don't revise your impression of my sewing speed, this piece was cut out prior to this week, and as an unlined skirt, it's probably the simplest piece of the whole plan! (I may have to revise that plan...).

I was very happy to be able to squeeze an ankle length skirt out of the same brown wool as a pair of pants (also cut out, next on the list) - in the storyboard I had this drawn as a knee length half-circle skirt because I didn't think it was possible. I definitely wear ankle-length skirts more. This is an 8-gore flared skirt I drafted long ago - I made a 6-gore version of it about 4 years ago now. This will replace a tan poly skirt I bought at Le Chateau even longer ago!

Since the SWAP theme is heavy on the practicality, it was important to me that all my bottoms at least had pockets. This time I used the same in-seam waistband pocket that worked out so well in the skorts I made for the June Capsule Contest:

Similar style shot as it would look with the tops and vest I have planned for the SWAP:

And - SHOCK - there was no drama with this one!! Yeah, the yoke seams had to be taken in, and the length was too long (things that really shouldn't happen when you've drafted it for you specifically ;) ), but there's no problem fixing that. Just a nice skirt that went together almost without complaint. YEAH! Fingers crossed for the next 7!!

Now, I have been knitting during all of this. Quite a bit actually. Most of it has to remain secret, and the one thing I have finished, I don't want to show you:

One fair isle sock done!! But if I show it to you, what will be the big deal when I get through the second one? And we all know the second one is harder ;).

Now I have to decide whether to continue with the brown wool pants (pros: already cut out, would get the semi-dreaded last pair of pants out of the way, could always use more wool in this weather!) or dive in to something new - plaid buttoned top with puffed sleeves? The mint and chocolate 3/4 sleeved t-shirt?

SWAP piece #3 done, dag nabbit

2009-01-31T15:03:00.003-04:00

You know those projects that just don't want to co-operate?? Yeah, this was one of those.

Black cotton gaberdine, my pants pattern #2 straight leg, loosely based on a Burda World of Fashion magazine pattern. A little tight at the moment - I need to stop living off of sandwiches and toast!

I had left this length of fabric for a long time, because it was perfect pant material, and I didn't want to make something that didn't fit or I didn't like. So last fall when I made the navy blue pants I set out to cut out a pair in the black gaberdine at the same time. Well, considerably later in the day ;). Whipping along, I cut out the back, then pull up the rest of the fabric for the front, and whoops - so not enough! I cut things out on a piece of cardboard on my bed, so I don't see the whole layout at once. Usually I'm good about pinning everything out first to get the best use of the fabric...

So, needless to say I was disappointed in myself! I packed everything away, thinking I may be able to selvage a skirt out of it later. Well, a member at Stitcher's Guild pointed out that some of the patterns were showing pieced pant fronts - seams along the knee line for example. Couldn't I rescue the fabric that way? With a lot of teasing and jostling, and a pieced inside waistband, look I just might!

Pieced front leg of pants - ended up slightly lower than the knee.

Away to the races! I traced off the scooped pockets from my Jalie jeans pattern, but otherwise used the same pattern as the navy pair. The other not-so-good thing about having cut out the backs in September - turns out the navy pants are too short, and that's what I based these ones on. I did a 5/8" hem, so it's a little better... we'll see how much it's off and whether I have to get more creative than that.

So last night I was down to the buttonholes. That's it.

Ummm. Buttonholes go on the top flap, silly. A quick zig zag over them, and sewing the buttons on top - no one is the wiser, but jeesh - how many errors can you recover from and still have a workable pair of pants???

Fingers crossed these look fine in the end - I really, really need to ditch the old stretch cotton black pants I've been relying on since ~2000 :P.

A little break

2009-01-23T17:28:00.004-04:00

because one would be silly to remain indoors with this kind of sunshine.

MIA

2009-01-20T20:56:00.003-04:00

There have been good reasons to be neglecting the blog. Most of them not great, but reasons nonetheless. One that has potential though... this pic is a sneak peak at my next pattern, which is in the hands of test knitters as we speak!! Very excited about that one. Went nose to the grindstone about a week ago to finish it up and made it just in time before I was felled by the dreaded virus that's been going around (that was the worst reason - I've just started to be able to rub two brain cells together again, so this may be a bit more disjointed than usual :P).

I really, really hope to be able to get back to SWAP this week - I've had a nice pair of black pants almost done since the beginning of the year!!

All the no shows...

2009-01-06T15:04:00.003-04:00

... all the "you didn't respond two seconds after it was posted", all the confusing directions, all the chaos, all the frustration

has all been made up for.

I'm back in love with freecycle again:

All fabric. Except the bag that has thread cones in it ;). I'm glad I managed to convince DH to come along, because I certainly wasn't prepared for the mountain of stuff behind that door!! "Some fabric pieces and scraps" indeed :P.

I'll have to go through it pretty quickly, DH wasn't impressed at the full car load right after he put one box in of stuff to give away. I don't think I mind. If anyone is looking for me, I'll be in the living room. If I don't come back for supper, it's because I'm avalanched in - send the dogs ;).

(oh, and irony number one? One of the pieces at the top of one of the bags was more mint knit. I wonder if she shopped at Wazoodle too?! Fingers crossed that I find more contrasting knit to mix it up with, or I'm going to be Flashback To The 80s Girl!)

Giggle... hmmm.

2009-01-03T19:00:00.003-04:00

In yet another adventure into my mom's estate sale findings...

ROFL. And yet? If I found one in a second hand shop for $3, I'd snap it up and wear it for giggles. And then probably find out they're the most comfortable thing ever, and embarrass my DH by living in them.

Still, not enough fun to put days into it making it up from scratch. Especially since I'd have to grade it down by quite a bit (40" bust). But if I ever run across a green paisley sheet set... (*snort* again - I'm not a fan of paisley. Really. But it does work well in this...? Can one say anything "works well" with this?!)

Added laugh? See that side label? "A POUNDS-THINNER" PATTERN. Yeah, because having a gathered waisted overskirt over your pants slims ya right down :P.

2008: A Year in Review

2008-12-31T11:21:00.003-04:00

I've been enjoying other crafty blogger review posts this last week, so I decided to join the fun! A photo retrospective of 2008, chez K&W (in the order and manner that Blogger put them there, because it's too much work to rearrange them...). Not a bad haul - but a very strange mix, if I do say so myself!

Secret Knitting Revealed

2008-12-31T10:06:00.003-04:00

aka The Accidental Knitting Spree

Step 1: Decide not to knit Christmas gifts.

Step 2: Have oh so talented sister (OMG, I hadn't looked at her site in a while - isn't that fabulous???) make an oh, so reasonable request. You see, she gets cold hands. And she's a flutist. Which means she needs finger dexterity (which standard "fingerless" mitts tend to hamper), and a colour she can wear in the orchestra pit. Which would be black.

Enter lambswool & angora fingerless mitts. No troubles.

Not being one to leave well enough alone, I added my own personal experience - you have fingerless mitts on already, and you are heading outside. Seems silly to take them off to add regular gloves - and having tried to shove mine into isotoners, I thought how cute it would be to have mitten toppers for the fingerless mitts.

Aren't they cute? Obvious difficulties of taking pictures of the side of your hand notwithstanding. These were a little more work - one, because they are surprisingly bigger than the fingerless ones (well, not surprising when you see the pics, but they were nicely balanced in my head before I started!), and two because I made up the pattern as I went along. Well, I had made up the fingerless mitts pattern too, but did that a while ago, so it was a lot smoother sailing. Except for the making them match bit - somebody make me count rows on the first one so I can match without pulling back three times, will ya? Somehow it's really difficult to accurately gauge which row I did the M1 on at the base of the thumb ;).

So far so good. (Well, I admit it was already Dec 12th-ish, and a bit late for sending knitwear by post, but still good!) I was set. No one else expected anything (ok, even A didn't expect anything - my family is too nice for that), and in fact, my little sister hates clutter and told me long ago not to give her anything unless "it screamed R" to me.

Then I did my weekly perusal of Knitting Pattern Central and what did I see?

Bike Helmet Earmuffs for my serious mountain biker, ecoconscious, also chilly sister. Reclaimed yarn, free pattern, what's there for her not to love? Finished just under the wire ("the wire" being the day we picked her up from the airport - so I guess I did have a couple of days of wriggle room, really!).

And the reason for the delays, besides the lack of planning? Well flutist sis thought the fingerless mitts might come in handy for other instrumentalists. And I crunched numbers, and figured that making them up might pay me enough (for now) for my time, so she put the offer out there... and I got a double order! First pair went swimmingly. Second pair... well. After ripping out the second mitt twice for the whole "matching" thing ranted about earlier, I lost my project bag. Two Harmony needles and that mitt. Much wailing and gnashing of teeth later, I pull out a matching second-hand, short aluminium circular needle with angled tips - so not the way to do magic loop. Which of course induced a pretty big gauge change. Which means #3 mitt doesn't resemble #1 mitt. Which means making #4 mitt to match #3.

All worked out in the end. Then I found the project bag (yes, maddenly frustrating, except that I was so happy to have found the Harmony needles, I didn't care). So I was back to having 1.5 men's fingerless mitts. Hmmm. There's a man in this house. Who has mentioned the liking of fingerless mitts... Right-o, one pair finished for DH!

And didn't I show him that lovely red angora sweater while we were in VV, suggesting I could make him a hat out of it? The same reclaimed yarn I just made my sister a pair of mitts out of? And didn't he just lose track of the two hats he has with earflaps???
Lavish Flap Hat . You see how I get myself into these messes?? And then in the end, how happy I am to have ended up there?

Procrastination

2008-12-11T15:39:00.003-04:00

What does one do, when one has a pile of holiday knitting and hasn't even started the holiday grocery list?

Sew, obviously.

The XL-men's-shirt-to-puffed-sleeved-top transformation is complete. I'm almost in love.

There was one itty-bitty problem. Somehow, after measuring 3 times, I was completely off on the neckline opening for the collar. Completely.

So, it's a bit creative. I'm crossing my fingers that the turned-and-topstitched centre bits (with selvedge binding inside) will hold up to the strain of the collar. I used zigzag satin stitching right at the join in case. And I definitely can't wear this with the top button undone... actually there's quite a few places inside I wouldn't want anyone to see!! But hey, it's a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants reconstruction, what do you expect?

It did turn out surprisingly close to my idea of it. I'm usually off on those mental sketches! I think it's going to be my favourite SWAP piece.

(And in case Mitsy ever does read this blog - sorry. I am 2/3rds of the way done your present though - and it's got bonuses! Hopefully will make up for the chance it won't arrive in time :P)

A new adventure

2008-12-01T13:19:00.004-04:00

(copied from Stitcher's Guild SWAP post - this is the start of item #2 for my plan)

Men's X-large shirt (yeah right ::) DH found it way too small!). The geometric print and darker colours seemed to scream "puffy sleeved blouse" to me for some reason - I've been looking forward to this project!

The pattern is Simplicity 5683, which I've made a couple of times before (including for the JCC). This time I wanted to keep the button-down collar, add gathering to the under-bust seam instead of the bust darts, and doing the proper elastic treatment on the puffed sleeves (the JCC version with the band and button was very cute, but rather restricting!).

But I sat for an hour or so trying to figure out what to do with the button band. See, I thought it would be neat to keep the curved hemline, which meant keeping the button band all the way down (had originally thought I'd have the bottom front sewed together, and the button band only on the top front, polo style) so that the front swoop would go as far down and the curves would meet at the same length at the sides. But now I ran into how do I account for the seam allowances for the under bust seam. If I just hack across, I'm going to have a hard time with all the extra thickness of the button band crammed into a seam right at the front edge.

And the button bands weren't separate, they were sewn on to the face of the fabric, so I couldn't remove them, then reattach:

So the plan I came up with was to leave the bands attached for the lower section, then cut a seam allowance on the side all the way up. The top pieces got cut out separately, with a trimmed seam allowance. The idea is to take out the top stitching on the inside edge of the button band, curl the band seam allowance under, and stick the top seam allowance inside, then redo the top stitching. Things are going to get tricky right at the band-bottom meeting point. I also tried to match the print on the top piece to where it's going to line up to the bottom piece (centre bits before the gathering), but I don't know how well that will work out.

I also had to redraft the collar opening to fit my neck but still use the collar (so it's going to open up much farther down the front than it does in men's shirts). Have no idea how that's going to work out!

Keep your fingers crossed. There's a lot of leaps here, and I haven't even started sewing!

One Down, Ten to Go

2008-11-23T18:06:00.003-04:00

Where I prove that taking timer pictures at night in winter of black items is pretty silly ;).

Behold the first SWAP item: an A-line black wool above the knee skirt.

So, I go with the slightly better flat-on-the-bed shots:

Well, hey, what would be the excitement of the final reveal, if all the interesting pictures happen during the process?

You wouldn't think this would be much of a process. Quick A-line skirt, pretty much the simplest sewing project out there, right? Right? HA!

First off, this wasn't supposed to be an A-line skirt. This was supposed to be a 6-gore skirt. But I was using a second hand wool skirt for the materials (hey, you can't argue with $8, including zipper!). Turns out the skirt was pegged - so not where I want to go. By laying out the pattern upside down, I manage to barely squeak something out, as long as there's no extra seams in the middle:

(btw - pattern? Steps: pull out previous self drafted 6 gore pattern sheet. Trace out adding seam allowances (and extra at the hem line - what was I thinking?). Try playing every which way with the fabric I have. Give up. Tape together gores and retrace A-line skirt. Repeat. Decide that above the knee with a bit notched out of the hem seam allowance is acceptable!)

Something about this skirt fought me every step of the way. Just one of those projects that refuses to allow one seam to go by unchallenged, know what I mean?

Then I discovered a major defect of our new apartment: no full length mirror.

Here's one of my timer shots for fitting purposes :P.

Hey, sometimes the camera is better than the mirror for catching fitting snafus - but man is it a lot more time intensive and error prone!!

So, the good stuff:

Lapped zipper and button at the back.

Inseam pockets (managed to rescue the pockets out of the original skirt to reinsert).

And the inside, showing the inner waistband of the original skirt (I have no idea what happened to the outer one, so I cut that out of the top of the skirt), and lining. The lining was actually stolen from the grey skirt (which will hopefully be made into another SWAP skirt), since the lining from this one was shredded in front. I think the colour contrast is more interesting, even if it's only me that sees it!

I think this is one of those projects SWAP is made for - those simple, plain, go with everything pieces that you wear to death but never get around to making because they are so plain and dull! Here's hoping to a long and beautiful friendship!!

Go Big or Go Home

2008-11-02T14:37:00.005-04:00

or, Where I Go Off the Deep End

Stitcher's Guild is hosting the 2009 SWAP Contest, and I, being the insanely optimistic person I am, decided to add one.more.thing to my plate.

Hey, I need the clothes, and I need the space the stash is taking up... and this time we've got 6 months to do it instead of 4.

Then again, you'll notice that not one thing on that storyboard has a pattern name attached to it. The pants I've already drafted and used, so they shouldn't cause too much difficulty. The mint and chocolate top should be able to use the same redraft I used for the black knit top (and matching yoga pants) earlier this year. The red skirt has been drafted (although it may have been drafted for knee length), but not tested - same with the pleated skirt. The rest I have to come up with from scratch :P. I'm hoping that I'll have time to do that as well as fit in DH's t-shirt that's coming out of the same black knit as the turtleneck (both of which I'll have to come up with patterns for - how did I get a jeans and suit patterns for DH but not a knit t-shirt one???).

Yes, it would be simpler to buy patterns - but while we're spending money, it would have been a lot simpler to buy fabric as well - as is pretty obvious up there, I had a hard time finding enough matching stuff for a whole wardrobe! But that's not the way it works in this house - we make do. Actually the storyboard has too many tops and bottoms (only need 4 bottoms and 6 tops), because I didn't know how much I could squeak out of each piece of fabric. I may end up with very nicely coordinating brown-ecru-tan-black-charcoal-white wardrobe without trouble - but what would be the fun of that ;). One thing about limits - things tend to be a lot more interesting!!

(For those who don't know about SWAP - here's the nutshell: SWAP="Sewing With a Plan". The basics that started this contest were in an Australian Stitches series of magazine articles. The SG link above explains the rules for the 2009 contest, but basically you create 4 bottoms, 6 tops, and a jacket/cardigan/vest/coat, where all the tops have to work with all the bottoms, and the jacket has to work with everything - it stretches your wearing options and makes coordinating in the morning much easier. It also makes for fascinating watching - this isn't the way people normally sew!)

It's been a busy month an a half...

2008-10-27T11:18:00.005-03:00

Between the two of us, we've dealt with 3 new jobs, 4 new courses, and a move. Phew. I think we're almost getting to the point of having all the plates properly stacked instead of running around to keep them spinning!

There's been a little bit of progress:

The vintage lace cardigan is 1/2 a repeat away from dividing for the neck!!

The Vogue Knitting lace cardigan sleeves are about 3" away from the cap shaping. Turns out my row gauge was *way* off. I've had to recalculate the underarm increases so that I'll still have the right number of stitches when it comes time to bind off, and I'll have to figure out how to rework the front and back instructions so that the lace lines up still (since I'll be starting the cap at a different point in the lace repeat). There are also a couple of errors in the pattern, which I'll write about soon!

Nothing like rapidly cooling temperatures to have you figure out that a good portion of your sock collection is ready for the bin. Nothing like More Sensational Knitted Socks and leftover Fleece Artist Somoko to get me casting on my first pair of colourwork socks - um, wasn't there a sock crisis? And isn't this the absolutely SLOWEST way to make socks? Oh, except my other option, which is the knee-length aran socks I'm designing from scratch. Yeah. Third colourwork project is the speedy option!!

And in some cases, not so much progress:

Sad thing is, I need pants just about as badly as I need socks. Must.get.unpacked!

We will return to our regularly scheduled program of properly annotated posts, and more vintage pattern pics shortly!!

Pant Crisis

2008-09-05T11:38:00.005-03:00

Crisis One: the weather is turning definitely fall-like. I have one pair of jeans, one pair of black cotton pants (well, used to be black), and one pair of slate blue wool pants with a silk lining (too warm!!).

Enter necessity sewing.

Crisis Two: ok, so I know I shouldn't sew when brain fogged. Really, I do. Except that Crisis One has been hanging over my head forever, and you know, getting things done is good.

Enter the men's wool pants makeover.

Men's 38 waist wool trousers, from Value Village, less than $10. DH not much of a fan. I was planning on using it as yardage to cut out my usual pants pattern (and had even started taking off the first belt loop before I thought to try it on see what was needed - btw? I know now why DH seems to pop something on everything I make for him - the seams on this thing were quadruple stitched. Often with buttonhole zigzag at near 0mm. Even a seam ripper was having trouble! I'll see whether ripping through the first zigzag layer does anything to that first belt loop in time!). So I stand in front of a mirror, pull the pants up to my natural waist, put pins down the side seams, and roll up the hem... looking pretty good to me!

So, I wasn't going for pinache (which was a good thing in that frame of mind), just easy and quick. Why not add two more seams in the waistband instead of taking it off all the way to the back? Take off the side belt loops, undo the waistband far enough to put in the new side seam, slice her down the sides. Stitch new side seams, serge edges together, stitch same amount out of the waistband, reattach, hem legs. No sweat.

Point 1: the pant legs were actually quite tapered. Probably why the pair was unhemmed, new, in VV and not to DH's liking. This would have been a good thing to realize before I took the same amount off the side seams from hips down. I eeked out a bit more by dropping the 5/8" seam allowance down to 1/4" by the cuff, but it's still pretty obvious.

Point 2: measure twice, cut once. Especially when that little voice in you head says "shouldn't the amount you take off each side of the newly cut waistband be the same?" - yeah, managed to hack of too much on one side. Scraped that together with a 1/4" seam which now does not line up with the side seam on that side.

Point 3: front to-knee underlining material is really slippery. Watch that you are cutting it off evenly on the side seams, and catching it correctly in the new seam. I did in fact realize some of this, as I basted the layers together before sewing. Except that the basting was off, and everything was bubbling as I was sewing, so I took it out and smoothed as I went along. One side ended up with the lining an inch shorter in width at the bottom than the pants. Hope no one looks inside - that bit is now cut up to where it's even, zigzagged along the side, and held to the side seam with a thread loop.

Point 4: which is a common point actually - the taper meant the hem width was too small compared to where I was attaching it. I had to split the side seam part way up to compensate. I'm pretty sure tailors do that too.

In the end? Probably not going to be my favourite pair of pants, but they'll do. Hopefully it'll remain too warm for wool for a little while yet though!

Perceived Crisis 3:

Which actually predated Crisis 2, but turned out better.

I did have two lengths of bottom weight fabric. I started with the stretch navy blue cotton. What was the crisis? I was determined to put in a double welt pocket in the back instead of side seam pockets. Except I was way too scared to actually cut into the precious fabric! I dragged my heels on this forever, with warnings of "have to mark and stitch precisely" going through my head.

One day, my annoyance overcame my fear (and unfortunately a bit of my sense), and I dove in. They are right, stitching and marking precisely is important. Choosing to use cheap package interfacing to do said marking and stitching on is a bad move. Such stuff tends to distort as soon as you put it under the pressure foot. So, no, I didn't stitch precisely.

But you know what?

Doing it "wrong" doesn't turn out that bad ;). Yeah, a little overlap. Yeah, a little pucker. But nothing anyone is going to see - at least anyone who's polite enough not to be staring at my backside from 2 feet away. So double goodness - I did it, and I'm not afraid of messing it up anymore!!

It's really, really hard to photograph dark blue!! Even with a nifty new tripod.

I think this is as close as I'm going to get with fitting. The tweaks from now on are fabric specific, and far more fiddly than I want to deal with. Maybe with a really great fabric, it'll hang better on its own (or be worth the struggle!).

The above photos also show why I never wear shirts tucked in!!

So one nice pair, and one ok pair down. One more length of fabric to go.

Crisis #4:

In my head is a little voice that says "right now is not a good time, brain function wise, to cut out patterns". Overrided by the "I'm on a roll, and there are only 4 pieces, and I've been up to my neck in pants for weeks. If I cut these out tonight, I can serge the edges, then switch the serger thread to white to do something else for a change!". Yeah, should have listened to the first voice. Fabric ironed. Back piece laid down and cut out (because my bed isn't wide enough for everything to be done at once) - rest of fabric pulled up. There's enough to go from waist to knee left over for the front. Sigh.

I'm now trying to come up with really creative ways to make a skirt that can use the cut out back. Because it was a really nice black twill. And I really needed to replace those black pants.

What can you do?

Well, today's plans are shot...

2008-08-29T09:52:00.001-03:00

My Knit Picks order has arrived!!!!

(what a time for DH to have taken the camera out of province)

If no one has heard from me by Sunday, send in water.

Brea Bag

2008-08-24T20:40:00.004-03:00

@#$!@#$$%@#!@

@#$@#!@

@#$@#$%%%^#

I'm hoping that the mists of time will remove the memory of all the annoyances, and I'll actually like the bag.

(actually, the knitting part went pretty quickly and easily - pattern is free from Berroco)

FO: White Lace Cardigan

2008-08-23T15:58:00.003-03:00

This was what I made out of the cotton salvaged from an ill-fated I Do Shrug. Lesson from that one? Just because it's a worsted gauge doesn't mean worsted yarn works!! Regular cotton was a pretty bad choice for it too ;). Fingering weight, shiny, mercerized cotton maybe. I had thought that there was quite a bit of yarn in it, but it was pretty nail-biting along the way - that's one of the things that gets me knitting quickly: just to see if I'm going to have enough yarn at the end!

Result? 6 yards left over! The only concession to yardage I did was to knit the button band on 4.5mm needles instead of 5mm (which I think was a pretty good idea anyway).

Other changes: I knit the body pieces from the bottom of the ribbed section up, then knit from there down after the sleeves were done, just to give me the option of unravelling a lace repeat from the bottom if I needed more yarn. I just used the lace instructions from the top half for the right and left leaning eyelets so everything was going the correct way as I was knitting upside down. I also had trouble with the decreases in the front v-neck - somehow I couldn't get the physical piece, or the math, to work out at the pattern stated decrease-one-every-eight-rows. So I did it every 6 rows instead, and everything seems to have worked out. Other than that, pretty verbatim. Did have one problem in the end - the eyelet rib button band didn't line up with the major structural elements of the top - so I couldn't put on three equally spaced buttons and have them also centred around the rib section. Got two on that aren't too far off the top and the bottom, so I left it at that.

The pattern is the "short sleeved lace cardigan", #19 in Vogue Knitting Spring/Summer 2007, with zero ease. The propensity of cotton to grow will help here too!

The neighbours think I'm crazy...

2008-08-15T17:35:00.005-03:00

(aka: sock photoshoot!)

My Itean Socks, Fleece Artist Somoko from Gaspereau Valley Fibres, Blush colour, 2.25mm circular needle (magic loop!), 56 stitches around.

And a bubblebee, who probably would also think I was crazy, if he stopped being so busy for a second ;).

More Vintage!

2008-08-08T19:49:00.003-03:00

Another random grab from the bag (and let's see if I can type fast enough to get this in before Blogger's scheduled outage!)

Butterick 1429, size 16 (hip 37). A "Selected Standards" seal even "This seal gives positive assurance of authentic style"!! Is there an inauthentic style? Unprinted, no date, and the instruction sheet isn't dealing too well with the acid in the paper. My guess is 1940s?

Simplicity 3322, size 16. On the back, a little seal that says "Simplicity Patterns are guaranteed perfect" - hey, why don't they say that now?!? Unprinted, no date - definitely looks like the '40s!

Simplicity 5706, size 14 (bust 34) - can you say Audrey Hepburn? 1964.

Gotta hit publish!!

The Big Question

2008-08-02T14:10:00.002-03:00

I wound the hank of Fleece Artist yarn into two equal centre-pull balls (well, as equal as one can get with a discount kitchen scale).

I've knit sock #1 past the heel, up to ankle length.

The rest of ball #1 is definitely heavier than the sock and the needle put together - not by much, but definitely there.

So - do I put on ribbing, and have enough for a second pair of ankle-length socks? Do I keep going as long as I can and have almost-knee socks? Do I stop at usual-sock-length, and make child sized socks with the remainder? (My friends would love that last option...)

Startitus

2008-08-01T13:31:00.005-03:00

Because there's nothing like a successfully finished project to get the mojo going ;).

New project #1:

A short sleeved lace cardigan to throw over summer wear when the wind gets a bit chilly. The pattern is from Vogue Knitting, the spring/summer 2007 #19 (named, if I'm not mistaken, short sleeved lace cardigan). Here's the Ravelry link of lots of finished versions - but I don't want to step on any copyright toes by snagging pics! The blue at the bottom is just my provisional cast on - I'm reusing white cotton yarn from a long sleeved shrug that I didn't wear (I think it was actually Handicrafter Cotton), and so I don't know how much I actually have. So I'm knitting from the ribbed waist up, going to do the fronts, back, and sleeves, then knit down as far as I've got yarn for. Fingers crossed! At least with the worsted weight, it's not too much effort to redo.

Lace-Knit Blouse from Vintage Purls site. This is where I got masochistic. 2.75mm needles (#12 UK, don't have my needle holder with me to say what that is in US sizes - SMALL!). It's definitely going to be different than the picture looks - the sleeve cast on is 116 stitches, but then you only cast on another 75 each for the front and back length (it's knit cuff-to-cuff), so this is going to be more of a kimono-style than the picture lead me to believe. I'll see how it looks once I cast on the front and back. Reclaimed periwinkle yarn - wool? Have to check.

And...

I'm finally getting around to knitting myself a pair of socks from my own pattern!! See my Itean Sock Pattern post for more details. This time I'm trying out the magic loop method, because I happened to have an 80cm long 2.25mm needle, and Fleece Artist Somoko (2nds, so there are a few knots, but lovely colours!) - probably "Blush" colourway, but can't be certain! You know what? It's much easier to whip up socks when you've already got the numbers figured out!

Finished Object - Knitted no less!

2008-07-26T14:16:00.005-03:00

(apologies for the less than stellar photos - it's waaaaaay too hot here to be setting up photo shoots and wearing this more than 2 minutes!)

Details: the Katharine Hepburn sweater from Lace Style, heavily modified. Mary Maxim "Starlette" worsted weight yarn, acrylic.

First off, the sweater called for sport or fingering weight yarn (I can't remember), so I did my usual graphing trick of printing out knitter's graph paper in both the original and my gauge. I plotted the outline of each piece on the original paper by tracing out each step (every time it called for decreasing one, I jogged in by one square, work straight for 4" was a straight line up for 1/4 of that since I was using 1/4 scale paper, etc). Then I laid the new graph paper over top, traced the outline, smoothed everything out into whole rows and stitches, and voila! new pattern. Which I then played around with some more, making the body length in between the two sizes, and making the ribbing part much longer. I'll have to fix the buttonholes somehow, because the yo loop is too big for my buttons (I'm thinking of taking a piece of yarn and tracing around the hole and pulling it up a bit), but otherwise I'm pretty impressed!

Continuing Vintage Pattern Series

2008-07-19T17:54:00.006-03:00

A random pull of 3 patterns out of the bag - and, oh, I'm loving every one...

Simplicity 4312, size 14 (bust 32), 1953. A little worse for wear inside and out - but how cute is the view 2 striped set?

Simplicity 1814, size 15 (bust 35), 1956, uncut. I saw it as a swing jacket, but it's described as "Junior misses' and misses' housecoat, robe, and smock". That wording confused me a little - but the instruction sheet labels both View 1 and View 2 (the only difference is the sleeve length, and view 1 has the piping) as "housecoat or robe".

Butterick 7433, size 14 (bust 32). I can't find any date, but the price is the same as the other two. I'm wondering if I could pull this off, if I decreased the fullness over the hips... I think there's a reason they labelled this one "teen age extended bodice dress" - slim people look like it's all the dress!