A pretty addition to my wardrobe

I made a garment bag for my wool skirts!

I suffer from quite a plague of moths in my room and have been able to decimate their population by using the diamond traps with the glue strips.  In my experience lavender and cedar wood do not help.  The traps cut down on the male moths but can't catch the female ones.

I made this bag out of polycotton, a cut up bed sheet if I remember correctly, that I wanted to use for toile material.  So far the moths had not gone for polycotton so I hope that this will continue.

I measured the fabric by laying the wool skirts on their hangers on top of the fabric. I found that I didn't have quite enough width of the pink polycotton fabric so I had to use strips of this lovely patterned quilting cotton.  I am really happy that this gives the whole project a great look.

Plus: I've again made a feature out of a bug - that pleases me very much!

I could sew the invisible zip to the cotton strips first which made handling the whole thing easier.  I overcast the raw edges after sewing this together.  Luckily it was really easy to turn inside out through the zip opening.

I left the sewing threads long and pulled these ends onto the right side with the help of a hand sewing needle.  You get great sharp corner with very little effort when you just pull on those threads to pop out the corners.  No poking or pushing required!

I re-inforced the central seam above the zip and then only poked a little bit of it open so that the hanger fits through.  I am fairly certain that no cheeky moth can crawl through.

To make the garment bag that little bit safer I also included a piece of anti-moth paper - though I am not at all sure that these work.  Still, I had some left so why not.

That's two wool skirts that are at least zipped into a bag that moths would have to eat through. I hope they don't.

One red top: modified!

I am so very pleased!  I altered a red top that I had for some years and I still love, love, love the colour, but the fit is much too tight over the bust and I got bored with the overall look.

My good friend Tash unwittingly gave me a great design idea.  She was going to use a scallop hem tutorial and this made me think about what other shapes you could do.

This top makes a great project to try out my shaped hem idea. If it works then great, but if it doesn't then I can either chop off the hem and straighten it back out, or just let this go.

It worked out well!

This is what I started with:

It was only when I looked that I realised that I already had to do a repair job on the top of the side seams.  I hadn't worn this in a while so I didn't recall that there were holes, - and my hand sewing wasn't all that great either:

I machine basted the hem to turn out and press (I pressed to the inside first but realised that this wouldn't work. Lucky escape!).  Then I drew the pattern on and started to v-e-r-y slowly stitch it. It wasn't as easy as I expected:

My shape is a bit overly complex.  But I like it a lot.

I then turned this inside out and prodded and poked until all the little corners and peaks looked okay.  Again not as easy as I blithely assumed:  my scissor tip method did end in a couple of frayed tread ends poking through.  I ruthlessly cut those off.  This isn't a high value item - I just want to enjoy it while it lasts.

Then I edge-stitched this to retain the shape when I wash this next time:

No idea why this is upside down

I also ripped the long sleeves out and inserts wedge shaped gussets into the top of the side seams. This way I could make the top big enough to fit at the bust, and it also had the added advantage of getting rid of those pesky holes. Win-win!

I scooped the armholes out a bit to make a pleasing shape.  That ended up being a bit of a problem: the armholes probably gaped before but this emphasises it.  So I sewed bust darts in, longer ones at first but these looked awful, then shorter ones.  I am still not over the moon with this area, but I think top is wearable.

Here it is:

I think this is a successful project that I hope to get lots of wear out of in the summer!

Thank you Tash for the inspiration!

An interesting vintage pattern

I really like the new blog called Catherine's Patterns.  She is talking about vintage patterns and showing very beautiful examples. She will also introduce some of her own designs in the future. I am looking forward to that.

She showed a really lovely floaty number from the Jazz Age exhibition and a 1920s pattern from her own collection - both dresses have the bodice wrap around towards the back.  A really fascinating detail!

I must say that I didn't used to be that keen on vintage patterns because most of them look best on figures that are very different to my measurements so I feel that most vintage garments would not be ideal for me.

What I love about them is that many patterns show details and design features that you can't find in modern patterns. Take the side seam that Catherine wrote about: how lovely is that?  Have you ever seen a sewing pattern with this kind of side seam?  I don't think I have.

The follow-on thing from the above that I like about vintage patterns is that you can find very intriguing design ideas and if it is possible to isolate them from the rest of the pattern, then they might be a fantastic source of inspiration for copying to your own sewing projects.

Reading Catherine's blog made me think about what vintage patterns had found their way into my pattern stash (why does a stash feel like the Star Trek episode with 'The Tribbles'? They seem to multiply when I'm not looking).

And see, I had bought several!  Oh boy.

But most of them have some kind of detail that I really like and hope to use by Frankenpatterning the vintage element with a modern pattern that will fit me.  Not that I have already developed a template block pattern that fits me really well just yet, but I fully intend to get there one beautiful day.

Here is one I just had to get because of the collar, - well, the front view of the collar:

Vogue 9083. I believe this is a reprint so you can still buy this pattern

Just look how gorgeous this looks both as part of the dress and under a jacket too!  I just love it.

It is this kind of structural looking design element that appeals to me.  Having said that, the skirt is not at all bad either.  In fact I really like the pocket placement at the bottom of the side panel seam.  I wonder how difficult that is to sew?  It is probably a good idea to strengthen the corner of the centre front piece with a little bit of interfacing...

Never mind, back to the collar.

It tunrs out that it is not part of the dress.  The dress in fact is shoulder and strap less. The bodice part is a bustier shape with a horizontal seam across under the arms, and parallel to the ground all the way around. Who'd have thought.

The collar then buttons onto that bustier in four places on the front, the back of the collar hangs down and is not attached.

When I looked at the collar before I could study the pattern pieces, I had intended to make the back of the collar a very different shape to this sailor's collar rectangle. Perhaps a gentle curve across, or some more shaping to this curve.

I still want to go with a design change like that but I may have to make a top or dress that does have shoulders.  A collar that's much less high at the centre back could flip up in windy weather.  I am also thinking of sewing this to my top or dress (made from a pattern that fits me well) as if the back of the collar is a back yoke instead.

It would also make it easier to slip into a jacket without getting the back all squashed up.

What do you think of the idea?

WIP: Sleeveless tunic with clever pockets

This is one of the unfinished objects (UFOs) that I want to include in the virtual sewalong event of the Dressmakers (LDC) group: "UFO: Alter, chuck or finish?".

When I bought YET more fabric a couple of years back, like this one that looks like brushed cotton or similar to denim, I felt that I needed to use the fabric up as quickly as possible and went with what I thought would be easy.

Use my own measurements, copy the pattern pieces off my body block and go with straight princess line seams (going straight up into the shoulder so no convex curves need pinning against concave curves). A yoke for the back to avoid needing to sew over eight layers of fabric, and a side zip.

Unfortunately this did not turn into a quick project because it's STILL not finished. Yup. Bane of my life.

I think the ideas above are not bad - they definitely make sense. It's just that I ran into some problems that I had not anticipated.

1) It is too big: the pins above show where I want to take in the princess seams so I can get at least the impression of a waist. My body block does not have much of a waist and that acts like a sack pulled over my body: it makes it appear even more dumpy than it is. Definitely needing improvement.

There  are quite a few layers of fabric, thanks to the pocket construction.  I don't feel very confident at doing a good job when I finally do take these seams in.

2) I already put the side zip in and quite well too, thanks very much, so I am really loathe to have to unpick it. Particularly as I managed to sew over the pocket layers.  Can I get away with just tightening up the princess seams or do the side seams also need cinching in?  How the heck would I then get the zip back in?

3) The pockets: I am so proud of their construction. The fabric layer that comes down from the shoulder then disapears into the pockets and becomes the inner pocket. The added piece that is the outside of the pocket will then go down to the hem.  Which means that the patterned FQ that's the pocket lining and that first fabric layer (the one running down from the shoulder) do not need to be as long as the hem. I just don't know yet how deep I want my pockets to be so I have not cut the bottom edge of both fabrics. That'll be easy.

The blue side is the right side of the fabric, the black side is the wrong side of the fabric.

4) Unfortunately I the pieces too much for the skirt part - I made these much too wide at the hem. I did not expect the fabric stiffness to turn the middle panel into the shape of a sky jump, from the bust downward: there is no dip - it looks awful. It emphasises my stomach too, horrible. This is actually the worst problem with this garment.

I have to take the flare down a lot. Unfortunately I don't know by how much and I feel anxious about messing up at this point.

5) I made a mess of the back yoke. The back neckline gapes so I just put some darts in and not at all well. I will have to unpick them. I only realised since this project that I have a rounded upper back and need small darts at the back mid shoulder point that will take the fullness out. Unless I try a dart at the centre back?  I'm not sure that this would work though.

6) I don't have a photo of the small of the back but I got that wrong too: I thought I could introduce a swayback adjustment by manipulating the shape of the middle panel of the back. And pinching a wedge out of the side panels before cutting them out. I may not have done enough of that because it hasn't worked.

I wonder if I have enough fabric left to try just the back again?  I may have to research swayback adjustments a lot more because I have the distinct feeling that I don't know enough about them yet to get them right.


So there you have it.

I put a few good ideas into this self-drafted pattern. I ran into some problems where my body block isn't good enough: namely at the waist and also regarding my swayback and my rounded upper back (my body block pattern actually has the darts drawn in - silly me decided to ignore them. Ahem).

I also ran into some problems that confounded me: how can this little bit of flare be too much?  And how do I get rid of it?

I think I would have carried on with this tunic sooner if there had been only a couple of problems. That many really put me off. The most decisive problem though is that I don't think I'll enjoy wearing this even if I do get it done.

On the other hand this tunic is a good practice piece to figure out these kinds of issues so I can use whatever I learn for future projects - I just didn't expect one single project where I get to learn quite so much!  It just all feels a bit too intense.

On the other hand and being brutally honest with myself, I might not have carried on even with just a single issue: I often grind to a halt and find it very difficult to motivate myself into picking it back up.  If I want to wear it then things are a lot easier - but if I don't feel the project, or can't visualise myself in it, then I have a huge sewing mojo problem.

Oh heck.

Trying to make up my mind about "Alter, chuck or finish?", I find myself in the "Finish" camp: I would really learn a lot and I want to see the pocket construction realised in a complete project. Even if I then give the whole thing away to a charity shop - if I don't wear it. Who knows.

I ought to decide which of the above issues I feel like tackling first - that would go a long way towards getting back into the swing of things on this project.

Amazing what you get done when...

Isn't it amazing what you get done when you're supposed to be doing something else and can't bring yourself to get stuck into that something else?

That's what it's like for me right now. Sewing is so much more fun than job hunting. So I am sewing. It is comforting to know that this activity is productive: I see a tangible result and that's very confidence building.

Most times I've been doing something else rather than sewing - perhaps I'm intimidated by it?  It could be because sewing seems so much work, or because I worry that I am not going to sew well enough... I'm not completely sure why I'm not finding it easier to knuckle down to.

- -

It is vitally important to me to get stuck into sewing projects to try and diminish my massive stash at least a little bit. So when a friend mentioned wanting to make an A-line skirt with pockets I had a project idea shoot through my head that seemed strangely fully formed.

A flared skirt with huge patch pockets on it. Love the idea, and it seemed very do-able (spoiler: I think it even was).  I preferred to draw my own pattern so I can avoid all those soul-destroying attempts at fitting and pattern adjustments. I'd rather start from scratch and know that the measurement is correct.

I established the different hip and waist measurements for front and back because I want my side seams to sit at my side and nowhere else. My front panels are a bit bigger than the back panels.

I'm glad to say that the skirt looks like a good fit even though I plain forgot to work the back darts into the pattern pieces - I can probably get away with that.

I did some lovely patch pockets with strips of light-weight interfacing ironed next to the three seams and then I found that these big pockets throw out the lovely flare of the skirt and I prefer it without them. I have some fabric left, maybe I'll use them in some other way in future.

The fabric is a funnily bouncy fibre, very thin and light-weight but surprisingly drapey. It sews up wonderfully well, I am really impressed. There are very thin and strong black warp fibres and softer silvery grey weft strands. I don't remember what the fibres are. I got it from Fabrics Galore on Lavender Hill in London (has there every been a better address for a fabric shop?). Their labels stated the fibre, I should have written it down! Or taken a photo...

I've done quite well so far. Except for attaching the lining inside out (I did French seam so I won't be tempted to re-do this). I need to hem the lining and then continue thinking about what I'll do for the closure. I attached two facings so could do buttons or hooks and eyes. I would prefer something unobtrusive.

I decided against a zip (even an invisible one) because I may want to take the skirt in a bit in future. It'll be easier to move buttons or hooks than a zip.

What do you think?

Red and black skirt - using up stash fabric!

Oh yes, I am using up stash fabric. I can feel the relief coursing through my veins at saying this: I am actually using up material that I've had in my stash for ages! Fantastic.

I have this beautiful true red and black patterned fat quarter, a quilting cotton.  It has these lovely rope or thread motifs on it that somehow remind me of bamboo (I don't know what my thought process is there) - but I have no other fabric that this goes with if I want to use it in a quilt.

So repurposing is the order of the day.

What can I make with one fat quarter? Not a heck of a lot.  But I can if combined with a plain black fabric, like for example a skirt. Marvellous idea!  But the fabric isn't long enough to run down the length of the skirt - therefore I need to sew two separate sections together.

Then I had a sudden vision of a wavy panel, snaking its way down the skirt. I got on really well with putting this together, so here are some progress shots:

 
What I love about designing something yourself: you get to decide what you want to do if there is an issue - like the seamline between my two sections of the red fabric.

I did try to pattern match this as pernickety and detail obsessed as I could but it wasn't perfect. And I would always know that it doesn't quite fit together. But what if I turn this around and make a feature out of a bug? (That's my absolutely favourite design process and objective!)

Why not hide that seam in a way that becomes a defining design feature? Why not sew a sort of tab across?

I didn't want a straight piece of fabric stuck on top, that would have looked silly.  But picking up the wave theme and going with a satisfyingly curved piece of applique: It looks just right!

I did sew the side seam together to attach the tab on the right hand side, now I have to adjust the width for the second side seam because the pattern pieces are way too big. Very odd.

And it isn't because I pulled the black fabric apart to insert the red panel: I actually removed the middle bit that I cut out - I will post lots of photos of what I did in another blog post soon.

Isn't sewing just so much fun?

I wanna stash-bust!

I just had THE BEST idea yet!  As long as we're talking sewing, lovely fabrics and great projects of course (I would hope I've had other good ideas in the course of my life that might not be about sewing. You know what I mean...)

I've got this huge problem of a huge fabric stash, loads of ideas for sewing projects that I would quite like to get to at some point and the harrowing realisation that in addition to all the dressmaking fabrics I've amassed (it really is an unmanageable 'mass' at this point, sneef!) I have even more quilting cottons.  Absolutely LOADS of them!

So much fabric everywhere that I have no idea what to do with.  It makes me feel like I won't be able to get through it in the next 20 years or so.

And the worst thing is that every time I think I've got a dressmaking project I really want to make and wear: I don't seem to have quite the right fabric to hand.  It feels utterly sob-inducing to be honest.

So here's my fabulous idea: I've wanted a skirt in a nice big pattern for a while. I already sewed an A-line skirt in a patterned bright pink fabric which came out okay.  I did a mini skirt in a nicely patterned tartan, I like that one too - but I still haven't made a skirt in a really BIG pattern as I wanted.

I know: I'll use patchwork to MAKE that big pattern that I am yearning for!

How's that for a brilliant idea? I know: just genius, right?



Something a bit like this.

I can use mainly solid fabrics, I can mix in a print or two, I can pick out just those kinds of colours that I want - and then make a repeating motif of something like a big square with some kind of frame in different colours around it.  Dot those in regular intervals over the expanse of the skirt, and I'm sure I'll love wearing it!

Yay!

Thick and thin blue summer top

I finished this in January 2011 but actually forgot to blog up. Here's the Ravelry link for anyone interested in the yarny details etc: Blue summer top.

Another project that finally made it from 95% to all done:

I tightened up the thread a bit more on the left hand side then the other when I sewed it up.  I will do that as well with a bit of spare thread to even things out on the other side.  When I get round to it...

Closer-up shots of the details:

If you don't have access to Ravelry, the yarn is a thick and thin acrylic by Texere called New Fancy.  It is a good price and I like that it looks quite glossy.

But I felt a bit of a fool for ordering one cone for evalution, liked what I saw and ordered more before knitting up a tension square.  How silly of me!  I would have realised that it is thick and thin - just from looking at it that fact hadn't jumped out at me.  Uh-oh.

I do like the effect of this in the resulting fabric. I just would have preferred this to be a smooth yarn.

I had to do some fancy foot work on the hem and the armhole facings.  Neither of those would lie flat: both kept flicking over.  Acrylic has that annoying characteristic of not blocking well.  The hem was initially only half the height - I picked up stitches and knitted downwards, repeating the same yarnover pattern, finishing with a purled turning ridge row and knit up an inside stocking stitch facing that I sewed up.

The armholes started out with a three stitch wide garter stitch that I worked in while knitting this.  The result was that they kept turning to the inside.  So again I picked up stitches and even though the orientation is different to the garter band, I just knit out a K1 P1 rib.  That seems to do the trick and stay in place where it's needed.

Phew.

I still have some of this yarn left. Ponderations...

One more long term project completed!

It is a very pleasant thing when you hope to do something and you accomplish it within a reasonable amount of time.

I mentioned in my last blog post that I would like to do something about two sewing projects that are lying around, crying out to get picked up again, and a green top that needed very little to go from 95% to all done!

And here it is, I've done it!  (It 'only' took ten months):



My Green Summer Lace Sleeve Top (Ravelry)



I will post a better picture as soon as the top is finished blocking.  All the other pictures I took are rather fuzzy: I hadn't discovered the macro setting on my photo camera yet (isn't it wonderful that you learn something new every so often?) so no wonder...

My photography skills improved considerably since.

I could have waited for this top to dry but couldn't contain myself. Best strike while the iron is hot.

The details:

Yarn	Debbie Bliss Prima (half strand)
Needles	3.25 mm (I think)
Pattern	made up as I went along
Source	lace patterns from Harmony stitch books

I wrote about my madness in wanting to knit this in a different weight than the yarn provides for (Splitting matters).  I am very pleased with the effect.  The only thing is that I should have paid more attention to the dye lots - I got 100g in a different dye lot and managed to introduce stripes across the top part of the garment.  That was completely unintentional and doesn't look interesting enough for me to get away with pretending that it is part of the design.

My solution to any kind of design problem: do something to make it look as if it was always meant to look this way.  I can't come up with anything in this case though.  I thought of embroidering some wavey lines over the stripes but I think that would make it look worse.  So far the stripes are relatively subtle, this is preferable to any 'solution' I can think of. Best leave things as they are instead of messing this up with an "improvement".

The sleeves were meant to be much more flared - possibly gathered at the top (at the shoulders) and then flaring like wings over the top part of the arm.  They didn't work out like that.  I still only attached them at the top half of the armholes which left the bottom half quite unfinished looking: the edges were a little raw and way too loose too.

I used buttonhole stitch to edge the open armholes, something like this:


buttonhole stitch

Or to show the detail a little better, only closer spaced together than this:


Also called blanket stitch

I tried to get these stitches as even as possible, but it could do with a bit of elastic thread to prevent the armhole curve from being too floppy.

The bind-off edging is my own design.  It is a sort of flared edge with picot details.  As soon as I can put my hand on my notes, I will blog about this.  I made up my own thing here because I wanted to avoid this from becoming too tight and rigid as happens when you bind off in the normal manner.

I do like very plain hems.  The yarn is 80% bamboo and 20% merino, so the hem (long tail cast-on, one row purl stitch and then stockinette), does not roll up quite as much as it could, - but it still does.

A turned ridge hem would have been better. Or I'll need to sew a fabric facing to the inside if the curling up remains a problem.

Quilted Things: blue & purple container

I just realised that I never blogged about my second quilting project (not counting the pot-holders) from last year.

Here it is:

A view of the inside:

And the whole thing laid flat (I inserted a zipper across the diagonal in the bottom layer):

Here are a few views of the assembly process:

I since discovered that I am not using the correct techniques because I am basically self-taught.  I had tried to find classes before I started but didn't find any in or easily reachable from central London, or they took place at the wrong time of day.  There were some really nice ones I found: a whole weekend thing with accommodation which sounds really wonderful, however, way beyond my financial means.

I then tried my favourite method of learning something: self teaching from books.  I found a good book which does cover basics - but unfortunately at several points I just didn't follow the explanations.  I was left bewildered and confused!  And I like to think of myself as someone who does pick things up easily.  But quilting is very much something that you learn easily when someone shows you, but it is not at all easy to describe.  Even diagrams or photos don't necessarily help.

I also kept going onto the Internet (sites like about.quilting.com) and did find quite a bit of information that I could follow - like chain-piecing, or how to do the inside pattern.  The one thing I didn't think to try YouTube!  Would have been too easy I suppose.  That's the place I finally learnt how to attach the binding that goes round the edge, something I hadn't figured out yet with this project (but I have since!).

I don't think that it mattered too much with this project that I didn't have a clue what I was doing.  I think my idea for putting a zip into the bottom (to lie the whole thing flat when not in use) is, not to put too fine a point on it, rather fabulous.  Imminently practical anyway...

The idea was to make a container you can put into the boot of your car: any of those loose items that keep rolling about in there (you know: loaf of bread, a couple of water bottles, bunch of bananas, that sort of thing: the stuff you end up putting down separately because you've run out of space in your grocery bags or collapsible boot boxes) - you can just chuck them into that, fold the top over a bit, and Bob's your uncle!

It was a present (Christmas last year) and my Mum was delighted.  I have the sneaking suspicion that she likes everything I make for her, but I also feel that she was really taken with this...

So much so that she declared it was much too nice for putting into her car!  She would, at times, use it unzippered, as a quilt, in the house too.  That's fine, I'm very pleased that she is finding more uses for this than intended, but it was meant to live in the car!

I guess the best thing to do would be for me to make her a proper quilt, wouldn't it?  Sounds like a really good idea... {update to follow}

I'm so excited...

I am so excited, I started to design my own pattern shawl!

I did some stash-busting - with yarn I had lying around for 20+ years, because I like the colour so much (royal blue), and couldn't bear chucking it.  I finished the shawl and now I know why I could never before bring myself to knit with this 100% Dralon yarn showing an obscure brand name: Lady Joy. Sounds dodgy, doesn't it!

It's not actually that bad, - if you like acrylic. For the longest time I thought that I don't mind it. It's cheap, serviceable, washes well and what more do you want? Ah... lots more.

Acrylic (or dralon by another name!) does not wear terribly well. I'm particularly sensitive around my neck and feel that the yarn sticks to my skin like glue. Not very pleasant at all. It's even a bit suffocating to be honest.

So anyway. Did some stash-busting (I want and need another shawl/kerchief style neckwarmer, in another colour than the pink one I wear all the time) and was going to do a garter stitch interior with something 'lacey' around that as an edging. Or just an edging, wasn't sure.

Then I remembered that I hate garter stitch: knitting Continental style means that the right needle keeps slipping past the purl bump in the row below when I try to pick up the stitches on the left needle. I don't know if English knitters have the same problem. It drives me nuts! I very quickly decided that I wasn't going to get stressed by my knitting: it is meant to be an enjoyable, relaxing past time! So I changed the stitch that fills the inner triangle to something very manageable, comforting to knit and still with a bit of interest too. You'll see if you can wait to look at the pattern (once available).

The pattern still needs to be written up - once that's done I would like to upload it to Ravelry, as a free pattern. It is such a simple shawl, besides being my first own design, that I wouldn't want to go big-headed. A free pattern will be very nice for dipping a toe in on this designing things malarkey, thanks very much...

The nicest element of the shawl is the lace edge. I may change this a little bit for my second version. Having realised that I won't enjoy wearing the Dralon shawl, I am now re-knitting this in a silk/merino mix yarn which is wonderfully soft to the touch and lovely to look at. Can't wait to finish it and blog about it!

Here's a picture of my trial version:

PS: I already picked a name for this design and researched it to make sure it isn't being used for someone else's design. That would be seriously embarrassing, so I'm glad I thought of it!

Have you ever designed anything, - and how did you find the process?

Utter madness - splitting matters

I really shouldn't be blogging about this top just yet, being nowhere near finished - but I am so excited! There is still so much to be done before it's presentable, but I thought I'd write about my progress so far.

I kept walking past a Debbie Bliss Prima yarn in this gorgeous bright green colour, with a hint of blue! Just my cup of tea. Still, I've got way too much yarn at home, so of course I won't indulge in -yet- another stash-multiplying amount of more yarn! Hm, I lasted all of four visits to the same store, then I just had to buy it after all.

The trouble with holding back until I can't restrain myself from splurging on more yarn is that when I invariably fail (just can't seem to help myself) then it's so much worse. Did I leave it at four balls of this yarn and find a pattern I could use this for?

No, course not. Instead I started off blithely and unconcerned: cast on with the long tail cast-on method, knitted about 4-5 inches, did a bit of a fitted waist every couple of inches until I started to increase for the bust, split into front and back piece, did the shaping for the front and back neckline, and grafted the shoulders together. Unfortunately I ran out of yarn before I reached those shoulders. I knew, deep down, that 200g of yarn just wouldn't cut it, but I didn't want to know. Because it does mean you have to get some more - which involves this splurging out business again.

The store didn't have this colour on the shelf anymore, but a crafts shop in East London had. I did my sums (for once): travelling there by public transport would cost me a little more than if I ordered it online and paid for postage. Saving money! Great. So that was another 100g. Then I ran out again! The shop still didn't have it on the shelf but this time I asked, and lo and behold: some more was retrieved from their stock room. Should have thought of that.

The top was meant to remain sleeveless but have some details at the sides up and around the shoulders. Couldn't decide on what, just garter stitch or something lacey? I kept on going in stockinette stitch before I'd really made my mind up what I wanted to do - it seemed the thing to do.

I grafted the live stitches in Kitchener stitch at the shoulders (note to self: not such a good idea when using inelastic yarn and shoulder decreases: you can see tiny holes) and then wondered what to do next.

A bit of a lace element as a neckband, the top just cried out for it. No problem.

And then I just had to add something equally lacey in place of sleeves - these are sort of wing sleeves, attached at the top but not the bottom so don't go round all the way. They were meant to end in a curved line but the pattern doesn't lend itself to that.

I wanted an edge that's not too straight and tight so I invented a frilly picot edging that I am very happy with. I'll blog about it at some point.

But the really crazy thing about all of this is that I avoided buying the yarn because I wanted to knit in 4 ply and this Prima yarn is more chunky. The thread contains six strands, and I just couldn't help myself: I had to split it into three strands each using my yarn swift and several rolled up bits of newspaper so I could use this in the weight I wanted. I must be completely mad.

Then I topped it - this yarn also comes in a very lovely shade of bright pink (I can never resist a lively shade of fuchsia or magenta!) so I bought that too. And split it.
Then I saw the navy blue on offer online somewhere and bought that too (see what I mean when I said that I go over the top whenever I try to restrain myself? It is just so not a good idea I've decided, ahem) but I haven't split it. I'm thinking it would be nice, just as an experiment, to use it as it comes. Revolutionary!

So there you have it: I've gone completely doolally. Splitting yarn! Honestly, what am I like?

PS: The pink top is coming along rather nicely too! But I think I'll keep that one sleeveless and add perhaps a couple of straps at the top... uses up less yarn...

It is spring!

There must be something in the water - if not then it must be because it is finally spring! I am in a positive fever of 'new, new, new!'

In the last three weeks I cast on so many new projects that I it makes me dizzy.  I know that I love to start a new project but have absolutely no discipline in finishing it.  It is a problem but then my Ravelry projects page and this blog help enormously!  When I know that a photo of the finished project will make for a very satisfying new blog post, then I am so much more inclined to get the last 5% done - the bit that's often about sewing up a hem, weaving in ends, attaching a facing: nothing that takes too long but it seems to be the most exhausting thing about the entire enterprise.

I simply had to order some 'really nice yarn' after buying a bit too much in the 'affordable' category that left me unenthused about knitting with it.  My goodies from Colinette arrived last Saturday and I immediately cast on:

1) My Saroyan shawl in Colinette Skye - colourway Fire (lots of reds, some pinks, and lighter shades that aren't quite yellow but almost).  I love this yarn! It is more chunky than I expected because I didn't pay enough attention to the needle size quoted: 4.5 mm though I am using 5 mm needles. That'll teach me!
I must try their Cadenza yarn as well, this is also 100% wool but thinner for 4 mm needles. Next time.

2) A tank type top in Debbie Bliss Prima, in a very bright blueish green. I adore the intensity and brightness of this colour! In fact I'd been looking at this on three seperate occasions when I popped into John Lewis, and then I finally had to buy four balls.  I hesitated because I did not want to knit a chunky weight fabric and this yarn is a little thicker than I would like. So being somewhat crazy and totally loopy I put my yarn swift to good use: the yarn is 6 ply and splits quite easily into two halves of three strands each.  The yarn swift goes round easily enough to pick up its half but the hanging thread starts to twist very quickly and makes further splitting and winding impossible. So I  wound the yarn onto a roll of newspaper first and then used a technique from lace tatting to untwist it: I turned the yarn coming from the newspaper roll into a loop, twisted that round once or twice and slipped this loop over the end of the roll. Pull the thread tight and the newspaper roll can hang from your hand to spin round and untwist itself.

I've had evenings of fun with this: being stood there in quite a contemplative and somewhat medidative trance while listening to the telly. It worked really well!
I cast on for a slightly fitted sleeveless summer top and have gotten to almost the armhole shaping.  I am not following a pattern but making it up as I go along. I rather enjoy that. I am looking forward to finding out how this will shape up out in the end.

 

3) The Balmoral 'Thistle' doily design from Marianne Kinzel's Second Book of Modern Lace Knitting. Don't be fooled by the use of the word 'modern' in the book title, this series was modern at some point but rather long ago. I do like a lot of the designs and the books are not too expensive so I managed to get both of them.  The Thistle doily from the cover looks too intriguing so I just had to cast this on as well.

I managed to snap up some Knitwitches silk at I Knit when the knitting group met in the nearby Camel and Artichoke pub. This was around the time when I put the Colinette order in - I felt in dire need of some yummy yarns so I indulged!  Getting it home and winding it from skein into ball pretty much straight away of course meant that I kept looking at it while various wild ideas ran around my head when I tried to decide what it was going to be. Seeing as I was preoccupied with both the yarn and the design, I finally decided to put them together. The aqua/turquoise and grey is quite suited to a thistle design (the colourway is called Lucerne).
The only problem is that while knitting the yarn dye comes off onto my fingers a bit. I'll take that into account when it comes to blocking this.

 

4) I swatched my new Colinette Jitterbug in colourway Cherry but find that I cannot use it to knit the project that I intended with this.  I saw these very gorgeous socks on Ignorant Bliss's blog and just had to hunt down the pattern from Yarnissima (available via Three Irish Girls), they are called The Portland Gussets.  Aren't they absolutely gorgeous? I think that this has a kind of Art Deco feel to it: very elegant clean-cut lines, deceptively simple - totally up my street!
They are to be knit at 34 stitches to 10cm or the pattern won't work. Most of the time I am inclined to adapt all sorts of things to my liking (see splitting the Prima yarn as above) but I don't think that messing around with this very lovely pattern would make for smooth sailing or even a hint of promise at success. I'd just end up ripping it all down again. I might be loopy but I'm not that silly. I knit this yarn at 26 stitches and those eight stitches are too much of a difference: I won't be able to get gauge with thinner needles. I would have to increase my tension and that's not going to happen.

Still in the mood for yummy Cherry socks, my next idea for this yarn lovely yarn is the Riverbed Master pattern by Cat Bordhi from her book New Pathways in Sock Knitting - Book One.  The link to the pattern is again to Ignorant Bliss's blog entry that I was delighted to see because I already have the book at home. I bought Cat Bordhi's book after seeing the Master Coriolis socks on a blog. I haven't started yet because I am finding it tricky to follow the book - the instructions for each sock design are build on concepts and techniques listed elsewhere in the book, necessitating a lot of leafing backward and forward to copious amounts of post-it notes to mark the pages. Not something you can quickly dip into and start knitting! I will have to set aside a quiet day for immersing myself into the ideas in the book, then I might have a chance to slowly get to grips with it all.
I should have started on a dead simple flap heel sock in stockinette stitch, that would have been so much more sensible! But I can't help myself: I really like how these look!

5) Crikey, nearly forgot this one:  a bright pink summer top in 100% cotton 4 ply by Patons. Knitting with cotton isn't everyone's cup of tea but I quite enjoy it as a change to other yarns. Its inelasticity means that it snakes round the needles like little knubbly ropes and you can feel each stitch very easily even in bad light. The yarn won't be too splitty either which is its best quality in my opinion. Unfortunately cotton does not block at all well - whatever shape the item is in when you finished knitting is the shape it will stay in. No amount of ironing or steaming will change this, believe me, I've tried.

I found a lovely lace pattern in a German knitting magazine called Katja which I must have bought in 2000. Being a bit of a hoarder can have its advantages, occasionally. There are about four tops that I would love to knit. This one which was also shown in a bright fuchsia (to go with the spelling on Wikipedia) which is what first caught my eye - it is my favourite colour. I love the lace pattern: not too repetitive, not too lacy and with a nice organic feel to the shapes. I am heavily modifying the instructions (the top is named: 'open lace work top' [Offener Lochmusterpulli], nothing more descriptive I'm afraid) because I want a slightly fitted shape as opposed to the looser fit in the magazine. I am also planning on making this sleeveless for summer wear. And if not sleeveless then perhaps small cap sleeves by extending the lace pattern panels that run up along either side of the centre stitch. The original shows those panels as edging past the top of the arm, intruding into sleeve cap territory.


So there you go: all my new projects that may or may not get made in the next few months. I love picking up whichever project grabs my attention and running with it until another one nudges it out of its top place. Some times I change back and forth between two projects - whenever I get a bit fed up with one, the other one wants picking up. Love it when that happens.

I still need to finish my rose coloured EZ cardigan (the pattern is actually called 'The Green Sweater', see the Internet e.g. Jared Flood's blog, Schoolhouse Press website and Ravelry). If you would like to read the story behind The Green Sweater: here's the link.

What project did you last cast on? Put a link into the comments if you like.

Hexagon Fern tank top in black

This is the first top I made using just the stitch pattern: Hexagonal Fern from Barbara G. Walker's book: "Charted Knitting Designs", otherwise also known as her Third Treasury of Knitting Patterns. I must look up what the exact title is!

Growing up in a country where most knitting instructions come with a handy chart, those charts have a cosy and familiar feel to them. I like knitting charts because you can see how the pattern stacks up vertically and it makes it much easier to "read" your actual piece of knitting - either to establish where you are in the pattern, or where you went wrong!  I have not following instructions that are written out line by line very much. I tend to get lost and do the wrong bits, or the right ones too often! It usually works out as a heck of a mess before I 'understand' the pattern and can try to knit it from memory.

I saw this stitch pattern and really liked its structure, and how it looks as well of course! I decided to make something like a tank top in this but I didn't have an actual tank top pattern to follow. Being on holiday also meant that I didn't have access to proper pattern making paper so I used Mum's greaseproof. Rather interestingly I found that you can't stick greaseproof paper together with sellotape: the tape just literally slides off! I also tried to Prit Stick with slightly more initial success but this glue was not doing a much better job either. I didn't have any paper adhesive like Uhu around either so  I ended up basting the two strips of greaseproof together with big cross stitches, and that definitely holds it!

I took my measurements and drew them up for the back piece, drawing in arm holes and neckline free-handedly. It worked well enough. I knitted the front to the same measurements, except for neckline. And the finished article fits pretty darn good, even if I say so myself! I'm actually pretty chuffed with this.  Best thing: I'll be able to use the same paper pattern (sewn together as it is) again for another project, wahey! I think that I might want to design patterns (really basic ones of course) in future?! We'll see...