Vitamin D

I haven't blogged about this shrug yet. I finished it in the early days of summer and then never got round to blocking it properly.

That's why it still looks a little bedraggled on the hanger in the photo at the top.

It is called Vitamin D and the pattern is by Heidi Kirrmaier. She has some really, really great designs on Ravelry!  Check her out. I was smitten by them. (I am also making the Snow Mountain swing jacket, in a light blue linen yarn! And I bought another four patterns, whoops... All utterly fabulous and I couldn't pass them by)

I like the yarn-over detailing at the back of the nape and the bottom of the hem. 

I don't think that I chose a suitable yarn.  This is a bog standard black sock yarn and it's just a bit too firm for this pattern.  The centre front edges curl in and they still do all this time later.

I like the general shape of this and I am quite surprised that I haven't worn it yet.  To my defense I have to say that I did have to flat-hunt and then move house since I made this - which explains the lack of blocking and wearing.

Hopefully soon.

I will try and get a photo of me wearing it, that should show it a little better.

I was really good fun to knit: I kept storming through the different sections of the pattern (Ravelry link here) and can very easily see myself making this again - in a totally different yarn and very likely a different colour too.

The little warm shrug that hugs

I did it!  I finished a project.  Phew!

This is particularly pleasing because I need this and want to use it.

I need something to keep the back of my neck warm.  I seem to be sitting in a draft at home, at work and everywhere.  My neck just hurts again and again and I am fed up ith it.

So here is the little shrug that could:

This is Drops Alpaca.  A delightfully shaded colour green with some bluey bits in it.  Just delicious.

It is a very plain K1 P1 rib, so it was very easy to make.  And quick!  I have to use up lots of my stash (a seemless continuation from my last blog post all the way back in July. Yep, I still have the exact same problem with too much stuff.  But I also moved house.  Into a smaller place! So I now I have to get rid of the excess) - and this did just the job.

The bit that hangs over the hanger and sticks up in the lower photo: as just a plain rectangle that's sewn together to form "arms" it didn't work well enough to keep my neck warm.  It cut off just a bit too low down.

So I added rows to the centre stitches (of the edge where I cast off partially for the sleeves) while knitting two together at the beginning of each row.  The lower edge is the cast-on edge.

This top bit does flop over when wearing it but the pull from the arms distributes the top edge well enough at the back of my neck to do the job that I want it to do.

If I make another one I might add straps to attach to the sides of the top curve (where I decreased by one stitch at the beginning of each row), so that these can be tied in a bow tie at the front of the throat.  That could look quite cute and would hold this curve in place a bit better too.

Pink progress

It's coming along nicely.  Look at that sheen.

The pattern is great: I like the darts shaping the shoulders as well as the lower part at the waistline that form this kind of "envelope" shape as it is referred to.

I am not so enamoured of the satin.  I pulled a thread near the bottom somewhere because a bit of rough finger nail got stuck on my precious toile.

I am just glad that this was always meant to be the toile.  It would be nice if I had the choice between them at the end (I need to get these two done by 13th December) but I will happily settle for one.

For this version I would still need to cover some buttons with this fabric and also do button holes, four of them.  This causes a great amount of anxiety in me: I am pretty terrified that I would completely mess up the whole thing if I tried to do that many button holes. Yikes.

Thinking about it: I'd rather start the bluey-green silk version and see how that goes.

Overall I have to say that it is interesting to work with this fabric and find how it works for me. Or doesn't.

I can see why designers will use satin for designs where a lot of pleats, creases and folds are shaping the design, much more so than seams and darts.  A seamline that's out by a tiny fragment of a millimeter can really affect the way the garment looks.

I don't know if I'll ever get good enough to be able to successfully work with satin.

The colour is gorgeous but it's darn difficult to cope with.

Slippery pink stuff, blurgh

This is a rhetorical question: why did I ever think that working with slippery pink satin for my toile for the V8721 shrug was a good idea?

Oh yeah, I remember: I want this to be a wearable toile in case it works out. I'm absolutely sure that I'm not going to wear a toile made from faded, floppy sheeting but I can see myself wear something made out of this lovely pink fabric.

But oh boy, is it horrid to work with!

I had to re-cut one of the two big pieces because the lower layer of fabric slipped under the top layer.  The lesson from this is: use pins and not fabric weights on really slippery fabric - I had no idea how much a fabric like this can slide around while you're busy cutting it out.

And in case of any doubt: use at least twice the amount of pins you think you'll need!  If not more...

Horrid stuff.

But such a lovely colour!  And the sheen!

I might sing a different tune once I get this done, but for now I'm just not looking forward to the sewing part.  I can't help myself: I feel a headache coming on!

 

I bought this great book on garment construction.  The Fashion and Textile Museum in Bermondsey are selling an interesting collection of fashion design and pattern books.  I already own a few they sell so I didn't think I would be spending money when I went on Saturday.  Then I leafed through this one.  Must investigate further but it looks really good.  And useful!

We saw this exhibition at the FTM:

 

It was wonderful.  Very inspiring.

 

The first room, the Royal Room, was reserved for clothes made for and worn by royalty, in particular Princess Diana.  I was surprised to the see the apricot coloured Going Away dress she wore after her wedding.  I didn't like it very much, the chiffony bits were a bit much.

 

But right next to it was an aubergine evening gown that's utterly gorgeous! It had a very interesting folded and wound 'thing' going on at the bodice/neckline area.  I would have loved to see this better but the light was kept dimmed to protect the clothes.  Quite rightly.  This gown was my favourite in the room.

 

It was nice to see the sketches and then the dresses IRL.  Intriguing.

 

We were able to take pictures of the rest of the exhibit.  There were quite a few dresses in a very romantic vein - not really my cup of tea.  Some of the construction or embellishment techniques were interesting.  My favourites were the satin dresses that had pleating and folding: such wonderful shapes!

 

I was very intrigued by some of the seam lines on other dresses.  I must do a separate post on all those.

 

Loved it.

What Iffing

I love this blog post!  And I love her phrase 'what iffing' even more.  It is delightful and quite wonderful.  Exactly my cup of tea because that's how I think too.

The blogger is writing about the Vogue shrug pattern V8721 that I am interested in.  I love the way she discards the instructions when it doesn't make any sense to not sew the lower piece to the lining and then attach both to the rest (oh yes, so much easier) - and even better to eliminate a seam when you don't need that one either.

I am thinking of making this shrug myself:

I like how this apes the shape of a knitted shrug at the back and that the slot for the arm is horizontal.

I am thinking of changing the front centre though.  I want a shrug that exposes the lovely seed bead embroidery on my Christmas party dress, wearing this shrug with it just as it is would just show an expanse of plain velvet, nothing more.  That's not what I'm after.

I could keep either the top one or two buttons and then cut a sweep towards the hem or even towards the bottom of the side seam.  Well, where the side seam would be if it had a conventional side seam I should say.

Which means that I'm not just the person to discard nonsensical instructions, but the one who insists on messing up the design lines as well.

Well.

I guess the only way to find out whether this could work is to give it a try!

I can pop both the dress and a made-up muslin onto my dressmaking dummy and see how I need to draw this new edge to achieve the effect I want.  How hard can it be? (I'm already sure that that's got to be 'famous last words')


'What iffing'. I like that.

Magenta Ruffle Shrug

This is a project from last year.  It took me a rather long time to tidy up the raw inside edge where I picked up stitches for the ruffle. At the time I didn't realise that the inside near the neck would show when you wear it.  It folds out, so of course it would!

I put a herringbone stitch over the join and now it's finished! The only thing left to do was take a picture. Nice to have this done and ticked off my WIP list.

Pattern: Yarn: Needles:

Lion Wool website: Ruffle Shrug Patons Merino Wool DK 4 mm

I found it a touch tricky to figure out how to fold the rectangle over to sew partial seams which leave the armholes open, - the instructions weren't all that helpful on this point.  It eventually clicked: just keep the ribbing going in the same direction.  My ribbing actually goes the other way than the one on the Lion's site - I must have knitted the rectangle with the height dimension for the width and vice versa.  Not too different, it's much of a muchness!
I'm happy with this.