Yarn Crawl

TGIF!

Again, I thought Friday would never get here. I am sooooo glad that our office is closing at 2 pm on Wednesday of next week and that I'll be off from then until Monday for Thanksgiving. I also found out that our MBA class on Wednesday night is not meeting next week too. I just need some time to relax and knit!! I feel like I haven't been doing any knitting, as I really haven't since Tuesday.

Anyway, I hope to have at least one of the Christmas sweaters done on Monday to show you - I think it will be Drive Thru as I'm the farthest along on that one. I also plan to finish the facing (waistband) and hem on the skirt over the weekend, as we're starting our shirts on Tuesday night. This time I am using plain cotton, no fancy fabrics, to limit the number of factors that can go wrong, as I've never attempted a shirt or blouse of any type before.

Check this out - remember how I said a few months ago that I was sending my hairpin lace loom up to my mother in law Peggy in northern Wisconsin? She has arthritis now, so wasn't able to do the type of crochet she used to like to do anymore (for probably the last 7 years, at least) as she used to crochet Barbie doll dresses with the teeny steel crochet hooks. Well, I thought maybe the hairpin lace might work for her as it uses larger hooks and a loom, and I wasn't using my loom. Anyway, she really took to it, and so I bought her some patterns, including a hairpin lace pattern book for afghans.

Well, look what showed up in my mailbox a few days ago!!

She said that it was only fitting for me to have her first creation. How neat is that? She did a really nice job. Also she wants to make me a shawl using the loom, so I said I would wind up my Brooks Farm Primero and send it to her to use for it. I emailed her a picture of the yarn

and she is excited to work with it, and I'm going to wind it as she doesn't have a swift or ball winder.

I have a great mother in law. I really lucked out. She and her sister (my husband's aunt Vicki) raised a great son (both families lived together for a long time, and so both had strong influences on him.) Between the two of them, he learned how to cook like a pro, clean anything, and not think any of it was out of his jurisdiction. I feel so lucky to have found Jim and his great family. (Sniff!)

Here we are on our Hawaiian cruise last March! I love this picture - from left is Peggy (MIL), Vicki (Aunt) and Jim and I. Peggy's got her glass of La Crema Chardonnay - we were partners in crime with that stuff all two weeks.

Enough sap for the day - have a wonderful weekend!!!

Crazybusy

I have been totally busy at work lately and with my sewing class, so haven't had a chance to blog much. Typepad has eaten my post like three times so far also, just to add to the fun.

Here's the update of what I've been working on:

Knitting:

Here's my progress on the Cabo Hoodie. It looks like the armholes are really small compared to the body of the sweater, but they're not really. It's just a long sweatshirt style sweater. Also, I should have alternated skeins of Malabrigo every few rows, because the second skein has more white in it. But I still think it's cute. I have to do the sleeves and the hood, then I'm DONE.

Drive-Thru - done with the body up to the armholes and the first sleeve. I have about 2/3 of the second sleeve to do, then I get to do the fun multicolored yoke part. Then I'm DONE. (Can you tell I'm ready to be DONE with Christmas gift knitting?)

On Bounce, I have about 5" done but don't have a picture. It's my work "webcast knitting" project.

Sewing:

I had tons of sewing drama going on over the past few days. I can't even describe how many different issues I had to deal with on my skirt, but basically it culminated in me making another skirt, and bringing in both skirts to class last night, with the feeling that if neither were fixable, I would just start another one. My teacher was very very helpful (and I needn't have worried or worked myself up into such a frenzy, as everyone was having skirt issues and she had planned on "problem resolution" that night) and I learned a lot. As she says, it was better that I learned how to fix these problems rather than (my words) giving in to my perfectionist tendencies, throwing out the existing skirts and restarting another skirt thinking "this time it'll be perfect."

So here is what I've learned:

1. If you have a piece that needs to be eased into another one, like a waistband or facing to the body of a skirt, first line up the side seams and edges, then pin each side from the seam to the edge using the pins horizontally instead of vertically. This trick really works. I had resewn my waistband twice and hadn't been able to get it lined up, but when I tried this suggestion from the teacher, it worked great. Also, don't blame yourself automatically if things don't line up perfectly - it could be a case of "bad patterning" according to my teacher. I never thought about it before, but I guess there are knitting pattern errata or poor drafting issues all the time; why wouldn't the same thing happen with commercial sewing patterns? This made me feel better, because all the way along I was pretty precise about everything and couldn't understand why it didn't match up perfectly.

2. Read the pattern instructions and ignore them if it says to sew the zipper in first, then put the waistband on (again, see "bad patterning.") It makes more sense to put the waistband on the skirt first, then line up the top of the waistband with the top of the zipper, so that the zipper goes to the top of the skirt.

BTW, in case you're wondering about the source of this "bad patterning", it was this innocuous looking New Look pattern #6758 (one of their new ones.) It looks nice and easy, doesn't it? Mmm, not so much, at least not if you follow the directions as written. The good news is that now that I know what to do, I could knock out one of these in every color under the rainbow in an hour each. I am working on the shorter A-line version shown in a blue print at the bottom.

3. Don't follow the pattern instructions for inserting a lapped zipper. Do not baste the zipper insertion area closed. Do not press the seam allowance back 5/8" on one side of the zipper insertion area, and 1/2" on the other. This is asking for a crooked zipper. Do the zippers like this instead:

Lapped Zipper Installation Steps:

1. Sew the back or side seam where the zipper will be inserted, leaving the zipper insertion area open. Do NOT baste the zipper insertion area closed. Note – side zippers for women’s garments are always placed on the left side. You should be able to flatten the lapped portion of the zipper over it when running your hand from the front to the back of the side seam (so the lapped portion that covers the zipper should be on the left side.)

2. Press open the seam, including 5/8” on each side of the zipper insertion area. Do NOT follow pattern instructions that say to press one side 5/8” and the other side 1/2" as this can cause the zipper to be off balance.

3. Open zipper. Pin the right hand side of the zipper tape (the side of the zipper that will be covered up by the lapped fabric) to the seam allowance ONLY (not the skirt itself.) Using the zipper foot, sew together with an anchoring stitch 1/8” from the edge. This anchoring stitch should just be a regular stitch (not basted) with normal 2.5 length and 0 width.

4. On that same side of the zipper, now pin through the seam allowance and the skirt itself and seam again.

5. Repeat step #3 on the other side of the zipper.

6. Fold over the fabric to lap over the other side of the zipper and pin. The zipper fold should be lined up with and disappear into the rest of the seam. Seam from the top (waist) to the bottom on the right side of the fabric, through all thicknesses (like #4, except on the other side, and with the folded fabric to lap over), and pivot across at the bottom. End seam at fold (do not go over the other right hand side of the zipper again.)

7. Pour yourself your favorite beverage. DONE!

I will be taking pictures of each step of this process soon, as I want to insert zippers in everything now that I know how to do it.

So I'm very glad I didn't give up on my class or on sewing, just because of some challenges along the way. Thanks so much to Adrienne and Jim for listening to my drama yesterday and talking me down from the ledge, and to Jim for coming to my sewing class last night to bring my forgotten power cord and pedal for my machine.

Weekend!!

Thanks to everyone for their ideas about which project to knit next. Although I know I will eventually be making all of the projects I mentioned yesterday, I think I am going to go with Sahara next, because of its one piece construction and ability to utilize one of the 800 yard lots of Cultivated Silk & Wool that I bought from Tess at Stitches Midwest. I had meant to buy 1,000 yards, but this will work out great as I need under 800 if I trim the sweater with another yarn as shown in the pattern. Also, I'm dying to try working with that Cultivated Silk & Wool as it just looks like it will be so much fun. I do need to find a contrast yarn for it. I'm thinking Mariel's Crystals in Purple Reign. It'll either match perfectly or be just a little off. If it's off, I'll just make one of the Stitchdiva one-skein projects, like the purse.

HOWEVER....I am going to get all of my Christmas gift knitting at least well underway first before I start Sahara. I have about 3" more to go on the body of the Cabo Hoodie for Noah, and I started Drive Thru yesterday and got about 3.5" done on the body. I haven't cast on for Bounce yet but plan to in the next week or so.

Now that we are OFF Daylight Savings Time (the bane of my existence in the fall prior to switching the clocks back) I am happy to say that I'm back to my normal workout routine. It is just too hard to get up at 5:45 when it's pitch black outside and will be for another hour. So 5 days and counting, after a few weeks of slacking off. I'm going to also start incorporating the Pilates videos I bought a few weeks ago after everyone's suggestions on what to try. It's so funny - I heard something the other day that is so true about working out - the worst part of any workout is starting. It is so true. Jim doesn't help either, by trying to tempt me into staying in bed and not getting up to do my workout. I make deals with myself that if I just start, I can stop after 20 minutes, or I can do it at a lower intensity if I want, and then once I start, everything's fine. Isn't that true about anything though? Blogging, for one thing. When I have missed a few days of blogging in the past, it's because I thought I had nothing to say. I almost always feel that way though, every day, unless I have some pictures of something to show. But once I start writing, I find that I have more to say than I thought I did.

Anyway. I got Knitting Classic Style in the mail last night and brought it with me today to take a look at. I'll let you know what I think of it. It was my final purchase from Crafters' Choice to use up my bonus points after my decision to cancel my membership following an unordered selection of the month that was soooo not worth $30.

Have a great weekend!!

Next Project

I just realized that I don't currently have any sweaters except Mirepoix on the needles, and am in a quandary over my next project.

On one hand, I am now dying to make a long-sleeved Sahara. I missed this KAL and I am intrigued by making a top-down sweater with set-in sleeves. I checked the yarn requirements and I can actually use my 800 yards of Tess Cultivated Silk and Wool for it, especially if I trim it with a different yarn as contemplated by the pattern. I could make it in either red or bright purple and I'm leaning toward bright purple.

However, I would also like to start the Silver Belle with the new light pinky-violet Cashmerino Aran I just bought. I am worried though that this pattern isn't going to look good on me, and I'm going to have another Juliet on my hands. I didn't feel that way when reading the KAL blog as I really like what everyone else did with their FOs and they looked very good on everyone. Maybe I need to go back and revisit it.

I also would love to make Corsica (see left sidebar on Fiber Fiend's site.) It just looks like it would be so flattering and interesting in its construction. No ideas on yarn for that one yet.

Another one I'm thinking of is Marlo, again with one of the 800 yard-lots I bought of the Cultivated Silk and Wool. I think this one should be red.

OR, I could be boring and just finish out Mirepoix and focus on my Christmas knitting projects - the Cabo Hoodie, Drive Thru and Bounce. I know this is probably the sensible option but not the fun one.

Thoughts, suggestions, sanity to share?

Tree Jacket - Done!

Here's Tree Jacket:

All the details:
Yarn: 7 1/2 skeins of Knit Picks Andean Silk in Hyacinth
Size: XS (actual finished measurement = 32" on a 34" bust: ETA: as my gauge was (purposely) off, it's exactly between the 30" finished measurement for the XS and the 34" finished measurement for the S)
Needles: size 7 knit picks 16" and addi turbo 24"

Modifications:

Shortened the cowl neck to 6"

Made the sleeves in the lace pattern instead of garter stitch: decreased 4 sts at beginning of sleeve to start lace pattern, then decreased a total of 4 sts; 1 st at beginning of round every 5 rounds starting at around 5" from the armhole

Shortened sleeves - about 16" from underarm including 1/2 inch of ribbing

Body length measures about 13.5" from underarm including 1/2 inch of ribbing

Verdict:
I absolutely love this sweater. The yarn is super soft and silky, not itchy at all, and I would definitely use it again. I wouldn't change a thing!

New Elsebeth Lavold Pattern Books

Not much to report - Tree Jacket is still drying, but is looking really good; 3" more to go on the cabled purse. FINALLY got my Winter IK magazine last night!

Two new Elsebeth Lavold pattern books just came out for this fall - The Walk in the Park Collection and The Out of the Woods Collection.

I have all of the EL pattern books, but have yet to try any of her patterns. Someday I will, though.

From the Walk in the Park collection, I like Marika and Viveca.

In the Out of the Woods Collection, I like Pebbles, Fern, Grove, and especially Woodborer.

So many patterns, so little time!

Tonight I'm going to try to finish my skirt in my sewing class and then move on to our next project, a blouse. This is the pattern I selected for it (click to enlarge the image in a new window:)

CZ Lace & Cable Redux and Other Update

So, I finished Tree Jacket yesterday. It is drying off after a wash and wet block. I hope it's done tomorrow so I can wear it to work and sewing class.

I have about 3" more to go on the body of the Cabo Hoodie for Noah and have about 20 more rows to go on my cabled purse. I resisted starting the White Lies chemise I mentioned the other day - must finish more projects first.

In the meantime, I wore my Lace & Cable Sweater (by Cathy Zimmerman - in the Classic Elite Summertime Knits book) to work today so I thought I would show how it looks with a skirt and boots. I just showed it before with jeans when I finished it a few months back. I really like this one and just wish I would have made the sleeves a little shorter. I'm too intimidated about doing grafting surgery on a cabled item to shorten them so have just turned up the cuffs. Another reason to convert EVERYTHING to top-down. No guesswork, no stress, and a perfect fit every time. After examining my copy of Knitting from the Top again, I discovered that Barbara Walker gives instructions in her book on how to knit every type of sweater top-down, not just raglan-sleeved sweaters, as commonly believed. Although I personally love raglan-sleeve sweaters, I have some ideas that you may see more about here soon - stay tuned!

Enough jawing from me, here's the sweater, complete with weird sunlight rays hitting my face:

Oh, and I broke down and got a spray tan yesterday. I couldn't stand it anymore. At least I just did Level 2.

Michigan Trip Pics!

Jim and I just got back from our weekend trip to Michigan and we had a fabulous time!

First of all, we absolutely loved our room - here was the view from our deck:

I attempted to take video of the room as it was so gorgeous, but I ended up not saving it somehow - on the positive side, now I know how the video features on my camera work! The room was beautiful; very large, with a fireplace and a huge bathroom with a nice big jacuzzi tub!

Friday night we explored neighboring New Buffalo and had dinner at Casey's, which was excellent, and I had my introduction to one of the local wines from Tabor Hill (the dry Riesling.) This was really tasty and much better (in my opinion) than their sweet demi-sec wine that I had tried previously as a gift from someone who came back from there.
We spent some time by the fireplace in our room that night - you can see I was having a great time after a few glasses of wine...

On Saturday, we decided to do the full winery circuit and visited Tabor Hill

and bought a number of their white wines to come home with us for our "stash."

Next up, we followed the winding winery roads

to Round Barn winery, which is one of the only wineries that make vodka from grapes (called "DeVine", and it apparently beat out Ketel One and Grey Goose in taste tests in Chicago - it was very smooth). We ended up making quite a few acquisitions at Round Barn:

The lady at Round Barn told us that we could take our glasses to their sister winery, Free Run, for a tasting there, so we went there and walked into the open door, but the lady working there told us she wasn't opening for another 20 minutes as she didn't have bottles open yet (?) and to come back. We ended up not going back, though. Here's me in front of that winery when we thought we were going to get into it!

Next we went to Hickory Creek on the way back, a smaller no-frills winery where we bought one bottle:

There were two more wineries we didn't visit, but may next time. It's a good thing Jim doesn't really drink wine, so he could be our designated driver!

Next we went back into town in New Buffalo and went to Sit & Knit, the LYS owned by the lovely Kim Olesker, who I had previously met at Stitches Midwest at her booth. I bought her husband Jack's new book, Cast On, Bet's Off and actually got a signed copy. I started the book yesterday afternoon and really like it so far - it is fun to read and is sprinkled with lots of knitting and local Michigan area references. I also bought a crochet book and the very hard to find "Wonderful Wallaby" pattern booklet. It was so funny that Kim asked me if I had it, out of nowhere, when I had spent the good part of an afternoon trying to find an LYS that carried it!

We had a fabulous light lunch at the Pumpernickel Deli at the corner of Red Arrow Highway near our hotel (corn chowder soup was FABULOUS as was the cherry tea!) then went back to the Sandpiper to hang out on the beach for awhile.

I was really impressed with the pretty shade of blue of Lake Michigan's water (it is prettier up there than in Chicago) and the whiteness of the sand. It was COLD, however, with a strong wind. But gorgeous!!

Later that evening, we went to Frankie's around the corner and had a great dinner. This restaurant came highly recommended by a friend of ours who visits the area often (and just bought a house there, closing this weekend!) and she was right on target (as always!) It was great.

I can't say enough about what a great time we had, and I really look forward to coming back - probably in the summer next time, or maybe in earlier fall, like September or so. It was lots of fun and we really enjoyed exploring the wineries in the area - it was like going to Sonoma or Tuscany, on a nearby, smaller scale. For a 1 1/2 to 2 hour car trip, it was unbeatable!

Friday!!

It's FINALLY Friday and Jim and I are leaving for our Michigan getaway early this afternoon. I am SO happy to be getting out of here for a few days. Here's where I'll be this afternoon!

I got my yarn yesterday from Discountyarnsale.com and I LOVE it.

This was a great transaction from start to finish and the price was outstanding. Now I can start Silver Belle (after I get a few other things done!) I will definitely have some left over, even with lengthening it, but it was worth it to buy it by the bag to get the discounted price.

Two key success factors for the transaction were asking first which colors were in stock so that nothing had to be backordered, and understanding the projected time frame upfront. Shipping was very reasonable and less than I would have paid on Ebay, and the chances of finding this quantity of yarn in the color I wanted there would have been slim. So, I am very happy with my transaction and will order from them again the next time I need a full bag (or bags) of yarn and can wait a few weeks for it. Yay!

Here's Noah's sweater so far - I just separated the sleeves and now just have mindless knitting to do on the rest of the body.

I'm bringing this and Tree Jacket (one more sleeve!!) with me to Michigan. I'm also bringing some Pima Tencel in aqua to possibly start this . Woo-hoo!

Well, that's all I have today, but it's Adrienne's 30th birthday today, so go stop by and wish her a Happy Birthday!!

Thanks!

Thanks to everyone for their insights on my sizing dilemma yesterday for Noah's hoodie. I went home and stretched the neck out and measured it, and it looks like it is about 22" (his head is 20") so I think I'm OK and don't need to rip. I got to the point where I separated the sleeves and am working it straight now to the bottom. This is really an easy pattern.

Hope everyone had a nice Halloween. We did not get ONE trick-or-treater at our house this year!! Jim was pretty surprised as usually we get a handful. It seemed like it was a trend to trick or treat this year on Saturday at the shops in our "downtown" area as well as some of the other "downtown" areas of the suburbs around here.

I ordered some Peruvian Highland Wool from Elann for Drive-Thru as I am going to make this for McKenna this year instead of Starsky Jr. I just thought that Starsky Jr. had knitting pressure written all over it with seaming, buttons, etc. all on a deadline, and Drive-Thru is super-easy knitting (especially if you make the pullover, like I am.) I could have used odds and ends from my stash for the stripes, but I was worried that it wouldn't look right if the wool wasn't consistent, so of course I had to buy more yarn. And at $2.50 a skein, you can't really worry too much.

Here's the colors I picked - the main color is first, then the three colors for the yoke.

I also bought more Peruvian Highland Wool in orange and brown for the Knitty felted pumpkins, as I know it's late for this year, but I can make them and put aside for next year. I have a lot of cute Halloween candle holder decorations from Partylite, so I thought I would make these to complement them.

Oh, and who sent me the November issue of Burda World of Fashion?? This is a great issue. Usually I would attribute this generosity to my Secret Pal, but she's in France and this is the English version. 'Fess up!