Yarn Crawl

Sewing Class on Monday

What a hell day. I finally have a chance to breathe so I can finally talk about my Monday night sewing class.

I had a super productive sewing night on Monday - I finished my jacket muslin and fitted it with my teacher, one full class period prior to when we needed to be done with that step.

This is the one I'm making (View A, top right smaller pic, shown in a gray/black plaid)

The muslin was so helpful, all I had to make was the front, side and back and one sleeve. I had cut out the collar and all of the other pieces out of muslin for nothing! Duh! Now I know how quick and easy it is to make a muslin to fit garments, I'll never make them out of "practice fabric" again. It only took me about an hour to sew the essential seams on my muslin, as opposed to all the other steps I would have to follow if I made it out of practice fabric (interfacing, staystitching, etc.)

My teacher pinned the muslin up to a better length for me, and adjusted the sleeve length for me. She is having me shorten the cap of the sleeve first (which is actually an area I have problems with on knitting - always too long - but I never adjust it because I didn't want to mess with adjusting the armhole) and then we'll see how the length is. So I am one full week ahead of schedule as we really were supposed to be done with the muslin fitting next week! I need to be because I'm going to miss two classes while I'm in South America.

I also talked to my teacher about my knit dress - decided on this one for sure:

She said I could just go ahead and start that one now as I'll be on vacay while they're working on knits. I decided I will go one size down as I've read this runs big, and make a sleeveless version without a collar for my first "knit muslin". She said just go ahead and make it and if it works, great, turn it in, if not, you know what to change. Cool, right?

We watched Sandra Betzina's video on jackets as well. I had always heard about her but never saw her in action. She is hilarious, super high energy, and we were all really liking the video, although it was fun making fun of some of the 80s outfits. Our teacher said not to do her method of diagonal basting for the underlining (the big hand sewn X in the middle of the project) as it doesn't do anything. She said to take multiple (big) stitches up the project from the bottom up in rows instead. SB seems to also be a big fan of fusible interfacing, which my teacher is decidedly NOT, as she prefers the sew in interfacing. I'm kind of a fan of whatever saves me time and still looks good. One tip SB had was to always fuse the interfacing to the underlining rather than to the fashion fabric. That was a good idea that I'll use.

We also learned the difference between lining, underlining and interlining. Underlining, which we'll be using on the jackets, is a way of changing the structure of the fashion fabric and is sewn together with the fashion fabric as one piece. Interlining is a way of making the garment warmer, such as for a outdoor or quilted garment. Lining goes over all of this and finishes the inside of the garment so that you don't see the construction details.

We also did four samples of seam finishes that have to be completed for next week:
1.) Flat felled
2.) Hong Kong
3.) Piped seam
4.) French seam

These look tricky and I'm sure it will take me a while to get them right. We also learned that there are two kinds of finishes that are referred to as "Hong Kong" but only one is really the actual Hong Kong finish, the other is a "bound finish". I'm fuzzy on the difference between the two so I need to do some research online to figure this out. Teacher says that the true Hong Kong finish is done on better quality garments whereas the bound finish is a sort of "imitation" Hong Kong finish that goes along with lower quality. Another price point differentiating thing, which I find interesting!

The other thing which may be completely crazy is I am tentatively thinking of making a dress for a friend of mine for a wedding she's going to at the end of April. Here is the pattern she liked best:

(the blue version, without the flower)

The other two patterns we considered were this one

(the green one)

and this one

(pink one in the foreground)

We tentatively decided on brocade- preferably a cream brocade with black or midnight blue flowers. If I could find a crepe backed satin with a flower print, I'd prefer that, but they always seem to be solid colors. I also mentioned rayon as a possibility but she wants shiny.

I don't know for sure if I'm actually going to end up doing it or not, as I will let her know up front if it's beyond my abilities. I just plan to buy the patterns today at JoAnn's ($1.99 sale on Simplicity patterns going on) and take a look at them to see how difficult they look. I also plan to buy a small yardage of brocade (just 1/4 yard or something) to practice sewing with it. One of the girls in my sewing class last semester (admittedly, one of the 18 year old fashionistas who sews all her stuff at home) made her skirt out of brocade, so how hard can it be? I really like the way it looks and it's very much my friend's (dramatic) style.

FO #3 of 2008: Cabled Cardigan #24 (VK Winter 2007/8)

FO #3: Cabled Cardigan #24 from Vogue Knitting Winter 2007/8

Size: Medium

Yarn: Rowan Big Wool in 043 Forest, just under 10 skeins

Needles: size 11 Addi turbos

Modifications: Shortened back and both fronts by 4" to measure 22" from the armhole, shortened sleeves to measure about 17.5" from the armhole and adjusted rate of increases accordingly. Despite shortening the coat by this significant margin, it still grew a good 4-6 inches in the body and a couple inches on the sleeves. I like it this way (it goes down to just above my knees now instead of mid-thigh, which may be a better length anyway) but just know that it will grow substantially when determining length. It would have been down to my ankles if I knit it in accordance with the original pattern directions!!

I am super happy with this, especially in today's almost zero degree temps and snow!

FO #2 of 2008: Back to School Vest

Here's my second FO of the year: the Back to School Vest from Fitted Knits. I really love it!!

Size: 34
Yarn: Cascade 220 "The Heathers" in color 2438 (about 2 1/4 skeins)
Needles: Sizes 6 and 5 Clover Bamboo circulars
Modifications: shortened the body ribbing by an inch

I highly recommend this pattern! It was quick and easy, despite my procrastination on the neck and armhole pickups.

This is the fabric I was talking about yesterday for the skirt - I'm thinking it would be cute with this too.

It's a little darker than this - still figuring out the new camera. Jim took all the pics above with the old camera except the first one, as he has given up on the new one and it is officially "my" camera now, and the old one is "his". I like the pictures he takes with the old one, so we'll go with that. My new camera seems to take crisper pictures of "things" than people, though I still need to work out the color settings. There is a "portrait" setting that I might need to try.

I also want to make myself a white button down shirt from that pattern I worked on last semester as I think that would be a way to style this in a more "corporate" way. My office is pretty casual so I don't usually go in for the corporate looks much, but it would look nice for a change; also could be a way to wear some cool jewelry at the neck as I think that works well with button down shirts.

The Cabled Coat is almost dry today so that's tomorrow's FO! I am on track with last year on the knitting FOs, as that will get me to three this month (gotta beat last year's 35!)

Sunday's Progress

I washed seven of my sweaters last night and so now the Back to School Vest and Cabled Coat are drying:

The BTS Vest will probably be ready to wear tomorrow, and the coat - probably a couple more days. It is really a lot of thick wool. I'm liking how the buttons worked out and am glad I shortened it as it grew in length when I washed it. It also is even on the bottom despite the picture. But more details when I model it!

I worked on my skirt to go with Wicked (as well as Wicked itself) and now all I have to do on the skirt is the hem. It seems like on every project I master one additional skill that was giving me problems before. On this one, I mastered "understitching" for the yoke. Basically, this involves topstitching the facing "in the ditch" between the body of the skirt and the yoke/waistband, but unlike other types of topstitching, it should be invisible. I had trouble before with making it invisible, but this time I got it. My "stitch in the ditch foot" was super helpful - it has a metal piece that pushes one piece of the fabric over so you can sew just underneath it.

I put in my first invisible zipper on this skirt, and I'm happy with it except for the top part. It was not extending over the top edge when I just had the main waistband on it, but when I attached the facing waistband and folded it over, it made the top section stick out. I already cut about 1/2 inch off the top, but can't cut anymore as I would risk cutting off the zipper stop. Next time I will set the zipper in about 1/2 inch lower (or really, I guess it was 5/8" - the seam allowance on the facing) when I have a facing to put in after the zipper. Here it is (and yeah, it needs another pressing:)

I used the metal invisible zipper foot I had bought for my old Viking previously, which also works with my new Viking (gotta love that brand compatibility - not sure if I should term it "backwards compatibility" in computer-speak or not as I'm not sure it qualifies). I also had already sewn the remainder of the seam - supposedly a no-no if you are using the invisible zipper foot. I can see why it's not recommended, as then you have a bottom section to finish sewing. I just repositioned the foot and sewed the zipper to the seam allowance for that half inch or so and tacked across it to make a new zipper stop, then cut off the bottom. I'm sure that was wrong, but it looks good except for that top protrusion issue, which I know how to fix next time.

I'll just make sure I make Wicked long enough to cover that zipper top, as it will be longer than I normally make sweaters anyway as this skirt is slightly low-rise and sits more on the hips than the waist. So far I have completed 9" from the underarm, so probably another 4" or so. I also plan to do 2x2 ribbing on the bottom instead of 1x1 as I find it lays better (also makes more sense with the 2x2 cable pattern at the top of that sweater!)

I also cut out a new skirt from the pattern that was my nemesis last semester as I wanted a side zip, lower rise skirt and that was the only pattern I had. After cutting the two main skirt pieces, I discovered I don't have enough fabric on grain (as it was pinwale corduroy so needed the "with nap" yardage and I was actually cutting it close with the regular yardage) to cut the waistband facing pieces. So I am either going to try turning the top waist section under 1/4 inch, maybe after adding a lining (as I was examining some of my RTW skirts and they have this waist treatment) or using a grosgrain ribbon as a facing. Stay tuned!

I have sewing class tonight so I will be sewing together my muslin of the jacket and hopefully finishing that process tonight, as I have to stay ahead of the class b/c of my 2 week cruise in the middle of the semester. This college has its spring break a week later than the one at the university where I'm finishing my MBA, so I had planned around the latter, but not the former. That class is tomorrow and we FINALLY will get the syllabus as it hasn't been posted online in advance (which annoys me as I like to plan out what I'm going to be doing, especially with the cruise making me miss one class prior to spring break.)

I originally titled this "Quick Update" but it's turned out to be anything but! Hope everyone had a great weekend!!

Two Down, Eight to Go

Last night I finished the Back to School Vest and Cabled Sweater Coat. I'm really liking both of them, especially how the buttons look on the coat. I need to give both of these FOs a bath before wearing them (Gilda has been addicted to sitting on the Sweater Coat), and I have some other sweaters to wash at the same time. Pictures to come after their bath!

Blogstalking opportunity - here's the tub in my master bath, which I use to wash all my sweaters.

I just fill it up a couple of inches with really cold water and wool wash and let all the sweaters float around in there for about five minutes or so, unless its the first time I'm washing them and the color may bleed.

Anyway, all is quiet in my house (7:27 am) - I don't know when Jim and his friends went to bed (maybe 5 or so?) At 3 am they had made a huge tray of chicken wings from scratch (started at around 1 am) and were eating those. All I see now on the tray are two gnawed bones. Jim is in our bed, two guys are snoring on opposite ends of my sectional couch (scratch that, one just left) and one is sleeping in my guest room and I can hear him snoring through the door. There was one other one but he doesn't drink much so never stays overnight. The one remaining on the couch is a light sleeper and always gets me Starbucks in the morning when they stay overnight, so I may go downstairs and make some noise feeding the cats (LOL.)

A peek into the bizarre lives of single men in their early 40s! I would never want to stay up/drink so late at someone else's house and then sleep on their couch - but that's me. I like my own bed and my own house. At least none of the guys in question live with their mothers and they all know how to cook (some of them cook extremely well.) None of them have ever been married except for Starbucks guy, and they've all been friends since elementary school. I like each of them in their own way and they've really become my friends too after knowing them for 13 years. Starbucks guy is my favorite, and he is probably my husband's closest friend, the kind of guy who would do anything for us if we needed it. He's our dining partner in crime, for trying new restaurants downtown, and he's not stingy about treating both of us fairly often, which is super nice but unnecessary. We also have great book discussions. This is a guy that some woman needs to see beyond the exterior on!!!

I don't have a problem with the stay up all night thing once every other week or so, which is about what it is now. At least they cook for themselves and Jim cleans everything up in the morning, and they aren't driving around drunk. When he has one of these nights, I have a super productive knitting and sewing night, as I hang out up in my sewing/knitting room and work on my projects. Usually I'll just fall asleep on my couch in there too if I'm watching movies or something.

Now on to some Starbucks, the treadmill and sewing - in no particular order except for the first one!

Officially Crazy!!

With all of my projects, I did something crazy and started Starsky yesterday. I am using the orange Elsebeth Lavold Chunky AL that I got from my lovely swap partner, Sharon.

I got gauge with size 9 bamboo needles, but I decided to go down to an 8 because I think (no, I know) a 40" finished sweater measurement (for the smallest size) is going to be too much ease for me. Kinda unscientific, no blocked and washed gauge swatches, no math - just, I don't want a 40" sweater so I'm going down a needle size. Hopefully it works out. I guess I could still do the technical thing using another skein of the yarn now. Probably I will as I'm sure it will bug me not to know exactly what to expect.

Now here's a really exciting picture!

Jim's comment was that maybe every Friday should be "Cast On Friday". Yep, that's what we do around here at Chez Yarn Crawl - drink wine and cast on new projects!

TGIF!!

As a followup to yesterday's meme question about international travel, Debby asked me which countries I've visited, so I thought I would talk a little more about that.

First the list:

1. Canada
2. Mexico
3. Jamaica
4. Bahamas
5. St. Thomas
6. St. Croix
7. St. Bart's
8. Aruba
9. Curacao
10. Puerto Rico
11. Grand Cayman
12. England
13. Scotland
14. Ireland
15. France
16. Italy
17. Germany
18. Spain
19. The Netherlands
20. Belgium
21. Greece
22. Malta

Soon (February 29th, to be exact) I will be adding Chile, Argentina and Uruguay to that list as part of my South American cruise from 2/29 - 3/16. I'll post about the shore excursions we've booked soon.

What else? I haven't been to Switzerland or Norway yet and would love to. I also would like to see more of Scotland, like the Scottish Highlands and Islands. I'd like to go to Fiji, Tahiti and the Cook Islands. I'd also like to visit Portugal and specifically the Azores, as that represents 50% of my heritage. Similiarly, I'd like to visit Sicily as I am 1/4 Sicilian. I love all things Asian and I would like to visit various countries in Asia, but Jim is not as interested in this. I'm sure at some point I will visit China for business, though, as it is fast becoming an important place in that regard. I'm interested in Eastern Europe and haven't yet been there. I guess there is really nowhere I *don't* want to go, just places I am more interested in than others.

Closer to home, I'd like to see more of Canada, as I have only been to the western portion (Vancouver and Victoria.) Within the U.S., I'd like to see more of the northeast. My mom's side of the family (the ones who originally came over from the Azores in the 1800s) lives in the Cape Cod area of Massachusetts, and I haven't been back there since I was a little kid. I've also never been to Virginia or the Carolinas and would like to.

There are the places I'd love to go back to: Belgium, Italy (especially Naples, Sorrento and Capri), and St. Bart's.

Anyway, that's my expanded answer on the travel. I'm hoping to finish a few things this weekend, like the Cabled Sweater Coat/Cardigan and the Back to School Vest. I don't know if I'll feel like finishing or knitting more though, so no commitments. I'm not sure what I have a "taste" for yet. I'd like to finish the skirt I've been working on before I start back full speed ahead into sewing class on Monday night.

Have a great weekend!!

Blog Fodder

My friend Monica sent me this meme by email, so I thought I would play along, as I have no other blog fodder today. Last night I went to Blu Coral with Jim and Lisa and "was out past my bedtime" so hardly any knitting got done. I did work on the first sleeve on Mirepoix yesterday during the day and have just finished the third increase on it (done from the wrist up.) I was kind of liking the mindless 2x2 ribbing.

Without further ado...

What time is it? 7:58 am

What's your full name? Robin Elizabeth Martin

What is the most recent movie that you have seen in a theater? Knocked Up

What are you most afraid of? Losing teeth

Place of birth? Evergreen Park, IL

Favorite food? Sushi - specifically zuke salmon from Blu Coral

What's your natural hair color? Dark brown

Ever been to Alaska ? No

Ever been toilet paper rolling? Maybe, can't remember

Love someone so much it made you cry? Yes

Been in a car accident? Yes

Croutons or bacon bits? Neither

Favorite day of the week? Friday

Favorite restaurant? Blu Coral

Favorite Flower? tulips

Favorite sport to watch? None

Favorite drink? Viognier

Favorite ice cream? Lemon sorbet

Disney or Warner Brothers? Disney

Ever been on a ship? YEP!

What color is your bedroom carpet? Light gray

How many times did you fail your driver's test? Once

Before this one, from whom did you get an e-mail? Adrienne

What do you do when you are bored? Online shop or go on Ravelry, read blogs

Who will respond to this e-mail the quickest? ??

Who is the person you sent this to that is least likely to respond? ??

Who is the person that you are most curious to see their responses? ??

Favorite TV show? Project Runway

Last person you went to dinner with? Jim and Lisa

What time do you get up? 6:00 am

What are your favorite colors? Green, red-orange

How many tattoos do you have? 0

How many pets do you have? 2 cats and multiple fish

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Who cares

What do you want to do before you die? See every country in the world

Have you ever been to Hawaii? Yes

Have you been to countries outside the U.S. ? Yes

How many people are you sending this e-mail to? 1 and posting to blog - good blog fodder

Time this survey ended? 8:04 am

Feel free to copy and paste and play along if you have nothing to write about either!

WIP Wednesday!

OK, I'm not going to make a commitment to this WIP Wednesday thing because my blog (and life, for the most part!) is all about "want tos" and not so much about "have tos". But today I'm going to play.

I'm only going to show the ones with some activity - Mirepoix, Silk Slip, Indigo Ripples Skirt and Cherie Amour still look pretty close to the way you last saw them.

Here's the Cabled Sweater Coat. I got both side seams and the first sleeve installed yesterday. It was 9:00 at that point so I didn't have the energy to do the second sleeve and sew on the buttons yet. I did try it on and it is fitting well! The next picture will be a modeled FO shot.

The color is finally accurate on this one, after playing with the camera settings, but ignore the shadow in the middle of it.

Wicked - just separated the sleeves a few rounds ago - it's a little less bright red than this:

Lizzie in Noro Silver Thaw, with my modifications to knit this top down. I actually finished the first 3/4 length sleeve too. I'm liking the colors on this a lot more now!

28Thirty - it is almost impossible to take a picture of this one, as there are a million stitches scrunched up on the circular needle, but at least this shows the colors accurately. It's so much neck and not a lot of body, and I'm thinking Kureyon may not be a good choice next to my neck (scratchy.) I'm thinking I'll continue until the sleeves are separated then reevaluate for redoing in a different yarn.

Back to School Vest from Fitted Knits - just the neck and armhole pickups on one side left! It's Cascade 220 in a heathery yellow-green, a little less bright than this. The next pic will be of the FO, modeled!

I ripped Corsica (didn't like the Elann yarn substitution I picked - am thinking of Lamb's Pride Bulky in periwinkle or Rowan Recycled Chunky in brown tweed for the redo but need to swatch.) I also ripped the cabled purse to recycle the red Riata for a vest for Aunt Vicki. I think that's everybody!

Last night I swatched Orangina in Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, but at a new gauge. I recalculated the pattern to make it at 5 stitches to the inch instead of 6, which was very easy. I'm liking the swatch:

Speaking of orange, last week Sharon said that she bought some Elsebeth Lavold Chunky AL from WEBS in "Poppy" and it was way brighter than what she expected or wanted. I took a look at it and thought it might work for me, maybe for a Starsky. We ended up trading some Cascade Sierra in Lemon that I had in my stash for her Chunky AL, and we're both happy!!! Here it is - it is actually exactly "Chicago Bears Orange" so is not quite as bright as this picture, but it is bright, and I actually like it that way for me. It wouldn't have worked before with my lighter hair, but now it works with the darker brown.

Yay! Thanks for swapping, Sharon!

Stash Enhancement...

I did a lot of shopping this weekend!

First, I hit the 50% yarn shop closing sale AGAIN at Fringe. It was previously 30% off so I had to go in one more time to see what they had at the 50% off level.

I got some more Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece:

and some Karabella Aurora 8:

Also, I picked up three Fibertrends patterns: the bunny, the koala and the alpaca. I love their patterns, and at $2.50 each, I figured what the heck!

Yesterday I went to Vogue Fabrics and added to my fabric stash, as well as buying some needles for working with knits and finding the buttons for my Sweater Coat (which now has button bands, a collar, and shoulder seams, but no side or sleeve seams or buttons YET.)

Here's some of my fabrics:

Two potential jacket fabrics:

(sorry about the blurry picture, I was going fast with the pictures as I had so many to take - it's also a nice true red, not coral as it looks like here)

(this one is like a dark burgundy)

And some possibilities for the knit wrap dress:

If you click into the other pictures in the set that those are in, there's also some other knit remnants I picked up in the "remnant room" that I could use for tops (1-1/2 yard pieces) and two knit remnants that were only a half a yard but I thought I could use them for a sarong as a coverup for a plain black swimsuit. I couldn't pass them up, even though I wasn't 100% sure what I'd use them for, as they were a DOLLAR each.

I am really EXHAUSTED today. I did have to work today, so no knitting today except for a few rounds on Wicked at lunch. I worked on about five of my WIPs over the weekend and ripped the cabled purse to repurpose the wool for a vest for Aunt Vicki, as she loves that yarn and color. Too much going on for this post to show WIPs, but I'll try to do it tomorrow or the next day. I also practiced my invisible zipper application and I think I'm about ready to put it into my red/black skirt that I'm working on to go with Wicked (besides cutting out all the muslin pieces for my jacket on Friday night.)

Right now, I think I'm actually too tired to knit (!!!) so I'm going to bed.