Yarn Crawl

Half-&ss Weekend Update

I got SO much done this weekend, more along the cleaning/organizational lines than the knitting lines, but there was that as well. There are no pictures, so I classify this as a very half-&ss update. I also still owe you pictures of the two sewing projects I finished last week. I didn't wear them yet, so I didn't have a chance to get pictures. Later this week I definitely will be though!

So here's what I did, that I didn't take pictures of:

- I reorganized my yarn and fabric closet so that yarn's on one side, and fabric's on the other. I actually was able to clear out a number of plastic boxes (that I keep both yarn and fabric in) so I even have room for MORE (fabric) stash. Just kidding, although Vogue Fabrics is doing a 30% off their already low prices sale starting the end of this week, and also a 30%, 40%, 60% off sale in December. I could get knits for like $1.50 a yard, so my resolve to knit and sew from stash may be seriously challenged. There's no more room for yarn on that side of the closet, so I'm safe there. If I don't have room to stash it, I can't buy it.

- Did a ton of laundry and reorganized Jim's clothes. He is moving out of our MBR walk-in closet as I'm going to put all my sweaters that were in our guest room bureaus in there instead, so all my clothes are in one place. The next phase is to donate things that aren't "soul-stirrers", as Tim Gunn would say. I want to love everything in my closet, and now I can see just how possible that is with sewing and knitting.

- Put hems on two dresses, made another NL 6429 mock wrap dress, this time with a tie, but had to take it in so will be making a size down (I've come to the conclusion that pattern size 10 - like a 6 in RTW - is the right size for me to sew in knits almost all the time. The wrap dress said it had a finished bust measurement of 34 for the "12" - which is supposed to fit a figure of 34-26-36, which is still a couple inches off from mine - so I had thought I was safe with that size. I need to make the 10, which has only a 32.5" finished bust measurement, given how much I took in on the wrap dress in the "12" to make it flattering.)

- Worked on that sweaterbabe.com cowl sweater and finished the cowl and the short rows for the back neck. Now working on raglan shaping.

- Worked on Baby Cables and Big Ones Too and am on round 60 - finishing up the last round on Cable chart C. I will be separating off the sleeves in 12 more rounds.

- Jim cleaned out/reorganized the garage so that now we can fit BOTH cars in it, plus the motorcycle, the riding mower, and the snow blower. This is pretty good considering it's only a 2 1/2 car garage. I was SO PROUD of him. He did an amazing job.

- Other than that? Went out to dinner a few times - nowhere special, just our hangouts - Holy Mackerel for an oyster sampler, and Finley Grill last night.

And how was YOUR weekend?

It's a Sickness!!

Pattern collecting, that is!! I have serious addiction. I am in the middle of reorganizing my yarn and fabric closet - it looks much better but still needs some work. The amount of yarn is slowly dwindling, but the fabric is beyond all control. It's almost 50-50 fabric-yarn right now. So what did I do? Why -hit the Vogue pattern sale, of course! Of course I need to stash new patterns in order to sew up all the fabric - I even bought patterns for wovens, as I realized just how many of those I have accumulated. It seems like more constructed styles are coming back in style anyway, so the timing is right. I still love my knits and bought some patterns for those, but it wasn't ALL knits like it has been in the past.

So here goes - these are my purchases (hover over the picture if you want the pattern #:)

This one is for wovens and the red version in the middle is an exact knock-off of a dress my co-worker was wearing the other day that was TDF:

Now a knit fabric one - I have a charcoal gray sweater knit that will rock the long sleeve version of this:

The next one may immediately appear matronly and mother-of-the-bride-ish in the long version, but I think it has a lot of possibilities in the short version, in the right fabric - I'm thinking a silk dupioni or lightweight suede!

This one is cruisewear - for wovens - maybe crepe back satin or charmeuse for this, definitely the short version!

A nice understated dress for work, for knits - I like the empire wrap-V neck shaping without a gather-y bottom half:

Va-va-voom, cruisewear!! I like the version on the far right:

Another work dress, for wovens:

This one lists wovens as the suggested fabrics but also lists matte jersey - I would do a less-stretchy matte jersey for this one - another work dress in the long sleeve version (and BTW, what does that illustration show in the model's hand on the right - looks dominatrix-y, like a whip! I looked at the actual pattern envelope and I guess she is supposed to be leaning against a ledge of some kind, but it sure looks like a whip in the online picture!)

and of course, the grand finale - a knit standby - this will be gorgeous!

Stalking the Central Park Hoodie

Lately it seems like the Central Park Hoodie has been popping up a lot on people's blogs/queues, and somehow I have become obsessed with knitting it, modified to my liking.

Here's what I want to do to it:

1.) knit the back and two fronts in one piece to the armholes
2.) short row the shoulder shaping so I can three-needle-bindoff the shoulder seams
3.) pick up around the armscye and knit the sleeves top down
4.) possibly put in a zipper - I know I don't want buttons
5.) either eliminate the hood or do it the way Turtlegirl did hers

I'm also debating about the sizing. If I knit the 36 with the needles I got gauge on (7s) I would have between 1-1.5 inches of positive ease, which may be alright for this sweater the way it was originally intended and would work with the zipper idea. If I knit the 32 (also with the 7s) I'd be wearing it open. I can do a 32 in pullovers but in cardigans that are supposed to close it's more iffy. Another option would be to knit the 32 on needles that will yield about a 34 (8s) and I could either do the zipper or wear it open. Still deciding...I considered knitting it in pieces, the way it's written, which would make each piece go fast, but I know I'll procrastinate sewing those seams at the end and won't enjoy the process. I think it will go pretty quick anyway.

I've narrowed it down to Brooks Farm Riata from stash, but am trying to decide on a color.

I have either a wine color

or

a warm pink (but I already have an Ariann made out of the red version of this yarn and it may be too similar)

for solids (I've eliminated a plain medium blue from consideration for this as I think it will be too "matchy" with jeans) and two variegated options -

either blue/green (crappy pre-DSLR pic)

and rose/violet mix (other not so crappy pre-DSLR pic)

I know variegated wouldn't normally be a choice most people would make, but I think it could look cool, especially the one with the blue and green as it would really pop with jeans.

What do you think?

Gratuitous political content: YAY OBAMA!

Weekend Frenzy!

I don't even know where to begin on the weekend - I guess at the beginning!!

Friday I wore the cowl neck sweater-knit dress (Butterick 5246) to work and got Jim to take pictures when we got home:

We got more trick-or-treaters than usual (which is not too many) and Gildie was watching them out the window:

Gilda: "What are those crazies doing out there, FatKat?"

Later, our neighbors on one side of us, who are in at least their 60s, came by dressed up, with wine glasses in their hands to trick or treat. I tried to give them a refill on their wine, but they said they had already been going door to door. This was pretty funny.

That night I also finished up a knit dress with a ruched center panel that I'll wear and show pictures of later this week. It turned out really cute, after hibernating in a bag for a few months.

On Saturday, I hit the Butterick pattern sale at Jo-Ann's and got these - all for knit fabrics except the coat pattern.

This will be great for a cruise or holiday party dress:

As well as these:

This one would be great in a nice print (from stash) for work:

And I love the shape of this coat - I have a few other coats that are shaped like this and I love them:

I then sewed up another New Look 6648 top (with the ruched band at the bottom) and will show that one also later this week - probably Friday. I did a different coordinating color on the bottom of it for the band as I didn't have enough fabric - it looks intentional though, not like a screw-up. I sewed it to wear to the AC/DC concert with Jim and his friends, as one of his friends had to work at the last minute and couldn't go. (Sorry, Heather - it was at like 2 pm that Saturday.) I ended up not wearing it for that, and wore my wild Harley shirt with the mesh tattoo sleeves instead. I think I've shown that on here a long time ago. My right ear is still kind of "off" after that concert (thanks, Jim, for whistling so loud you practically shattered my eardrum!) and I'm hoping it gets better soon. At least the ringing in my ears has stopped now. No more concerts for awhile, although it was fun.

Sunday (yesterday) - I decided in the morning to cast on a miniature Clapotis. I know, I can't believe I drank the Kool-Aid and finally made one of these. For some reason I had become obsessed with finding a pattern for my ribbon yarns in stash, and decided to make a miniature one out of two skeins of Berroco Zen. I finished it the same day, later that night:

I made notes in Ravelry on how I went about doing it so that I could maximize the two skeins of Zen while getting it to turn out the right shape. This was a lot of fun to knit though. I just felt like making something purposeless and quick, and I'm happy with how it turned out. I think it would be even nicer in a softer, shinier ribbon yarn like K1C2 Tartelette - I love that yarn.

Well, that is it. More sewing FOs to show later this week...hope everyone had a great weekend!!