Yarn Crawl

Knitting FO: Mirth Shawl

As I mentioned maybe a month ago, I have been branching out into other categories of knitting lately. One such category is that of the top down raglan shawl. I made two of these recently, both from designs by one of my favorite designers, Stefanie Japel (of Fitted Knits fame.)

Here's one of them finished - the Mirth shawl. What I particularly love about these shawls is that you can knit them with any weight of yarn and customize them to exactly the yardage of yarn that you have. In other words, a fantastic stash-optimizing project.

I made this one with one great skein of sock yarn that I got in a secret pal exchange. My pal, who hand dyes yarn for her label "CraftsMeow", hand-dyed this yarn and gifted it to me in one of the rounds of Secret Pal. As I historically have not been a sock knitter, I held on to the yarn, waiting for the perfect project for it. Well, enter this pattern!

Pattern: Mirth by Stefanie Japel
Size: DK weight instructions and needles, but used sock yarn instead

Yarn: CraftsMeow Soft Serve in "Ariel's Choice" (400 yards - I used almost every bit of it)

Conclusion: Love it! This was a lot of fun to make and only took a few weeks. It was also a really nice portable project for the train.

Two Days in a Row - Kwik Sew 3542

I can't believe I'm blogging two days in a row! I guess it felt good to be back in touch with everyone again.

Here is an outfit I made for the ASG's Dress a Joplin Child for the First Day of School initiative. I really enjoyed making this pattern. I may even actually (gasp) write a pattern review later!

Pattern: Kwik Sew 3542

Size: L (girls' size 10) - same as McKenna - I plan to make her a few of these for Christmas and then cut it down to a M to make a few for her younger sister Mia

Mods: I eliminated the "modesty panel" triangle as it had to be attached with a snap on the inside and I thought it looked kind of goofy. She can wear a cami or T-shirt under it if it's an issue, which I'm not sure it would be at this age (at least it wasn't for me then!) I also coverstitched the bottom hem instead of doing a single stitched hem, and did a rolled hem on the sleeves. Originally I had planned to just serge finish the sleeve edges as per the pattern and then turn them under and stitch, but my machine was accidentally already set on rolled hem mode and I also liked the way it looked so decided to leave it as is. I think the black hems cohesively tie the black background of the main fabric to the contrast hot pink tie-dye fabric.

front with ties hanging

front, tied in back

back

flat, on the table (a little blurry)

Verdict: I really enjoyed making this pattern. It was fun and easy to follow, and I liked that as with many Kwik Sew patterns, they have a very nice way to finish the insides as well as the outsides, for example I liked the treatment of the contrast bands. I felt it made the bands solid enough to look very professionally finished. I also liked that it only took me one evening - I started it at about 5 pm on the 4th of July and finished it by about 9 pm.

Yet Another B5147 Sheath Dress...

I realized I hadn't shown a photo of one of the B5147 sheath dresses I made that I happen to be wearing today. Here it is, sans sweater. I'm wearing it with and without the sweater throughout the day depending on what I'm doing/who I'm meeting with. I also decided to leave my new comfy Ecco leather flipflops on that I walked from the train in, at the encouragement of my friend/coworker/photographer JoAnn.

Something's off about the fit on this one - this is one of the earlier ones I made (actually the first one I made tapering the bottom) and I think I messed something up on either the seam allowances around the waist to hip or the fisheye darts, but it's wearable and comfortable.

New Sewing FO: New Look 6935

I decided to try a new pattern this weekend with some cotton I bought and it is very wearable for a wearable muslin!

Pattern: New Look 6935
View: A without the ribbon
Modifications: cut the smallest size at the shoulders and neckline and my usual NL pattern size everywhere else, did a larger scale rolled hem instead of a traditional hem, used an invisible zipper instead of a lapped zipper

Modifications for next time: will use 1" seam allowances on the shoulder seams instead of 5/8", will do small back neck darts to avoid having the back neck stand away from my body, may fully line inside instead of just following the pattern and lining the bodice

Verdict: love it! I can see myself making more of these, for sure.

With sweater - at work

Without sweater, not for work (though I could wear it to work if the bodice was just a little tighter/closer to my body)

Latest KS 3408 Short-Sleeved Wrap Dress

I made this over the weekend:

This is from my TNT Kwik Sew 3408 wrap dress pattern. I again used the rolled hem to finish all the edges, as shown by this closeup:

I also made a one-shoulder knit top (pics on my dressform are on Facebook), hemmed some jeans, and got about halfway through another summer knit top (pics to come.)

It was a productive weekend! Hope everyone had fun!

New B5147 with the Mood Fabric!!

Hi everyone, here is the newest B5147 dress I made with the suiting fabric from Mood that Carolyn picked out for me. I love it! This time I did 5/8" seam allowances on the side seams (instead of the 1/2" I did last time) as well as making the other adjustments I made before (basically cutting a 10 at the neckline and armholes and shortening from shoulder to bust and from waist to hip.) I think I am going to narrow the sides next time to be less A-line and more like the straighter version of this.

shown as I actually wore it to work, with a black silk sweater over it

close up

In other news, I got the new "express Keratin treatment" at my local salon and it has SO improved my hair texture. I didn't think I really needed it, but it makes my hair as smooth as if I flat ironed it (without flat ironing) and added so much shine. This version takes 45 minutes and lasts six weeks as opposed to the traditional kind which takes three hours and lasts three-six months. My salon gave me the treatment for free to thank me for being such a good customer (LOL, needing color touchups every three weeks will do that) and I am hooked now.

Knitting FO: Mock Turtle Pullover

Hello, everyone!! I haven't been doing too much sewing lately (though last night I started another B5147 sheath dress with the black pinstripe fabric that Carolyn helped me pick out at Mood) but I have been doing quite a bit of knitting. Having that time on the train every day has helped my knitting mojo immensely! The only thing that hampers my progress is when the project gets to the point where it's not super easy to carry around, at which point I cast on something else and work on the large project only at home.

Without further rambling, here's my latest (and new favorite) sweater:

Pattern: Mock Turtle Pullover, by Wendy Bernard - free on the Cascade web site - I knit the top-down seamless version, of course

Yarn: Plymouth Mushishi self-striping yarn - 95/5 wool/silk - that I bought at Wool & Company over the summer

Size: smallest (36") but my gauge was smaller so the finished measurement is about 34", which I planned on and worked out well

Mods: none except sleeve length!

This is so warm and soft, and will be perfect with jeans this upcoming Friday, or with a black skirt during the week. I haven't decided which day I want to wear it yet -I'm leaning toward tomorrow with a black skirt though!

I'm glad that the neckline blocked to the right size as it looked extremely small and traditional-turtleneck-like (which I don't care for) while I was knitting it (though I did wash it "mid-stream" right after doing the neck to make sure it wouldn't be too small.)

Though I've already cast on another sweater (more to come on that one soon) here's a project I'm currently stalking - what are your thoughts on this one?

The project is Ginevra's Pullover by Amy Polcyn and it's knit top-down and seamlessly.

I would probably use the recommended yarns (the top is Malabrigo lace, the bottom is Malabrigo Twist, both in the same colorway - "Sunset" is shown) so that I could match them. Maybe I would even do the color shown but I was considering a sort of dark pink or red instead.

Happy Friday and Another Dress...

I'm not wearing this one today as we wear jeans on Fridays in my office, but here's another dress I made while on my week sew-cation:

Butterick 4976
size 8
fabric - ITY jersey, I think from Vogue Fabrics but I'm not entirely sure
Mods - added 3/8" to each side of neckline, shortened length, eliminated center piece of waist tie to shorten

I haven't worn it yet so you'll still see at least one thread hanging.

close-up of the fabric

Have a great weekend, everyone! I am off to N9Ne for lunch with one of our professional service providers, which I'm excited about as I haven't been there yet. The restaurant is one block from my office and we're doing a later-than-usual lunch.

First Up - Two Kwik Sew 3408 Wrap Dresses

I took all the FO pictures this morning (at about 8 am, when it wasn't fully light out so I had to play with the exposure a bit) but I decided to create separate posts throughout the week, just to keep things more interesting (and break up the time necessary to post all of this!)

Here are two Kwik Sew 3408 wrap dresses I made with two fabrics I bought when I was in New York at the end of August. I made them from my TNT pattern, so no new adjustments this time.

Note - on all of these FO posts you may see random threads hanging off the garments if I haven't worn them yet (I haven't worn many.) Rest assured they will be clipped before actually wearing!

Here's the one I wore on my first day of the new job last Monday -

The first, closer-up one shows the colors accurately:

On this one, I had to use a contrasting black tie as the original fabric was too flimsy to endure turning the ties and ripped twice. I had thrown out the scraps so I didn't have enough to make more, so I went with some plain black matte jersey for those. These pictures are really washed out b/c the originals were so dark, I had to brighten them up a lot.

On this closer-up one, the colors are more accurate:

In other news, I got an iPhone today! Let me just say, if you haven't upgraded to iTunes 10 yet, you're in for some fun (or at least I was.) I had been dreading upgrading b/c my computer tends to have issues with every major upgrade of iTunes, but in order to use the iPhone I was forced to be on the newest version, kicking and screaming.

Three hours later....the issue turned out to be around iTunes and QuickTime not removing the multiple messes it leaves behind every time it does an installation. Finally, I used the Windows Install Cleanup Utility (after searching around on help forums, etc.) and that finally did the trick. Simply using the Add/Remove programs section in Control Panel/Settings wasn't doing the job.

And now I understand that if you don't already have the Windows Install Cleanup Utility, it might be hard to get as Windows has now retired it due to it changing configuration of other programs (sounds like operator error to me...but anyway.) My iPhone is happily syncing now and the other iPods that live in the house have successfully been updated. It just wasn't something I planned on doing for basically the whole afternoon.

Knitting FO: Basic Chic V-Neck Cardi

As promised, I recently completed a knitting project and wore it to work yesterday. I got pictures after it became light outside, but before I had to dash out the door and here they are.

I used Malabrigo Rios yarn, and this is a wonderfully soft superwash yarn (it doesn't feel anything like superwash.) However, it also does not behave anything like superwash yarn - that is, it changes substantially when washed to become much more drapey and grows a bit too. I am A-OK with it for this project, as I saw the direction it was going and decided to instead block it to have longer fronts and more of a drapey, diaphanous shape in keeping with many layering cardigans I've seen of late. I really like it. I love the way that the variegation worked out - no skein alternating required.

Because of the shape, I decided to skip the snap at the bust that's called for by the pattern. So (with apologies to Bonne Marie for taking my own interpretation of her pattern) here are pictures - I will say that I'd like to make this again the way it was intended, with a non-drapey, tighter woven yarn.

And here's what it might look like closed at the bust - I can still sew on the snap, but it seems like maybe the fronts being longer doesn't look right.

All the Stats:

Pattern: Chic Knits Basic Chic V-Neck Cardi

Yarn: Malabrigo Rios in "Aguas"
Size: 34

Mods: none except sleeve length