Yarn Crawl

Cardigan Bay Jacket (In Progress Pic)

The picture's not so great (it's that fantastic Tess Cultivated Silk & Wool, held double, in a blue-violet shade) but it's documentation! Have to finish the first sleeve, do the second sleeve and make the collar/belt on Cardigan Bay Jacket. I am skipping the buttons and buttonholes but will pick up and make a buttonband-like edging. It will be a lot bigger after washing. It looks pretty tiny right now but that was intentional as the CS&W stretches/drapes a LOT when washed.

This previous picture of it shows the sheen and true color of the yarn:

I also finished the body on Rocky Coast Cardigan, but washed it after that to make sure the sizing was right after post-washing growth (it was) so no pictures yet. I plan to pick that right up again after it dries.

Other news:

- I have three more afghan squares to complete for the Sampler Afghan

- I made two more Simplicity 3775 v-neck dresses, after finally getting the sizing right in the upper body (no cami required! v-neck lies flat without indecent exposure!) after some pattern modifications. Pics of those to come at some point. My new trick on all patterns is to now cut the smallest size possible in the shoulders, neckline, and top of the cap sleeve - all the pieces that fit together (to shorten from shoulder to bust) and then cut my actual size for the rest of it. That is working fabulously without needing any other pattern adjustments and stuff fits perfectly on the first try when I do this, perfectly, and WAY better than any RTW garments EVER fit me.

- I used the pressure cooker again yesterday to make sausage with peppers and onions (FOUR minutes on high pressure, after using the Browning setting for three minutes to brown the sausages on each side with garlic and a little bit of olive oil) with polenta on the stovetop. It turned out great, which is super encouraging given that I never made any of these things before. Jim loved it too. It reminded him of his youth when his grandma used to make polenta (and I used the instant stuff which took three minutes. SHHH.) We had a lot left over and we flattened it out on a dinner plate, covered it and put it in the refrigerator to make as a future side dish this week in a pan or in the oven. NICE.

- I am in love with the pressure cooker. Seriously. It's so empowering! I was going to try making corned beef as we also had that in the freezer, along with the sausages, but the piece we had was 6.5 pounds and that was just too insane so we decided to wait until some event when we have people over at the house to help eat it.

NYC Fabric Purchases!

I'm 2 for 2 now with the blogging...thought I'd show the majority of my fabric purchases from our NYC shopping day (click here for a great account of our day from Elizabeth, if you haven't already read it). I have a few pieces that I don't have pictures of yet, as they arrived in the mail later, but here's the bulk of them.

I bought a lot of knits this time, because I've been buying wovens from the remnant room at Vogue for my sheath dresses. (BTW, I have given the sheath dresses a new life and look- I was previously just putting sweaters or jackets over them, but now I got the idea to layer 3/4 sleeve t-shirt tops under them. It looks really cool with tights and boots.)

First the knits from Elliott Berman - most of these are a supersoft rayon-ish jersey:

Then the wovens from Elliott Berman:

A great piece for a sheath dress or pencil skirt

Silk from EB

Knits from Metro Textiles:

Silk from Metro:

And the ITY jersey knits from Spandex House:

There are four more fabrics from EB that arrived later, and I hope to get pictures of those as soon as I unwrap them from the box. Quite a haul though overall!!

Long Overdue

Hi everyone,
long time no talk. I've been trying to cure a case of the blahs for the past few weeks so maybe blogging will do the trick.

I finally cured my blank wall problem in my office - framed my diplomas & certifications as well as a picture we took on our South American cruise of the Chilean fjords (our company has some operations in Chile so it's related. I couldn't bear to post snow pictures, which is what some other people have going on in their offices.) I have gotten some flak for the wall of diplomas from a few people, but too bad. If you read between the lines, I think it's pretty clear where my blahs are coming from....

One thing I'm pretty excited about is my new Cuisinart pressure cooker.

The idea of making real food in 70% less time was super attractive to me, and I used it to make ribs and potatoes on Sunday afternoon. 15.minutes to cook 4 pounds of ribs to the point of literally falling off the bone (seriously, I found a bone floating in the broth when I took the ribs out) and I recommend pressure cooking to anyone who wants to find a way to cook at home more, and not have to do a lot of pre-planning to do it.

You can make brown rice and (even unrinsed) beans in less than half the time, too. We put in two 8 oz russet potatoes in there - whole, with skins - and after 25 minutes, the skins slid right off. I will cook them five more minutes next time as the potatoes were sort of "al dente" but definitely an easy, quick way to go. I want to try no-stirring-required risotto next.

I've been knitting a lot and have way too many projects going on. I also bought about 30 pieces of fabric on my NYC shopping trip and I have most of the pictures taken but not all. A post for another day! Hopefully soon.

Epic Knitting

Over the weekend, I got motivated to start working on my long-time WIP/epic project of the Sampler Afghan from the cover of Melissa Leapman's Cables Untangled.

I counted up how many of the 26 pieces I still needed to knit and as of Sunday, it was 10. Since then I've finished the 2nd half of one I was working on and have gotten about 1/3 of the way through a new one.

Here's a picture of the one I worked on this morning on the train:

It does make for nice convenient train knitting, but I'm still ready to finish up. I think worst case I can be done in a month as the panels are going pretty quickly - about one every other day, I think. I had previously sewn together one of the six-panel squares to see how it looked, maybe earlier this year in the spring, so at least it's 1/4 sewn. We're not going to think about the edging that goes all around the blanket when it's done right now...

Why am I now so focused on finishing up this epic project that I started back in April 2009?

Because I want to start another epic project, of course!!

-Eunny Jang's Autumn Rose pullover, but in Knit Picks' "Aquatic" colorway with their "Palette" yarns (which I ordered on Sunday.)

and it would be good not to have two of those going at once!

NYC Shopping Day - Rescheduled to 9/17!

I had missed my NYC shopping day that was planned for a few weeks ago because of the hurricane. The good news is that Elizabeth was able to get Elliott Berman and Metro Textiles to open on September 17th for us instead.  AND I was actually able to get a full refund on my nonrefundable flight from a few weeks ago as it was cancelled, and actually found a less expensive flight.

So....maybe if August 27th wasn't such a good day for you, September 17th will work better and you can join us?? I'd love to see you there!

Here’s our planned schedule:

9:45am  Gather in front of Starbucks at 494 8th Ave (corner of 8th and 35th St).  Elizabeth will hand out maps of the garment district and we’ll split into 2 groups.

9:55am Each group will walk to either Metro Textiles (265 W 37th St, Ste 908, between 7th and 8th but closer to 8th) or Elliott Berman (225 W 35th St, #7, between 7th and 8th
but closer to 7th)

10:00am Shopping to commence!

11:00am Start having your fabrics cut

11:30am Leave for other store. If you started at Metro, go to Elliott Berman and vice versa

12:00pm Shopping!

1:00pm  Start having your fabrics cut

1:30pm  Finished at both stores

At this point, you can use your maps to shop at other fabric or trim stores in the district, have lunch or just go home. I look forward to seeing you all there!

New Knitting Project

I recently started Cardigan Bay Jacket from the new Fall issue of Interweave Knits. I'm using Tess Cultivated Silk & Wool held double with size 15s to get the chunky gauge, which is working out really nicely with the moss stitch as it has a silky sheen to it.

I love that it's knit seamlessly from the top down - always a great attribute in a pattern! I plan to skip the buttons but make the belt and belt loops to make it an opening layering piece.

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.

Substitute Fabric Shopping

Well, now that Irene has ruined our NYC fabric shopping plans for Saturday I had to take matters into my own hands and hit the Gorgeous Fabrics site.

I got two yards of each of the following - I'm back on a knit kick:

(rayon knit - I am hoping to everything holy that this is nothing like "slinky")

(sweater knit)

and a charcoal gray Italian crepe knit and a black double knit, as I haven't tried a nice quality double knit before and would like to.

I am going to try to be more consistent about the blogging again, so part of that means that my posts need to be shorter and less daunting to get through!

Talk soon!

Knitting Non-Sweaters, Pilates, Golf, and a new TNT (Vogue 1027)

Lately I have been up to a lot of different things!

First up I have been knitting non-sweaters - shawls (one down and it is GORGEOUS, just need to take a picture; another almost done) and I am even interested in making SMALL PROJECTS. What?? Who is this person? Life's too short not to change your mind about stuff.

Another new thing is Pilates. I have been doing it faithfully two to four times a week and even signed up for the unlimited membership. The Reformer is my friend. My abs and arms both have a lot more definition than they ever did. I always knew Pilates was good for the midsection, but the triceps are another happy beneficiary. YAY. I weigh the same thing (thanks to the wine, cashews, and avocado) but feel really great.

Golf. I signed up for one lesson with my pro, who I hadn't worked with in four or five years, and she turned me on to her new PDL - player development league - which I am doing on Sunday mornings with a great group of women. Now I have some other people to play with, and am consistently doing nine holes every week. We walk and pull our bags, so it actually is a pretty decent workout especially in the heat wave we've been having. AND I have been improving.

Evidence (of a sort) is below:

And now for the new TNT and the prompt for this post. I finally made myself a Vogue 1027 dress. The famous dress that was a top pattern of 2008, and I foolishly refused to sew. What a mistake that was - I am in LOVE with this pattern. First off, I sewed two of them yesterday afternoon in five hours. Second, after just one adjustment to the shoulder pattern, I was able to get a result that fits very well in the bodice without a cami - practically unheard of for v-neck wrap dresses, at least for me. Here it is.

First the pattern pic, in case you might have forgotten about this one:

I also discovered VersaSpa spray tanning - I like this way better than the Mystic (although that one has its time and place as well.) I like that this one is a more rosy color of tan. No need to sit in the sun when you can do this in five minutes flat. I like that this brand of spray tan booth dries you off after tanning so no streaks result.

And now for more words from our sponsors (sorry for the advertise-y post!! I just realized how it sounded!)

Next up, some finished shawls, and did I mention that I *LOVE* the new (fall - sorry Debby) issue of Interweave Knits? I even *ordered yarn* for a project.

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.