is it an addiction?

When you make something you know you won't like, with yarn you don't like, in a color you don't like, just so you can knit?

Strange, yes.  I won a prize basket at the Rhode Island Yarn Crawl last year (pretty cool!) so I've had 5 skeins of purple Berroco Vintage DK and the pattern booklet for the Shibuya pattern on hand for a while.  However, I was really unhappy with Berroco Vintage when I used it for Kaari (it pills and fuzzes a lot) and I don't really wear short sleeve sweaters (it seems like an oxymoron) and I don't like the color purple very much.

So I cast it on a few times then pulled it out because I knew I wouldn't like it.  But then last month I guess I just wanted to plow through my stash and see what happens.  There is nothing wrong with this pattern - just something wrong with me.  This is a really nice pattern actually, I made no modifications, it knit up quickly, and I love that you don't block it to keep the texture.

It took me forever to style this, and the shirt ripped when I put it on!  Boo.  I think I would like this paired with something mint though (which I don't own), so I'm not going to give up on it.

oh my goodness.

 I'm in love.  Meet Cecil and Kobo.

 

garbo hat

I tried to take pictures that didn't include my face, but that's difficult with a hat. 

This is the Garbo Hat, a tutorial by annekata.  Look, we used the same fabric! [I think] This tutorial was super easy - I used a 12" frying pan to trace my circle.  I love hats, but I really don't like most trendy ones, so this one was perfect.  I can't pull it off like Garbo herself, but I still like it!

It's lined with one of my favorite linens, but truthfully I'm not crazy about it as the lining.  I did sort of a blind stitch at the upper brim seam to keep the lining in place because it kept peeking out.

So, I have to say at this point my lack of ironing has become a personal trademark.  Sometimes I'm lazy or sometimes I iron but then sit down - but a wrinkled hat?  That's just impressive.

chloe

The reason I've been AWOL:

I've talked about pushing myself more with sewing, both with technique and trying new colors and designs.  Soo... a fully lined princess seam dress with pockets!  The pattern is Chloe and the fabric choice was a result of roaming around G Street fabrics in mid-July with a $50 Groupon that was going to expire in a matter of days and the fabric selection was WIPED OUT.  I loved this gray wool and the combination of red and gray, but I don't have anything remotely like this in my closet.  Tights, shoes, cardigan - I have no idea how I'm going to style this one.

The whole time I was a little insecure about the color combination but I felt like I should go for it because something drew me to it in the first place.  I was worried it would be a little too Judy Jetson (what is with me and the Hanna-Barbera throwbacks?) but I like it.

Notes:

• I used the lining as my muslin (aHA!  Yet another muslin avoided!) and learned that I needed a bigger size in the hips.  For the shell (this is crazy), I taped the little sliver of the size 8 back on the hips, and tapered it back up to the size 6 at the waist.  This thing fits perfectly.

• Uh, I need to remember that you are 5'10" and I need to remember before I cut the pattern.  I only hemmed an inch and did my grandmother's technique of sewing on a strip of seam tape and then hand stitching that as an extension of the hem.  It's a little short (!)

• I left off the buttons. There were supposed to be three along each seam line on the chest, and one on each pocket welt.

• I LOVE how the pockets are sewn on (attached to each garment piece separately, and then sewn together as one continuous seam when the garment pieces are stitched together)  I realize this is probably how all pockets are sewn, but I never knew that!  This is why I'm trying to learn new things.

I've never made a princess seam dress before, I love it, but it is a little constricting because it is so fitted.  I am really pleased with Victory Patterns and they just released a bunch of new patterns - sign me up!

 And now this is going in my fall wardobe stash...

sometimes i make other things

Knitting and sewing top the list, but I think I like making things in general.

Now, to call my gardening making things might be a little egotistical, but I did help the little guys out, planting, watering, talking, ogling.  I get a little obsessed with the garden.  We've gotten some good stuff this year!

A melon?! We didn't know what would happen with these.

 Isn't his little face cute?

33 little tomatoes! These and the basil behind them were homemade sauce tonight. I make sauce too!

 These suckers were even bigger than they look in this picture!  One became zucchini bread tonight.

A few other things homemade this summer...

pasta from scratch...

a haircut...

and a failed attempt to make liquid soap from a bar of soap...

Speaking of my recent compulsion to confess my failures - I was super-excited because Tessuti Fabrics asked to post my kooky gabby on their blog!  And I kept checking and checking (I'm not even going to lie and say I tried to play it cool) and I never saw it.  Turns out they posted a link on their facebook page, and it came and went.  Oh well.  I guess not a failure, I should be glad it was facebook-worthy (although I hate facebook?), but I was kind of bummed.
[Update:  Guess what!  Tessuti did post my dress!!  Check it out here!]

let's pretend...

...it's fall.

I'm all set with summer. I don't hate summer, but I love fall the most and the heat has overstayed it's welcome. 

Soo... I'll start with Muir, which I started a year and a half ago! This was kind of an in-between projects project and I'm going to miss knitting it.

I used three skeins of  DROPS Alpaca, CO 93 st instead of 125, doing 2 pattern repeats instead of 3, and only 8 repeats of the whole chart - this is much smaller than the original pattern.  For the BO I was running out of yarn, so I BO 3 st between each picot instead of 2. I still ran out of yarn and had to snip a tail from another end to do the last dozen stitches or so!  I really have a knack for taking it to the last inch of yarn.



So, there it is, you will be seeing no more summer productions from me. Truthfully, I have always disliked most summer clothes and I LOVE fall clothes, the colors, sweaters, jeans, boots, scarves, all of it [add:  LAYERS!  I love layers.  My favorite part of fall clothes].  

And you know what I'm going to do? As I make each piece, I'm going to pack it away, one by one, in a nice little box and I'm not going to look at it again. Come October (because we all know September is not fall down here) it will be like a birthday present/Christmas/fall shopping surprise! Oh my goodness. I can't wait.

[A commenter made me think of a tip for anyone knitting this project - to be able to find where I left off, I placed a safety pin on the first picot of every chart repeat, that way I could just count picots to where I left off]

Note to self when blocking lace: keep it pretty wet because by the time you've got all the wires and pins set up, it is dry and still scrunched up.

not feelin' it

Ok.  So I'm trying to be a little more honest about my blog posting and not try to only post the good stuff.  Sooo many blogs looks so perfect (I am not naive enough to think mine looks perfect - take a look around) and I know many others share my feelings of annoyance and/or ineptitude when we browse these.  The point of this blog was for me to learn, so I have to learn from mistakes.

I'll be honest about this though, taking pictures of mistakes is boring and annoying and that is surely a barrier to posting.

I had grand plans for how these would turn out.  I pictured something that looked a little inside-out, deconstructed, disdressed to go with the soft, nubbiness of this gorgeous yarn.

Yuck.  These are just not what I was picturing.

My knitting usually turns out pretty well from patterns, but when I try to go my own with a design, it just doesn't work yet.  These will be promptly frogged but I'm not sure what they will turn into yet.  Because of the price I only have two 70 yard skeins.

This one probably has more hope, but since I really don't like summer clothes, my enthusiasm for finishing this is waning.  I used this tutorial, and I love the ribbon I made from the fabric, but other than that, I'm not so crazy about the fabric.  I tried to double layer it since it's so sheer, and then silly me, put the under-layer seams on the wrong side.  Then the armhole is funny.  And now it's getting funnier when I try fix the seams.  Avalanche here.

Blah.  I think what this means is that unless I'm going to love the finished product enough to work through the flaws, don't even bother.  I think I just wanted to try this tutorial and grabbed whatever fabric I've had on hand forever.