The last Saturday of every month, Yardage Town discounts 30% off everything. This makes it a VERY GOOD day to get things like thread, muslin, buttons, and ZIPPERS. Today I bought 27 of them, for making future notions bags.
The Hedgehog bag sold IMMEDIATELY yesterday, and I made another and sent it to Clever Knits with mom today. Lexi LOVES the hedgehogs; she said that she wanted an entire wardrobe made with the hedgehog fabric. I kind of agree. I've been VERY tempted to make the cap-sleeve-dress version of the Lotus top. Would that not be effing adorable with tiny hedgehogs all over it? I just worry about whether I am too old to own a brightly coloured hedgehog dress. Hrm.
I also have another darling owls fabric (totally forgot about it before!) which will be turning itself into more notions bags in the near future!
FO: Lotus Cami
I made this DARLING blouse:
from this DARLING owly fabric:
The pattern is the Lotus Tunic and Cami by Amy Butler. This pattern is pretty awesome, and I plan to make several more of it, with variations. I love that it comes from blouse to dress length, and that it has options for cap sleeves or without. I expect I can easily get 4 garments out of it (2 blouses - one with sleeves and this one without - and 2 dresses). This is my first foray into sewing "real clothes" (skirts don't count, they're so effing easy), and I'm incredibly pleased with the results.
I did make a few rather critical modifications to the pattern:
First and foremost, I did not do any of the buttony nonsense up the back. Who needs a blouse that buttons up the back?? I'm sure it would be adorable, but seriously, that's a lot of effing work and extra weight for a summery cotton blouse. Also it only took about 1.5 yds of fabric for the entire thing (vs the nearly 3 yds called for in the pattern), so that was GREAT news.
I made the XL size, which said it's for a 42" bust, so I took a little over 1" out of the bust, since mine is 40-41". This came out of the center front panel. I didn't take anything out of the waist, though I probably could have, but I like my garments to be loose around the middle because that is where I carry most of my excess weight (the L is a 39" which would have been a little tight in the waist as well as the bust).
I also altered the neckline of the blouse, so that the lines were not quite so curved from the neck up to the shoulder. I still wish the neck were a wee bit wider, but this works just fine.
One alteration I still need to make: lowering the armholes. Those things are so freaking high, and I hate high armholes. This shirt feels like it is choking my armpits. If not for that one problem, it's a PERFECT fit. This should be a fairly easy task, so I'm none too worried.
from this DARLING owly fabric:
The pattern is the Lotus Tunic and Cami by Amy Butler. This pattern is pretty awesome, and I plan to make several more of it, with variations. I love that it comes from blouse to dress length, and that it has options for cap sleeves or without. I expect I can easily get 4 garments out of it (2 blouses - one with sleeves and this one without - and 2 dresses). This is my first foray into sewing "real clothes" (skirts don't count, they're so effing easy), and I'm incredibly pleased with the results.
I did make a few rather critical modifications to the pattern:
First and foremost, I did not do any of the buttony nonsense up the back. Who needs a blouse that buttons up the back?? I'm sure it would be adorable, but seriously, that's a lot of effing work and extra weight for a summery cotton blouse. Also it only took about 1.5 yds of fabric for the entire thing (vs the nearly 3 yds called for in the pattern), so that was GREAT news.
I made the XL size, which said it's for a 42" bust, so I took a little over 1" out of the bust, since mine is 40-41". This came out of the center front panel. I didn't take anything out of the waist, though I probably could have, but I like my garments to be loose around the middle because that is where I carry most of my excess weight (the L is a 39" which would have been a little tight in the waist as well as the bust).
I also altered the neckline of the blouse, so that the lines were not quite so curved from the neck up to the shoulder. I still wish the neck were a wee bit wider, but this works just fine.
One alteration I still need to make: lowering the armholes. Those things are so freaking high, and I hate high armholes. This shirt feels like it is choking my armpits. If not for that one problem, it's a PERFECT fit. This should be a fairly easy task, so I'm none too worried.
Arm splints?
I've been knitting so much that my tendonitis and carpal tunnel are KICKING MY ASS. I even got shin splints in my arms (would you call those arm splints?) from all the knitting.
In the past weeks it's gone from bad to worse to much better and then awful again. The last few nights I've been wearing my thergonomic glove to sleep in because it hurts so much it keeps me awake at night.
But the result of all this pain is AWESOME knitted objects. Most recently, Clever Knits' KAL for July, Annis from Knitty:
I'm a little disappointed with how this came out. It's lovely, and all my gripes are a result of my own failed pattern modifications.
I used a MUCH smaller needle size (5s instead of 8s) Because I didn’t want the shawl to be so O P E N as it is in the pattern. Also sea silk stretches. A lot. So I figure it’ll open up in time. But, great failing: the shawl is about half as big as it should be. No big surprise there, since the needle size I used is about half as big as the one they recommend, heh. My shawl is about 8” at its deepest point (it should be 16”). So it’s a teeny tiny Annis. An itty bitty little shawlette rather than a full-on shawl. And that's okay, like I said, it's just not quite what I envisioned when I started the project.
It’s also a wee bit crooked, because I didn’t count my number of stitches before starting the short rows. Or maybe I messed up the short rows. I'm not sure, but I’m gonna blame the short rows, since me and the short rows don’t so much get along anyway. The good news is, the crookedness is virtually indiscernible (especially when the shawl is being worn), so it's not a critical error. This is good news because it is going to be a gift.
The shawl used 57g of yarn, which means I have just under half a skein (43g) of sea silk left. I have NO FREAKING CLUE what to make with the remaining 43g of sea silk.
If I make another Annis, I will use dk or worsted yarn & larger needles (the 8s and 10s recommended in the pattern). Also, I will likely eliminate the nupps cos they’re virtually invisible in the Sea Silk, though that seems to be a failing of the yarn rather than of the pattern, since other completed shawls have looked just lovely with their nupps all in place.
A few tricks with working nupps: they are easier to make if you do them loosely, but they show up more if you do them tightly. Connundrum, no? Lexi suggested a brilliant tip which has helped lot: instead of purling 7 together, sl 4 sts p-wise, p3tog, pass 4 slipped sts over one at a time, and do all of this with a teeny tiny DPN, size 1 or 2. Makes the whole nupp-making process MUCH less painful.
In the past weeks it's gone from bad to worse to much better and then awful again. The last few nights I've been wearing my thergonomic glove to sleep in because it hurts so much it keeps me awake at night.
But the result of all this pain is AWESOME knitted objects. Most recently, Clever Knits' KAL for July, Annis from Knitty:
I'm a little disappointed with how this came out. It's lovely, and all my gripes are a result of my own failed pattern modifications.
I used a MUCH smaller needle size (5s instead of 8s) Because I didn’t want the shawl to be so O P E N as it is in the pattern. Also sea silk stretches. A lot. So I figure it’ll open up in time. But, great failing: the shawl is about half as big as it should be. No big surprise there, since the needle size I used is about half as big as the one they recommend, heh. My shawl is about 8” at its deepest point (it should be 16”). So it’s a teeny tiny Annis. An itty bitty little shawlette rather than a full-on shawl. And that's okay, like I said, it's just not quite what I envisioned when I started the project.
It’s also a wee bit crooked, because I didn’t count my number of stitches before starting the short rows. Or maybe I messed up the short rows. I'm not sure, but I’m gonna blame the short rows, since me and the short rows don’t so much get along anyway. The good news is, the crookedness is virtually indiscernible (especially when the shawl is being worn), so it's not a critical error. This is good news because it is going to be a gift.
The shawl used 57g of yarn, which means I have just under half a skein (43g) of sea silk left. I have NO FREAKING CLUE what to make with the remaining 43g of sea silk.
If I make another Annis, I will use dk or worsted yarn & larger needles (the 8s and 10s recommended in the pattern). Also, I will likely eliminate the nupps cos they’re virtually invisible in the Sea Silk, though that seems to be a failing of the yarn rather than of the pattern, since other completed shawls have looked just lovely with their nupps all in place.
A few tricks with working nupps: they are easier to make if you do them loosely, but they show up more if you do them tightly. Connundrum, no? Lexi suggested a brilliant tip which has helped lot: instead of purling 7 together, sl 4 sts p-wise, p3tog, pass 4 slipped sts over one at a time, and do all of this with a teeny tiny DPN, size 1 or 2. Makes the whole nupp-making process MUCH less painful.
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