A little late in posting but I had a great month for sewing in January. Here are my three favorites and a gallery of all the rest.
Simplicity 8640 – This was my first Big4 pattern. It was a lot of fun to make and I love the dress. The maximum size it come in is B50W44H52, although of those, only the bust measurement is really limiting. I made this with Robert Kaufman Brussels Washer Linen in Eggplant. It is drapey and presses so well and is a dream to sew. LOVE IT.
2. Sew House Seven Free Range Slacks – I made these in linen I purchased from Fabric Wholesale Direct. It is a nice quality linen. These pants were such a delightful sew. Highly recommend the pattern! The maximum size corresponds to a hip measurements of 65″.
3. Style Arc’s Nina Cardigan – This was a wearable toile for this pattern but I love it so much that I wear it most days. It’s a super quick sew and I feel so stylish wearing it. Maximum bust 58″, hip 61″.
Another finished hand-knit item. This one might look like a poncho, but the designer has made it quite clear that it is absolutely NOT a poncho, nor is it a crotch pointer. It wears more like a cowl so I’m not going to make a big point of it. I love to do knit-a-longs, especially with my friends. Often, around knitting festivals there is a popular pattern that many people want to make. Or sometimes there’s one that just my group wants to make. Either way, I am motivated to finish that project and share the result with my friends.
The pattern is Magical Thinking by Casapinka. The yarn is a lovely blend of wool, cashmere, and silk made by Spirit Trail Fiberworks, who unfortunately are no longer in business. The colorways I chose are: scrimshaw, solace, and vortex.
I am pleased with how the “not poncho” came out. The yarn is silky and drapey but also nice and warm, my favorite for something worn by my face.
In 2 months, this would have been called the 5-year sweater. I checked and I started knitting this lovely on January 5, 2015. Why did it take so long? Well, there are a few reasons for that. Some have to do with technical issues with the sweater – namely that it requires seaming and I really detest seaming. (Kind of weird since I love to sew, but it really is different.) The major problem, though, is that I am a much bigger fan of starting projects than finishing them.
This sweater marks a change in my knitting. I had mostly done small projects before this one. It was actually the first sweater I started. Since then I have completed four or five others. None of the others required seaming.
For those of you that may be interested, this is a custom fit pattern from Amy Herzog called Courant. These patterns are really great because you put in your exact measurements and your gauge(!) and it gives you the number of stitches and rows to make a sweater just for you. You have to make a large swatch like I have shown below so that you are sure of the gauge. That’s a good idea anyway. I once heard a teacher say that we always make swatches – sometimes they are small ones before starting a project and sometimes they are full sweater sized! I don’t swatch for shawls because why would I, but for sweaters I do. I have a pretty loose gauge (I use size zero for socks…) so it’s important. And, it really does fit perfectly even though it’s been 4 years since I started.
I do think I will add a couple of inches to the length. I wasn’t sure how to do that because the bottom is a cast on edge, and I really didn’t necessarily want the ribbing section to be lengthened, but of course some other knitter has figured this all out for us. Several lovely generous knitters have put up YouTube videos and here is the one that I think I will use.
The yarn is Malabrigo Rios, colorway Cumparsita. To demonstrate how long ago I started, at that time, I didn’t know that with tonal yarn you really need to alternate skeins so that you don’t have an obvious difference when you change skeins. So the back is kind of weird, but I don’t see that, do I? Good lesson! Also, I seem to have two full skeins leftover so I can make a hat and mittens to match if desired. I have gotten better with yarn purchasing over the years.
I am so happy that I finally finished this sweater. It’s so warm that it’s really only for the truly cold weather but I will be happy to wear it then. Hopefully it won’t take me another four years to lengthen it!
Socks for me that match the ones I made for Jimmy. Yarn is from Knit picks, their Felici sock yarn, Auggie colorway. While this yarn is inexpensive, and very soft, remember you’ll likely need to buy 2 skeins for each pair as they are just 218 yard each. I need a bit more than that for my socks.
