in between

I seem to find myself at an in-between point on several projects.

• I'm actually pretty close to finishing up the blue jacket! I got a nice chunk of sewing time yesterday, and so all I have left is one hand-stitched seam and 3 buttons to sew on. No pictures, because at this point I'd rather wait until it's done.
• Regarding the Onyx sweater: I still don't know what I did wrong. I spent a good chunk of the evening chatting online with my KAL-partner-in-crime tonight, and the solution we came up with involved cutting the yarn and treating the wrong side like it was the right side. Which worked really well in that it put the mistake stitches on the wrong side, and I was able to just knit an extra row to get back on track. Only problem is that once I got caught up, we went on to the first row of the next section, and where the instructions say to knit the reserved stitches for the back in the same row as the front, the back section is doing that exact same thing! So far, we're both having that issue. At this point, I might just purl all of that section instead, since I can't make heads or tails of it otherwise.
• I cut out the Butterick convertible dress today. I had to do a last-minute change of plans on this one. My mom gave me two pieces of fabric for my birthday specifically for this pattern, since I had no stashed pieces of knit that it would be ok to show the wrong side of. I was originally planning to go with the blue hemp jersey, but it was cut so crookedly that I basically lost a quarter-yard of fabric once I got the fold to lie flat. And since two of the three pieces were cut on the fold, that part was kind of important! So I went with the green rayon instead, and I'll have to come up with a fun top to make out of the hemp. Maybe some kind of Anthro-inspired embellished Renfrew... The dress should sew up pretty quickly, though, given that it's basically 4 seams, 3 edge finishes and a hem. The drape itself is left completely raw-edged, so other than getting it in the side seams, I don't even have to mess with that. It'll probably take me more time to get the serger rethreaded and the tension right than to sew the actual dress!
• I am reknititng my swatch for the knitted tee, purposely forcing myself to knit less tightly. It's a little early in the swatch to tell, but I think that the width may be good now. (So maybe what I can do is just knit more tightly on purpose when I hit around the waist, to give it some shaping!)

 I did also decide to go ahead and rework the dress I wore on Saturday a bit, which is essentially resulting in my taking a dart out of the bodice seam. I realized pretty quickly that it would actually be a lot easier for me to stitch the new side seam by hand than for me to undo the entire lining in order to get to it by machine. So I'm taking the opportunity to practice a couple of the stitches from my Couture Sewing Techniques book. The bottom row of stitching is my backstitch, since that's supposed to work the best for a strong, permanent seam....how am I doing?

I've also been playing around in the last couple of weeks with my croquis. And, well, I'm not sure how helpful this is! I was sketching out the pants and blouse combinations from two different Vogue patterns that I have, in order to help myself decide what to make with the charcoal denim and coordinating silky print I was given for Christmas. And, well, the pants on both just look awful in my sketch! So either this means that I took the picture at an oddball angle which apparently gives me more of the little teapot look (i.e. shorter and stouter), or maybe pants just don't work on me. At least the straight-legged ones. Isn't that supposed to be the cut that looks good on everyone? So I'm wondering if maybe I should ditch that idea altogether and go bootcut or something. (I am still kind of inclined to like the top in the middle sketch better out of the two options.)

At least it appears that my Beignet will look good.

Anyway, I'm hoping that maybe I'll have time to squeeze in that regular pair of pants shortly after the convertible dress and jeans, because I did sign up for Me-Made-May this year. Hopefully I won't totally flake like I did last March. I'll have been back to work longer, so hopefully that means I'll be more adjusted to the schedule and can squeeze in some photo-taking!

March in review

Since I'm doing the monthly round-up thing now, figured I'd start the new month off right! So here's how I did on my goals for March, as stated here....

#1: The Renfrew top--done, great pattern, will definitely use that again sometime.

#2: Finish knitting the Camille shrug--check. And since I had a request from my Onyx sweater partner-in-crime, I did get an action shot of it with the dress at the wedding (this was at the reception, in a side room of the church.) Overall, it worked very well with this dress that I'd originally envisioned it with. (Aside from some fitting issues in the dress bodice itself, which I'm now in the process of resolving since I was apparently too lazy to do it right the first time. Basically, I'm taking in the side seams above the black waistband, stitching it by hand because I have to take apart less of the lining than I would by machine. I need practice on handstitching anyway, right?)

p.s. The sleeves are actually full-length, I just had them pushed up in this picture since it ended up being a bit warmer than I'd anticipated.

#3: Reconstruct that brown suedecloth skirt. Check, although I still need to do something with the lining.

#4: The next step of the Onyx sweater. See previous post for the reason I didn't finish this. (I have a phone date with my KAL partner tomorrow to see if she can help me figure out what on earth I did wrong.)

#5: Blue corduroy jacket. It's not quite done, but it's getting close.

#6: Swatch for my Strafford Tee. I did actually do one earlier this week, and am now debating what to do--according to the swatch, I had about a stitch more per inch than I was supposed to. Which honestly doesn't seem like a big deal to me, and I might just go with it since I was trying to figure out how to incorporate some more fitting into it anyway. It looks like it's pretty loose at the waist.  So I guess this confirms that I am a too-tight knitter.Maybe I should just re-knit the swatch and try to relax a bit, since I'm actually using the right yarn for once...

Essentially, though, I got 4 out of 6 done, and the Onyx was pretty much due to circumstances beyond my control. Not too shabby at all!

So here are my goals for this month:

#1: Finish the blue corduroy jacket.

#2: Go through the Jean-ius class that I have from Craftsy. Which will hopefully result in a new, well-fitting pair of jeans!

#3: I'd like to get a quick project in between the jacket and the jeans, since they're both pretty detail-heavy projects (and that's been on my mind since reading Tasia's post last week about how long sewing projects should take.) I'm not entirely sure which one yet, but I'm thinking either Butterick 5606 or a reconstruction project. (I've decided to hold off on the knit shirt I already have cut out, since that's long-sleeved and it's increasingly unlikely that I'll get any use out of it in the next several months, by the time I finish. So I may just knock that one out later in the summer when my brain turns to thoughts of preparing for fall.)

#4: Get my Onyx sweater sorted out so I can continue that.

#5: Cast on my Strafford Tee.

#6: Finish putting my fabric swatches in their new notebook.

#7: Make one scrapbook page. Gotta start somewhere if I'm serious about getting myself back into this.

One last note: The patterns have all been claimed. Sarah and Muireann, I'll get those to you asap.

a case of the blues

 First of all, thanks for all of the lovely, encouraging comments on the shrug! The latest update there is that the sleeves are sewed together and it's back on the needles to knit the last bit of ribbing.

And thanks also for the feedback on the word verification. I did get a gentle reminder from a blog-less friend of mine who regularly comments that not all anonymous commenters are bad (at least the ones who leave a name and a real comment), and have since switched it to no word verification but full comment moderation so I could allow for that sort of anonymous commenting. I'm still a bit concerned that I've been getting extra pop-up windows since I initially turned the verification off, and I am still averaging about one spammy comment a day, but at least I can easily mark them as spam and delete them. (Carolyn, to answer your question, what I meant by the pop-up windows is that I'm getting additional open windows when I did not click on anything to bring them up. Usually it's more annoying, for things like Amazon.com (except I'm not sure it was legitimate, because I certainly did not open a page for baby clothes!), or for a "click here to claim your prize" type thing. I did get a pretty nasty one the other day, though, and so far my virus scans have turned up nothing other than tracking cookies. Gtt.)

Computer issues aside...Now that the shrug is almost complete, my attention is drifting to other knitting projects. Namely this sweater that one of my online friends and I are making as a mini-knitalong. And, as it turns out, I have a lot of new techniques to learn here. So far, it's been invisible cast-on, and short rows, and that's just on the first page! (And here I thought this would be easy because basically everything is in knit stitch with no purling!  And, of course, I've already had to start this one over once. We're taking this at a snail's pace since we both have real life stuff and other projects going on, so even though it represents about 60 rows, and a lot of them are short, it's a month's worth of work that I'm trying to redo here. The problem came with said invisible cast-on. When I joined it together and got to the end of the second section we'd decided on, I looked back and realized that oh, wait, this looks wrong. Instead of that nubby garter stitch look, suddenly it had a smooth stockinette look for about 3 rows right around where I did that invisible cast-on. So obviously, I did something wrong.  I attempted to stick the needle in right before that section started and rip back to there, but that didn't work so well. So I just decided to rip the whole thing out and start over, since those two sections didn't take me very long in actual knitting time.

And wouldn't you know, even that part didn't go well!  I kept ending up with these weird loopy knots like this, where I was having to shove the entire ball of yarn through there just to rip out the next part.

And then I realized that I was supposed to rip it out in the opposite direction that I'd been knitting it in, I was doing it backwards, and that was why it was being so uncooperative. Palm, meet face.

So I've got it re-knit up to about 6ish rows before I'm supposed to switch back for knitting from the opposite side of the invisible cast-on. Hopefully it will go better this time, since I tried a different technique for the cast-on in the first place.

I'm having better luck with my blue corduroy jacket, which, oddly enough, is pretty much the exact same color as my yarn. This picture is a little outdated-- I meant to write this post a couple of days ago. Since then, I've added the sleeves, and stitched the two layers of the peplum together. I took a chance on just going ahead and sewing it together as is, with just a bit of a smaller seam to attach the sleeves to the body, since the brown jacket was so easy to fit and it was also a Burda pattern. My gamble is paying off so far, since it looks like it will work just fine from my couple of times I've tried on. A rather fitted jacket, to be sure, but I think it has to be with the peplum. And since this is a rather lightweight corduroy, I'm thinking of this more in terms of a spring/fall layer than winter warmth. (Besides, apparently I'll have a sweater in exactly the same color, so I can just wear that when I want blue then!) So this is moving along nicely, and I think I'll quite easily make my goal of finishing it before the end of the month.

The one thing I need to figure out: In the interest of new techniques, I'd like to try bagging the lining somewhat. I think it will be easier than usual, since I had to cut the inner peplum from the lining fabric and therefore I'm planning on just hand-stitching the lining down at that lower seam. So all I'll have to sort out is the sleeves and sewing the lining to the inner facings. I know I have some resources to figure out how to do that lying around here, so I'll just have to look into it. I was thinking about trying a bound buttonhole as well, but I think I already screwed up my chances on that by sewing the facing in. Oh well.... I wanted to work on my machine buttonholes more anyway. (The jacket is actually supposed to have snaps to close, but I've decided to go with the buttons being functional instead of purely decorative so I can leave the jacket open when I want to. The snaps look kind of funny when I do that, IMO.)

I do have a blog award I recently got that I need to share, but I'll do that on the next post, since I'd like to actually have some time to sew this afternoon! (There's also going to be a low-key giveaway, so stay tuned!)

the wearability factor

I think I was on the right track with my Cadence, in purposely making it longer. It's rather loose up top, and the belt is quite necessary for this to work on me! I like the styling of this--though you can't quite see the whole outfit, I'm wearing it with my skinny jeans and my taller brown boots and it's just very comfortable, but still nice enough for flute teaching later. For what ended up being such an open knit, it's surprisingly warm--hurrah for being able to wear alpaca!

My main concern with this is the neckline. It's stretching like crazy as I wear it--it was about 2" higher when I put it on this morning, and if not for letting it dip lower in the back, it would quite easily be falling off my shoulders by this point! So I'm trying to figure out what I can do about that--whether it would be better to weave some of the leftover yarn into the neckline to try and tighten it up, or attempt a row of crochet around the top to cinch it in, or what. Because that's the sort of thing that could take away the wearability factor in what is already a much looser sweater than I would have preferred.

But aside from that, the knitalong is complete. So I wanted to publicly thank Kristin for her expertise and patience with us newbies, and Sarah for coming up with the idea! Despite the frustrations, I did have fun and learned a lot!

So, moving on. I did a bit of swatching and then cast on my next major knitting project last night. This is the Camellia Shrug from the Winter/Spring '11 KnitScene, and I'm making it in a nice-feeling (and washable!) cotton/acrylic blend that I picked up at the yarn store on Tuesday.  I'm 14 rows into it so far, and other than the annoyance of trying to cast 4 stitches onto 3 double-pointed needles without them sliding off and making me start over a couple of times, once I got it going, it's been a fun knit so far. But I'm really glad that I had the Cadence to work on first so I could get used to reading a chart! The diamond pattern actually isn't all that dissimilar, either. It's just a lot more increases, since it starts in the middle and goes out from there in the round.

I've also got my raincoat "muslin" done! This is the sleeveless version of it. And it looks a bit big, but I'm actually going to leave this as is with no adjustments. For one thing, this is being made to wear over bulkier winter clothes. For another thing, it has a belt anyway. So all I need to do is take this apart, trim the seams back down to normal from the 1" that I allowed for test purposes, and I can get started on the actual cutting out! (And then figure out what to do with that main front piece, since I'm not sure if I'll need to line or underline that or not.)

One final comment on the next several posts in general... I know there's occasionally a debate amongst sewing bloggers about whether it's better to show all finished projects, or in-progress things. And I know there are people out there who have no interest in seeing unfinished projects. I'm one who tends to show more of the process. And I'm ok with that. For me, the process of putting a garment together is as significant a part of the enjoyment as wearing the finished product. I had a nice reminder of that recently when talking about my sewing with a newer friend. (Well, boyfriend, actually. I seem to have stumbled into one of those relationship things over the last month--thus my quasi-resolution to just keep things as pressure-free as I can this year!)  So I'm unapologetically going to keep writing about things like how this raincoat comes together. And my barely-started Anthropologie-esque refashion. And this shrug that may not look much different than it does now the next time I take a picture of it. And whatever other sewing or knitting projects I end up doing this year. Because most of us who sew aren't solely about the destination most of the time, are we? It's about the journey and the learning process, too. And that's something that should be celebrated.

Dear sewing, I miss you....

I literally have not done a thing related to sewing since last Wednesday, when I traced out the pattern for my raincoat. Between work, multiple eye doctor appointments for a minor emergency, practices and performances for a concert at my church, a cookie bakefest with my sis-in-law, and trying to get things ready for a family gathering of most of my female cousins today, I just haven't had time to. And it's starting to make me a bit twitchy.

I did manage to get in some knitting time, at least, during those later-night hours when trying to figure out sewing directions is a bad idea but I can do nothing-but-knit-stitch just fine and brainlessly. So the Cadence sweater now has one sleeve done, and the second sleeve started. I tried it on the other night, and learned that I probably should have done more decreases in the body. It's going to be pretty big. But at this point, rather than re-knit it, I think I'm just going to run with it, knit it longer, and wear it with my one pair of skinny jeans. I was commenting the other day that I needed some longer warmer stuff to wear with those anyway. And even though it's alpaca and acrylic, maybe the blocking will help.

So at least I haven't been entirely uncreative. And I'm glad that I took up knitting this year for that very reason. But I still miss sewing.

Maybe once Christmas is over...

The Licorice dress!

A little later than I wanted to post it....but I got the belt kit in earlier this week, and since my retail job is currently so slow that I got sent home early, I made that this afternoon. So now I can post the whole thing at once.

The dress came together really quickly. I altered the pattern and cut it out on Wednesday, and basically sewed it together over the course of the next three days between bouts of having to work and family gatherings. By mid-afternoon on Saturday, all I had left to do was the outer hem (which I decided to handsew since it would look nicer) and adding that hook and eye that I always procrastinate on, so I took some time off for knitting instead. (Well, that and Thanksgiving Dinner #2 with my mom's family.) And this was even with me adding some extra steps, like making sure that I finished all of the seams and underlining the sleeves. So I did the hem on Sunday, and as already stated, I just finished the belt. I wasn't sure how it would work with the satin, because it seemed to be a bit heavier than what the Colette book recommended, but I think it turned out well!

A few details....

Here's a closeup of the neckline and collar. Since I'm generally not a solids girl (if you've been reading this for any length of time, you probably figured that out on your own!) I'm really glad it has the contrast of texture to break up the monochromaticism.

Incidentally, I wish I'd had this pattern a few years ago when I was making that horrible dress to wear to my brother's wedding. Because if you take the collar and sleeves off, this is essentially the dress I was trying to make! And this one was soooooooo much easier to fit!

Since the lining was the one thing I had to buy, and I knew I wanted to use the nicer Bemberg rayon lining so I could also underline the sleeves to soften them up, I had to improvise a bit. Joann's didn't have anything remotely close to the green, so I went with the ivory and added the lace at the bottom to make it look kind of like a slip. I also used the lace hem tape on this, so I could avoid folding the satin over for the hem and having the extra bulk showing outside when I pressed it. I may have to spring for the nice lining every time I make a dress now--I definitely saw a difference between this and the polyester stuff!

And here's this afternoon's work. I'm glad this is a purely decorative and not so much a functional belt. Though the instructions on the package were very clear, my execution wasn't so great. It probably doesn't help that the brocade has a tendency to fray like crazy. And I didn't have quite the right tools to set the eyelets, so I winged it as best as I could with what I have, and I just hope the eyelets stay in and don't snag on the dress. I am proud of how I lined the brocade pattern up on the belt, though. And I'm also glad I had the opportunity to practice this before I attempt the one I want to make for the raincoat that will be coming up.

I'll see what I can do about getting an action shot at the party--it'll be more effective that way anyway. Hopefully I can figure out how to get my late 60s-70s-esque straight, long hair into something more late 50s-early 60s style! This pretty much confirms to me that the Colette Handbook was a good buy. To be honest, this was the style I figured I'd be least likely to sew when I got it. Oh, the irony.

And on a completely different note, here's the progress on my Cadence sweater. The sleeves are separated now, I've knit a few rows down from that, and it's actually starting to look like something resembling a garment!

The days of small things

I finally finished this little keyhole scarf today, to go along with the handwarmers I made for my friend Shantelle. It completely used up the rest of the yarn, which is nice. And I like how having to go with two half-skeins of the self-striping yarn enabled me to make the stripes symmetrical here, too.  It's nice to get this done.

The Cadence is coming along. I've got about 10 rows left to knit before the sleeve increases are done and I can be on the current knitalong step. (Hopefully I can catch up before Kristin posts the next one!)

I've also been making some progress on my little mending binge. So here's what I've done so far:

I shortened this skirt from this weird lower-calf length to this much nicer around-the-knee one.


I stitched down the facings on this top so they'd stop popping out and being generally annoying.

I sewed along the topstitching above the buttons on the teal skirt I recently made so it would fit a little better, and finally added the hook-and-eye.

I resized a skirt that a friend recently gave me because she couldn't wear it (pics to come), and fixed a little bit of trim that was coming unstitched from a random knit top.

I added some topstitching to fix the zipper that was tearing out of my weekender bag, and sewed a button back onto my self-stitched jeans jacket.

The repair that made me the saddest so far: that laptop bag that I only made, oh, 3 1/2 months ago and have only actually carried around about twice. (It generally hangs out next to my bed to house my laptop, since my primary computer is still my desktop with the much greater photo/music storage capacity.) I have no idea how it happened, because I stitched the heck out of this, but one side of the webbing pretty much frayed into oblivion and the D-ring was literally hanging by a thread. So I had to buy an entirely new piece of webbing, and I was very careful to seal up both cut ends before sewing it this time. I'm also a little sad that I had to stitch it through the facing and lining, because it doesn't look nearly as nice.... I just hope it holds this time.

"Moving Target" shirt, and Cadence update

#1: I finished this shirt last night. I went ahead and used Butterick 5084 (the same one I used for this shirt), and I think it went better this time. Probably helped that I didn't have the embroidered insert that added basically 3 extra layers of fabric at the under-bust seam, between the fold and the interfacing. I still had to take it in at the sides some, and lengthen the sleeves a bit, but otherwise, I'm really happy with the fit. I changed up the neckline a bit by replacing the facing with a strip of fabric, sewn on the seamline, folded under, and stitched double. I also stay-taped it so it wouldn't sag and gap with repeated wearings, and so far, so good. It came together really quickly-- I cut it out on Monday, and sewed it together in two sittings. Would have been faster without the stay-taping, but I think it'll be worth it.

This color scheme is pretty different for me-- I hardly wear red, and I don't think I even owned anything in mustard until now. But what's the point of sewing if you can't have fun getting out of your self-imposed boxes? Also, I tried really hard to avoid awkward print placement on the top, and I think I did a pretty good job! The fabric is a cotton jersey (rather thin, as you can see from the tank top lines) from Mood. Which I think I bought 2 years ago. So, since it took me this long to get to it, another FESA project down! Thank you, Mood!
I'm also rather excited about this. See that? That's the lace chart on my Cadence sweater, which is now DONE. Third time's the charm. And that lime green bit of string at the bottom? I wove that in, in case I mess up the rows leading up to splitting the sleeves off. I shouldn't, because it's basically all knit all the time for 20 rows. But I'm not taking any chances! (I'll take it out when the sweater's done.)

Also, I think that taking the neckline down a needle size worked well. The overall knit looks much better than my first attempt, and the neckline doesn't look like anything from an 80s dance movie anymore. Yay!

So why did I start knitting again?

Another pictureless post. I just need to rant.

I thought this sweater was going better this time. I spent basically every free hour I've had this week re-knitting everything I did since this knitalong started about a month and a half ago. And then tonight, I got to the decreases. And for some reason, the second body and sleeve section has way more stitches than the first. So I have to rip things out. Again. I've taken it back 3 1/2 rows so far and it's still wrong. And my yarn is starting to get all fuzzy and stick together, and I can barely get the needle in there to undo the stitches because I knit so tightly. And if I have to rip this out and start it a third time, I'm going to be REALLY upset.

I'm honestly beginning to think that maybe I wasn't ready for something as big as a sweater.

So why did I decide to give knitting another go?

Oh, yeah. I wanted sweaters.

Grr.

Bad news first

Two things:

#1: The bad news is that my local Barnes & Noble has either stopped carrying BurdaStyle, or they haven't gotten the November issue in yet. Which is a shame, because based on some previews I've seen on other blogs, I'm actually interested in picking this one up. There's this kimono-esque shirt and this kind of intriguing blouse that I could see myself making (the kimono shirt in particular), and this formal dress that falls into the category of "I wish I had an excuse to sew this." I'll check again next week, but I may have to wait and hope that those are some of the patterns that the BurdaStyle site is willing to share. They didn't have the latest SewStylish either, which was disappointing. I guess I could have looked at Threads, but I also needed to stop at the grocery store and didn't want to take a lot more time. So kind of a letdown on the sewing front. The good news (for my interest, not for my wallet) is that they did have all three of the knitting magazines I was thinking about picking up. So I got the latest KnitScene (love that magazine), a copy of knit.wear , and the special Jane Austen Knits issue that Interweave recently came out with. (I am also a sucker for all things Jane. And based on my initial flip-through, it looks like there's some potentially interesting articles too, all about things like how they dyed fabric back in the Regency era, a profile on a sewing pattern company that focuses on historic garments, etc.)

So in summary, bad B&N trip on the sewing front, great on the knitting one.

#2: The bad news is, I think I'm going to have to start the sweater over entirely. After ripping out about 7 rows and re-knitting some over the last few days, I discovered that the mistakes apparently go back further than I'd thought, because there's this one section where I still didn't have the right number of stitches to follow the pattern, and had to keep trying to compensate. It's a bit of a mess. Also, when I tried it on, this thing is off-the-shoulder huge. I think the neckline stretched while I was waiting for step 2, because it was always a tight fit around that circular needle. So as much as I hate to do it, I think I may have to just start again. I'm debating whether it should be one needle size down.

The good news is, with all of this handling of the yarn I've been doing over the last couple of days, my hands are feeling no ill effects. So I think I can now safely say that my wool sensitivity does not extend to alpaca. (Now if only they'd make alpaca fabric as a substitute for wool...)

Finally, a new FESA project!

I meant to post this yesterday, but I didn't have time to take any pics until well after dark, and I just could not get an un-blurred one of the skirt as a whole. So Monday it is. I'm wearing this right now. This probably isn't the best top to be pairing it with, but I usually tend to wear things un-tucked and I wanted the fun waistband details to actually show. I'm also wearing this with my black military-style jacket, since it's kind of cold now, but obviously then you can't see the skirt so well.

Since the weather here completely unseasonably sucked on Saturday, effectively cancelling any potential plans I had, I stayed indoors and sewed all day. And finally finished this skirt. (Though I really wasn't expecting it to take as much of the day as it did!)So here's my quick n' dirty review of Burda 4/09 #101: I'm a little disappointed in the fit of it-- I pin-basted the skirt when I was working on it last week and marked where it fit perfectly, but I guess the fabric stretched, because after it was all sewn together, it ended up a little loose. I think it would be more comfortable if it sat just a little higher on my hips, but I can deal. Now that I think about it, it might help if I tack the very top above the buttons. That doesn't have to be functional since it has a side zipper, and I'm thinking that when I had it pinned, I must have had that part pinned a little more snugly because the buttonholes weren't cut yet.

I do love the color of it, and the suede-like texture. And the pockets, though I wish they'd press a little flatter at the top. I'll keep trying. (They are rather useful in that they're the perfect size to fit my phone!) I like the style of it too. And I think I would use this pattern again, though with some definite tweaking in the fit. I'll just have to find things to tuck into it to show off the waist details. Maybe my Sorbetto? I wish I had a shorter grey cardigan to throw on with it...

I probably would have gotten this together a lot faster, except I lined it and that added quite a bit more time to what otherwise would have been a fairly simple skirt. For one thing, I drafted the lining myself. And, well, when I draft things, it never goes right. All I did for this one was to overlap the pattern pieces to take out the seam allowances, trace, and then take a facing-sized-minus-seam-allowance chunk out of the top. Even so, the lining ended up too big and I had to chop about 2" out of each piece. I'm glad I finally got it working in the end, because I think it makes the skirt so much nicer to wear. And perhaps easier, given that the fabric seems clingy. Plus solid-colored things are more fun with print linings, IMO.

In knitting news, I've hit a bit of a snag on my Cadence sweater...

.


I was working on the last row of the chart last night, and most of the pattern looks like this. (Which, as far as I know, is what it's supposed to look like.)

But then I discovered that two of the diamonds look like this. Which, at least to my eye, is pretty obviously wonky.

I have this great book called Knit Fix (or something along those lines) that taught me how to fix a mistake in the pattern vertically, that has already saved me frustration on several occasions. Unfortunately, the concept doesn't seem to work quite as well for fixing things with decreases. I think I made this one worse.

So I'm waiting to hear back from Kristin (the "Knitter" for Newbie and the Knitter) on if there's a good way to fix this....but I may have to just unravel this. It's kind of discouraging, and something that's a little difficult to reconcile myself to to from my seamstress perspective. Yes, I mess up my sewing, but there's usually a way to, in the immortal words of Tim Gunn, "make it work". It's very rare that I have to just toss the whole thing and start from scratch, you know?

I'm honestly thinking that it might be easier to just unravel the whole thing and start over, rather than unknit stitch by stitch to whatever row in the chart I started screwing up here. I'm assuming the chart may go faster now that I've knit my way through it once, and unpicking this will take hours. I'm not even sure it's possible to do it and get the right stitch count, with all of those yarnovers and knit 2 togethers and stuff.... I'm too new at this.

So, while I wait for that, happier sewing thoughts instead. Today's non-work projects (other than my continued hunt for a new part-time job with more hours--thus the reason I'm posting during the day so much lately) include switching out the last of my more summery clothes, because I've been digging something out from under my bed every day lately just to find something long-sleeved to wear. But if I have time, I'm hoping to make some refashion progress. And I'm thinking the next thing on the sewing table is going to be that knit print I pulled out for my FESA. Though I probably won't be able to touch that until Wednesday.

I'll blog about sewing again soon, I promise.

I just need to actually have something to show. I did at least start quilting the fabric for the bag my friend is paying me to make. (Two pieces down, one to go.) And I did go to Joann's today to take advantage of their Columbus Day sale and pick up some underlining for my raincoat/some buttons for the teal skirt. (Nothing on hand at home. I checked.)

But in the meantime, I did finish up two of my FESA knitting projects over the weekend!

#1, the Counterpoint hat.

An easy finish, as all I had left to do was put the brim in and stitch the hat closed at the top of the ribbing.

The brim is pretty subtle, so I had to take a profile shot so you can actually see it. And I like the quasi-tweedy but still really colorful effect of the yarn. Even though it makes me want to walk around with a magnifying glass and say things like, "Elementary, my dear Watson."

The other thing I finished was my cable slippers. Not the most flattering shot ever, as they look like deformed socks this way, but this is what you get at 12:30 in the morning in someone else's residence. I'm glad these are only meant to be lightweight slippers, since they feel kind of like they're going to fall off when I wear them. It probably would have helped if I'd stitched them up more, like the originals were, but I was literally sewing the first one of these around my foot and this was as far as I could stretch it. Mental note to self: Whenever I attempt socks, I might need to add a few stitches in that just-below-my-toe area to compensate for the extra width there.

Since I had both of these finished by Saturday night, I spent our tv-watching time on Sunday working on that scarf I'm making from the hat leftovers. It's currently about 15" long. The nice thing is that it's complicated enough of a pattern that I still have to look at the pattern for pretty much every single line, but not so complicated that I couldn't watch tv or chat with my friends.

I did think about picking up my Cadence sweater, but I looked at the directions and the very next row starts the chart. Which I'm still not entirely sure I read right before, and I think that's something I'm going to have to hole up in my room away from people and give full concentration to. Which means this is a great time to sidetrack myself from it completely by sewing, right?

Ok, so I'll go ahead and do that knitting update now.

I probably won't have time over the weekend anyway....I'm entering the part where my next 3 weekends are booked completely solid!

Anyway, here's what's been on the sticks lately.

#1: I started a scarf for my friend Shantelle to go with the handwarmers I made her (which she loved), for the dual purpose of using up the yarn and to give me something brainless to keep my hands busy while we have our Project Runway marathons. Just a basic k4, p4 ribbing, so I really don't have to think about it.

#2: The knitalong sweater! So far, she's just had us do the neckline ribbing, so this has been waiting for the next step to go up. So far, the hardest part has been just casting it on, which I had to do about 4 or 5 times for various reasons (cast on too tightly, ran out of yarn on the tail, etc.) I'll be glad to get to the increase section, since so far this is reeeeeeally stretched out on the circular needle and I've been afraid it'll stay that way from letting it sit!

#3, my "Counterpoint Hat". This is what I've been working on the most--the ribbing is done, and I'm about 5 rows away from starting the decreases. I'm hoping to get this one done by about the middle of October, since it seems like fall weather may actually be arriving soon and I think this will go really well with this vintage 70s leather jacket I have that my mom passed down to me. Plus I'm taking a little solo road trip to visit my best friend from high school for a weekend around then, I'm hoping to come home via Shenandoah National Park, and I think it would be fun to have a cute fallish hat to wear in any of those at-arm's-length self portraits I might be inspired to take on Skyline Drive.

And here's a closeup of the squiggly little mini-cables. I think I'm going to have to figure out a way to block this when it's done, since I seem to keep ending up with a bit of a pull right after the cable, despite my tendency towards super-tight knitting tension. But hopefully that'll even things out. If I can figure out how to block something knitted in the round....