I Made a Dress! With Sewing!

Well, this has been a bit of a long break. Why don’t I just pick things up from here?

I finished this dress on Saturday and wore it to work on Sunday (note my photo-shoot locale). I love it. It’s my first major sewing project that I get to wear. I also just finished Ysolda’s Ishbel scarf in Fleece Artist Merino Sock in bright reds, oranges and pinks. I also love it. They look both awesome and intense together.

I used some thrift store find fabric. It’s a medium/large floral print in turquoise, purple and black with overprinted black leopard spots. I think it must be a misprint, since it really doesn’t look on purpose, but it's completely me fabric. The pattern is Anna Maria Horner’s Socialite Dress, and I found it was a good beginner project. I made the dress over a couple of weeks, just doing one thing at a time and not rushing, which I think was important. I tend to rush through projects just to see what I’m going to end up with. Not so great when you’re learning a new skill. The instructions that came with the dress, and which I have lost twice now, are very well written and detailed. The only thing I would change is to finish the side seams before sewing down the arm facing or hem. I also added 4” to the bottom of the dress, but about an inch of that got eaten up by my larger hem. I can’t wait until my serger gets back from Brian’s house, so I can super finish my edges.

You may be wondering why I have a serger and am just beginning to sew. The answer is that I am just beginning to sew woven fabrics. I spent a bunch of time in high school and right after making wacky things out of old sweaters, mostly prompted by a love of Preloved and a lack of cash. My dad was kind enough to buy me one for a birthday present a few years ago, and it made the whole process easier. It needed some tweaking the last time I used it, so I think this may be downloading the manual time. I’m looking forward to using it on the pants I have planned next…

October Projects, and Still Wandering...

These are the booties I knit to go along with the hat for Judy's baby. They're getting a dip in some Eucalan, then off in the mail this week. They may even beat the recipient's arrival! The colour's a little more vibrant than in this picture. This is gonna be one funky baby...

Some other things in the works:



Knitting excessively (is it ever really excessive?), plus baking too many brownies, is what I've been up to instead of homework. It's weird, but I just can't seem to get into it this year. All I want to do is play with fibre. Who knows, if I hadn't reacted so badly to the first teacher in MAAD I met, maybe I would have stayed and been a lot happier? I do love printmaking, and I find crit and curatorial fascinating, but textiles are what I care about the most. I dream about knitting. I read knitting books for fun, just to see how things are put together. I constantly try to figure out how to translate architectural elements into fabric. I'm trying to find a way to fit a loom into our apartment, and to learn to use said loom....

Everything I'm doing now, I can use for whatever I decide to do after school. That's not the problem so much. My problem is getting through what I'm doing now. I have such a hard time not wanting to get to the next thing, start the new thing. I had to stop myself from obsessing over grad schools already. If you don't know the system, most schools require you to be out of school and working for two years before they consider you for a MFA program. That means I'm three to four years away from even applying to anything.

I think I need to chill a bit. Yes?

Bean-Baby Hat! (With Pattern)

I made this hat for my cousin's baby-to-be, affectionately referred to as the Bean. This is my first time writing up a pattern and it hasn't been test-knitted yet. If you find any errors or anything is unclear, feel free to contact me! I'd appreciate any feedback.

Materials:
1 ball Rowan RYC Cashsoft Baby DK
US#3, 3.25 mm set of DPNs (or size to get gauge)
Tapestry needle
Pompom maker (optional)

Gauge:
28sts and 36rows = 4"/10cm

Using long-tail method, cast on 88sts.
Place marker and join in the round.
Knit 10 rows k1 p1 rib.
Switch to pattern.
Row 1: k to end
Row 2: k to end
Row 3: * k3 p1 * to end
Row 4: k to end
Row 5: k to end
Row 6: * k1 p1 k2 * to end
Repeat rows 1-6, 4 times
Knit rows 1-3
Decrease row1: *p2tog, k3, p1, k2* to end
Dec row 2: k to end
Dec row 3: *k3, k2tog, k2* to end
Dec row 4: *k2, p1* to end
Dec row 5: *k4, k2tog* to end
Dec row 6: k to end
Dec row 7: *k3, k2tog* to end
Dec row 8: k to end
Dec row 9: *k2, k2tog* to end
Dec row 10: *k1, k2tog* to end
Dec row 11: *k2tog* to end
Dec row 12: *k2tog* to one stitch from end, k1
Break yarn and pull through remaining loops. I like to run it through twice for stability.

Pick up 3sts from the bottom edge of the hat.
Knit an i-cord for about 6.5" or desired length.
Break yarn and pull through stitches on needle.

Pick up 3sts from the opposite side of the hat.
Knit an i-cord for about 6.5" or desired length.
Break yarn and pull through stitches on needle.

Make a giant pompom and sew onto the top of the hat. Mine is made with the size large Clover pompom maker, which I love. But I make a lot of pompoms...

Weave in ends.

This Week's Big Project

I'm going to do something I've been meaning to do for ages, and actually write down and copy eit my handwarmer pattern. Brian's currently making me a pair from my handspun... On my needles... so maybe we're making me a pair! When he's done I'm going to start on a gold pair for my friend Jade and do a final edit, then post the pattern here.


It's a pretty basic pattern, but I've used it to make some other, more interesting pairs as well.



Like these ones, which were based on a pair me and Emma saw at Urban Outfitters, and didn't have $45 for. The cable turned out entirely different, since I made this one up for the project, but the colour is pretty close. I also like them better, since the ones we saw didn't have a thumb gusset!



These ones are also pretty heavily cabled, and are 2 strands of worsted held together and knit on 6mm needles. Peter promptly felted these in the wash, and is now only ever given superwash or pre-felted items.

And soon he can just make his own...

Yarn!

This yarn is now nicely knitted into a cap for my dad. First of the Christmas presents done! I still need to spin some complementary yarn for the pom pom he requested, but I still feel pretty on top of the game.

I'm done cat sitting tomorrow and I'm going to start on project #2, Noisette from the Blackstone Tweed Berroco Booklet. I'm swatching with Patons Classic Merino, and I'll have to see if it works, but Emma approves of the colour and pattern, so at least that's out of the way. There's no way I'm surprise knitting a sweater. She's going to be bugged about it every step along.

I finished a few things while at Sam's place. The hat turned out great, and I really like the shrug, but I wish it wasn't riding up a bit in the photo. It fits way better than it looks like it does...

Now I just have to finish the Branching Out Scarf I've been working on for the last three years. Yeash.

Summer Projects: Part 1

My class ended a couple (okay, three) weeks ago, and I'm starting to feel like I can get my own projects going. I have a big list of things I'm trying to do over the summer, with lots of new things thrown in there.



This is the fabric and pattern for a handbag I'm making my mom for Christmas (finishing up 2008's presents this week has convinced me of the wonders of starting early). I do sew, so this isn't totally a new thing, but I mostly tend to hand sew, or sew with felt, or just redo all the seams on my vintage dresses. I'm excited about getting all the pieces together and making something carefully and precisely, not a skill set I generally use.

You may have noticed the tuft of white fluffy wool in an Ashford box in the corner of the picture. The box is for the wonderful handcards that Brian got me for my birthday last year, which is almost a whole year ago now. I put them together and tried them out on Monday. I started with some light blue merino roving from Lettuce Knit and tore it up into a pile of fluffy, and some dyed corriedale locks from Louet which I opened up.



The idea was to make a nice tweedy blend for some fluffy yarn to make my dad a hat that may actually fit his bizarrly large/round head. Hats in the past have just popped right off the top of it. I'm working on that. You can see my first couple of rolags in the first picture, and here's all 18 of them next to my aging cellphone for size comparison.



I spun the first half of the batch on my large handspindle, semi-worsted draw on some fibres that really want to be woolen. I then navajo plied the singles. I'll post some pictures once the second batch is done.

And did you notice? No more cellphone photos!

Lots of Doing

I started a fabric surface design class at OCAD two weeks ago and I love it. Want to see what I've been working on?

These now have silver/purple bubbles on them as well... I'm going to try and get a real shot of those if I can ever figure out how to get pictures off my dad's camera. Until then, cellphone pics for all.

This gentleman seems not to mind at all...