Knitting the Time Away

I have been sewing...really...trust me....I just haven't been finishing much. 😬

If you pop over to the Threads Magazine site you will find some of the things that I have been working on over the last few weeks.  I usually have several projects going so I can post some with Threads and some here and have plenty to go around.  But I have been a bit stuck lately.  It happens from time to time and I always seem to get back into my sewing room.  I guess it surprises me this time because I thought having lots of 'isolation' time and lots of stashed fabric would be the proverbial dream come true, but the days seem to fill up with yard work and figuring out what to cook (I don't think I have ever cooked so many days in a row...ever!!!!  Take out pizza, please!) and knowing that I will be needing a different kind of wardrobe going forward have all made for a sewing slow down.  As the ozone days happen and the bug count goes up I might find my way into the sewing room pretty soon.  I know I can't force the issue, just go with the sewing, or no sewing flow.

One project I did finish this past week was a knitting project.  I have been having some kind of knitting going during this time since TV evenings have been much more frequent.  As with a lot of my knitting, this one was a lot of trial and error (frogging) and experimenting to get to the final garment.  But I am pretty pleased with it and glad that it is off the needles.  By the time I finished it it felt like I had knitted at least two sweaters!

The yarn is a very loosely twisted, almost no twist, 6 strands of exceptionally soft cotton.  I kept sticking my needle between the strands...annoying!  My idea was to have little to no sewing to do.  I wanted to create the shape by holding and picking up stitches rather than seaming.  The cotton is fairly heavy and I thought seams would get quite bulky.

I cast on at the hem and worked to the armholes and then split the work into fronts and back.

Next I did a 3 needle bind off to create the shoulder seams and picked up around the armholes.  The sleeves were knit in the round with a series of decreases to get to the smaller wrist measurement.

Finally, I picked up stitches along the neckband.

I have no idea if this is the "real" way to knit a sweater, but it kind of worked out.  I learned to make buttonholes.   Don't look too closely, I'm not sure buttholes in seed stitch is the best first project, but there you go.  I also wet blocked the sweater since it was already 3D when I took it off the needles.  It took two days to dry!

All in all I am happy with the outcome.  I have not done much other than square knitting, so shaping and short rows are all experiments for me.   It is a good thing that I had really expert help....

Stay Put and Putter

Heading into month two of "Stay Put" makes me feel weary.  I have been keeping busy with projects and spring cleaning (like bugs out of the light fixtures cleaning!!!) and have even been enjoying more cooking and baking!  But knowing that so many people are struggling and not knowing when relief might come makes the days long and the nerves a bit raw.

Each day when I head to my sewing room I think I know what I will work on.  I have made any number of 'project piles' anyone of which would be fun to do.  But I never seem to get to the projects, I just keep piling and re-piling and end up making something completely unexpected.  A bit like wandering around in a town that I don't know.  Oh, that shop looks cute!  I wonder if there is a deli somewhere for lunch?  I've heard about this place....Anyway, I could scold myself and make a promise to focus and stick to the plan, but letting the wander happen seems like a kinder gentler way to go.  So here are a few of my random 'wanders' from the past week or so....

Since more TV has been part of our 'now' routine, I have been dragging out half finished knitting projects from who knows when.  A couple were started so long ago I can't remember what they were supposed to be and any pattern that might have existed is long gone, so those have been frogged and put back in the yarn stash for now.  I found a Wingspan scarf that was about 3/4 of the way along.  I just love this pattern and have at least 3 others that I wear often.  I love the way the yarn does all the work to make the design and the finished scarves sit nicely around my shoulders and under the collars of coats.  The yarn for this one came from a really tiny little yarn shop in Portland OR.

  

Here's another sweater that I started when I was in Key West in January 2019.  I actually got the yarn while I was there and made a good start and then it just got set aside.  It's two shades of white-ish linen.  It was a bit tricky as "TV" work because in the dark I really couldn't tell which color I was working with, and yes, I did have a few rows of un-knitting during the process.  It is my basic 2 squares with sleeves sweater pattern.  I do knit other patterns, but the 2 squares with sleeves are the ones that I actually like to wear.  I think this version is going to be great after a few wearings.  Linen always gets softer with time and wear, and this one is already pretty soft.  I really like it over the printed linen shift I made last summer to wear for my niece's wedding.

One of the things that I wanted to make after seeing it at the Merchant and Mills shop was a Costermonger bag/pack. 

The actual bag was simply an 18" square with straps.  I decided I could handle the size and shape of the bag without the pattern but did pick up a hardware kit that includes really cool leather straps, strap rings and rivets.  I also found a remnant of oiled cotton that would be the right size and brought that home, too.  I didn't want to mess up the oiled cotton so I decided to make a "trial balloon" of the bag.  When I got out the stuff for my "muslin" I figured it would take me a couple of hours tops to put together an 18" square bag.  HA!  I spent the entire day fiddling, cutting the wrong size pieces, sewing the wrong things together, whatever could go haywire did!  Boy did I feel like a newbie!  It finally came together, but I'm not sure it gave me any more confidence in cutting into my oiled cotton!  I may not jump right into that project!

I think what I have been doing in my sewing room would be called "puttering." 

doing a number of small tasks or not concentrating on anything particular.  move or go in a casual, unhurried way.

Yep, that's it!  Puttering seems to be OK for now.

Remnants and Bargains

Just so you don't get the idea that I have completely fallen off the planet into the 'backpack twilight zone'......

...I have finished a couple of other projects....OK...so one of the other projects is a bag!  I guess I just can't help myself.

I was at the lake house and didn't have much in the way of projects, but I did have a couple of remnant pieces that I had picked up just because they looked like they should be together in something.  The something turned out to be a tote bag. 

...am I right?  The fabrics really do need to be together....and of course, I didn't have enough of either one to make the lining so I decided to have some fun....

I love the hot pink on the inside!  I used bias cut strips of a coordinating linen to make the straps and put some rivets at the pressure points to make them stronger.  Right now it is on probation as my knitting bag...we'll see...

Speaking of knitting 😉...We have a lovely Fiber Festival here the middle weekend of August and I get all inspired.   I figure I better finish the old projects before the shiny new ones suck up all the attention!  So sometime around the middle of August, I usually haul out the knitting projects that I started in the wintery months that got put aside for the summer.  I make one last stab at finishing them in time for the next round of wintery months.  If they don't make it, I figure I better just frog 'em and start again.

This year's UFO was an amazing alpaca cardigan that just needed one more sleeve...technically it still isn't finished, but I figure putting snaps on isn't technically knitting, so I'm counting it!  (I have yet to get a picture of it so that will have to wait as well.)  BUT...feeling all righteous about a finished project, I dove into another one right away....feeling even more righteous, because I was using stashed yarn!

My cardigan was a rather large project on small needles, I wanted an easy, fast, instant gratification type project.  Nothing that was going to hang around for too long.  Big yarn on big needles!!!!! 

I'm sure the yarn that I pulled out came from the sale basket in a darling little yarn shoppe somewhere, but heck if I can remember.  I'm making this assumption based on the red lines through the original prices and new, lower prices written in the same red ink, AND the fact that there were three colors of said bargain yarn, none of which was enough for a sweater.   The yarn was however, BIG.  And really soft and cozy.  A blend of wool, silk and cashmere, yum!  I watched a You Tube about "jogless color changing" and started knitting....I really didn't have much of a plan.  I just kept making decisions when I would run out of yarn...I am rather fond of the result!

Having finished a UFO and used up a wad of my stash yarn, I felt quite justified in loading up at the fiber festival!  ...and I made sure I will have enough to make a whole sweater this time!

Some Free-style Summer Knitting

If you live in the midwest part of the country, you are well aware of our unusually sloooooow start to summer.  By this time in June we are normally trying to figure out if our air conditioners will 'go to eleven.'  I finally put sandals on today just because I refuse to wash socks again until sometime in mid October. (I really would like to have them on :/ )  Given the situation, my internal, seasonal clock is quite confused...and that means my sewing rhythm is discombobulated as well.  I can't decide if I want to be making lovely light linen-y things, or cozy wooly stuff.  So mostly I don't make anything!!! 

What I have done is finish up some of my knitting projects.  I like to knit when I travel, but at a certain point the projects either get too big or too fussy to do in the car or crammed into an airplane seat.  At that point I usually pile them up and forget about them for, well, too long.  I had two projects that I thought, if it ever decides to be summer, I would like to have them finished so I can wear them. 

The first one is a really pretty linen/cotton blend with gorgeous colors. (IMHO, you know, mud colors!)  I started out thinking I would do my normal knit two squares and make a tankish top.  But when I got to the end of the first ball of yarn I realized that the variegation would get really funky if I just stared another ball of yarn.  Hmmmmm???  The square was too short even for a cropped top so I had to think of another plan.  I ended up working the second square so that it continued up over the shoulders with a 'v' opening in the center.  What happens is I get a V-neck sweater one way and a square neck sweater if I turn it around.  I like both.

I added a garter stitched panel at the hem to get a bit more length and garter stitched sleeves.  You can see in the first picture below that I used a triple needle bind off to connect the "shoulders" which are either dropped to the front or the back depending on which way round I wear it! 

          

The second sweater was knit with a two stranded yarn, one strand of matte grey cotton and the other of a shiny grey rayon.  The affect was a bit of a tweedy pattern.  The yarn was a bit heavier so I wanted to make more of an open airy stitch.  I liked the openness of the fabric that I got knitting on size 10 needles.  Again, the plan was to make my two squares and hook them together, but the size 10 needles meant that the bottom of the sweater would be very loose and stretchy and probably catch on every corner and knob I walked past.  It also ended up giving about 18" of ease at the waist!  Not ideal!  Hmmmmm??  What I needed was a way to have a tighter knit at the hem/waist and a more open knit at the top/shoulders.  Here's what I did...

          

I started on size 6 interchangeable knitting needles.  I knit for a few inches and changed one of the needles to a size 8.  I knit a few more inches on a 6/8 combination.  I then went to both 8's, then 8/10 and finally completed the square with 10's on both ends of my cable.  (it's hard to see but in the picture one needle is a 6 and the other is a 10.  Not a combination I used, but easier to see the difference, kind of!)  The result was a 'trapezoid' that started out about 20" wide at the hem and ended up to be about 28" at the shoulders!  Bingo!  Just what I wanted, and I didn't add a stitch!

          

The hem snugs in a bit at hip level and the top is open and airy.  I did the same sequence of needle swaps on the sleeves.  I picked up along the shoulder with size 10's, did one pass with 10/10, and one each of 8/10, 8/8, 8/6 and finished and bound off with 6/6.   Again, the top of the sleeve is airy and the hem snugs in around my arm.  I have no idea if this is something that is actually 'done' by people who really know how to knit, but it worked out well for what I was trying to do.  

I was getting on so well with my knitting that I pulled out another UFO that got it's start on the beach this January in Key West.  I might just have it ready for NEXT January!

P.S.  I think I'm getting a little better at the selfie thing!👍

Knitting Homework

Every so often I have to catch up on my knitting.  I take my knitting on trips because it's portable, easy to pick up and put down and keeps me occupied while waiting, riding, training, planing.  But there comes a time in the life of each project that makes it no longer a travel project.  Sometimes it gets too big, sometimes there are fussy bits that require counting or some other version of paying attention, that are not conducive for airport lounges.  When that happens the project gets moved into 'The Pile' and another project gets started.  You can probably see what happens after awhile.  I have to take care of The Pile before I forget what I was doing.  Sometimes finishing a project becomes 'frogging' a project because I can't figure out where I left off, or I just don't care anymore!  

Last week I tackled The Pile, which had two mostly finished summer weight sweaters in it.  

The first project was a 'leftovers' sweater.  I had several skeins of linen and cotton yarns in various shades of natural and off white that were leftover from other projects or purchased because they were just too lovely to pass up.  I decided to make them into a stripy oversized T-shirt.  

I am happy with the resulting T-shirt, it has a very drapy hand and hangs close to the body so it doesn't look too oversized when it's worn...but, I now have several 'nibbins' (as a knitting friend calls them) of various linen and cotton yarns.  I think I will call it good!

The other project was one that I started while I was in Key West this winter.  There is a cute little fabric/yarn shop that really needed me to patronize it and I obliged by buying a yarn that was lengths of several different yarns strung together.  When it is worked it makes blocks of the different textures and colors.

The plan was to knit two long pieces about 12 inches wide and sew them together to make a V-neck top.  Pretty simple idea.  I realized after knitting the first ball (I had 2) that it was going to be a wee bit on the short side.  Of course there wasn't a third ball of yarn, and the yarn was several different yarns anyway so I picked another yarn and added it into the mix to get the length I needed.  I also used it to finish the edges and sew the pieces together.  It ended up being way more complicated than I planned, but it worked out in the end.

I still have an alpaca sweater that has become way too big for traveling and have started a cotton cardigan that has jumped the queue because I am way more excited about cotton right now than alpaca, so it won't be too long before The Pile will need tending again.  Until then, I'll be looking for some fun destinations to get my knitting done!

Pinball Wizard!

I've had a bit of trouble getting back into my studio.  I thought the 'envelop' tutorial would ease me back, but, not so much....I have ventured into the room a few times but mostly I bounce around like a pinball and end up remembering some very important business, like unloading the dishwasher!!!!


What I realized is, this pinballing feeling is actually a familiar state for me.  It usually shows up around the time that the seasons are going to change.  I'm over whatever I was thinking and planning for the current season, but not quite prepared for the next one.  It feels a bit early in Michigan to be thinking about spring and summer, but the fashion industry is already talking about next fall so I guess it's not to early to start piling up my linen projects!

In the spirit of more intentional sewing, I decided to 'watch myself' as I make the shift from winter to spring this year.  I know there must be a process, because it happens every year, so what is it? I think the "pinball feeling" is the initial step!

My brain has been busy collecting for awhile.  Images, colors, fabrics, techniques, patterns, ideas....all of this collecting is spinning around and creating that bouncing behavior.  I pick up a pattern, but am not sure what fabric I want...I find a cool shirt on Pinterest, but need to figure out the pattern, I read about a great technique in my Threads Magazine (wink, wink) and go trolling about for the right project...I'm like a dragonfly stopping for a few seconds here and there and then off on another mission.  So today I decided to look at my collection and see if there was enough stuff to start making a plan.

I have been aware that I'm being drawn to a little different color palette.  Of course, it's still very much in the 'mud colors' range, but I have noticed a pinkish-brownish-grayish color wiggling into the picture.  It's as good a place as any to start...


This color, which I'll call pinkish-gray for lack of a better name, started making an appearance in my yarn choices.  In December I started working on an alpaca cardigan (center) that was leaning in the pinkish-gray direction.  I carted a pile of linen and cotton yarns to Florida and back (left) but ended up working on a yarn that I picked up while I was there (right).

I also went to an artisans' fair while I was in Key West and bought a really cool eco-dyed linen dress...and guess what?....Yep, it's pretty much pinkish-gray. (there are a few blotches of gold, which come from tumeric!)

OK...a new color...

I next went hunting around in my closet to see if there were other hints of this color.  Obviously, it is not a total departure from my go-to palette and sure enough I came up with a cotton cardigan that I love but haven't really worn in awhile.  Excellent!

Let's take a wander in the ol' stash...

...a nice gray (with a hint of pink) stretch denim...a double sided gray/print ponte knit...how about something to give a bit of contrast...like a nice dark washed denim to round out the group.

I left that pile to marinade and moved on to another challenge that has been sitting on my table this fall and winter.

I have a gorgeous alpaca cardigan that keeps looking for an outfit.  Let's see...

I know that it is not hiding in my closet, been there, so how about the stash?  I'm liking the brown wool jersey, it has a hint of green that really blends with the heather of the sweater.

AND it looks fab with the tweed sweater I knitted last fall!  How about a gray (greenish) stretch twill, a cool novelty knit with velvet stripes and maybe that dark washed denim from the first pile ...

Whew! That's starting to feel like a couple of piles of potential....how about some pattern ideas...I hauled out the clipping file.  This is a folder that collects pictures, little sketches, catalog pages, etc. that catch my eye.  I started looking for themes...it appears that I am wanting a denim style dress (maybe that's the reason the dark denim ended up in the fabric pile?)...

...and there is also a group of tops that are conspiring...hmmm?

...how about the yarn stash...any potential there...????

The pinball feeling is starting to dwindle...I'm feeling the stirrings of a real plan...on to the pattern stash...

I think the wool jersey and the double faced ponte would be great dresses, and the cardigan needs a short waisted style....where's my journal...?

So THAT'S how I do it!  From pinball to plan!  

The collecting is fun and necessary, but working the ideas into a plan helps me focus and actually get to making stuff.  Of course you will notice that I always work in pencil!  There will be significant edits, about faces, total deletions and curveballs before the end of the season.  But, for now, I can head into my studio and instead of bouncing I can start pouncing (sorry, I couldn't help it)...😝