Yarn Crawl

WIP Wednesday and THANKS!!

First off, I want to thank everyone for their great birthday wishes - that really made my day! Usually I am never one of those people who hates birthdays, but for some reason I woke up on the wrong side of the bed yesterday and all of your wonderful comments really helped snap me out of it.

Another thing that helped snap me out of my mini-funk was a fabulous dinner at our favorite sushi restaurant, Blu Coral. We mentioned it was my birthday, but didn't ask for anything, and unprompted, they brought out the most delicious piece of vanilla cake with a wonderful almond filling for dessert with a candle in it, and some strawberries in caramel sauce, and everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to me. It was really nice. The funny thing was, I didn't even know they had dessert there, as usually we never eat it (I know, we're weird - but I'm usually much more of a "food and wine" person than a "dessert person") but that day I had a taste for vanilla cake all day long for some reason. It was so interesting that I didn't need to do a thing to get exactly what I wanted - it just appeared. A real lesson for me, who tends to want to micromanage every aspect of life. Jim is very good at just letting things happen and things always work out for him, but this is something he can definitely teach me!

Anyway, it was a perfect end to an overall great day!

So, I promised some WIPs.

First, here is 28Thirty - I have about 2 1/2 more inches to go on the first sleeve.

Forecast - I just started the ribbing. Here's the back (in true color, like before):

and the front (which is coming out a weird color now for some reason - odd as I took the pictures at the same time - I took multiple shots of the front and they all came out like this tonight.)

On the sewing front, I have been using a lot of this (bought a whole bolt for $10)

to get my "back crotch curve" right on these shorts I want to make (the ones shown in white with the black print sash:)

The first attempt in muslin came out fine in front, but really gappy for the top 2/3 and kind of wedge-y on the bottom 1/3 - finally after three re-draftings of the back piece, I came up with this by comparing the piece to shorts that fit me well.

The pattern piece is a lot more like a "U" shape, and my pants and shorts that fit well are more of a diagonal curve. This must be the J.Lo adjustment.

On the jacket, here's where I stand. It has not been pressed in a while, and it's not exactly on the dress form straight, but I wanted to show it in process. The raw edges of the collar will be covered by the lining. It is boxy and I'm not entirely sure I like the style anymore - and the funny thing is I knew this when I did the muslin, but at that point it had been fitted by my teacher and I didn't want to start over with a new pattern. The cool thing about doing the muslins is you can definitely see what's going to work and what's not. It might be alright, but as of now I am a little dubious. I have to finish it by Monday night.

Anyway...last but definitely not least - here is the prize I won from Kasia for her blogiversary contest! This milk chocolate actually has a pear-flavored liquor filling! How interesting is that? I can't wait to try it! Thanks, Kasia!!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my birthday, the big 3-6. Now I'm closer to 40 than 30, which feels a little odd, but overall, pretty good!

Check out my fabulous gifts from Jim:

We also bought ourselves some noise-blocking Bose headphones for our iPods for the flights - we tried the kind that completely covers the ear (the traditional kind) as well as the new smaller ones, and the original ones actually were super comfortable and seemed to block out outside sounds better, so we went with those.

Last night I had my sewing class and I made huge progress on my jacket. I just have to attach the lining, sew in the sleeves, and make the buttonholes/sew on the buttons. It's coming together really well. I was surprised at how well the underlining stayed in place when sewing.

I also was going to wear Wicked today with my new skirt, and it just wasn't quite right. Not birthday-outfit worthy (although of course, Jim says I'm nuts, etc.) The problem is that Wicked grew a little too much after washing, and the skirt was too loose so it wasn't laying flat across my body, so I think both need to be adjusted by a visit to the dryer and the sewing machine for taking in some side seams, respectively. At least both were too big, not too small, right??

Another thing on Wicked is that although the Tess Cultivated Silk & Wool "grows" after washing, it does look a lot better after doing so. The stitches even out a lot, and the unevenness of the dye is resolved. I would definitely recommend washing any garments made out of by themselves, as the water was completely dark pink from the red dye when I was washing my sweater and it took a lot of rinsing to make the water run clear.

So blah on the FOs, but yay on the purse and wallet and on vacation coming up!

Up and At 'Em!

I got up at 7, did my 45 minute workout while watching the latest episode of "Make Me A Supermodel" (I am so addicted to silly reality TV while working out) and am drinking a Red Bull (sugar-free of course.) I am ready to go!

Today is my friend Patti's birthday and mine is Tuesday, so we are meeting at her house for our annual birthday lunch at 11. She lives in Chinatown in the city, and so I'm sure we'll be eating something yummy and Pan-Asian. Might even make a stop at Loopy Yarns! She's the one that I taught to knit who likes knitting cat blankets for her kitties. She is just as much of a sucker (maybe more so) for a really nice soft yarn though so she may be up for a yarn shop excursion! I don't want to push it on her though, especially as today is her actual birthday. Sometimes I can be a little bossy (gee, ya think?) so I have to tone that down sometimes.

Here's pictures of my latest mail:

Rowan International gift

with closeups of the yarn (All Seasons Cotton in cinnamon)

and the "waistcoat" and shawl pattern options

Not sure if I'll actually make that particular project, or use the yarn for something else. Probably the latter!

Speaking of Rowan International, and this latest issue, #43

there were a few items I liked from it. Of course, like all Rowan patterns, I'll have to convert them to be knit in the round in order not to drive myself crazy. Is it just me, or does it drive anyone else crazy when they say that the front and back are knit exactly like, but tell you to knit them flat? Ugh. And is it just me, or does this cover model look extremely unhappy or like she has a stomach ache? Cheer up girlfriend!

Anyway....I like Alloy (woman's sweater on the right), although the man's sweater, Hardy, is nice too:

I also like Pontiac:

On that one I would knit the body as one piece, then knit each sleeve and connect them all at the top.

I like Eerie too, but I probably won't end up knitting it (Kidsilk Haze trauma):

I also got my additional order from Elann of more off-white Peruvian Highland Bulky for the Sweetheart Vest main body color

and some of their Superwash Bamboo that I succumbed to (it was only like $12). I thought it might be good for a nice summer top or that armwarmer pattern from Vogue Knitting that they are showing on Elann's site to promote the bamboo yarn.

Here's a closeup of the Superwash Bamboo - it is soft, but not quite as soft as I expected it to be. Maybe because it is superwash? (Note that my picture taking skills are improving now that I have "mistressed" my camera...)

Yeah, it's all about the off-white yarn today.

Anyhow, I finished Wicked last night and so I will definitely do the hem on its matching skirt to model next week. I am off on Monday, so hopefully I will get a lot done on all my projects!

Added a Sewing WIPs Section...

And wow, is it frightening looking! I thought this might provide me with sufficient motivation to finish up some of these sewing WIPs too. Check it out just underneath my newly retitled "Knitting WIPs" section...it's as I thought; I have just as many sewing WIPs as knitting WIPs.

Weekend Plans

First of all, let me start out on a somber note and say how awful the shooting at NIU yesterday was. That's actually where I'm getting my MBA, although I go to the two main off campus locations for my classes. I got a few emails saying that classes were closed as there was a gunman on campus, but nothing actually saying that students had been shot and killed. I don't know what is wrong with people, deciding one day to shoot random students and themselves. Although not as large in scale, it reminds me of the Virginia Tech and Columbine shootings. Where does all the senseless rage come from?

Moving on...weekend plans. I realized this week that I don't have to have my knit (wrap dress) project for my class done until the middle of April! So I may just be able to have time to make some things for myself before leaving on the cruise on the 29th. I do have the jacket due on the 25th though, so I have to finish the last few pieces of underlining and start construction. I also hope to complete my new knit top, for one thing, because my sewing WIPs are quickly catching up in number to my knitting WIPS.

On the knitting front, I'm currently trying to pick out projects to take with me on the trip. There will be a LOT of time spent in the airport and a lot of days at sea, so I think I'm going to take three projects. All of them will be spring/summer tops done in worsted weight or lighter so I don't have to take a lot of heavy yarn. One of them has to be mindless in case I'm not up for concentration. I'd like at least one to have a lace pattern as I enjoy working on that the most. No cables or colorwork.

I'll wait to post my ideas for the short list until I get all of your thoughts - what would you recommend, keeping those criteria in mind? I've picked a few people's brains so far but am trying to get the best variety of ideas and hopefully come up with something perfect.

With that in mind, I think I am going to suspend Cast On Friday for this week and work on finishing up some of my WIPs. I'm super close to being done wtith Wicked, 28Thirty and Cherie Amour, which is exciting!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope everyone has a great Valentine's Day!

Yesterday I came home and saw these:

Jim knows that tulips are my favorite flowers, especially the peach and yellow variety like these. I also got red and yellow roses. Thanks, Jim - I love you so much! We know we're going out tonight and Sunday night of this weekend (as I'm off Monday for President's Day and Tuesday is my birthday) but am not sure which night we'll go where - obviously Blu Coral for sushi one of the nights, and I think Braxton's for seafood the other night. It is a really great place and very romantic.

So, in other news, I worked on Wicked yesterday during our earnings webcast and got a whole sleeve done during that hour! I decided to make the sleeves elbow length, and believe it or not, this is elbow length on me. I don't have short arms really from my elbow to wrist, it is more from the shoulder to the elbow/bicep area that's short on me. I should have tried to get this done for today, as it's the perfect color, but it didn't happen.

One of the reasons it didn't happen was that I got really interested in a new sewing project - my first knit top. I decided to cut this out last night and work on it:

I cut the easiest, simplest version of this pattern to start out with - the one on the upper left. It is only TWO pattern pieces!! A front and sleeve combo, and a back and sleeve combo. I couldn't envision how it would come together until I actually started on it. So far I have the center back seam and the shoulder seams sewn. I used the serger for it this time but will be using my regular sewing machine and ball point needles I bought for the narrow hems around the neck and front edge and bottom hem. I still haven't sewn down the overlapped section and side seams either. Here's the half sewn, half pinned version on J.Lo:

I went with the pattern size that corresponds to a finished bust measurement of 35" (which is maybe 1/2" larger than my actual measurement) so I may need to take this in. But I think I'm going to continue with it as is and make any adjustments on the next (probably more complicated) version. The fabric is a super soft and silky knit and was only $5.99 total, in the remnant room at Vogue Fabrics. So I couldn't really go wrong.

Anyway, that was my day yesterday! Hope everyone has a great day and night :) today!

28Thirty Progress

It was snowing pretty hard last night and the roads were a mess, so I decided to opt out of sitting in my class working through finance problems in unison. I emailed my homework to our professor and told her I wouldn't be able to make it. No biggie, as I took a look throughout the book and I've already done all of these types of finance problems covered in the class before. I'll just get the assignment for next week online.

Anyway, so last night I stayed home. I got two more pieces of fabric underlined, so there are four more to go. I also finished the body on 28Thirty and started the first sleeve on it. I didn't adjust the length at all, but I think it's going to be perfect as is. I'm thinking turquoise buttons for it.

I also started the first sleeve on Wicked and that's what I brought with me to work today for today's earnings webcast at 9.

South America is coming up - the 29th! I plan to blog about the shore excursions soon!

Adventures in Underlining and Stash Additions

Despite the order of the title of this post, let's start with the fun stuff - the yarn purchases that arrived yesterday from Elann.

The KFI angora, probably for the Lush & Lacy cardigan:

some of the colors for the Sweetheart Vest (oh, and this Elann yarn is super soft, BTW).

Here's my problem - the main body of this vest is shown in an oatmeal color, which Elann does not have in this particular yarn. They also show an off-white color as an accent color in the fair isle pattern. I was thinking I would a.) do the body of the vest in the off-white color and use the gray as an accent, but another option would be b.) use the off-white as an accent color as shown, but then find some other oatmeal colored yarn for the body and not use the gray. I'm leaning toward a.) and ordering more off-white yarn. I do not have any oatmeal yarn in the right weight in my stash and the texture of this Elann Bulky is smoother (single ply) than their lighter weight yarns so I don't think I would want to double a thinner one if they had it in the right color. Thoughts?

I also bought some of the Elann Highland Donegal to see if it was scratchy or not (it's actually not at all)

and some of their Seta Lana chunky silk/wool blend (this stuff is FABULOUS and it would be perfect for Corsica 2.0.)

and some replacement yarn for my first attempt at Corsica which didn't rip out very well. I also added a couple of extra skeins to give myself more flexibility when picking a pattern as I think it was only a couple of bucks a skein.

Anyway, after my discount coupons that I still had on my account and USPS Priority shipping, I think the total haul was only like $75. Not bad!!

The opposite of "not bad" is the whole process of underlining. This is the process from H-E double hockey-sticks. It involves hand basting each and every piece of your fabric with (admittedly large and not necessarily neat) stitches to join it with an underlining layer (broadcloth in this example.) This is what it ends up looking like:

After this is done on each and every piece of the fabric, you then serge it around the edges and proceed as normal. There will also be interfacing joined to the inside of this (the black underlining) and a silky black lining going over the whole thing. Super labor-intensive, so I hope it's worth it.

Remaining Weekend Update!

After a frenzy of obsessive knitting, I separated the sleeves on Forecast. Here it is:

I was torn between the 32 and 36 size, as usually I would knit a 34 for a cardigan that has to button. I went with the 36, as I didn't want "gaposis" on the buttons and I think this was the right choice. There are 2 additional 1" button/buttonhole bands that are added to this and I think it will fit perfectly. I will see how it goes and may or may not make the bands as wide as they say in the pattern. I probably should wash the sweater first, before deciding, as it will probably loosen up a bit when it's washed.

I hadn't worked with the Lamb's Pride Worsted before (can you believe it- a Brown Sheep product I hadn't used?) and I have to say I really am liking it. It's got a bit of a fuzzy look to it from the mohair content, and I think it's a little thicker than the Cascade 220 Tweed that the pattern suggests. However, I had no problem getting the gauge (right on, with the same needles that Stefanie used -gotta love that) and I'm enjoying the process. My knitting mojo is officially BACK!

Yesterday after marking all the pieces I cut out for the jacket and cutting out all the interfacing pieces (darn, I had forgotten about that part!) I decided to cut out the muslin for Monica's dress. I sewed everything together except for the midriff piece with the gathering/ruching and the gathering/attachment of the straps. It's pinned in a bit on my dress form, as my friend is taller and bit larger-boned than I am; however, I think it will not need to be any larger, and will likely need to be taken in on her as well in some places. At least it's easier to take something in than let it out!

I brought 28Thirty with me to work today as I only have about 12 rows to finish on it. I have an appointment with my dentist at 11:45 (the periodontist this time as I am having some issues with my implant and may have to have it redone after I get back from vacation- yuck) and sewing class tonight, so I won't be stopping home between any of those. As a result, I have all my exciting meals with me today - yogurt, Lean Cuisine, etc.

Hope everyone had a great weekend and has a great week ahead!

Victory!

I finally figured out why my camera was taking such goofy colored pictures. It was in the shooting menu; the "white balance" option was set to "Incandescent" - which gave it a weird bluish hue. The camera actually allows you to preview what the colors will look like as you change the options - there are like ten settings in that submenu to pick from, like "Cloudy", "Fluorescent", etc. I just set it back on Auto and it turned out great for this pic of Forecast - which I have about four or five more rows to go on before separating the sleeves!

I got all my fabric cut out yesterday for the jacket too, but I am going to wait to work on it until tomorrow night's class. I am right on track with where I'm supposed to be on that project, but I need to get ahead on the knit dress so I am going to focus on that today (must keep myself away from Forecast....)

I also found a walking foot for my sewing machine today after calling a bunch of the JoAnn Superstores near me that have a Viking dealer within the store (as my usual dealer is closed on Sundays.) Most of the stores didn't have it in stock, but I got it.

It looks kinda scary, but I think it will be a good investment for working with more difficult fabrics - first of all, the knit dress that I'm working on.

I also got to pick a "valentine" at the dealer for $ off on my purchase and I picked 15% off! So I also bought two other feet I'd been eyeing - the hemmer foot and the narrow zipper foot.

The zipper foot that comes with the Viking machines is really wide so I thought this might make life easier. I also hate hemming thin fabrics (actually have avoided it so far but this has held me back from working with rayons, silks, etc.) so I think the hemmer foot will come in handy too. I know all these things can be done without the special feet, but my philosophy is to make it as easy on myself as possible! The cool thing is that all these feet I've been buying lately can be used on both of my machines (except probably that walking foot - that one is probably only usable on my newer Platinum machine) so I can leave my old one set up at home and keep my new one in my rolling tote that I bring with me to class. The old one is super heavy and it's a pain to drag (or have Jim drag) the other sewing machine up and down the stairs to my sewing room, so it's nice to be able to use the machines interchangeably.

You all are probably in shock from all the in-focus, normal colored pictures. I am so glad I figured this out before I go on vacation - 2/29 - 19 days away (not that anyone's counting!!)