Yarn Crawl

Weekend Update!

I had a GREAT weekend and got a ton of things done. I decided to wait to do one update today to share everything.

First and foremost, I have my first knit fabric sewing FO. It's actually two FOs. Saturday morning I decided to remake the Amy Butler Cabo Halter pattern in a knit fabric. I had made it once before in a cotton and had problems with the bottom section fitting right. I decided to cut the Small again, eliminate the zipper, and use 5/8" seam allowances instead of the 1/2" in the pattern, as I assumed (correctly, it turns out) that the knit fabric would give it a lot more roominess. When I finished it, I had fabric left over, so I decided to make a simple matching elastic waist skirt from New Look (6762).

I am really, really happy with it!!!

Jim really likes it. The first thing he said is, "Now we need to go on a cruise!!" So I'm actually looking for a deal on a shorter 4 or 5 night Caribbean cruise to go on in a few months, with our cruise partner Aunt Vicki. We had taken her and my MIL on a Hawaiian cruise in 2006 and a Caribbean cruise in 1999 (for our engagement and MIL's retirement). This time it will just be Jim and I and Aunt Vicki/Uncle Frank. I don't think Frank's been on a cruise before, but he's up for it. We saw them for a few hours on Saturday afternoon, along with Tracy & Walter and all the sweater models. I found out that Mia wears her Bounce skirt all the time whenever she gets a chance, and that it's held up (I was a little dubious about its durability when I made it)

so I'm going to make her another one for her birthday, as well as one for McKenna, her older sister (here she is modeling Drive-Thru)

in two different colorways of Elann Sonata Print. It's so fun and encouraging to know that they actually wear and love the things I make for them.

Really encouraged by my great experience with knit fabrics, I decided to treat myself to a purchase from Gorgeous Fabrics. I've been wanting to try their stuff but I felt like I should wait until I "figured out" the whole knit thing and had finished a project. You can only buy in full yards, and two would be a little short for this top (1.25 yds, I think) and a matching skirt (about 1 yd) - so Jim said why not buy three yards and make a matching shirt for McKenna, as then she could look like me (as she loves that.) So I didn't need too much arm twisting:

This is the pattern I got, which has a little girl option as well (even though the girl they show is older, the sizing goes down to age 2, and McKenna's turning 5 in September):

and this navy blue floral matte jersey:

Nice, huh?

I finished Mentionable yesterday and I decided to sew bra straps on it from an old bra (one of the options they mention) instead of making them out of i-cord. Here it is drying with the straps next to it. It only took one 400-yard skein of yarn so there won't be many ends to weave in, so I should be done with it soon! I tried it on before I washed it and it fit great. I think it will be a little longer and drapier after washing, which is fine too.

Speaking of all those Wendy Bernard (Knit and Tonic) patterns, I see that she has her new book, Custom Knits, available for pre-order now! Done! I really like her work.

Yesterday I also decided to try to find another pair of Circa Joan & David shoes in black like the ones I have in chocolate brown that I got from Zappo's:

I found these at my local Von Maur in about five seconds - they fit great:

I really like this peep-toe shoe trend. It's something I think is flattering and I also like that they can really be worn year round.

I cannot even tell you how EXCITED I am to be working with knit fabrics!! I am going to go to town now through my fabric stash. I figured out a great way to hem them too; using a twin needle on my regular sewing machine and turning them under, pinning the hem with the pins parallel to the floor, then reducing the tension on the machine to avoid puckering and topstitching. I am in LOVE.

Friday!!

It's been a loooong week and I am so glad it's Friday!! Not many plans for this weekend; in fact the only reason I know I need to leave the house for sure is an eyebrow wax on Saturday morning that will take all of about fifteen minutes! It is still in the 60s here in the Chicago area, so it's not quite knitting-outside-weather yet (unless it's sunny out and I wrap myself in a blanket and sit on the deck, which I have been known to do on occasion.) Jim does almost have the pool open though, in preparation for warmer weather to come soon!

I *still* have not gotten those New Look patterns in the mail yet but I'm expecting them to arrive today or tomorrow. I have plenty of other sewing projects to work on, though, and I have a new "Understanding Knit Fabrics" online class starting Monday through Patternreview.com. We received a packet of swatches and I've taken a look at them, but am excited about learning more, especially as I have so many knit patterns I want to sew.

I have about 10.5" done on the body of Ophelia already, and about 6" done on Mentionable, which I worked on last night. I think I'm at the point in the program where I need to put each of them on waste yarn and look at how they're fitting, to figure out the right length on Ophelia and when to start the increases on Mentionable.

Have a fun weekend everyone! Here's a great song that I can't stop listening to lately...

Tea Rose Halter FO - Modeled

I've had the Tea Rose Halter done for awhile but it's been cold here, so I wasn't going to wear it with just a cami. Last night Jim and I did our usual Wednesday night "date night" at Blu Coral and I decided to wear it layered over a long sleeve T shirt.

First, the specifics:

Pattern: Tea Rose Halter by Wenlan Chia (of Twinkle fame)

Yarn: About 2 1/3 skeins of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, in "Columbine Blossom"; the yarn is held double, so I used two skeins held together for most of it, then knit from the inside and the outside of the last skein after I ran out of the first two

Size: second from the smallest, and I could have made the smallest easily, because the back is pretty gappy

Needles: size 11 addi turbos

Here I am, posing in front of some of our new artwork:

I would definitely knit this again, as it's a great way to use just about 2 skeins of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece and takes about 3 hours to knit. I would make it in the smallest size even though it sounds impossibly small, as this lace really opens up.

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

The final went very well last night - only seven problems! Most of them were pretty complex, but we had two hours. I finished in about an hour and ten minutes (I'm always a fast test taker - either I know it or I don't - and I speed through it when I know what I'm doing.) Yay! So no more school until September, and that's my last semester!

I walked upstairs after pouring myself a nice big glass of Pinot Noir to celebrate and look at what I found:

Basking in the light of the lamp, taking up my knitting spot...

FO and New Project

I had been waiting until the weather was nicer and I had a better tan to show the Swing Top, but got motivated to wear it today. My final is tonight and this outfit is comfortable yet pulled together - perfect for a long day (7 am - probably 8 pm today).

Here it is:

Pattern: Swing Top by Sharon Shoji, from Classic Elite Summer Book 1
Yarn: Cascade Pima Tencel in Teal - just over 4 skeins
Size: between XS and S (gauge was a little between the two)
Mods: converted pattern to knit in the round instead of flat; shortened the armholes and body each about an inch

Here's a closer up shot, although I'm giving Jim "the look" here:

Here it is with the jacket I wore over it:

Thoughts: I like this top, but the swingy silhouette is not the best for me. This might look even better accessorized with black in the fall or winter, worn as a vest with a short or long sleeved black T-shirt underneath.

In spite of this, I started another project yesterday that has an empire silhouette, although a closer fitting one - Ophelia! Adrienne was trying to pick a yarn for this yesterday and I was making some suggestions, as we both didn't want another expensive cat blanket made of Blue Sky Cotton (unfortunately, her most recent project came to this end, although her kitty Asia loved it.) I started swatching up Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece and then Rowan All Seasons Cotton, as I had both in my stash and could help her decide that way, and I enabled myself right into starting the project. I liked the Rowan All Seasons Cotton much better for this as it's a thicker yarn without the weight and stiffness of the Blue Sky Cotton. This pattern is super quick and I got about 5" done on the body last night (knit from the bottom up.) Check this out!

This is a truer representation of the color:

Hope everyone is having a great week so far!

Weekend Wrap-up

I feel like I was pretty productive this weekend, but don't have much to show for it. Does that make sense? Let me explain.

First, I didn't go back to finish the rayon shorts yet, because when I got all of that fabric home on Saturday, I had nowhere to put it. My shared yarn/fabric closet was bursting at the seams, mainly because I had really fallen off the wagon with the organization over the past probably six months. Although I didn't start the re-organization process until Sunday morning, I did find some old projects that I had forgotten about.

On Saturday night, when Jim was playing poker with my co-workers, I pulled out New Look 6729, a project that had been hibernating, and my first attempt at a knit project, again to work on.

What I learned? My regular sewing machine (the newer one) does a much better job of sewing knits than the coverstitch feature on my serger. The coverstitch feature creates those neat little double or single seamlines on the front of many RTW garments, with the underside almost looking like it's serged.

I thought I would try this out on this project. Bad idea. I mangled some areas of this garment. The worst parts though are at the back of the neck as the machine was getting stuck over the areas that had been previously serged when I worked on this before (the center back and shoulder seams) and the front piece that crosses underneath the other for the wrap top. So, I could actually wear this out of the house (with a cami for sure as it is a pretty deep V.)

I love the style though, so I will make this again (this time using the sewing machine and just using the serger to finish the seams) with another piece of knit fabric, in one size down. Despite what it looks like, I am super encouraged about working with knit fabric now. My new machine seems to love it (the old Viking machine decidedly does NOT) and I haven't had any problems with it. The trickiest thing I've found is hems and anything where you have to turn the fabric under as it doesn't take pressing as well as wovens.

For the remainder of the evening (until I was exhausted at about 10) I worked on converting the serger back to serging mode from the coverstitch. I got all the serging parts back on and the coverstitch parts off, but I couldn't get it to form a stitch. No biggie, I've had that problem before - there is probably one little part that's off on the lower looper threading. I was just too tired to troubleshoot it, so I went to bed.

When I got up on Sunday I was motivated to dig into my closet and tear everything apart for re-organization. When these moods hit, I have to take advantage of them as I get a ton of stuff done. Jim was sleeping in, so I managed to divide up my two huge bins of fabric that I already had into categories - knits, rayons, regular cottons, heavy stretch cottons were my biggest categories.

To clear out plastic containers for these to sort by category, I reorganized my yarn. I had a lot of different yarns that I had just bought a ball of for swatching. I mean a lot. Probably four large containers worth. I kept the ones with labels still on (a big shopping bag full) and filled up two shopping bags for my MIL as she likes to make hairpin lace afghans, and likes using different yarns for stripes. So Jim is going to ship them up to her this week.

After getting the new plastic containers organized, I found some 1/2 yard, 60" wide knit pieces that I had gotten for $1 each at Vogue on my last trip. I decided to go through my patterns (another bunch of craziness) and catalog them. I found each pattern picture online and saved it in my Flickr account. Now I still need to divide them up by category (summer tops, skirts, pants, etc.) I did find a camisole pattern sized for stretch knits that took exactly a half yard

so yesterday afternoon I cut and sewed this.

I just have to sew the straps on to the body, serge the seams to clean them up (I had to sew the seams twice, once to take it in, as there was a white selvedge that I couldn't avoid including on one side, plus it was too big anyway - so I'm thinking I can just serge all of that off and the seams will be smoother) and do the hem (ugh.) I was thinking I could wear it underneath other tops as a layering piece or wear it to bed with jammy pants.

Knitting - I haven't shown Mentionable in a while. Here it is - it's not quite as tapered as it looks as it is a bit crunched up on the needle. The only other project I'm actively working on is the Lacy Little Top and that stays at work as my webcast knitting project.

I also found a source for half bottles of wine - halfwitwines.com. When I go out to Blu Coral, I love that they have a good selection of half bottles of wine as Wednesday night is half price bottle of wine night. Jim will do wine tastings, but he really doesn't drink wine, and although the restaurant wraps bottles to go if they're unfinished, sometimes they go to waste. So...I've been thinking that now since we've been eating at home more (only ate out once besides a few quick sandwiches this last week - Blu Coral on Wednesday) I should try to find some half bottles for home too. The site has free shipping, which I like, and I didn't have to fax my drivers license over after placing an order - they just require an adult signature when delivered via fedex. As Jim's home during the day, this works for me, but if he wasn't home, I would just ship to my office as that is actually what they recommend.

What else? We hung some of the new pictures we got on our cruise. We had taken two with us as carry-ons, one arrived a few days ago from Park West (the auction company) and we have one more which should be arriving soon.

Both of these first two are by Francois Ledan (or "Fanch") as he also goes by - I've shown a closeup of the picture and then a wide angle view to show how it looks in context. We're kind of limited on placement on that second one as we have the thermostat on that wall. Both of the first two are in the same room - it doesn't have any furniture right now, so it's kind of a sun room/art gallery with french doors and a view of outside and the pool. I'm trying to figure out what type of furniture it needs. It used to have this light golden rattan set from Pier 1 but now we moved that up to the loft.

This one is in our great room (kitchen/living room) and is in front of the bar and a small bathroom. This is called Blue Gato, by the artist we met when we were in Punta del Este and I had it signed:

Now for the contest winner! Congratulations, Kristin! Please send me your mailing address so I can mail out your book.

I hope everyone had a great weekend!!

Needing a Fabric Shopping Intervention!!

Today the guys working on our house were still here finishing the roof re-do and the gutter teardown/rebuild, so I *had* to get out of the house for awhile. You know what that led to - craziness at Vogue Fabrics!

Here are my finds (you can hover over each to see the type of fabric and yardage, as I entered it to help keep track on Flickr:)

Total cost - about $120. I really don't think that's bad considering all the fabric I got.

On top of it, I had hit a $3/yd sale on Fabric.com a few days ago and gotten these:

I *have* actually been sewing with some of this fabric. Yesterday I did a muslin of these Kwik Sew shorts

and was happy to find that they fit with only a minor adjustment (3/8" seam allowances on the sides instead of 5/8" did the trick). I then immediately started (and got about half way through) the fashion fabric version - in a chocolate brown rayon from stash. I'm making View B, the medium length version.

This is the first fly front zipper I've put in, and although I'm not totally done with it (have to serge the edges inside as this fabric is fraying like a b&tch, tack it down inside so the fly extension won't flip around, and restitch the curved part of the topstitching) I am pretty happy with it so far. The next one will be a lot easier now that I know what I'm doing, although the Kwik Sew instructions were pretty easy to follow.

This morning I had my mani/pedi at 8 am and worked on Mentionable. Not much more to show there - I have about 5" or 6" done. I'm liking it though, despite the thinness of the yarn.

Jim is going to play poker tonight at my co-worker's house (the general counsel, my next door office neighbor) so I am staying home and working on my sewing projects. Those New Look patterns are not yet here, but I have plenty of other patterns and fabric to keep me busy (I think.) Wish me luck!

Mother's Day Contest!

I've never done a Mother's Day post before, and I thought I would incorporate one into my blogiversary contest month. I've never really talked about my mother on my blog, and we certainly have had our ups and downs. I won't be seeing her on Sunday partially because she's never been big on holidays (even when they're all about her) and this year specifically because my parents are finally putting a bid on a house on the west coast of Florida.

My dad took an early retirement package about ten years ago from CTA, where he worked his entire career after starting work there as a teenager cleaning buses, then as a bus mechanic, then fixing trains, punctuated by enlisting in the Air Force so he wouldn't be drafted into the Army and years in Vietnam, Korea, Guam and much of Southeast Asia. When he got back he finished his engineering degree at night at IIT and went back to CTA as an engineer.

But I digress. This is not about him. Mom is 60 and Dad is 59, and they are both in very good health, so it is great that they are finally going to do something they want to do, with what should be a long time to enjoy it. Plus now I get another nice place to visit! LOL.

Anyway, the one conclusion I've come to about my parents is that although I may have my differences and ups and downs with them, there are just so many things I did learn and "get" from them. For many of those things, I'm grateful. I can even laugh at the not so great traits I got from both of them now and not even cringe when Jim will say something about me reminding of one of them.

I decided to pull some old pictures of my mom and scan them in to show you.

Me and my mom, about 1975, with the ever-present rear end of our dog, Bambi, who managed to get into every shot my dad took throughout my childhood:

My mom really hates pictures being taken (which is NOT something I've gotten from her - I have loved having pictures taken since I was little.) She was kind of a fashionista for not really going anywhere except walking to the store or the library or cleaning the house. I think she was going through a no-makeup phase at this point.

Here we are at Brookfield Zoo maybe a year later:

I'm wearing a knit poncho that her mom made for me, and she's stylin' a 1970s pantsuit. My mom used to sew all of my clothes until I was seven or eight years old, and she liked to crochet, too. Her mom primarily was a knitter, but also crocheted. So these are things I got from her side of the family, as my dad's mom only sewed to alter things to her liking, one of these things being to shorten her dolly-partonesque bra straps with the sewing machine. She'd wear these rotary cup bras (think Madonna in the early 90s) and shorten the straps so that her chest would be almost up to her shoulders. She wore size 5 shoes and was a shoe collector - she had probably every shoe she ever bought, so there were some from the 1930s and 1940s up through the current period of the late 1970s!! When I was a little girl (like 9 or so) I could try on all of these fabulous shoes in a rainbow of colors and styles as the shoes almost fit me!

Here's my mother, clearly not happy at having her picture taken and giving my father the "look"

I've certainly made that face when Jim has taken my picture - remember this?

I like this picture of my mom. She looks happy and at peace with herself and the world. Yes, that is me she's holding.

I think one of the most important qualities my mom gave me was her love of reading and writing. She taught me to read very early, around three years old, and we would walk to the library, about a mile away, every few days and I would get more books than I could carry. The librarian would look at me with a raised eyebrow, as if she were doubtful that I would actually read those books before the due date. Then she would really be surprised when I would come back a few days later to return them all. She would question me about the books, as she didn't believe I read them, and I would be able to tell her all about them. This reading ability carried me all the way through high school without even having to study or even pay much attention in school. So besides the gift of life, this was one of the most important gifts my mother could have given me, and it's shaped my life in so many ways.

Now, for the contest portion - please answer which ever of these questions speak to you:
What did you learn from your mom?
If you are a mom yourself, what is the most important thing you are trying to teach your children?
What's the best book you've read in the past few years?

To continue on the theme, the prize is a copy of The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs, which includes all elements mentioned: reading, knitting and mother-daughter relationships.

I'll randomly pick a winner on Monday, so be sure to get your comments posted by then! Happy Mother's Day!

New Look Pattern Sale Score!

I got an email today that all of the newest patterns from New Look are on sale for $2.99 through this weekend, so I just bought all of these (if you want the pattern numbers, just hover over them with the mouse for a second and the number will appear:)

I really need to lock myself in my sewing room and not come out until I have all of these made!!! I'm dying for new clothes and I refuse to go to the store and buy them when I know I can make them exactly the way I want! I even have the fabric stash to do it so I wouldn't even have to leave the house unless I wanted to pick out some new stuff.

Tomorrow is a "summer Friday" and my only plans are a mani/pedi on Saturday morning at the new salon. So I think I could make significant progress on the sewing, provided I can keep myself from getting absorbed in a new knitting project instead! I know when my WEBS order arrives all bets are going to be off, but if I can do some sewing before then, that would be great!

In other news, I signed up again to be a Secret Pal Hostess! After a break from it for one round, I'm excited to be back into it. I made so many new friends as a hostess last time I did it, and it will be fun to work with a well-functioning group after my disastrous MBA group! I worked very well with the other hostesses last time, and I look forward to doing it again. Signups are not yet open, but they should be open around May 15th and close on the 30th, with matches to be made and distributed by June 15th. Watch the new SP12 blog for details on signups! There's also a new Ravelry group for this round that I'm helping to moderate, so details will be there as well. Yay!

Virtual Vacation: Seven Mile Beach, Grand Cayman

First off, our presentation yesterday went fine. Not amazing or fabulous (at least not as much so as if I would have rolled out my couture knitting business) but OK. Not the best or worst group, which usually would upset me, but in this case, I'm just happy it's OVER. The only other thing is the final next week and that will be easy.

Anyway, it is rainy and gloomy out today and I thought we would revisit Grand Cayman today, specifically Seven Mile Beach in December 2006. Now here would be another business opportunity that would actually be viable - a bar on the beach. There was one bar for the whole beach, and we talked to the guy who owned it, who had come down to Grand Cayman to make a go of this business from New Jersey. The place was totally busy and fun.

Here's me and Jim having Red Stripes and margaritas at the bar:

me wading through the beautiful water

and doing some meditation, letting the surf greet me and then fade away.

Seven Mile Beach is in my Top Ten of beautiful beaches visited and I would love to go back. Now, actually!