Yarn Crawl

Sunday Morning Potpourri

It's been an eventful weekend; I'm a little exhausted and need "me" time, although it's been a lot of fun.

So Friday afternoon my Zen came from Elann for ribbon shawl gifts throughout the year:

My co-worker that I gave the beads to a few months ago (who gave me the Elann gift certificate) fixed some jewelry for me, and so we decided to barter instead of me paying her. I offered to make her one of the ribbon triangles shawls and she picked out the pink yarn at the bottom of the previous picture. I started this on Saturday morning, as I was feeling lazy and up for mindless knitting and I just finished it now.

This is my "go-to" three hour gift knitting project - this one is a little bigger than the ones I've made with two skeins of Tartelette and I don't like the Zen quite as much. They're both cotton/nylon blends, with a railroad type of matte/shiny ribbon, but the Zen has a little lower of a cotton content compared to the Tartelette, and the Tartelette includes 10% of a different type of nylon (Tactel nylon).

Overall, the Zen is fine, and it's not scratchy or anything like some other ribbon yarns I've tried, but not quite as silky smooth or shiny as the Tartelette. I'll use up these other colorways but I will stick to Tartelette from now on. I'm debating whether I should make another black/silver one out of some Tartelette I have in stash and letting her pick which one she wants. I can always use the pink/purple one as something to throw over more casual summer dresses.

This is what the Tartelette shawl/scarf looks like (it also has lower yardage so it comes out smaller than the Zen version; also this picture shows it folded in half):

So yesterday we had originally just planned to go to the birthday party from 3-6 and not go back to the birthday boy's house, but we did end up going back there, and didn't get home until around 10 pm. The day was kind of shot as far as getting anything done (other than the shawl progress) as I started getting ready to go around 1:30 and then was gone from then until 10 but we did have a fun time. It was nice to reconnect with them, as we hadn't seen them in a long time.

I also got my new Interweave issue and I love some of the designs. Here are my favorites:

The Wakame Lace Tunic is at the very top of the list - beautiful design, the new tunic length that I've been into lately, seamless construction. Wow. I might even splurge for the Tilli Tomas Fil de la Mer, as I want it to turn out EXACTLY like this. Has anyone tried this yarn? Any insights would be appreciated.

Delft Tiles Tee - I've been wanting to try slip stitch colorwork, and this seems to be a great way to do it.

Although because it's slip stitch and not fair isle, as I originally thought it was when I saw the preview online, it won't be as hot as I thought it might be, but I really don't like the thickness of the Blue Sky Cotton. I made Tomato with it and found it to be really kind of hot to wear. On this one I might try to swatch Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece or some other yarn sub.

The other thing I don't like is that there is no size between 31.5" and 35", as 35" is a little roomy for me for a summer top, especially when they say they modeled it with 1/2" of negative ease, so any yarn substitution would probably also incorporate a sizing change to make this somewhere in the neighborhood of 33"-34".

Oh, and one other thing - I also don't like that it's knit flat. Is there any issue with converting slip stitch patterns to be knit in the round? I know there is with intarsia, but I would think slip stitch should be ok. Not sure though.

Next up, the Drawstring Raglan. I like the shape and construction on this one, so I would probably make it:

The Eyelet Surplice Dress really caught my eye too. I've never made a knit dress or skirt, so I am a little leery about it, but I think this is really cute. I am kind of between sizes on this one too, between the smallest and the second size - If I decided to go with the more fitted option, I think I'd make the smallest size, as I'm right on at the bust with that one even though the bottom for that size is a little bit small (like by an inch.) If I went with the second size, I would be modeling it with positive ease, like it's shown, but I don't know if it might look dumpy. Ease is usually NOT my friend in knitwear and I look better in fitted garments.

The Leaf Kimono top is cute, and I would probably knit it in hemp (Elann Canapone) instead of linen.

I do like the lace pattern on the Apres Surf Hoodie, and the delicate look of the yarn, but 1.) I don't really wear hoodies and 2.) I'm not such a fan of 4-ply weight yarn. So, I probably won't knit this, but I think it's really cute.

Today I have a free day to myself (big sigh of relief) and I'm not sure yet what to do with it. Part of me wants to finish up some unfinished sewing projects (putting hems on stuff, doing odds and ends), another part wants to pick out some fabric from stash and/or buy some new fabric to make that high waisted skirt (Vogue Fabrics is kind of calling my name) and another part feels like working on my new online class on "copying your favorite pants" over at Patternreview. It officially started on Thursday, and I have all the pdfs for it downloaded with pictures and instructions on how to do it, but haven't done anything yet. The class only lasts like two weeks, so I really need to work through it if I want to get help on it. Part of me says why bother with the fire drill, just save the pdfs for when I'm motivated to do it. We'll see what happens. So since I guess I didn't mention any knitting as a burning desire, I probably won't do that today (unless I decide to make that black/silver Tartelette scarf/shawl.)

However, on the knitting front, Swing Top and Tea Rose Halter are almost done drying as we speak.

(this next one of TR Halter was taken when it was still really wet, but it shows the design nicely even though it's way darker than it really is)

The utility tub is fully functional now and I used it for their "bath" on Friday.

The only thing we need to finish off the utility room is shelving for laundry detergent, etc. We decided not to do a pull down or over the door ironing board as they were super expensive and/or too small.

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.

Pictures from Yesterday and SP Package #2

Here's the sushi wallet:

I didn't have a chance to fix the underarm hole on Tempting last night, but as I had Jim take pictures of it yesterday morning before I discovered it, I thought I'd show it anyway. I was still figuring out what to do with the ribbon - that is actually "seal brown" hem tape I had in my sewing stash, but I also have some brown suede cord and may even look for a contrasting color - maybe light blue or pink? Those colors look good with chocolate brown. Any ideas are appreciated!

Here's the yarn I bought on Saturday for the kids' sweaters:

Green Malabrigo for Noah's Cabo Hoodie

and my progress on it last night (you can see why I didn't fix Tempting once I cast on for this!)

Purple Lamb's Pride for McKenna's Starsky Jr.:

and Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece for Mia's Bounce skirt:

I also received my second SP package yesterday!! Check this out:

This was amazing - the package contained a beautifully made flower pin, 8 skeins of Monoprix Terra (made in Italy), L'Occitane Gelee Moussante (shower gel), L'Occitane effervescent cooling bath tablets, Lindt chocolate macaroons, and five beautiful buttons.

Take a closer look at the buttons - they are like a mother-of-pearl background and really beautiful.

Thank you so much, SP!

Wordless Wednesday!!!