6+1

Well, when you are on a roll…

DH’s shirts were literally falling apart, and he’s a tall guy who keeps getting a cold back because his shirts don’t always meet his pants when he sits down.

So I pulled out all my knit fabric, and it turns out I had more than I thought! The main thing that had held me back so far was that I didn’t have a pattern for a regular t-shirt for him (I had made him a turtleneck before, but it didn’t quite fit as is). I do have a book “Fundamentals of Men’s Fashion Design: A Guide to Casual Clothes” (Roberts & Onishenko), but by the time it got to knit tops, it stopped drafting by measurements, and just showed a sample size.

It was one of those hold your nose and jump projects.

I compared the standard size chart to the sample pattern, figured out where to increase, then compared that to DH’s tees he already had, then added another few inches to the bottom. Then made up a short sleeved, V-neck version to see what needed tweaking. He had no complaints! In fact, I haven’t been able to get it back, which is why it’s the “+1″ – it wasn’t available for the photograph!

Back to the turtleneck pattern – Kwik Sew 3186. His main complaints were the “floppy neck” (Kwik Sew gives you two sizes for the turtleneck – one for ribbing and one for self-fabric; turns out the self-fabric version is pretty much the actual neck size, which in stretchy knit is going to act sloppy), and sleeves that were too long (my fault – I lengthened them and got carried away ). So guestimating how much to take off the turtleneck had me between the “S” and “M” sizes, vs. the “L” I cut out originally, so I checked what the difference in the necklines were and cut out an “M” neckline. The yellow (“cycling jersey”) turtleneck came out of that, and it was a success!

So 2 blue V-neck long sleeved Ts followed (had to eek out the hems on the sleeves, those ones were a bit too short!), the berry short sleeved V-neck, a black turtleneck, and a black short sleeved T. He now has 6 more back warmers waiting for him!

The bonus of making your own shirts (besides getting enough length without drowning in them!), is there’s often enough bits and pieces left over for underwear -

I guess that makes 6+1 for me too .

Darning

If I had known how many holes I’d be weaving together on these socks, I would have tossed them two weeks ago. I fixed the heels when I found them in the bottom of the repair box, but since then I’ve added two balls-of-the-feet and a toe hole!

I guess it’s not that surprising, these were the second pair I made ever – which makes them almost 6 years old! Granted, there was that large swath of time in the bottom of the repair box, but still, pretty good for socks out of reclaimed sweater wool, don’t you think?

Sewing: shorts, pants, and a nightgown

Now, it might not look that way in my living room/sewing area right now, but I am making inroads! On top of finishing these, I put together a new 3/4 sleeved t-shirt (which looks like most of my other t-shirts, so I didn’t bother with the photo), and fixed popped seams in another long sleeved T (really, do use the stretch stitch setting, even if it does eat up 3x the thread…).

Last August we took a little trip out of town, with no real agenda. Saw some provincial parks listed on the map up the highway, so we headed north. Never did find the exits for those, so we ended up in Truro, where the highway ends. And almost first thing off the highway, with a grocery store to pick up lunch… was a Fabricville. With a buy-1-get-2-free sale. I mean, come on, I can’t go against fate can I?

I picked up brown linen, white dot cotton (from which I’ve already made a skirt and a top – have one more top cut out and ready to sew), and a swirly blue “unknown fibres” (which burned to say polyester if I recall correctly), which turned into much needed curtains. Wait, I didn’t tell you about the curtains?

This:

Is now this:

Much better, eh?

Right, I was talking about the linen before I got sidetracked there. I managed to get shorts and drawstring pants cut out of the 3 metres, even with the dye flaw.

What’s turned out to be my favourite shorts pattern:

has now been altered based on the pants pattern I’ve finally fit to my satisfaction. Not that it mattered much with the drawstring top, but hey, looking to the future it’ll come in handy.

(Please excuse both the tucked-in look (well, you can’t see the shorts very well otherwise, can you?) and the bad image quality (I may have to stop sewing for a bit and sort out a lighting system – it’s going to be a long winter for a north facing apartment!).)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I actually cut out the pattern with the yoke pieces (they are topstitched onto the shorts body, which I always thought was a weird way to do it), but the linen is a really loose weave, and yokes always end up with a good portion on the bias due to the curve of the pieces. I couldn’t get them to lie down flat anymore! So I went with a theme, and made these drawstring too, by attaching the yokes right sides together, flipping them inside, and sewing down a 1/2″ casing along the top. The bottom parts of the yokes still flare out, but they are inside now so no one has to see them .

The pants pattern, I actually have no idea where it came from. For the longest time I thought it was my sister’s, but it’s not (she’d never get a L/XL anyway!).

Ah, well, mystery origin or not, out it came and I spent an hour on the floor trying to morph my fitting pants pattern on top of it (or was it below it?). Whatever, it worked – excepting the 2 1/2″ hem (better too long than last winter’s too short!!).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not that you can tell, but I put patch pockets on these too. Going for the summer casual look!

Neither are going to be very useful outdoors until May, but the pants have already debuted in “slouching around the house”, and I have to tell you, soooo comfortable!

And the final finished object…

I had a knit fabric nightgown with a crocheted trim I bought years ago, and the elastic went and the fabric was getting dingy, so I traced it out on new fabric, added some length, and took the trim off to make a new version.

Doesn’t look like much lying down, but it’s definitely got enough negative ease to provide lots of shaping when it’s on me . No, there will be no modeled shots!

Next up: fixing a mint coloured dress, and attempting the swiss dot top (drafted much of it myself, not sure how it’s going to turn out!!).

New Patterns, part 2! Lása Olann Cardigan

This one was a nail biter. OK, it was for me . There was no former project to scavenge for this sample, so I ordered some Cascade 220 in Burnt Orange from my LYS. In mid-August. Granted, not the time they usually stock wool, so when they said it would be about a month to get it in, I didn’t sweat it. Heck I was way too busy in September to knit this up anyway.

September came and went, no call. October came in a flurry, and even though I didn’t have time then either, I did call to check on the status of the order – nothing in yet, no ETA. Then I started to get worried – I mean, much of the reason I chose the burnt orange was to compliment the fall colours (which can be notoriously fickle in both onset and duration) – things were getting pretty vibrant out there… I call again the end of the 3rd week of October and YES! The order is in!! Fabulous. Oh, wait, my colour is back ordered. So not good. No ETA on it. But they did have a popular Heathers colour called Provence that was rust/orange/flecks of green and yellow that was similar to a burnt orange, did I want that?

Ummm, YES!

I think by the time I picked up the yarn and wound a few balls, it was around the 23rd. We’re talking one good wind storm away from all the leaves disappearing. I start whipping up a sleeve… only to find out that my gauge was different with the Heathers than with the Cascade 220 Wool I swatched with. Panic or different fibre tendencies, I have no idea, but back up to 4.5mm needle I went, ripped, and started over. (Sleeves are such good gauge swatches!)

Sleeves done in a couple of days, excellent. Start the body. Flying through the lace – realize I’ve missed the start of the decreases for the Petite version. Ah, well, cardigans are great when they are longer, aren’t they? So I made up a standard size C (one size larger than the Pullover and Tee samples).

And sewed in all the ends on October 29th. There’s something to be said for knitting up something similar to two other things I’d made, but still I think that’s a finger speed record for me. I was surprised I didn’t end up with wrist problems after that!

So DH and I go off on Oct 30th, looking for a spot to take pictures. And in the suburbs, all the leaves had hit the dirt . So we start driving downtown, where DH saw lots that morning – and then exclaimed as we were driving in that “those trees were covered 6 hours ago!!”. By the time we made it to a park beside campus, we were very relieved to see at least a few leaves still around – we cut this down to the wire!

In the end, the standard size is actually too big on me (it looks like the waistline is actually on my waist, when it’s written to be an empire), but oh, is the Cascade ever soft and warm. Especially when I’ve done the first half of the photoshoot in cotton . The colour is a rich rust/orange, perfect for fall, and has no pink undertones in it (that my monitor kept showing me when I was trying to pick out colours from online catalogues!).

(Click on the pictures, or on the link in the sidebar, for more info on the pattern and buying options.)

New Patterns, part 1! Lása Olann Pullover

These patterns came out of the requests of my present and potential test knitters, and I must say they had some good ideas! Remember Lása Cadáis?

Lása Cadáis

I got requests both for a long sleeved version, and a cardigan (see next post!). Now I had two of the tees already made up, and the thought of adding two more to my collection seemed a bit much… but there just might be enough of the green to add long sleeves to the tee if I was lucky.

 

I was – although not quite lucky enough to save both short sleeves to swap back out next summer (I only have one now!).

Lása Olann Pullover

It originally being meant for warmer weather, it was knit with negative ease (the yarn is partly cotton, so negative ease is necessary to behave as if it’s lightly skimming – add more than an inch of ease, and cotton will start to hang off you like you borrowed your brother’s sweater ). So the photoshoot at the end of October presented a conundrum – freeze, or put a shirt underneath? I did both (freeze and put a shirt underneath – sorry, but a t-shirt and a cotton sweater just doesn’t hack it with that wind!) – but it is really too tight for a shirt!

I have surprised myself at how useful a long sleeved cotton sweater can be inside though!

(Clicking on the pictures, or on the link in the sidebar under “Patterns” will get you to the pattern page for more details and buying info.)