A new favorite detail.

Remember my pretty green skirt?  Well, as is often the case, once I took the pictures, I realized I'd forgotten something!  I was so intent on how to arrange the patch pockets against the fullness of the skirt that I forgot to sew down the fold at the top of the pocket, and it took seeing my photos to make me realize it!  All I can say is, I'm glad I figured it out before I washed the skirt!

I got it out the other day to fix it, and decided I'd like to try using pick stitch to make the top edge of the pocket a tiny bit decorative.  And OMG - I love it!  It's very subtle, but it adds a tiny bit of texture.

I really enjoy hand stitching, and this stitch was so fun to do.  I can see now why people are so crazy about doing hand-picked zippers.  I've never done one because I prefer the look of an invisible zipper to a lapped one about 99% of the time, but now I really want to try it out.

Before starting, I used my water soluble marking pencil and a ruler to trace a stitching line so it was easy keep everything straight.  I used my thread doubled, and twisted the two strands together a little bit so that the pick stitches came out like tiny knots.  They look like itty bitty studs to me.  I kept running my fingers over them to feel the texture.  That's not weird, right?

And now that I see these photos, I'm thinking about going back and doing this all along the two edges of the waistband and at the hemline!  What do you guys think?

I don't love you any more: the sad story of Burda 7063

Do any of you remember back in January when I posted about all the new Burda envelope patterns for spring?  And my two favorites, the coat I ended up making twice and 7063, a top or dress with shirred waistline?

I had great plans for 7063.  I had some fabric in the stash I thought would make a cute top, and enough fabric for making a muslin of the dress, with an eye toward making the final dress in a beautiful piece of silk I've had for about a year.  And I did begin the dress muslin, but somewhere along the line, I started hating it, and it ended up here:

Sandwiched in between knit yardage and leftover pieces of fabric.

I'm not really sure why I lost steam on this project.  I think it had to do in part with being really sick of this fabric I used for the muslin - it was one of those things where I had enough yardage to make something, but was really tired of the print (having used it twice already), so I thought using it for a muslin would be a good solution.  But it just kind of made me hate the dress and not want to work on it.

I've also started to realize that when I say I'm making a muslin, what I really mean is "first use of a pattern which I fully intend to wear, and which therefore must be wearable."  This one just . . . isn't.  And yes, I know I need to adjust my attitude re: muslins.

The other thing is that, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that as cute as it is, I really don't like to wear garments with shirring because I find it uncomfortable - the elastic against my skin feels too itchy.  So even if I did make this dress or top, it would probably be one of those things that just hangs in the closet.

So I've decided to let myself off the hook and just not finish this.  Which is actually kind of hard for me - it may take me a while, but I almost always finish what I start.  I really hate to abandon a project.  (Well, not in the case of knitting - I have no qualms about frogging a project if it's not going well.  That's part of the beauty of knitting - you get a do-over if you want!)

Have you guys ever fallen out of love with a project halfway through?  Do you scrap it, or make yourself finish?

Cameo

So here's what I started after I frogged the ill-fated Pip:

Of course, it's another Kim Hargreaves design!  This one is from Whisper, the spring book released in 2011.  It's called Cameo, and it's a short open jacket with deep raglans.   Here it is on Kim's lovely model:

I've wanted to make this sweater since the book came out, and just before getting this spring's book, I ordered the yarn to make it.  Then I got distracted with the new release!  But since Pip didn't work out for me with the yarn I had on hand, I came back to this.

The sweater is knit in Rowan's All Seasons Cotton, a cotton/acrylic mix.  It's a yarn I've used before, and while I don't especially enjoy knitting with it, I do love the final result - it's a great weight for spring and summer and quite easy to care for.  One of my all-time favorite sweaters was made with this yarn.  It's a little more tedious this time because I had to go down a needle size to get gauge, so it's all quite stiff.  But I love this fabric:

I've been having a lot of missteps lately with my knitting, so I'm really hoping I can stay on track with this and actually finish it!

Pip, Pip, Cheerio!

Well, I've done it again!  The new Kim Hargreaves sweater I started a couple weeks ago is no more.

Things were going pretty well - I got gauge with my yarn substitution and was liking the fabric.  But as I got close to finishing the back, I realized that the fabric I was creating really had too much drape for this design and it wasn't going to hang the way the original did.

So now it looks like this:

I'm starting to think this yarn is a little doomed.  This was my third try with it.  I originally bought it to make Chicago, but when I did my gauge swatch I just wasn't digging the fabric.  And you already know about my recent attempt at Lou, and now this one.  I feel a certain pressure to make just the right sweater with this yarn, because it is my favorite color and one of my all-time favorite yarns, which has now been discontinued.  So I may revisit the Chicago sweater - there are so many lovely versions on Ravelry.

And I'm hoping I'll eventually do the Pip sweater, because I think it's such a great design.  The yarn it calls for, Rowan Handknit Cotton, is one I've used before and liked, so I'll go that route in future.  I should have known to trust Kim!

Meanwhile, I've turned my knitting attention elsewhere . . .

A Lucky Find

Yesterday, Hubby and I went out for brunch with a group of friends in a neighborhood we hadn't visited before.  Since I ate a little too much, we decided to walk part of the way home, and along the way we came across a used bookstore.  Hubby can't resist a bookstore, so in we went.  While he pored over the CDs, I checked out the selection of craft books, and discovered this:

Now, this book is currently in print - it was reissued by Dover in 2011 - but instead of paying the list price of $21.95, I paid $10, and it's in brand-new condition.

I got really excited because inside were pictures of a sweater I've wanted to make for years:  the Oregon cardigan.

I'd only ever seen this as a kit sold by Virtual Yarns, Alice Starmore's website.  After perusing Ravelry, I saw that it was also published in Vogue Knitting Holiday 2007.  As I flipped through the book, I thought I saw the charts needed for this design, so I brought it home with me.

On further inspection though, it turns out that only the leaf chart for the bottom border is included.  However, there are very clear photos which will enable me to recreate the main pattern.  It's even on the cover of the book!

I'm glad I bought the book even though it doesn't have the pattern I was hoping for.  There are tons of great charts included, and tips on designing a sweater using them, so it's a great addition to my Alice Starmore collection.  And the Oregon sweater is way down the road for me anyway:  I definitely want to finish my Queen Anne's Lace before starting another Starmore.

I haven't shown that sweater since last August!  I did a good job of working on it consistently til about mid-December, but have only done a couple rows since then.  But I'm really not that far from being done:  I'd gotten all the way to starting the neck shaping.  Here is the current state of affairs:

What a gorgeous pattern.  Alice is truly a genius.  Here's my armhole steek:

And the beginning of the neck shaping:

I should really turn off the TV and get back to this!

Long time coming.

Yesterday I made Hubby a shirt.  A shirt I meant to make about seven years ago!

This is the third "guitar shirt" I've made him from this pattern.  I like the oversized, bowling-shirt vibe.  The pattern itself is McCall's 8409, from all the way back in 1996 - the year we got married!  It has lots of variations, but I've only ever done this version, View F.

I would guess I bought this pattern in the late '90s, and made him his first shirt around that time too.  It's the same print as his new shirt, but in blue, and has been well worn and loved over the years.

The fabric is nice and soft now from all the washing, and the collar is showing signs of wear.

I think that was probably the first time I made a man's shirt, and because I wasn't as precise as I am now, I stitched the inner collar stand down by hand:

However, I did take the time to flat fell the side seams:

A couple years later, I made him a second guitar shirt when I found this red Hawaiian-print fabric:

Hubby loves wearing both these shirts in the summer, so about seven years ago when I found the same fabric in green, I snapped it up with the intention of making him a third shirt.

And I did!  It just took me a while to get around to it ;-)

Now that I've made so many shirts for him, this one felt easy.  When you eliminate cuffs and sleeve plackets, you save a lot of time!  I also saved time by attaching the inner collar stand with my edgestitching:

And I didn't do any of the easing to get a curved collar.  This shirt will never be buttoned all the way up, so I figured it just wasn't important.

This time I did French seams, which also saved me some time - durable, but without a lot of fuss:

In contrast to the business shirts I've been making, this shirt has a separate buttonhole band piece, although the right (button) side is a double fold.  I wanted this shirt to be nice and soft, so I didn't interface the buttonhole band:

Two of the features of this pattern that I really like are the yoke and the center back pleat:

Can you see it?  There's a lot going on with this fabric!

Here are all three versions of this pattern hanging together.  I call this photo "Guitar Trio" -

I'm proud of myself that I finally knuckled down and made this shirt - that fabric had been taunting me for far too long! 

The Weirdest Thing I've Ever Made

Let's see if you guys can figure out what it is:

No?  How about if I show you the back:

Still no?

OK - how about now?

Hahahaha!

This is Hubby's big ol' beer stein.  He keeps it in the freezer so that when he wants a beer, he has a nice frosty glass to drink it from.  He also likes to fill this big boy half with orange juice and half with flavored carbonated water - quite delicious.

For years, we've just been wrapping the freezing handle in a dish rag, but the other day he asked me if I could come up with a more elegant solution.  "Of course,"  I said.  And here it is.

Believe it or not, I used my shirt-making skillz on this one.  I have three layers of fusible fleece in there; in order to get it to curve, I cut 1/4" off the width of the inside fabric piece and eased it to fit the outside piece, giving it a slight curve like a collar.

This is my second go.  I didn't measure before making my first one - just kind of eyeballed it - and it was too tall and not wide enough.  On this one, I initially sewed my velcro pieces to the single layers of fabric before sewing the thing together, all fancy-like.  But when I tried to put it on the handle, it didn't feel sturdy enough.  You have to pull really tight to get this . . . stein handle cozy? . . . onto the handle.  I made it that way on purpose so it wouldn't slip around like the dishrags used to.  So I unpicked the velcro tabs and sewed them through all layers of the . . . stein handle cozy.

So, what do you think?  Will I start a new trend?  Should I make a bunch of these and sell them on late-night TV?

This thing cracks me up!