Sewing in 2015

It's still January and I have a sewing project to show.

I made a bag for a friend's birthday. She is an all round crafter, so I made her a draw-string project bag. I had a couple of unused fat quarters and some left over coordinating fabric and just chose the size based on using as much of the fabric as possible. For the draw-strings, I had to sew lengths of fabric together.

I didn't take the final measurements but it is a roomy bag. Big enough for straight needles and big enough for a garment or a number of balls of yarn.

End Of Year Baby Clothes

On the Yarn Crawl I bought three skeins of baby yarn. This was a planned purchase as a new baby was on the way. I had enough yarn to make a cardigan, hat and mittens. As hard as I tried I could not get a pair of booties out of the leftovers.

The patterns I used, from Sirdar and Patons, date back to when my sister was expecting but the design of a basic cardy does not change.

The first photo does not show the true colour of the yarn. I usually take a photo of everything I make but for some reason I could not find a photo of the cardigan so I asked the baby's mama to take one. The photos of the hats and the mitts show the colour better.



In November I mentioned visiting the Yarnover Truck and a yarn store that I hadn't visited before. I wrote that I had made some strange decisions. One of them was the yarn I bought for the next item. Before we went I wrote down the yarn weight and how much I needed for a few items I was interested in . One item on the list was yarn for a baby jacket, there was also yarn for a hat, some needles and I can't remember what else. Anyway when I was looking at baby yarn, I looked at the wrong entry and bought one 100 gram ball of worsted weight yarn. There is nothing wrong with the yarn, it was just that I had not bought enough for the intended project. After a big search through Ravelry I came up with another top down pattern that was for the correct weight of yarn and I used the whole of the ball.



And a bonus when I came to finishing the two cardigans; Jo-Ann was having a sale on buttons.

I still have two shawls from last year to show off but they both really need better photos.

From Last Year

I have a couple of projects from last year to show plus some yarn I purchased.

Firstly socks. I am not knitting socks so much now but I still have some sock yarn and if I like the challenge in the Sock Knitters Anonymous Group I will join in. I had some sock yarn that I had purchased a while ago for the edging on a shawl (which I still need some photos so I can show it off). When I decided that it was not right and I bought some different yarn I now had a skein of sock yarn that needed to become something. One of the challenges for November 2014 was slipped stitches so that seemed a good opportunity to use the yarn and I chose a pattern that I owned.



Yarn is Footloose from Forbidden Woolery and the pattern is Slip-stitch Cable Socks from the Little Box of Socks. I changed the heel to a horseshoe heel from The Sock Knitter's Workshop.

Also in December I finished some fingerless mitts for my husband. His hands get very cold even here in Southern California so I made him some mitts with yarn left over from a different project. (Um yes another project that needs a good photograph.)



The yarn is Afghan Hound by Fiber Hound, a gorgeous merino/silk mix with great stitch definition. The pattern is by Ysolda Teague.

And now some fun yarn that I bought last year. I saw this on Ravelry and couldn't resist.



The yarn is from Trailing Clouds and is a self-striping sock yarn dyed in the colours of the lines on the London Underground Map. I started to knit with it this month as the challenge was self-striping yarn but I couldn't find a pattern that I liked and fit the challenge so I am going to wait for another month. (And cast on something else instead.)

Next time an update on the baby items I finished before the end of the year.

First Off The Needles

Half way through January and I already have two finished items to show. Neither used entire balls of yarn so I cannot count balls of yarn out but I can record the meterage knitted; so far yarn is going down in 2015. (And another little item was made while I was watching football last weekend.)

This year I really want to make (knit or crochet) an item for Operation Gratitude every month. Last year I managed one a month from January to September inclusive. Each month one of the moderators of the group on Ravelry suggests one knit and one crochet pattern. I started the crochet pattern but it wasn't working with the yarn I was using so I did a quick search on Ravelry and came up with a free knitting pattern for a hat where I could use some of the bulky yarn I bought last year especially for charity knitting.

The pattern is Chunky Bamboo Stitch Hat and I knit it with Bernat Softee Chunky Solids on size 8 mm needles.



Remember this yarn? I cast on a pair (OK technically one, although it is possible to cast on two at the same time) of fingerless mitts on 1 January - new year, new project. The pattern is Flecktone and I used 2.25 mm needles. I made cuffs shorter than the pattern but the top comes further up the hand. I love them.

Off To A Good Start

In my last post for 2014 I said that all the yarn counters would be set to zero. KnitMeter.com would do this automatically but I would have to reset my yarn in counters.

I am really excited to say that my yarn in is currently showing a negative number. This is because at the beginning of last week I sold some yarn and the buyer has received it so it is definitely no longer in my stash. Whenever I buy/gift/donate yarn it reduces the yarn in. Yarn out records yarn that I have used myself.

And by next weekend I should be recording a couple of finished objects. They might not count as complete balls of yarn used but there will definitely be meterage knitted up.

A Collection of Cuteness

Trying to catch up with photos of knitted items from last year. Which would be more successful if I uploaded photos from my camera.

Today we’ll have a triumvirate of booties.

I have mentioned how my son’s girlfriend loves anything made for her or her family and that blue booties had been requested. I found some more blueish yarn in my stash and started on the standard bootie pattern but I knew that they were too big so I found more yarn in my stash to make smaller booties. It was white baby yarn, probably 4-ply, so I followed the pattern for worsted weight yarn to make smaller booties. But there was no stopping me and I remembered I had yarn left over from the baby cardigan so another small pair of booties was made.

Three pairs of booties; three ends of yarn used up; all I had to do was buy ribbon and mail them.