Knit Meter

Saturday, July 20, 2019

Catching Up With Sewing Projects

I knew there were a couple of dresses that I had not shown here, but going through photos I found two other sewing projects that also I had not talked about.

Firstly the two dresses; both made for my granddaughter. I am really pleased by the first one as I drafted the pattern myself. I could not find a pattern in this style, so I measured a shop bought dress of hers and made my own pattern. I wasn’t sure how to work the neckband but found an example in a book I got at the library.



The second dress, she chose the fabric herself and I found a simple commercial pattern. Unfortunately, the fabric has shrunk so much in length in the washing process, it is now worn as a nightie.



Which brings me to the next make – which is a nightie. I was given the fabric, and it seemed suitable for nightwear. It is hard to fins commercial patterns that are not overly frilly. This was the least I could find. I didn’t have quite enough fabric but that did not matter as she is not very tall. She loves this and I can see myself making another.



And finally something for myself – a bag. My sister gave me a fat quarter for my birthday last year. I knew it would become a bag, but which style? Finally I opted for my standard drawstring bag but using as much of the fabric as possible. (Note to self – next time make bag a bit wider.)


Sunday, July 14, 2019

A Little Stash Enhancement

I have purchased very little yarn this year. Partly because I don’t NEED yarn, but also, because I am enjoying knitting with what I have. Quite a few of my skeins are earmarked for specific projects. Earlier in the year I bought a skein of yarn in an online sale to go with yarn already in my stash which will become a big shawl. And in March I purchased yarn to make a jacket for my granddaughter; which has been knitted and worn. Including a couple of gifts and the yarn I sold, up until a few days ago, more skeins had left my stash than gone in.

So what happened? A closing down sale. A yarn store is closing its doors after many years in business. Although this is sad, I don’t think it will have much of an impact on me as I didn’t frequent them often. But they did carry the brand of needles I like. I had no plans to go to the sale but on Friday I had a number of errands to run and happened to drive past the store. Why not pop in and see what is left?

So yes, I bought some yarn. I could have spent a long time looking at yarn and patterns on Ravelry but I was conscious that later in the year is Stitches SoCal and I want to save some enthusiasm for that event. I bought 6 skeins of yarn and some needle tips. Only one skein do I not have a plan for – the grey sparkle sock yarn. Grey is a good neutral to have in my stash. The skein on the far left is more turquoise than the photo shows and is to go with two other yarns in my stash for a specific project; the two blue skeins are for a specific project. The gradients follow on from each other and I have an idea of the pattern I will use, but it is not definite.




I am pleased with what I got as it is not too overwhelming and I will enjoy making things with it.

Saturday, July 6, 2019

A Tale of Two Appias.

I like lacey cowls that cover my shoulders as evidenced by the two Starshowers I have made. As seen here and here.

So it’s no surprise that I wanted to make another with this yarn that I bought on the LA Yarn Crawl last year.

But I decided to change it up a bit and purchased another of the designer’s pattern – Appia. I swatched on three different size needles and worked the project on size 4mm needles. (I had worked the two Starshowers on size 5mm needles.)

I really like the final project.



Of course, I had to make another one and used yarn that had been in my stash since July 2017 but I couldn’t think what to turn it into.


I decided it would be my vacation project and that I would use 5mm needles. Except I messed up when packing my needles and didn’t have any 5mm needles with me. Rather than going down to 4.5mm I worked the project on 5.5mm needles. I don’t like the end result and wonder if it would have been better made on smaller needles. Here’s a picture of the two Appias side-by-side and you can see that the new one does not have any drape.



I had not sewn in the ends so I have started a new project right from the end of the old one.