Sew Distracted

State of the Projects

February is almost at an end and I seem to have made little progress in terms of fiberly ambitions.  I have done a great deal of thinking about what I wish to sew and knit and not enough actual sewing or knitting.  Well, there has been more knitting than sewing.

Still....
    The pile of UFO's remains constant.
    There is no evidence of stash reduction.

But I am having fun working on things.  Unfortunately no current project is near completion.

Here are a few peeks at what is currently in progress:

Rage Management

Well its done, and it is nice. 

Pattern:  Rage Management by L'Atelier
Yarn:  Highlander by Alpaca with a Twist
           color 2012

I wore it yesterday to a surprise 50th birthday party for my college roommate and it was just perfect. I can't believe we are all turning 50 this year. 

Unfortunately the party was held in one of those old dark neighborhood bars where there was little light and lots of people and none of my pictures came out.  As usual we were running late and there were no pictures before the party, and the after-party photo op was ruined by an unfortunate encounter with some onion dip.  Almost 50 or not, some of us still can't go out in public without making a mess.

Today the sweater is on the blocking board where it belongs, and should have been before I wore it.  Remember I blocked the pieces before assembly but then ripped and re-knitted parts. 

You can see the re-knitted bodice in better detail here, along with the ribbed neckline, still unblocked.

I did end up redoing the hem but I took the easy way out.  I just picked up the cast on edge and worked down from there, using the same pattern of reverse stockinette and stockinette rows that is used at the top of the sweater.  Rather than ending the pattern with three rows of stockinette however, I used three rows of seed stitch just to eliminate that tendency to roll. This way the hem picks up the pattern from the top and also echoes the seed stitch hems on the sleeves. 

I am finding that putting my sweaters on Matilda after is helpful because I can analyze the fit much better, even though the shoulders are a little wonky due to her lack of arms.

I don't know why I didn't do this years ago.  Somehow in my brain there seems to be some disconnect between fitting sewn garments and fitting knitted garments, although this is something I am really aiming to work on.

Although you can't see it here, I do need to work on the way I do shoulders to accommodate my forward shoulders, although usually sweaters are stretchy enough it is not as big a deal as on sewn clothes.

What I do notice from this picture is that although the pieces are the same length it hangs quite differently, something I notice on myself as well.  Twisting around while looking in a mirror is not really helpful from a fitting perspective so I didn't really understand the problem until I looked at it on  Matilda.

There are actually two issues here:
First, I need to add length at the front over the bust.  It has been a couple of years now since I expanded outward from my B-cup to my post-menopausal D cup and I am just overcoming the denial stage and learning to deal with the requisite alterations,  I definitely need to do some short row work to add space over the bust without lengthening the side seams.

Second, the back is still too long in the middle of the back relative to the side seams.  I know from fitting patterns, that my back waist length is a good bit shorter than my front waist length (with the reverse being true for the rise below the waist, longer back rise and shorter front rise) and I also have a fairly flat back due to my scoliosis.  To accommodate this and achieve less fabric in the middle I need to do something almost like a reverse dart, adding length with short rows at the side seams, taking the extra out in the middle:

Something like this:     | >--------<|

I am tempted to play with this on my next sweater.  I am already up to the waist in the back so I am at a good place to try this, although it is being knitted with two yarns held together, the base yarn of which is mohair, not fun for ripping out if I don't like it.

But then, its only yarn, right?   

Amaranth Purple

There was a package for me at the post office today and I was surprised to see it was from Timmel Fabrics , not because I didn't order something, but because I hadn't expected it so quickly.  I couldn't wait to get home and open it, and in fact I was opening it almost immediately after walking in the door.  Poor DH wanted me to do something, saw I was opening the package, saw it was fabric, and said "that puts me in my place".  Oh well.

Here is what I got:

It is a wonderful purple cotton lycra jersey.  When I saw it on the website, and noted the pantone # (yummy, 19-3526, my favorite shade of purple) I knew it was exactly what I wanted to knock off the Anthropologie "If You Please" dress.

Julie did tell me it was back-ordered and would be a week or so before it came in.  All I can say is that week passed very quickly and I haven't even ordered the pattern yet. 

More shopping for me.  (I'm not complaining).

New Mail

Lots of new inspirations came in the mail:

This is more dream-mail than actual useful sewing information but that's fine by me.  We are actually out more than we are in this week and next so anything that fuels my virtual-sewing is loads of fun.

I do have a pattern pulled out (or three) and some fabric prepped and ready to go should any substantial piece of sewing time materialize.  In the meantime I have gotten the neckline finished on "Rage Management":

Now I just need to seam it up and re-block since I did a fair amount of ripping and re-knitting after the first blocking.  I had hoped to wear it tomorrow, but I think it will still be wet, especially as it is after noon and I haven't even started seaming and have no idea when I will be able to begin.

I also need to make some serious progress on deciding on my next project, making swatches and plans, and find something portable as there appears to be a fair amount of sitting-and-waiting time looming on the near horizon.

Not yet...

Spring..... It.Is.Not.Yet.Spring.

Obviously someone things it is, spring that is.

Figgy sprouted this week and he (she? does it matter with figs?) is sending out a ton of embryonic figs.  So cute.

Such a pain. 

Each year I leave the poor fig out in the cold longer and longer, right up until the first really killing frost (for this fig that is somewhere below 20 degrees) in the hopes that he will stay dormant until some reasonable time in the spring.

Most years Figgy thinks that spring starts sometime around Valentines day.

But now I have to get him out of the back of my garage and someplace warm and sunny, which means a trip outdoors.

Tomorrow is supposed to be the warmest day of the week which means I will be out  in the rain tramping around the semi-frozen slushy ground wrestling with a giant potted fig. I suspect the fig will get the best of that deal as it will have to be well wrapped up in blankets so it can stay warm and toasty and not drop those precious little fruits. 

Swatch

Last night I suddenly, and yes, blessedly, found myself in possession of a little knitting time, where there had been none since Tuesday.

But there was nothing to knit.  I would have settled for some hand-sewing but there was nothing to sew either, or at least nothing at that level of preparedness where I could just sit down and let my hands do the work.

I can't even say the week was that stressful or that bad, just busy and filled with other things.  Of course there was that lovely Valentine's dinner and bottle of Cotes du Rhone that eliminated the possibility of productive work on Thursday evening.

Rage Management was in limbo:  I finished the sleeves on Tuesday but had not yet managed to get them pinned out for blocking and I had not yet measured and marked the front so that I could un-knit and re-knit the pattern.  The measuring and marking just required too much precision to be done after a long, somewhat stressful day when I really wanted to be watching Monk.

Luckily I remembered that I had a collection of summer tweed sitting in my knitting basket, just waiting for me to make a swatch.

An hour later I had this lovely little treat to contemplate.  I am in love, even though the swatch is not finished and I don't know if I have gauge yet. 

This is always the problem with knitting, once something is started I become obsessed with it and want to do nothing more than spend all my time with that precious bit of fiber.  All other projects flee out of my brain as I concentrate on my current infatuation. 

Well, it took me long enough.  This is the swatch for Maggie:
Which, I believe is from two summers ago.  And here I am dreaming of sweaters from the new Rowan spring book while I still have projects two-year-old projects sitting around.

I suppose this is always the way.  I might be rearranging my knitting schedule.  Oh Maggie has long been in the queue, but now that I have started she has just moved up, besides this looks and feels like it will be a wonderful transition into spring and later back into fall type of cardigan.

But first, I MUST block and reknit Rage Management so that I can wear it while it is still cold.  Of course at the moment it doesn't look like "still cold" is something that is going to disappear soon.

And there is a growing pile of fabric on the cutting table, and a growing list of items that should be sewed, if I want to go out of the house that is.  Of course if I don't have clothes that I can wear in public I might just have to stay indoors in my jammies and knit.  Don't think I haven't considered the possibility,  I have merely reconciled myself to the unfortunate fact that it won't work.

New Rowan

New Rowan books!

I love getting the Rowan magazines and this one is no exception.  There are several designs in here I would like to knit, some immediately, and some that can wait.  And there are others that I think are nice. 

I am always amazed when I go back and look at previous issues how many designs stand the test of time and I think this issue will be no exception.

Most of the sweaters that I am attracted to in this issue are more classic sweaters that I can wear for a long time.

One exception is perhaps Granite:

This sweater is just seriously cool, and I am really hoping to be knitting this.  Unfortunately it uses Bamboo Tape, which is not currently represented in my stash and my intention is to knit up a bit more of the stash and reduce new yarn purchases somewhat.  Unfortunately, although I can substitute, I think the shape of this sweater will really shine with the drape of bamboo and I would have to be very careful with substitutions.

Another sweater that uses Bamboo tape is this loose vest-like tank, called Mine.  I love the beads along the edge and I think this would look really cool over a pair of jeans with a close fitted tee or two underneath.  Because it is loose and drapey  I would want it to be short enough that a clingy tee would extend underneath.  This pattern is a bit short for me and I might make it a tad shorter, to maximize its layering potential. 

Mine is simple but really already planted firmly in my brain as a must-have for spring and summer, so I might just have to get the yarn and the beads.

As I said the other designs I really like are more classic in their appeal.  Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mabley are both represented:

I would make the men's vest in a small, making it for myself and adding a good bit of shaping to it so that it was much more close-fitting .  I would probably also lower the v-neckline just a wee bit to show a little more flesh at the neckline.

I also love this delicate lacy tee by Sarah Hatton.

It seems that I am increasingly attracted to delicate feminine things even though not so long ago I would have said that lace was really not my thing.  Apparently that is no longer the case and one of these days something like this tee is going to appear on my needles. I can't quite bring myself to do the whole wispy romantic look, but I can see this with a pair of sharply tailored pants as well.

There is actually more.  A couple of RYC books arrived in the same package, but I have already gone on long enough, and not completed my chores for today, so I will have to continue later.

Domesticity and Southern Comfort

I finally ordered Jane Brocket's  book and it arrived Thursday.  I have been interested in it since the beginning as Jane's blog is one I eagerly look forward to reading.  But when one's list of books to acquire or read numbers in the hundreds, and one's library in the thousands, sometimes things get delayed.  There was never any doubt that I would get the book, there was only some question as to when, especially as we have been weeding and rearranging the tomes on the walls, and there is nothing more daunting, nor more likely to make me curse under my breath and swear to limit the number of books coming into the house -- for a short time at least.

So this morning when I awoke to the continuation of my cold with throat still parched and sore and the symptoms migrating rapidly to my head, it seemed like the perfect time to curl up near a window to watch the dawn and slowly savor my new book and a cup of tea all wrapped up in a warm mohair blanket.

I had a lovely, leisurely couple of hours.  I did not read quickly, allowing myself to slowly savor the treat, mostly starting at the beginning, but flipping through here and there when my some bit of thick-headedness would cloud my attention. Slowly wending my way through the book is like reading Jane's blog; filled with beautiful pictures and evocative words.  I loved just sitting and dreaming about my favorite things:  yarn and fabric, colors, beads, books, baked goods, chocolate, wine.

I might not have, initially, thought I would be so enamored of a blog that did not revolve around knitting and sewing beautiful clothes, but I should have known better.  I am happiest with books, yarn, fabric, baking, flowers, chocolate.   I am basically a garment sewer and I love beautiful clothes, but I love more than that as well, and this book inspires a different creative impulse.

Such a joy.

While I read, I set up a pot of grits in the double boiler where they could cook slowly at a soft simmer while I read and dreamed.    Grits still speak to me of home and comfort food, and are especially nice when I am slightly under the weather.  Although I grew up with smooth, quicker cooking grits, I have found I love the thickly textured stone-ground grits from Anson Mills  best of all.  They are not fast food, but they fill body and soul.

 

Find the error

Well I have been making great progress on Rage Management.  I finished the body and one sleeve and have started the second sleeve.  Or, more exactly I thought I had finished the body.

I was pinning it to the blocking board today, oh so proud of myself for being almost finished with a sweater and looking forward to starting the next one.  I even thought I could give myself a little bit of a treat and wind up the yarn for the next project tonight.

But then, I realized that something was amiss.  In fact there is something terribly wrong with this sweater, wrong enough that it was quite obvious even through my self-congratulatory fog.  It was obvious even though my mental faculties are somewhat crippled by a head cold and a two-day old sinus headache. 

If you haven't noticed yet, it will be quite obvious in the next photo:

Notice the lovely garter ridges made by the pattern stitches on the back?  Look at how plain the front appears in comparison.  I was supposed to do the same pattern stitches and continue the garter ridges. 

Somehow I forgot.

It is not that it is not that much knitting.  The pieces are really quite small, it is more that I would have rather not made such a silly mistake, and then, I would have rather realized the extent of my error before I washed and blocked the sweater.  I see that it really does help to pay attention to what one is doing.

Bummer.

Well, I have already started the last sleeve and there are no garter ridges on the sleeves.  Besides the pieces have to dry now.

More new inspirations

These pattern books keep coming in the mail, not that I am complaining mind you, but it seems that in the past I have used them more as fashion magazines for their inspiration potential, than I have availed myself of their actual pattern content.  This is of course silly, especially since I tend to justify the expense by rationalizing all the patterns I could use from each subscription.  Well I want to change that trend this year, but so far, just as I am absorbing the ideas and potential from one issue, another arrives.

Of course I am distracted by other things as well. We are still remodeling, other stuff is going on, and, well, life is just that, life.

When I opened the February Burda, I was immediately struck by this dress:

Now this dress is really lovely, and I like the wrap and twist detailing, which will hide a bit of tummy.  But I don't really like the neckline for me.  It is a lovely soft neckline, but not my best.  Truth be told I like the way it is illustrated on the line drawings:

This is of course how you get the soft cowl, but I would like it better perhaps in a firmer jersey with a bit of oomph that I could actually make stand up a bit, like the illustration, rather than softly draping like the original dress.  Using a bit of cotton jersey, instead of a rayon or poly, with a touch of interfacing might make something like that moderately possible.

But the real reason I love this dress is because earlier that day I had seen this dress:

This picture is really tiny, and you can't see the detail, so I will direct you over to the Anthropologie website, where it is called If You Please   and is part of their new color collection.  I do find it annoying that I can't copy Anthropologie's larger photos, but of course they are not in business to supply me with sewing inspirations but to sell me clothes.  And I am actually a customer, but I have tried on enough dresses at Anthropologie to surmise that this will probably not fit.  That nice little wrapped twist will be right at the boniest part of my ribcage, well above my waist.  So I will have to make my own version.

You can probably see how my mind was beginning to work.  I can use the wrapped and twisted part from the Burda pattern morphed onto something else to make a dress more like the Anthropologie Dress  The first thing that comes to mind is Vogue1027 :

This probably stuck in my mind because it is new and therefore near the front of my brain.  I think I could also use the way the dress is designed as a wrap to modify it to use something like the wrapped and twisted fabric of the Burda dress.  I don't want a wrap dress, but I do like the bodice of this dress and the fullness of the skirt.  I am thinking that merging the two patterns will not be an impossible task.

I don't have the fabric I want for this dress, but has been ordered.  By the time it arrives, and I get my house rearranged I might have worked out more of the details.