M's Halloween Pumpkins

This is Mr Cathy's one and only crafty activity. He does it extremely well, don't you think?

Cosy Cabled Hat

This hat actually took about a day to knit but it has taken me a week because of the number of times I restarted it. I struggled to get a neat cast on for the brim; everything I tried and then joined in the round looked like a mess because of the stretching caused by the magic loop method. In the end, I did a single cast on with two extra stitches and knit back and forth until the fabric was stable. Then I could join without distorting the hat. I seamed the open part afterwards and it has come out really well.

I'm not sure about the size and shape, the pattern is for an adult but this one is better for a child. I can wear it but it stretches and makes the cables look ugly. I have enough yarn left that I will make this again for me (I have a pullover that I am matching this to). For an adult size, I am going to add one more set of cables (8 sts) and continue for one more inch or so before decreasing.

Ravelry notes here.

Cashmerino Raglan Pullover

 

I've had these 10 balls of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky in my stash for three years! They were one of the first yarns I bought when I got back into knitting and it has taken me this long to use them up. I won them in an eBay auction for £24.00, figuring £2.40 per ball for Cashmerino is a good price. Then I stashed them while I figured out what to do with them. I find 10 balls a difficult number (especially Debbie Bliss, which I find a little ungenerous): too few for an adult jumper, too many for accessories. I used a bit as a trim on a baby boy gift, then I sat on it for 3 years while I wore a lot of grey co-ordinates.

I had a few ideas on and off. First I was going to make this vintage cable vest, but I wasn't that into having a vest, nor a brown one. Then I really wanted to pair it with a yellow hand dyed yarn as an accent collar but I knew that I would get tired of it fast. Then Sewaholic saved me from myself with her perfect analogy of more cake, less frosting: I need to make more of the type of garments I would buy in a store, not what catches my eye in the yarn store. The yarn is a perfect chocolate brown, the full sun in these photos makes it look lighter than it actually is.

Taking three years to decide also helped me understand how to get the best possible finish I am capable of producing. This means choosing a pattern carefully, based on the design elements, so that I can avoid having it look too handmade. For example, sleeves: I never manage the right gauge, so seaming pieces together and setting in sleeves, never works out for me. Raglan sleeves save me from needing to match pieces and I may never knit anything with a set in sleeve again. I'm also not very good at picking up stitches (although I am willing to work on this) and having no seams/very few seams is also very important to me. Modifying a pattern to knit in the round, instead of seaming at the sides is an easy alteration to make, and one that I always do.

I've also learned a few other things along the way, like I am rubbish at joining a new ball and I have to sacrifice a few scraps of yarn to make the join where a seam would be. The other key element I liked about this pattern was that it was knit from the top down so I could carry on until I ran out of yarn. I figured if I only had enough for a cap sleeve / 3/4 sleeve / cropped waist I would just knit until it was all used up. I was delighted that I got to full length sleeves (which I always wear on the short side) and the body finished exactly where I wanted it to.

I love knitting large items on chilly evenings - my knitting becomes a lap rug while I'm watching TV! It was fast for me: one month, including a week spent ripping out the rib and re-knitting on smaller needles. Usually anything I make takes at least two months. I didn't modify the pattern very much. The pattern link and my notes are here in Ravelry. £24.00 for a cashmere/wool pullover, I'd buy that!

 

(Photo credits: 6yo daughter)

Long Sleeve Olivia Top

I've been dying to get around to making an Olivia Top for... well, pretty much ever since I first discovered Jess' wonderful Blog.  She has so many generous tutorials there, I am dying to try almost all of them.

With the weather turning cooler, I had been thinking about winter sewing. My sewing is much more summer oriented; cotton prints are the eye candy of the fabric store, right?  But long sleeves and thicker fabrics are what we need in winter.And we have a lot of winter.

This fabric has had a wild ride to where it is today.  It started out as a shirt belonging to my husband's late father. It was a lovely, soft flannel cotton but I knew the girls wouldn't like the colour.  So I bleached it and then I dyed it and here it is, being worn, more than 20 years later, by a little girl as a top. An unrecognisable upcycle, from this:

to this:

I didn't follow the tutorial exactly, I didn't have enough fabric to get gathers into the lower section. It is so large on her that I don't think this top needs them. I used a sleeve pattern from a child's vintage dress pattern that I bought this year. It is a very versatile pattern and I'll definitely make it again. I would like to make a more gathered, puffy sleeve version in a very fine fabric. I'll make it a bit more close fitting next time because it is very roomy on her.

Dress-to-skirt upcycle

When we pulled out one of E's favourite dresses today, she was devastated because one of the sleeves was destroyed and the dress was unwearable.

I didn't get a before picture because she was so upset that I set to work on it as fast as I could.  Instead, here is an after picture of the leftover bodice. How on earth does that kind of damage happen to 100% acrylic fibres?

A snippety-snip later, the ruined bodice was off, (buttons salvaged, of course) raw edge zig-zagged, turned over, elastic in. Done in 10 minutes - while supervising her weekend homework. 

Not my prettiest work but she needed new clothes and she likes it so I feel like a supermum! (I have to find some compensation for my many shortcomings!)

Hottest days of summer beach dress

What can be done with less than a yard of knit fabric in a wild 70s design?

I fell in love with this fabric the second I saw it and I didn't care if I didn't have a clue what to do with it. I mulled over the question for a very long time.  A dress, a t-shirt, a skirt, cushion covers?  I kind of knew it had to be a dress, a 70s mini-dress. But I also knew that the 70s is not having a fashion moment right now. In fact, it seems as though every decade since the first world war is having a fashion moment, but not the 70s (ok, not the 90s either). Homewares, yes, but not clothing.


I was going to try a short sleeve version of my New Look pattern that I used for this dress. Then a trip to the beach at the end of the summer gave me the answer. I saw someone wearing a beach dress with shirring through the bust and thought this style would be perfect for my fabric.

 

I sewed the selvedges together (why doesn't the pattern repeat match at the selvedge?), then hand stitched a hem at the top and the bottom. Knit fabric is lovely to wear but it is a pain, pain, pain to sew with. I sewed through paper and the needle still bounced so much that I went over my seams again by hand.

Unfortunately, I also couldn't get the shirring to work properly. It shirred beautifully but came up so tight that I couldn't get the dress on. I am not sure if I was doing it wrong, or my machine tension was wrong, I'll have to try harder to find an solution next time.

Instead of shirring, I took two pieces of 3/4 - 1cm wide elastic and sewed them, at full stretch, to the over and under-bust with a zig zag stitch. The knit is very thin and soft so the gathers fall beautifully. The elastic gave enough weight to the fabric to stop the stitches from bouncing.

I used the selvedge offcuts to make tie straps to make the dress more secure.

Final verdict: it's fine for the one day a year when I'm melting in the heat but I am a bit put off tackling the rest of my knit stash.