Big Plans

This is it. This is the month I am going to sew. And BOY! I am going to jump right with both feet in a serious way.

 

That’s the plan anyway.

 

I’ve been slowly accumulating fabric, patterns, and projects for about the past two years. A few things have gotten in the way but I’m kind of done with digging for excuses and ready to start creating. Two women have helped get me over the proverbial hump. First Rebeka at Artsy Crafty Babe created this amazing skirt from the Alabama Chanin book, which I’ve had on my shelf for about a year and a half or so. I am so inspired by their work; if I could find the extra money and time I would love to take on one of their weekend workshops. Something about what I saw in that book and on their site really got me going. I love the thought of using something as utilitarian as a cotton tshirt and creating such a wonderful peice of work. And the fact that it is all hand work, and not run through a machine seemed to make it that much more approachable for me. I came across their work as a result of an idea that I have for a memory quilt using my kids’ baby clothes in reverse applique, but that’s a post for another time. I have all the materials lying around, but before I saw Becki’s skirt, I hadn’t found the urge to dive in. Then Autum of Creative Little Daisy declared November as Sew Something Month. Well, isn’t that the perfect alignment of the stars? How could I not take up the challenge?

So here’s what I’m planning on sewing this month:

• One skirt, Alabama Chanin style
• Soft Cotton Duck storage containers
• Basket liners for the baby’s room
• Proof-of-Concept for the baby quilt
• This Apron from Sew Liberated

So hopefully, by the end of the month, I’ll have something to be shown from this mess.

Of course, I still need to finish a hat

or two. maybe three.

 

Unpacking? Who eeds to unpack?

It’s Done!

It was an awful weekend. The babies were sick with the flu, RSV, and a particularly nasty ear infection, and very lovingly shared their bugs with me. It was hard to feel motivated to get anything done other than curl up under the blanket, watch trashy TiVo TV, crave hot dogs–only when I’m sick–chug OJ, and whine incessantly. I resisted the curling up in bed, but I couldn’t break myself of the other bad habits.

BUT there was a hat to finish. And I needed to get it off of my plate so I can move on to new things. It was supposed to be a gift for Christmas, now I have to see if I can get the others finished to make it a V-day gift. In order to do that, I’ll need to finish two more hats by Thursday… that might be asking a lot with three of the four of us sick.

Here is the final hat…woo-hoo!

It’s not the best picture, but I’ll upload a better one tomorrow when there’s actual daylight.

Here are some details:

The Pom Pom…

The scarf was created using a modified “knitted on cord” from knitting over the edge by Nicky Epstein with the teal cord on the outer edges of a garter stitch scarf.

The band of the hat’s hat is also the “knitted on cord”.

And here’s the heavily textured pattern. I managed to carry strands across garter stitch while knitting in the round. It wasn’t perfect by any means–it caused a little puckering, and there are a few stitches of the carried teal that you can see if you look for them–but overall, I’m happy with the results. I want to play with the stranded garter stitch in the round some more and see if I can finesse it a little bit.

Other project notes:

Yarns used: Debbie Bliss Cashmarino DK in teal and of white (can’t find the colorway and dye lot numbers) and Freedom Spirit, shade 513. Can’t remember what the nose it made out of, but I’ll find out and post it later. All are knit on addie turbo 7′s. The pattern is a highly modified version of Susan B. Anderson’s Snowman Hat out of Itty Bitty Hats.

Making Progess

OK, so after spending so time in Illustrator last night–went to bed at 1.52 am, I’m tellin’ ya there’s a reason I named this blog it’s two am–I think I’ve figured out the stitch pattern for the hat, as well as where to stick the decreases. Instead of going with six stitches of garter and two stitches of stockinette, it’ll be fourteen stitches of garter then two of stockinette. Repeat for the first few rounds, add a round of stockinette, then start the next set of pattern by starting with seven stitches of garter, two stockinette, then another fourteen of garter. This will offset the long garter boxes, which I think will look a little nicer than having the teal line run straight up the whole hat. I’ve decided to decrease at the beginning and end of the long garter sequences every two sets. That should make it a long hat, which I think will be a cute shape variation from what I’ve been working on. There is a little more to the pattern than what I’ve written here, so if you’re interested, drop me a line and I’ll send you instructions.

One problem I ran into was carrying the second color strand on the back through the long number of stitches. After a few rounds I noticed that the teal was puckering the pattern because it wasn’t running loose enough behind the fourteen garter stitches. So I had to try to catch the yarn twice in the long sequence, which lemme tell ya, was a bit problematic–remember, garter stitch! After about an hour’s worth of experiments–none of which, I might add, worked out–and quite a few rounds ripped out, I gave up and went to bed.

This morning I ran a few searches and found this garter stitch intarsia how-to on “another knitting blog”–uh, in quotes because it’s quite literally the name of the site and I wanted you to know I wasn’t trying be snide. It is fabulous, and between the pictures and the comments, I’ve figured out how to catch the yarn without it showing through. Yippee for the internet! SO! The new goal is to finish this hat (or at least the meta-hat part) by tonight so I can start on its sister. Although maybe I shouldn’t state the goal so I won’t be disappointed that I don’t meet it after a day of dealing with puke-y, cranky babies that need loving, student projects that need grading, a husband who needs feeding, and a house that needs cleaning. Maybe I should stick with hey!! I’m super smart for finding a post that tells me how to carry strands in garter.

Yeah, let’s stick with that. Today’s goal was to feel super smart by using someone else’s creative genius as a means to a good end… add something about seeing far, standing on the shoulder’s of giants…

and on we go!