My Orange Cardigan

So, I did not finish the second sock this week. Shame on me, I know. But I did finally finish a cardigan that I started in February and I am pretty happy about that.

This cardigan took me forever to finish knitting because the pattern gave me absolute fits. It's Ann's Cardigan from the Knit Pick's website. The finished product is adorable, and I'm happy with it, but I had to modify the front and the sleeves to actually get it to work. 

The front I changed the rate of decreases to shape the v-neck (decreased every RS row instead of every fourth row) because when I followed the pattern I ended up with the front three inches longer than the back.  That could just have easily been my guage as the pattern though. I always check horrizontal guage but I rarely check verticle. Bad me, I know, but length is easier to adust on the fly then width (side note: it was a good thing I checked on this sweater because I had to go down two needles sizes before I got gauge so either I knit really loosly or the designer knits tight).

The sleeves were really what gave me fits on this pattern.

I'm really happy with the way they turned out, but it took me four trys to get them right. I ended up working my increases into every 10th row until I had 99 sts on the needle. The pattern didn't have steady increases and I think the furthest apart the increases were done was every 6 rows. The sleeves as written were seriously oddly shapped and I could have fit both my arms in one sleeve. 

I ended up just sort of guessing how to shape the sleeve cap, and I pretty much just got lucky that it worked. To shape the sleeve cap I: BO5 at beg of next 4 rows, work decrease (k2 ssk…k2tog k2) row 12 times every RS row, BO 2 sts beginning of every row 6 times, BO 4 sts at the beginning of next 4 rows, BO remaining sts.

The sleeves maybe ended up a little long, but I like to be able to cover my hands with my sleeves so that doesn't bother me in the slightest. 

Like I said, it may have been some extra work but I am happy with how it turned out. here is a picture of the back so you can see the lace design there.

I do have to take a moment to praise the yarn. It's Knit Picks Gloss Fingering in the colorway Masala. The color is a beautiful rich orange and the yarn is soft and warm. I would totally buy this yarn again. It's pretty reasonably priced for a wool/silk blend (and oh boy can you see the silk in the luster of this yarn). The only thing I don't like is that it's hadwash only because it might felt, but what's a little handwashing in the grand scheme of things?

Done with McCall's 6035

I am not a big fan of shopping so when I bought clothes I tended to find a shirt that I liked then buy it in about 5 different colors. Apparently that tendency does not go away just because I'm now making my clothes rather than buying them. 

And I can now definitively say that I am 300% DONE with this pattern. 

I don't regret making five of them because they are absolutely perfect for work. But I am way sick of the pattern. I talked about the green shirt here, and in that post I mentioned the blue and purple fabrics. I made the blue shirt almost immediately after finishing the green shirt. Then I went to the store looking for some other fabric and came home with the white and black cotton fabrics (they were 50% off and I am a sucker for sales) so I made the white shirt next. 

Going to work, whee!

From 7th grade through college I pretty much lived in all black all the time. I was really surprised when I started working on this shirt and realized that I didn't actually own any black shirts anymore. Then I realized it's because black is hard to see when you are working on it. Especially in a dimly lit basement. I had to go outside to get a picture of the shirt that didn't just look dark. 

Despite the difficulty, I think my love of black has been rekindled, so expect to see more black clothes in the future, especially as we head into the winter. Side note: what is it about shorter days and colder weather that makes darker clothing more appealing?

And here is the purple shirt. I took the picture the moment I sewed on the last button so it's still all nicely pressed and everything.

A few last construction notes: by the time I got around to the black and purple shirts I was tired of the clean seams, so I just overcast the edges. I don't like the amount of bulk it added to the seam, but I did like that it took way less time and effort to do. I'm calling it an experiment to see if any of the various seam finishes hold up better or worse to repeated washings and wearings. 

I also slip stitched the collar band and shirt cuffs rather than top-stitched them. I think they look prettier without stitches showing on the right side. I am honestly not sure why I didn't do that on the first three shirts because slip stitching is normally my go to for finishing collars. I was so over these shirts by the time I made them that I didn't take detail pictures. Sorry. I'll be better next time because next time I won't make fifty-million of the same shirt. 

Unless it's t-shirts. Then all bets are off. 

How to Make a Rice Pack

I've been seeing a lot of tutorials lately for making your own ice pack, but have you ever thought about making your own rice pack? They are pretty much the most awesome thing ever. I love my rice pack because it can used hot or cold, it's already soft and snugly so I don't need a towel to protect my skin from the cold, they don't get covered in condensation as they warm up and if it gets cut/punctured/ripped the only thing it leaks is rice, instead of creepy blue chemicals.

This is my old rice packs.

I've had it for years, but it's starting to get a bit of a fridgy smell to it, so today I thought I would make a few new ones. All you need is some flannel, a needle and thread (or sewing machine) and rice.

I had some super cute flannel in my fabric stash that I got on sale for only 2.99 a yd. I only had a yd because it was all the store had left and I figured I could make some pajama shorts out of it, but I wanted new ice packs more. I used about half the yard and got 4 rice packs out of it. You don't have to buy any flannel if you have remnants already in your stash.

So decide on your size/sizes and cut your fabric. I went with two packs that are about 18"x8" and two that are 8"x8"

The longer packs are great for draping cold across your forehead or the back of your neck if you get migraines like me, and hot they work wonderfully for backpain/cramps. You can use the same pack or both, it just takes longer to heat when you start with it in the freezer. I'm only bothering to making two because I had plenty of rice and plenty of fabric.

So, after you cut your fabric put two pieces right sides together and sew around three sides, leaving the fourth side open.

Turn the pack right side out.

Repeat this for all of the packs that you are making.

Now fill them with rice. Any grain actually works, I think my old one has millet in it, but rice tends to be cheapest. A note on stuffing them: about halfway full is plenty of rice, you want the pack to have some give and me flexible with you are using it. I used an entire ten pound bag of rice stuffing these four rice packs.

Now sew up that last side. You could do it by hand with a blind/ladder stitch, which is what I did (great tutorial on how to do that here). I just used smaller stitches than usual to make sure my rice couldn't get back out.

You could also just fold the ends in and stitch across on your machine.

That's what I did on my old rice pack because I didn't know the blind stitch when I made that one.

And here are your finished rice packs

They are a wonderful, quick, easy, and useful project. I hope you enjoy them!

Block Sock Block

Oh Second Sock Syndrome, why must you torment me so?

I had a goal at the beginning of the year to knit a new pair of socks a month. I did great in January. I made my socks Tea. Early Grey. Hot so named because the Yarn Harlot named the pattern Earl Grey after the sock yarn color, but, of course, the name made me think of Star Trek.

I used Knit Picks Stroll to knit the socks. I liked the color, and the socks are soft and comfy. But. This yarn doesn't have very good recovery. By the end of the day it almost feels like the socks have melted, they just don't stay up well. And it's not just a matter of not enough ribbing holding them up my legs, its like the entire sock just becomes floppy and loose. The rest of my wool socks I can wear for two days before they start to feel loose, and I've done other socks that were mostly stockinette stitch without them feeling so loose. So I'm forced to conclude that it must be the yarn. 

Which is a bummer because in February before I decided that I didn't like the yarn I decided that I had enough of it for one more pair of socks, so I cast on Patchwork Weasley Socks by Erica Lueder. I've knit other of her socks before and I love the patterns. I especially love the Harry Potter based inspiration (are you seeing a nerd theme to by socks? because it's not an accident). The pattern was fun, but knowing that I wasn't going to like the yarn in the finished project made me kind of reluctant to work on them.

That's why it took be from February until mid June to finish this one lowly sock. 

When I'm really working at it I can do a pair of socks in a work week. I feel like I had second sock syndrome with this sock, and it was still the first sock. Now I'm faced with actually knitting the second sock and I don't really want to. But having just one sock does me no good. So I'm making it my goal for the week to make the second sock. And I'm never buying this yarn again.

Gosh That's nice, That Lingerie

I am currently a little bit obsessed with Gertie Hirsch. I have bought most of her Butterick patterns. Today I'm going to talk about pattern 6031. Gertie's blog has a wonderful series of tutorials on how to make the slip from the pattern. I've made this slip once already, which I talked about in this post. Incidentally, I think I now have a personal rule that posts about my underwear must be titled with ridiculous quotes/references. 

Today is really just about posting pictures of the rest of what I made from that pattern. I made three versions of the camisole. One in black

And two in white. All three are the longer version because I've got a long torso. I only took a picture of one of the white ones because they look the same. I didn't have enough black lace to edge the bottom of the black camisole, but I did do both of the white. They are made with knit fabrics so the finish wasn't strictly necessary, but I thought they looked sort of raw without the lace. 

I even went back and added it to the first nude slip. I had initially not wanted it because I thought it would make the slip not move as smoothly underneath a dress, but upon further consideration I've decided that I don't care because it looks so much prettier this way. 

I made two more of the slip too, again one in black.

And one in white. 

With the nude slip I used lingerie elastic (you know, the stuff with the picot edge on one side) to finish the top edge, but on the black and the white slips and the camisoles I just sewed lace all the way around. I initially was just going to leave it raw - I was feeling cheap and didn't want to pay for the lace or elastic - but the fabric started to sort of run on me. Not a lot, but enough to make me want to finish the edges. You can see the run in this photo.

All in all, they were inexpensive, fun to make, fit well, and are really comfy. The fabric is soft, although it doesn't breath super well (pretty sure it's 100% polyester, but I didn't look that closely at the label). They are too low cut to wear the camisoles as tanks, but they make great undershirts, which was really what I wanted them for. The white slip works really well underneath the stripped skirt I posted about last time. I think I'm done with the pattern for the moment, but I feel like I got some good use out of it. I'm sure as some point I'll make the panties, but not out of the same fabric. I like a higher cotton content for my underpants. 

In another couple of posts I'll talk about other Gertie patterns that I've been working on.

One Last Knit Skirt

I have to wear jeans for work (going up and down ladders in skirts just doesn't seem like a good idea to me) but if I'm not at work I live in skirts. So about a month and a half ago I went to Jo-Ann's armed with coupons and wanting to round out my summer skirt wardrobe. I've already posted about my maxi skirt and the knee length square skirt, the last skirt I made that weekend was McCall's 6654 view F. 

The skirt itself if a very simple A-line ending just a bit above my knee. 

It's comfy, looks good with a t-shirt, and took only 1 yrd of fabric. It was quick and easy to sew and I didn't have to make any modifications for fit. I do have to wear a slip to keep the lace strips from being see-through, but Western Washington doesn't really get hot enough for layers to be a problem, even in the summer. This skirt is pretty much a winner in my book.

Quick and Cute Skirt

I have noticed while talking to other sewers that there seems to be a widespread fear of sewing with knits. This is not a fear I really understand. I love knits. I find them to be a bit more forgiving to work with this woven fabric because the fit doesn't have to be as perfect.

I also find knit projects tend to work up faster. Case and point this skirt (which is a McCall's pattern, but I can't find a link to it on their website):

This skirt literally took me less then 30 minutes to cut out and sew together. If I had felt like dragging out my serger it probably would have take about 15 minutes. And that includes the time it took for my to make sure that the strips would line up when I was cutting the fabric.

I'm actually pretty pleased that they lined up because I was still taking valium for my neck injury when I decided to make this skirt and I had actually meant for the strips to go the other way so clearly I wasn't actually thinking that clearly when I cut the fabric. 

I'll freely admit that part of why it was such a quick project was that I didn't bother to hem it. When I started I had intended to hem the fabric, but I decided that I liked the way it curled at the bottom, I think it adds to the fun, casual, flirty feeling on the skirt. And that is part of why I love working with knits. Don't want to hem it? No problem, it's not going to unravel, and you don't end up with awful dangling bits of thread. 

And speaking of not unraveling, that means I don't have to bother with any sort of clean finish for the seams. I just run two lines of zig-zag and call it good. 

Yep, knits are pretty much my favorite. I've got one more knit skirt that I made this same weekend, I'm going to write about it next.