Stitching for Sanity

Almost There

November 9, 2009 · Leave a Comment

My Coat

See why I was so worried about Heroine being too big?  I finished knitting it on Friday and did all the seaming over the weekend, I’ve been so anxious about felting this coat that I just wanted to rush and finish it before I decided to rip the whole thing out and knit the size smaller.  This morning I shoved it in my way too small garment bag, stuck it and a couple rubber balls in the washer and turned it on for a heavy-duty 45 minute cycle on the hottest setting.  That’s what I’ve found works best in my front-loader.  It felted perfectly after one trip through the wash and it fits really good, yes, I tried it on wet.  It fits like a coat should, it’s nice and roomy and hits right at my hip.  My only compliant is that the sleeves are a about a half inch or so longer than I would like, no big deal.  As soon as it’s dry I’ll take some more pictures.

Sunset

We’ve been having some beautiful sunsets this fall.  I loved this when the orange and red and that tiny hint of blue.

A friend of mine has been learning how to crochet and some of the people she works with knit or crochet so we’re going to start getting together once a week or so.  I wonder what they would say if I lugged my loom in?  Or my wheel?  I might try it sometime.

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Herringbone Sweater

November 6, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Herringbone Sweater

I took some time this week to do all the sewing and finishing on my Hollywood Herringbone Pullover and it is done.  No modeled shots, I’m sick, I look sick, and I feel too sick to get dressed and go outside and take pictures of myself.  I did go outside, though, since it was warm, just in my pajamas. 

I love the sweater laying flat like this.  It looks so cool with that low neck and the little wooden buttons on the sleeve but I’m not loving the fit.  I should have gone ahead and made the next size down (I keep forgetting that I’m smaller than I think I am), I would like the neck to be a little higher and the sleeves could be an inch or so shorter, but it doesn’t look bad and it’s really comfortable.  Actually, after I did all the finishing and let it sit for a couple days the sweater relaxed, I guess you could call it, and shrunk up a bit and it looks pretty good, the fit isn’t like the sample on the model in the magazine, mine is a bit looser.  I like it and I’ll wear it, this is a nice cozy sweater that would look great with a pair of jeans or dressed up a bit more with a skirt and some cute shoes.  Overall I am very happy with how it came out.

Herringbone Sweater

Here’s a close up of the buttons, they’re just cheap wooden buttons from the craft store.  I had thought about painting them a bright color with some shiny paint, like a lacquered red, but I just decided to leave them, simple is best sometimes.  You don’t really need the buttons on this sweater, this seam could be sewn up like the other side and have a regular raglan but the detail is nice, I’ll probably never even unbutton it, which is good since the button holes are really small.

The yarn, Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool, really surprised me.  The color is beautiful, I love that heathery brown, and the yarn itself is very soft to the touch and it’s not too itchy, it itches my arms a little but not bad enough that I can’t wear the sweater.  The yarn comes in these huge skeins, over 400yds, and since I got mine on sale the sweater cost a little less than $40 and used a little less than four skeins.  The natural color is the same that I wove my shibori scarf with and it takes dye beautifully.

Here’s the details or you can see more on my Ravelry page: 

  • Pattern:  Hollywood Herringbone Pullover by Kate Gagnon Osborn from the Fall/Winter 2009 Knitscene
  • Yarn:  Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool in Nature’s Brown and Natural
  • Needles:  US5/4mm US 8/5mm
  • Started September 13 finished November 3
  • Modifications:  None, but if I made it again I would make the neck higher and go down a size.

I have a couple more sweaters in the queue (I just wrote queso instead of queue, did it again, must have cheese on the brain) I’m finishing up Heroine and then I’m going to start on the Alpaka Tunic by Deborah Newton (Fall ‘09 IK).  I bought some Berroco Ultra Alpaca in this dust gray blue that I’m going to use for the Tunic.  I’m kind of nervous about starting it because I keep thinking I didn’t buy enough yarn even though I’ve done the math on it about fifty times and it’s right.  I don’t know what my deal is, it’s probably because the tunic is so big and the yarn was so expensive, it was an early birthday present to myself because I love alpaca and would wear it all the time if I could.  I keep trying to take pictures of Heroine but it just looks like a giant pile of green on my desk, this thing is seriously huge, and I can’t get the pieces to look like anything resembling a coat.  It’s a mess but I know that end the end it will be great.  All this will wait until next week to be blogged because I have lots to catch up on like, I’ve woven scarves, plural!, and started a pair of socks and I’m going to dye some yarn, I have almost half the money I need to buy my loom, all kinds of stuff.  Did you know I’ve only knit one pair of socks this year?  That must be remedied and soon.

Have a great weekend, I’m going to spend mine in bed, watching movies, playing Plants vs. Zombies and getting over my cold.  And doing lots and lots of knitting.

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Happy Halloween!

October 31, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Happy Halloween!

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Catching up with the WiPs

October 30, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Leaves

I can’t believe it’s the end of October already.  Just in the past week or so the leaves on my neighbors’ trees have changed colors and fallen off (into my yard), the weather has been cooler and rainy, and my birthday is tomorrow, this has all just happened all of a sudden.  I think I’m getting sick, I’ve been feeling a little dizzy all week and I keep having these moments when the room will spin out of control like I’m crazy drunk and I have to lie down where I’m at until it passes.  This means that I haven’t been able to walk or do yoga all week (no balance, I almost passed out doing yoga the other day it got so bad) and this is driving me crazy, I can’t stand not being able to keep my regular routine.  Needless to say I’ve been spending lots of time curled up on the couch with a lazy dog and my blanket and last night I just gave up and slept most of the evening.  It sucks and I hope it passes soon because there is no way I can afford to go to the doctor.

Heroine

Let’s get to the fun stuff, shall we?  How about my projects.  I usually just like to have one thing on the needles at a time but right now I’m working on two.  The Herringbone sweater is just about done.  I started sewing it up the other night and now I just have one seam left but I can’t seem to find the time to sit and sew it.  One of the cute details on the sweater is that it buttons on one of the front raglan lines and I’ve almost decided to skip the buttons and just sew it up instead.  I think I’ll sew that side seam and try it on before I make my decision.  Maybe I’ll get to it this weekend.

Here is some of the progress on Heroine.  I’ve knit the back and one front and I’ve made it through about half the second front now.  The size 13US/9mm needles make for some fast knitting.

Weaving Sample

And last is this little panel I’m weaving.  I don’t know what I’m going to do with it when I’m done, maybe weave a strap and make it into a little bag or something.  I love this diamond pattern the texture is great.  This whole thing is kind of a pain to weave with the string heddles and the floating selvedges and the fact that my loom feels so huge.  So I’ve spent my week looking at eight harness floor looms, specifically the Schacht Baby Wolf.  They have a 26” weaving width and they fold up pretty small so I think it’s my best option for my small space.  It also costs almost $2000 so it’s going to be a while before I can buy one.  I’ve thought about just getting a table loom since I’ll be able to afford one by the end of the year, but I think I’ll just wait and get a floor loom since that’s what I really want anyway.

Have a happy Halloween and a great weekend!

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Woven Shibori Scarf

October 28, 2009 · 1 Comment

After the second dye bath

Today is nice and sunny so I was finally able to get a picture of the scarf after the second dye job.  I love this dark blue color and in person there’s little touches of purple, very subtle.  I’m more happy with this than anything else I’ve dyed, it came out exactly how I wanted.  All that cotton had to be taken out today, so I sat with a pair of scissors and a darning needle (to untie the knots, which didn’t work very good) and cut and pulled out all the threads then I twisted the fringe.

Finished Scarf

After a couple hours of cutting and twisting I had a bunched up mess of scarf so I heated up the steam iron and lightly ironed out the pleats.  I wanted to keep some of the texture but open it up enough that you can see the colors between.  In these pictures you can see where some of the dye bled into the pleats, especially the red dye, but I really like how it looks.  I probably could have pulled the strings a little harder and that would have kept the dye from bleeding so bad, I think it adds a little more depth.

Finished Scarf

And here’s a close up, you can really see the pleats here and the color is better, too.  I just can’t describe how much I love this scarf.  I had thought about making a few to sell but I’m not sure it’s worth the effort, between the weaving, string pulling and tying (and cutting my finger), to the dyeing and finishing work, I just don’t know if I could make enough money to make it worth the time and effort.  I meant to keep track of exactly how much time it took to make this one and I forgot, I’m so bad at tracking things like that.  If I had to take a guess I’d say it was around six or eight hours of actual work, most of that was weaving and tying the strings then the finishing, the dyeing didn’t take long and I could dye more than one at a time. 

Anyway, here are the details:

  • Yarn:  Most of one skein of Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool in Natural, dyed with Jacquard acid dyes in Sapphire & Sky Blue then over dyed with Vermillion and Jet Black
  • Loom:  32” Ashford Rigid Heddle 7.5dpi
  • Finished size:  I didn’t measure it, but it’s around six inches wide by about seventy inches long, slightly pleated and the length is excluding fringe

Tomorrow we’ll look at my WiPs, my coat, the Herringbone sweater and my new weaving project.  I’m off to eat some home made mini Tollhouse cookies, yummy.

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