Petaluma

Posted by marissahenry

A friend recently moved to the town of Petaluma, about an hour north of San Francisco. Today we visited her, and we happened to walk by the LYS, Knitterly, so of course we had to peek in. Oh my goodness, they have beautiful things!

I love the cutesy needles for kids!

The needles!

The stitch markers!

There were way more buttons than this small sample.

The buttons!

The Habu!

The sample knits in Knitterly were particularly nice. I’m not always inspired by the samples in the shops, but they have really simple, stylish things that I could imagine knitting and wearing.

The sample knits!

The books and notions!

Can you believe that I didn’t buy any yarn??? The kids/SO were not feeling particularly patient, so for this visit I had to be satisfied with just a few pictures and a strong desire to return, next time perhaps with a particular project in mind to shop for!

Our friend took us to a house where there is chicken feed in a bucket for passers-by to feed the chickens in their yard! Who could resist?

The chickens!

It was HOT! The Wee Girl wondered if the plants were sweating.

The colors!

We also passed by the local sewing/fabric shop, which looked adorable, but the non-crafty types were not up for it. Next time???

During the evening, I made some good progress on the Wonder Woman sweater. At the beginning of a movie, I was still on the gold section, by the end I was on the second star. Pretty good!

The stars!

Washi Dress

Posted by marissahenry

For a while now, I’ve been wanting to make the Washi Dress. A friend who had made it suggested the shirring technique used in the Washi Dress to tighten up the baggy back of my first dress, and it worked great. I bought the fabric, bought the pattern, and eventually got to it!

BUT! Reading this and that from people who had made the dress, I thought it might be a good idea to do the tunic version to test it out, size-wise–(I didn’t have muslin for the muslin practice version, and I wanted to just get started!!!).

Well! I’m still a novice at buying sewing patterns online, so I didn’t realize that when I clicked on BUY NOW! I would get a download from which I’d need to print a ton of papers, cut them, and tape them together quite precisely.

Just starting…

It took an entire naptime, aka, 2 hours.

The pattern in its entirety, minus the sweat.

That was yesterday. Today during nap time, I was able to cut out almost the entire pattern. It shouldn’t take that long, but sometimes I had to backtrack– like when I realized that I’d save fabric by NOT folding the fabric in half, but only as far as I needed to get the width of the pattern piece, of course after tracing an entire pattern piece….. Etc! But eventually I had all the pieces!

All cut out!

And from there, it was astonishingly easy and quick! Before I knew it, I was sewing darts and pleats!

Pleats, please!

At one time I realized that I’d placed the FOLD line on the wrong part (the shoulders instead of the bodice middle!), so there’s an odd seam at the bodice front, but… this is a learning piece, so I just cut the shoulders, seamed the bodice front, and ran with it.

And suddenly I had an entire tunic on my hands, minus topstitching at the neck, hemming, and arm finishings! But I ran out of navy thread, so those will wait until tomorrow.

Washi tunic!

The really good news is that when I tried it on…. it fit! It fits very well, in fact. I’ll definitely make a dress (or 2, 3, ….???) out of this pattern! It was worth the bitterness of all that cutting and taping, after all! :0

Sewing FOs and knitting backtracking

Posted by marissahenry

Well, last night I was too tired to knit after bed times, so I read The Wizard of Oz for a while. Have you read this?? It’s crazy violent and scary! I’m actually kind of surprised that a movie was made from it. I mean, it’s entertaining and I like that there are more details and back story than in the movie, but whoa!!!

Scary stuff, yo.

Finally today I had the time and energy to put into this project! I wanted to make the kids pj tops that would match the pj pants I recently made for them. I decided to iron some interfacing onto some of the leftover fabric, fancy cut it, and sew it onto plain t-shirts.

Here the fabric has been interfaced (ha!!) and set on the shirts just to check placement.

Placement of the fancy cuttings

I used a simple zigzag stitch which I hope will help reduce fraying. After sewing!

Thor!

I’m so pleased with how the bright colors really pop against the dark blue background!

Look out, it’s Spiderman!

The kids were very happy! The Boy is pleased that they match (awww), and when the Wee Girl saw hers, she exclaimed, “I love it! Thor is my favorite!!!”

Matchy matchy!

In less happy news, I was making some good progress on my Wonder Woman sweater, but it was turning out too small. The sleeve was measuring up at around 6″ across, and the Wee Girl’s arm measures 6″ around. 0″ ease is not what I had in mind, so I frogged it, did some calculations, and casted on the next size up.

Booo

I like that this pattern has the knitter start with the sleeves! It’s the size of a gauge swatch, and less commitment than jumping in and starting to knit the body portion. I didn’t lose that much time on it, which is nice, considering my time limitations and the fact that I think this pattern might make my carpal tunnel flare up. I’ll have to take it easy.

Wonder Woman sweater KAL!

Posted by marissahenry

The Wonder Woman sweater KAL was meeting early at Knit Night for an official Cast-on. In preparation, I knitted and washed a swatch that I found to be just right for the sweater. I was lucky to have hit the jackpot on my first try (US size 7!) The yarn is Cascade Hollywood, which as one would imagine, is sparkly!

A sparkly swatch!

I thought we were all swatching before the Official Cast-on, but I was the only one who did, so I got to jump right into the math of knitting. This pattern is written for a grown-up, but I’m knitting mine for the Wee Girl, so I have some adjusting to do. However, the pattern uses this yarn doubled, and at my gauge with a single strand, it looks like I can follow the directions/charts for a women’s size S. Fingers crossed that it’ll be simple!

3 swatches going on!

So far so good! I’m super tired so I’ll try to get in a few more rows tonight; hopefully i’ll have some progress to show you tomorrow!

Not caught up yet

Posted by marissahenry

I suppose I’ve been tired and burned out these days, so I haven’t been knitting that much in a given day. So I’m definitely not yet caught up with my blanket knitting! I only have 2.6 squares made from my second skein of handspun.

But a little progress is better than none at all, isn’t it?

Not a crafty day

Posted by marissahenry

Between riled-up kids, mostly solo parenting, an ice cream social, wacky bed times, and back-to-school preparations, I only managed a tiny bit of knitting today, with nothing really to show for it.

However, this is dry, and rather pretty!

And I have an idea brewing for fixing the Wee Girl’s loved-to-death blankie. I thought I’d back it with this silky fabric, quilt-style~ish. Maybe interfacing would help the thin flannel last a little longer? Any ideas?

It’s back to school tomorrow, and this mama can’t wait to have a little freedom! I have so many grand plans or how to spend my 2 hours 50 minutes 4 days a week! Most of them involve sewing, organizing, and exercising, with perhaps an occasional nap!

Penultimate

Posted by marissahenry

The green roving that the Wee Boy dyed at Easter only took me two evenings to spin up. I wanted to do it thick like the last Merino I spun, but it didn’t happen. The singles were pretty much my standard weight.

Swinging singles.

And the plied yarn is okay, considering the rough fiber. It should soften and plump up in its bath.

Plied!

Oh dear, I forgot to write down the approximate yardage. Oh well! It was that kind of day….

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Month: August 2014

Petaluma

Washi Dress

Sewing FOs and knitting backtracking

Wonder Woman sweater KAL!

Not caught up yet

Not a crafty day

Penultimate