Sewing for Lack of Fall

In the beginning of the month, we had a few really hot days. As this never happens in San Francisco, I was very surprised to find my desire to knit severely lacking and wondered for a moment if I had either gone crazy or were severely ill. But no, it was just the weather. So the knitting mojo waned, but the sewing mojo kicked into high gear. Over the course of a couple of weekends, I was more productive with my Husqvarna than I had been in my entire life, cranking out three dresses, a skirt, and a pair of pants (the pants and one of the dresses are strategically missing from this post. I said I was productive, not that what I produced didn't look ridiculous.).

The first dress was the first item I have ever successfully made with sleeves (we won't talk about the hideously lumpy jacket I made a couple of years ago). The pattern seems to be a favorite amongst the sewbloggers out there, and was, to my delight, simple to execute.


Pattern: Simplicity 3835, View B
Fabric: Amy Butler Coriander in Pine
Thoughts: The gathering around the neck was easier than I thought it would be, but I still need a lot of practice installing zippers (thus the front shot). Also, the sleeves were insanely tight at the elbows. I thought I had perhaps chosen the wrong size at first, but the rest of the dress fit perfectly. It took a few tries, but I finally got the sizing right, just using a shorter seam allowance for a few inches since I didn't have enough fabric to cut new sleeves.

I was so pleased with how that one turned out, that I immediately made the other dress view... (Please ignore the weird fold across the bust!) (Um, and the dirt on the windowsill.)


Pattern: Simplicity 3835, View A, without the pockets
Fabric: $2.99/yard cotton at the discount fabric place on Clement St. I'm not positive, but it seems to also have some stretch in it.
Notes: As you can tell, this is basically the same dress as above but longer and without the ties at the sleeves. Using my experience from the minidress, I used smaller seam allowances at the bottoms of the sleeves so they would fit better. I think I like this with a belt, too...



...and, of course, with my new boots!

The skirt I have had experience with before, having made a mini version of this in turquoise back when I lived in LA.


Pattern: Simplicity "New Look" 6197, View F
Fabric: Some corduroy I got on sale at Britex several years ago. The color is not nearly as jewely in person, but it's still kind of bright.
Notes: Super, super easy, and cranked out in a couple of hours. I have the perfect shoes (um, boots) for this, but nothing in my wardrobe really matches bright red corduroy. Ah, well, we'll see.

As I impatiently await the arrival of some more purple yarn for my Deep-V Argyle (a hint of which can be seen here), and as the weather fails to cool, there may be more sewing featured here, but probably not much. The Yarniad is a questionable name for a blog, but The Fabriciad just makes no sense.

And the Winner Is...

Thank you all for the happy wishes and comments! I loved reading your favorite traditions. Looks like quite a few of us like our sweets and presents. :)

As promised, this afternoon I chose a winner from among all the commenters on my birthday post. I know there are fancy random number generators out there in the internets, but sometimes I just like to do things the old fashioned way. Neill helped me provide the photographic evidence.

All the commenters' names were written on slips of paper (except the one anonymous commenter, who was entered in the contest as such!)...



I mixed them around and grabbed hold of one...



Pulled it out...



And....*drumroll*...



Congrats to Clumsy Knitter!!! I'll message you via Ravelry to find out where to send your box o' goodies.

Thanks again to everyone, and I hope you have a wonderful week!

Birthday Love for Me and You

Today, on my 28th birthday, I am feeling quite lucky to have received some major birthday love. I got to talk to a dear friend I haven't seen in a year, my mom and Nana visited for lunch, I have received some very kind and thoughtful gifts -- check out these sweet boots! --



AND, the uber-amazing CanarySanctuary has kindly bestowed upon me the I Love Your Blog Award (Psst...it's her birthday, too. Go stop by her blog and leave some well-wishes!). What a wonderful birthday present -- thank you, CanarySanctuary!



The rules of the award are:
1- Post the award on your blog.
2- Add a link to the person who gave you the award
3- Nominate at least 4 other bloggers and add their links
4- Leave a comment at the recipients’ blogs so they can pass it on

My nominees are, in no particular order...

The Lady Knits
Involving the Senses
iHanna
Team Knit
and
The Knitting Blog by Mr. Puffy the Dog

There are truly some talented ladies behind the links above and I thank them all for sharing that talent with the blogosphere!

In other birthday love related news, I've decided to do a birthday giveaway. Last year, a good friend of mine gave me a kit that came with all the materials necessary to make some little felted purses. I've been on this major Christmas-knitting kick lately and thought these would make nice gifts. Well, I've gone a little crazy and am going to end up with way more purses than I will know what to do with when the holidays are upon us. Last night as I was brushing my teeth, I realized that, with all these purses on the needles, and with my birthday coming up in a few hours, I should use the opportunity to give one away. SO. Please leave a comment on this post telling me what your favorite birthday tradition is. On Sunday at 12 noon PDT, I will randomly choose a commenter and send them my favorite of the little felted purses and some other goodies from San Francisco. I have to warn you and apologize in advance -- because I just thought of this last night, the little purses are in various stages of development and none have actually been finished, it might take about a week to get the prize shipped off to the winner. But here's a preview of the purses...



Thanks to all my knitblogging friends who shared age 27 with me. I can tell already that 28 will be even better!

Now that's what I call a vacation

Trashy magazines? Check.
Beautiful ocean view? Check.
New shades? Check.
Fun knitting project to work on? Check.



Family? Friends? Check. Check.

(Not pictured are the massive amounts of junk food and wine consumed. Nor the large plate of vegetables and long run I offered in atonement upon my return.)

This was the 15th year my family and two others returned to this spot for 4.5 days of lounging and laughing and it certainly did not disappoint.

Res Completa: Elijah the Elephant

Look who just got back from the RNC:


Actually, I happen to be a non-partisan elephant.

Pattern: Elijah by Ysolda Teague
Yarn: RYC Cashsoft 4-ply, 2 balls of Weather, held double
Needles: US 3 dpns
Start to Finish: August 24-28, 2008
Mods: Nope.

Notes: First of all, I don't think I gave an accurate depiction of my thoughts on RYC Cashsoft in my last post (the yarn for Elijah was leftover from my Ravelympics sweater). It is so soft. So amazingly soft. Quite possibly the softest yarn I have ever had against my skin. It is rare that I would purchase an entire sweater's worth of such nice yarn, but The Lady was fortuitously destashing it at the exact moment that I needed it, and she offered it at a great price. Thanks, Lady! Anyway, the softness of this yarn made me want to make a baby knit immediately and, having had my eye on the adorable Elijah for some time, and needing something to do with my hands during a Lord of the Rings marathon a couple weekends ago, I cast on and got most of the little dude done in one sitting.

I have admired Ysolda's toy patterns from afar for awhile and was thrilled to finally try one out. And it certainly did not disappoint. The shaping is so clever! I love how the decreases make for such a sweet little face...



...and how the torso is worked to make a fat little tummy. Because I was holding my yarn double, it was slightly difficult and fiddly to pick up the stitches for Elijah's limbs and ears, but that was a small price to pay for the clean lines it produced (well, cleaner than if I had seamed them).

A number of friends are expecting babies this year and next, so Elijah will go to one of them, but I have to admit that it will be very hard to let him go.

Res Completa: Julia Livilla Cardigan

Thank you all so so so much for your wonderful, kind, and encouraging comments about my Ravelympics sweater. I was overwhelmed! And I was once again reminded of the warmth that exists in the knitblog community -- y'all sure know how to make a girl feel good about herself! Along the same lines, I also received a huge compliment two Fridays ago when Canary Knits featured me on her weekly Indie Designer Day segment. The article is here. It's taken me over a week to mention this here -- I get so shy about these sorts of things! -- but it was a huge honor for me, especially because Canary Knits herself is so amazing.

So...on to business. I already showed you this sweater, but I thought I would share the specs.



Pattern: Improvised for the Ravelympics
Yarn: RYC Cashsoft 4-ply, 7 balls of Weather
Needles: US 4 straights
Start to Finish: August 8-23, 2008 -- which earned me the following "medals"...



Notes: This sweater was made in 7 pieces; add the pleats and hems and that is a whole lot of seaming. The pleated panels were made by knitting a length 3 times longer than what I wanted to end up with, adding shaping based on some math, soaking in some H2O, and forming the pleats while the pieces were still wet. I then kept each individual pleat pinned down and sewed the panels to the front pieces, picking up multiple layers of knitting as needed. I then sewed down each pleat individually, picking up every other purl bump on the underside of the fabric, thusly:



Yes, this was a huge amount of work and it definitely could have been done more efficiently and easily. At a big meeting last week, one of my colleagues (a superior of mine and also a knitter), who had seen the sweater on Ravelry asked if I had employed a double-knitting technique to create the pleats. I was ashamed to admit my simple yet extremely complicated method -- truth is, I was going so fast with this sweater that I just did the first thing that popped into my head. Later in the day, during a break, she came running up to me. "I know how you could have done those pleats without seaming!" and suggested knitting a few rows, folding it down, then securing the pleat by knitting the top directly into the purl bumps of the corresponding row. If I were to do it all over again, that is what I'd do. I also loved knowing that I wasn't the only one day-dreaming about knitting during that extremely long meeting. :)

Because the sweater was knit in stockinette and I didn't have the foresight to add a vertical hem or figure something else out I sewed a ribbon to the inside of the front panels, just below the pleating, to keep it from rolling.



Another thing the picture above shows is how the yarn is starting to wear. I know I said I wasn't going to be able to wear this sweater because I'd be sick of it, but in actuality I have worn it 6 of the last 10 days. That officially makes this the most wearable sweater I have made to date. Thanks to Anthropologie for the inspiration! Anyway, this is where most of the wear is occurring. The rest of the sweater actually hasn't pilled too much, and I'm hoping I can use a sweater shaver to get rid of some of those flyaways.

A number of people have asked if I will be writing a pattern, and this flatters me to no end! I would absolutely love to write a pattern, but am worried I would do a terrible job. I would feel ok writing down what I did for my specific size, but really am not sure how one goes about resizing a sweater on paper. Adjusting for bust measurements would be fine, but what about arm circumference? Length? Sleeve cap depth? Does anyone know of any good resources for learning these things?

Another thing I'd like to learn -- how to purl! Geez, my purl rows are awful! Blocking helped, but really, my stockinette looks like it has stripes in it because my tension is so different on knit and purl rows.

Well, thank you again for all of your sweet comments. This really was a project of Olympic proportions for me, and I do feel like it was worth it!