Fashion: Yarn Style

Knitted Accessories for Snow White Collection 2023

 

 

Isn't this hat pattern lovely? I knitted it in Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift using main colors 684, Cobalt, contrast color 660 Lagoon, and an unmarked white, gold and green from my stash. We do a free yarn exchange every year during the SuperBowl and sometimes we trade unmarked balls with each other. If I have a chance to look at the Spindrift shade card at my LYS, I will try to track down these 3 colors I ended up with from someone else's stash because I really think it's a good color combination.

I wore this hat a lot in New York to keep off the cold. Can you guess the name of this fabulous fabric store in downtown New York? It's often featured in Project Runway! As you can see, recently I have been making little accessories to match my handsewn and handknitted Snow White capsule collection! Corinne Thomlinson of The Woolly Thistle just released this Flowers of Fortrose pattern, which is free to anyone who is participating in the Wooly Thistle Fair Isle Accessory Knit-a-long from February 17-March 18 2023! The pattern has not been published on Ravelry yet, but is available to anyone who purchases a kit here . It's also available to anyone who signs up for the fairisle KAL on the website of The Woolly Thistle. I knitted this during the Vogue Knitting Live conference in New York which met for the first time in 3 years, and convinced my friend Stephanie to model Flowers of Fortrose here:

 

 

Stephanie has a smaller head and you can see the Flowers of Fortrose hat fits her perfectly. If I were to knit it again, I would add another round of flowers to the top of the hat to ensure it fully covers my ears, although the hat is relaxing and stretching out a bit with wear. The hat I am wearing is called Sarandi and was designed by Yoko Hatta. I also knitted it at the convention (it’s a long flight from California to New York and back again!) This is definitely a wicked stepmother color scheme, in my opinion so I was happy to get this photo of me and Stephanie wearing our Snow White and Wicked Stepmother hats! Sarandí was knitted using 2 contrasting colors of Malabrigo Mecha yarn. Sigh. I really need to do better at finding out the yarn names of some of these random balls in my stash! The original is knitted in the Arco Iris #866 and VAA #051 colorways, which are similar.

 

 

I am also knitting the Rumple socks by Kay Jones. She designed the sock pattern for Rumple Stiltskin while she and her daughter were watching Once Upon a Time. I test-knitted the sock and made one version for a student that was really cool. I think it is a very versatile pattern that works for both men and women! This is the third in my series of Howarts socks I am making him for each of the houses (he already has Hufflepuff and Griffindor), so I sewed on these slytherin patches. I thought the grey main color of the sock looked a bit like the old brick walls of Hogwarts Castle:

 

 

Kay Jones then inspired me even more by knitting a pair of Rumple socks in a luxurious white yarn with only a blue-lavender heel to reference Snow White in Once Upon a Time and the pretty lavender blue knit hat she is always wearing. So I am now knitting myself a pair:

My friends have already finished their pairs, but I just had to knit the hats above first because I knew New York would be very cold! However, it is amazing when you are used to knitting mostly sweaters how much one is able to accomplish when switching to a smaller knitting project like a hat or pair of socks. However, my goal is not to pile up a bunch of finished objects, but just to share my excitement about this little capsule collection which is giving me courage to venture out into the work and travel that I avoided the past 3 years because I am armed with my little handmade things. Just because these knits don't have any REAL magic protective powers doesn't mean I can't tell myself they help me to feel safe anyway, right?

 

My last accessory on the needles for this Snow White capsule collection is the Blackberry Kerchief by Churchmouse yarns and teas which I am knitting in a bright, sparkling snow white. I am using the discontinued yarn, Rowan kidsilk night which includes a silver thread of sparkle yarn. I discovered this pattern at the latest free Rowan Connect online forum, where the designer and founder of Churchmouse shared it as a good project for using up just one skein of mohair yarn. It is a very pretty lace pattern and some friends and I all started knitting it, but the three of us are finding it to be a rather frustrating and slow-going process. There was some ripping out on one side, some repairs of holes with sewing thread on my side because I struggled to read the pattern and my knitting at first, and it is generally being discussed as a pattern we will knit on for one or two rows a day to avoid getting frustrated with it. However, the finished result will probably be very pretty. 

If time permits this year, I will eventually make 2 more woodland/flower-themed accessories to go with this collection:

 

1)  Sarah Dallas’ Fairisle Beret

2)  Marie Wallin’s Meadow Mittens

Are you enjoying the last vestiges of your winter knitting before spring comes as well? Please share!

Inspiration for Color Scheme & Style Capsule Collection 2023

 

What are your style inspirations this year? We are coming out of a long hibernation where some of us spent more time living imaginary lives versus going into the outside world. That was certainly the case with me, and so my Capsule Collection for this year is strongly inspired by Once Upon a Time, which is a television series imagining what happens to well-loved fairy-tale characters such as Snow White if they are transplanted into the real world! I have just watched the first season but this theme for me captured some of the struggles of trying to find meaning in a different world after the last two years we have lived through. I have always adored the character of Snow White because of her love of animals, whom she always surrounded herself with, so she became my inspiration for my capsule collection and overcoming my fears in venturing out to work in person after two long years of very strict shelter-in-place rules in my area.

 

 

I chose a really bright red to sew my boiled wool skirt using McCalls 197 because the apple that has tempted me out of hiding is “resuming” normal life and sharing with others but our new world is a bit fraught with uncertainty and for me and some close friends, due to health limitations, even sometimes danger.

I also picked up some thick black wool that is designer deadstock and is as dark as night to match the cloak the Evil Stepmother is wearing, and am in the middle of sewing a Hollyburn skirt out of that. Inspired by Snow White’s love of birds and song, I found a beautiful bird-themed fabric and sewed myself a Hollyburn skirt. I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t have survived without the warm kindness and love of my pets the past few years!

 

 

 

Finally, I am planning to knit some puffed-sleeve sweaters to go with my new skirts. I have a blue yarn already picked out for the first, round-necked top and will possibly knit the second, high-necked top with puffed sleeves in some Black cotton blend yarn. The great aspect of creating a visual map of my outfits for this year is that I can pop in different sweaters, skirts or dresses I have already made and figure out how they will go with my new clothing items so I can get the most use out of what I have and limit new purchases. For anyone who wants to try this, check out canva.com, which I am using to create my clothing plans.

 

 

Do you have any style inspirations this year, real or inspired by fiction? Please share!

 

 

 

Planning to Knit & Sew a kinda Sustainable Capsule Collection for 2023

 

 

 

 

Now that I am finally confident enough with my sewing and serging skills, I am switching from sewing with all (affordable) cotton to some wool garments. This will allow me to make matching knit/sewn outfits for 2023 which is soooo exciting! I’ve been fooling around with how to pair handsewn items with my knits for a while, but at first, I was not very successful and it’s taken me several years to a better sense of what works. This year I’ll be posting photos of some sewing patterns that I feel go well with certain knit designs. Ever since I read Karen Templar’s blog, and looked at her capsule collection photos many years ago, I’ve wanted to try to create my own capsule collection. Of course, I try to wear hand-knitted and sewn clothing items regularly but finding combinations that really go together and can be mix & match can be tricky. This is the year I’m going to focus more on getting that right, especially now that I’m learning to sew with wool! I will be using fabric and yarns that mostly come from stash as well as designer deadstock fabric which (lucky me) is readily available locally at stores like Stomemountaindaughter fabrics.

 

 

These two skirts are both sewn using McCalls 197 which I used for years to sew cotton skirts. The red skirt is sewed with a boiled wool which I found super challenging to work with. Somehow, (it had been 4 months since I’d sewed a skirt, y’all and I’d forgotten some basic things) I cut the front into two pieces instead of cutting it on the fold, which made the front longer than the back where the two front pieces were seamed. When I unpicked the hem, the smallest threads unravelling seemed to create holes in the boiled wool! I had to cut off the whole hem and shorten the wool skirt and its silk lining considerably. Someone at Stomemountaindaughter explained that boiled wool contains synthetics and that as a beginner, I will be better off using 100% wool for a while, so that's what I'm doing this year! After much adjusting, I am finally happy with how the skirt is looking and find it pairs nicely with Lisa Richardson’s Eliot design which can be found in a UK knitting magazine here or in Rowan Magazine 66. The houndstooth check fabric you can see below was some designer fabric deadstock I purchased at Stomemountaindaughter after the boiled wool incident and, being 100% wool was MUCH easier to use. Then again, I’d learned from my mistakes and cut the front skirt piece on the fold so there was no seam to take out! Did you know there is a second floor room of this fabric shop in Berkeley where you can get fabric half price? The houdstooth check fabric was so affordable ($13/yard x 2 = $26) compared to normal 100% wool prices that I was able to sew and serge my skirt without biting my nails.

 

 

I paired my new houndstooth skirt with with Vilma by Sarah Hatton which I knitted in 2019. It looks good both tucked into the skirt and worn loosely over it.  Overall, my color palette for 2023 is red, blue, black, white and grey ( if I get fancy, there may perhaps be a teal, forest green, or hot pink thrown in as an accent.) Here are some photos of my stash/ deadstock fabric that I will be sewing with in 2023:

 

 

 

 

 

Kim Hargreaves’ Peace Cardigan

 

 

I’ve been knitting hats for my husband and friends using Rowan Alpaca Soft yarn for the past few years because it’s so soft, and I finally decided it was time for me to make myself something out of such scrumptious yarn. I chose Kim Hargreaves’ Peace Cardigan to also showcase the beautiful antique Fleur de Lis buttons I had purchased from Unbottons! I added some additional waist shaping to the pattern but otherwise knitted it completely as written. Sorry there is no link to Ravelry, but I have stopped linking my blog there since the redesign caused some readers headaches and other problems a few years ago. 

 

Isn’t this a beautiful use of a Peplum? I feel this V-neck is flattering for different body shapes and will go with a lot of different outfits. I sewed myself a blue and white skirt to wear with it, using McCall’s 7197. Previous readers may recall that I used this pattern to recreate some Chanel zipper-front skirts a few years ago. This time, I just followed the pattern as written and kept the zipper in the center back. I used an Italian cotton poplin I purchased at Britex, and I am very sad about this fabric. As I ironed the pieces of the skirt, the blue ran in some places. Due to the busyness of the print, it’s difficult to see from far awy, but damaging the fabric just by ironing it at the start of the project was a huge downer. From then on, I used a presser cloth to iron the skirt, but I’m still really disappointed by the fabric. I will still wear this piece since I need a blue and white skirt in my wardrobe and I hate to waste clothing. Hopefully the blue streaks are not super visible!

 

 

This back photo illustrates the pretty use of garter stitch in this cardigan to emphasize the shoulders. After all the Holiday gift knitting I worked on from October to December, it was really fun to take a break and knit a garment just for me, and it is so soft and pretty! I am still working on my colorwork sweater, Troutbeck, for my husband, but once I traveled to France and returned with a severe stomach flu, I decided to retire it for the time being. There was no way I could focus on that fiendish color chart during my long convalescence, which meant no chance of finishing it by Christmas, so instead, I knitted my husband a silly colorwork hat with inappropriate reindeer fraternizing with each other, which he had requested about 6 months ago.

 

As soon as I do a bit more knitting for me—three months of knitting for others was a lot--I will return to his Troutbeck project. Hope you all enjoyed the holiday season and are approaching the New Year refreshed, your creativity recharged, and many fun projects queued up for 2023!

 

 

A Curvy Version of Marie Wallin Keris Vest

 

 

 

 

 

 

My challenge this year has been to systematically apply body shaping to stranded knitting patterns in order to adapt them to my curvy figure. I am a huge fan of designers like Marie Wallin, who produces gorgeous colorful designs every year. They are often designed in quite boxy shapes which are not flattering on me, so my challenge has been to find a way to adapt them. My first step in 2022 was to knit a template garment with the perfect fit, the Clara vest by Kim Hargreaves. 

 

I found the Clara vest in Kim’s book Amber, a Winter Gathering. I knitted it using Rowan wool cotton 4ply at 28 sts to 4 inches, which is the same gauge of Marie Wallin’s British Breeds yarn when it is stranded. Once I knitted my Clara vest and determined the fit suited me , I could use that garment as the template for the stranded vests I will be making this year. For my first stranded vest, I have chosen Keris by Marie Wallin. This high-necked vest uses 14 colors of British Breeds in a complex color design that can be broken down into combinations of two colors on each row. I cast on the same number of stitches for my Keris vest as I had used for my Clara vest, and used the same needle sizes. Size 1 for the ribbing and size 2 for the stranded colorwork. I reduced 1 stitch at each end every 4 rows until I reached the waist, knitted 9 rows straight, and then increased stitches at each end until I had the medium-size stitch count again for the bust.

 

 

Adding shaping to a stranded project is challenging, especially using a Marie Wallin chart where the yarn colors and patterns frequently change. But I had my schematic of stitch counts for each area of the vest, mapping the increases and decreases in my notebook which I had drawn after finishing my Clara vest, so I knew exactly what to do. I am delighted with the result. My Keris fits me just as well as my Clara vest does, and the combination of subtle, grey-toned colors allows me to combine the vest with many different items in my wardrobe, such as the Hollyburn skirt I sewed with indie fabric in the image above. This project proves that we curvy girls may need to work a bit harder to get a good fit in a stranded garment, but the goal is achievable. I also feel that choosing a vest with all-over pattern rather than a pullover may be more flattering for those of us with wider chest measurements, as the bare arms or contrasting unicolor sleeves underneath such a busy vest can provide relief and draw the eye from focusing so much on the upper chest area.

 

 

I purchased the Keris kit from The Wooly Thistle yarn store, and my Keris received a little shoutout in their recent The Woolly Thistle shopcast, episode 180 on youtube [56 minutes in]. Obviously, adding curves to a stranded garment is much easier to accomplish in a vest where one is only adapting hip, waist and bust shaping, rather than a yoke sweater or other full-size garment where there are many more variables. So I will be sticking with knitting vests for some time. Good thing vests are super trendy right now! My next project will use the same schematic and shaping. I will again use Marie Wallin’s British Breeds yarn to ensure consistency in size and gauge but this time, I will create my own color scheme. I’ll keep you posted on my results!

 

 

 

Experiment 1: Using a Template Garment for Marie Wallin’s designs

 

I find that many of Kim Hargreaves’ older designs fit me very well, so I knitted her Clara Vest (warning: this links to Ravelry project page) . I did add additional shaping for the waist and bust, which meant reducing approximately every 4 rows to the waist, knitting 21 rows straight, and then increasing every 4 rows to the bust before the armhole shaping. I photographed the garment from multiple angles to ensure the fit was reasonable:

As a result, I am using this as my “template garment” for any fair isle vest I knit this year. The first one up is the Keris vest from Marie Wallin’s new book of designs, Cumbria.  I purchased the kit using the British Breeds yarn from The Wooly Thistle and I have completed the back piece.

 

 

By some good fortune, the stitch count for Keris (size small) was the same size as the stitch count I used for Clara (size large) so I cast that on. Both patterns used a stitch gauge of 28 sts = 4 inches so I thought they might be interchangeable although Clara is a one-color vest and Keris requires stranded knitting. Anyway, I used the same stitch count for the back piece of Keris as I did for Clara [135 stitches] but I discovered that in spite of having knitted 3 Marie Wallin patterns in a row using British Breeds, the gauge for this garment was not the 28 sts = 4 inches I expected but more like 32!!!!!!. Perhaps it was because I had broken my Knitter’s Pride wood needle I used for the other 3 garments and had to substitute an Addie metal needle, but the resulting stitch gauge was much finer so the hip measurement of the back piece of my Keris came out much smaller than expected. Thank heavens I was measuring as I went along!

My friend helped me determine the back vest piece would still fit (just barely) but I then purchased another Knitter’s Pride wood needle (which will probably break at some point—honestly, I’ve had so many problems with these needles!) and the gauge loosened up to get me closer to the dimensions I wanted. Worrying that still would not be enough, I kept increasing stitches after my 21 row waist so that I ended up with the stitch count at a medium size for the bust (149 stitches) instead of the size small I had intended for Keris (135 stitches). This means the vest piece looks a bit top-heavy, but it will still fit me as it is a very cropped vest and so it does not flare out very much at the bottom. 

 

 

I am now knitting the front of Keris and due to my gauge issue I have cast on a size medium using 149 stitches. I am again reducing every 4^th row to the waist, knitting 21 rows straight for the waist, and then increasing back up to 149 stitches for the bust so that the front and back pieces match where the armholes/armhole finishing needs to be precise. The bust measurement of both pieces with be 20" for a total of 40" which is my exact measurement, so I will achieve my goal of 0 ease in the garment. I am about to reach the armhole of the front piece. I find it fascinating that not all stranded patterns in the same yarn have the same gauge, even though the last 3 did. I’m not sure how large of a role the different knitting needles (metal Addie vs wood Knitter's Pride) played in this; I am guessing quite a bit. I’ll post a new update when I finish Keris. In the meantime, I'm enjoying my Clara vest. Happy Knitting everyone!

 

Marie Wallin’s Stranded Aisling Knitted 3 ways!

 

 

 

This is Marie Wallin’s gorgeous Aisling pattern. After the first year of the pandemic, when I could only focus on knitting socks, I found that by doing KALs supported by knitters close to me, I could tackle stranded garments. In fact, we three friends got together and decided to knit something really beautiful. Aisling is a multicolor version of Marie Wallin's original, two-color top Nigella.

 

Buoyed by each other’s excitement, we ordered kits from The Woolly Thistle. I believe Marie Wallin's website now also has kits here. We each chose a different size. While my friend on the right @valbou knitted the top aimed to give more positive ease without alterations, my friend on the left @syl_vie.knit chose a smaller size. I used the technique that usually works for me in non-stranded garments, which is to cast on in a size large to accommodate my hip measurement, then decrease to a size small for the waist, and then increase to size medium by the time I reach the bust. 

 

It was tempting to leave this complex pattern alone and just knit a gorgeous colorwork boxy sweater. However, being rather plump and short-waisted I do not often look attractive in boxy shapes. So I risked altering the pattern and have mixed feelings about the results. Designs like this will always flatter women who are more willowy and slender than me. But I refuse to give up on knitting and wearing beautiful designs, even if it means recalculating some proportions and not getting all quite right. Having admired Marie Wallin for years, I particularly want to find a way to wear her colorwork designs because there is something almost otherworldly about their beauty. My real issue is a lack of knowledge of yoke construction. I'm going to share trials and failures in tailoring colorwork here and perhaps my success rate will have improved by 2023? 

 

Alteration 1) Sleeves. We found the forearm area of this design quite fitted.@syl_vie.knit, who as you can see on the left has slender arms, cut off and reknit the forearms of her sweater larger and then grafted them back onto the upper arms. So consider casting on the cuff of your sleeve in one size larger than you normally would. However, above the forearms, we experienced looseness in the sweater sleeves. This is likely because the design is intended to have a relaxed fit. However, I didn't discover how much extra ease there was in the shoulder and upper arm area until I had taken in the waist so I figured I had to keep bringing in the rest of the design as well. This is the slippery slope one follows when altering a yoked stranded knit! In the end, I steeked four inches from the upper sleeves & shoulder but I'm getting ahead of myself. Here is a photo of me wearing the sweater before the steek:         

 

Do you see the difference in ease between the fitted forearm of Aisling versus the upper sleeve? My guess is the upper sleeves needed to be quite wide to accommodate the stitch pattern repeat there. However, since I had chosen to alter the sweater by adding decreases for the waist (about 26 stitches) and then increases for the bust (about 22 stitches), the looseness in just the upper arms and shoulder on my version stood out. To fix this, I pinned one-inch seams on each side of the upper arm from mid-shoulder to mid-forearm and mid-underarm to mid-lower forearm and sewed one-inch seams, one on the top middle and one on the bottom middle of each sleeve. This removed the four inches of extra fabric. The seam didn’t show much so there was little distortion to the pattern of the colorwork in the yoke. Can you find the machine-sewed seam that runs all the way down my midarms?

 

 

If you compare my yoke to that of my friend on the far left, you can see that she knitted the pattern as written, without the shaping I added. Her sweater has the same amount of positive ease all over and that works really well for her. So I hope that looking at these different approaches to knitting the pattern will help you decide what look you want if you knit this design.

 

Alteration 2) The chest area of the yoke. I tried on my sweater once I had joined the sleeves to the yoke and saw there was a cowl shape in the back being created as I knitted up the yoke, due to this extra ease in the back. I assume this extra fabric was needed to keep the repeats of the pattern complete. Since I had tailored other parts of the sweater, I felt the need to adjust this area as well. I unraveled down to the beginning of the yoke/sleeve join again and decreased some stitches as I was joining the sleeves and body together (about 12). This further reduced the stitch count so I could follow the directions for the size medium from the yoke join on. Then, when I reached row 29 of the yoke, I used that plain color row to decrease over 24 stitches since everyone’s upper bust area is smaller than their bust point. Then, a few inches further up when I reached 3 repeats of small flowers in different colors, as my body was narrowing further (top of chest before it reaches the neck and upper shoulder), I altered the 5 stitch flower pattern repeat to a 4-stitch flower pattern repeat so that I could again decrease about 24 stitches, one for every flower. This kept the fit of the yoke more in line with my body’s diminishing width. My friend who knitted the size small also took in the sweater here. The pattern also decreases here but I'm just clarifying my decreases were in addition to the written pattern decreases.

 

You can best see the result of all these decreases in the chest area in this photo of my pre-steeked sweater. Here I had reduced almost 50 stitches out of the yoke on the chest but not from the upper sleeves or shoulder because I hadn't yet understood how important it was for the different pieces of the puzzle to all harmonize together.

Since the chest of the yoke fit relatively well, the extra ease in the upper sleeves and shoulder stood out more, which convinced me to steek that. Perhaps I should have decreased the yoke section less and then the looseness of the upper sleeves and shoulder would have flowed better. I am not very familiar with yoke construction so I kind of felt I was improvising as I went along. If any of my readers know of a close-fitting yoke sweater that works well for a plump hour-glass figure, please share in the comments section! I need to learn what I'm aiming for before I try something like this again!

 

You can see how thrilled my friends and I were to finish this magnum opus! At the end of 3 months our Aislings were done, and we were so proud to wear them together! This is truly an heirloom knit I will treasure forever. The leaf and flower patterns were so lovely I felt I was in nature even when I was trapped working in my tiny office on zoom! I have read posts from some people who just finished knitting this sweater and aren't sure of what to do with the large amount of ease their Aislings have in the upper arms and shoulder parts of the yoke, versus the tighter forearm area of the sleeves, so thought it might be helpful to share the adjustments we made as it is such a beautiful design, I hope as many people as possible will have the chance to make it for themselves!

 

 

Marie Wallin’s Stranded Ottilie Shrug Knitted 2 ways!

 

Insert photo of screen capture: project page

 

I have recently been learning to alter stranded patterns to fit my curvier figure and thought it might be helpful to post what I’ve been doing to help others who want to accomplish the same thing. Marie Wallin’s gift box 3 of British Breeds yarn arrived in May, and my mother-in-law immediately started in on knitting Ottilie, which takes all 24 colors of yarn in the gift box. 

 

This is a boxy shrug that was written one-size-fits-all. However, I was concerned this would swallow my figure, so I altered the back of the pattern. Instead of casting on with the original 162 stitches in the pattern, I knitted a gage swatch and calculated the number of stitches I needed to fit my waist dimension with just an inch or so of positive ease. I cast on 124 stitches on a size 2 instead of 3 needle and altered the pattern chart so that I was knitting half of one repeat, one panel of the pattern repeat in the middle, and then half of the repeat on the other side. In this way, I was able to keep the shrug fitted at the back waist, and then I slowly increased stitches on each size as I knitted up until I reached the stitch count of 162 by the bust. Then, switching up to the size 3 needle the pattern called for, I followed the pattern, increasing more stitches for the sleeves as written to form the kimono-style shape.

 

 

In contrast, my mother-in-law knitted the pattern exactly as written and you can see how perfectly it suits her. I do want to mention that she knitted her Ottilie in a tighter gage than I did, which may have helped her with the fit. It was really fun to see how these two different versions of the pattern both worked and suited us as individuals. My nephew, a professional photographer, took these lovely photos of us when we were on vacation on Puget Sound in the tiny town of Keyport, Washington. After knitting our Ottilie projects like fiends for several months, we were able to finish at the same time and capture this moment where we could enjoy our colorwork projects together. It was a special moment I wanted to share with you!

 

 

 

Flower Child by Nora Gaughan in Rowan Softyak dk

 

After many months of spending most of my time indoors last year, it seemed necessary to knit some flowers. I imagined blooms everywhere inside my little office, and I ultimately chose the pattern Flower Child by Nora Gaughan. For those of you who find it safe to navegate Ravelry, my project page is here: 

 

Seventies-inspired knits seem all the rage these days, but I was mainly attracted to the ingenious design of this pattern. I have never knitted a back or front in five separate pieces before and it seemed like a great challenge. The only issue is that I could not control any waist or any other shaping at all while using this method.

 

 

I cast on the pieces for the back in the smallest-but-one size as I knew with my Rowan softyak dk yarn my gauge might be a bit looser than the intended one. However, I could not downsize my needle because the 5 triangles for each piece are knitted sideways and therefore the row gauge is a more important measurement than the stitch gauge and I needed to get it as accurate as possible. In the end, my row gauge was a bit too small, so every ten rows, I added an extra two rows in each piece. I kept track of this in a small notebook.

 

As the back sleeves and sweater seemed huge = 46 inches around, I cast on all pieces for the front in the smallest size of the pattern since again I could not change my needle size. As a result, my front was smaller and closer to the right size.

 

 

In order to address the fit issue of the back piece, once I’d seamed the five back pieces together using mattress stitch, I hand-sewed a blue ribbon into the side seams. This way I could adjust the fit of the back however loosely or tightly I wanted by tying the ribbon behind me. I am quite happy with the end result, and since it fits well and is flattering, I believe I will wear it quite a bit. I see no point in knitting something “cool” that looks terrible on, because then it would probably be better to create a wall-hanging instead of clothes. My favorite part is the ingenious flower that is created through a combination of lace, bobbles, and cables at the center front:

 

 

Nora Gaughan is one of the most ingenious knit designers I have ever encountered. The fun experience I had knitting this piece encourages me to try more of her innovative designs in future!  I'd love to hear more about what you all have been knitting, and how your projects have been influenced by what's going on in the world. We cannot but be affected, and try to find comfort and inspiration where we can. My knitting world has been such a solace and happy place in the last two years, and I am so grateful for it!

My Journey of Crafting Hope in the Pandemic

Piuma Mitts by Heather Zoppetti

Hello! How have you all been during this difficult year? What have you been knitting lately? I have really missed you readers and our chats about knitting style. Knitting has been such a wonderful source of joy for me and my family and I spent much of the pandemic knitting scores of teeny tiny gnomes and unicorns I could give away to family and friends as a bright spot in a dark time. I particularly enjoyed sewing matching bow ties, skirts and knitting tops for my nieces and nephews for our family reunion this year! It felt like such an amazing gift for us to see each other in person at last that I wanted to celebrate as much as possible!

Lacy Day Top

A-line Skirt from Sew Sweet Handmade Clothes for Girls

 

Ana Hrachovek patterns

Spring Garden Tee by Alana Dakos

A-line Skirt from Sew Sweet Handmade Clothes for Girls

Hollyburn Skirt Pattern (adult)

https://www.instructables.com/Clip-on-Bow-Tie/

 

Well, it’s been a while since my last post. In specific, I last blogged at the end of September of 2020! It’s not that I stopped knitting or sewing during the pandemic. But it didn’t feel right for me to blog about a personal crafting journey when the news was full of such overwhelmingly serious problems. I suppose, like many, I fell back on a coping mechanism, which in my case was focusing on what I could do to make things better for the people in my life day-to-day. Due to the new online format of school, life became difficult for many of the families that I support as students struggled to learn on their own while teachers had to juggle their classroom commitments along with helping their own children learn at home. So, I doubled my work hours as an academic tutor and experienced the joys of Zoom Fatigue first hand. In spite of all the challenges, through our strong teamwork and dedication, my students made it through online school. However, this teaching 1:1 involved sometimes as much as seven hours a day and the brain drain from this workload was enormous. As a result, I focused on knitting small projects mostly that I could make in short periods of time.

 

 

 

 

Looking back, however, I realize it was the knitting podcasts and Instagram photos and blogs I read the last year that really kept me hoping for better things day to day. And if knitting emotionally supported me so much, I realized I shouldn’t undervalue my own crafty ramblings as unimportant. Let’s face it, my quest to assemble knitted + sewn clothes into great outfits has seemed pretty unimportant in the grander scheme of things. But the courage and hope I gained from creating gifts for my whole family as well as some garments made by hand allowed me to face everything else that was difficult in life, so perhaps it is somehow worth mentioning. I will try to post a few retrospectives on key crafty gains from last year over the next month.

 

I would love to hear from you about what crafting or other activities kept you inspired and sane this past year!