Fashion: Yarn Style

A Knitted Gnome's Adventures at Lucia Lodge, California

 

 

The above fellow is a starter gnome, looking through the white wooden fence that

separates Lucia Lodge from the Big Sur coastline. The starter gnome pattern is

designed by Anna Hrachovek of Mochimochiland. I discovered her adorable

gnome in this video: 

 

After six months of barely leaving home, we decided to go to Big Sur, California

and El Gnomo came along. My husband and I had fun photographing first El

Gnomo, and then later his new friend Brinkley at Lucia Lodge, where

we stayed. Everyone who saw the gnomes peering out of the foliage laughed.

And I realized that was what had been missing from my life----lightheartedness!

So I'm going to knit more gnomes for family and post them in the mail.

I hope later to receive back photographs of the gnomes having adventures

 in different parts of the US while we are so confined to one place.

 

 

 Lucia Lodge is a set of cottages right on the edge of a cliff and the ocean views

are spectacular. Even someone like me, who is struggling to recover from a leg tendon

injury, can sit back and relax in a gorgeous natural environment a few feet from your door.

 

 

Then there are the lovely outdoor eating spaces where you can picnic. This is necessary some

of the time, as Lucia Lodge’s restaurant only serves lunch there although dinner can be picked 

up. For the most part, all the Big Sur restaurants I called were only serving their hotel clients 

so we brought a cooler with ice to cover breakfasts with snacks.

 

 

There are lovely, quixotic gardens sprinkled about Lucia Lodge where gnomes can play and you

can pick some aloe vera leaves if you end up with sunburned feet from spending hours wading

in the ocean as we did.

 

 

I hope you enjoyed El Gnomo's and Brinkley’s adventures. For anyone who is interested

in making the pink-nosed variation like the one above, I picked up 8 stitches from the face

to make the beard jut out instead of knitting the beard separately and flat as the pattern

instructs so you can sew it on later. Then I added a pink safety nose between the eyes

 and the beard. Anyway, I will do my best to share more travel pics of the gnomes soon.

Lately, I’ve been pining so much for travel that I’ve been begging all of my 

friends to share travel photos with me. So these are mine of Lucia Lodge for you….

Marie Wallin’s Unst Fair Isle Cardigan & Simplicity 2444 Dress

 

 

I finally did it! I created an intricate fair isle knit that I am really proud of! And after all these years of eyeing spectacular versions of Marie Wallin’s fairisle knits, it was time to tackle Unst. I've wanted to knit this pattern since the very first moment I saw it. Someone had posted a photo of Marie Wallin wearing her new pattern among a group of knitting designers on Instagram and I was struck by its beauty immediately. I messaged the poster to find out the name of the pattern and then when I had the good fortune to attend the Edinburgh Yarn Festival three years ago I tried the cardigan on myself!

 

 

Mary had samples of many of her sweaters from the Shetland collection at her booth. Although the sample was knitted in a size small, which did not fit me, Marie recommended the pattern over the other garments to me because she felt it was more flattering for a curvy body type.

Marie Wallin, myself and my MIL Maxi at EYF

I was able to find the yarn for Unst at Uncommon Threads Yarn, and my husband purchased it as a Christmas gift. But in spite of all my swatching, the beginning of the cardigan back turned out too big. I just couldn’t face the idea of taking the fair isle out so I put it aside for six months. When I started again, I decided it was fine for there to be a bit of positive ease in the pattern at the hips and to add in more waist shaping to make sure of a more flattering fit. From the first four inches I’d knitted on a size 3 needle, I downsized to a size 2 needle and that is what I used to knit the rest of the garment. Here's my advice--always measure your garments four inches up from the cast on, no matter how perfect your gauge swatch seems. It may not turn out the size you expected because a garment piece is a much larger size than a four-inch swatch!

 

 

 I did add in a lot of waist reductions--I removed 20 stitches from the pattern--and then, of course, I had to add in all of the stitches again later for the bust. So it was a bit tricky knitting the stranded pattern on both the knit and purl side and tracking the shaping I devised at the same time. But I do feel that, because the fair isle motifs are small on Unst and it's knitted flat, it is an ideal pattern for adding in shaping. Each color section of a motif only goes on for about two rows. So it's a bit like adding shaping to a striped cardigan knitted flat, which is not too difficult. I just reduced 22 stitches gradually over the 5.5 inches from upper hips to waist, knitted the waist straight for two inches, and then I had to gradually increase the stitches again so that by the time I reached the armhole area, there were enough stitches for the recommended pattern size (M).

 

 

I feel, in retrospect, that I could have added in even more stitches for the bust, but overall the fit is good. It is just that buttonholes tend to gap on curvy wearers like me, and unfortunately the striped corrugated ribbing calls more attention to this. So in future, I will probably avoid using striped ribbing on the button bands of a garment like this.

 

 

Knitting such a complicated fair isle design on a size two needle took me three months once I’d picked up the project again. Because I was knitting on a size two needle for the body, I had to downsize the ribbing to a size one needle.  It also took me about three months to create my version of the sewing pattern Simplicity 2444 for the matching dress.

 

 

I had discovered the appeal of this pattern while watching the video podcast Stitching Over the Days because Constance, a fellow vintage style lover, has made many versions of Simplicity 2444 and I noticed it looked really great with her knitwear. However, the pattern was discontinued. So I actually searched for it online for about six months until I found a used version in my size. Then the challenge was to adjust the pattern to fit me. The shoulders were a bit wide and boxy and so I had to redraft that section of the pattern. Once I completed that, I realized that a boatneck is not a flattering neckline for me because of my face shape. Instead, I decided a sweetheart neckline would be prettier. So, using a photo from a Gertie Sews pattern as inspiration, I redrafted the neckline with the help of my sewing teacher, Paige, and drafted a matching facing.

 

 

At last I was ready to sew the dress! Of course, there were numerous trials and travails. I wasn’t used to sewing with plain fabric where both sides look the same so I kept sewing the sleeves or bodice wrong-side-out to the skirt. The skirt itself was a challenge because I hadn’t sewn pleats for about (eek) 30 years! So I had to get up to speed on that technique. Then, on top of everything else, it turned out the purple fabric was too sheer! So I had to line the bodice with a second layer of fabric!

 

 

As you can see, after all the work I put into both pieces of this outfit, I am going to appreciate this dress and matching cardigan forever!!!!!! It is too warm to wear them much right now but I am really looking forward to using them a lot in fall and winter. I wonder how many other knitters are becoming sewists during these strange times as we all spend so much time at home? I’d love to hear about your experiences!