Eleven Stitches

A Quilt for my Niece

I finally got to meet my niece a few weeks ago! She's almost a year old, but she lives very far away, and it took us a long time to (finally) make the trip.

I started a quilt soon after she was born, but it took me a while to finish it up. I managed to get it finished before we traveled to see her. 

I still love making the Dresden Plate block, and this quilt was a lot of fun. I used a jelly roll of fabrics, but I don't remember the name of the fabric any more-- sorry! And since I bought it in-person, I don't have an electronic record of it either. But I liked color combinations and the various prints.

I used a simple quilting pattern, but I like the effect. I just continued the lines from between the petals to the edge of the quilt block. 

Since it's a quilt for a baby, I thought a brown background and quilt backing would be a good idea. That way the quilt can really be used without fear of stains.

I'm happy with how this turned out. My nephew especially liked it, and my niece seemed to as well.

 

 

Happiness Kit

I first heard about the Tosh Merino Light Tea Cakes kit from Jody at Savannahchik. I can't remember if I bought it the same afternoon that I saw it, or if I waited a day, but I had to have that kit fast. It was very much to my liking-- 12 colors of Tosh Merino Light in oranges and browns, with a packet of lemon ginger tea and a pattern for the Modicum Mitts. 

I determined the order that I liked, and knit with them lined up on my lap.

I must have been enchanted with them blocking, because I took this photo. I only vaguely remember taking it last fall.

And the result?

Lovely, although they are a little small for me. I should have knit the larger size. But I kind of don't care, because I enjoyed so much knitting them. Seeing them now, or feeling them in my jacket pocket, is a reminder of that happiness. 

I used the bits of yarn leftover for a couple of other things. I knit a case for my husband's new phone.

I just would use a color completely up before moving to another one. He uses the case all the time, and it's kept a nice sheen and stitch definition.

And finally, I covered a few of our keys. The key to our front door is very similar to the one to the side entrance, and knitting a little case for the front door key lets me find it easily in the dark. Also, it makes me happy.

All that happiness from one kit? Perhaps I should consider getting another one in a different range of colors. 

My Etsy Shop

I'm currently on a break between school, and well, more school. Although I volunteer at a couple of places (to get more Occupational Therapy exposure), I've had some free time on my hands. So I decided to open up an Etsy shop! 

Polka Dots and One Stripe Pillow Cover

Right now it's quilted and sewn things, although it's possible I will add a knitted item or two in the future. 

Modern Flying Geese Pillow Cover -- I particularly love this on my new chair!

It's been fun to just make things just because I want to try out a concept or a color scheme. I've also finished up some long-standing unfinished projects, which is very satisfying. 

I Spy Quilt

I've had my shop up for almost a month now, and I've only had one sale. So as far as a money-making enterprise, it's starting out slowly. :) But I'm interested to see how things go, and at the very worst, I'll have many things to someday use in our own house or to give away as gifts. 

Red and Turquoise Flying Geese

If you're curious, please click over to my shop, and if you have an Etsy account, I'd appreciate a favorite of my shop or of items that you like. Thanks for looking!

 

A Great Upgrade

I re-covered a chair! 

It is cat approved. I'm very proud of myself, which might be a little silly, considering that I covered this chair once before. Unfortunately, the previous fabric wasn't washable, and it got to be that I really needed it to be washable. I didn't save any patterning information the first time I made the chair cover, so I had to restart it again from scratch.

I was looking forward to finding some fun fabric to use instead just a dark blue. I found this flock of birds fabric at a discount store in San Francisco, and it has the added benefit of being washable. I pre-washed it on hot before sewing anything. I'm hoping that the busy print will help hide the fact that it's the cats' favorite place to sleep. 

I made a pattern by draping pattern material over the back of the chair and pinning it in place. It took me quite a while, and in the end it came out pretty good. I didn't sew the seams tightly enough, however, so there was extra fabric bunching in a few places. I folded it under in inconspicuous places and hand-stitched it down. The sides of the chair are where it's the most obvious, but I count it as being still pretty nice.

 

And it's not so noticeable from a distance. The seat was pretty easy to make. It's a big circle, which I gathered slightly around the edges. I then stitched a large rectangle (joined into a loop) to it, and finished the other side of the rectangle with some elastic so that it pulls up underneath the chair. 

I'm so happy with our newly redecorated chair! 

CustomFit Sweaters, Happy and Sad

I finished a CustomFit Cushing Isle, and it's great.

I really like the CustomFit model. I can choose the yarn and gauge I like, and then the pattern is fit to my dimensions. I think it's especially nice now CustomFit has included some pre-designed patterns, and I don't have to do any design work to get a custom sweater. (I know I sound like an ad, but I just really like this model. It could be the computer scientist in me coming through here.)

I used MadelineTosh Vintage in Robin's Egg. Lovely, lovely yarn to knit with, and the color is amazing. It's almost a match to my blog color!

The front of the sweater is knit with texture, and the back and sleeves are knit in stockinette. I need to go in and re-adjust my arm measurements, because the sleeves came out a little short, and perhaps too wide. 

When I first finished this sweater, I sewed on yellow buttons. I found myself choosing not to wear the sweater, though, because it was a little too twee. I like the current buttons much better, and I think it makes the sweater a little more versatile as well. 

Overall, I count it as a yay. It's a great sweater, and the worsted-weight yarn gives me the warmth I need on cool days.

And something that's not a yay? This sweater, at least in its current state.

This sweater once fit me. It was a CustomFit design as well, and it was a perfect fit. Alas, the yarn required hand-washing instead of machine washing on cold, and I lost it. (After that I threw it in a load of hot laundry to really felt it up. Might as well, right?) Right now it's only suitable for an infant who wants a suit of armor, but I'll find some use for the felt as some point. It's very sad, as it was a sweater I wore often. 

I went back to look for pictures of me in the sweater, but I only found one and it wasn't the best. So I'll have to let it live on in my memory as a once-perfect sweater. Perhaps I'll knit another one someday.

Christmas Gifts I Wanted to Keeeeep

I only did a little bit of knitting for Christmas this year. One gift I finished very early-- I think it was completed in November? It was a second Frission, because I loved the first one so much and it was fun to knit. My brother's girlfriend went with me to a knitting store once, and spent all of her time admiring the green yarn, so the color choice was obvious. I used MadelineTosh Pashmina in Jade.

She loved it, and made sure that I knew she got a lot of compliments on it at work.

I also made some mittens for my mother-in-law. I've made her socks for the past few years, but this year she requested mittens. And what a perfect request it was! She didn't have any preferences for color, other than that it should go with her olive green coat, and didn't have a pattern request either. So I got to pick all of it! 

I ended up choosing four colors, purple, yellow, brown, and grey, which seem to go nicely with olive green, and it also worked out that they contrast nicely with each other in different combinations. The pattern I chose was Scrap Yarn Beasties, because I thought all of the different animals would be fun to knit.

I ended up modifying the pattern a great deal. I added two braids to the cuff because I love braids. I changed the thumb to stick out on the side instead of come off the palm. I changed the top of the mitten to be no so pointy, and I had to adjust the stitch count in various places. I knit the first mitten three times because I just wasn't making it large enough, but eventually I got it just right.

The yarn is Miss Babs 2-Ply Toes, in Oyster, Naples, Dark Roast, and Violaceous. 

Even though I changed the thumb, I did make sure to still keep the barking dog on it. So cute!

My mother-in-law really liked them, sadly, because I think they also go well with my orange coat.

Wouldn't you agree?

My (New) Sewing (Room)

Hello! A few days after my last post, my husband got a job offer (near San Francisco, thank goodness, since we had already moved out here), and we found a place to live 2 days after that! Additionally, I was taking pre-requisite classes to apply for graduate school in Occupational Therapy. Things got very busy, very quickly! Now, however, we are completely moved in to our new place, my pre-requisites are finished, AND I got into my first-choice school (YAY!). So now I've got a little time to be here.

In our old place, I had a little sewing room all to myself. Here, the wonderful flat that we found didn't really work for me to have a sewing room, but I carved out my own little sewing space anyway out of our dining room. We aren't really formal diners anyway, so that room is a little bit of everything. 

I started by putting up a large shelf to divide off my space. I can access this from either side, and it holds all of my fabric, sewing tools and notions, crafting books, sewing patterns, and works in progress, with some additional space for my cross-stitch and beading materials. 

Then, I set up my two sewing tables. One with the sewing machine and iron, and the other with a large mat for cutting or other needs. 

There wasn't a space for a TV in this little nook, but I've discovered podcasts (Invisibilia, Radio Lab, Serial, and Criminal, to name a few), so I listen to those instead. I think it works out better anyway, because I often ended up listening to TV shows instead of watching them closely when I was sewing! Yesterday I spent all afternoon sewing and listening to podcasts, and it was quite wonderful.

As for the TV, my bedroom here is larger, so I created a little knitting/studying nook near the windows. Yay.

Speaking of yay, last week was my blogiversary. I've been occasionally blogging for 8 years and 6 days! I'm so glad.

 

 

Pomme de Pin Cardigan

Let me show you one of my favorite sweaters ever.

Pattern: Pomme de pin Cardigan by Amy Cristoffers
Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash Sport in 1946, 8 skeins
Needles: US 5 and US 6
Time to Knit: August 23 - October 31

I knit a large portion of this sweater while riding the bus to and from classes I'm taking at city college. (By the way, I'm applying to masters programs for occupational therapy, and right now I'm taking a couple of prerequisite courses. They are challenging and fun.)  I thought knitting a sweater would be unweildy on the bus, but it wasn't too bad. Once I had body and sleeves combined, though, I saved it for at-home knitting. 

It's been fun to wear this sweater on the bus where it was knit while knitting my next sweater! This is currently very seasonally appropriate, as the weather has cooled and my lighter-weight cardigans are not warm enough. This sweater is warm without being too warm. It's cosy and one that I feel effortlessly looks nice.

I did make some modifications. First of all, I was a little between sizes, so I knit the smaller size and added one inch to each side of the front only. That worked out quite well, fit wise. I also made the body a little longer than was recommended, so I added a fifth button. Aren't those buttons great? They're heavy and sometimes clink together when unbuttoned, which I think only adds to the appeal.

I did have to figure out the back collar. It's wide and scrunched strangely at the back of my neck. If you look at the original pattern picture, you can see a little bit of that going on too. Part of the problem with mine is those two extra inches added to the front-- I should have decreased them out along the neckline somewhere. But to control thte situation, I permanently scrunched the collar in a few places by threading yarn through and tying it tightly.

I'm toying with the idea of adding elbow patches. I think the style of the sweater lends itself to elbow patches, and it may be a good idea since the arms are all lace. What do you think?

I've been wearing this cardigan practically every day since I finished it. It is exactly what I need for my current wardrobe and weather, and I love it.

I'm sorry for the silence for the past few weeks. My phone (and therefore camera) was stolen at the beginning of September, and I had to wait a long time for a replacement phone. But it's here now, and I'm happy to be able to blog wtih ease again! See you soon.

Frisson

After I moved to San Francisco at the beginning of July, I needed a new knitting project. I went to my now local yarn store, Imagiknit, and I picked up some MadelineTosh tosh sock in Farmhouse White. It isn't a color that I would normally pick, as I usually like a lot of color, but at the time I needed something soothing, I guess, after all the stress of packing and moving.

I started out making a sock, the very lovely Roger Ackroyd.

Alas, it was too small, so I started it again on larger needles. And alas, it was too small again! Rather than face re-starting a second time, I decided to put the project aside for other things. As one does.

A few weeks later I realized that a garter-stitch shawl would be great for this climate. I found Frisson, and realized that the yarn from my (doomed) sock project would be a nice match to use for the shawl. And it was.

As you can see, each wedge gets bigger as you go, which made the shawl a fun knit, and also a fun shape to wear. I left off the very last (largest) wedge as I had an incomplete skein of yarn. (I might have thrown away some of the yarn in anger. As one does.) 

The pattern was easy to memorize and keep track, and I knit the last couple of wedges on the bus.

I think the shawl will be great for that little bit of warmth when I need it. August can be so chilly sometimes. :) And it will pack away nicely when it isn't needed.

Overall, I'm very pleased with the knitting and the finished project. I think this would make a nice gift, so maybe there willl be more Frissons in my future.

Oh, and speaking of living in San Francisco, I experienced my first earthquake at 3:20am today. It injured a lot of people north of me, but here nothing was harmed, and we only found one thing that was knocked open by the shaking. I woke up to my bed creaking back and forth, realized what was happening, and took a few quick steps to get under a door frame. It was quite an experience, and I'm glad that there wasn't worse damage done and that I was able to react quickly and calmly. 

A Big Move, and Pants!

Hello, thanks for forgiving the blog break. We went to Paris in March*, and then a few weeks after that decided that we were going to move from New Jersey to San Francisco. Much packing and very little crafting ensued, and I finally became a Californian in July! 

I then had this mental block that I couldn't tell you about it until I had a picture of me with the Golden Gate Bridge, because that's what one does when in SF, right? Well, here it is, although the bridge is a little small in this picture, I have to admit.

In sewing news, I made pants! I have three pairs (in different colors) of the same pants from Gap. They fit me just right. I decided to take apart the black pair since I don't wear them very much and they have a bleach stain on the cuff. I ripped them entirely apart with a seam ripper, traced them onto pattern fabric, and then widened the pattern a little to allow for a larger seam allowance.

For making up the pants, I used the instructions from Sewaholic's Thurlow. I had made an (unblogged) pair of Thurlows last fall that didn't fit me very well, partly because I think I picked the wrong size. But I thought the instructions were great, and they helped me put these pants together easily.

I did make some changes from my original pattern. I had to let out the side seams a little to keep it from being too tight across the back, and I also drafted some front pockets to look like Thurlow's front pockets. (The original pair had single-welt pockets in the front and I didn't want to tackle that.) One problem with my front pockets? They were a little small.

Not big enough for a hand to fit inside! Next time I'll change the angle and lower the pocket line. Otherwise, the fit feels great, and I'm so pleased to have a fitting pair of pants that I made myself.

I used some fabric left over from my polka-dot quilt (more on that soon) for the lining. I think it's fun.

I didn't finish off the inside seams as neatly as I usually do because my serger is currently in storage! 

These pants were a practice pair. The fabric is basic quilting cotton I got from a local store. I have a couple of fabrics saved for when I had the pattern ironed out, and I will hopefully start on one of those pairs of pants soon. 

In the meantime, i'll try to figure out what other super-bright clothes combinations I can make with these cheerful, comfortable pants!

 

 

*I started another sporadically-updated blog, Kristy Isn't Home, to chronicle my travels. You can find my posts about Paris here, here, and here.