You are currently browsing the monthly archive for September 2007.
“Lately I have been obsessed with the idea of fashion collections. Now I am not the type to follow the fashion scene at all, but ever since I have begun sewing I have been looking at the cohesiveness of designer collections and how every piece tends to work together for a common theme and vision of the artist. When it has come to my knitting and sewing it has pretty much been about the one piece, not how it fits into the overall scheme of my wardrobe or my fashion style (not that there really is one).
Therefore, I have decided to take the Fall season and plan an actual collection to knit and sew. Sure there will be deviants from the cohesive style, but ultimately I want the colors and designs to work together. By the end of the season, lets say March 2008, I want to create a slide show of my finished collection.”
I wrote this part of the post about two weeks ago. I didn’t publish it due to lack of direction on how to begin, resulting in a lack of commitment to doing it. So I find it to be fortuitous that I would wait to publish the post because yesterday I stumbled across fibermom who is participating in a sewing a long called SWAP – Sewing with a Plan. How ingenious!!!
GROUPIE!!!
Although I am not participating in the group, because it started on August 1 and ends December 1, I loved all the details and ideas they compiled for designing a cohesive collection. I guess in essence I will be a groupie 
I have read through all the details and think I will follow the guidelines of SWAP, but just go it alone to reduce the pressure (yes, I know crafting is fun, but I tend to stress out quite a bit about the little things). Also, I think I will rename the acronym to Stitches with a Plan because I am both a knitter and seamstress so the two may combine in this venture. I posted links below to some of the really good information the ladies of SWAP collected, just in case anyone else was interested.
- Details of SWAPALONG 2007
- Original Idea of SWAP
- Picking a SWAP style pattern
- Buying Fabric for your SWAP
- Creating a SWAP storyboard
- Finding your Body Shape
My first step for SWAP, which I encourage everyone to do, is go to My Shape, and get to know all your measurements. It is such an indication that you need to diet and the scale isn’t just lying to you enlightening tool and makes sewing and finding the right pattern that much easier. According to my measurements I am a type A body shape. After reading through the recommendations from the site, I definitely think it hits my style preferences on the mark.
Some coming attractions at the Lint Knitter: Cutting my jacket for my tailoring class, progress on my shirt for my intermediate sewing class, and my finished Bradshaw sweater! Woo Hoo!!!
I do recognize that there is a fine line between need and want in the America. I NEED food, I want more yarn. I NEED water, I want more clothes. This is where my fine line comes in because I WANT and NEED to make these bags. I have already earmarked each one for its intended use – one for knitting, one for everyday wardrobe, one for sewing projects and one for travel.
Ok, these bags probably don’t fit with the classic definition of need and are probably more of an obsessive compulsive, consumerism, addict sort of need but it is need nontheless.
Go check out the inspiration page! You may find that you NEED one too
Knitting related words or concepts you do not say around boys, even if they are thirty years plus, married, and engineers:
- Knitty: because it ends up as “hey, show me your knitties” and lots of laughing
- Cats: because you immediately become associated with women who have hoards of feral cats. Just remember Cats + Knitting = immediate spinster status
- Musty Balls: Ok, even I have to admit that this one isn’t much a reach on their part but only my co-workers would modify the Stitch and Bitch calendar to read the following:
The white, blank spots used to say “yarn”. Boys….
PEOPLE I have been knitting this garter stitch collar for nearly two days now! I want to gnaw off my own arms due to the miles of garter stitch. Ok, not miles, but the seemingly endless 92 stitch garter rows are driving me to the brink. AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
I give props to every person who can do garter stitch sweaters and scarves, because I am losing my mind with the knit knit knit coupled with the lack of growth. Funny part is this process is exactly the same when working stockinette in the round but somehow that brings me more peace than the ribby soul sucking powers of garter stitch. I may have to cut the collar a little short due to the desire to keep my sanity design reasons. It is looking pretty big right now at 9″ and it might swallow my head if it gets to the required 14″ length. Besides, as I was trying it on I realized that I will have to move to the arctic to get the most wear out of this sweater because the 15% alpaca in the Valley Berkshire Bulky obviously packs a punch in the body heat absorption category. I can feel the heat radiating from my neck, its kinda weird.
Phew, ok…. I am better now, back to the knitting.
**BTW, doesn’t that color look yummy with the blur added. Love it.
I will apologize ahead of time for the crappy review of this project. It has been finished for quite some time and I only remembered it because it was cold enough to warrant the donning of knitted accessories today. Besides, the blogging fodder as been in short supply due to my continued exhaustion and the endless nature of my Bradshaw sweater, which I hope to have finished this weekend…*crossing fingers*.
Yarn: Blue Heron Rayon Metallic in Mossy Place colorway
Inspiration: Montego Bay Scarf
Needles: Size 8
Yardage: 550 yards
Modifications: After knitting the skinnier scarf I casted on for 65 stitches, approximately 1.5 times the stitches, it wider and shorter
Enjoyment Factor: 6
Knit Time: Ummmm….hmmm..about 2 weeks? Guess I should have blogged about this before not, eh?
The Good:
- The pattern really show cases the yarn.
- It is really light and soft so it is made for that not quite hot, not quite cold in between weather.
- It is a great, simple accessory piece that I thinks I will love due to the softness of the yarn. I also love the slight bling bling from my yarn choice.
The Bad:
- Knitters Ego! It gets you every time. You think you know the pattern, it is simple right? Ahhh, you forget to knit 3 instead of 4 stitches on the end and that is when the pattern starts to go haywire and your knitting starts slanting in the wrong direction.
- Monotony. This pattern is definitely a filler knit. It is that project that you pick up when you need a mindless knit, but definitely cannot serve as you primary focus
The Ugly:
- Nothing really, or at least nothing I can remember so I guess that is pretty much the same.
In conclusion, there really is not much that can be said about this project. Pretty much, just knit it! In the end you will have a finished object you love!
Knit, knit, knit.
That is all I can do to keep my head up these days. I am fighting a mysterious cold that had yet to manifest itself into bone aching and snotty coughing, but instead as a constant headache, muscle tightness, and borderline nympholepsy. I have all these things I want to do in the craft world, but am exhausted just thinking about it. But enought complaining…
Knitwise:
I finally got may contrasting yarn from Webs for the Bradshaw sweater that you can see above. I have moved on to the sleeves and I am loving the color combo.
I am also eager to join some knit-a-longs. I don’t know why because I normally have a hard time putting up enough W.I.P. pictures to constitute true participation but I am going to get better at that, you’ll see.
Sew wise:
I am working on a new shirt for my Intermediate sewing class and a jacket for my women’s tailoring class. I will have to give you more details on that when I have more energy because I am currently too slee…..zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
One thing that any carpenter, construction worker, or engineer will attest too is that the work is far more efficient and enjoyable when you have the right tools. For me as the knitter, this would be my Clover 8″ circulars. These things are the most cheap and awkward looking devices I have knit with, but they are neither of the two accusations. Instead they were on the expensive side and once you get your rhythm working with them the work is smooth and fast. I started this on DPN but I really don’t like DPN’s that much so I put the work down until I remembered these babies. I bought these a while ago on a whim but am itching to get some more after rediscovering them.
If you are wondering, that is Knitty’s Shimmer on the needles now. This will be a guilty bribe present for my mother who always says I never knit her anything. I got the yarn on sale (my M.O.) at Michael’s so I thought it would be a good time to pay my penance start on her project. It is working up pretty fast and it distracting me from reknitting the Bradshaw sweater. Need to get back on the ball since the WEBS order should be here this week
Knat: I have knit the back and the left side of the Bradshaw sweater
Knitting: I am knitting the right front of the sweater with the irritating “do the right shaping like the left front and add some buttonholes” directions
Reknit: I am also reknitting the right front of the sweater because I was distracted by the buttonholes and forgot the arm shaping, hence my irritation with the directions, even thought they are perfectly fine if you are able to remember to do them. While ripping to fix the armhole, I also noticed that I did the math for the buttonholes incorrectly and only made 4 button holes instead of 5. So instead of the 24″ I had, I am back to 9.5″. Good thing this is bulky yarn!
It’s all ok though, because I can’t finish it until my order of the contrasting yarn arrives from Webs. Until then, I will figure out what to do about the sleeves because this is the same pattern book that gave us monkey arm sleeves for the butterfly. This pattern calls for 23.25″ sleeve length with a 6.5″ cuff people!!. Hmmm…can we say octopus tentacles??
Ahh man I miss my old home town of Oakland. I went up there for the weekend and I have to say I am a little homesick, even though techniquely I am living in my hometown which is 5 minutes from where I was born. I had a wonderful weekend full of eating, shopping, eating, shopping, being lazy, and chillin with my Oakland homie.
We ate at all my favorite places and even some new ones.
On the crafty side, we went fabric hunting and yarn crawling. The fabric day was the best! I went to the Crate and Barrel Outlet which has discontinued Marimekko fabric on sale. The lady was extremely nice and instead of the 4 yards I asked for, gave me 9 yards for the price of 2.5! I couldn’t keep the smile off my face for the entire trip.
Even the kitties can’t stay away!
Next we went to Poppy Fabric which is going out of business and was having a 35% off sale. Earlier in the day we were in a store that had a bag I wanted but didn’t want to pay $100 for it, even though it would have been worth every cent. What do I find in the fabric store? The very same fabric used for the bag. I ended up buying quite a few different colors and some cute buttons. Wish I could have bought more but the fabric is busting at the seams right now.
Yarn day was also exciting. We went to the South Bay area to explore some yarn shops I had never been to before. I didn’t buy much, just some patterns and one ball of yarn, but it was all about the experience. That black cherry red yarn is Yarn Place Gentle which has a hint of cashmere. Yes, I know it is lace weight and yes, I know I said I was not a lace knitter, but really it is so addicting. This yarn is allocated for a Hanami stole.
I will be adding a page to the blog soon with the yarn shop reviews and the places I like to eat, so stop by when they are ready
Recent Comments