WIP Wednesday: Starting March Challenges!

Well,  it's been a while as I've been trying to get my bearings with my you tube channel, but rest assured that much creating has been going on in the background even if I didn't post about it here. I've got the body finished as well as both front yokes. I'm on the back yoke now and I've run into a snag. Narrow shoulders strike again - the directions tell you to knit until the back is the width of your measurement between your shoulders (mine is 12 inches), but I've reached the point I should be changing to ribbing and I'm still at 16 inches across. So I know I will have to rip my entire back yoke back to the beginning, but I'm trying to decide if a triple decrease every other row will be good enough to get me down to the 12 inches. So this has been in time out for the past few days as a result.

In the meantime, I've started the swatching for my next sweater. I've wanted to make the Audrey in Unst pattern by Gudrun Johnston for like a decade. This past Black Friday, I bought some Wool of the Andes in the Knit Picks sale in the Blackberry colorway just for this project. I swatched on size 5 needles like the pattern suggests and I have gauge, so I will be casting this on soon. Do I need another purple sweater considering I am knitting one at the same time? lol No but I like this color and design and I just want to make it. So there. 

I'm also working on a new project for the Crochet Flip challenge with Shannon Talks Yarn on You Tube. The idea was to take a thrifted item and jazz it up with crochet in some way. I talk all about my plans for this challenge in my latest You Tube Video. I'm using Curio 3 crochet thread from Knit Picks in this bright, springy palette to make an Irish crochet neckline detail. I'm at a point where I'm almost finished with the motifs, but I'm trying to decide what shapes I should add in the spaces I have left. Also, so I like that open flower on the right? I can't decide. But once I decide and make a few more tiny pieces, I will be able to get this officially assembled and done. I'll be unveiling that in a video later this month.

In sewing news, I've finally buckled down and completed the sleeves - one is totally done except sewing the buttons on and the other just needs the hand sewing done for the cuff. The final steps are to set the sleeves in and hem and I'm hopeful I will get this cracked out in the next few days.

So the dress is looking like it's almost done and I can't wait. Never mind that I had to blur the background in my sewing room because it's such insanity. Just look at the dress, lol. I'm trying to get this finished quickly so I can move on to my Sew Frugal plans from that video as well. Here's hoping I can make that happen!

WIP Wednesday: Finally Sewing Again!

This past week has held a lot of moments to make things work. I sailed right through the stockinette section of the Ishbel shawl by Ysolda Teague, but then I kept having problems getting the lace to line up. I seriously started the lace and undid it about 4 times. Ugh. It had to sit in the corner for about a week and think about what it had done, but last Friday I was determined to get it worked out and by Sunday it was smooth sailing. Now it's finished, so you will see this one soon.

My Rose Street Cardigan is also moving right along, but that ribbed bottom edge feels like it's taking an absolute age, lol. I knit ribbing as a necessary evil - dang English style knitting. This has become the perfect mindless project to grab when I'm on a video call or something else that I need to pay more attention to something other than a knitting chart, and as such I am sailing right through the body of this sweater faster than any other fingering weight project I've ever done, which is pretty cool. I'm already about to start the neckline decreases.

I also started my Chrystanthemum frutescens Socks back on Valentine's Day and they've proven to be a bit of a challenge as well. That picot edge, while cute, is easily the fiddly-est cuff I've ever knitted in my life. I managed to get it done and move onto the lace, but pretty much immediately my counts were off. Now I'm trying to decide if I frog back the lace section and start again or just keep moving forward.

And on the most momentous news - I actually sewed something! I'm now closer to having an actually wearable New England dress. I had got to the point of adding the zipper on the side about a month ago and tried it on to discover the extra 2.5 inches of length I added needed to be removed. I still don't understand how I was so off - I did a mock up and everything. But I just could not get in the mood to unpick a serged edge in black linen fabric, you know? Well, I finally buckled down last weekend and got it unpicked, made the changes, and installed the lapped zipper. I'm now onto the sleeves, which feels like a bit of a miracle considering I started this project in November. I'm ready to get this done so I can actually sew other things again. I'm having a time where I look in my closet and wish I had different things than I do, so I really want to start making those things a reality. I just won't allow myself to change projects until this one is finished not only because it's the responsible thing to do, but also because my serger is threaded with black thread and I don't want to change it back for this dress, lol. Sewists will understand my struggle. So I'm hoping to finish this dress this week and then move on to some of the other things I would like to be wearing.

And in completely different news, I am trying to grow flax in my back yard! I got the idea from Engineering Knits and since I got a spinning wheel I figured why not give it a go? So this is my flax bed I set up a few weeks ago and it's coming in pretty well.I'm just hoping it doesn't get too hot for it too soon.

WIP Wednesday: No Stop At Sleeve Island

Things have been moving right along with my Mohn Cardigan - I just finished the first sleeve :) I did have to fudge the sleeve head a little bit to get it to line up in my size, but it looks like it should still fit me fine. I'm still loving the tuck stitch and I will honestly be a bit bummed when this project is over, lol. I finished the buttons bands and collar this week as well just because that's my preferred order of construction (even though I'm not playing yarn chicken this time). I'm excited to see how this looks when it's blocked, but I love the little collar - I think it really pulls the whole thing together.

Interestingly, Facebook gave me this notification this past Saturday. Apparently it has been 10 years since I made my first ever hand knit sweater. Now I'm almost finished with my 33rd. Crazy.

In sewing news, things have not gone as swimmingly. I got the bodice sewn to the skirt and pinned it on to check the fit before inserting the side zip ... only to discover that the 2.5 inches that I added to the length on this needs to be taken out. I'm seriously so confused with the length of things. It seems that it's the fit aspect I just cannot get right - I'm always either too long or too short. I'm thinking it is because of the shape of my front torso making it hard to define where my "waist" is when fitting, yet when I actually put a fitted garment on, it's obvious where that point is. Ugh. I'm in a pickle because I really want to sew things, yet I won't allow myself to start another project until I finish this one, but I just don't feel like sewing this one. Conundrum. I'm hoping I can muster up the will to undo the waist and shorten it soon so I can move on with my life.

How are things going with your makes this week?

WIP Wednesday: Crawling Closer To The Finish

Well I finished the body of my Mohn cardigan and I'm still absolutely loving it :) I haven't seamed the shoulders yet, so it is just pinned to the mannequin because I wanted to see how it was looking and I am super pleased. I think I'll get the fitted look I was going for, which is great. Now I'm working on the button bands and collar before moving onto the sleeves. Over the years I have just preferred to have the sleeves be the final part of a sweater making experience, so that's what I'm going to do.

I love how the texture is looking. People say that it flattens out a bit when you wear it, so I'm curious to see how it looks finished and blocked. We will see. It's still going so fast - seriously this is sport weight and I started it just over 2 weeks ago. Crazy.

Some sewing has actually occurred! It feels a bit like a miracle. This is my Decades of Style New England dress that I cut out back in November. I have worked on it here and there, but not very much in all honesty. To be real with you - my sewing room is an absolute disaster. Normally I can just push things around or move them to a corner pile, etc, but I have so much new stuff from Christmas and whatnot that there is no moving this mess around. I really need to have a drag it all out, get rid of, organize, and put it back session in a big big way, but I just haven't had the time or space elsewhere in my house to do that. So I kind of have to force myself to sew. I always enjoy it once I get going, but the mess is a big imposition. I'm hoping to finish this sometime later this week because I am doing long sleeves and I want to get to wear it while it's still cool outside as much as possible. I realize you can't see much because it's all black, but trust me - it's cute.

And in other news, we have a swallowtail caterpillar! I bought some herbs at a garden center and I always look for caterpillars on the dill plants. We found one and he is growing nicely. I just love watching him crawl around and contort to eat, lol. He is now big enough that I had to put him in a netting enclosure so he doesn't fall on the floor or something. This is not our first experience with hatching butterflies this way, and I am easily just as excited to watch him as my kids, lol. 

WIP Wednesday: Re-Learning Machine Knitting & Balancing Me Makes

This week has been quite busy for me! I had a few vacation days left from work that I had no plans to use before the end of the year PLUS I lost my voice and it still has not come back yet for weeks, so I took some days off so that I could literally not speak at all, lol. I used the time to clean out my horrifying garage and let me tell you - it was a full 2 day event. It's become so bad because I never have multiple entire days that I can just pull everything out and get it done, so even though my body is questioning my life choices, I'm so happy to have it in a better state.

Knitting-wise, I finished my Chuck sweater on Sunday, so I have picked up the Belladonna again. I find I just really don't enjoy the actual knitting of this cardigan only because of the amount of focus the multiple lace patterns that are so similar require. I keep messing up and having to tink back and that's annoying to me. I like to just have something be straight forward and easy to tell where I am - it doesn't have to be "simple" because I love lace and cables and whatnot, but these charts for some reason are just giving me a hard time. Anyway, I haven't really had much time to knit that because of my Christmas knits. 

I tried using my Sentro to make baby hats, but I just don't have the right sized machine to make it work right. I decided to knit a panel instead of a tube on the 48 pin machine and then I would just seam it to the size I needed, but even that kept messing up and I just decided heck with it. I will use the Sentro to knit the bigger kids hats, but I will knit the baby and toddler one by hand. They're so small, it's no big deal, you know? So I cast on my first one Sunday night.

For the scarves, I want to try making one on my Babylock knitting machine. This machine is made for larger yarns like worsted and aran, so I plan to do the same style as the Sentro one I made last week and compare them. If this one comes out better then I will redo the yellow scarf on this machine. I don't mind some imperfections, but the yellow one has a bunch all in the most prominent area when it's worn (of course) and it just bugs me. It's been a really long time since I used the machine though, so I'm having to watch the Meet Your Bond videos by Cheryl Brunette on YouTube to learn how to use the machine again. I'm going to do the scarf 50 stitches across and then seam it up into a tube, which will make my duplicate stitch plans easier too because I can do that before I seam it up. Hopefully this is quick and easy and I can slap these out without so much frustration as I had from the Sentro.

And in sewing, I made 2 mock ups of the New England dress and cut out my official fabric! It's a good thing I toiled this though because I had to add 2.5 inches to the bodice pieces. I know I'm long waisted (it's one of the reasons I wanted to sew my clothes because store bought dresses always hit me way above my waist), but this was a bit excessive even for me. I'm blending from a size 40 at the above the bust to a 42 at the waist and down. I could have even lengthened it by another 1/2" but I forgot when cutting. Hopefully the top still can blouse out a bit. I cut this out of some medium weight black linen and I'm very excited to get sewing on it. I've just been so tired at night after all my manual labor that I haven't quite felt up to the task. I also have quite a few things I want to get made - like a brown skirt of some kind so I can wear it with my recently finished sweaters. Will this happen this month? I'm honestly not sure, but it would be really nice to have more bottoms to meld things together better in my wardrobe.

So that's my craziness this week! This was all while still doing Thanksgiving and making broth and canning it, lol. Never a dull moment around here. What things are you working on this week?