Video: My Fall Knitting Plans ALL From Stash Yarn!

The season is changing, and my knitting plans are moving right along with it. Come check out what I plan to make in the coming months, nincluding both knittin and crochet. Head over to You Tube or click the video below to watch :)

Video: My Summer Sewing Plans

I posted this the other day and completely forgot to share here! If you want to creep my summer sewing plans, head over to my YouTube channel for the latest video, or you can click through the video below. What projects do you have planned for this summer? Let me know in the comments!

Video: Unveiling my Knitting Plans for Summer 2024!

 

Want to know what I am knitting this summer? Head over to YouTube or click the video below to see all my plans :) We will see how many of them I get made, lol.

Me Made May 2024: The Wrap Up

Another May has come and gone and I'm happy to say that I was able to fulfill my pledge to wear Me Mades everyday throughout the month. I made the goal of wearing at least one thing I made everyday, which was both not difficult and also surprisingly challenging at the same time. I found myself with a fairly limited selection of pieces that really fit me and were practical for everyday wear. I either have made or thrifted 95% of my wardrobe at this point, so it's not a sustainability concern. I've had many of these items for years and years and they continue to be work horses. However, I have changed in size a lot over the past few years, so a good chunk of the items I made are no longer options. I grabbed several older skirts that I loved only to take them off when I saw how they looked now. So, I really need to get cracking at making new pieces that I love and can wear often. 

So here is the breakdown of what I wore everyday (and you can see a video of it here). I've included links to blog posts for each of these items if you want to learn more about them:

1. Floral Plantain and Thrifted Jean Skirt

2. Navy Peggy Skirt with RTW top I've mended so many times, it counts as handmade now

3. Eyelet Parisian Top, Purple Hollyburn Skirt, and Sparkly Hetty Cardigan

4. White Gable Top and Green Hollyburn Skirt

5. Take a Seat Dress, then Green Hollyburn Skirt with Alvvays RTW Shirt

6. Swan Vera Top with Purple Hollyburn Skirt

7. Thrifted Blue Top with Starry Night Hollyburn Skirt

8. Crochet Flip Top with Mustard Fiore Skirt

9. Burgundy Melissa Skirt with RTW T-Shirt

10. Jasmine Top with Thrifted Vintage Jean Skirt

11. Miranda Top with On Point Hollyburn Skirt

12. White Gable Top with Black Fiore Skirt and thrifted Silk Jacket

13. Green Vera Top and Thrifted Vintage Jean Skirt

14. Purple Roses Gable Top and Mustard Fiore Skirt

15. Green Hollyburn Skirt with Alvvays RTW Shirt

16. Yellow Eyelet Top and Khaki Linen Skirt Refashion

17. White Linen Cielo Top with Thrifted Vintage Jean Skirt

18. Navy Peggy Skirt with Thrifted Floral Button Up Shirt

19. Green Vera Top with RTW Skirt from 2006

20. Purple Hollyburn Skirt with Thrifted Top (mended a few times)

21. Burgundy Melissa Skirt, Thrifted Floral Rayon Top, and Alecia Beth Cardigan

22. Burgundy Melissa Skirt with Ryan Adams Shirt

23. Botany Voile Sailor Top with Thrifted Jean Skirt

24. Peony Agnes Top with Thrifted Jean Skirt

25. Prickly Gable Top with Mustard Linen Fiore

26. Dalloway Blouse with RTW White Shirt and Thrifted Skirt

27. Anaheim Cardigan with RTW White Shirt and Purple Hollyburn Skirt

28. Thrifted Blue Top with Starry Night Hollyburn Skirt

29. White Linen Cielo Top with Thrifted Vintage Jean Skirt

30. Swan Vera Top with Thrifted Vintage Jean Skirt

31. Purple Roses Gable Top and Mustard Fiore Skirt

I'm also happy that I was able to complete a few extra things I've had waiting to be done during the month. I finished knitting (and wore) my Dalloway Blouse (which will be posted soon) and I finally fixed my Liesl cardigan (I changed the buttons and added better snaps).

I also was able to identify gaps in my wardrobe and now I have a list of items I know I really need and will wear regularly. I outline all of those in my video review of the month, which you can watch by clicking above or by going to my YouTube Channel here.

I'm happy to have completed this challenge for another year and I look forward to taking the things I learned and applying them to make my wardrobe even more me by next May :)

Did you participate in Me Made May? Let me know how you did!

Decisions, Decisions: Picking My Next Sweater Project (Help Pick with My Poll!)

I just finished my Dalloway top yesterday, so now decisions must be made on which "sweater" will come next. I have such a back log of plans all the time that I have a very hard time choosing between them when it comes down to it. This time, I made a poll over on my YouTube Community Tab, so please do head over there and cast your vote. Before you do though, here are the particulars of each potential project.

I fell in love with the Solstice Top by Gabrielle Vézina last summer and I ordered linen yarn to recreate it as close to the photo as possible. My yarn is slightly more subdued, but I still love it and think it would be a very cute t-shirt for the blazing heat that is just in full force already here in Florida. This was my first inclination to grab simply due to the heat and fiber content, but I've really never made a t-shirt before so I'm not 100% sure.

When the Four Seasons Blouse was released in April on Squid's School of Vintage Knitting, I immediately knew I would make it up. It's part of a dress/skirt/blouse pattern and can be made as any of those things with tons of options: short or bishop sleeves, 4 different stitch patterns at the upper yoke, as a blouse or a functioning cardigan. I love how versatile this design is and that I could use it several times and have very different looking cardigans. I pulled out some white Lotus Yarns Mimi from my stash, which is a mink/rayon/cashmere/wool blend and is just heavenly soft. I feel like the color of this will make it very versatile in my wardrobe, but is it exciting enough for right now?

This project idea started with the yarn and I found this sweater design in my stash that I think would work. I was given just one skein of this amazing Blue Heron Yarns Rayon Metallic in the Tapestry colorway. I'm not usually one for sparkly yarns, but this one is just amazing. I always figured I would have to make a shawl with it simply due to yardage, but this is listed as a DK weight and does have 550 yards. I know I would wear it so much more as a sweater than anything else, and this short sleeve and lace backed Sommar cardigan looks like it could be just the thing. I'm just slightly worried that it is bottom-up, so I could not adjust the length according to my yardage. I'd really love to wear this yarn though, and I am already in rayon knitting mode, so this might be the perfect time.

And my final choice is just to pick up the Audrey in Unst sweater I planned earlier this year? I do want this sweater, but I'm using Wool of the Andes Sport, which is certainly not summer friendly at all. This would be just for the simplicity of not needing to plan anything else, lol. 

So which one would you knit? What sweater do you think I should start? I need a project, so please do head over here and vote, or leave a comment below letting me know your pick!

 

Outfit Along 2019 - Hello! I'm Still Alive!

Hello, All! Man has it been a long time - I've never gone so long without blogging since I started in 2009, and while the initial reasons for the absence are still unshareable (but getting ever closer to the epic share post), I've also bought a house and moved in the interim putting many of the things I love on hold for months and months just to keep myself going forward with all the "have to dos" of my life. BUT I am in my house and look forward to not moving for at least 5 years or so, meaning I can start thinking about making things again. In fact, all I can think about lately is making things since my wardrobe is getting pretty tatty and/or ill-fitting. I'm spoiled now - I can't go back to hours of shopping only to have poorly made clothes that don't fit my body. Aside from the odd Target t-shirt or thrifted bathing suit here and there, I have had no new clothes in this whole time. Craziness. Anyway, I am ready to just back on this sewing horse and love my clothing again. Very apropos to the announcement of this year's Outfit Along today. 

If you've read this blog over the past few years, you'll know I've participated in the OAL since it's inception except that I skipped last year (again due to the wonderful but unshareable info I'm witholding, lol). Here are my finished posts from 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017, all of which I still wear on occasion (or wish I could but are now too small). I've been trying to pick what project to start my sewing habit back with for a couple of weeks and just can't seem to decide with the vast choices available. Thanks to today's OAL announcement I will be able to narrow things down much better :)

In previous years, the Outfit Along has always had 1 group knitting pattern and 1 group sewing pattern the tutorials were based off of, yet you could still choose something different if the suggested patterns were not for you. The idea was just to complete 1 knitted item and 1 sewn item that coordinated from June 1st to July 31st and make yourself an "outfit". I've used the suggested patterns here and there but if that pattern wasn't my style I went with something that was more me. This year though, the overall theme has altered a bit. This year's focus is on finishing works in progress (wips). At least one of the items for your project must be an old wip and the rest can be new if you choose. This works out perfectly for me because I've felt guilty for a while about how long my poor Dahlia cardigan is taking.

In 8 days I can celebrate that project's anniversary - exactly 1 year since I started it :/ Disgraceful! I used to finish 5 sweaters a year. So sad. Anyway, I've really wanted to finish this up and now i will have a small fire lit under my butt to get it done and a reasonable timeline in which to do it. I may have majorly decreased/non existent knitting time but I only have the last 3rd of the front of the body, the sleeves, and the seaming left to do. Now that I have a deadline of sorts, I know I can squeeze out the necessary time.

I don't have my sewing projects picked out to make this an "outfit" yet, but I plan to work entirely from my stash on this project, technically making everything I make qualify as a wip by the new rules since I plan my projects when I purchase the fabric and patterns. So now I just have to narrow down what will go with the coral Dahlia cardigan and run with it. I'll report back once I've picked my projects :)

Now that this post broke the ice with my dusty 'ole blog, you can expect to hear from me every now and then., including the couple of projects I've made since last September but never blogged. Sadly my output won't be what it once was, but I plan to share some of my home improvement projects as well as other endeavors I've taken up in my absence. I hope you can stay in touch! And if you are still here after all this time, thank you so much for still keeping my little blog on your radar :)