WIP Wednesday: Splitting My Dalloway

I've been plugging away on my Dalloway Blouse as my go-to project and it's finally looking like more than just a mesh bag lol. Last night I officially sectioned off for the sleeves and now I'm working on the top yoke/sleeve area, so I'm only just now realizing this means I'm almost finished with this project.

I did add shaping to the body of this one just because I didn't want to have to rely on the waist tie (they never sit right on me). It's certainly not perfect - this yarn (bamboo rayon) is SO slippery and SO splitty that I've dropped some stitches and had to try and salvage it a few times toward the bottom. I'm used to it now, but it doesn't change the visible mistakes. I also have an accidental double yarn over hole at one side that I need to go back and seam up. I'm curious to see how blocking evens this fabric out though.

And this is a more accurate idea of how the stitch pattern looks. This yarn is very drapey and will pull down when it is worn from the weight of it all - another aspect that makes me very curious about blocking.

In truth - I didn't work on any knitting at all for almost an entire week because I was busy having too much fun :) Including holding a baby alligator, going to Sea World, seeing Alvvays in concert. We packed a lot in during my friend's visit. No regrets! My knitting was waiting for me when he had to go back home, and isn't that just a big perk of knitting as a hobby? 

Do you have anything exciting going on this week? Tell me about it!

WIP Wednesday: Almost Finished Rose Street and Video Planning

The past few weeks has seen a lot of knitting on my Rose Street Cardigan, and it is almost finished :) I managed to finish knitting the sleeves, which I knit flat kind of on accident. I completely knit the ribbing on the first sleeve before I realized the sleeves were meant to be knit in the round. Whoops. Not a big deal though at all. I currently have the sweater and sleeves blocking and then I will be sewing it all together and I will have a finished cardigan! Just in time for it to be 90 degrees on the regular, lol. 

While my Rose Street is drying, I decided to start my next project - the Dalloway Blouse, which is also by Sydney Crabaugh. I've had this in mind to make for a while, and I realized how hot it is now so I decided to just go ahead and make it up. This is a vintage Jiffy pattern from the 1920s, so I'm hoping it will go by very quickly. I'm making it up in Silk City Fibers Bambu 7 that I grabbed from Lion Brand on sale last summer. This is the Persimmon colorway and I have 2100 yards of it, so you will probably see it in something else later as well. I know this swatch photo isn't great, but I got gauge and I'm excited to see how this knits up.

I've also been working on a bit of sewing for my next YouTube video where I'm chopping up a knit dress to make a Vera Top, so stay tuned for that if you are interested in the process. I have filmed the beginning of the next several videos, but they will take a bit longer to have a complete project. So I'm trying to figure out what kind of videos I can put up while I work on those. Any subjects you want me to talk about? I'm open to suggestions!

So that's what's going on 'round here lately. Anything new and exciting going on in your making? Let me know!

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: Happy Valentine's Day and My New Project

This week has been full of knitting. I managed to finish an adorable Valentine's gift for my girls. I'll post about all the particulars soon. I also finished my Hockey Sock today, so I will post about those here soon.

The other day I had knit my socks so much that i had a tender divot in my ring finger and had to stop knitting, lol. Thankfully, I don't hold circular needles in the same way as DPNs, so I decided to use this as an opportunity to cast on the Ishbel shawl. This yarn is even more beautiful knitted up than it was in the skein, and this project is pretty mindless since the body is just a stockinette triangular shawl. This will be a great one to be my grab and go easy project after the socks are done, which is great because I was honestly a bit worried as to what I could be in the middle of after the socks were finished. I'm excited to watch this one grow.

That's really all i have to report on this week, which feels like I'm missing something after having so many things to post for a while. I do have a big surprise coming on Friday, so stay tuned for that. I hope everyone is having a great Valentine's Day.

WIP Wednesday: Socks and Shawls and Swatches

This week I have been determined to finish my old sock project so I can start a new one. I've honestly had no other projects I could really work on that I'm in the middle of, so I managed to finish the first sock in just a few days and now I am 2 inches into the cuff on the second sock. Honestly, the pattern placement on this striping yarn could not have turned out better if I tried. I'm very pleased with how this turned out and now I'm just focused on replicating it. Hopefully I can slap this one out in a few days and have this project completely finished.

After talking about fighting cast-on-itis last week, I have now cast on almost all the items I mentioned in that post, lol. After finishing the first sock and starting the second, I found myself pretty restless. It's not that I dislike the sock - I actually don't have second sock syndrome, which is great - but I had been knitting that sock all day and I just wanted a change for the night.  This lead to me winding up the yarn for my Ishbel, swatching my Rose Street Cardigan again and blocking it, and pulling out the patterns for the next few socks I want to make. I get like this when I don't have any ongoing projects to pick up and it's been quite a long time since I found myself so much without choices of things to grab and bring with me. I don't like it, lol. So I've been focusing on the socks but at night I am starting the other projects to give myself more options. I think once I have the Rose Street officially going I won't feel like this anymore. We will see.

Tuesday night I realized that it was only a week before Valentine's Day and I had planned on making my kids a present, so I needed to get cracking. I grabbed some stash acrylic yarns and started the Coo and Coy pattern by Anna Hrachovec. It's two birds that when you put them together they make a heart. So cute! I got one of the bodies done, so now it just needs wings and a beak and whatnot. Should be pretty quick and I'm excited to finally make this pattern.

I also really want to sew but I just haven't managed to make myself fix that New England dress yet. It's hanging on the form and taunting me. Very annoying. I need to get the sewing bug back because I really have so many things I would like to make and wear. Hopefully I can get back in the swing soon.

So that's my week thus far :) There's also been a lot of gardening and another surprise in the works. Do you have anything new going?

WIP Wednesday: Blocking, Decisions, and New Projects

Friends, I have finished the Mohn Cardigan! I managed to finish this in less than a month, which is still pretty shocking to me. I got it completely knit and seamed Sunday night and it is currently blocking. Now I just have to make my ribbon button bands and she is totally done. I finished the knitting on Saturday night, which left me with only a sock project to knit and I just didn't feel like it - so I cast on a toy!

Between Sunday and last night, I knit up this adorable bee project. Every time I look at this pattern, I smile, so I just bit the bullet and knit it up. Now I smile when I see it in person too, lol. This project definitely served its purpose of cheering me up in a hard time. I'll post all the details about it soon, but I definitely love this one :)

After my deliberations in the last post about all the projects I want to cast on, I have finally decided to go with my original plan for my Rose Street Cardigan. It's really a toss up between the two yarns I was contemplating (Knit Picks Stroll in Duchess Heather or Knit Picks Felici in Dragonfruit). I tried looking through my collection of sweaters that still fit me to see where I had a gap, but that didn't help. In the end I really go for more cool toned clothes, so I decided to go with the purple for that reason. The Dragonfruit color would go as well, but I just need to start this project, lol. Purple it is! I still need to knit a new swatch last night and get the calculations going, so this will be my main sweater project now.

With finishing my bee, I also grabbed my Jaywalker socks I cast on in December of 2022. I'm just mentally determined to get these done so they can stop plaguing me. I'm honestly not sure what it is about this project that has me never reaching for it. Is it that I've knit this pattern before? But I've knit the same vanilla sock pattern several times and that has never been a problem before. Is it that I'm not thrilled by the yarn? I just really can't say. Either way, I want this project to be done, so I think this is going to be my main focus for a short while. That's the thing with socks - when you actually hunker down and focus on getting them done, they really do go fast. I'm also knitting this with a heel flap and gusset as the pattern is written - last time I changed for an after-thought heel to avoid disrupting the striping pattern. Since then I've discovered that I really prefer the feel of a heel flap and gusset when wearing the socks, so this time I'm just letting the chips fall where they may on the striping. I'm thinking it will work out fine in this sock because the speckled sections are so wide.

My New England dress is still hanging out on my dress form thinking about what it's done. I need to finish that one too so I can move on with my life, lol. But knitting is going very well!

How are things with you this first month of the new year? Getting anything made up?

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: Bobble-ing Into The New Year

After finishing my Belladonna cardigan, I had to get another sweater on the needles. I really want to make up the Rose Street Cardigan - I've been waiting to make it since it was released in April - and that will be the next project I start, but this one unexpectedly jumped the gun. I really love watching Engineering Knits on YouTube. Her interests align with mine so entirely - I just love everything she puts up. She wears a lot of vintage handknit sweaters that she purchases on Etsy and Ebay when she films and there is one particular sweater she wears that people used to ask her what pattern she used all the time thinking she had made it from a vintage pattern only for her to explain that she bought it completed already. The popularity of this sweater lead to a whole saga of her making a pattern from her vintage sweater and then grading it out and releasing it as her first sweater pattern - the Mohn Cardigan. To be honest, making this was not really on the radar at first. The design was cute, but I wasn't head over heels or anything about making it. Then add in the Black Friday Knit Picks sale. They did different sales every few days over the course of a few weeks and one of the days they had specific skeins of yarn, including all of their Upcycle Alpaca Blend, marked down to $2. I grabbed the max of 5 skeins in several colors and just 2 skeins in a few other colors in mostly sport weight but also some worsted. I had ideas of what I could make at the time, but no definite plans. Then this sweater was released in December and I put this yarn together with this design in my head and it just wouldn't go away. 

Once I finished the Belladonna, I just wanted to swatch the Mohn cardigan to see if this yarn would even work for the sweater because if this didn't work then I would have to drop the idea for a while because I didn't have any other sport weight yarn on hand that I liked for this. I made the first swatch on December 30th, but I had a very hard time getting the bobble effect of the tucked stitches. The first swatch was all over the place. I watched Charade and made the swatch and knew it wasn't done right. Then I remembered that she made a video to go along with the pattern and I thought to watch that. I made a swatch that turned out great and I got gauge no problem, which was very nice to discover. I cast the sweater on officially December 31st and I managed to get the first bobble stripe done, but I still didn't do it right even then. I finally realized what the issue was after that and I've had no problems since, but that first line does not bobble. I didn't want to rip back, so it just is what it is. I may play around with fixing the issue later, but it's fine for now. 

Anyway, that is a very long winded description of this next project, lol. I'm using Upcycle Alpaca Blend Sport from Knit Picks and it's working up really nicely. I never planned to make this right now. I never planned for this to be my exclusive knitting project. This pattern is just so fun to make. It's very potato-chip-y. I always just want to get through the next bobble stripe and then the next. Even with not knitting for about 4 days straight, I've still managed to knit to where the pattern tells you to split for the arm holes (I'm extending the length, so I still have some inches to go, but still the pattern says I'm done with the main body at this point). This may also be part of using sport weight yarn, which I've never knit with before on a sweater. I'm used to either worsted or fingering weight sweaters (frankly just because sport weight tends to not be on sale much), so it's been a pleasant experience knitting this up in many ways. I'm using the Sapphire color as my base with Arctic and Black Pearl for the stripes. I like the neutral kind of vibe it gives even though it's blue, and I also love that it's a type of colorwork even though it's just basic stripes. It's like colorwork light, lol, a nice start to my goal of knitting true colorwork this year.

So that's what I've been working on the past few weeks and I really love how it's turning out so far. The tuck stitch bobbles look so cute! I actually like them a lot more in person than I did in the pattern photos. SO fun.

What new projects do you have going this year? I'd love to know!

WIP Wednesday: Back To What I Want

With my Christmas gift knitting finished and on its way to their recipients, I can finally focus back on my favorite makes: things for myself, lol. I've been plugging away at the Belladonna Cardigan this week in hopes of finishing it before the end of the year, which I think is pretty do-able, honestly. I stopped last night with just 1 more ribbing row and the bind off for the body, so next up is the neck and button bands before moving onto the sleeves and then int will be finished. I'm hoping the length turns out good - I'm kind of on the fence about where it stops, but I'm holding out hope for after it's blocked and has sleeves.

I really like the shaping on this sweater - instead of having shaping at the sides as usual, this one places them like front and back darts and they are hidden in the lace pattern. See how the plain sections angle down at the waist? That's the shaping. So cool. I'm very excited to see how this looks when it's all blocked out.

I'm also realizing I have a lack of neutral colored socks. I only ever wear socks in the winter and before now I had always only worn them with tall boots, so the socks were always covered. I just got some ankle boots and realized I need some socks that can be seen without being crazy colors. I have wound up a ball of a beautiful skein I won in a giveaway years ago - Morning Bright Organic Merino/Nylon Sock in the Moonlit colorway. I remember being a bit underwhelmed with it when I first won because it's a very neutral light gray color, but now that I need actual practical socks I'm glad I had it on hand. I want to use it to make a textured sock like the 2 Hunter Hammerson designs I have in the picture. Jury is still out on which design I choose, lol.

But being a person who does not like to have a bunch of WIPs at once, planning those socks made me feel guilty about not working on these socks from literally 1 week shy of a year ago. I started these at a Solar Bears hockey game because I needed a small enough project to get into the arena, but shortly after that I got very into my sweater projects and stopped making these. These are Jaywalker Socks, which I've made before, and this is Premier Fruits yarn in the Dragonfruit colorway. Isn't it so fun? This yarn and pattern combo gives me very "Dragonfruit Goes To College" vibes. Part of why I haven't worked on these is that needle. I got experimental earlier in the year and decided to try knitting socks on a shortie circular needle. Guys... I absolutely hate this needle, lol. I need to pull out my trusty carbon fiber double pointed needles and just blast through this project. I'm trying to decide if I need to make myself finish these before starting the gray pair...

So that's what's going on with me this week. I'm doing all the Christmas things with my kids and working a lot but I always make at least some time for my hobbies to keep me sane. How are things going for your holiday this year? 

WIP Wednesday: Finishing Touches on Gift Making

I've been working pretty diligently to finish up all my gift knits in time to pop them in the mail before Christmas. I managed to finish all the machine knitting on Sunday and then do some machine embroidery. Here is a sneaky peek of my makes...

I have a machine that will embroider, but my mom has a Brother Stellaire, so very much fancier than mine, lol. I opted to make the patches on her machine Sunday night and after a practice run on Spiderman, these all turned out great. Shopping for embroidery files is interesting because a lot of the result seems to depend on your machine, so I'm glad I used my moms new one instead of mine for this part.

I'm now working on sewing everything together and getting it officially done while I wait for 2 patches I ordered from Joann. I made an order specifically for these patches but I added on some fray check and a few random notions just because I was making an order. Well the other things have all arrived but the patches haven't even shipped yet. Of course. So if they don't get here soon then I will have to just machine embroider them as well if I want to make the Christmas deadline with shipping them to North Carolina. Everyone think good thoughts for me!

Are your gift makes going to be done on time? Let me know what you're making too!

WIP Wednesday: Knitting Machine Go Brrrr.......

Guys, my knitting machine has been going and going this week. I've managed to churn out 2 full length scarves and technically 2 hats (I made it once but it was too big so I had to do it again, lol). I've been working on my Baby Lock knitting machine (which is a Bond Knitter) and while there has been a learning curve, YouTube videos have been the true heroes of this endeavor. It seems like everytime I start a new project, I forget something and I can't start without watching this video. Cheryl Brunette made a mail in video class on using a Bond Knitter back in the late 80s and she very nicely has the entire series up on her YouTube page. It's a lifesaver, guys. If you have one of these machines - Bond Classic, Baby Lock (rebranded), The Ultimate Sweater Machine, etc - then you absolutely should watch this class. 

I started with the scarves because they are just a really long rectangle and I made each one in an evening even with the random snags I created by doing something wrong. Then for the hats, I found this video by Diana Sullivan that outlined a fancy hat from start to finish. I didn't make the cabling detail she shows, but I followed her tutorial other than that and it turned out great. So even with learning something new, I have no problems getting all the projects made that I wanted to before Christmas and that's a nice feeling.

The first scarf went so well that I pulled out this scarf I made on my Sentro machine and re-knit it on my Baby Lock. SO much nicer. The Sentro left a section of these weird tucked stitches and I really wasn't happy with it. The Baby Lock gave me completely smooth and even stitches with no issues. When they come off the machine they are extremely rollie, but steaming it gets them nice and flat. I haven't steamed this one yet, so it looks pretty tubular, lol. 

In hand knitting, I finished my first baby hat and started the second one. It's amazing how quick these are when you're used to making sweaters and shawls. I made this in just a few hours over the course of a week and then popped it in the mail. I'm hoping it fits - I'm always worried about making baby hats fit because I made several too small when I hadn't made so much stuff.

No sewing this week - I can't get to my machine because I have the knitting machine set up right in front of it, lol. I need to churn out these gifts before I start doing anything for myself anyway, so it's all fine. My New England dress is still sitting there all cut out and ready to go. Hopefully next week I can start putting it together.

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? 

WIP Wednesday: Christmas Knitting Begins

Man, the holiday has me with a backlog of posts :/ I have been plugging away at various projects, but I just haven't sat down to write about them. Silly, right? I promise after this week, things will become regular again. 

After finishing my Susan Shaw cardigan (which you will see soon), I picked up my Chuck sweater. I've been dutifully knitting just that sweater in the hopes of finishing it with enough time to wear it as a Christmas type sweater even though it's not a Christmas sweater. The color gives it the right vibe. I tried the sweater on after finishing the 2nd cable repeat and it was kind of comically too short. I actually looked at a bunch of other people's projects to see if I had done something wrong because mine was coming up so short, but I just have a long torso. In truth, I have a long yoke - the area between my bust and shoulders is longer than "standard" it seems. It's something I have to correct for frequently, but this left me with a dilemma. I liked the look on other people with the cropped length, but I was going to come up too short or a lot longer than that. In the end, I decided to just go for my natural waist. I did 3 cable repeats and then did 12 rows of ribbing to conserve yarn - adding to the length has now greatly lessened the length of my sleeves. I'm on the neckband now and then I will divide the remaining yarn for the sleeves. Hopefully this one is finished soon!

I've also started cranking out Christmas gifts - literally. This year I'm using my knitting machines to make scarves and hats. I tried with the 48 pin Sentro first knowing I could pull out the big legit knitting machine if that didn't work. I spent Sunday evening cranking.

I kept rolling the scarf up underneath the machine to prevent drag and the donut I got close to the end was pretty comical.

This is my finished first scarf - well the cranking is finished. I'm still on the fence about it. The first half went great, but there are a bunch of tucked stitches and irregularities on the side above the black. I'm trying to decide if this is fine or if I want to rip it out and do it on the Babylock machine.

So I'm now a scarf making machine until Christmas time. I have several items to make as gifts and I'm hoping that this helps me get them all done :) I'm also still mentally working on sewing, but I haven't actually sewed anything this week, lol. Whoops. It's a crazy time, folks. I hope to get back at that after Thanksgiving. Maybe then I won't fall asleep early every night.

Have you started holiday gift making yet? 

WIP Wednesday: Seaming Sweaters and Mock Ups

This has been a momentous week for my making, friends. I'm officially finishing the Susan Shaw cardigan! I have one sleeve "tentatively" sewn on and I just have to sew on the second one to be finished.

At first I had excess to make a slight poof at the top of the shoulder, but once it was sewn on I saw I could use a little more room at the back of the sleeve, so I had to undo this and ease it in over that portion. 

I also got the ribbon sewn on the button bands and the buttons installed just because I wanted it to be totally done when I finish the sleeves. 

And here it is opened, which is how I will realistically wear it. Honestly, there are still some fit issues, but nothing to keep me from wearing it. I'll give a full rundown once I get photos and everything, so stay tuned if you want all the deets. I'm mostly just ecstatic to finally call this one done.

I've also been working on a mock up of the bodice on the Decades of Style New England dress, which has been more confusing than I anticipated. I was trying to sew a quick mockup while I was on the phone the other night, but I couldn't wrap my head around it and needed more focused attention, so I stopped. Hopefully that will be ready to go soon because I already have my washed fabric waiting to be cut out. I'm also trying to avoid looking at the Knit Picks Big Sale, lol. You're welcome if you didn't know about this already.

Any big milestones in your making this week? I'm shifting into my other knitting projects now in hopes of getting a few more things finished before I focus on gift knitting only for a while. My Sentro will be cranking away very soon!