Progress

It took all day and killed my neck but the Leafy Yoke's hem is done. Starting to think this whole summer knitting thing is not for me. After these two sweaters are done I'm running back to wool and wool blends.



On the sewing side, last week I finished fitting 3 new jacket muslins and decided to start with Burda style's Nadine. I'm using the plus variation which removed most of the gathering from the pattern. I went a little bit further, took out all the gathering and made the fit a bit more snug. The fabric is a wool/silk blend from emmaonesock.com. It looks so classy even my husband commented that I should just make a sleeveless vest and matching pants.



Looking forward to Thursday when JoAnn Fabrics starts a big sale and Vogue patterns are 3.99 each. Going to stock up on a few choice patterns and pick up some buttons for Nadine. Hopefully soon I'll be able to show you some pretty FO's of this jacket.

Knitting Update

Having fun with the sewing machine has slowed down all the knitting, but not stopped it completely. It kind of feels like I've had a few projects almost done for awhile but they never get finished.

First off there is the Leafy Yoke Top.

Just the hem, neck and sleeve bindings to do..... for weeks now.

Wendy Bernard's Essential Tank

This actually was done the neckline wasn't all that flattering on me. I'm wondering if the front can be sneakily cut down and overlocked instead of doing a bunch of unraveling. Probably should knit a swatch and see if the Kollage creamy will just unravel into a thousand pieces.

Lastly is a Porom that was started on a weekend where I had a lot of husband related activities to attend.

It's probably half done but I keep picking up the leaf yoke top instead.

Can someone find my knitting mojo and return it to me please.

More Love, this time for Australia

Can someone invent a Star Trekesque transporter already, I want to beam over to Sydney and shop at Tessuti Fabrics. (Not to mention knit and watch sci-fi TV shows with David Reidy)
Right now I'm totally addicted to the Tessuti fabric website, probably looking at it several times a day. Think their user interface is as great as the fabric!
My latest order arrived this week and after signing my name a million times at the post office it was time to coo over the new pretties.

On the left is Charcoal Chinchilla a thicker polyester knit and on the right Poiret a lightweight organic cotton/spandex jersey. The camera seems to have washed out the colors a bit. The cotton is a true winey magenta.
Right now I'm thinking the Charcoal Chinchilla needs to be a fall dress some what like Vogue 8413...

.....or the similar Simplicity 2550.

I haven't decided what to do with the lovely Poiret since there are several store bought magenta shirts already in the wardrobe. The fabric probably should become a summer top but I'm going to let it marinate a bit. It might make it into the fall sewing ideas after all.

Love Me Some Jackets

I've got an FO for everyone today, only it's a sewing FO. Back a couple of months ago the gorgeous fabrics blog turned me on to a new website with free sewing patterns, manequim.com Their jackets were to die for, but since it's a foreign mag all the directions were in Portuguese. This struck me as an interesting challenge. After all in this day and age we have the internet with handy dandy translation sites. The jacket could be mine!
Long story short, the web translation was almost readable. But on the plus side the sewing symbols seemed to be standard. I'd made patterns in college so surely my brain was equal to the task of putting together this Portuguese jacket.

With a statement like that it should have all ended with disaster. Only it didn't. Maybe everybody gets one. :)

Here's a close of up the collar


Back View


And the full front


Now I've got the fever and the only prescription for it is..... more jackets!

Smitten Kitchen Envy

I'm turning into a Smitten Kitchen addict. It starts with trying just a recipe or two but quickly turns into a slippery slope where you find yourself making a special trip to the grocery to buy unflavored gelatin.

Because you have to have unflavored gelatin to make marshmallows from scratch.


And if your making marshmallows from scratch then you might as well make graham crackers from scratch two.



Add a couple of Hersey bars and you've some delicious s'mores. But honestly the graham crackers are so damn good you could finish off a batch of them alone.

On the crafty side I'm sewing this free jacket pattern from Manequim.


It will be in the dark gray denim left over from this skirt.

The Only Sunshine I'm Getting.....

.... would be the sunshine top. Weather wise it's been almost 3 solid months rain. Sure we get a day or two of sun occasionally but mostly it's like monsoon season. So when I'm not out "working on my rain tan" you'll find me behind the sewing machine whipping out one of these sunshine tops. Here's a little parade of the versions that have been created so far.

First off have "Tentacled Awareness."*

Printed cotton jersey purchased from ebay seller fabricjunkees

Next "Opaque Seduction."*

11 0z Rayon spandex jersey purchased from emmaonesock.com

And Last "Flock of Gulls." (Fat pigeon was lured into the shot)

Printed cotton jersey purchased from ebay seller Ruth Hale Fabrics.

All these photos where made possible by my new little toy, the Joby gorillapod. I was looking for an inexpensive tripod so that my dear husband didn't have to be badgered for photos all the time. Came across this on the patternreview.com site and it seemed to meet my needs. The little bendy legs on stand have come in handy with outdoor shoots. I can wrap it onto one of the fences and wander around below it. Inside sitting the gorillapod on top of the TV like a regular tripod works well for taking pictures of tops. Now if we could only get some sun...... sigh.

* First two photos named by my friend Sam Maffei, someone who is much more clever than I can claim to be.

Getting Back into the Saddle

I've been hiding behind the sewing machine since my knitting mojo took a little vacation. Still the lack of blogging is entirely due laziness and it is time to get back on the wagon.

First thing to show off is NaKniSweMoDo sweater number 7, Twist by Bonne Marie Burns. This pattern had been sitting in the queue for ages being passed up by the latest hot thing on Ravelry. When Webs put Cascade 220 on sale it was just the kick in the butt I needed to get this on the needles.



The particular color of 220 is 2431 a chocolately brown with red highlights that don't come through in photos.



Knitting the twisty cables was particularly fun.





This was the first time I've put in a zipper into a knit. Overall it went OK though the sweater probably needed a zipper that was a bit smaller. Still it works fine and that's good enough for me.