Cream for the Lactose Intolerant

A couple of months ago I was at the LYS rummaging through the baby yarn section and my hands touched Kollage's Creamy Yarn. Once my fingers touched the creamy loveliness they would not let go. Then it became a situation where the yarn had to be purchased since I'd been manhandling it for a half hour. (These are odd rules that I made up in my head)

No worries though I'd had my eye on the Essential Tank in "Custom Knits" for some time. Using alpaca to make a tank wouldn't work for me, but creamy was a similar gauge and also come in a natural color. Since Creamy is pretty expensive only having to buy enough to make a tank was an added bonus.



Pattern details
-My loose ass knitting made Creamy match the pattern's gauge exactly. I cast on the size 36 and the finished product was near the measurement of the schematic.
- Other Ravelry users said the length was a bit short so an extra inch was added before starting the bust increases.
- Originally I knit the neckline as described in the pattern but found it was not a flattering shape for me. It also made the front look too narrow. I decided to get creative and use a little steeking like techniques to lower the neck line. The knit on finish for the neck was unraveled. Then using a tank I had a new neckline was traced in with pins. Then matching thread was put in the sewing machine and the new neckline stitched over. I cut semi close to the stitch line to make sure the yarn wasn't going to unravel. The machine stitching held up fine so then I picked up and knit on a new neck finish. Hooray for short cuts!


I might not be able to drink milk anymore but at least I can wear it. And it's delicious.

A Few Pics from New Castle Delaware

My husband likes to visit towns especially if they have an historic area where you can meander around staring at buildings. He heard about New Castle Delaware from a co-worker and decided it was time for an outing.
The highlights for me were the garden at Read House.

This part of the garden is from a Victorian family that lived in the house after the Read's had to sell it. I love the arbors and hydrangea. We took the house tour as well which was interesting but no photos allowed in there.

Down on the river walk was a bridal party taking pictures and the bride had a bright salmon color dress. I couldn't get a good shot of her but here she is tiny.

This dress was so fun and cute on her that it made me smile.

Lastly the two of us had a delicious dinner at Jessop's Tavern. Everything we ate there was soooo good but I really can't get their peach cobbler out of my mind.

Drooollll.

Where does the time go?

This week started off busy, tending to a sick husband and then traveling to Maryland for a stash reduction visit with my grandmother and mom. (It was stash reduction for my grandmother by redistributing it to mom and me, sigh) The rest of the week was lost watching the new Dr. Who series while sewing and ripping, sewing and ripping again.
Most of that ripping was on Vogue 1072

I got some beautiful jersey from emmaonesock.com a couple weeks ago and thought it would be perfect for this pattern.

When it took me over an hour to cut the 5 pattern pieces out I should have stopped right there. It should have been obvious that the old brain wasn't working on all cylinders but noooo must be productive with my free time.

As instructed I put seam tape in the shoulder seams and that turned into a lumpy mess. It took a few more times to get something that looked semi decent. If I thought that was bad, stitching the neck edge was even worse. The top stitching was ripped out a least 5 times and my twin needle broke in the process. After that there was more user error trying to get the belt and skirt basted to the top. After the pieces were assembled I tried it on and realized the side seams needed to be taken in a bunch and it needs clear elastic along the neck edge to prevent gaping. So the whole thing will be disassembled and tried again another day. At least the fabric is still in good shape.

The more successful project of the week was making summer pj's. I used the pajama pattern from the book "Weekend sewing" but used some cute ribbed knit prints instead of woven fabric. The leg length was shortened to mid calf and the tapered leg straightened a bit.

Flowers print from Fabric Hound, Elephants from Fabric Fairy.
With those changes I could get a pair of pants out of one yard of 60" wide fabric. This totally gives me the excuse to buy more kids prints for me!

Marfy Madness

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! The annual Marfy 2009 mag I ordered showed up way quicker than expected. I just picked it up from the post office and am literally giddy with excitement. Having one in your hands also explains why shipping is so much. The book is 13 1/4 by 9 1/2 and weighs over 2 pounds. No wonder the fashion illustrations look so leggy on the website.

A quick explanation - Marfy is an Italian sewing magazine which has illustrations of garments with a few patterns insert in the back. The rest you have to buy separately. There are no sewing instructions, so to recreate the garment one must reference the illustrations. A few months ago I ordered this Marfy jacket pattern just to see if my sewing skills were up to the challenge.

The muslin went together beautifully and now is waiting for just the right fabric.

Today's knitting FO is Brooklyn Tweed's Porom. Mine is knit from two skeins of Simply Shetland Lambswool & Cashmere in Red Hot

The cashmere does not soften Jamieson's Shetland all that much, but who can beat their tweedy colors. As with all Jarad's patterns it was very simple to knit and created a lovely FO. Can't wait till August when his new pattern book comes out!

Clearing the Decks

Last weekend I made an effort to finish a bunch of projects which had lingered in an almost done state for too long. I'd like to say that the long weekend inspired me, but the truth is that the pile on the side table was threatening to avalanche. Now that all those T-shirts are hemmed and sweaters are finished there is plenty of blog fodder for the next couple of days. Hooray!

Today we have the Leaf Yoke Top for this summer's Knit Scene.
When I saw the preview photo for this top it made me foaming at the mouth to start it right away. Seamless construction, no sleeves, and leafy lace, Oh Boy!!! Unfortunately what should have been a straight forward knit turned into a gauge nightmare. I will take part of the blame because my gauge swatch was a tad small and maybe it was about .25 stitches off. However the gauge swatch still was a big fat liar, even with a proper wash and block. The gauge swatch told me that that suggested size 6 needle was fine and to go with the medium size. So I motored along finishing the yoke in a weekend, only to find that the dimensions were bigger than the large size. NOOOOOO!!!

So the yoke was ripped out and the yarn sat in a time out for a couple of weeks. Since gauge swatches couldn't be trusted I decided to wing it using a number 5 needle and knit the size small. And what did we get? The perfect size medium.




There is one design mod, just a little bit of extra length added before starting the hem. An extra 4 rounds with an increase was added and then the hem was started according to the directions. Casting off a hem on a top down sweater is a major pain in the ass but it is a pretty finish.



I like it but I'm so happy it's done.