Yee Haw!

One sewing project down, one more to go. I probably won't start the corduroy jacket for a while yet. I need to start the back of the tank. I finished blocking the front and it looks okay. In addition to the paisley shirt, I spent a lot of the weekend experimenting with necklace and earring designs. I'm in a friend's wedding in July and I said I would be happy to make the bridesmaids' jewelry. We decided to use mostly Swarovski crystals. Very sparkly!

Giddyap

Since finishing the front of the tank, I've focused all of my energy on the pink paisley shirt. I've made a lot of progress the last few days. I finished the sleeves and the hem. I only need to add the collar and neckband and then the snaps. This has been a really great sewing project. The piping has been fun to work with and looks nice with the rest of the shirt. I took my time with this project, so that the possibility for error was reduced. When I sew I tend to rush and sometimes sacrifice quality. There was a point last night when this happened, but I was able to correct the mistakes without too much trouble.

Facing Front

Any ideas on how to make the stitches before and after the color changes not so loose? Is there a special trick I don't know about?

Done with Dots

I'm just about done with the front of the tank. Between last night and this morning, I ripped out several rows because of erroneous counting again [sigh]. But I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Thanks for all the encouraging words!

Baby Brit Sailor Set from Minnowknits

I hope my friend doesn't see this before Sunday! PS, you can click on the thumbnail for a larger image.

Another Project

On Friday night I realized I needed to start a baby project for a friend's shower, which is next Sunday. So I quickly browsed through my books for a pattern I liked and headed to the LYS 20 minutes before it closed. I got some great Mission Falls 1824 cotton in indigo, lemongrass (light green), and maize (pale yellow). I had decided on the Baby Brit Sailor outfit from Minnowknits. It's a striped sweater with hemmed edges and a three-button closure on one shoulder. There's also a matching square hat with pompoms on the top corners. I should be done by tonight, so I'll get pictures up later this week. Aside from all the knitting, I also cut out the pink paisley pattern pieces for the western shirt.

Plugging Along

Well, I started shaping the armholes and the neckline of the front of the tank. I had a rough go of it for a while, but it should be smooth sailing from here. Kate sent me some great tips to try for the back, like knitting fair isle style. I've never knit any fair isle, so I may just need to practice on some random swatches instead of the actual tank.

Ribbit, Ribbit

I thought I was being so careful with counting rows during the knitting of this tank top. However, as I was inspecting my work yesterday, I realized I skipped some rows in between dots! Ugh! So that meant I had to frog an entire row of dots and make up my bobbins again. And somehow I managed to lose a stitch and pick up a stitch somewhere in the 12 rows I reknit. I drive myself crazy trying to figure that kind of stuff out. Scanning the fabric over and over again trying to find where that one stitch got lost or where that extra stitch came from. All I can say is this top better be worth all the effort!

Stitch and Ditch

We had a Stitch and Bitch meeting yesterday afternoon, but the place was having some kind of auction, so the room was unavailable. I was bummed because I've missed the last couple of meetings and was excited to go to this one and meet up with new and old faces. Instead, I just went home and knit by myself. I finished weaving in all the ends to the dots I had knitted so far. I knit another row of dots and will start in on those ends next. I also took a trip to the fabric store on Saturday and got this lovely pink paisley for a western style shirt with pink piping (the one in the main picture). I also got some ultrasoft wide wale black corduroy to make the jacket with the little stand up collar. Lots of projects for spring!

Sew Much Fun

I organized all my current sewing patterns the other night. I found lots of cute spring and summer things to make. I pulled about five patterns that I want to make: blazer, western-style shirt, long skirt with gathers all around, simple V-neck dress with pleats and a low-slung belt, and a furry front tie vest, sort of like In the Mood from Knitty. Looks like a trip to Fabric Depot is in order this afternoon!

Weaving In & Out

So, I decided to take Emma's excellent advice and weave in the ends as I went along on the tank. Last night I finshed up my fourth row of dots, then started weaving in as many ends as I could stand. I only did four dots before I had to stop. I vow to finish the rest before continuing on!

Cute Bags and Photo Albums

Check out Posie: Rosy Little Things, a local Portland designer, for cute bags and photo albums.

Seeing Spots

So, there are approximately 40 dots on each side of the tank. There are four ends to weave in for each dot. That's a total of 320 ends to weave in!

Loose Ends

I started in on the tank top this weekend after I finished my swatch. I must say, when I saw the picture of the tank, I didn't truly realize how many ends I would have to be weaving in! I just thought it was such a great top that I wanted to add to my wardrobe. With so many dots, there are that many more ends. Ugh! It was also a little hard to get used to the 13 bobbins hanging off the back too. It's turning out pretty well though. It's much more fun than just straight stockinette stitch, so I can't really complain. I like how the colors are looking together. I'll have to post a picture of all those ends later...

Web Zen: Crafty Geeky Zen

Easy Bizarre Crafts
Macrame Owls
Crocheted Thongs, Diamond Braid stitch
String Art
Origami Art
Pencil Art
Vintage videogame cross-stitch
Petit Point and pixel stitching, retro geek themes
MouseMod
[link via Boing Boing]

Teeny Tiny

I starting swatching for the tank top last night as I watched Survivor. (Man, those "cute, skinny girls" are driving me nuts!) It was weird knitting with size 2 and 3 needles and yarn that feels like thread. Took me a little while to get used to since most of my projects have used ultra chunky yarn. But it's a nice change of pace. And I really like that Cheeky pink. I have some other tanks I'm eyeing in the same issue. I won't be able to wear them yet, but I can get them done fast.

Dot's It

Here's my next project: a cute springy, summery tank top from Rowan's latest magazine. I love the dots! My main color is the hot pink, the dots will be the lime green, and I'll have a white picot edge at my neckline. It will be so strange to be knitting with tiny needles and skinny yarn! I also picked up the Rowan All Seasons Collection book. There were quite a few nice patterns.

Field Trip

A little lunchtime field trip is in order to the LYS. Depending on the yarn that I can find, I have two projects to choose between. I'm excited to get started because I feel like knitting has gone by the wayside due to other projects. Pictures later...

Post Vacation Blues

Well, here I am back at work. Bummer! Florida was fun, but the weather wasn't too good. Overcast, thunderstorms, and high humidity. Looks like there will be no teacher strike since the new contract was ratified last night. Cutting a proposed 24 days from the school year won't happen. Thank goodness. It looks like we won't have a mandatory furlough (there is a slight chance that it could happen). Hooray! That means I can go buy some yarn for a new project. I've been awfully bored with what I have been working on.