Archive for August, 2008
Lovely long Labor Day weekend means that I can get some sewing in!
Sunday, August 31st, 2008
Having Nate home for 3 days is so nice!
I was able to fit in some sewing time yesterday, and made four pair of little pants:
It was raining this morning when I took the pics, so they’re really moody. Moody little yoga pants! These are from the “Crescent Moon Yoga Pants” pattern written by Samantha of Little Comet Tails. I’ve tested some of her patterns before, and I really like them! I used her diaper pattern for the last 2 batches of Mazie’s dipes. They’re trim, fit well, and use up fewer snaps than some of the other patterns I’ve tried. HIGHLY RECOMMEND.
These little pants are great because they have a gusset on the back, so that they fit over big cloth-diapered bottoms. In “regular” clothes, I have to buy several sizes up in order to accommodate the diaper, so the waists are too big and the legs are too long. These, I can make in her weight range and the waist fits. And because I’m sewing them myself, I just hem them to her inseam.
On Saturday, Mazie had her first swimming lesson. She got a little bit grumpy toward the end, but overall, it was a success. Here we are in the water together:
(I had to wear that tee shirt because I couldn’t find my most recent swimsuit and had to use one from several years ago. Ob-SCENE!) There were some kids in the class that were a lot older than Mazie, so they were doing things like jumping off the edge to the parents, floating on their own, etc. We were focusing on trying to get her used to the water, letting her put her face in, seeing if she’d kick. Little things like that. It was fun, and a great way to start of the weekend. It was really nice to wake up and all get ready for a “Family Activity.” The weather is great for indoor swimming, too. Kind of gray and rainy. So we felt really cozy afterward.
We’re still waiting for her second bottom tooth to come in. We were up most of the night last night, until at least 4 am. Poor baby!
Posted in Uncategorized, baby, sewing | 4 Comments »
Finished soaker set!
Wednesday, August 27th, 2008
SO…here’s the finished soaker set…on a very wiggly Miss Mazie.
She’s hard to catch sitting still these days!
The soaker is basically a big triangle that you fold in on itself, then seam a little, then it’s all done. I also add a crochet chain tie. Here’s how it looks before it’s all stitched up:
(I think I took that photo at night.)
So things around here are going along ok. We’re not up to much new as a family…nate’s still working at the museums and I’m staying home. But I still feel like we’re just SO BUSY. It’s deadline time again, so lots of projects to finish up by the end of August / early September. Trying to get those done and in the mail. I just sent the supply list from Glam Knits to Knit Happens, so that they’ll be ready for the workshop.
We signed Mazie up “Water Babies” lessons at Gym Magic. She goes every Saturday at 9:30 am. I took her over to the country club pool the other day to meet up with her friend Sylvie, and she was such a natural in the water. I think she’ll really like her class. I’m glad I chose Saturdays, so that Nate can go with us. Actually, Saturday was the only day left…there are a LOT of Water Babies in las Cruces, I guess.
Yesterday, some of my mom-friends and I got together and helped one of the moms make some little stuffed cloth birds from spoolsewing.com for her baby’s baptism party. The fabric she used is a really pretty coordinating group of prints by Anna Maria Horner. I used the same fabric to make these hats for the girls:
They’re reversible, so one side (what the pattern calls for as lining) is this kitzchy New York print and the other side is the boutique stuff.
I tried out some of the embroidery stitches on my new machine, and I think they came out pretty well! I had to enlarge the pattern for Mazie’s hat, and then reduce it for Sylvie (I had my modified templates with me, but not the pattern.) Both hats are way too big, so I threaded a length of yarn through the ribbon trim and gathered the hat a little bit. As the girls grow, this can be cut and then new yarn added and tied to the correct size. The hats are completely reversible, while the pattern isn’t…go me!
I did both hats in an evening, they were so easy! (This is a rather heavily modified version of Simplicity 9784
Here’s one on my sleeping model:
Sorry so many pics today, I guess that’s what you get when I don’t post for a while!! 
Posted in just chit chat, baby, sewing | 2 Comments »
finishing the purewool set
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008
Here’s the finished sweater, just need to tack the tie around the back waist.
Here’s the soaker as it sits now:
The main piece is finished, and I’m just adding the ribbing. The top / waistband knitting is just a continuation of the main piece (switch to 2 x 2 ribbing for 1 - 2 inches.) The leg ribbing is picked up at each edge and knit also in 2 x 2 ribbing for about an inch or however long you want. If you’re making this for a cold-climate baby, you could extend the ribbing or just knit stockinette legs. Since we’re in the Southwest, I’m just knitting little panties.
Here’s a video showing how I picked up the stitches for the ribbing:
(It’s kind of “Blair Witch Project” in its wobbliness, so look out!) Hopefully as I post more of these, they’ll get better!
You can tell from the photo above that I finished dyeing the contrast yarn. I used about 5 packs of various blue and green Koolaids, and it turned out pretty much the way I wanted it to. I colored the stark white parts without changing the color of that original pretty blue-green.
I’m going to see how much yarn I have left before I decide whether to add anything else to the sweater. I like the sweater as-is, so probably won’t add much if anything.
Gratuitous Mazie video:
We bought her this toy yesterday, and it has everything she loves: Mirror. Music. Lights. Buttons. Levers.
Now that I know how to make and upload videos, you’ll see a lot of them!
Posted in Patterns, baby | 3 Comments »
Working with the 100purewool
Sunday, August 17th, 2008
I started working on a couple of little things using that 100Purewool from yesterday.
First is a little cardigan:
And I’m working on a soaker to go with it. I think it’ll be a ruffle-bottom (or “Rhumba Pant”) soaker like this one:
I posted a little video about how I’m doing my increases to make the body / main part of the soaker.
It’s my first YouTube video, so be forgiving! I tried to edit the length, but I cut myself off…you’ll see.
I’ve got three hanks of the Purewool, and I’ve used one whole one already. I decided to dye one of these so that it’s more solid and I can use it as a trim yarn on both the soaker and the sweater.
Here it is soaking in vinegar and water before I added the Koolaid:
I’m really happy with this yarn, it’s just as soft as the singles, but I think it’ll pill less thanks to the plies.
Posted in yarn reviews, just chit chat, Patterns | 1 Comment »
Mazie has her first tooth! (and I have some new yarn…)
Friday, August 15th, 2008
Here’s my baby with her FIRST TOOTH!
I was trying to get her to smile, but of course she was suddenly shy. This little tooth is so welcome in our house! Now, if only his partner would hurry up and come in, we’d all have such happy goodnights!
She’s been so good, actually, through the process. We have such a happy baby!
Here she is in a little dress that my mom just finished for her:
The yarn is some weird off-brand cotton/nylon blend that I got on eBay years and years ago. It’s got a great texture, though, and that nylon adds a nice stretch. I love the color, too. I made a sweater for my MIL on year out of it.
Here’s MY new yarn!:
It’s three skeins of 100PureWool that I bought from Cindy (who is in my knitting group here in LC.) She ordered it online and the color didn’t match the description at ALL, so, to help her get over the trauma of ordering, waiting, arguing, feedback, etc., I took it off her hands. I’m sweet like that. Any time there is mint green / icy blue yarn in danger, I’ll come to the rescue. I love this color, and it goes so well with Mazie’s skin.
I’m dreaming up a soaker / sweater set for fall. This yarn is so soft, it’s great for next-to-the-skin baby stuff. Despite poor Cindy’s experience, I jumped at the chance to buy this from her! I’ve only used the singles before (to make this…scroll down.) The plied version is really soft, too. I did a swatch and I like it best on 7s.
Posted in yarn reviews, baby | 1 Comment »
Mission Falls Dreamer Booklet
Monday, August 11th, 2008
The Mission Falls booklet that I coordinated is finished and will ship to stores on August 15. There were three designers, Galina Carroll (who doesn’t have a blog), Simona Mercahnt-Dest, and me.
It’s available only through yarn shops at this time, and only those shops that carry Mission Falls yarns.
You can see all of the pattern pictures here.
The featured yarn is the new 136 wool, a DK superwash which comes in the same colors as the 1824 (worsted) wool.
Posted in Patterns | 1 Comment »
Chagrin
Saturday, August 9th, 2008
This is a pile of Lorna’s Laces Green Line DK in the color Chagrin.
It’s for a magazine pattern, and I actually got to choose my own yarn! Usually, you submit sketches and they tell you what yarn it will be, in what weight, and which color…so this is the first time that I’ve gotten to make this choice for a print publication. Kinda cool.
I’ll tell you more about it as the time comes near.
Here are my swatches:
I absolutely love the texture of that honeycomb cable pattern. I decided to use the honeycomb cable and the two-strand rope-looking one. Though I really like the look of the three-strand braided cable, the ones I chose to use both cable on the same row / round, so it’s easier to keep track of.
This yarn is so pretty! It’s a true red, and is a hand dye, so it has some variation in the color. (This is called a “semi-solid.”)
One thing I’m noticing in my work is that I’m starting to add in more texture. My first few published designs were pretty texture-free, just playing with color and shape. And now I’m starting to fill in the outline. To add all-over texture stitches, and to play with cables and how they grow out of nothing:
Or how they grow from the shoulder increases:
So, even though I still love the raglan construction, I’m evolving. I will probably always love the raglan.
Sometime I’ll post some photos of the sweaters my grandma knit. She was a big raglan-er, too. Two of the ones I inherited are in storage, but I’ll see if my mom has some in her closet that we can see.
Things around here are busy-busy. I’m in my third official month as freelancer (with no “real” job on the side) and it’s a little weird. It’s hard not to just sign up for every job that comes up, and to really think about my time. Since I stopped working so that I could spend time with Mazie…I need to be really conscious of what I can actually handle and what I should pass up.
I’ve felt sort of out of the loop for the last few months, with a brand new baby and was not really paying attention to what’s going on in the larger knitting universe, so it’s especially tempting to overbook. It’s just going to take some getting used to and some experimentation to figure out what my schedule should be like. It’s really nice, though, to be able to “think knitting” all the time.
Posted in yarn reviews, Patterns | 2 Comments »
Textiles a Mano … texture overload!
Tuesday, August 5th, 2008
(in a good way!)
I finally have a chance to work with this gorgeous yarn from Textiles a Mano. I bought two hanks at Knitting in the Heartland when I taught my workshop for the Sunflower Knitters Guild this past spring.
This yarn is called Dali. It’s a blend of silk and rayon. It’s shiny, shimmery, and has just gorgeous depth to both color and texture.
I’m making a sweater, and I’ve only got 2 hanks so I wrote to Laura for more. Luckily, she was able to stick another hank in the mail for me so I’ll be able to do sleeves!
Posted in yarn reviews, Patterns | 1 Comment »
A Cleo for me!
Friday, August 1st, 2008
SO…I finished my Cleo a couple of weeks ago and am just getting around to posting pics.
Here’s one of me and Mazie…that’s a new dress that I made for her. Grandma helped me with the front pleats, but I did the rest.
Here’s a mosaic:
If you clik on it, you go to the set of all of the pics.
I added the one of me just in the dress so that you can see what I’m wearing under the sweater, and how it might affect the shape. It’s gathered at the waist and kind of poufy, so it adds a little volume right in my tummy area.
This pattern is *almost* ready! I just have a couple of nitpicky things to fix and it should be available next week.
Nathan took these new pics on his lunchbreak today on our back patio. I hung up the sheet thinking it’d remove some of the distraction of the house and plants, the cement wall and high chain link fence (our backyard neighbors have their house done up like Fort Knox, it’s rediculous!) But the light was doing really funny things today and I of course couldn’t wrangle Mazie long enough to iron the sheet. ANYWAY…the pics give you an idea of what this looks like on a middle-aged person with a little extra padding! (…on a triple-digit temperature day in the middle of the desert…)
Next time i use a backdrop, I’ll use something long enough that I can also stand on it…like at the Portrait Studio! The cement is kind of distracting.
I like this shot because my tattoos look cool:
