Some sewing for a change

One of my bike riding friends has discovered the joy of knitting and has embraced the craft wholeheartedly.  She has been completing items so quickly she has become an expert in a short time.  She is quickly accumulating a collection of knitting needles so I thought it would be a good idea to make her a needle roll. It is a great way to store your knitting equipment.

I made one for myself many years ago, in fact I replaced the first one I made with a new one in nice fabric. I also made one for my elder daughter many years ago.  It is a while since I last made one so I checked out the internet for a pattern and chose one. Erica’s Roll up needle case.

This is the pattern I followed but unfortunately the fabric caused issues with my sewing machine once I tried to sew through several thicknesses as the machine kept skipping stitches.  I changed the needle and gave the machine a thorough clean but all to no avail.  I decided that I should just give up on this one and start again with different fabric.  Fortunately I have plenty of fabric in my stash.

The pattern I had followed from the internet actually was not long enough for the knitting needles we use and so It turned out that the dodgy fabric was a blessing as I was able to make the new needlecase following the dimensions of my previous needlecase.

I was happy with the finished result and my friend was delighted with the gift.

Once a few more needles are added the roll indeed becomes a roll.

 

A slipper of sorts

This unusual looking item is a type of slipper.  I have been using stash wool to make these using the wool double to get the appropriate thickness. The colours vary but the resulting slipper is fine.

It’s been a while. . .

I have just been told by WordPress that it is nine years since I started this blog.

I used to publish each weekday for quite a while but now I am at the stage where I only post now and again. I first started to blog as I needed some purpose to my retirement and a routine in my day but now I have many other things I do in my retirement so blogging has eased off considerably.

So, to the topic of today’s post. . . .Victorians will all have to wear facemasks from midnight on Sunday 2nd August as a result of another day of very high COVID count.  This announcement prompted me to make a couple of masks in readiness.

This was one I made a couple of weeks ago and was happy with the pattern so decided to go with this mask pattern to make a couple for my husband.

I am off on a bike riding weekend but one of the ladies is taking her sewing machine and I am providing fabric, (plenty of spare fabric in my stash), and we are all going to be helping make masks for those of us who don’t have them.  The evenings will be productive, along with a few gins and tonic.

An adult baby surprise

If you are a serious knitter you will probably know immediately what I am talking about and for the non-knitters I am not talking about an unexpected pregnancy!

Elizabeth Zimmermann is the guru of knitting.  The first article I knitted using her instructions was a Baby Surprise Jacket.  If you link to this Pinterest page you will see various versions of this jacket which is knitted in one piece and joined with a woven seam across the shoulders. The next image is from Pinterest.

I have used Zimmerman’s book The Knitting Workshop which I bought when I knitted a baby surprise jacket for our grandson. I also have a copy of Knitting Without Tears.

The Adult Baby Surprise Jacket I have just completed was knitted as a request from my elder daughter.  She knew I had loads of scrap wool in my stash and she selected a few colours she wanted to include in her jacket and I set about my next project.  I bought the pattern from Schoolhouse press.

The two markers show where the decreases have taken place up to the point of the underarms then the increases happen.  Unfortunately I didn’t start the increases correctly and ended up with a bit of a hole.

I decided I really should unravel what I had done and so I undid the couple of hundred stitches and started the increases again, this time correctly.

This is at the point where the front flap stitches are put on holders and then you knit backwards and forwards on the bottom stitches.

Once the bottom section is knitted then a border is knitted around the edge before the single piece is assembled into a jacket.

At this stage the sleeves have not been joined and the collar hasn’t been added.

To join the sleeves I used two stitch bind off for the first sleeve but was not happy with the result as the colours showed through in the middle so I tried three stitch bind off for the second sleeve and it was much better. You can see the difference in the next picture.

The front sleeve is the two stitch bind off.  I undid that sleeve join and redid it with three stitch bind off.The dummy is bigger than my daughter but it gives you some idea of how it will look.

Working on the collar.

This was an absolute joy to work as I was getting rid of some of my stash and it was all garter stitch, the easiest of all. I sewed in the many ends and searched for some suitable buttons.  No luck with the buttons so I have sent it off to my daughter so she can choose buttons to finish it off.

A thoroughly enjoyable project.

I have since found the post of the original jacket I made.

 

What animal is that?

This is the reverse of a jumper I finished recently.  My daughter had specifically asked if I would like to knit this for her so I jumped at the chance.

The reverse shows you how untidy the back of the item is but fortunately the front looks much better.

I tried it on to see how it looked before sending it to my daughter.

I think she was happy with the finished result.

The pattern was from this publication.

It was good to try a new type of knitting and take me out of my comfort zone.  I certainly learned a few new things.

I don’t think I will be doing another Intarsia project soon.

Something I haven’t tried before

I have embarked on what I think will turn out to be a real challenge for me.  Intarsia knitting.  I have knitted a fair bit of fair isle in my time but have never before tried intarsia. For those of you who are not acquainted with intarsia this link will give you an idea of what it involves.  Intarsia for dummies   I used this site to get a general idea of what to expect.

The project I am working on is this.  The character is Animal from the Muppets.

That is him on a tee shirt.

My daughter asked me if I would like another project and I am always happy to be knitting something that someone would like.

This is the progress so far.  I am a bit daunted by the number of strands on the back but have been assured by the lady in the wool shop that once you weave the strands in it will look fine.

I am happy with the progress so far.

An update since I last drafted this post.

I think the stitches will look more even when all the ends are woven in.  That is what I am hoping.