Tried and True Review: A Big Bag of the Blues - Part II

A Tried & True Review, where I look back at old project and discuss how it's held up since I made it, both successes and closet rejects, in an attempt to show how my projects have stood the test of time and/or to learn from the mistakes of my yesterdays.

 I recently took a big bag of clothes, mostly handmade items, to a local consignment store and I thought, true to the spirit of the Tried and True Review, I'd take some time to share with you why I was ready to let them go. Also, if you're in the Portland (ME) area and want to grab something sewn or knitted by me, now's your chance!

There's a lot of items there, so I'm going to break it into two parts. Here is  Part II (Part I here). 

The Original: Cookie Monster Cardigan

Made/Age:  July 2012, 3 years old.

Update: Accepted for Consignment.

Fit:  It's just too big in the bust. I kept it around because I was pregnant at the time and though it would fit well later in the pregnancy, but it never did. Because it was that big. It looks okay in the photos, but I always felt like I was swimming in it. 

Style/Materials: Cookie Monster Blue Berrocco Vintage. Because it's a superwash wool/acrylic blend I couldn't even shrink it to fit. 

Construction: This sweater had it going wrong from the get go. I recalculated the yoke increases from the pattern, because as originally written it made the sleeve have weird "wings". It looked like a circular yoke construction, but all the increases were centered over the sleeves. I restarted the yoke again and finished the sweater, but I didn't have the heart to knit it again, when it was too big.

Final Verdict: When in doubt, rip it out. 

The Original: 4th of July Dress

Made/Age:  July 2010, 5 years old.

Update: Rejected from Consignment.

Fit:  The fit is fine (I think), the truth is I just didn't wear it all that much. I have another rather similar blue sundress (that I got at the consignment store oddly enough), that I preferred to wear. I can't really pin down why, but this one just never seemed as flattering.  I didn't need two, so off this one went.

Style/Materials: Quilting cotton. 

Construction: I added horsehair braid to the hem which was fun, but maybe made it a bit too costumey?

Final Verdict: This is another go with your gut one. There's no reason not to like it , but because I don't, there's no reason to hang onto it either.

The Original: Alexis Skirt

Made/Age:  December 2008, 7.5 years old.

Update: Accepted for Consignment

Fit:  This one always falls under my pencil skirt sewing deficiency. It sits too low on the waist to be flattering. 

Style/Materials: Some vintage brocade. Fabric was beautiful, but I find it harder to wear lighter colored items on bottom. Also it has a kangaroo pock on the  front, which makes it pooch out weirdly.

Construction: I seem to recall it being quite well made, but it was early in my sewing career, so it probably was less so. 

Final Verdict: I need to take a class on making a pencil skirt or something. it is my sewing waterloo. 

Bonus: The Walkaway Dress

Made: Sometime between 1998-2001

Update: Accepted for Consignment

Fit: To finish up, the bottom dress in that pile is actually one my mother made for me in high school. The photo on the left is from 2004 and may be one of the last times I wore it (for my original Ms. Cleaver portrait at that!) . The dress is actually pretty flattering on, but is generally impossible to wear due to the narrowness of the front skirt panel. One stiff breeze and you have an embarrassing situation on your hands. Also, the quilting cotton print made it look like it belonged on a preschool teacher. 

Final Verdict: If you can't wear something without fear of repeatedly exposing your underwear, you probably shouldn't wear it. 

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Introducing the Cormac Sweater

More often than not, I'm a "come up with a design idea and try to find the right yarn" kind of designer, but in the case of the Cormac Sweater in the new Fall Knitscene? Completely the other way around. 

Knitscene had put out a call for submissions back in October for items featuring chainette-style yarn. Something, I'll admit to never having used before, but my curiosity piqued, I went down to my Local Yarn Store  and picked up a skein of Shibui Maai. They had a sample of it knitted up at the shop, a super cushy garter stitch scarf. But when I got the yarn home and began knitting with it, cushy didn't feel right to me. It was so springy and light, that I wanted to push it even further in that direction, the yarn screamed out "make me lace!" And so I did. 

A simple 4 stitch/4 row lace pattern was quickly decided upon and knit up on larger than usual (for me, anyway) needles. All air and lace and drape, but like eiderdown, the loftiness and halo of Maai fill in the gaps, meaning Cormac is a sweater that is both lacey and warmer than you'd think.

I wanted the fabric to be center stage, but also knew that the drapiness of the fabric could make fancy shaping a bit of a bear, so a boxy construction, with drop-shoulder sleeves made the most sense.  It seemed like something one of those impossibly chic girls would wear for a morning at the cafe, hair in a messy bun, oversized latte with foam art and a paperback novel near at hand. Easy to pull on and as comfortable as a sweatshirt, but a whole lot prettier. 

Because of the minimal shaping and the larger needles and the simple lace, Cormac is also a pretty quick knit. If I had to make one change, I'll probably make the sleeve cuffs a bit snugger and/or the sleeve a tad bit shorter, but when I had seamed the whole thing together and hung it on my mannequin, I thought - yes, that is just what I wanted it to be. 

Cormac, along with a number of other gorgeous designs like Annie Watt's Oddity Scarf, Nadya Stalling's Couturier Jacket and Courtney Spainhower's Caldwell Pullover, are available in the Fall 2015 issue of Knitscene, currently available digitally, and on newsstands on July 14th. In the meantime you can queue or favorite it up on Ravelry.

Do you have a favorite design in this issue? Have you ever worked with chainette yarn? Does your yarn ever get demanding with you like the Maai was with me? 

You can see some of my previous Knitscene designs here or on Ravelry. 

All Photos: Courtesy of Knitscene/Harper Point Photography

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What I'm Working On

I have so many ideas these days of things I want to design, make, create and only so much time and/or energy to do such a small portion of them. It's a bit frustrating, but better than having no ideas or motivation!

After two months of straight deadline knitting, my time has opened up somewhat, and I've picked up my long-neglected Lady Heartrose Cardigan, which is inching ever closer to being finished, though I'm nervous about running out of yarn and having a heckuva time finding the kind of buttons I want. I'm thinking about holding off publishing it to do a double photo shoot with that sage lace number, which is the next knit in my queue. It's in some gorgeous Shalimar Yarn that I can't wait to knit more with.  There are going to be a lot of sweater from me this fall. 

I've also been swatching and sketching, coming up with new ideas for sweaters and embroidery projects. I've been talking with yarn dyers and companies and am trying to figure out my schedule for designs, because I have so many projects now that I have to schedule things (which is awesome and a little bit scary).

In this midst of all this, I've managed to make a 30 minute skirt for Little Miss Cleaver in 40 minutes, which was a rip-roaring success that was worn three days in a row before I insisted it needed washing. (Fabric from BeautifulWork) and spend some time with friends, and even drop in on Thursday afternoon knitting at KnitWit, where my Belacqua Cardigan sample can be found hanging by the Quince & Co. yarns. 

It's a good time for making. :) 

(PS - all these photos are from my Instagram feed, if you're into that sort of thing).

Maine Fiber Frolic

Since I was either hip-holding or hand-holding a toddler for the majority of my time there, I didn't get many photos of this year's Maine Fiber Frolic, but I did have a great time. It's been a few years since I've been up to the Windsor Fairgrounds, (blog says 2012!) but it seemed like high time to return. 

I spent several days talking up the sheep and bunnies to Little Miss Cleaver and then picked up a few from my knitting group and we were on our way. The car ride was just long enough to have some good conversations about knitting and wardrobes and work and plans and lupine season in Maine always makes the highways so pretty. 

Doing anything with a small child is about expectations, so I knew that this visit would be pretty animal-centric. In any case, as I hardly need anymore yarn at the moment, my shopping list was brief. Bunnies were petted, and alpacas visited. I picked up a pretty shawl stick and some perfectly-matched vintage buttons for an upcoming sweater, ate a gyro and some fries and called myself content. That I got pie at the A-1 Diner and did some card-handing out/networking with local dyers/yarnies, was an excellent bonus.  

One of my favorite things about these types of events is seeing just how many crafters there are, and the variety of things they love. From the woman who weave masks, to the felters and rug hookers and spinners and knitters, there's a place for all. 

Did you make it up to the Fiber Frolic this year, or is there a great fiber festival in your area? 

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The Work of My Hands

I'm always astonished when I meet people who are one-craft only people, they only quilt, or crochet, or knit - and that's it. I'm constantly having to stop myself from picking up yet another creative pursuit. In some ways I'm jealous of their devotion to a single art - when it's just one you can really dive deep and get really good, really creative.

But I have always been a generalist, polymath, utility player - call it what you will. I love trying out new things, giving them a go and I think it's served me well. When I was deep into theatre, I did a lot of things within the theatrre, writing, directing, set design, etc., but it was mostly just theatre (and a little dance). When I reached a point where theatre didn't really work for my life anymore, I found fabric and yarn made a good outlet for my creative needs. In 5 years, painting may fit right. 

I made my Memorial Day weekend extra long by taking Friday off and filled it with multiple trips to the park, food, family, and a wide variety of creating. I prepped my raised beds and planted seedlings; I learned to use a racheting pipe cutter (!!) and made LMC a portable ballet barre; I sewed an old table runner into a throw pillow; I made peppermint ice cream for our BBQ; and wore a recently finished dirndl skirt that had been hanging around in my to fix pile for too long. Not to mention all the furious knitting I did on a deadline project while watching The Time Machine and Anne of Green Gables.

After a long weekend of creating, my hands are weary, but my heart is full.

Introducing Barbe

A downside to designing knitting patterns is that you spend an awful lot of time knitting for other people - samples in the sizes you'd never fit in, that sort of thing. So when you have a legitimate knitwear need for yourself? Well, that's where self-publishing comes in handy.

My sock drawer has been looking a bit sad lately, and so, I introduce to you - the Barbe socks!

Despite the fact the socks photographed above, in a lovely Permission Tree Farm Piggy Sock Yarn, were made in a few weeks, this pattern is actually several years in the making! It's my habit to only  knit socks while traveling due to their general portability and I began knitting a pair of socks with the same winding cable motif out of the leftovers of a sweater when traveling in late 2011. I finished that pair of socks, only to find that Sock #1 and Sock #2 weren't remotely the same size.

Somewhat disheartened by this, I put away the socks for a few years (like you do). This year, with my resolution to fight the entropy  I pulled out those old socks, determined to make a matching pair. Well, the finished pair ended up matching in size, but were a bit too large for me and were gifted to Mr. Cleaver.

I figured, in for a penny, in for a pound, so I found some suitable sock yarn in my stash to make another pair and figured, hey, why not make a pattern out of it while I'm at it?

Not content to do anything halfway, Barbe is available in five sizes from 6" to 10"/15-25.5 cm in circumference, so the unisex styling can fit feet of all sizes.

Worked from the toe-up with a short row heel (the easiest heel in my humble opinion), and the simple to work, but fancy to look at, spiraling cables Barbe would make a great introduction to sock-knitting and/or short rows. Barbe works equally well as a sock drawer builder for when you want a quick knit with a little something more. The ribbing throughout also makes for a nicely fitted sock.

Pattern Details 

Sizes

Foot Circumference (unstretched): 6 (7, 8, 9, 10)”/ 15 (18, 20.5, 23, 25.5) cm. To be worn with approximately 1-1½”/2.5-4 cm negative ease for best fit and display of cables.

Yarn

One skein Persimmon Tree Farm Piggy Toes SW [100% Superwash Merino]; 560 yds [512 m] per 113 g or approximately 350-520 yds of sock yarn for one pair, dependent on finished width and length. Sample as shown uses approximately 375 yds.

Purchase

Barbe is available for purchase via the following methods:

Ravelry  //  Ms. Cleaver Creations  //  Love Knitting 

Introducing Belacqua

A key thing to know about my progress as a designer is that I learned to sew a long time before I ever learned to knit. As a result, some of my earlier designs were the product of shoehorning knitted fabric into a sewn-like construction (I thinking primarily of Wetherell and the Carmel Clutch here.) Not to say that they didn't work, but that they weren't "knitterly."

When I say knitterly, I mean something that takes distinct advantage of what only hand-knitting can do, or what knitting does best. Yes, you can knit a woven-look stitch pattern, but clearly weaving does it better (and easier). Knitting miles of fine gauge stockinette? Perhaps you're better off buying a sweater-knit fabric and sewing it together, or working the pattern on a knitting machine. But shaped-lace? Knitting (or crochet) wins. Cables? Only in knitting. Seamless construction that's not a simple tube? Knitting again.

Which brings us to i-cord. 

If, like me, one of your first introductions to knitting was through a knitting doll/nancy or mushroom, then you know that i-cord or "corking" is quintessentially knitterly. Those tight little tubes of yarn that go on and on and on. 

I first ran into i-cord as a garment edging when I knit my still much loved and worn Manu sweater. Having enjoyed it in someone else's designs, I decided to integrated into one of my own, and to see if I could find a way to replicate the effect of i-cord, not just on the edges,  but within the fabric itself. Discovering that a horizontal pleat/welt/ridge did the trick nicely, I ended up with the Bob & Wave Cowl.    

The i-cord/welt combination  stuck in the back of my mind and when LMC needed a winter sweater it sprung back to life (in a surprisingly similar color...).

Here the i-cords and welts play up the structure of a circular yoke and give not only a clean finish to the garment edges, but provide some built-in button loops. The circular yoke  construction is further emphasized by expanding vertical ribs. A simple workhorse yarn - here Quince & Co's Lark, places the focus on the texture and structure.

The finished garment is nearly seamless (there is some grafting at the back of the hood) and, I would say, very knitterly. 

Pattern Details 

Sizes

NB (3 Mo, 6 Mo, 12 Mo, 18 Mo, 2T, 3T, 4T, 5, 6)
Chest Circumference: 18 (19, 19.5, 20.75, 21.75, 21.75, 23, 24.25, 24.5, 25.25)”/ 45.5 (48.5, 49.5, 52.5, 55, 55, 58.5, 61.5, 62, 64) cm”
Sample size 2T, shown on 22-month old w/ sleeves cuffed.

Yarn

4 (4, 4, 5, 6, 6, 7, 7, 8, 8) skeins Quince & Co. Lark in Bird’s Egg [100% American Wool]; 134 yds [123 m] per 50g or approximately 415 (455, 495, 555, 695, 735, 845, 930, 990, 1045) yards of worsted weight yarn.

Purchase

Belacqua is available for purchase via the following methods:

Ravelry  //  Ms. Cleaver Creations  //  Love Knitting 

Design Diary: Lady Heartrose - Grading and Calculations

I've always considered one of my greatest strengths to be the fact that I'm pretty much equally right-brained/left-brained, analytic/artistic, or concrete/creative. 

While it makes me a great utility player, this dichotomy has it pros and cons. When I worked in a primarily creative environment, the highly creative folks pushed me into more administrative positions, but now that I work with primarily analytic people I get to do all the fun wacky creative things. It's been much more rare to find something that scratches both those itches, however.

And then I met knitwear design...

Textiles and drawing and geometry and Excel spreadsheets! When I design a sweater, I get to do it all.

As many designers will tell you, making something in one size is easy (especially if it's your size), making it work across 8-10 sizes? That's the difficult part and the reason why you'll see so many free patterns that are one-size only.  

Grading can be terribly time consuming, but I derive genuine pleasure from a well-designed Excel spreadsheet.At it's most basic, the spreadsheets take the body measurements and translate them to stitch counts based on my swatch, but after 5 years of designing, my template sheets have gotten increasingly complex and sophisticated and I'm pretty pleased with my latest iteration.

My sizing is all based on ASTM International Standards for Body Measurements (from a few years ago), which gives me more confidence in my sizing than when I was mushing it together from various sources.My current version also shows ALL my calculations (See the screenshot for an example), as well as regular confirmations that I'm still on stitch count and within my desiring sizing.

It helps me make sure I'm not missing anything and is a helpful bit of information to have on hand for tech editors and pattern support requests, especially when the latter comes months or years after I released a design. 

At this point is also when I lock down the nitty-gritty of the design details - width of the button band, depth of the ribbing at the sleeves/hem etc. My highly scientific method for determining these? Holding my index finger and thumb apart to what looks like a good width/depth and measuring the space with a ruler, making sure it looks relatively proportional to my sketch. Similarly when it comes to ease, I take a cloth tape measure and myself or a mannequin and see what looks right and matches the sketch. For this pattern, I wanted the hem to be fairly swingy, so there's 7-10 inches of ease at the hips (with the larger amounts at the top of the range). 

 It often feels like overkill to do the full grading before I cast on, but I like my instructions to flow fairly smoothly from one size to the next, so if I have to make a bunch of adjustments to half the sizes, I try to even it out across the size range as much as possible. Of course, that's not to say I won't calculate a portion (like the body) just to be able to cast on - I'm only human after all.

Any questions about the grading process? My favorite Excel formula? The trickiest bit to calculate? Put them in the comments below!

Next up - Sample Knitting!

Design Diary: Lady Heartrose - Swatching

Usually I sketch before I swatch, but in this case, since I worked a little backwards.

The yarn here is Swans Island DK Washable Wool Merino in Malbec. The original child's cardigan was in a hand-dyed fingering weight washable wool from the Woolen Rabbit. For the grown-up version I wanted something with similar properties, but in a slightly larger, more knit-able, scale. For that, the Swans Island was a perfect match, with the Malbec a nice feminine, but grown-up colorway.

[Full disclosure: I had ID'd this as my dream yarn a while back, and then earned access to some  yarn support from Swans Island following the publication of my  Breakwater Pullover].

Unless I know I want a particularly dense or flowy fabric, I generally begin swatching with the needle size indicated on the ball band. The swatches here are done on US 6/4.0 mm and US 7/4.5 mm. I learned to knit on size 7 needles, and as such, I've always had a bit of a soft-spot for them.

While the 7s resulted in a bit looser fabric, the main difference in these swatches is the scale of the cable pattern. The size 6 swatch uses the same cable pattern from the childre's cardigan, while the size 7 swatch doubles the thickness of the rib and cables. 

I gently washed and blocked both swatches (just flattening and not stretching), which is extra important in super-wash yarns, which I've found have a tendency to grow. Then I pinned on various place of my unnamed dress form  to see how it hangs and feels in scale to the body. Unless I'm doing a sample for a publisher, I usually keep the form at my own measurements, which is a 38-39" bust. 

Scale is the key here. If Lady Heartrose was a fall/winter cardigan, I'd go with the thicker version in a heart-beat, but for a spring/summer garment, I want something more delicate, so the thinner cable it is. The size 6 fabric also just looks a bit "cleaner" to me, so size 6 swatch wins overall!

Next up - practical math and complex spreadsheets!! 

Works in Progress

Between the snow and the seemingly never-ending stream of sickness in the Cleaver household, there's been a lot of indoor days. Some with just enough energy to build a fort to "nap" in, others of a more productive sort. 

I finished piecing my quilt top, made my "sandwich" and have begun the actual quilting of my quilt. Huzzah!

I decided to hand-quilt it. I'm enjoying the ever-so handmade nature of my uneven stitches and since there's no deadline to be finished (I started it over 2 years ago after all), there's no need to rush. I haven't done much beyond those few test circles, as my hand-work time (read: evening tv time) has been filled, as it most usually is, with knitting.

I've finished one sample sock for a new pattern (and if you're interested in being a tester, let me know!) and have been working on a number of swatches for all kinds of different designs. I sat yesterday with a stack of stitch dictionaries and post-it notes and came up with at least one idea I really adore for a submission call. I had to tell myself to bind off the swatch because I wanted to keep knitting it.

On days I've been home with LMC, for illness or weekending reasons, she keeps me on my toes- sometimes literally, as she's become very interested in ballet, which to her means yelling BALLET! and doing something akin to an arabesque attitude. I have since taught her to plié as well.

I'm not sure where she picked it up, as the only ballet I can recall showing her prior to this was bits of the nutcracker at Christmas and the occasional SYTYCD clip.But perhaps it stuck as the other day she found and insisted on wearing mommy's "ballet shoes."  Then again it could be something from daycare, as it took me a while to figure out her "ski" impression from school - there's only so much those daily report sheets tell you.

In there anything you've been working on lately?