Ok, so maybe we'll call it "You KNIT girl!"...



There has indeed been sewing and pattern-writing going on here, including a secret project and a new pattern, but there's nothing ready to show here yet.

 

Instead, here are more photos of me swanning about in dodgey home-made knitwear.

 

 

 I actually finished sewing this one together on the plane to the USA in May, and have worn it a lot since, but I only photographed it today.  It began back here....

 

The pattern is a tweaked and improvised version of Teresa Dair's "Mayhem Jacket" from her fabulous Spring/Summer Knitting eBook. 

 

This one is made in a combination of a 6-ply tencel/acrylic blend and some laceweight wool, which I happened to have in exactly the same colour (methinks I like that shade of red).  I wanted to rough up the texture a bit and make it look truly desconstructed.

You can twist it around a few different ways, wear half of it inside out....

 

 

It's amazing, when you think you're being really interesting and arty and stylish, wearing a cardigan with a fascinating twist in the back...

 

 

 

...just how many people will tell you that you've got your cardigan all twisted up at the back.

 

I think I also blogged the beginning of this one (yarn-winding two shades of blue together).  I machine-knitted a few huge rectangles and then took about a month to sew them together.  Yesterday, I felted my new favourite jumper....

 

I also remembered to photograph the purple in my hair before it fades again.

 

This is not a knitting blog...

 ..and yet... here you see more knittery.

Between revamping beret patterns, I've used the knitting machine as think-music.  Without a map ( I never take notes) I tried to remake the red jumper (sweater) that I accidentally destroyed a few weeks ago. The original was an improvised version of Teresa Dair's Vaganza, from her book "I Knitted My Way".

 

There were a few minor...errr... quirks... in the sleeve and tail departments.

Which means that the optional split or knot detail is limited to knots....

 ...which is actually quite fine and comfy.

The longer tail works well when worn in the "shrug" variation... (it's a tad Matador, don't you think?).

 

 ...and the back, with its sometimes-neckline-sometimes-back-detail works just fine.

Quirks and all, I've been living in it.  Melbourne has turned COLD!

 

Winter Warmers

It's winter ...and I'm loving the layering opportunities that winter provides.  Too much is never enough, I say.

 

Sock yarn from Spotlight for $4 a (big) ball inspired a bit of machine knittery.  

 

 

There was then a mad dash back to Spotlight when there wasn't enough yarn purchased to make the sleeves....

 

Enter black merino, also on sale for $4 a (small) ball. 

 

Those natty suits that the character Bel swanned about in in The Hour inspired a deconstructed version of the little belted cardi. 

 

 

...forgetting, of course, that I am not a statuesque, hourglass-figured beauty in impossibly high heels. 

 

 My belted cardi is better-suited to comfy-womfy studio wear than to glamourous swanning about.

 

In this yarn, I like the reverse side of the stockingette stitch better, so I seamed it from the knit side and it's now reversible... and very deconstructed. 

 

And it can be beltless.. pinless.... whatever it wants to be.

It's basically 4 rectangles with a little bit of simple shaping (casting off a stitch per row) on the shoulder seams of the front and back pieces.

The pattern was made up on the fly at the machine and (you'd think I'd learn) no notes were taken about stitch or row count, or tension... or anything.  The sleeves are a tad long, but add to the comfy-womfy factor.  The rest of the fit is fine. 

I'll never be able to repeat it.

Ho hum.

In other wintery news, I've spent the last week revamping my beret and kids beret patterns as downloadable pdfs. 

Each pattern has 3 head sizes, with 3 crown depths for each size.  That's actually 9 beret patterns per pattern. 



 You can see the original blog posts (with much younger me and much wee-er wee girl) here and here. 

Hope you're keeping cosy if you're in these wintery parts.... or enjoying summer elsewhere!

The landing, the follow-up and the looking forward...

 

I've unpacked the bags. including the treasures from my little shopping spree at Bolt Fabrics in Portland.

 

I've woven in the ends on the finished aircraft-craft (I took a crochet hook on board, rather than the potentially confiscatible deadly-sharp-instrument knitting needles).  This is a Boteh Scarf - an old favourite - made in Bamboozle (bamboo/wool blend) yarn.

 



Since my body clock never fully adjusted to American time, I haven't had much of a problem with jet-lag on my return, but I must say that I'm not yet running on full power (definitely feeling more Reliant Robin than Porsche this week). 

 

There have been early nights (like... 9pm!!) and there has been machine knitting.   

 

 A fabric shaving accident (removing pilling) on my favourite red jumper (sweater) means that I'm in the market for a new red jumper.  (I have since felted the original, to be recycled into something fabulous at a later date).

Unfortunately I kept no records of how I constructed the first version, and I've run out of one of the shades of red yarn... halfway through knitting the replacement.  I'll be interested to see how this one finishes up.... So far, it's still a work-in-progress.  (It may yet be turned into felted wool fabric... to be turned into something fabulous at a later date....)

 

 Unlike the smallest of the YOU SEW GIRL crew, who sat down at the sewing machine the very minute we walked in after 30-zillion hours of airports and air-travel, I haven't sewn anything new since we returned from America.

 

I've been following up emails, writing proposals for future work and thinking about classes and workshops.  The editing process has also begun on the new book.

 

Life and work go on.

 

I've also decided to add a couple of new zipper methods to the repertoire in the Zippers For Bags workshop. Even if you've done the workshop before, you can do it again, with a few more techniques to choose from (and I have a few more notes to write for classroom handouts).

 

We're revamping a few old designs as pdf patterns and cooking up a few new ideas to add to the You Sew Girl range.

 

I'm a bit excited that there are now US-based stockists of YOU SEW GIRL patterns.  Over the next week, we'll be updating links and letting you know where you can find them.  Watch this space!

 

 

Away from it all

I'm just back from a few fabulous days away with old friends. 

Kid-free.

Work-free.

Almost internet-free.

A tonic. 

A de-fragging programme for my poor old brain.

 Of course, there was outdoor machine-knitting.

 And trying to make sense of my friend Bella's new aquisition...

 She does amazing things like knitting garden twine.  (She's the sort of girl who usually weaves trees and vines.  This is small, delicate work for her.)

There was a shifting population of friends coming and going, and there was a lot of sitting on verandahs with beers (them) and crochet (me). 

(The rum wasn't mine, either.)

 

I've been looking at this yarn and this pattern for months, and finally had the headspace to start it.

Bella worked with more rustic materials...

...and this fantastic old book, with its amazing hand-drawn how-to diagrams.

Bella and I were hopelessly outnumbered by menfolk, so we sat around doing our textile crafts, while they cooked for us.

 

Theses were almost written about the best way to cook eggs on a barbeque, as 5 blokes prepared the breakfast of the century.

Simple adaptions to the tools in the rustic kitchen were fashioned when only home-made mayonnaise would do.

There was the serene art of yabbying in the dam.

And possibly too many yabbying experts on the job.

And there was me... yabbying while simulataneously wrecking my wildly inappropriate soft leather boots.

 Rupert, the dog, was fetching anything fetchable.

 And there was much feasting.

A mid-morning Bloody Mary tradition was firmly established.  (Insert menfolk, discussing the merits of different brands of tomato juice and balances of lemon to tabasco...)

 Most importantly, there was fine, fine company, and lots of time to relax and enjoy it. 

Now, it's back to life, work and reality....

Multi-faceted weekend

This past weekend was full of many things, including yarny faces... but more of that later.  Lets go chronologically.

 There was the big decision to crochet the last precious skein of the hand-painted linen yarn into something wearable for summer.  There was the use of a swift (and almost eight hours less untangling than last time) and the winding of a big, beautiful ball... which I think I'll just look at for a bit longer, before working with it.

The rest of Friday evening was spent unpicking dodgey seams, ripping out knitting and re-winding the blue dress into many small balls of yarn (from whence it came).  The dress was so very nearly right, but far from perfect.  I'm going to rework it, and hope that this time I get it closer to just right.

Saturday was hat-making day, which is always fun.  Thanks ladies for a lovely day. (And I hope that you three interstate gals made it back safe and sound.)

Saturday night was party night  - two birthday do's in two separate parts of town.  Lots of friends from different parts of life and lots of discovering the 3 degrees of separation that seem to divide all of us.

 

And despite getting home at a reasonable (read: embarrassingly early) hour, I still managed to have a fantastically long sleep in on Sunday.

 

 
Melbourne turned on one of those glorious spring days that it does so very well.  Blue, blue, blue sky..... perfect cycling weather. 

It was also perfect yarn-bombing weather.

The spirit of the crafting community, and the community of Brunswick shone as brightly as the beautiful yarny blooms.... It's a beautiful memorial for a beautiful young life cut tragically short.

 

 (Ahem... and yes, that would be the Irish tricolour that my girl  and I machine-knitted, up there with the flowers).

Then the afternon slid into a full appreciation of the world's most livable city and old, much-loved friends.  Walks in the sunshine and long, lingering, late lunchy sort of beer-garden behaviour...

 ..which crusied into an evening with different old and much-loved friends and another beer garden...

 

And in between all this, I kept coming back to the blue dress.... Mark II.

 

 New and improved, I hope.

I woke to a Monday morning of things going horribly pear-shaped and inconvenient and generally, pretty annoying.  I'm trying to think of all the lovely weekend memories to help me sail on through the week.