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Restingmotion

  • Kingfisher Sweater

    Serendipity is such a wonderful thing.  When I picked my knitting project for my Amazon cruise, I had no idea how appropriate it would be, I only wanted to knit something with color that wasn’t wool.   I quickly realized, as we went out in zodiacs looking at birds, that my Stacy Charles Venus sweater was turning out to be knitted in the colors of the Amazon Kingfisher.  Actually it is probably a combination of the colors of several of the species of Kingfisher that live in the Amazon (four I think), and so I have christened it my Kingfisher Sweater, shown here on the blocking board:
    Knitting2005_007

    Actually it is not completely knitted up.  I realized about 3/4 through the first sleeve that I was not going to have enough yarn and that I would be about 1/2 skein short on the second sleeve so I became discouraged and slowed down on the knitting.  Luckily I found a book in English in the Sao Paolo airport to help me survive the trip home. 

    Usually I purchase extra yarn for most sweaters because I am somewhat tall at 5’9" and usually end up lengthening sweater patterns.  Usually buying the yarn for the largest size works, but not always, so I confirm this by calculating the square inches of the sweater as designed and again as I wish to knit it and then I calculate the yarn needed, preferably with a little slop. 

    Luckily this yarn had just arrived a couple of weeks before I left on the trip so I called Theresa at L’Atelier this afternoon and she is winging the extra yarn to me.   

    I can’t wait to wear this sweater this spring.  I know it will remind me of my trip for a long time.  Sometimes I think I remember more of my adventures by looking at and wearing the sweaters knitted during each vacation than I do by looking at the photos.

  • Peruvian Textiles

    Here are two photos of Peruvian Textiles from the Natural History Museum in Lima.  They were in glass cases in a dark room and this has limited the quality of my very amateur photography.

    You can click to see the details (hopefully)Amazon_005. 

    Amazon_006

    The first one is embroidery and weaving and the second is woven.

  • Sewing Resolutions!

    1.  Never sew when you are very tired.

    2.  Never try to sew something in a big hurry at the last minute.

    3.  Never sew when you are very distracted by familial craziness or other intrusions by "real life".

    NEVER SEW WHEN ALL THREE ARE GOING ON AT ONCE.

    The blue linen pants are fine.  There is no biasing.  I must have been standing very crooked that day. (I vaguely recall that my back was really sore for a couple of days, but now that I have relaxed on vacation that recollection seems so distant as to be lost in a fog somewhere).  I certainly refuse to sew for the crooked days, until they become the majority at least.

    If I ever have time to sew again, I will pick up where I left off and finish the pants.  Thank goodness I did not trash them (but I might have trashed the lining, who can remember these things?)  Meanwhile, the problem with vacation is all the piles of things that lie waiting for your return.

  • Biased

    No linen pants, alas!  They fit beautifully through the waist, upper hip and crotch; in short they fit very well from the crotch line up.  I thought the biasing problem on my side seams would be fixed automatically by fixing the top of the pant.  A naive thought at best.  If anything the biasing is worse.  I think I see why however and it can be partly predicted by the curve of the waistline (see patterns).  On previous pants the pant itself did not sit properly on my waist or hip so the fabric of the pant would kind of slip around so that the leg seam did not appear as biased as it may have been, but the hips or waist would pull or pucker on one side or the other.   Now with the hip straight and the side and center seams vertical and well fitting, the pants hang more crooked.  The grain is straight at each leg but the leg does not come off the hip at the right angle for it to hang straight.    I might be trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

    I can see I am going to have to work on this further, and my preliminary analysis may or may not be accurate.  The advantage to the one seam pants is there is no side seam to analyze so if the pants hang crooked who would know.  When I made striped one-seams, I ended up taking very strange looking curved, hooked, and almost horizontal darts in places to get the stripes to hang straight.  I never worried about this figuring that getting it to look good was the important part, not how I got there.

    Well the whole process will have to wait two weeks for my return from the Amazon Cruise.   All I can think is that when this whole process is over I will have a much better understanding of patterns and drafting and my own body.  I may never be able to sew for regular people again.

    Byoc

    Here is a picture of the projects that await my return:

  • Off to Amazonas

    No more knitting posts for two weeks while I tour the Amazon. 

  • The fickle knitter

    I have failed in my attempt at monogamous knitting.  So much for good intentions.  After finishing the back of the Aiko sweater I could not get myself motivated for the front.  I love the sweater and love the yarn but am too tempted by other things right now.  Besides am I going to be wearing cashmere in the near future?  I hope not.

    I finally ripped out the entire front;  all 3 inches of it — as you can tell I had not gotten far.  My heart wasn’t really in it.  It took me several tries at casting on.  Even then, I couldn’t keep the pattern straight and it is a simple pattern, I kept dropping stitches in the middle of crosses.  No fun. 

    Still I hated the thought of starting something just to abandon it for two weeks after only a couple of rows or inches (if I am lucky).  So I tackled the unfinished sweater pile.

    First I finished this:

    Knitting2005_001 

    I actually knit this in April 2003 on a trip to Knoxville and Hilton Head.  We met Rich who is now my step-son-in-law on that trip.  I never meant for the sweater to sit before I knit it up.  In fact I wanted to wear it.  But I came home from the trip and threw the bag with the completely knitted but unblocked sweater  in a box and forgot about it.  Then I bought more yarn and threw that on top of the sweater in the box, and well, you know what happened next, it was totally lost.  Recently in trying to make some order out of chaos, I unearthed this sweater.  It was pretty easy to finish as it was knit all of a piece.  This photo shows the neckline unfinished, as the pattern recommended, but I couldn’t accept that.  I have knit a little rolled stockingette band.  The photo with the neckband did not come out as well as this one though so you will  just have to imagine it.

    I also got a sweater on the blocking board:

    Knitting2005_003

    This is a duplicate of a top I knit a few years ago.  The original was a favorite and this summer I got a big pink stain on the middle of the chest (beets perhaps?).  I really couldn’t imagine my summer without the sweater so I knit another one last fall, in September actually.  The pattern was from Vogue Knitting, Spring Summer 2000 and was knit in a Adrienne Vittadini yarn, Miranda.  The new version was knit in Elena by Filatura di Crossa and I actually think I like this better.  The guage is actually the same but the sweater is lighter and scrunchier.  I am looking forward to wearing it.

  • Ziplexia

    Ziplexia:  one of the many forms of dyslexia in which the afflicted person is incapable of figuring out which way to install an invisible zipper so that the outside of the zipper is lined up on the outside of the pants.

    As you may be able to surmise, no pants have been sewn.  Both pairs are still stacked neatly on the end of the ironing board smiling expectantly every time I walk into the sewing room.  We still hope that construction is in their immediate future although given the time constraints they may remain in limbo, neither pant nor mere fabric for some time.

    Yesterday I attempted to start the linen pants and lined up the invisible zipper, put in the zipper foot and started to sew.  Four stitches later my lovely Bernina stopped and flashed me a very ominous message "main motor failed, check hook system".  It didn’t sound good but I did find the appropriate action in the manual and I cleaned and lubricated the hook.  Still the sewing machine did not work.  Same message.  I see that the nice Bernina will be going to the hospital on Monday.

    I set up the Elna and promptly sewed in the invisible zipper, upside down.  This is not unusual.  I have put in how many invisible zippers over the years, hundreds? Thousands?  I have probably put 90 % of them in backwards before gettting them right. 

    I can only assume that my general zipper failure is related to my mild variant of dyslexia where I have trouble telling right from left.  In order to say "turn right" I have to first look at my hands and figure out which is my right hand so that I know I am saying to turn the correct direction.  Unfortunately zippers are not this simple.  I can’t look at my hands.  I do look at the fabric; I look at the zipper; I put them together and imagine zipping up the zipper; then I sew it in backwards.  Yesterday, between the sewing machine and the zipper I decided that the goddess of sewing was not smiling on me and moved on to other things.

    Today, I have sewn the zipper in backwards, twice.  How can I do that you ask?  Once, yes, take it out, turn it over and it should work.  Not so.  Who can tell how my twisted mind works.  Well I am ready to keep trying.  Three’s a charm they say.

  • Square silk top

    I went into Chico’s to look for a funky belt to go with my new knits and while I was there I fell in love with this silk top.  Actually I am not sure if it is meant to be a top or a wrap, but since it has to be pulled over the head, I tend to think of it as a top:

    Squaretop3 It is really just a simple square of silk chiffon and would be very easy to make.  I bought this one because I LOVE the fabric and it coordinates perfectly with everything I am taking on a trip to Brazil next week.  This would be great over a swimsuit with some cute casual pants by the pool and it also just solved an entire formal dinner dilemna.   Well, to dinner I would obviously have to wear a tee or tank under it.

    I think I might even have a piece of chiffon or two, originally meant for other things, that will get transformed into something similar.

    The top is a rectange of fabric folded in half with the fold at the shoulders.  An opening is cut for the neck; I would think I could just copy one from another pattern. The fabric is turned over in a narrow seam and topstitched.  The bottom of the rectangle has a narrow topstitched hem.  The sleeve openings are a little more than 1/3 of the length of finished top, although that could be easily varied for individual preferences.  After the sleeve openings were finished with a narrow hem, the side openings were french seamed closed.

    Very simple really.

    Squaretop4

    The bottom fringes are sewn on individually.  Each one consists of 6 strands of shiny rayon thread in a heavier weight, about 13 inches long.  They were obviously threaded through the hem of the fabric, so the needle must have a big enough eye to hold the thread but a sharp enough point to pierce the silk, pulled half-way through, and then knotted in place leaving about a 6 inch tassel.  On my top the tassels are spaced 5/8 inch apart.

  • I cut two more pairs of pants today, the periwinkle linen, and the blue silk. I used a blue grey lining for the linen, it seemed to be a nicer pairing than a matching bemberg and I think the slightly darker color will add opacity and a depth to the color in the sun.   I really like my newly adopted technique of cutting the seam allowances off the pattern and tracing the sewing lines directly onto the fabric.  Even working with bemberg rayon and silk was a pleasure as I could see exactly what I was doing and the fabric wasn’t slipping around as I cut.   I think my cutting was more accurate than it has ever been.

    After cutting and hemming the chinos,  I had to at least gather clothes together for the trip, so I have spent the time packing.  Here I am all ready to go:

    Byoc_003 I am wearing the Nancy Erickson sweater set and the one-seam pants.  The other parts of the collection are in the BYOC photo album.

    I have enough clothes so I don’t need the linen pants but I would like them.  It is quite possible that I will finish them before we go and I don’t think I will be hitting up against the weight limit, but I don’t know for sure yet (don’t have toiletries and camera gear packed yet).  Packing has to take priority now.

  • Fabric Prep

    I finished pressing and prepping all my fabric last night.  Now everything is ready to cut and sew and the patterns are ready as well.  I have changed my mind again about the linen pants, I think I will just make a separate lining.  That is so fast and easy I see no reason to mess with a different technique.

    I also washed the aqua pebble weave knit.  This piece did not have the same biasing problem that the periwinkle pebble weave had.  That piece must have been an aberration, but at least it worked out.