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Restingmotion

  • Cardigan Draft done

    Well I finally finished the pumpkin wool jersey cardigan and it looks beautiful.  I wish I could say I look beautiful in it but the color does nothing for me.  Otherwise, the fabric, the construction and the fit are wonderful and it makes a great set with the matching top.  At the moment it is residing on Matilda, she needs something to wear after all, and it coordinates perfectly with the amber necklace that is stored around her neck as it does not fit in any drawer or box.  This way I don’t have to borrow Matilda’s clothes and I can admire my beautiful workmanship.

    I will never be a fast sewer.  This still took me too long.  I admire people who can whip out several things in a day.  I have to press and consider and look and make sure I am doing the right thing.  I am too mired in thought to become a speedy sewist, but I enjoy the process and I suppose that is what truly matters.

    Even so, I was very distracted and discombobulated when I started; I basically retreated to my sewing room to avoid the general chaos that was errupting around me, and in my fogged state I basted the first sleeve incorrectly, right side of sleeve to wrong side of body.   An unfortunate pairing to say the least.  Luckily I am finally realizing that it really is easier to baste things like sleeves first and then sew them up with final stitches if they work.  Ripping out is much easier.    I think ripping and resewing the sleeve was a calming exercise however and the finishing of the cardigan went much more expeditiously. 

    Matilda is also wearing a lace scarf, which I still have to do a final row of stitching on to finish one seam (I am just to lazy to thread the machine for one six inch seam.  The scarf is a deep plum, almost dark chocolate brown with little flecks of pumpkin, fuschia, teal, plum, and turquoise.  It looks surprisingly good with the pumpkin sweater so I am beginning to think that perhaps I could wear this with the right garments, deep plums perhaps and my navy would look good with this as well.  Something to consider further.  Of course if I do this I will actually have to sew in the shoulder pads and put buttons and buttonholes in the cardigan.  I don’t mind the task I just wasn’t going to waste good buttons on Matilda.

  • Current Knitting

    Am I knitting?  yes, but not as fast as I had anticipated.  I am working on a beautiful fuschia cashmere sweater out of Aiko from Filatura di Crossa, one of the patterns from the Filatura di Crossa Fall 2004 Collection, Diamond Twist Pullover.   I loved the sweatApril2005_001_2er and the yarn, but had not been sure about the colors.  From the tiny sample on the card, I was afraid it might be too bright but Theresa at L’Atelier convinced me that it was more a deep fuschia than a bright one, and encouraged me to get it.  Of course, that was another sale for her, but she has never steered me wrong on a color yet and I am grateful for the suggestion because I love the way this is knitting up.

    Admittedly I naively thought I would finish this sweater in March, and a month is not bad for me for a sweater, but I have not put as much time into as I had hoped.  I cannot honestly say I haven’t had time to knit, just that I have too many things that I want to spend time on and sometimes knitting gets short shrift. At other times I might knit to the exclusion of other activities.   

    I did hope to work on it on the way to and from NYC last night and I did, more on the way down than the way back.  The concert, A Midsummer Nights Dream, at Avery Fisher Hall, was wonderful but long.  It did not end until after 10:30 and we did not make it back to Grand Centeral in time  for the 11:00 train.  By the time we got on the midnight train I was tired, having gotten up at 5:00 AM and I slept for half of the trip.  My sleeping habits have been very funny lately, as have my knitting habits.

  • Linda’s First Sweater

    Linda has been knitting for less than two months now and she can’t believe how relaxing it is to sit in the evening and knit.  She has been very busy, completing a baby sweater for new grandchild Pria, a baby sweater, and is also working on a wonderful alpaca afgan for the family room.  I am impressed.    The problem is that knitting the pieces of the sweater is fun, putting them together is another thing all together.

    I actually don’t mind sewing sweaters together, although you might not believe that considering all the projects I have piled up in the corner here waiting for me to block them and put them together.  I don’t mind the activity, it just takes time and care and I have not had the time, or have not been willing to devote the time, to that activity of late.

    I showed Linda how to block the sweater and why.  We started to steam block it because she wanted to put it together the same day and that did not leave ample time for cold-water blocking.  Then we started sewing it together.  She picked up the technique right away, and understand why.  She just disliked the slow tedious nature of sewing up.  Well, of course, if she continues to hone her skills she will get faster.  But she needs the sweater in a few days to fly out to little Pria’s christening.

    We had a great afternoon and a lot of fun but did not get a lot of sweater sewing done.  Linda thought she would rather pay someone else to assemble the sweater but our telephone calls went unanswered.  In the end I said I could put it together this weekend, which I can.  This won’t become a habit but I am really impressed by how much she is enjoying this and how quickly she is picking up the technique.   She has much more native knitting ability than I did when I was learning.  April2005I really want to encourage her to keep on, not get all bogged up trying to put a sweater together in a rush.

    I decided to reblock the sweater just because her iron did not have much steam and we really did not do that great of a job with it.  I pinned it up yesterday before we went in to NYC.   I can sew it up tonight or tomorrow and she will pick it up on Monday.  Notice how even her stitches appear; it took me a long time to get that comfortable with knitting.

  • Slow Progress

    A little bit of sewing adds a great boost to the day.  I was so encouraged by completeing the marking on my caridgan while making breakfast that I have managed to get up and squeeze in even a few minutes of sewing each day.  It is a great way to start the morning, and even if I am too tired to accomplish more at the end of the day, I am happy to have sewn a little.

    April2005_004

    Yesterday I cut the interfacing and fused it onto the appropriate cardigan pieces.  I really like my new Naomoto iron.  The old Sussman had been faithful and worked very well, but it was very erratic.  Last week it would either come on or not, at seemingly its own whim, and it was very frustrating to work with.  It had been to the sick iron hospital a few times and had been advised that hospice care was all that was required.  I finally bit the bullet and bought a new one, mostly because I was so frustrated at not being able to sew because the iron wouldn’t work.  Apparently Sussman now has trouble filling orders and there have been some problems with the newer irons.  Kathryn at Sewing World had high praises for her new Naomoto so I decided to try that.  Well it is an elegant little iron and it produces a good bit of steam just like my trusty old Sussman.  It is much lighter (the old iron was 8 pounds, this one is 4 , but works just well, probably with less arm fatigue.  The steam button on the handle is much easier to use as well.  Reaching to the left with the thumb to depress the button on the Sussman while pressing was fairly tiring to the thumb metacarpal joint.

    This morning I have sewn the shoulder seams and the side seams on the cardigan.   The next step is to add the band, but I don’t want to do that because I have to press, and I haven’t warmed up the iron.  I thought it would take to long to press this morning as I have to run out to the gym in a few minutes and then to the grocery store.  I might get more done today but it is not likely as we are going into NYC to the symphony tonight.

  • Silk Ribbon

    I Love knitting with ribbon.  You can use large needles and still get a fabric that is light and still quite wearable unlike knitting with bulky or superbuldy wool or cotton, which just turns out huge an heavy and usually unflattering as well.  Sometimes I need a project that goes quickly and yet is wearable and flattering.  How many heavy bulky sweaters does anyone need after all?

    One of my knitting acquaintances feels very strongly that real knitters only knit wool and perhaps cotton or linen, although she hates linen,  and only knit cables and colorwork to add design interest eschewing novelty yarns.  Now I love all those things, cables, intarsia, novelty yarns (at least sometimes).  I love doing color work although it is not as portable as, lets say, a ribbon sweater.  And I love knitting beautiful wool, silk, cotton or linen sweaters on small needles.  I find the finer guages are much easier to wear in this overheated world that I, at least, tend to live in.  But I also love simple shapes out of interesting yarns.  Does that make me not a real knitter?  Perhaps.

    One nice Friday earlier in the year, when Colorful Stitches had their sale, I felt like going up to Lenox.  George felt like going too, which was nice as we made a day of it, stopping for lunch in Hudson and meandering around.  I am very fortunate to have a husband who enjoys the occasional wander through a yarn store.   When we arrived, I immediately started looking at the Rowan yarns and some others which were on sale.  George was taken by a ribbon sweater on display knit in a silk ribbon (not on sale).  He was so enthused I sent him on a mission to find out about the yarn and see if there was any he liked so I could make one (for me of course).  He found this yarn, April2005_003_1 which is a beautiful combination of blues and purples and so it went into the basket.

    I started knitting on the way home.  Unfortunately I did not get much time to work on it the next week or two.  I finished the sweater when we went to Washingto DC for four days the end of February, business trip for George, fun for me.  Who can ask for more, museums, knitting, nice dinners.  hmm…

    And here is the final result revealed:

    April2005_002_1 I Adore this sweater.  The color is wonderful.  It fits closely without being to revealing.  It is light enough that I can wear it under a jacket with a suit but it also looks gret with casual pants or a skirt.  Oh, almost instant gratification is sometimes a wonderful thing!

  • Blanket Finished

    I am posting a photo of a blanket I finally finished at the end of February. I had been waiting for a sunny day to take the photo.    Ignore that little glare of sun in the lower right corner.

    I can’t believe that I lost three months of my life on this, although I am happy to have done it.  George so often finds blankets excessively heavy and when I saw this light merino wool and camel hair brushed yarn I immediately thought of  a blanket.  For the life of me I cannot remember the name of the yarn; I am not good about keeping that kind of record, perhaps a good reason to keep a knitting log.   Due to constraints of colors available and timing, as I naively thought this could be a Christmas present, (I saw the yarn 1 week before Thanksgiving), I knitted individual squares which I planned to join in strips.  It still took me too long and I pretty much put most of my life on hold to knit this.  Most of the strips were knitted by Christmas but I hadn’t joined them together yet.  I ran out of the main yarn and used the original border yarn to double crochet the squares into strips and then together.  On Christmas day it was arrayed on the floor but not fully assembled yet and I needed to purchase new border yarn as I was rapidly running out of the supply.

    Blanket_001_2 It is big enough for both of us on a queen size bed, roughly 88 x 92 inches.  I would never have finished if I had to knit 84 inch long rows, but in planning I forget to think about how I would put it together.  Sitting on the floor and crochetting, then weaving in ends, then sewing on the border was endless tedium.  In fact knitting a 2 inch wide border was not fascinating either, I looked forward to the corners and that little bit of shaping provided by the miter.

    In the end, I love the blanket, it is beautiful and warm and light and just invites snuggling.  George thinks it is gorgeous which is gratifying except that he wanted to leave it on the floor so that everyone can see it.  No way I want people traipsing over this lovingly but loosely knit blanket.

  • Stolen Moments

    For once, using the kitchen island as my cutting table paid off as I sureptitously used tracing paper and copied the stitching lines to my new cardigan as I made breakfast this morning. 

    I cut a new cardigan last night, using Nancy Erickson’s 1960 pattern and a beautiful pumpkin-rust colored wool jersey, which although nice, is not one of my better colors.  I have made this pattern before, but not recently.  I did lay out my newly altered top pattern underneath it and decided that I don’t need major alterations although this may be wishful thinking.  Since I used to cut on the cutting line and not mark stitching lines, I just cut the pattern as is, after making a few alterations to accomodate the changes in my figure over the past couple of years.  MISTAKE.

    Since I have been doing more pattern alteration and learning to redesign patterns to accomodate my my twisted, rodded and fused body, (no issues here) I have been cutting off the seam allowances on patterns and drawing the stitching lines directly on the fabric.  This has been a great improvement in ease of alteration and even sewing although I would occasionally grumble about the time it took.  This time I didn’t do that but almost immediately regretted it.  I decided that I like seeing the stiching lines, they were good reference points.  I also learned that tracing them after the fact, using a tracing wheel and tracing paper is a pain and not necessarily very accurate unless one is VERY CAREFUL.  Last night I was too tired and went to bed figuring that I would just sew blind, based on seam allowances, as I used to do.

    This morning I saw the neatly stacked pattern pieces on the island and thought, "aha! I can do this while I cook breakfast".  Luckily George asked for hot cereal, a menu that I can easily work around.  I put the water on to boil, traced a couple of pieces, added the cereal and stirred, did more tracing, and so on.  By the time the dear wandered down for breakfast everything was stacked back up just as I left it last night and I was putting the cereal on the table.  He was none the wiser except for noting that the cereal was a little thicker than usual.  Was I distracted or what??

    Hopefully I can sew this up today, but even if I don’t manage that, at least I managed to sneak in a little sewing time.