Buzzing away...

She's done! She's finished!

 

  

  

 

Honeybee Cardigan by Cosmicpluto (Ravelry link)
Materials: Malabrigo Sock in Archangel, 3.75mm circulars - one long one for the body and 30cm circulars for the arms.
Used: 261g 

Size: 42.5"
Mods: No mods, really. A fantastic pattern, and my first bottom up construction cardigan, so I didn't really want to mess with it ;)

Started: 17 October, 2009
Finished: 2 February, 2010 (there was a lot of other knitting in between that!)
Made For: myself!

What a fabulous knit. I really enjoyed this. 

The pattern was easily memorised (I had been stopped by a few people on the train asking about the garment, and they were amazed that I was doing it from memory :). I had the pattern memorised after two repeats in the swatch - it was so intuitive. The first four rows of the lace pattern were the easiest - rows five and six? a little bit more painful. They took almost as long as the first four. 

When I was doing the cap shaping, I put markers where the stitches I needed to decrease were (as in, decrease until there are x stitches remaining, I put two markers where x were, so I didn’t need to keep track of them - I always forget to mark my on my patterns where I'm up to - visual markers are better!)

I did have a little messy hurdle to overcome - my three skeins were all slightly different. To the point where you could see a difference from the outside of the wound ball to the inside of the wound ball. So instead of just rotating the three, I divided them into six balls and rotated the six of them. That was interesting. And then the colours looked different depending on the light. Not just photographing them and them looking different - this photo was taken in the bathroom...

And this one was taken in the computer room: 

I'm still not sure what I will do for colour - I much prefer (and am much more suited!) to the darker, purple toned version! We'll see how it goes. I may still overdye it with a little bit of purple or something. Although I'll be sad to lose the yellow! 

I have just under 30g left of yarn. I was beginning to worry that I’d run out (which would leave me in quite a pickle, seeing we don’t have any of this yarn left at the shop - and Archangel has varied so much between dyelots!) but I have plenty to spare.

I enjoyed using the 30cm circulars for knitting the sleeves - it worked much better than magic looping or double pointed needles due to the difference between the thin yarn and larger than usual needles. I did find when I made my Featherweight, I had ladders on the sleeves due to magic looping laceweight on 4.00mm needles. I've learnt my lesson, and now I am building up a small stock of 30cm Addi circulars. 

Blocking - wow, it grew immensely. It measured just on 12” from bottom of garment to under the arm before I blocked it, and now it measures 16”. Same with the arms - they were just below my elbow before blocking, afterwards they are just hitting my wrists. So I’m glad I didn’t knit any further! And before you ask, yes I did wash and block my swatch. The weight of the garment kinda drags it down in a way ;) 

The buttons are picked from Grans’s button stash. There are a lot of buttons in there that I love, but there were only one or two of them. So I was impressed that I found six of them that suited the garment. They were measured 2” apart… but when I blocked it, they measure more like 3” apart. I don’t think I’ll wear it fully buttoned though.

This is going to be amazingly warm at the shop! I think I see more garments done in Malabrigo sock in my future! (and really, it’s not that expensive. I needed 3 skeins, and that was plenty. And it blocks amazingly, so I didn’t need to knit much ;) (I would have been happy where I’d knitted to, but I’m even happier that the garment is longer!)

She got to have a little glamour shoot at the shop today, so I'll include the beautiful photos taken by Kelly. 

So, the question is... what next!?

Hello there, my friend

Finally, after many months of waiting, I have a sewing machine! No more borrowing off others. No more "oooh if only I had that sewing machine, I could make this!". And most importantly, I have other things to start stashing! muwahhah! ;)

My aunt upgraded her sewing machine, so this one was hers... it's been around a while ;) At least 10, if now 12 years? It's a Janome MyExcel 18W. White. I don't know if it has an instruction manual. Hrm. Should check in box.

Went into Spotlight and picked up two patterns: this cute little puffed sleeved top by McCalls, and this sleeveless number by Butterick. It was interesting picking out patterns, and trying to imagine it in different fabrics. Decided to make the Butterick pattern first, and went and found some fabric. Came home, washed... and then it sat there until the last night Mum was here.

I think I subscribe to the "fly by the seat of my pants" type of sewing. I started doing everything okay, asking Mum questions. But when you measure yourself to see what size you should be making... and then realise you need to make cut out one size in the front, and another size in the back - something your instructor hasn't done before... then it becomes interesting.

We ended up firstly cutting out the 24 in the front, and the 18 in the back... because you can always take it in! I'm 19.5 inches across my back but at the fullest part of my bust, I'm 25 inches, which made the arm holes a bit weird - I still don't think they're right. And I bought the 16-24 pattern, so I had to take the back in to what I think worked out was the 12?

But anyway, I ended up with a wearable garment, which is the important thing! I still need to perfect the attaching of the straps to each other a bit more.

Halfway through sewing this garment, I realised I needed a pin cushion (I also realised I need more pins... the 100 pack I bought really didn't go far enough. Or maybe it was only a 50 pack?). I had a pin cushion pattern saved from almost twelve months ago - On Pins and Needles by Heather Bailey. I didn't actually print this out and follow it... again, flying by the seat of my pants sewing (FBTSOMPS).

I used some fabric I bought ages ago (I have an obsession with buying fat quarters... ), the left over green from my top, some ribbon that I got in the Green Swap from jaffajane88 on the Australian Swappers Ravelry group. The button is very special; it came from my grandmother's button stash. It's such a perfect button, about an inch wide, and so smooth. I couldn't imagine it on a garment, and I think this pin cushion will be sticking around a bit longer than any garment would :)

So, I have another top to sew, and then the Amy Butler Tunic! But first, I need more fabric. And I think this means a trip to Ikea... ;)