Tag: Free

Productivity, 2.

So, I told you about the vests the other day. Are you ready for the second part of the productivity series? (If you’re not, sorry but here it is anyway)

The second part of the series revolves around my second make, a t-shirt. It was made of the stripy knit I bought a while ago (here). I had a t-shirt polo thing that I really liked the shape of, but it had ugly logo’s all over the place (it was free). So I took it apart and traced the pieces.

I cut out the 4(!) pieces on Tuesday. Sewed the shoulder seams and serged them, sewed the sleeves in the flat and serged them and sewed the side seams on Thursday. Figured out how to actually make my serger sew nice seams (and not ruffly things and weird superfluous thread everywhere) on Friday and serged the side seams. I hemmed the sleeves and the bottom and left the last bit to Saturday. Which was cutting out the neckline based on another shirt and sewing a strip along the neckline to finish it nicely.

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Admittedly it took a second try to get it to lie nice and flat, but it worked out in the end. I’m really happy with it, it’s comfortable, stretchy, sits nicely on me, and I love it. I even managed to line up the stripes on the side seams and sleeves. This is the end result:

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My mom wants to have a larger shirt out of the leftovers, but I think I’m just going to make another one for myself, with a deeper V. And I’m definitely keeping those pattern pieces. I love it! Next: the white skirt.

Productivity, 1.

Wow, you wouldn’t believe everything I did today, yesterday and the day before. I’ve made a shirt, 2 vests and a large, large skirt. Now, while I suddenly have done things and therefore could produce more content (and keep myself entertained), I’m going to divide the productivity into 3 parts. To start with the first thing I finished, and the most boring one.

We are again organising a larp event, this time it takes place during the beginning of April. We are introducing some new characters and species of which I helped conceive a few. One of these new species wears a yellow vest (and some other attributes, but I’m not going to spoil that fun, you might learn after April). I found myself in charge of making said yellow vests since I’m pretty much the only one who knows how their sewing machine works.

I couldn’t find any yellow fabric in the town where the event is held. So I went to a local second-hand shop to find some, and I did. It wasn’t too difficult. It was only when I returned home with the loot that I found I had a lot of yellow myself in the stash. However, the “new” stuff was a much better fit for a larp costume. There was not too much of it, which was a shame and had me change my “pattern plan”.

The second-hand shoppe also had patterns for sale, I got four (total price: 1 Euro). 3 dresses and a man’s shirt. The plan was to trace the front and back of the shirt and make the vests from that pattern. I did that, but they didn’t fit on the fabric. I had a night of thinking about it and the next day I decided I would keep it simple. So I cut the fabric in two. The bottom edges were both frayed, but it looked nice so I kept that as the bottom edge. The centre fronts are the selvages (less hemming for me, yay!). I cut out armholes, and some sloped shoulders. Sewed the shoulder seams. Created bias tape out of a bit of fabric from the yellow stuff I still had in the stash. (Thanks Scientific Seamstress for the printable bias tape maker and Jona for the bias tape out of small yardage tutorial!!)

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I laid my bias tape along the edges on the right side, sewed it down, folded it to the wrong side and sewed it down again. The first time round it looked absolutely hideous.  But I decided I didn’t care, although I made the second one much nicer. Well this morning I changed my mind and redid the first one, it now looks like the pictures below, outside and inside. They are really shapeless and quite ugly, but they are supposed to ‘fit’ a wide range of people since we don’t know who will wear them.

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Well this was the first (or first two) project that was finished this weekend. Up next: shirt (of which you might spot a little hint up above).

Update

I’m still knitting, I’ve just turned the heel of the first white sock, and have ‘basted’ together my sweater and am thinking of how to best knit the collar, such that I don’t feel overly exposed and it still looks nice. It fits well, although the sleeves are made for a monkey, and I’m not a monkey. However, if I turn back the ribbing it fits fine (the lazy (wo)man’s solution).

Next to that I’ve been tracing two of my shirts, in order to make them again. Tracing is a cheap way to make a pattern and since you already know how the things fit, it’s easy to change what you want style wise. I’ve even started to figure out how to place the pattern on the bit of stretchy fabric I got a while ago. So I am trying to be productive ‘creatively’, but I find it difficult, to muster up the energy to work after being at school for 8 hours.

For the larp event I am part of I made a pair of enormous pants. I could fit in the one leg, and my friend could fit in the other (it was quite funny). So while I feel fairly useless, I may actually be doing more than I think. Let’s hope I can keep up with doing some work!

Gloves

The office where I now work 9 to 5 on my final thesis, is really quite cold. Especially for my extremities. My hands and feet do not seem to have the ability to heat themselves up out of their own accord. It can be really frustrating, so I’ve found ways to deal with it. Simply put.. Stick another layer on there!

Gloves

So that’s what I did,  I made some gloves to stick over those nasty cold hands. They had to  be fingerless in order to be able to type. The original plan was to just make a flat bit rectangle, sew the sides up and leave a hole in the side for the thumb. I did this before and it worked fine. However, while I was busy, I wanted some interest, so I chose a pattern with ridges and flat bits and decided to rib from the wrist onwards. This turned out fine (although you cannot see the pattern that well, lousy light).

When it came to making them up, sewed up the side seams with a hole in the middle and it just felt.. empty? I cast on an additional 14 stitches times 2, knitted in garter for 3 rows and started decreasing the two sides whenever seemed right. I already attached one side to a glove before the thumb-bit was finished, because I needed to see where to decrease exactly. Sewed up the ‘side seam’ (those 3 rows at the beginning) and attached it further to the glove. Wove in the ends, et voilà! a fingerless glove. Five more minutes, and another one was done! Another project finished, I’m on a roll!

Glove Glove

I also cast on another sock, now in white, with a seed stitch top, haven’t a clue if that’s going to work.. only one way to find out I guess. Keep knitting!

SockS!

Socks

Look at that!

I finished the second sock! And only .. one week after 1 finished the first! Oh I ‘m so proud of myself. I’m currently wearing both of my new makes and am very happy with them. They have only been on my feet for 2 hours, but they haven’t sagged terribly yet, nor have bits come out. They also haven’t been hideously unpleasant to wear. At present I call this a success! Also, it has got me in the mood for more of this easy knitting. It’s a simple project I can easily take with me on the train, 20 minutes still lets me do a couple of rounds and in no time a project is finished.

So here they are in full form. Beware, my legs aren’t really whiter than milk, something with flash and bad for overall colours. Also, it’s really strange to take photos of your feet when you are standing up and bending over (second picture), they have a really weird shape there..

Socks Socks

Oh I’m so proud of my achievement, on to the next.. now with some visual interest please!

 

Sock

I made a sock. It was my second attempt, since with the first attempt I failed to get the gauge correctly. It did fit over my foot, but it was about twice as long when it was not on my foot and therefore I figured that turning the heel might not work very well. So I took some other yarn (the stuff I also used for the cuffs) and created attempt number two. It didn’t take very long to knit it, only 28 stitches in the round so that goes very fast. It’s again blue and very simple, this is the pattern I used (Ravelry).

Sock Sock

Now comes the daunting bit, knitting the other one..

Clearing up

When it was holiday and all, I was trying to avoid doing my homework (I know this doesn’t work, since I have to do it at some point anyway, why not get it over and done with??). My room has seen a lot of clearing up and even my drawers have had a couple of attempts at them. I should now be able to find things in there. However, what I found wandering around those drawers were a lot of business cards that did not have a collection point. I decided with my new found box-making skills, for a present that you will hear about shortly, to make a box for them. The first time I failed because I didn’t take into account that the bottom should be as wide as the side (idiot me), but the second time went fine, and my box now has a proud place in my top drawer. It has quite a lot of space on all sides, to accommodate larger cards and more importantly: more cards, since I’m sure I’ll accumulate some more in the future.

Cards Cards

My Sheep

In the summer of 2010 I worked in an ecological museum with a garden. The owners were two hippies (sorry, there is no other way to describe them), eating ecological peanut butter, sour dough bread and selling biological pizzas. The lady who owned it was wandering around the place, one day, with three sacks of sheep wool. Straight of the sheep. Somehow we got talking about it, and I mentioned that I knitted and was interested in learning how to spin. One of the bags contained leftovers and she gave them to me for free.

Now, admittedly, that bag was left unopened for about those 2.5 years since I received it. The couple of times it was opened, the smell was quite.. interesting?? The past two weeks I did not have to go to school, although I did have some homework I should finish. However, freedom makes you do strange stuff, so instead of the homework, I located the tutorial online (this one) that could tell me what I needed to do with ‘my sheep’, as I have since named it. It said that I should have washed it as soon as I got it, I didn’t of course, but now I decided to tackle the problem. First, one has to remove all the dirty bits (straw etc.), which I did halfheartedly in the first batch, a bit more vigorously in the second batch, and I started on a third batch:

Removing bits

You might wonder why the pictures that will follow have different colour wool in it, that’s because I only remembered making pictures once I had the first load done, and was halfway through the second load.

So you pick out all the bits, and fill the bathtub (our bathtub fills very, very, very slowly  and it needed to be half to 2/3 full of hot, hot water). You then spread the wool in a single layer over the water and push it up and down in the water, careful not to agitate it too much. This ‘first rinse’ results in some really dirty water. Pick the wool out and let it drain. Fill the tub again (this is what makes it take forever to do this in my house) and add some detergent, do the pushing up and down and drain and repeat the process if the water is still icky.

Washing Drain

If you decided you’ve done enough washing because your back is killing you from bending over the bathtub too much, or because it really is clean, it’s time for the rinse. Again fill the bathtub and now add half a cup (whatever that may be) to the water and dump the wet wool in it and push it up and down. Drain it again. Now it’s time for drying. My first batch was small, since I wanted to test it out. I found some chicken wire in the garage, draped it over a laundry basket and spread the wetish wool out over it. The second batch was much larger and since I’d given up because of said back I draped the entire chicken wire mesh over the bathtub to catch the falling droplets.

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I did the washing 2 days ago and it’s been drying since. I should take it down some time soon, since it’s feeling pretty dry. The next step will be ‘carding’ or getting the fibers to align for spinning. I’ve been asking around for hand carders, but they do not seem readily available anymore. (Go figure!) So I need to buy some of the internet and then the next leg of the journey can start!

Someday people, someday I will have my own homespun scarf (I’m not going to bother with a sweater, much too difficult!).

Fish!

I made a fish today!

I had a friend over for a chat and I was trying to re-familiarise her with knitting again. So we both cast on some stitches, some with more difficulty than others and started stitching. I think my needles were to small, because it’s really tight. I started with some rows of stockinette and then decreased on both sides of the row for a couple of rows. I then started increasing again, now only on the knit rows on both sides. Then I did 1 or 2 were I increased every 3rd row. Some rows no in or decreases and then started decreasing again in about the same order. The last 3 stitches were cast of, and I had myself a fish!

It curls up like crazy, I guess I have to do some of the blocking business with it, but my no experience is preventing me from doing that, also I’m too lazy for such a simple fish. Maybe I’ll do it at some time.

Fishy!!!

Fish back Fish front

Fronts Fronts Fronts Fronts Fronts!

Sing the title and you’ll know what I mean. I have finally finished the fronts of my cardigan! Yay!

I know it’s the start of the new year and people tend to make ‘achievement’ lists of the past 366 days, but I refuse to do that. After all, nothing really changed between the 20th of December and now. The passing from the 3rd of January to the 4th is equally special as from the 31st of December to the 1st of January. Maybe I’m wrong. If you want to see what I did this year you can look in Finished projects, it should all be sorted there.

Back to the cardigan. I still need to make the collar thing, which involves picking up and knitting, something I’ve never done before, but youtube is very helpful in this. However, I think I should first iron or press or something, the side on which I need to pick up those stitches, because right now it’s impossible. It doesn’t help that the yarn is black, and I barely see the v’s that I should pick up. I tried and frogged (?) it about 4 times before I gave up and went to sleep. However, in theory I could now put it together and wear it. It should look something like this:

Cardigan

Although it should then be attached together, buttons added, with a collar and without all the loose threads. Still it’s starting to come together and I’m quite happy with it, it seems to fit without being overly enormous on me.

So now onto the collar, I can possibly wear this thing during this winter!