Unfinished – Page 3 – Hopefully Creative

New Project

I’ve got holiday right now, a break from school, which means that until I find a summer job, I’ve got a lot of free time on my hands. So I decided, it’s time for a new project! I was looking around the internets and found this. Another vintage, uploaded, free knitting pattern by the wonderful Liz of zilredloh.com. I decided that, taking into account the time it took me to finish the last one, I should start another cardigan now so I could possibly wear it this winter.

So on to the window pane cardigan, although I’ve made some changes. I fail to knit at the correct gauge thingy so I’m just knitting at my normal gauge and hope it fits, the last one I made was with more stitches and way to big, so I hope that this one with less stitches but the same yarn will fit better. Also, I’ve omitted the vertical lines and made the contrast colour two rows instead of one. I’m not sure what to do with the collar, I might omit it or modify it, but I don’t particularly like the one on the picture.

I have finished the complete back panel and the ribbing and one pattern on the sleeves since I started 2 or 3 weeks ago. I found during my last cardigan that I hate knitting sleeves last because I think that the thing is already almost wearable. This time I opted to do the back and then the sleeves and wait with the fronts, because they are the most exiting (I think). Anyway, this is my progress:

What you see is the yarn in the left top and bottom corner (a white and a black one); to the right in the middle, the sleeves to be, at the top the printed pattern and the second black yarn and to the right the completed back panel. I know it’s long enough, I’ll have to wait to find out if it is wide enough too.

So the only thing to do now is finish it. I think I should set a deadline .. eh .. what would be reasonable. October. I think I’ll try to finish this thing before October, that should be attainable, right? Right?

Well I’m off to knit me some more sleeve!

Knitting, even further continued..

I’ve finished my first sleeve! And started on the second, I’ve even got proof!

Cool, right. Well it’s cool on my left side, since there is no sleeve there yet. However, I started the second one already, so maybe I’ll really be able to wear this thing this year.

I know the ‘closure’ of this thing is a bit strange.. I just poked a knitting needle through the front so it could close. I also have not finalised the setting of the sleeve yet, I’m not completely happy with how it fits right now, but I’m sure I’ll manage something in the end. I think it’ll also be easier to do in the end.

I’m now at line 19 of the stockinette, there’s 100 to go in the body of the sleeve. Then a lot of lines to get the round shoulder bit, 52 to be exact. Putting it all together, attaching buttons and button loops and it should be finished and I have a new cardigan!

The skirt was another one of the projects, I do actually wear it sometimes. I quite like it with the two zippers, that you won’t be able to see in the picture, but are there.

Sleeves

I’m still busy knitting my way through two sleeves. I haven’t actually started the second one still working on the first. The pattern calls for knitting until the sleeve measures 14 inches and then start casting off stitches to form the sleeve head. However, this would make the sleeves 3/4 length at best. I hate (with a passion) 3/4 sleeves. I always push them up because they are too long to be normal t-shirt sleeves, and too short to pull them down, and then I have cold arms. So I’ve decided to knit for a bit longer, so they just touch my wrists. I hope it will work, and I don’t ruin the thing. There is now so much time in this cardigan that that would be a real shame.

Here is the sleeve.

Knitting (cont.)

More knitting has been going on. I’m really starting to see progress! I now have the two fronts and the back finished. Although I’ve been laughed at for making such small ribbing sections I can now prove everyone wrong. IT DOES FIT AROUND ME!!!

I know this because I put the body together, just to see if it would work, and it does. *does a little dance* Ok, it might at present look like a creepy blue sack with armholes that curl in on themselves, but I don’t care, I have knitted a body and I did it within 2 years, actually maybe even within 1 year! I’ve now started on one of the sleeves and have knitted about 3.5 inches of ribbing (this pattern measures things in inches. I’m so used to cm that I have difficulty guesstimating how far along I am in inches. So I’m very happy to have some trusty cm on one side/ inch on the other side – tape measures, they sure help a lot), maybe this cardigan will be done before the end of the world in December.

Anyways, I took some pictures to show, disregard the hair pins keeping the thing closed on the last picture (quick solution), the threads hanging off on all sides (I’m afraid to cut them yet) and it really is a very nice dark blue, which does not really come out very well in these pictures.

Knitting

Remember I once told you about a sweater I was knitting? There has actually been some progress in the last weeks. I’ve been going to school by train, as usual, and normally I read a book. When we were on holiday in France, my brother had the Harry Potter books on his mp3-player read aloud by Stephen Fry (!!!). When I came back, I figured that would be a brilliant idea, so I found them and put them on mine too. However, when listening to a book, it is difficult to do something else… except knitting! It’s so repetitive and simple that I can listen and knit at the same time! So now I’ve not only finished the back of the cardigan, also the left front bit is finished and I’m partly through the ribbing on the bottom on the right bit. It going very slow, but relatively steady, and maybe I can wear my cardigan in 2012!

I have had people look at me funny whilst I was knitting in the train. One old man was staring at me and saying to another man: woah, you don’t see that often anymore. And generally people look a bit confused when I pull out my needles and start knitting. This might also be due to my very strange technique of holding the needles, but I’ll just ignore that for now. I still really like the dark blue colour.

Productivity!

Friday at quarter past eleven, my vacation started. And so did a productive streak that continued until a couple of hours ago. The second semester of university finished on Friday after handing in the last assignment. I decided I wanted to make something. I found a free t shirt pattern on ‘3 Hours Past the Edge of the World’ and decided I wanted to sew a knit for the first time. There was this piece of light be knitted stuff (very see through) in my stash, and since I did not care much for it, I figured I could use it to test the pattern.

Here is the result:

Changes for next time? Yes, add length, find a less see through fabric, tighten it a bunch and cut the neckband in one piece (this is recommended, but I has scrap pieces that just fit the front and the back). I felt the sleeves were also to wide, but I also had a wrong fabric for the pattern I think. Ah well, it was good practice, and I enjoyed myself. Although I doubt I’ll wear it often as it is so short.

So I printed and taped the pattern together, cut the fabric and sewed the left shoulder seam on Friday, and finished the shirt on Saturday, which I was pretty excited about. The productivity streak continued. I designed a pouch for my mp3-player to replace the enormous not fitting one I made before the holiday in France. Then I put it together using scraps from a coat project. It looks a bit weird but I think it should do the trick.

Here it is:

Lastly I decided to tackle my box of UFPs, I have this long black almost floor length dress (because I didn’t have enough fabric it’s about a cm of the floor without shoes), with a grey bust bit, that has never been finished. I ripped out the zipper, because it was too small, and am trying to get it to fit me better, which is difficult with the zipper being on my back and me not actually being able to see it. So I’ve left that be for now. It will be tackled soon (I hope). (I tried to take a picture, but it was just wrinkles:)

The weird white looking bit on the right is the attachment of the grey fabric. I’m debating attaching long grey ties to make a bow in the back.. once I figure out how to get it to zip up nicely of course. The quest continues for the perfect back.

Adjusting

I’ve started school the 5th of September. It’s taking a bit of adjusting. Not just the ‘getting up at 7 o’clock in the morning’ is making my life way sleepier, also the incredible amounts of reading I’m supposed to do make my eyes all droopy. All the reading has also lead to limited amount of crafty time. I’ve done a few things, salvaged the top of my wannabe pant suit thing, and made it into an unfinished dress. Only hem and straps left though, I planned to do that Saturday, then I fell and hurt my ankle so I didn’t. The ankle is almost fine now though (yay!). And I’ve been knitting a cardigan.

I quite like knitting. However, I’m not very good at it, nor am I very quick. So starting quite some time ago, I’ve now managed about 22 cm of the back panel. I’m guessing that’s 2/5 of the back panel finished. Which means there’s still a heck of a lot to do before I can actually wear it. But slow progress is still progress right? Ok, writing this was my break from reading, back to chapter 5!

Bag Progress

I have been making a little progress on my mouse bag, it’s now bag-shaped (yay!).

You might be able to see that the zipper does not reach from one end to the other, but from the right to bit over halfway to the left. This is because a) I couldn’t find a long enough zipper, b) was too lazy to go to town and get one and c) thought it was quite handy. You might think, why.. why Luus would you think that that would be handy?? Well the answer to that question is that there’s a little pouch for my mobile phone to the left. And no zipper equals easy access. And room for a snap. So ok, maybe it’s not super handy but I like it. In the meantime I have also worked on the strap, I did some embroidery. Cheese, a bee (don’t ask me why), a Dutch proverb and another mouse. The proverb literally translates as when the cat is away from home, the mice dance on the table. However, there is an English proverb that means approximately the same: when the cat’s away the mice will play. I figured since there were mice on the bag, the proverb would be a nice touch.

It’s still not done, since it needs to close and the strap needs to be attached. I’ve thought of a way to attach the strap, by attaching one end and making the other end movable with buttons. I’m not sure if that will work though, but this is what it would possibly look like.

I’m wondering if I need to add another bit of fabric to the bottom of the flap (possibly the red, or the yellow (not the orange since the strap is also orange even if the pictures don’t show it very well). Which would mean the buttons would go about 3 cm further down. The left side would be where the strap can be adjusted by buttoning the strap further down or up. So I hope I’ll finish it next week since school starts next week. I’m a tad scared for that. But at least I can impress them with my monster bag (link).

More Bags

While I was on the subject of bags the previous post. I remembered just now that I have another bag in the process of making. The other day I found a vintage pattern for a sampler in the vintage embroidery patterns Flickr (link). I really like the mouse, the cat, not so much. I had some strips of fabric leftover from previous projects and decided to make them into a bag. I embroidered the mouse on the widest strip I could find, later I plan to attach all the strips together and make them into a bag. But I haven’t gotten that far yet. As of right now they are just strips with a little mouse on one of them. Here’s the mouse:

Left is the mouse, right is the mouse with a reference length (about 3-4 cm I’d say). I personally thinks it’s really cute and awesome. Now just have to finish the bag. I hope I’ll do that soon.

Inspiration There, Energy Gone

I have so many ideas for fun things, and I haven’t finished any these past couple of weeks. It’s starting to be depressing. I started a purple pant suit, and gave up not very long after I started it. I think the pant bit is reasonably ok (although it sort of itches), but I cannot seem to figure out how to do the top bit. So I gave up. Giving up has been very easy. I’m just not feeling it, at all. And I don’t know why exactly. So that is annoying me too.

I also started on the dress from the vintage pattern. Completely messed up the instructions as usual (didn’t read them carefully) but eventually that worked out fine. Except.. I don’t have big enough boobs, or my waist is not small enough, I don’t know yet. And since I don’t have a dress form, I need to fit on myself, and with nobody around to help me I just don’t get around doing it. I just don’t feel like it at all.

I’ve even stopped baking things, there’s nobody here to eat them so why would I. They’d just go to waste. However, I did do some creative things over the past weeks. I tried to draw the same picture as a person from deviantart (phobs) in his -lady in the shawl- drawing. Here it is:

I know the head isn’t right, but I quite like the rest (ok I got fed up with the skirt wrinkles, so I just doodled). I cannot draw from inspiration, I can only draw from example. This is one of them, I don’t do it regularly but since my failure to do creative things at the moment is mostly concerning sewing, I thought drawing might be a good alternative.

Maybe I’ll try a little simple skirt in a minute. Just to get my ‘finish it’-mood back on again.

Tag: Unfinished