Summer Sweater KAL Sunshower

I'm happy to report that I've got one finished object done for the Very Shannon Summer Sweater Knit Along.  The KAL was to officially end yesterday, but it looks like most everyone voted for a two week extension, which is all kinds of awesome, because it means there's a good chance I'll get to finish my second sweater before the actual deadline!  Whoot! Whoot!

The purpose of the summer sweater knit along is to keep knitting through the hot months of the summer so that you have a shiny new something ready to wear come the cooler temperatures of fall.  It turns out that finished project number one for me goes with absolutely nothing in my fall wardrobe, but no less than four dresses in my summer wardrobe.  Ooops!  But that's ok.  My fall wardrobe needs some boosting up anyways.  I'm sure I'll come up with something that will work with my new bright red Sunshower cardi!

(as an aside... I'm looking for inspiration in the fall sewing department!  I'd love to hear any suggestions you might have for me!  I've had a couple suggestions for Tilly and the Buttons Coco dress.  I'm thinking of Closet Case Files Ginger Jeans.  What else do you have for me?)

Anyways, back to our regularly scheduled posting about my new cardi.

Like all of Andi Satterlund's designs I've knit so far (Salt, Miette, Hetty, Myrna, Marion, Vianne and now Sunshower) it is an easy to follow pattern.  I love the way her patterns are written up, and I love the vintage vibe of her cardigans.  They're perfect for popping on over a dress too.  Did I mention this latest one goes with four dresses in my closet?!?  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that!  My only modification to this pattern was my usual one that I do on Andi's cardigans which is to eliminate some of the waist shaping so it doesn't have quite so much negative ease.

I used Ella Rae Classics in Monarch red from Webs for my Sunshower.  It is a bit scratchier than I remember Ella Rae Classic being - but then I've not used this particular yarn in about six or seven years and that was for a pair of mittens so maybe I've just forgotten.  Or maybe it's not actually that scratchy in reality and the hives that suddenly appeared on my arm this morning (what the heck?!?!) are just making me a bit more sensitive.  Who knows.  I normally wear Briggs & Little without batting an eyelash, so c'est la vie.  Scratchy or not, I think this cardigan will be getting lots of wear in the future!

Knitting of this one was a bit of a challenge for me.  Not because of the pattern mind you, but because sometimes I'm just a bit daft about things.  I posted a week and a half ago about my fudging the pattern and then having to go back and re-knit it.  Well, things like that just seemed to keep happening.  Maybe I've been distracted or maybe I've just taken leave of my senses as of late.  I am not sure, but whatever the case I was glad to finally make it to the sleeve cuffs without further incident!  I had initially planned to do the sleeve caps individually then continue the rest of the sleeve two at a time, as I normally do, but my circular needle was both too inflexible and too short for it to be a convenient method.  I was driving myself batty dropping stitches and trying to keep sorted where the centres were.  I gave up a few rounds in, put the sleeves back on separate needles and zipped through the first sleeve up to the cuff in an evening.  The next evening I tackled the second sleeve, then put them back on the too short, too stiff circ for the cuffs.  I hate trying to keep track of ribbing and I figured it was easier to suffer through the TAAT with a bad needle then count rounds.  It worked and I finished it up pretty easily a few days ago!

Next up is going to be finishing up my Antrorse!  I'm so close - six more rounds of the bottom band, then onto the sleeves.  I have a beautifully long and flexible circular needle so it should be no problem to two at a time them!

I had told myself that after Antrorse is finished I would focus on holiday gift knitting exclusively, but Andi's gone and thrown a big ol' wrench in that plan.  (Yep.  I'm blaming her.  Not my lack of will power in the face of a new pattern.  Nope. Not that at all...)  She's gone and published another cardigan pattern this week and I'm completely smitten with it.  Not only that.  She's planned a Knit Along for it.  I resisted for about 30 seconds and then decided I'll spend the rest of this month focusing on gift knitting so that when the KAL starts the beginning of October I can knit, somewhat guilt free, on Penelope.  Take a look at those gorgeous scallops and tell me that you would have been able to resist.  I didn't think so! If resistance is as futile for you as it is for me, you should join the KAL on Ravelry.  It'll be fun!  (and Andi's even got a discount for the pattern going on right now!)  I'm dreaming of colour combinations right now and thinking that I have a nice caramel coloured DK for the main colour and if it works a really nice wine colour for the scallops and the button band already sitting in my stash... Fate?  I think so!

Outfit Along and Sundress Sew-a-Long

I'm pretty excited to say I'm finished my 2015 Untangling Knots Outfit Along!!  As an added bonus my dress component fits right in nicely with the Sundress Sew-A-Long hosted by Heather of Handmade by Heather B!

I got Little Man to take some photos for me this morning.  Between the mosquitoes and the heat they're not the greatest to show the outfit maybe, but to be fair, it is 28C / feels like 36C with the humidity and there's a heat warning in effect today.  Great day to pick to take photos of a BLACK sweater, wouldn't you say?  By the time we got a few shots I was pretty much eaten alive and wilting from the heat, so I decided it was good enough and we fled back into the house for a cool glass of lemonade.   Apparently there are limits to what I will endure for the sake of my project pages and blog.  LOL.

As you may recall from my earlier post at the beginning of the month I was taking part in the 2015 Outfit Along hosted by designer Andi Satterlund of Untangling Knots and Lauren of lladybird.com.

The great thing about the outfit along is that while there is an official cardigan and dress pattern, you don't have to use them to participate.  The goal being to end up with an outfit you love and will wear, you're free to choose any combination of patterns.  One of the participants is doing a sweater and a pair of jeans, so it really is whatever you want so long as it makes a complete outfit that has a sewn and a knit component.  So I chose to do the official cardigan pattern, which is Vianne, but chose Violette Field Thread's Ginger Dress instead of the official McCall's pattern.

The sweater went together well, although very slowly (only because I seemed to lose all knitting mojo).  I did enjoy the pattern when I was knitting it though.  The mesh panel in the back and the lace kept it interesting.  I did my usual mods for Andi's patterns and did fewer decreases in the body, so that while it's still fitted there's not quite as much negative ease across my midsection. Other than that I knit the pattern as written.  I really enjoy Andi's patterns (evidenced by the fact that this is my fifth cardigan pattern I've knit of hers! I've also knit Miette, Hetty, Myrna and Marion) and this was no exception.

The Ginger Dress was the first pattern I've ever sewn from Violette Field Threads.  It was fairly straight forward and the sizing pretty good for the most part - I did have to make some adjustments, but that's not unusual.  I did make a few changes besides the ones for fit.  I swapped out the centre back exposed zipper for a side seam zipper, so as not to be dependent on anyone zipping up my dress for me.  (How does the rest of the world manage with back zippers?!?)  I also swapped out the halter straps in favour of shoulder straps.  I felt that the dress would be more comfortable that way without the constant need for adjusting and tugging at straps, or tying it so tight I gave myself a sore neck.  The third modification was to add a bit of elastic along the top of the back bodice.  I do wish I'd modified the pockets.  The pockets sewn as drafted are seriously tiny.  Too bad I didn't notice their petite size before finishing the dress.  I much prefer large, fit everything but the kitchen sink, pockets. Oh well.  C'est la vie.  I'm not about to start undoing seams at this point!!

Wrapping up, once again this year the Outfit Along was a really great experience.  I've got another outfit that I think will get lots of wear and I had lots of fun along the way.

I'm not 100% sure what my next project will be.  The knitting mojo is still lagging although I've been working on a pair of socks and I picked up some gorgeous yarn (thank you Mom for the birthday money that I used to purchase it with!) to knit an Antrorse in the upcoming Summer Sweater Knit Along in the Very Shannon group on Ravelry.

I've got quite a few sewing projects lined up that I want to get done so I'll probably try to focus on those for the next while, probably starting with a Sis Boom Jamie Dress using my Gertie Tropical sateen that I ordered from JoAnn's earlier this summer.  It'll be another pattern that fits perfectly into Heather's Sundress Sew-A-Long.

2015 Outfit Along in Progress

We're at the halfway mark of the 2015 Untangling Knots Outfit Along and I thought I'd post a bit of an update on how things are progressing for me.

Yarn and fabric choices!

Slower than molasses in January would be one way of summing it up.  I feel like I'm usually a whole lot quicker with knitting Andi's cardigan patterns, but to be honest, I've just not had much energy or time for knitting.  By the time the boys have gone to sleep for the night after a rousing round of jumping in and out of bed six billion times each, I've found that I'm scrambling around doing everything I need to get done and by the time that's taken care of I'm at the point of sitting and staring at the wall rather than relaxing and knitting.  But I am chugging along, slowly but surely.  Yesterday I took the boys to the splash park and was able to work on it while they played.  I was making some good progress on the sleeve cap, but I like to do sleeves two at a time once I'm past the cap (that way I know they are going to end up the same length and all decreases occur at the same spot), and once I finished the cap on the sleeve I was working on I realized I'd forgotten to bring a second ball of yarn to start the second sleeve cap.

Splash park knitting - making slow progress!

I think I am going to love my outfit once it's done, which is keeping me plugging away bit by bit.  I chose to do the "official" knit pattern, Vianne, which like a lot of Andi's patterns, is a sweet, retro vibe cardigan with lace detail on the front and a mesh panel and more lace on the back.  I'm not in love with the yarn I'm using, but it was in my stash, so it'll do.  I was having a bit of a hard time justifying yarn and then fabric for a dress all in one fell swoop so, black Sirdar Silky DK it is.

My pattern choices!

For my sewn component I've chosen to do Violette Field Thread's Ginger Dress, which is another pattern from the Women's Bundle Up Sale I snagged back in May.  I scoured all locally available fabric sources as well as a few online Canadian shops in search of the perfect black with red cherry print fabric.  I'm not sure how I got fixated on the idea, but I did and there it stuck.  I knew nothing else was going to do once I had the vision in my head.  Unfortunately my search was in vain. One shop in Alberta did carry a cute cherry print, and the price per metre wasn't bad, but then shipping killed it.  Why Canada Post?  WHY?!?!?!  So then I started perusing online shops from the US.  I found the perfect print on JoAnn's website and then bid my time until I could use a 60% off coupon.  I was able to buy four metres for less than I could 3.5m here even with shipping and exchange factored in so  was pretty happy about that! (of course now I'm frighteningly addicted to JoAnn's and their coupons... my second order - Gertie's tropical sateen - just arrived in the post today.    I'm justifying that one, by the fact it was on sale for 60% off and then JoAnn's kindly had sent me a 20% off coupon for creating an account for my first order. I'm so easily persuaded...)

Anyways.  I'm getting off track here.

I've not done anything but the muslin of the bodice for my Ginger Dress, but I'm hoping after the weekend to find some time to get it done. (it's birthday weekend here - both Little Man and I - and Little Man's "family" party is on Saturday so no hope of sewing a new dress before then with cakes to bake, a house to clean and a birthday crown to make yet).  I think it's going to be a fairly easy sew which shouldn't take a lot of time once I get going on it.  

So that's what's been happening with my 2015 OAL so far!  Hopefully in the next week or so I'll be back to show you a final outfit.