Work in Progress

So, besides getting acquainted with the spinning wheel:

(My first handspun on the lower edge and the most recent on the upper edge. The fiber is Eiderwolle. A very long staple fibre from the sheep that live on the Deich here in Northern Germany. The sheep (breed Texel or Suffolk or mixtures or varying breeds) are raised for their meat not for the wool, so this yarn is a little coarse but really easy to spin.

I'm also still knitting and sewing.

My knitting has works in progress, so I'l start with those.

1. "Starting a purple fire"



These socks are for Molly. Once these are finished I'll be getting some bronze dpn from her.
The pattern is "firestarter" by yarnissima and the yarn is my own hand-dyed wool-bamboo blend.

Since Molly does not wear a size 38 European I had to recalculate the number of stitches, for that I used Cat Bordhis master numbers from her "New pathways for sock knitters" and I ended up having 72 stitches total. I hope, that this will be o.k. *keeping my fingers crossed*

I reached the point of turning the heel on the first sock (which is my commuting project and the yarn is thinner than the usual 4ply fingering weight sock yarn), did that and measured the total length of the sock. Lo and behold I had 1.5 cm (that is 5/8 inch) too much. gnarf. So I ripped back to the beginning of the gusset increases plus 6 more rows :( That means I had to rip out half of the work I had done so far.

Another thing I do not like so far, is that I got some holes, where I had put the stitch marker on one side :( Maybe washing and blocking will fix that.

2. "Op Art"

Is actually off the needles and all ends are woven in.Just needs blocking.

3. "Mommes baby booties"

My co-workers girl friend had a little baby boy last week (Momme. Really, that's his name). So, as usual me beeing late, I started knitting some baby booties out of the left overs from my coriolis socks. The first one is already done (using 14 gr. of yarn) minus the i-cord, which will be the last thing I'll be making, to be sure I have enough yarn for the second one. The second one is already cast on. Very easy and fast project. I had hoped to finish these before my co-wokrer returned from his break, but he started working on thursday and of course, the booties aren't finshed :( This weekend they will be done though.
The pattern can be found here.



4. "Ishbel"

My at-home project since I have reached the lace-part. I'm into the third repeat of chart, this means I will have to knit chart 2.5 more rows on chart A, 6 rows on Chart C, 8 rows on chart D and then just the 1 row of chart E. So that are just 17.5 rows to go! Since one row has over 350 stitches now, that means around 1-2 weeks of knitting ;)
This shawl will be like a heavy shedding feather. So far I have used 60 gr. of this yarn (ravelry link) and it is so soft and I totally love the colour. Unfortunately the yarn is shedding like crazy. Hopefully this will getting less after washing and blocking *more fingers crossed".



Wow. 4 projects at one time. This is a lot for me, but since Op Art is off the needles and the booties are so small, I'm kind of o.k. with that. I just need to make sure, that the booties are finished soon. I really don't like to have more than 2 projects at a time.

Sewing:

Haven't started the Paris-jacket. I'm going to make a muslin for the Onion jacket and see, if it is too frilly for the hot pink wool I want to use or if the burda jacket will be a better choice.
I also have a black-and white wool in my stash, that would be a good choice for the Onion pattern but I realls need a skirt or so out of the fabric first, since I have already made a jacket out of the fabric and a matching skirt or some trousers would be cool...

Sewing, that is.

Hi there,

I just saw, that I did not post anything about the 2 finished sewing projects I have done in the last weeks (sorry, that it took me weeks(!!) to finish them. It seems, that I have too many hobbies ;)
Actually the weather has been really nice around here and the knitting (and now the spinning) is so much easier to take outside and sit on the porch (which is a Terasse in German not a porch) under the sunthingy that keeps the sun out ;) and enjoy the weather.

So 2 things that is and I'm totally copying my reviews from PR here:

First:
Bias cut skirt from issue No. 5/2007 of the ottobre woman magazine



Pattern Description:
Basic skirt with yoke and bias cut lower skirt part.
Pattern Sizing:
34-52. I made a size 40 tapering to a 38 at the waist.

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?
Mostly. I did add piping to the seam and I decided to cut the skirt front and back in one piece rather than adding a seam at the centre back. Thus I moved the zipper to the side seam.

Were the instructions easy to follow?
Totally easy and clear.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
I really like the look of the pattern and that it was fairly easy to sew. I also really like, that Ottobre uses real people as models instead of skinny bean-poles.

Fabric Used:
Cotton-lycra denim. This wasn't the best idea since the denim isn't fluid enough, even when cut on the bias to look good.

Pattern Alterations or any design changes you made:
See above :) I also did cut the facing out of the same rayon I used for the piping. Plus I did shorten it to a length that looked good on me.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
yes and yes.
Conclusion:
Great pattern, that might become a staple in my house

Second is the shirt I'm wearing: Onion 5022, which I got from Maria at Shoponion.com but it seems it's now OOP
Pattern Description:
Package of 5 different t-shirts. From a long sleeved raglan shirt, to a raglan cap-sleeved to a "sleeveless" shirt. I made View D "Kimonoaermer" which is pratically no sleeves but an extended shoulder seam.
Pattern Sizing: XS-XL. My measurements would have put me into an M but I have already made view A, so I knew, that this pattern runs large and I used a size S. I could have merged into size M at the hips though (need to go onto diet. I sewed a XS last time..)

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it? Yes, totally but better ;)

Were the instructions easy to follow? I do not own the English translation but this pattern has 1 pattern piece, so what should have gone wrong?

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
Like: easy to sew, very comfy
Dislike: Nothing

Fabric Used: Rayon jersey remnant from my LFS but unfortunatly the red has bled into the cream part, so this shirt is for at home only.

Pattern Alterations or any design changes you made:
Instead of binding the neckline with fold over elastic, I added 1 cm seam allowance and cut a strip of fabric twice the width I wanted the final strip to be plus 2 cm s.a. 20% shorter than the neckline and used that to finish my neckline.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?

yes and yes. Awesome pattern and really easy and comfy!

Conclusion:

In my book, this is a winner. I love my raglan long sleeve shirt and I do love this one as well!

Here's a nicer picture


I've worn both garments a lot over the last few days and I really like them both. Too bad, that the fabric bled :(

Next thing I'm going to sew is a more tailored jacket. I just can't decide if I should use Onion 1035 or the exclusive design from burda 01.2009. What do you think?

Isn't she beautiful?

I mean the Ashford Traveller spinning wheel, that I borrowed from a shop (and that I guess is going to be mine).



My singles are getting more even by the day (not that they are consistend by any means. I have under/overspun parts and it's still thin and thinner parts...


And this is my first spun and plied "yarn"



I'm determined to make something with it. So far I don't know what but I still have some meter so spin ;)

(it's Eiderwolle and it's kind of coarse but easy to spin and inexpensive, so I got 300 Gramm and I'm going to spin thru all of it before buying something else. I like spinning it.)

144!

144? you ask. Huh? No idea?

Here are 144 finished blocks of the quilt of doom



That means, I'm halfway there. The bed on the pic is our, much smaller, bed without big duvet covers underneath, so I really have some steps to go until this thing will be finished, although at 200 I might start sewing the blocks together (always 4) and place them on my sisters bed, to see how much more I need to sew, so that is just 56 to go. Maybe this will be my goal for this year. I initial goal for 2009 was to sew 100 blocks. So far 65 are done! (not all by me though. I love swaps!)