The sweater,that grew

Hi everybody,

welcome back :) (just listening to a ton of podcasts ;) )

I know, that it has been a while again but somehow the days just fly by and I seldom have energy left to blog. Mostly I do try to clean, do laundry or just knit a couple of rows when the kids are sleeping during the day and I really enjoy just beeing with DH in the evenings, so no energy left to blog but I digress.

I have FOs to show you. Yeehaaa!!

First: The kids christening jackets. Instead of trying to sew the girls matching dresses (deadlines and sewing just don't match here...) I knitted them jackets to wear over the purchased summerdresses.
Pattern: Baby Mine by Stephanie Pearl McPhee
Size: 6 months width and 12 months length since the girls are so slim :(
Yarn: Schöller & Stahl Bahia, that I got for very little money. The yarn is kind of splitty and I was happy once the second jacket was cast off :)

E. modelling the jacket

I need to see if my BIL has some decent pictures of both girls in the jackets :)
The pattern is very well written and the knitting didn't take too long. Just finding and sewing on buttons took FOREVER.

Next I finished a sweater for me. Out of stashyarn since I did participate in a Sweater KAL on the stash and burn group on ravelry. I really loved the KAL, it kept me focused on the sweater (but that wasn't too hard since I really don't feel like knitting on dads socks...)

The pattern is Sahara by Wendy Bernard. A very cool and clever design. Top Down with set-in-sleeves that you knit on. So no sewing required.

Yarn: GGH Maxima. A really nice 100% Merino superwash
Of course I made a swatch. In fact I swatched twice since my swatch grew when washed.

I tried the sweater on as I went, keeping in mind, that the swatch grew, so I made it pretty snug. After finishing I blocked it lightly. Just soaking it and putting it to dry on a pulloverrack without stretching.

And it grew. The body now fits fine (o.k. I do have a tummy, so it could have grown a bit more there ;) ) but the shoulders? I now have dropped shoulders and they are really unflattering. Man, I'm so disapointed! Gnarf.... I need to figure out how to shorten the shoulderwidth without having to rip back the whole sweater....

Woolfest 2011

Back in July, I decided to go on a short trip with Sarah-Jane, Barbro and Malin to Woolfest up in Cumbria, UK since Heiko was still on parental leave and Sarah-Jane got a very good rate on a small cottage not too far from the place where Woolfest was held.

I had a blast (even despite the fact, that I again suffered from insomnia and thus beeing grumpy sometimes. I hope Malin and Barbro don't think too bad of me for beeing whiny...)

Sarah has some great pictures up on her blog of the cottage we stayed in, so check out her blog too!

Here are some pictures from Woolfest!

Cumbria hills!
Awesome stalls!
Alpaca and sheep....
Walls next to me on the very steep hills (on the other side it was going downhill). I was pretty carsick all the time...
We spend quite a bit of time in the car and Sarah is an amazing driver. Lucky me :) otherwise I would have died from a heartattack a couple of times.

Funny thing: there were 2 people interviewing Malin and Barbro at the fleece sale (I got 1 1/3 fleeces. A BFL fleece and a third of a Saxxon Merino. So soft, I have had it processed and it came out great!) The people asked if they could take a picture of us and here it is. We are in Knit Magazine (the picture is courtesy of Knitmagazine and I say thank you for allowing me to use it)


Of course I got some yarn but not very much.

Patternreview: Minikrea 20000

Minikrea is a new Danish Pattern line for babies, toddler and children. I got my pattern from MariaDenmark as a birthday gift. So far I haven't found this pattern only but I bet, that Maria can get you one too if you like
Pattern Description: From the pattern (as far as I can understand it) " easy empirestyle dress with a chic pleat effect at the sleeves, the neckline and at the waist. Great fit and lots of elbowroom. This dress is cute over jeans, leggings, pantyhose or just with bare legs"

My description would me more like: Empiredress or tunic with 3 different options for sleeve length.

I made the tunic, short sleeved version.
Pattern Sizing: 6 months to 3 years (70/80 to 92/98) I made the 1 year size which is 80/86.

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it? Pretty much.

Were the instructions easy to follow? The instructions are o.k., not overly detailled but that was fine for me. A beginner though might have some problems esp. when it comes to sewing on the elastic at the waist. I divided mine into quarters and pinned them down, since it is a pretty short length of elastic and pretty much fabric.

Two things I found confusing: I did not quite get why there were 2 different patterns for the dress and the tunic since it is basically the same pattern and then I traced and cut out a neckline facing but as far as I could see, there were no instructions on how to use it but something like "fold over the s.a. at the neckline and stitch it down, leaving space for the elastic" but that might be just my bad Danish.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern? While I think the pattern is totally cute it does not work for us since our kids still wear onesies and the neckline is just waaaay to wide (even with the elastic in it), so the onesie does show. Not a look I'm after. I guess once the kids aren't wearing something underneath (or maybe a turtleneck in winter) it would be a very cute look.

Fabric Used: Cotton eyelet. My friend gave me this top she tried to make a while ago and it was huge, so I refashioned it into the tunic for the girls


Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:
None, except that I used the facings.
Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
I think, I will sew it again. Maybe in a tad heavier fabric for autumn to wear over a turtleneck or I would try to raise the neckline. I gave this one to friends. I do recommend the pattern.

Conclusion: Cute pattern, just not o.k. for us NOW. When they are older I can see them wearing tons of cute dresses and tunics made from this pattern.

And here is E. modelling the tunic