Skyp to My Lou!

Look at these nice orange socks I knit for myself!

Skyp Socks

Because it seems like everyone is knitting the Simple Skyp Sock pattern, I decided that I should knit the complicated version. Turns out it wasn't really all that complicated.

The "skyp" stitch pattern makes a faux cable stitch. I think it looks much more intricate than the actual knitting suggests.  Since the rest of the stitches are knits and purls, the whole sock is basically a fancy ribbed knit. It's super stretchy and fits really well.

Skyp pattern and Eye of Partridge Heel

I didn't change anything about the skyp chart. However, after a few rows of knitting from the top down, I got annoyed and decided to frog what I'd done and start over from the toe-up. Basically, I used my preferred sock method (here) using the skyp chart for just the instep and calf pattern.

These are knit up in Regia 4-ply sock yarn (75% wool/24% polyamide). The yarn isn't as soft and cushy as others I've used, but I can see why it is so popular among serious sock knitters. It's a seriously sturdy yarn with a 10-year guarantee. I have a feeling these socks are going to outlast all my others. And they are machine washable and drier safe.

Those of you who knit, do you have a favorite cast off/bind off? On most of my socks I do Elizabeth Zimmerman's Sewn Bind Off. But I am thinking of trying Jenny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off on my next socks. It is supposed to be even more elastic.

Speaking of my next socks, I've already cast on Here Be Dragons by Rachel Gent, also in Regia 4-ply. Because this is me - and I just can't resist tinkering - I've already frogged them and started again with a smaller needle and modifying the cast on and first several rows so that the toe isn't quite so pointy.

Here Be Dragons in Knitty

I find this really rather annoying about myself at times, but I just can't resist starting over when I feel like I could get better results in the end. When I've tried to power thru "good enough" knitting, I've ended up knitting for a few days, knowing that I am going to eventually give in to my compulsion and frog it.

Pre-frogging

Are you a constant tinkerer, like me? Or do you knit things how they are actually meant to be knit? 

Spring Fever Strikes the Craft Lounge: Sewing Plans

Happy Spring! I've got Spring sewing on my mind, regardless of  my growing backlog of unblogged/unphotographed, but finished projects (5 sewn and 1 knit, peeps!) There are a bunch of different projects calling to me, but here's what is calling the loudest...

Jeans. 
It's time I sewed some jeans. And, luckily for me, Phin gave me the print version of Closet Case Files Ginger Jeans for Christmas.

I also have the Jalie Eleonore Pull-On Jeans pattern. I have to confess I am curious to know if they will work out for me, given my waist-hip ratio. Pull on can be tricky when you are hippy with a smaller waist. But they seem to work for a lot of different women. So, I may give them a shot.

Watson Bra
I've pretty much been wanting to sew this since it came out. And with all of my sleep bras starting to show the miles I've put on them in the last 15 months, it may be time to take this more seriously.

Dresses
If I'm not wearing my silk shirt dress, I'm generally wearing one of my two wrap dress. So, I think the writing is on the wall that I need more of these styles in my wardrobe. Here are some of the candidates:

Clockwise from top left: V8379 wrap dress, M6684 wrap dress, V8903 short dress and V1500 Anne Klein Shirtdress

I'm a little worried about making them fabulous enough that I will actually want to sew them. As you know, I love sewing frosting and get very bored by cake. I'm hoping some fun fabric will keep me enthusiastic about these dresses. I'd like to have them in my wardrobe and I know I'll feel great wearing them.


Unselfish Sewing
And shockingly, I'm finding myself drawn to some very unselfish sewing projects at the moment.

Phin needs more shorts. And since I have a master pattern at the ready, it's not such a big deal to change up the details and whip up a few different pairs of shorts.

Phin's Shorts

Taco could also use some cute overalls, and once summer arrives he'll need rompers. He's a skinny little guy, so it is hard to get pants that simultaneously fit at the waist and are long enough. So we tend to dress him in overalls and jumpsuits. I also have a few toys in mind to sew for him.

I doubt that I will get to each of these projects since I already have a few summer projects in mind. But we'll see how much I accomplish. And if I ever get to photographing my finished projects, you'll get to see what I've been up to!

What are you sewing? 

Men's Hudson Pants for Phin

I've been sewing up a storm, but still struggling to find time to photograph my work during daylight hours. Case in point, these True Bias Men's Hudson Pants were actually a Valentine's Day gift. Sheesh!

V-Day Hudsons for my sweet

Because Phin and I are trying to equally share in parenting Taco, Phin spends a lot of time pushing the stroller around town or with Taco in a carrier. So, I made him some Men's Hudson pants as a casual and cozy alternative to either jeans or athletic wear. They fill the niche in his wardrobe that a favorite pair of yoga or harem pants fills for me.

Phin takes modeling his Hudsons very seriously. 

Actually, I should give credit where it's due: Phin actually suggested that these would be good for him. I think he's right.

No smiles here. Modeling is hard work.

I sewed these up in a very soft and somewhat beefy sweatshirt fleece that I bought at AK Fabrics. It's pretty much your classic sweatshirt fabric. NYer's, am I the only one who tends to overlook AK Fabrics?  I almost never go in, but when I do I always think that I should shop there more often. They always seem to have a selection of whatever fabric is having it's moment (like scuba and sweatshirt fleece) plus a range of nice quality basics at good prices (for NY).

I didn't make any changes to this pattern except for taking them in a bit at the waist. I love that the seam allowances are just 3/8", but I erred on the side of caution when picking a size because of it. In my next version (already half sewn), I've gone down by two sizes, for a sleeker fit throughout.

There's not a whole lot to say about these. They're a modern cut sweatpant that's easy peasy to sew. I mostly used my serger. The feature that I really like are the pockets. Rather than a simple inseam pocket, these functional slash pockets are also a nice design feature.

It's crazy that it took so long to photograph these since Phin has been practically living in them, which was all the validation I needed to get anothe pair in the works. I fear these ones may have a very short but intense lifespan.

I'll leave you with a few pics of my boys at the playground yesterday afternoon.

This. Took. Forever.

How long, exactly, is forever?

Seventeen months.

I cast on this throw blanket in September 2014, during that third trimester creativity and nesting hormone surge. I thought it would be a nice cozy blanket for me to curl up with in the rocker during late night nursing sessions. And it would have been.

A photo posted by Clio (@cliophineas) on Sep 9, 2014 at 5:44pm PDT

But it took forever to knit.

Now don't get me wrong, I did take breaks. Post pregnancy my wrists ached quite a bit and I couldn't do too much knitting. But even with breaks, this was a huge investment in time. I'm glad I like it so much in the end! It is insanely warm. Seriously, if you are a chilly person, knit a wool blanket.

The pattern is Umaro by Jared Flood of Brooklyn Tweed. There is nothing overly complicated or challenging about the pattern itself, as long as you are comfortable with cable knitting and basic lace stitches (k, p, yo, k2tog and ssk.) However, I found the 28 row repeat impossible to memorize because I could only knit a few rows each night.

I think part of the reason why a super bulky throw took so long was the yarn. It's Mega by Ella Rae in the Timberwolf Gray colorway. For whatever reason, I found it a very slow yarn to knit. And it knit up rather tight in my hands. I had a whole skein leftover and my blanket blocked a bit smaller than directed. Aside from small projects, I'm not sure I would use it again. It also isn't the softest yarn I've worked with. It's a little scratchy to be honest. But it does look beautiful and exactly how I imagined.

The real magic of this blanket is that it looks all bulky when you are finished knitting, but the lace just opens up beautifully when you block it. Truly, the importance of blocking cannot be overstressed. The instructions say to steam block the blanket. However, I can't imagine being able to use my iron one section at a time and get a nice finished result. Instead, I soaked it in the tub with some Euclan, and then used just the spin cycle of the washer to get the excess water out.

Overall, I am very happy with this blanket. I'm pretty sure I won't knit this pattern again, but I'm glad I took on this challenge and stuck with it.  And now I have my evening knitting time free. What to knit next? I think I'll stick with some quick and easy projects for the next few weeks. 

Clare Coat: How I Make a Hanging Loop

Somehow, when I dropped everything to start sewing a Clare Coat, I convinced myself that it would sew up in no time and I'd be all cozy in it by the New Year.

Closet Case Files' Clare Coat

Then I remembered that this is me and I have a hard time not taking my time with big projects. On top of it, as I was coming down the home stretch with just some hand sewing left, I realized that I made a major, major screw up very early on that needs to be fixed. Folks, it's bad. It may actually involve seam ripping the entire coat - lining, topstitching and all - and recutting the front piece.***

What could be so bad that this project may ultimately be a fail? Well, I somehow sewed the darts at different heights. It would be a relatively easy fix if that were all - just move a dart, right? But you see, because of the bulk of the fabric, I cut the darts open in order to press them flat. Yeah.

Anyway, to avoid wallowing, here is a peek at one of my favorite little add on features: a hanging chain. Here's how I add one to my coats and jackets. 

Rather than sewing over chain, I prefer to add ribbon loops to the coat, and then hang the chain on the loops. For this coat, I settled on white twill tape rather than satin ribbon. This was partially because of the weight of the coat and partially because it's what I had on hand. 

Don't worry: the placement marks are from a Frixion pen. 

First, I cut two pieces of twill tape about 2" long and fold them in half, making two 1" loops.  

Next, I sew my loops into the seam allowance of the neck facing positioned about 1 1/2" to either side of the center back. This makes the distance between the loops 3". You could use a basting stitch for this step, but I like the extra reinforcement of sewing regular stitches inside the seam allowance. Plus, the ribbon is narrow enough that you could accidentally skip over it with your basting, thus defeating the purpose.

Then, I go ahead and sew the facing to the inside collar piece and give it a good press so that my loops are sandwiched between the two layers and hang facing downward. The visible part of the loops are about 3/8".  

From here I just keep on sewing my coat. Because there isn't a chain hanging around I don't have to worry about accidentally running over it and breaking needles or it getting hot from my iron. I just carry on sewing.

Finished coat insdes.

Once your coat is all in one piece and you are working on the finishing touches, it's time to hang a chain from your loops using two jump rings and jewelry pliers. You can play around with the length of the chain to decide what looks most attractive to you. 

Different lighting several hours later... 

Voila! You no longer have to hang your coat by the scruff of its neck.

Oh! And if you are wondering about my "Handmade" metal tag, it is from Emmaline Bags' on-line shop. It's meant for a bag, but I would put one on every single thing if I could.

*** I may put my pretty Clare aside for a few days and mull over the options. So, hopefully I'll have a few things to show in the interim. 

Look! I Made Duck Boots

Did you know such a thing was possible?

Baby Duck Booties Pattern by Quince & Co.

With the magic of knitting, it is! Here is my version.

Black and White Duck Booties!

I suppose it would be more accurate to say I made Duck Booties and not Boots. I think they are fun and cute. Originally, I knit them for Taco. But my tiny baby actually has rather big, wide feet. So, they have been sent to his younger cousin.

The pattern was pretty easy to follow even though it wasn't entirely intuitive. The only change I made was to make a three stitch I-cord for the laces instead of just using a piece of yarn, as the instructions direct.

I didn't feel like buying new yarn in the more traditional duck boot colors. Instead, my version is knit up in Cascade 220 Sport which I had on hand. I've had some difficulties with this yarn. I initially bought it to knit a baby blanket for Taco. But I just didn't like how it was knitting up. It was not as dense as I would like despite being on gauge. Every time I switched colors it looked sloppy and obvious. So I frogged it.

A photo posted by Clio (@cliophineas) on Oct 30, 2014 at 5:34am PDT

Then I tried to use this yarn for a now-in-hibernation sweater for Taco. It looked cute but the gauge was WAY off.

Now that I've accepted that my gauge is so off that I'm going to have to start over if I want this sweater to fit Taco, should I do that or just knit some socks for myself? What do you think? #knittingwithbaby #knittersofinstagram #knittingonmycommute #babytaco

A photo posted by Clio (@cliophineas) on Jan 11, 2016 at 3:03pm PST

I know what you are thinking: didn't you knit a gauge swatch?  No, I didn't. For the first two years that I was knitting, I did a gauge swatch for each project and all it told me was that my gauge was scarily spot on. Hence, for the last two years I haven't. And this is the first yarn that has thrown me. Too late I realized that the suggested needle size for the pattern was different than what was suggested on the yarn for the exact same gauge. I suppose I should have gone with what was on the yarn.

The booties, too, were knit on a smaller needle than the yarn suggested, which is probably the reason they are small. I may try to knit them again in a larger size so that Taco can have a pair, too. I have plenty of left over yarn since I bought a blanket-size quantity!  And the booties are insanely sweet, aren't they?

I Have Skinny Wrists

Seriously.

Aside from having trouble getting bracelets and watches to fit, my wrists allow great gusts of cold air to go up the sleeves of my coats, even with gloves on. And, since I almost never wear long sleeves, my arms get chilly.

So, when I was looking for a knitting project for the small ball of fingering yarn I bough on our family vacation in Venice, these Frilly and Lacy Wrist Warmers caught my eye. My thinking was that, in addition to being pretty, if I wore them over my gloves, the frilly cuffs would block the wintry wind from going up my sleeves.

A photo posted by Clio (@cliophineas) on Oct 30, 2015 at 6:58am PDT

I actually finished knitting them at the end of October while on a business trip. But Autumn in NY seemed to go on and on this year. It was only when old man winter finally arrived with a vengeance this week that I finally put my theory to the test.

Thumbs up! How cheesy am I? 

And they worked! No cold air up the arms. No chilly elbows while waiting for the train or walking to my office. Woo hoo! My arms stayed cosy inside my coat. Plus, I think my cuffs look kinda cute peeking out from my coat. Yes?

Cute little cuffs. 

Other deets: The wrist warmers were easy to knit in this lovely Filatura di Crosa yarn, which is 100% merino wool. It has a soft and almost creamy feel, if that description makes sense. If I were to knit these again to wear without gloves, I would probably want to make them longer. Other than that, I wouldn't make any changes to this easy pattern.

Pretty and functional, what could be better?  Hooray!