A Bevy of FOs

Here's a quick round-up of all my recent finished projects!

In August I made my first ever bra, a Watson Bra using a kit from Tailor Made Shop. I'm counting this as a Summer of Basics FO, and it's also an item ticked off my Making List--yahoo! I was intimidated by bra making but it turned out to be surprisingly easy, and my only gripe was struggling with my machine eating the small seam allowances whenever I started a new seam. I did a straight 32C with no alterations, except for the straps. They're supposed to be attached to the top of the cups with rings, but that would put the adjustable buckle on top of my traps and I prefer having the hardware on the back of my body. Next time I might experiment with taking a small amount of fabric out of the band, as it fits comfortably on the middle set of hooks but I prefer starting a new bra on the outermost set of hooks so I can wear it longer before it gets stretched out.

I finished my languishing pair of handdyed socks, also a Making List item! (I'm feeling very accomplished, dontcha know.) These are nothing crazy special, just colorful, vanilla shortie socks that will always be welcome in my wardrobe.

And last weekend, I jumped back into spinning after a long hiatus (almost a year!) To practice, I pulled this braid of Frabjous Fibers Merino Top in Scarecrow and I was pleased to discover my muscle memory hadn't faded. Yesterday I did another spin and will share photos once that yarn is dry. I have several spinning projects on my Making List, and I'd like to use up 90% of my fiber supply before I allow myself to purchase any new fiber.

I recently finished up all my design obligations, meaning I'm not contracted for any pieces and I'm not working on any self-published designs at the moment either. I'm really looking forward to taking this time to work on my Making List, sink my teeth into some longer-term sewing or spinning projects, and enjoy some selfish making time before I return to designing. Happy fall to me!

Brioche Cowl FO

In January, my good friend Kirsten gave me a beautiful skein of local wool she had hand-spun and hand-dyed. It's wooly and sheepy, but not irritating, and the resulting yarn is lightweight and airy rather than being a dense, bulky yarn.

It's beautifully thick-and-thin, ranging from super bulky to super fine and plied with a weaving yarn. It's the kind of thing I wouldn't actively spin myself since I can't intentionally spin irregular yarns, but I love the play of color and texture! The skein was giant so I decided to knit a cowl end-to-end in the hopes of using up every last yard.

I chose brioche because it's fun to knit, I don't have many brioche accessories, and I thought it would play nice with the yarn's varying thickness without having to settle for garter stitch. Not that I hate garter stitch, but sometimes you want something more interesting! I cast on provisionally and knit on a US 10.5 needle until the strip was long enough to loop around twice, blocked it flat, then twisted it intentionally and kitchenered it closed. Surprisingly, I didn't use up all my yarn! I think I have enough left for a pair of super simple fingerless mitts, or at least that's what I'm hoping for.

I'm anal-retentive enough that I didn't like how the edges waved in-and-out when the yarn had a particularly thick or thin section. I wet-blocked it using blocking wires along the edges and stretched it to the max for this more open fabric, and in hopes of getting nice straight edges. The edges looked great when I took the cowl off the board but after a few wears the yarn is back to its original wildness. Life blocking lesson: don't fight the yarn. I KNOW this but I also like to see how far I can push the rules ;)

This was a really satisfying, quick knit and it's a great addition to my cold-weather accessory wardrobe. The teals and blues go with a lot of my clothing and I like how versatile long cowls like this are, with the choice of leaving it open or looping it double. Thank you so much for the yarn, Kirsten!

My Favorite FO of 2016: Tinder

This was a long-haul kind of knit, but SO WORTH IT! I started it in January 2016 and finished on December 31st. 

Tinder has been one of my dream wardrobe pieces since it first came out. I stashed the yarn for it back in...2012 I think? It's Valley Yarns Greenwich, which was a limited edition run of 2-ply wool. It's a little too heavy for this design but I forced that round peg into a square hole! By purposely knitting it at a different gauge, that is. You can read more about that from my post when I started the project.

So as a knitting designer, why knit other people's patterns? Certainly I have enough of my own work I could focus on. Andrea Rangel calls this 'professional development' and she is SPOT. ON. Jared Flood packed lots of tricks into this that I would have never thought of on my own, like seaming the raglan seams with a half-stitch seam allowance so you wind up with a single stockinette stitch delineating those lines. I also like to see how other people write and layout their patterns.

I continued to follow the sage advice of Karen Templer and made damn sure everything was to my satisfaction with this baby. That included such fun as seaming the sides twice, when I didn't like my first go at it, and unseaming the raglan seams to reknit the sleeve caps with a different rate of decreases when they pulled too much across my shoulders the first time. It was maddening but utterly, completely, worth it. 

I love this sweater. I think I've worn it at least once a week since finishing it, which is really noteworthy for me. The combination of this, plus my EmSweWeMo experiment has made me so much more aware of what I'll actually wear. There are several pieces I planned to keep that now I think I'll offer up in a future sweater auction because clearly I need more easy going long cardigans in my life. GAME CHANGER.