Sewing with Cassie

There was other knitting this summer but I will talk about that in a minute.  I wanted to write a bit about what else I got up to.  

The first part of summer was full of appointments and routine medical things.  Which I really hate.  The good part of early summer was that it was not too hot.  it was really just nice summer weather and that made such a difference.  This last part of summer has been routinely hot.  Oh well.  You can't have everything.  Still there was lots to do.

Cassie came to me when she was visiting earlier in summer and said she would like to learn to sew.  I felt this was a great idea and we decided that in August she would come alone to my house and we would sew something.  Because Cassie is who she is, I knew that her goal was clothing.  She has a very clear idea of her own personal fashion and she loves playing around, drawing and sketching and making fashion plate things online.  

We set to find a pattern that she would like.  I tried to steer her towards something really simple but she picked a slightly more challenging project.  Still it wasn't a tough sew, the only real challenge being all the casings.  We chose the Delta Teen's Top/Dress from Style Arc.  It is basically a peasant style top which is easy to sew but has a lot of casings.

We had to choose some fabric from my stash though next time we might get her dad to take her to the fabric store to find something.  That would be a great trip for her though she would have a tough time with all the choices.  The fabric we picked was a soft denim coloured blue cotton gauze which had just the smallest bit of a woven in ikat like pattern stippled over the cloth.  

Cassie did all the cutting and sewing.  She did the waist casing too.  She did not do the more challenging casing at the sleeves (she went for long sleeves) and the neckline.  I did that, though next time, I would do that more organically than the pattern did.  I did both of those for her as well as hemming.  She was kind of powering out and we were in a bit of a hurry on our last day.  

She looked wonderful in it and was very pleased with it all.  I could see in her eyes that she felt success at the job she did.  And I have no photos of her in it.  The young lady made her choice and I respect that.  And I am so very proud of the job she did.  Cassie has a precise sort of personality.  She likes everything just so and she is going to be one heck of a sewist, perhaps even a tailor, if she keeps it up.  

As I said there was other knitting but not huge amounts.  I did occasional work on the blue Elton sweater.  It is so pretty.    

I have about three more inches to do to get caught up to the green striped version.  

Sadly, these are not done, which was sort of a goal for summer, but it's okay.  Having the other two done makes me feel really great about it all.  

It was a summer of success.  Can't ask for more than that.

A summer of knitting.

Let's see if I remember how to do this.  As all good things do, Grandma's summer full of short visits from little people and other general goofing off is done.  The kids are back in school and Grandma is back at her keyboard.  Grandma only because that is such a big part of my life, though otherwise, I am just me, ever debating about how to live a good life along with copious amounts of knitting.

I did some great knitting while I was vacationing.  

The last you saw this garment, it was half done, sitting right about the waist.  

For the body of what is still essentially a Leisl, I changed to all stockinette.  I switched back for the coloured rows near the bottom and bound off with three ridges (6 rows) of garter stitch in my accent colour.  I did that same finish on all the openings.  

The biggest change I made to it is that it is a vest, not a full sweater. I have another batch of this yarn, (which I dearly love) in a deep olive green, and by batch I mean it is about two skeins short to make a sweater.  By holding back on sleeves from this vest, my options for the next sweater expand. I am thinking maybe an Argo?   This vest has been complete since the very early days of August, and still needs buttons though ends are worked in.  That will probably happen today in a break from putting the house to order.

The other knitting I did is really pleasing.  I started a LoveNote back in January but ended up ripping it all back because the yoke was miles too big.  The lace needs to lay flat and my first try would have had the lace ripple all around the neckline.

It still is a wee bit but it hasn't been washed and blocked yet.  I am wearing it and it is sorting itself out.  I assume that blocking will take care of the rest.  

I could have easily gone down one more size to a large for the yoke and done more increasing after.  Oh well.  

I am certain this is my body shape that leads the sweater astray, not the pattern.  The pattern was great, but it does show me, yet again that I do at least as well and often better when I just sort of wing it for sweater sizes.  

I am done with round yokes for a bit.  After wearing my Threipmuir the last few months, I realize that I am not entirely happy with its neckline, I took apart the sweater I was knitting with my beauteous Pesto colourway from Midknit Cravings because I could not sort the size and neckline, and I took apart a t shirt I was knitting with the same round neckline structure as the Pesto sweater for the same reason.  I could not figure out a size which would fit the way I wanted it too.  And it is not the fault of the designer, it is a body shape issue.  I could not find the happy medium between length of yoke and width at the underarms.  

The last of my kid visitors left Thursday last week and the house shows it.  There are toys in the livingroom and the the sewing room was dismantled and turned into a bedroom for boys.  My room got the detritous from making both rooms kid ready, and my own space is a disaster.  Oddly, the kitchen isn't too bad, just needing the floors scrubbed and the recycle to go out.  There are so many more things to talk about, and I could sit here for a month of Sundays writing but there are many days ahead and time is a wasting today.  Putting the house to order has to happen today so that I can resume sewing later this week.  It is time for flanellette shirts and snuggly nether garments.   Time to chat more tomorrow.