I know, I know...

It has been a while and I have no real excuse except for being a bit busy. I have got a couple of things finished and I still want to chat about the books and magazines I have bought recently but I have just found out that I am moving in a week and a half (OMG!) so it's all hands to the pumps for the next few days. Obviously it wasn't a total surprise as I did choose to move, but I didn't expect things to go so fast. The place I am moving to is a teeny weeny little flat just for moi and I am currently freaking out about/looking forward to the challenge of utilising the space I have so that I can fit all of my crap in. I hate moving but I am really excited. Yay!

UFO’s!!!!!!!!

I have finally got back into the swing of things now that the weather has cooled down a bit, but unfortunately the more agreeable temperatures have brought with them a serious case of startitis. I have so much stuff on the go at the moment I can barely keep up.

This is a Marie skirt for Jessie. I got this far but I want to measure it on her before I go any further and she is on holiday, bummer. So that went on one side and I got on with this

The asymmetric top from Burda World of Fashion 07/09 I have done all the main seams but I didn't have any inclination to cut bias tape so I'm waiting til I can buy some from a shop. Lazy? Yep. So I moved on again.

These are all the bits for a Maryy from Burda Style. I'm planning on making three of these so I'm pleased I have made a start. Why three? Well one is for Jessie, but that will be the last of the three. I'm also making one for me in a really lovely silver grey jacquard with a hearts pattern for a wedding next week and before that I want to make another one for me in some striped seersucker which will act as a bit of a muslin for the smart one for the wedding. I really need to be sure that the dress will flatter me before I go out and buy shoes to match!

I also still have a whole heap of unfinished knitting projects, same old, same old. Brights 2 is moving along at a reasonable pace, it's starting to look like a cardigan now

My first Kai Mei is currently waiting patiently with it's heel all turned waiting for me to remember where I put my stitch markers so I can get on with the foot . I know I could just use little scraps of yarn, but I flipping well bought little stitch markers for sock knitting so I'm flipping well going to use them!

I also have received a new book of patterns and a copy of Knitscene so I'm itching to start yet more stuff. I would tell you exactly what all my faves are but I'm afraid I won't be able to hold myself back from starting something new if I think about all those lovely patterns right now, so I'll save that for my next post!

Tunic Dress

I finally completed the tunic dress yesterday and what do you know it wasn't a total disaster in the end. It has it's little 'issues' but overall appears to be wearable and Jess likes it, so hurrah! It's a little loose in places and a the hem looks rubbish but given how wrong it went I think we can just be grateful it actually looks like a dress! I will be making the pattern again (correctly!) because it is really nice.

It is actually really nice to have something to write about because it has been so hot here for the last couple of weeks that I haven't really got on with anything. I do hate complaining about the heat because it seems so stereotypically British but the weather has been really sticky and close. So once the temperature dropped just a little bit the other day I was able to pick up where I left off and finish Jessie's dress and also get on with Brights 2 which we last saw with an unwanted row of eyelets. As always, when I finally got on with it that problem was easily sorted and I couldn't work out why I had left it so long! I have now finished the increasing for the sleeves and now I'm making a charge for the neckline. when I actually get on with this it is a really quick knit and I can't wait to have it done.

That's pretty much it today, I ordered the latest copies of Interweave Knits and Knitscene a couple of days ago and also Kim Hargreaves Amber so I'm sure I'll have plenty of things to say when they arrive....and of course a complete rethink of my knitting queue!

Plan B is go

Well, I'm pleased to announce that the tunic dress is indeed salvageable and looks like it will fit Jessie very nicely with a few tweaks. Left as it is it fits almost everywhere apart from around the arms. This is obviously because the yokes are way too little to be doing without their seam allowances, thank you very much! At first I thought I would just whip off the yokes and cut new ones, but when I remembered that I had already sewn in the zip very securely I began casting around for other ideas. So, hopefully I can continue on as if nothing was wrong whilst being very stingy with seam allowance and then I should be able to bridge the gap between the shoulder seams, either with self fabric inserts or perhaps just little ribbons. I really hope it all comes together because I'm totally onto a winner if this works out. Now I just have to tell the cats. They seem to have decided that all must be lost and have already made a claim to this dress. No matter where I put it down, I turn round and there is a cat sitting on it. Without fail. Someone hand me the sticky tape, I'm off to de-fluff the flipping thing again.

One down....

I'm very pleased, I actually have completed one of my 'things for Jessie to take to Uni' projects. To be fair it is just a bag, but ticking things off is always fun. I won't bother taking pictures because it is practically identical to this one, except I have sewn a button and loop on as a fastener this time. I'm going to pop round and see her tonight and get her try on the tunic dress and then I can tick another one half off. Oh yes, about that, I went back and looked at the instructions and it turns out that I must have hallucinated the bit that said seam allowance was included. It wasn't. Oops. Seam allowances 2: Me 0.

Anyhow, this is just a self congratulatory quickie, my brother is arriving home from Manchester soon, hopefully for good so I'm gonna go see him shortly. We will all be glad to see him back, but it's hard not to see the irony. My parents were finally on the home straight to an empty nest with Jess off to uni and now Sam is coming back. Hee hee!

Plans

I had a really nice night on Tuesday, my little sis came round and we spent the night choosing patterns and ordering fabric so I can make her some clothes before she goes off to University. Although it was apparent that she has inherited the same thrifty gene that I have and therefore mostly picked fabric from the fabric pile, I did still manage to order quite a lot of new stuff. A massive box duly arrived this morning, packed to the brim with goodies. Thanks efabrics!

So what will I be making? Another Marie, but this time in an altogether more Autumnal grey corduroy, yet another Estelle bag in the leftover cushion material that never ends, a modified one of these in black satin, a dress sort of like this in grey cotton and a tunic dress in black just like the one I have been making for me… or possibly the actual one I have been making for me because at the moment it's not going to fit me. At all. I am very well aware that this is because I stated that it most certainly wasn't going to be too small. I was concerned it might be a little large, but it couldn't possibly end up too small. Guess what. It's too small, but only in one place! Basically the bottom hemline is way too narrow and although it does fit I won't be able to get it on once I have sewn the shoulders because I need to step through the top. However, while I am feeling the sting of hubris at work, I am aware that there are many options and I will keep sewing. Plan A is to get Jessie to try it on, if it fits her then happy days, job done and I can start another one for me once all her stuff is done. If it doesn't fit her then there's Plan B, I still keep going and either make a split up the back or one at each side allowing me to pull the dress over my bum, which I currently cannot do. I think this might look a bit strange so my Plan C is to shorten the whole thing into a top which should be fine because the top half is actually quite loose. Luckily it looks like will be able to try plan A and if it doesn't work I can move on to plan B etc. As long as I try them all in the right order I have at least 3 chances to sort this out before I hit plan D. Plan D involves jumping up and down on the garment and then putting it on the window sill for the cat to sleep on. That way at least someone wins!

So, in the interest of equality I also have a knitting snafu dilemma as well. As I started increasing for the sleeves on Brights 2 I started wondering if it was going to matter if my eyelets didn't quite match up due to the increased stitches. Obviously I subconsciously decided I'd better find out sooner rather than later because I have added a row of eyelets about 5 rows too soon.

That last row of eyelets – the ones that are staring me in the face and mocking me – that should be a row of ribbing and the row that I have got to, that should be a row of eyelets. Yep, it took me that long to notice. Now I need to decide if I can live with it or if I'm going to rip back. Ripping back will involve me having to work out where I got to with the increases which is a pain but living with it may drive me mad. I've tried telling myself it is on the back so at least I won't see it, but I'll just imagine that everyone is staring at my back wondering how I could wear such a shonky garment – aargh! I think I'll let it rest for a few days while I try to forgive it for being wrong and then I'll deal with it.

Grumble

After being unceremoniously turfed out of my sewing room (again) I have spent the last couple of days relocating my bits and bobs into the living room and trying to set everything up in a way that is workable for me but isn't totally in the way. I have tucked myself into a little corner, quite neatly I think, but I can't really do much until I get a lamp that will fit in the corner with me. I did sit down on Sunday and attempt to get on with my tunic dress, but I made a total dogs dinner of sewing the yoke on to the front – again - and then found I couldn't see a flaming thing when I tried to unpick it. I will try and crack on again tonight, but if I go blind in the process you are more than welcome to say I told you so!

So does this mean I have got loads of knitting done instead? Of course not, that would be too easy! I am just about to start increasing for the arms on Brights 2, which sounds impressive but really isn't because the arms pretty much sprout from the waistband on this one. Unfortunately there have been distractions the last few days. Obviously sorting out the sewing corner has been one, especially as it all involved a trip to Ikea to find a smaller table and some drawer to hide all my fabric in. We've also been totally needing a new mattress for ages so most of yesterday evening was spent trailing round shops self-consciously lying on beds and trying to avoid the gaze of overzealous sales people who feel that they need to explain that you need to lie on a bed to test it. Really?!? Oh and then there is Secret Agent Clank. Yes, once again all my creativity is thwarted by video games! I'm a total sucker for a platform game, throw in a cute robot and I'm doomed until I either finish the game, get stuck or grow an extra pair of hands so that I can knit and fight robotic ninja assassins at the same time. Maybe I'll get working on that one, I could make a fortune!

And yes, that is a cat bum hanging out of my chair in the pic at the top. 5 minutes that chair was there before Pootle claimed it!