FO: Nathalie

I bet you thought I'd forgotten about this one! After failing to finish it before the start of the Outfit Along I ended up putting it aside for the duration and only picked it up again a few days ago. In the past I've put projects aside only to go back to them and find that I have absolutely no idea where I've got to and what to do next but I was pleasantly surprised to find that I'd made it very clear where I'd got to on this one. I was knitting the sleeves two at a time and I'd got about half way so I didn't have much left to do at all.

After that there was just a bit of seaming to do. The main body is all knit in one piece but the sleeves are knit flat so they need to be seamed after they're set in. The shoulders also needed seaming as well as the centre of the collar before it is sewn down at the back of the neck. All in all, fairly painless although still a little more seaming than I like to do!

Once I'd finished and popped it on I wasn't entirely sure I liked it but the next morning I gave it a quick steam blocking and wore it to work. Every time I saw myself in the mirror I found I liked it a bit more and but lunchtime I'd pretty much decided that it was my favourite cardigan in the world. It's the perfect level of slouchy without constantly falling off because the arms fit nicely. The colour is pretty neutral but not boring, the cotton and linen mix gives the yarn a sheen which is almost silvery and really lovely. It also makes it a great summer cover up if you live in the land of unpredictable weather like me.

I've mentioned the pattern before, being a DROPS pattern it was basically a scary looking wall of text and it was well worth taking the time to write it out in a simpler format that I could follow. There was nothing difficult in the pattern but the format is difficult to work from so I would definitely recommend rewriting it in sections. I know some people avoid DROPS patterns because they're difficult but really they're just presented awkwardly and they have loads of patterns that I like the look of. Here is my DROPS bundle in my Ravelry faves if you're at all interested. Next up though is a completely DROPS free zone, a Driftwood sweater in Rowan Calmer.

Pattern: DROPS 146-1 "Nathalie"

Yarn: DROPS Bomull Lin - 53% cotton 47% linen in grey blue

 

What's WIPing and a new challenge

Not much new is happening on the crafting front here at the moment, I'm either plodding along on the same projects or in the preparation stages of new ones.

In knitting, I'm nearing the home straight on my Nathalie. I've finished the main body, which is great news because it was starting to get a bit unwieldy. I've just got the sleeves left, which I will probably do two at a time just to be sure they're the same length. I'd been worrying a bit about the size of this thing, it's always looked sort of massive, although I think it is because the lace part sort of crumples up when you wear it and takes up less space than it seems. I thought it was time to put Headless Hannah to good use and pinned it on her and see what I thought.

Not bad huh? Roomy, but not enormous. I'm happy with that.

In sewing, Cassie's little hat hasn't really had much of a look in. I finally got the hat top and sides of the lining to come together in a way I was happy with but I keep catching my eye on less fiddly projects. I really should get on with it though because we're heading off on our holidays in a couple of weeks and it would be nice for her to have it. We're staying in England though, so maybe I should be making her a raincoat!

I'm also just about to start cutting out for my first proper overlocker project which is a jersey dress from an old Burda mag (2/2007 to be precise). It's taken me a while to get round to tracing it because the pattern pieces are much bigger than my table and I'm too lazy to deal with that sort of nonsense, on top of which I need to add seam allowances. I do like a lot of the patterns in the Burda mags, but sometimes I wonder why I do this to myself!

And finally, in addition to all this I'm also preparing for the upcoming Outfit Along, which is basically a challenge to knit an item of clothing and sew another to make up an outfit. If you fancy taking part head to either of the blogs in the banner above or the Untangling Knots Ravelry group. I've already cut the pieces for a muslin for a dress and I'll be swatching for a cardigan soon. I'll share the details once I know whether my chosen patterns are a go. The fun starts at the beginning of June!

 

In Progress

I've got no FOs to share at the moment, so I thought I'd have a quick look at what I'm working on. Let's go!

Knitting & Crochet Blog Week VI

With only a couple of weeks to go I am in full planning mode. Last year I took a bit of a fly by the seat of my pants approach and ended up not actually finishing the whole week. To be fair to myself I had a 5 month old baby and a 2 year old so I may have been being a little optimistic about the time I could put in. This year, however, I have a bit more time to myself as the girls keep each other entertained a lot of the time and I'm back at work which gives me ample thinking time when we're not too busy. I even have a notebook. With post its in it. I mean business!

Drops 136-1 A.K.A Nathalie

This cardigan is a bit of a behemoth, but I am nearly at the point where I split the whole thing and work on the upper back and fronts separately. Working in smaller chunks will make it seem a bit more manageable and make it seem like it's going quicker, but doing the bottom part seamlessly means that there will be much less sewing up that if this had been done in pieces from the beginning. Win, win, I feel. At the moment this looks massive, but I've rechecked my gauge as I've been knitting so I'm trusting that it will be fine. Once I've got less stitches crammed on my needles I'll wrap the while thing round me, see what I've got and reassess the situation.

Simplicity 1413

I picked up this pattern recently in order to make Cassie a summer shirt and if all goes well I may consider running one up for Stu too. Nothing like matching Daddy/Daughter clothes. Not sure Stu would appreciate the fabric I've chosen for Cassie's version though!

I love it! I've a feeling this isn't going to be my neatest bit of work, but hey, it's for Cassie and she doesn't stay still long enough for anyone to notice that her collar is a little puckered.

Simplicity 1453

I bought this pattern intending to make at least the dress and the little top but I jumped straight in with the hat. It seemed like a quick little project to satisfy my need for an FO. Unfortunately pinning the hat top to the side just about did me in and this went in time out for a couple of days. Intellectually I understand that it doesn't fit together at the edges until you take seam allowance into account, but I just couldn't get it right. In the end I stopped fussing and just went ahead and sewed it without pinning and whadd'ya know I nearly had it. It took me a little bit to get into the swing of it so I had a little excess at the end and unpicked, but next time I will totally nail it.

So a few irons in the fire, but nothing unmanageable so hopefully I'll have FOs to share really soon.

 

What's in progress?

Now that Lady Kina is finally done it's time to move on....to another cotton cardigan! I've had DROPS 136-1 otherwise known as Nathalie on my to do list for a while. I bought the yarn, DROPS Bomull-Lin, the actual recommended yarn no less, last year during a sale and it's been taking up so much room in my stash since then that it was definitely time to use it.

The pattern, being a DROPS pattern, looks a little overwhelming. Their approach to pattern writing leans towards walls of text with loads of stuff all going on at once. It's actually really straightforward once you break it all down but I highly recommend sitting down with a pen and paper and rewriting the instructions into steps that are most intuitive for you.

Sewing wise I'm currently working on a Victoria Blazer from By Hand London. I'm using some grey and pink pinstriped suiting for the shell and some slightly horrendous snakeskin shines stuff for the lining. My sister asked me why I even own that fabric and I have entirely no idea. It seemed like a good idea at the time and I sort of like the idea of it as a lining, like a secret touch of bad taste on the inside!

I'm just about to sew up the sleeves, then I need to attach the collar and lapels, insert the lining and set in the sleeves. Hopefully that will be achievable this weekend and then I'll have the perfect garment for the sunny but slightly windy weather we are having here at the moment.