Favourite Outfit

 When I was write my earlier post this week on the "Field Trip" outfit, I couldn't find the post(s) from when I first made the Be Trendy halter tops. I just had the bright idea of using the blog search function and instantly found it!  I mentioned it's a discontinued pattern so that's why I couldn't find it on their website. I wonder why they discontinued it! I love it's simplicity.

This past summer, I wore this outfit:

I love that skirt! It's New Look 6735. Original post here.  This was actually going to be the starting point for my vacation capsule wardrobe. I don't think I even took this skirt though! But really--skirt, two matching tops, grey pants, black tank top. Actually, I'd only take one matching shirt. I don't know if the pink Be Trendy matches this skirt, but it easily coordinates with white, black and grey. Two bottoms and three tops gives six outfits. Almost enough for a week. Unless you're going to Europe where it's going to rain and then go to Miami where it's going to be hot....and everywhere/everything in between LOL. 

Infinity Top and Skirt

 In the same order from Fabcycle as the previous post, I got two pieces of a stretchy knit with thin stripes. One was grey, the other a purply brown. I'm not sure what to call it. I thought it was more purple. Still haven't used it. But the grey, I got to it right away.  I knew I wanted a skirt and an infinity top.

I did a lot of googling for the top. I had done this before but I wasn't terribly happy. That fabric was not really stretchy enough. I had made it as a body suit and it was just too much work. In the summer, my SIL gave me an infinity dress from Victoria's Secret and it is amazing. I studied it carefully, how the centre fronts overlap and are folded to the inside. I watched tons of videos and realized I was trying to wear it too low--it always creeped up. The Victoria's Secret one did not have an inner tube top. I looked up infinity tops and the best I could see was there was a long body piece beneath the straps. Patterns For Pirates does have a pattern which I nearly bought but I really thought I could do it on my own (with Victoria's help).

I made the skirt first though.

I'm not really a fan of this way, it's too close fitting.

The skirt is the same pattern as the previous post. It is so comfortable. I lined the waistband with the material I had used for the original infinity top, since it's a firm knit.

Pockets! It's all about the pockets!

Although I do love colours, I also have a lot of grey items (I think a lot came from the same SIL. She often passes bags of clothes on to me and the kids!).  I wore this skirt a lot on our trip. Did I mention it's comfortable? 

I made the straps by piecing them together using French seams. I also tapered the straps quite a bit. Then I added lace to make them even longer because when I tied them, it was right at the end! And I thought the lace added a nice touch (I may have run out of the fabric too LOL).

I don't recall wearing the top very much on the trip, not as much as I thought I would. On the cruise ship, it wasn't really hot inside and outside was also cool until the last couple days. But I look forward to next summer!

Getting Caught Up

 It looks like Google has resolved the issue it had with trying to add photos to blog posts! Yay! It's been ongoing since around July (or even earlier, I wasn't getting to the blog often enough). It really put a damper on blogging.

I sewed a bit this summer! I accidentally discovered a live unboxing by Fabcycle on Facebook. They had this fabric which they called "Chaperoning a Field Trip" and I thought it was perfect for me LOL. Blue, beige and brown! With a crinkle texture to not show the wrinkles. It wasn't a huge piece, so I decided I wanted a skirt and a top. I have a lot of other blue, beige and brown clothes. And, I was planning a trip and wanted a small capsule wardrobe to pack light. Spoiler, this outfit didn't make the cut.

I wanted a skirt with a wide band and pockets. Basically, my Sunset Loungers but in skirt form. I went with another Sinclair Patterns pattern, the Mia Skirt and I added pockets from the Sunset Loungers.

It was going well until I added the elastic for the waist.

When I went to seam it and turn it right side out (I think that was the next step) and I realized what I did wouldn't work. Had to unpick the elastic and re-do.

For the top, I really couldn't decided! I had the Fleur top from George + Ginger but my teen said it was outdated. I also didn't really have enough. I didn't have any coordinating fabric that I felt matched well enough (I'm picky!). I ended up with another Trendy Halter by Ellie & Mac--but I can't find it on their website. I'm pretty sure that's where it's from. I've made it before in black and pink.  I can't even find those posts right now. 

It's a pretty bare shirt at the back! The front is lined (or I half line it and put elastic in so it's like a shelf bra). I made the ties extra long.

I have this brown cardi I machine knit years ago and it looks good with it. Those sandals....I loved them but Megan stepped on my heel while we were shopping and they died. And yes, I do stand with my head tilted a lot. Might be from flute playing, might be related to the scoliosis that makes my left shoulder lower.

The fabric is mainly polyester so it's a bit sweaty at times, but I love it. I just didn't wear it much in the summer because my house was cold and it felt a little dressy (it has a sheen to it). I didn't take it on the trip because I dropped the brown/blue capsule and went with black/white/grey with a few hits of bright pink. 

Sweater-Shrug-Shawl-Scarf

 Back in August I saw a call for testers in a Canadian crochet group on FB. These scarf-shrug patterns were suddenly really popular and this was a crochet version. I was really curious how they were made and worn. I've posted about shrugs before but I don't tend to grab them when my arms are cold, I just grab a sweater or cardigan. I was also planning for our upcoming trip to Barcelona and cruise and thought I could make something useful since we'll have anything from 0C to 30C weather! 

The pattern called for LionBrand Pound of Love but we were told we could use anything that got gauge. It would take 2 balls worth, with some leftover. I did not have anything in my stash that I thought would work well though I had some I would like to have a shawl made in. I decided I would actually buy the yarn. It was Labour Day weekend, so I had to wait till the Tuesday to get it. These are some serious balls!

I was dealing with some emotional stress, and not feeling well physically, and it was like I had never crocheted before. It starts out with crochet ribbing, which I know I've done before, but there was some wording in the pattern that confused me. My rows grew, then shrunk.

 I struggled with the stitch as it was similar to a half double decrease but my yarn kept splitting and I couldn't get into a smooth rhythm. I finally got through the first sleeve and headed into the body section.

This part was pretty much a breeze. I did type out the pattern so it was easier for me to read (it was written in columns and I found having to go up and down three rows of instructions for each row a challenge). 

The body part felt like it was taking forever. The pattern states 76" for the Large body, or about 1.8 times your chest. This felt huge for me. A few other testers also felt this was a bit long. I think I ended up at about 72". 

The second sleeve went much faster but wasn't without its own challenges. 

I really liked how I sewed up the seam on the first sleeve.

Invisible on the outside, and nearly invisible on the inside. 

I wasn't as happy with the other sleeve. My foundation chain looked terrible, I probably needed to do one more row on the sleeve too. I ended up with a sort of flap on the inside.

I just whip stitched that little flap down so it would lay smooth. Not a big deal.

It's actually draped loose on my back. I don't think I can wear it like this (and of course, not over this tank top). I need to play with it a bit more.

No scarf tails to get in your lunch or zipped up in your zipper!

I like my sleeves up a bit from my wrists, but I think the pattern designed it for wrist length. There's a big difference in size between my wrist and my upper arm so it doesn't work well pushed up like this.

In the end, although it's pretty cool, it weighs a ton. Okay, it's 550gr. Definitely not packing it for our trip, but I could wear it. I think though I'll just use the other shawl that I made this summer. 

I do like the versatility of this design, though of course, just like the infinity dresses, I can't remember how to do all the styles LOL. 

It's live on Ravelry! https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/diamond-scarf-sweater

Yarn In:  908gr + 1182gr = 2090gr
Yarn Out: 550gr = 2055gr
Balance: 35gr more in than out
Costs: $24.55 + $20 = $44.55

Red, Pink, Purple

 It's been an interesting summer. I'm back to daily supply (substitute teaching) list. Let's leave it at that. 

Another red scarf in the bag. This one is crochet, a worsted weight, 4 rows of Double Crochet, and 2 rows of Double Crochet in the summer fine yarn I've used before (I have a giant cone). As I worked it, the fine yarn sections would contract inwards, and the scarf had this interesting bubble effect. It made it rather narrow though but I didn't know if blocking hard would straighten it out. I stretched and steamed and it seems to be behaving now.  99grams.

I finished the really large shawl I've been working on since mid-March (I think). I don't remember exactly where I found the pattern but it's a drop stitch lace, similar to the shrug I made last summer). You increase on one edge until you get to the width you want, then knit a wide section, then decrease. I wanted a large stole to wrap around me and almost be blanket like. It was really hard to stretch it out on the needles to check the width though. It's two strands of fine coned yarn (Spinrite tent sale?), and the black cone has a sticker indicating it's likely 50% wool, 50% acrylic and made in Spain. For those that understand the numbers, it's a 2/16. The other strand is a white and black plied together, totally unknown fiber. Originally I was going to use just it, but recognized that would take me a long time LOL.

I could have made it a little bit wider, but that straight section felt like it was taking forever! The decrease section got faster and faster, but I decided I didn't want to wind more balls of the yarn together so that I didn't end up winding too much and have a ball left over that I would never use, so I was carrying around two large cones of yarn. In the end, while the shawl is quite long, it's almost too long in the inc/dec sections. So, after washing and blocking I decided to cut off part of the narrowing end. 

Yup. Snip snip along the top of one pattern repeat. Gently pick out the stitches until back at one complete row and then I went back a few more rows to get to the start of the repeat. I casted off in pattern. This makes one long increasing section, a wide section, and a decreasing section that comes to a blunt end. 

It was at 299gr before I chopped the end off, that took off 12 gr. I'm going to keep it as 300gr because it's not like I can re-use that 12gr.

I'm also working on tiny bears for a local charity. I did two in a marled purple. I thought I grabbed the next size needles for the second purple bear but it seems I might have actually grabbed the next size smaller. They're the Bill and Ben Twin Bears from www.craftbit.com. That pattern sucks though, so I re-wrote it. If you'd like a copy, click HERE. There still might be some errors, so just let me know!

Disco Bear on the right. Sometimes they get their own personality. I see I forgot the mouth on the one on the left!

I got a large donation of yarn and the pink chenille and the purple were in it. The charity requests no animal fibers. I could not find a mid brown in my stash that wasn't at least some bit wool, but it was washable....I didn't want to risk it anyway. I don't like this brown but oh well.

Cut little bunny tail and freestyled floppy ears

Disco bear LOL. I don't know what happened when I sewed him together. The lower half looks like the toddler potty dance, the upper half is waving to the teacher to get their attention. 100gr for all the bears.

I bought 6 balls of red worsted yarn from Facebook Marketplace for more red scarves.

That's 1186gr of new yarn that I don't think I'm going to get knit this fall, but I'll be ready to go for next year. I was rooting through my bins and found a few balls of red Astra I had bought when I was making custom Christmas stockings. It's been awhile. Do I dare use it for scarves?

I've also been sewing but I'll save that for another day.  I've been trying to blog this post for a month but Blogger, on this account, has not been working for inserting pictures on my laptop. I can use a different account, and post pictures in the blog I have on that account (Ontteachertracy if you're into music teaching). I was down in the basement doing my morning yoga and thought I'd give the desktop a try. So at least I can post this way. It feels so retro LOL. Stuck in the cold (Air conditioning) basement!

Oh, and I'm test crocheting something and needed to buy yarn for that but I'll save that for another post.

Yarn In:  1182gr
Yarn Out: 1005gr + 500gr = 1505gr
Balance: 323gr more OUT than in
Costs: $20

This is such a falsified total LOL. All those bears were from donated yarn which I didn't count in my Yarn In total LOL.

Little Bit of This, Little Bit of That

 I have been working on a black/charcoal shawl/stole for what feels like forever. I think I started in early March--I think I worked on it at Lucy's Iron Ring ceremony (a really cool Canadian tradition for graduating engineers). 

It kept Rob warm at a "Brass on the Grass" concert in June (our local brass band, The Whitby Brass Band holds outdoor concerts in the summer)

It kept Megan and I very warm during Lucy's extremely cold graduation ceremony, in a big arena on the hottest day of the year. It's been on numerous road trips. It just feels like it's been FOREVER. It's probably wider than I realize, and I wanted to make sure it was long enough to really wrap around me. I've started the decrease section, and I finally feel like it might end!

I also finished (quite a while ago), another shrug that I had worked on during our New Brunswick road trip last year. It was supposed to be the easier of the two that I worked on during that trip, because it's just stockinette. But do I do easy? LOL. Every once in awhile I'd notice I had done a purl row on the knit side. It's knit cuff to cuff, and one arm ended up being quite a bit narrower than the other arm. I unstitched the seam, and added basically a long short row gusset under the arm. I added a ribbed band all the way around, but tried to incorporate shaping but it just didn't work and I think I undid that and just kept it as ribbing. In the end, I haven't worn it much--it's very warm, and even though I wear a lot of turquoise, it just doesn't work. 

It bled a lot when I washed it! Such a pretty colour.

I think this picture was to show the inside, one edge of the short row gusset I added to get more width in the arm. The sleeves are not quite wrist length, and this starts about 3 inches up from the wrist edge. It's a good thing it was a very textured, colourful boucle.

I don't have any shots of it on. Just scroll down a few posts and look at the other shrug. This one is just solid, no lace pattern. It was made with Mystique Mohair Boucle, 12ply, Hand Painted by Jan Gilray. I still have a 100gr skein (and a small ball). The tag says $9.99 but I think I bought it at Value Village. The shrug used 190gr (so somewhere is about a 10gr ball).

My middle kid Lucy and her boyfriend sometimes go to cat sit for his brother, and they wanted to take him some new mice, so I made a few. I couldn't find the pattern I used before...perhaps I should have searched this blog LOL. I don't even remember how many I made, or how much yarn they used...but let's just say 50gr.

And lastly, Megan is going to stay with her boyfriend and his aunt & uncle for 5 days and wanted to take a felted duck for their dog, so that got done last week. A whopping  112gr used up. 

I never really liked the feet in the pattern so I experimented. I tried short rows to make the points, and I tried a sort of chevron inc/dec pattern (like on afghans). Not happy with either, but oh well, I'm sure the dog doesn't care.

I did receive a donation of yarn for making blankets and baby items. I'm not going to count it right now, as I'm not sure how much I will actually keep. I'll get to that soon. 

Yarn In:  0gr
Yarn Out: 653gr + 352gr (this post)=  1005gr
Balance: 1005gr more OUT than in
Costs: $0

A Little Donation

 Since my LTO ended early, I've still been at the school, working as a supply/sub. When I go in, I now have to sign in at the office, and there's usually the same teachers there hanging out (there's air conditioning). The other day, one had a basket of assorted yarn. I asked what for--they were doing weaving for Father's Day. She wasn't all that thrilled with the colours of yarn that were donated. Oh, I said, I have a basement FULL of yarn. I'll bring you some. So I did...

Almost a pound! It was just a quick trip through my baskets that were most accessible. Her class isn't huge too, so I didn't know how much she needed. She was thrilled! I pick more manly colours, and lots of textures.

Yarn In:  0gr
Yarn Out: 217 + 436gr =  653gr
Balance: 653gr more OUT than in
Costs: $0

Red Scarves

 I had intended to knit as many red scarves for World AIDS Day as I could this year. I've contributed in the past, but then I think they weren't collecting during Covid, and then life moved on. I don't have a ton of red yarn, but I do have some, and I do have a giant cone of very fine red yarn.

This one is two different thick, textured yarns; one was a Bernat yarn, like Illusion, or Homespun. 134grams.

I did a brioche, so it's pretty thick and dense. Cozy.

This one is a generic red worsted weight acrylic, knit 4 rows, then 2 stockinette rows of the very thin yarn. Total, 83gr. 

One edge has kind of a pointy effect; the other edge is where the yarns were carried up and is straighter. 

I will be making some more. I think I have enough for a thickish one, maybe with random yarns, and who knows how many with the very thin yarn but I'll machine knit those.

Yarn In:  0gr
Yarn Out: 217gr
Balance: 217gr more OUT than in
Costs: $0