I Sewed!

 I finally decided I needed to sew something. It still took me a bit of time to get to it, then even after it was done, I didn't even get to wear it right away! 

It's New Look 6807. I had made it before, but apparently it's been awhile. I looked at the tracing I had made, and compared it to the actual pattern and it wasn't all that much different. So I just went back to the original pattern, and made, I think, a 14 in the shoulders and back and upper sleeves, and a 16 from the chest down. 

I don't seem to have a picture of it, but you can see it in this YouTube Short during Me Made May 2026:  https://youtube.com/shorts/6X2yBYAHlW0?si=iUPwHTPkkQ_usiqf  

I have a pair of pants cut out but I haven't gotten to sewing, because Megan had a somewhat unexpected trip home and asked me to mend her welding jacket.

I used some twill behind it and mended it. I also did some on the sleeves, and fixed the inside pocket. It's a pretty basic jacket. I was thinking I should make her one with a bit more shaping for a woman.

But now she wants me to make her a new welding cap when she comes home next weekend. 

Handknit Socks

 About two weeks before Christmas, I asked my middle daughter, Lucy, what we should get her boyfriend for Christmas. She mentioned wool socks, because he was working outdoors and complaining his feet were cold. Since we knew I couldn't handknit a pair of socks in two weeks, we opted to get some store bought wool socks of various styles, and to wrap up the socks in progress. Apparently, his first knitted gift was also a wrapped up work in progress (hat and mitts, a couple years ago). 

I picked out this dark green from my stash. According to this blog, I bought it at the last Kitchener-Waterloo Knitter's Fair that I went to, in 2008. I didn't know at that time that I wouldn't be living in the area by the next show, so it was a good thing I went, AND bought yarn. This yarn was from the Boo-Boo Bin at Sweet Sheep. I can't find any indication they are still in existence. Although still on Ravelry, the links don't work. This yarn had obvious flecks of a bright green from where the skein ties were too tight. It was only $6. I didn't realize until I got into the socks that it was basically a two tone stripe! Bonus.

The project followed me around for 3 months. It was just a simple 2x2 rib. I actually used ChatGPT to help give me the stitch and heel counts this time, and it worked out. 

I washed them up, and the soak water, and the rinse water were both very green. I hope he didn't have green feet after wearing them! I finished them March 11 so he could wear them to the Toronto Zoo on March 13, when we were expecting another snowstorm.

See the striping? Cool! I didn't even notice that when the yarn was skeined.

There's not really much more to show. I used grey for the heels and toes in case he wears them out, it will be easy to replace. They were knitted top down, two at a time on Magic Loop. I was working on them while waiting for a doctor's appointment, and a more senior lady asked me what I was knitting. She knew about Magic Loop, but not two at a time. She was really impressed. It looks impressive when you're working on them, but I have to admit, I still have a hard time starting and will usually start them separately and then put onto one circular needle once I'm sure it's going okay. These socks took 94gr so I do have a small bit of the green left.

Yarn In: 500gr

Yarn Out: 94gr + 2916gr = 3,010

Balance:  2510 gr more OUT than in

Costs:  $15.81

Twisted Headbands!

 My youngest got a new winter coat, a lovely teal Carhartt jacket featuring motifs by an American Indigenous artist. She made a comment about wanting a wide headband with a twist in the front. Momma to the rescue! 

I found a teal yarn (I think it's a washable wool from Wal-Mart, like 15 years ago). Of course, I can't do just plain. Megan didn't seem to want a headband that exactly matched her jacket as well.  I was going to machine knit this, so why not do some patterning? I only had the Singer 327 set up and the teal yarn was going to at the absolute upper limit, so I was also testing some cone yarns. However, the 327 did not want to play. At all. I tried a couple different cast ons, but it was in a bad mood and quickly, so was I. 

I walked away with a snarled mess still on the needles. I speculated it was the sponge bar--it had been awhile since I've used it.

I got out the Singer LK150. It's been in its box, I guess since I got the Singer 155.  I just scrolled back to see when I got the 155...February 2011! I haven't had the LK150 out since then?! Actually, in that post, I have the 155 and 150 on one table. Where was the 327? I don't know, but by using the LK150 tags, I found a post from August 2017 that described having some serious issues with the LK 150. This event had been wiped from my memory!

Immediately, the LK150 was unhappy. Needles were jamming, caps were coming off and jamming in the carriage or flying across the table. I couldn't find the tools. I bent one needle in the middle, so I tried taking an end needle out to switch...and along with the needle came goo. Icky, sticky goo.  My husband pulled on it and pulled out a few inches of disintegrated sponge bar. This did not help.

I wanted to use the basic four stitch tuck pattern in the instruction book, in two colours. I cast on 25-25 stitches, based on Anna Haferman's video. I was thinking tuck makes things wider but shorter, but I couldn't remember for sure. Having 50 sts meant one extra at each side for seaming (the 4 stitch tuck needed 48 sts). 

It was really rough going. I got tired from standing on the concrete floor, wedged up between the spare fridge and the knitting machine. I couldn't find the right focal distance when needing to fix mess ups. At some point, I lost the right edge stitch but I couldn't find a dropped stitch anywhere. I did eventually find the right tools, including the 3-1 needle selector. At 160 rows, as per the video, I cast off and gave it a good stretch.

It looked short, and it was. I put it back on the machine, at the right end. I thought maybe those needles would work better. After two rows, I took it off and put it all the way to the left, where at least some of the sponge strip remained, though it was no better than in the middle. I added another 28 rows or so, but I think next time I'd do a total of 192 for our small heads. 

I sewed it up, steamed it and presented it. Her comment "I thought you were going to do it all one colour?"

I had done at least one plain row after the cast on, I think partially by accident and also because I thought it would help. The instructions say the sewing together doesn't show, so I thought the plain row wouldn't show either. Perhaps because it's stretched out, it does. 

This headband used 79gr and just for funsies, I weighed the yarn tails after sewing together, and they were 3gr, so I'm calling this 82gr!

Megan is much taller than me and this wide width is fine for her, but I saw so many of these headbands done on the plastic circular knitting machines that looked really wide. They have fixed needles though, so only by changing the yarn do you get size changes, and you can't vary the yarn too much or it looks too thin or is too hard to knit.

I order a new sponge bar on Amazon. That was interesting. There were only two or three options, with the quickest being almost a week wait and with shipping costs. Then I added a bottle of Singer sewing machine oil, and suddenly I could get it the next day, and free shipping. I do have Prime, so the original shipping costs were surprising. While waiting for it, I took out all the needles and got to cleaning it. So much dust and yuck. We couldn't find anything to really get down into the needle channel (not just the large slot, but the actual groove), so finally I took it to the shower and gave it a good blast. The needles I soaked in some water, rubbing alcohol and a drop of dish soap.

The sponge bar and oil arrived...in a large box! It took awhile to get all the needles back in. I'd get in a groove but then one would be difficult. Mine are "white" and light grey caps, but only the little disc on top, and the difference between them is negligible....until you insert them. Originally I tried to put them in different jars when I took them out, but I kept mixing up which jar was which. Next time, write it down on the jar. I gave the two piles of needles a few drops of the oil in the latch area, but I didn't do them individually.

At work, we did Secret Santa. We had a sheet to fill out with our favourite drinks, snacks, smells, what we love but don't buy, what we can't live without and something we collect. For collecting, I put Diet Coke in cans (I put it for all the categories LOL), and yarn. I received a gift bag from my Secret Santa, and there was this gorgeous skein of yarn. They obviously knew me (some of the teachers are new, and many are part time. There's some I don't even see) because it's a great match for my bright pink coat! It's 100% acrylic, so I was stumped on what to make. Not mittens, but I could do more hand warmers. I didn't really need a scarf or hat, though they are both options. Maybe I'll make a cowl with the leftover.

I really hate Blogger's formatting. In the last post, I had copied a section from a previous post and it messed up the rest of the post. Here, I had written that paragraph above earlier on, but decided to move it down by copy and paste. Blogger wants it to be centered, even though I keep asking for it to be left aligned. It won't align this paragraph to the left either, even though it's showing it's left aligned. 

The picture on the label shows wide striping, but doesn't say how stitches that is over. It also shows greens, but my skein was definitely more turquoise. I decided I would do two row stripes, using each end of the skein. I cast on 20-20 and started with T4. I wanted it a bit narrower than Megan's. I realized it was too tight of tension though, so starting at row 57, I loosened the tension by one click every two rows. I kept it at 6* until row 104 and then started tightening the tension every two rows by one click. Because the two ends gets sewn together, they had to match. I knit to row 161, which was done with T9 and then a loop through loop cast off.

Quick grocery store selfie to send to Megan.

The sewing up is really interesting. I had thought, before seeing the tutorials, that there must be a keyhole. No! Watch the end of that Anna Haferman's video to see how it's done.

You can clearly see the looser tension in the middle section.

Here again you can see how the tension gets looser towards the left. I have issues with hats and headbands not laying right because of my glasses. I try to cover my forehead, but then it's weird on my glasses. Try to cover my ears, and the headband goes up high and doesn't cover my forehead. The way this headband twists at the centre front makes it even more narrow, so I guess the extra width they usually have, is needed. Or, don't wear it when it's freeze-your-forehead-skin cold.

The part knitted at 6* has a tension of about 5st/inch and 5.75 rows/inch. I think for general use, I'd do 5* or 6. The 6* does have nice drape but is verging on too loose. It used 67gr and I have 62 gr left. Do I make fingerless gloves? What's the latest tea on wearing matching items? Or should I make a hat to donate? How big of hat can I make? Some quick math reveals I have 124.26yds left. A quick Google search shows that'll be enough for a baby hat. Really, I thought there was more left in the skein! 

Yarn In:  141 grams

Yarn Out: 2466gr + 82gr + 66gr = 2636gr

Balance:  2495gr more OUT than in

Costs:  $0

And that's a wrap on 2025 (and Blogger changed the font!). 

New Life

 Many years ago I made a beautiful brown lace tank top. It was such an indulgence for me, but it just didn't work out for me. At some point I gave it to Lucy, because she had a pair of brown pants. Recently, she actually wore it to work! I was so happy!

She didn't really want to pose and be on the blog, but how could I not?

I now the pictures are a little fuzzy, but she wasn't as excited as she was when she was 8. The most interesting thing I noticed though, is that she had it on inside out! I looked for the shoulder seams, and there were none. I'm not surprised I grafted the shoulders, but it still looked good around the armholes and neckline. She really thought this was the right side.

It looks so good on her! I'm so thrilled she's wearing it, even if it's inside out!

It's March?

 I can't believe it's March. 

I have been knitting--we've had several road trips to the kids' university/colleges, my mom's place, etc. But nothing has gotten finished. 

I had some sort of reaction to a scarf that I made a year (?) ago. It's mainly wool (I think), and I had started using a retinol product, and always made sure to do my neck. I broke out in a rash...weirdly, I had been using the product for a month, and I'd been using the scarf for a couple months, so I don't know what happened. I stopped both, and have now restarted the retinol with no issue. I haven't worn the scarf again. It's a fairly rough wool.

I have been working on brioche mittens to match the hat I made myself, but every time I knit them (in the truck), I get congested. The hat makes my forehead itch. Sigh. I've become very tender in my old age.

Anyway. 

This school year, I was hired as a 0.5 LTO position--mornings only, teaching music from grades 4-8 at the school I accidentally worked full time at last year. In January, I was asked to also work the afternoons, teaching math and science to grade 7/8. The science was no problem, but I can not do math. It was supposed to be a week. They tried to find a teacher to replace another teacher so she could do this job, but there were no applicants. So the teacher that was the afternoon 0.5 LTO (the other half of my position--neither of us could do the whole position), was going to take over, but they had to find someone to take over her English classes. I ended up spending all of January teaching math and science. Often, another teacher would come in to do the math while I covered their class. However, the kids were a challenge to start with, and got worse as the month went on (mainly one class). I had an actual, on the ground, fist fight break out near the end of January. So I said that was it, Jan 31. I'm back to half days, with a few afternoons also supplying. Behaviours have gotten terrible. It's sad. 

Then, just before the long weekend in Feb (like, Feb 15?) I found out the teacher I was replacing, was going to come back early!! WTF?! I had planned the entire year, with projects that build upon what they learned. I was learning digital composition to teach them! The original teacher is more old school--paper and pencil, listening logs to boring songs. She's been on a return to work program, so she's been coming in every other morning for two weeks, but not in the classrooms yet. She'll start that soon, observing, helping with small groups, etc. I told two of the grade 7/8 classes today, and many were almost as upset as me. I was really looking forward to "graduating them" since I've known them for 4 or so years. Other intermediate teachers only know them 2 years; I got to know them earlier because of being a supply teacher. 

I had been thinking of opening a Teachers Pay Teachers store this summer, but I'm going to start early. It sounds like my last day of this position will be March 22. We have a week off after next week. The store will be called Stay Musical. I have started a blog  and can be found on Twitter with the same name as the blog (OntTeacherTracy). On Instagram, I am www.instagram.com/staymusical_ I'm not giving up on this blog, but considering how little I knit, there might not be a lot of posts. It's been an awesome 18 years!

Memorial Blanket

 In 2019, my Dad died, and then less than 5 months later, my brother's dog was (accidentally) killed and then a week later, his wife died. Nancy had PKD--Polycystic Kidney Disease and had been on dialysis for a long time (7 years?) while waiting for a transplant. Shortly after, I found a bag of purple Bernat Softee Chunky (I think. I can't seem to find any of the labels) at my favourite store in my Mom's small town. I wanted to make a blanket to donate to the dialysis unit where Nancy spent so much time. Purple was her favourite colour. 

I started with corner to corner crochet. I found a graph to make a heart in the corner, where I thought I could somehow add her info. However, I had no yarn that worked well with the purple--too smooth, too thin, wrong colour, etc. Then I tried numerous things on the SK155 knitting machine. Nothing was making a blanket that would be big enough to be useful. 

I finally settled on a simple tuck pattern, making three panels. It's still a little narrow. It could be used as a wrap too.

I decided against the Bickford Seam because I worried that it could lose it's shape. I did a mattress stitch, using half a stitch on each edge. It doesn't show too badly on the wrong side (though no side is really the wrong side with tuck).

I gave it a heavy steaming, to flatten the edges and stretch it out some. It relaxed the texture a bit (no pictures), but I think it's still nice.

I have thought about how to add her name or info. I looked into doing heat transfer with my Cricut. I don't have any experience and I don't know how it'd hold up to be in a hospital facility. I thought about embroidery, but then I'd have to sew some sort of patch on because the blanket can't really be embroidered right on to. Probably expensive. And in the end, no one except maybe some nurses would even know who she was. So I'm leaving it purple; that says enough.

I haven't gotten to donate it yet. I'm not sure if they'll take anything right now. It's ready though, when the time is right. Sign your organ donor card and let your family know. Nancy was in her mid-40s, her daughters were in 16 and 21. An organ donation would have changed their lives.

Yarn In:  1400gr

Yarn Out: 600gr + 3764gr = 4364gr

Balance:  2964gr more OUT than in

Cost:  $0, $0/day

Quick and Easy Project

 Way back last summer, a weekly email from Cricut included a link to a tutorial on making a subway tile backsplash. I sent it to my Mom. She's been trying to re-do her backsplash, but wanted something non-permanent, cheap, and easy. This seemed to fit the bill and she was excited to give it a go.  I found some non-permanent vinyl at Happy Crafters in a soft orange. Yes, she wanted orange.  My brother was painting the laundry room so he painted the backsplash to represent the mortar.

I took measurements while we were there dropping off the dog before our cottage trip. I took some time during the vacation to figure out what size a tile should be. The general idea for a subway tile is that it is twice as long as it is high. However, I wanted to minimize cutting and fitting on the wall, and get the most effective use of the 12"x12" sheets. I finally created a size, I'm not sure what it is now but I was able to fit 8 on a sheet with hardly any waste. In the tutorial, she mentions 4 or 5. I bought 30 sheets because I calculated 28.75 sq ft. I was worried if that would be enough. I knew I'd have to trim some, and would those trimmings be usable in other spots? What if I mess some up? I cut them out and didn't get to weeding them right away (which isn't really necessary).

After it had sat for awhile, the vinyl sort of shrunk from the cut lines. When it was fresh, it was hard to see the cut lines, but in the picture above, you can clearly see each tile.

Easy weeding, but it added up to a lot of waste. I do hate that about vinyl crafting.

All done! We were planning a surprise visit during Thanksgiving weekend and I thought maybe I could get it done.

It took a bit to figure out the best way to do it, keep them straight, create the grout spacing. I started over on this end because it's a short wall, with something in front usually LOL

I noticed right away, that the non-permanent vinyl is not opaque. It's a bit translucent and feels thinner. This meant that the defects in the wall she was hoping to cover, showed up. You can see this in the tile above the outlet.

And...this section was all I got done. And then life, surgery, recovery, more COVID restrictions...finally I decided I just needed to go for a day. Which turned into two nights. I had other things (food, vitamins, electrical panel) to deliver that she needed, so I wasn't totally breaking the rules!  

I had started with 1/4" grout line above the wood strip. However, as I went over, I couldn't keep that, and keep the tiles straight. It was frustrating. I didn't want to trim tiles for the bottom row, so I had to fudge and play.

I couldn't get right into the corner behind the TV. The angle that I needed to twist/stand/lay down at was too uncomfortable for my left ankle. 

We were left with a lot of tiles left. Maybe 10 sheets? Not sure. 

So this quick and easy project, took six months to (almost) finish. LOL. She's happy and still determined that she wants an orange backsplash. 

Rob's Turn

After I had sewn a few things for myself, I decided it was Rob's turn. I had picked up this sprocket pattern cotton lycra from a de-stash (I think). It wasn't quite enough for a full shirt though, darn tall guy. With help from one of the teens, I chose a dark brown for the sleeves. This is the Zesty Tee, from the old Pickle Toes Patterns (now with a new name).

The cotton-lycra was fairly stiff at first, but after a few washings, it's quite soft now. Wish I knew where it was from originally

Looks pretty good. He's not sure of the dark sleeves, but whatever. 

Nice to see him in shirts without big holes and stains!

Then, one night, he says "Can you make me a tank top?". I had been thinking about that! I found that Thread Theory has a free one, the Arrowhead.  I picked out some bright yellow, and the periodic table fabric for the trims.

He was trying to do a muscle man  pose

Yes, it's bright!

Pretty good coverage in the back. Then he says, "I wasn't sucking in. Take it again". So I did LOL

The teens don't want to be seen with him in this. LOL. We do make him untuck it. 

I also made him a mossy green one. The problem is, it's too cold in the house to wear them LOL. Now I'll have to make him a cardigan!!

New Dance Outfit

For a long time I've wanted to make Megan skating outfits. She's been resistant. I had an idea of making a basic bodysuit and then various skirts, for the different dances. Now that she's getting towards the end of her dance tests LOL, she agreed.  What really helped was that I got an offer of fabric from https://fabric-online.com/. I thought making her a skating dress would be a great way to show their fabric and make something new.

We went to www.jalie.com and browsed. I liked the long sleeve Tessa  but she actually wanted sleeveless so I felt it better to go with a sleeveless pattern to start with. We settled on the Tank Skating Dress. I opted to get the PDF version since I didn't want to wait for the mail. Well.

I ordered the pattern on January 17. I order the black fabric (Dream Performance Athletic Knit) from Halo Fabric Addicts . Some awesome fabrics there!! This black is thick, squat-proof and feels great. That was ordered on January 3.

I went to Staples on Feb 1 to print. It wouldn't print the right size. I thought maybe I had saved it wrong. Went home, made sure to save it through Adobe. Went back, and it was still wrong. Went to the Facebook Sewing with Jalie page to inquire. Turns out that you can't print Jalie patterns at the self service at Staples. Now what? My printer wasn't working. I googled for copyshops that did A0/drafting prints and found a franchise shop (not UPS). I sent in a request for an estimate through their website. Got an automated response saying they'd send it within 24 hours. I waited a few days and sent an email. Got a response quickly with an estimate. Not bad, I thought, so I went ahead and sent in the files (I had bought two patterns). After a few days I sent an email asking how long it would take. It was ready the next day.  That was Feb 19. When I picked up, they were a little more than the quote had said. They came to $15 and change and the quote said $13. I didn't have it with me, so I just sucked it up.

I had to trace her sizes. Cut that out. I wanted to do a thong since the skirts would have panties attached and I didn't want her to have to worry about conflicting panty lines. The leotard was pretty easy to actually sew, and fit her well.  I did have an issue with the thong and elastic. I forgot that the thong pattern I was using was intended for a tiny band added. I was doing elastic, which gets sewn on, then flipped to the inside and topstitched. If I had done that, the elastic would have ended up over lapping on the  thong part. So I just sewed it down and didn't flip it in. Also makes it a bit smoother if she wears it under leggings.

On to the skirt. Oh my gosh. We went to Fabricland on February 22. We were also looking for her solo dance custome fabric and it was overwhelming. She told me her next dance was "tango-ish", so we were looking at red and black. She liked the idea of red chiffon with a black lay overlap. An assymetrical skirt. And the lace had a nice scalloped edge. Okay.

Well. OMG. The skirt was killing me. My first attempt, the long side just sagged inwards and there wasn't much "fullness". I tried another version, using a flouncy border piece so the scalloped edge was still usable. She didn't really like that either. I was out of the lace.  I have pictures, but for some reason they're not in my Google photos.

Then she played me the music. Ummmm. Not tango-ish at all. Apparently they had been practicing to the "Series 8" option which is the instrumental, old-timey version that Skate Canada offer, and the vocal "Contemporary" song is much different. The first thing that came to mind when I heard it was "1970s Canadian Disco". Turns out it's an American song from the '2000s?! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H5I6y1Qvz0   I dare you. Go listen/watch.
I texted her coach for suggestions. I thought a bell bottomed pantsuit would be fun but yeah, I knew it wouldn't go over LOL. Next option was a full skirt, and the coach recommended a bright colour. Back to the store we went, March 3. She picked out this nice bright ....magenta? It's not really bright, but it's not dull either.

I found a pattern in my stash from my mother-in-law that was a full skirt. Got all set up, and found out that although the size chart went large enough (up to 18), the pattern in the envelop only went up to size 12. Argh. Thankfully, I didn't have to add much. And in the end, I think I had to take out most of that because she didn't need so much ease.

The skirt pattern calls for a side zipper. I was doing a knit band for the waist, so could I get away with no zipper? Well, no. Not exactly. But how is this going to work with attached panties? Much thinking, and ripping, and I got it done.

Hemming was a nightmare. Well, not the actual stitching, but chiffon! It grows! It does all kinds of weird things! It ended up being way too long and not even!  And Megan kept saying she wanted it shorter. Usually dance skirts are on the longer side. I hung it and trimmed, I laid it out on the floor and marked it and trimmed. In the end, the chiffon matches up pretty close, but I think her right side is a bit longer. The actual stitching was easy. I was going  to do a rolled hem, but didn't really like it, so I went with a narrow, 3 needle hem.

See how it's a bit longer on her right?

It swished so nicely when she skated though! She said it kept going between her legs and bugging her. I wish she had been able to have a test run before the test day. The first go round of the dance was a bit rough but the judge had them go around again and she was able to pass!

I also made her a skinny tie for her hair.

Megan felt the need to add crystals. This was also new territory. She wanted to glue them on, but I did some research and decided we needed to "Hot Fix" crystals. We got our coupon and went to Michaels. There was a cheap Hot Fix "gun" (?) in the crafting section but we weren't keen on it. We looked at the Swarovski  one and liked it better. It is a lot more, but with the coupon (a rare 40% one!), it brought it to about the same price and seemed like a much better device. The cheap crystals were also not suitable so she picked out some Swarovski crystals. However, once she got them out of the package, she realized they had a pink tint to them. Fine for this outfit, and really, I'm sure no one else will notice if there's a pink tint to the crystals when she's wearing, say, a green skirt.

She tested on March 11 and I was finishing up the tie that morning. It ended up being way more rushed that we originally thought, but the end result is much better than the original plan.
I wish I could attach a video of her test. I have posted it on my FB page but not sure if it's public. Maybe it's time to update YouTube LOL.

EDIT---Added on YouTube  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-jfNGgAFjs