Knits: Purple Capecho

Well, mumsy's capecho is 95% done. Here it is in its almost finished glory lol. I had to wait for her to try it on as I've amended the sleeve...as you would already know!??? It's a bit firm around the lower part of the jacket SO I'm going to knit two corners for the lower front to square off the front of the jacket AND a triangle for   

the centre back to add width for her bust.

This is the centre back, where I'll put the extra panel to add width. I will try two pattern repeats to see how it sits....it may only need one triangle, not two.









 The pentagons across the bottom here are the from the left side of the jacket. The armhole has been formed by the second pentagon's top right hand side and the two shoulder pentagons.The two pointed peaks at the top of the armhole are the pentagons either side of the shoulder seam.

I've tried this on mum, so know it fits well. I deferred to my sewing expertise on this one, as it's been a bugger of a jacket. Gorgeous, but painful! The mistake I made, which I will remember for #3 (yes Virginia, there is a number 3! ...much to my horror) is to NOT stitch the lower panels together before doing the rib around the armhole. Mum didn't want a sleeve, preferring a ribbed band.....all very well and good EXCEPT knitting it on circulars IN a circle was nasty! I haven't got the nerve to unstitch the pentagons...cut patterns will not make me happy AT ALL!

The only other thing to do on this jacket then, will be to stitch a smaller version of the neckband to lengthen the jacket a little. We'll see how it goes!

Ex Student Catch Ups - Lauralee

I was lucky enough to have lunch with an ex student and her husband a couple of weeks ago. I taught her in my Yr 6 class 17years ago! She has been living overseas in France, England and now, Tortola. Her husband is a lawyer and the corporation he worked for, transferred him overseas. They are lucky indeed, to have been able to travel so extensively, and their tales are truly fascinating. I still see the little 11year old girl's eyes twinkling when I talk to her. Such a funny thing...she was one of three girls in that class who had a 'sleepover' for two nights at our home. It was Christmas Eve when the girls went home and I could hear two of them asking if they could stay another night. lol. We lost touch for a few years when a call came for me at the school I was working in. Lauralee had had a dream and remembered the name of the school I'd moved to! We met up again and have been in touch for years since. Thanks to fabulous Facebook, I get to keep in touch with 'Lolly' as I've always called her, and many other dear ex students. Here we are at lunch. LOVED that leather jacket she was wearing...France or Venice...can't remember which....witch! lol

Capecho

I bought  this pattern some time ago, and started making it for Bec's August 10th birthday in Bernat Big Ball Cream, but it was soon looking MASSIVE.


I was making the medium, but after completing 4 pentagons, realised it was way too big. A quick search on ravelry.com showed me I wasn't alone with size issues. Bec is a size 12 Australian and this fits a much larger 18-20. I have since decided to give this one to another girlfriend, Emma, and make another for Bec. Still having some issues with setting in the sleeves, unfortunately, but a message to 'foxtales' on ravelry.com...my lifeline, that site...has revealed that I am ALSO not the only one to have had issues with the SLEEVES! One lady, Inna, put it quite succinctly I think, that the designer must have been drunk when she wrote the pattern and that the picture taken by Vogue here is NOT quite accurate. I made the mistake of showing the cream jacket to my mum, who loved it so much, she decided to claim one for herself, for Xmas.....hence the purple capecho!

Emma's Capecho

I have finished the cream capecho of Emma's but not set in the sleeves yet. They've been pinned and unpinned a dozen times! Everything else on the jacket is done. Now that I'm 90% finished with mum's purple jacket, I'm having the same problem...thought maybe it was just me misunderstanding the pattern and that by starting afresh with the second, I could iron out the initial issues, but that's not happening. The panels are pentagons, made up of 5 triangles with a central cable, but the edges around the sleeve are FOUR sides, not 5, so they don't fit. I am going to try this:
cast on enough stitches for 4 triangles and set
THAT into the body of the jacket. Let you know how it goes!

Mum's Capecho

Scarves are YUMMO! What's next???

Well, it only took two weeks to whip these up. They're deceptively heavy but look gorgeous. The pattern is free as I said, and very open to creative license so get stitching! This one is for Bec, whose birthday is coming up in August. The red one below is for Emma, whose birthday is in November...did it early while the pattern was fresh in my head.

I used some scraps on this one, hence the multi-coloured rosettes. Didn't do the ball centres though as they obscured too much of the inside coloured yarn and I didn't have enough of that yarn to make the centres.

Pretty happy with it though. I sent Bec a picture of the scarf with a red and black leaf, and she chose black leaves, so I also opted for not doing the picot edging...was just too much for the scarf.

I have enough yarn to do a red one for myself too! Takes about 600yards of yarn. I've used Red Heart Classic, which is about a 10ply in Australia, or a Medium 4 in US. I bought it from supermart.com and each scarf has cost me approx $10. 




Needless to say that Emsky is not too happy having to wait until November 30th for her gift BUT, she'll have to. Judging by last year's weather then, she might still get some wear out of it in the evenings here.

Problem now is, what is next on the agenda? I'm thinking I should do the scarf for ME next, while the pattern is fresh in my head, but I have a few other projects 'hibernating' so could do one of those? Don't need any of them until Xmas though...

Knit One, Crochet ...none! lol

Wretched crochet patterns! They just don't seem to have the same written rules and 'conventions' as knitting. You do a double crochet and leave 3 stitches, do a treble and leave four...bla bla lol. I'm trying to read the pattern for the Irish Lace Scarf from Ravlery's free pattern base, to make it for a friend's birthday in August, but it doesn't look right. I've checked the pictures of garments already made by people on the Ravelry database and they do actually look like mine though the pattern picture itself looks more linear, while mine and others' seem more 'rounded'. Still, perhaps I just need to work a few more rows to see how it looks 'en masse' rather than just 5 or 6 rows.

I just adore the antique style of this garment. It's been on my favourites list for a while but I've only used one crochet pattern before and that took a little fiddling to get my head around. Although I can actually DO the crochet stitches, I am not so crash hot at interpreting the pattern write ups.

Have decided to use some stash wool and am going to make Rebecca's scarf in light blue Katia Baltika. Around the roses, I'll put some lace in a cream cotton, just to add to the antique look of the piece. Can't wait to see it finished but that means I'll have to get it started lol!!!

My girlfriend Emma has requested a cherry red one for Xmas so THAT will be a great look in this pattern too. If you love it as much as I do, check out ravelry.com for the FREE pattern!

Ball Dress and White Shirt

Well, I finished Christine's ball dress yesterday but I don't yet have a photo to add to show the finished product...working on it. Here's the bodice, and the lace was just to die for! 

 

I DID however, get my white shirt done this avo. Only took a couple of hours. It's a Butterick pattern, 3525, which I've used a few times before. It pulls a little across the top of the bust at the second button, but shoulder pads will alleviate that, some skinny ones (don't want to revisit the 80s!). Might just need to check button placements next time I make it so as to avoid the 'tug'. Also, as the fabric is quite sheer, I think I'll need to whip up a satin chemise to go under it. LOVE the fabric, but found the cuff 'clumsy' without buttons on the first shirt I made from this pattern, so on the second and this one, I didn't bother with it. I also squared off the bottom of the shirt and lengthened it by 6cm to tuck into pants or have it sit just over the waistband.

It doesn't look much in the picture, but it's lovely on. The buttons are flat and a Mother Of Pearl finish. Very cute. I've probably got enough fabric left from the 1.5m I bought, to make a short skirt or even another top. Don't know what I'll do with it yet...could end up being made into something for my nieces or stashed for use with a piece of crochet/knitting. Time will tell!