Now or never! II

19/02/2016 This sweater was started on March 24 2014. You can see my first steps in this post Now or never!

I always knit several projects at the same time so it took me two months (only!) to complete this project. It came out lovely, beautiful color 4314 (gray violet), I found a beautiful fabric to sew a skirt... 

But there were some obstacles to wear it: I couldn't find the matching pin and couldn't complete the skirt as I was "very" pregnant.  

For now my skirt looks this way. My attempt to repeat the style of 20's.  

Now I'm slim again, I can do without a pin... but I don't have enough time to sew, so I revised my wardrobe and found this nice skirt and shoes and think that together they can go well. 

I was convinced that the short and adherent vintage line wasn't made for me and used to add some positive ease and length to my vintage sweaters, but trying some of them I changed my opinion, so I'll undo the rib of this sweater, cut off the first two pattern repetitions and reknit the rib. 

I think it could be a beautiful outfit for my birthday party. 

There was an error made in the description of the jabot (at least in my copy of the book).
“Inc 1 st at each end of next and 13 following RS rows (54 sts)” should be: “Inc 1 st at each end and decrease 1 st at each beginning of next 13 following RS rows (54 rows)”.

27/04/2016 Finally I my daughter made some photos of me wearing this sweater. Still never presented in public, first time in this post.

Birthday Newborn pull.

One would say: "What a strange name for a sweater...".

Why did I call my Bailiwick Pullover by Courtney Spainhower this way?

I've started it on the 14 or March, 4 days before my birthday, not planning to celebrate this date for the first time of my life, renouncing any present... Except this one, starting a new winter sweater in blooming spring, 9 days before the expected delivery.

I was choosing between 2 colors of DROPS Alpaca: light grey 0501 and pale blue 7120. Maybe the second one was closer to the original the grey one matches perfectly the skirt I have on my mind… mini skirt! 

I decide to knit the rib with 3,25, making the size shown in the magazine. 

The pattern was easy to follow, in one day I made the rib, saddle shoulders and some repeats of Diamond and garter stitch. Only 1 correction: instead of k2tog at the end of set-up row I decreased 1 st in the middle of the row. Just to do it symmetrical. 

The same with Arrows stitch - changed it to place it exactly in the center of the previous stitch pattern. 

Decided to knit the front and back separately, started the bed jacket stitch part. One skein used for the upper front part shown on this photo.

The next day I decided to change the neckline, as the boatneck with larger needles was too large on the shoulders, open shoulders on winter pullover wasn't exactly what I wanted. With the 3,25 needles, at the contrary, it was too narrow, and not having a long neck, I've abandoned this idea. That way I had a feeling of being choked.
I undid the rib,  made the front part of the neck lower (I’ll reknit the rib after having completed the whole sweater). It was rather intricate, but fortunately I didn’t spoil the whole thing. And the front part became the back part, obviously. Surely, I had to interrupt the whole thing for the weeks,  and it was such a pleasure to came back to knitting for such a long absence.  A woman with a newborn child should have an hour for knitting, it’s the best baby blues therapy. 

02/05 Having gone through the worst days of varicella it’s such a pleasure to knit a bit. Even if my hands need more training.

09/06 Started the sleeves… several times. The sleeve was too narrow on the elbow. I didn't feel very comfortable, after making several decreases every 3rd row, continued for every 4th and 5th. It consumed a bit more yarn, but it's OK.
01/07 What a wonderful sweater! It will be my favorite. A little girlish but feminine.
08/01 Now as I'am updating this post I can say that it is really my favorite sweater so far. I still didn't sew the mini skirt, but it looks perfect with jeans. The color is beautiful, the silhouette is rather boxy but being short this sweater looks great, doesn't add any weight and hide the defects you have... or imagine to have.

.

New pattern of mine: Fall Colors Poncho and Scarf.

Last night I've finally published on Ravelry  a mini-collection of patterns, including Fall Colors Poncho and Fall Colors Scarf.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fall-colors-poncho

These garments combine romantic lace pattern with modern structured edge which make them suitable for any occasion and any style.

For the poncho I used short rows technique which permits to create the warm garment that follow the body silhouette without adding weight to the shoulders. 

Knitted in one size, both of the patterns can be easily modified adding more stitches or rows.

It also allows you to experience with different yarns.

For the poncho I used mixed Alpaca yarn (Peruanskaya Alpaca, 50% wool, 50% alpaca, 150 m per 50 gr), which gives it especial warmths.

I've knitted different versions of Fall Colors scarf, experiencing with different size of needles and different mixture of yarns. 

There is a one important thing about using yarns for machine knitting - the fabric tends to shrink a lot, so for my ultimate Fall Colors Scarf III  I used 7 mm needles with 6 strands of 2/30 yarn (2 brown, 1 green and 3 senape), which after washing and blocking give the impression of using worsted yarn with 5 mm needles.

In any case, this pattern is universal for any kind of yarn.

Knitting these garments, I was thinking of the fall, my favorite season, rich in colors and sensations. I have always imagined them in different shades of green, orange, brown, the colors of the falling leaves... Fall Colors.

Special thanks to my cousin Vicka for these nice old-fashioned photos. 

Ena's sweater.

01/03/2015 Finally, finally, finally! 

My Ena's sweater is completed: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/Natie379/enas-sweater.

This project was started 11/04/2014. I took the yarn (with other different projects) to Moscow to have fun during my latest visit to Moscow. I fell in love with the idea to knit this sweater with contrast stripes on the yoke. And I think to make an excellent choice: Garnstudio DROPS Alpaca 7323 and 6309 look great together. It gives such a joy to knit with this colors. And it allows to combine this sweater with different garments and accessories.

Unfortunately, I  made an error, instead of making 6 and 7 repeats for the back and front parts I knitted 7 and 8, so I had to undo the front part. The back part became the front part. I don’t like the raglan sleeves, so I continued to knit straight in stockinette after the armholes inserting some blue stripes. In May I took aside this project as it was already too warm to wear it, hoping to proceed in autumn, but I restarted it only in February, tired of knitting only baby garments. 

Now as it is completed, I can’t wait to try it on. Still don’t have a matching skirt, but it would look nice even with jeans. Maybe I will add a kind of band or other little decor on the neckline later.

25/04/2015 I still have to regain my shape but this sweater is so nice and warm and perfect for fresh spring days to wait to be presented. I combined it with 7/8 vintage dark blue jeans, Chie Mihara shoes and tiny Furla bag (so gorgeous but absolutely useless for neomamma). 

There was even rather vintage looking pendant in my dresser. 

Selfie idea, "stolen" from Chie Mihara site.

A new vintage pattern...

Today I looked through the photos of April Burda magazine and was happy to find this beautiful dress pattern which reminds so much of 20s'. This pattern can be added to the collection of VIntage patterns from Burda., as well as to my sewing queue.
There are 3 versions, made of silk or linen, long or short, with or without a bow.
The most classic version would be the long silk one, with a bow on the neckline.

Striped cardigan with anchor.

A couple of months ago I was thinking about knitting a cute striped set from Phildar N 465

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/phildar-no-465-layette-printemps-ete-springsummer-2007.

I called it "Set a righe":

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/Natie379/set-a-righe-2

After knitting the main part of the sweater I lost the interest for this project, it seemed to be too small, not very easy to put on a little baby, but I still wanted to knit something with the stripes. So I decided to knit a classic striped cardigan, the model for all the times:

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/Natie379/striped-cardigan. 

I used the same cotton blu and yellow-green yarns, with 4 threads and 3,5mm needles my gauge was 27 st. per 10 cm. I couldn't resist making the bigger size then needed. 

To accentuate the nautical theme I added a little embroidered anchor, the scheme I found online.

I think it would be a perfect outfit for summer evenings, now all we need is to knit the matching hat.

Dreams, dreams, dreams...

I've just finished watching the 5th season of the Downton Abbey series. And I fell in love with this yellow lace sweater Edith wearing in some scenes. This is one I should definitely knit next year. It's so simple and elegant, easy to knit but of a great effect. I think that Drops Lace Alpaca silk yarn would be perfect for this.