Don't have pics of my handspun yet... I need to finish spinning it, and get myself a niddy noddy. Trust me, it's far from stellar... but it's a start!
Some pics from our voyage to the pumpkin patch yesterday at Amore Farms in Bath. The pumpkins were mostly either past their prime or it was a bad year for pumpkins. For sure they were picked over, but there were too many rotton ones on the ground and not enough good ones :-(
Anyway the kids loved it.
We wound up taking home 6 pumpkins, of which I had inspected 2. When I brought them in the house and set them on the kitchen counter, I noticed one had a strange bottom.....
See any resemblance? Minus the feet of course!
This was as close to a fiber fix as I could get at the farm. Llamas truly have the most beautiful eyes. This one was hoping for food as I was sweet talking it.
Finally, [insert drum roll] I present to you the ballet sweater! I finished knitting yesterday, sewing seams last night, button and ribbon on this morning - hence the day late and dollar short. She has ballet on Saturday mornings. DD tried it on and declared "ooo it's so soft and warm!" YEA!!!! Hope she wears it now. It fits perfectly!!!!
What I learned with this project:
- how important gauge is to altering patterns to fit
- my math skills are great
- but most importantly.....the mattress stitch
My side seams are completely invisible. :-) Thank youknittinghelp.com for a great video tutorial on mattress stitch
Pattern: Lion Brand Ballet Style Sweater
Yarn: Bellezza Collection Tesoro 100% wool
Weight: 50 g, 80 m
Color: 954 (pink)
Gauge: 4" x 4" = 18st and 21 rows on sz 10 needles
Needles: sz 8 on waistband sz 10 on the rest
Amount used: approx. 5.5 skeins
I'm now back to dish cloths and Christmas gifts. I joined my third dishcloth KAL group Mary's Knitting How many knitting forums/groups can I belong to anyway???? Never enough I say.
Happy knitting and crafting
9 comments:
I'm guessing that we are neighbors! Amore Farms sounds very familair.
Any your DD's sweater is lovely.
Ann
We must be! Thanks for the compliment. I'm really happy with it (and I'm rarely happy with much I make!)
Gorgeous sweater! I hope your daughter enjoys wearing it.
Beautiful sweater. GREAT pumpkin bum!
Your ballet sweater looks great. You can help me calculate anytime. BTW, good job on the blog!!
Thanks everyone. It felt great to do this project and has given me confidence to get away from diaper soakers/longies and scarves and hats to something a bit more like clothing!
Hello Carole
I was looking for a pattern to make a ballet sweater for my dd and I found your blog. I had rejected the lion sweater when I saw it as it just didn't look that great in the photo and was only in grown-up sizes. But when I saw the photo of the one you had made I was inspired! It is lovely! I think you might be better at math than I am though. It seems to me that if want to make a sweater that is 80% of their size small for example, that if my yarn and needles produce a gauge that is 20% smaller, I can just follow the pattern, measuring often to make sure all is on track. Do you think this is a bad strategy? Thanks so much, Mindy
Mindy
I think that will work fine. My gauge worked out similarly so that the percentage smaller that it was than the listed gauge met what my DDs measurements
Ironically, a few months after I finished this sweater, she changed from dance to gymnastics... go figure
Thanks Carole! That is encouraging. Hopefully your dd is still wearing the sweater though! I think mine would also wear it over a dress. Best wishes, Mindy
Post a Comment