Claret Clara

Clara had been all finished but for the buttons for a few days. Finally, last night when I got back from work I spotted a package from Etsy waiting for me. It's always a gamble to buy buttons online, but all the buttons I could find offline weren't exactly right. 

Thankfully, these ones worked out perfectly. The buttons are translucent dark brown colours which aren't too dark or too bright, and it compliments the vintage feel of the jumper.

Looping the buttons was much more challenging than I expected. I started by knotting them, but it came undone too easily. In the end I braided the yarns, and then sew the ends in. It doesn't look as neat as I had hoped, but it's sturdy.

I kept all the details in the pattern such as the tabs, but made the bodice slightly longer to make it easier to wear. The original pattern called for 11" but I lengthen it to 14". That was the only modification I made, and I'm very happy with the result. This will go up on Etsy like most of my creation nowadays. I'll write about my motivations for doing that some other time. 

Clarel, Kasha, and introducing my new friend

Even though I haven't really finished any projects, I wanted to log some updates since I haven't posted anything for a while. I do try to post at least once every month.

I have been out of town for the last 3 weeks, and what glorious 3 weeks they were. I was at a conference in Denmark for a week, followed by 2 weeks holiday in England. One thing I missed a lot was English countryside, so Sean and I did lot of hiking in Peak district and Cornwall. I love moorlands, and poor Sean had to tag along to 3 different moors. Below was Bodmin moor, which I didn't want to ever leave.

Much as I love the country, I wouldn't visit England without visiting London. I splurged at Liberty and bought 3 different Tana lawn. Now I have too much Tana lawn in my stash which I suppose is a good problem to have. The one on far right is a rayon I bought from Sew Over It. I'm thinking to make Sean a shirt with the green lawn on the left.

On knitting front, I'm making good progress on my latest knitting project. I found this Clarel jumper pattern on Free Vintage Knitting some time ago, and was instantly smitten. I envisioned it in tweed green or brown, and it had been in my queue for ever so long. In the end, instead of buying new yarn I used Drops Alpaca Tomato that had been in my stash for over a year. It's my first cable project, and I can see why people love this technique.

Eek look at all the ends! I've ordered some ball buttons from Etsy, and cannot wait to see whether they go well with the jumper. The tabs are just placed on top, not sewn in yet. The sleeves were as always a pain, and I had to redo the sleeve head 3 times, but at last they're done and being blocked. This will make a nice Christmas jumper.

I'm also making headway with Kasha. Pictured below with another Liberty fabric in my stash.

When I started the project I was intimidated by the lace pattern. I thought I would never get the hang of it and feared I'd have to refer to the chart for every row. Well yes, I do have to refer to the chart for every row, but the lace pattern is surprisingly memorizable. The danger is when you begin to think you got it and start to relax. That's when the mistakes inevitably happen.

And last but not least, a small cause of excitement - I finally bought a dress form! I've been stalking Craigslist since last year, and finally spotted one that fitted the bill perfectly. I don't think I'll use it for fitting, since the measurements are 'a little' different from mine (the ridiculously small waist, for one). But my goodness, is it fun to model my handmade items on it. They look 10+ times better than on me.

A charming fair isle jumper - Run rabbit run

This is the first finished project in 2018. The highlight of the project was trying my hands at yarn dyeing of which I wrote more in details in this post. I enjoyed the dyeing so much, I've started collecting avocado skins and pits to try avocado yarn dyeing this year. I also have been reading up on all kinds of natural dyes. Yet another thing I want to learn more of.

The jumper itself is finished with three buttons on left shoulder. Crochet finishing was another first for me, and it was much easier than I anticipated. I'm not saying I'll be switching from knitting to crocheting anytime soon, but I can see myself getting more into it.

One thing that I find very satisfying is to see the uniform inside of a fair isle project. It's the mass that makes it appear more uniform, maybe, but it's very pleasing to see.

Lesson from this project was that if I add stitches to bodice, I have to take into account how it's going to affect the fit around the shoulders. I added 6 sts to the front and the back of the bodice, and the shoulder feels a little too broad for me to wear comfortably. If I knit it again I'll increase the armhole decrease to keep the original # stitches between the shoulders.

Start of Another Year: Maigret & Run Rabbit Run

It's New Year's Eve where I live, and I already dread of having to go back to work in 2 days. But until then, I'm taking advantage of the free time to enjoy being lazy and do nothing but knit, read, and watch Maigret.

I visited a local library on Thursday and discovered French Maigret TV series, so I borrowed 4 sets. If only I discovered it at the beginning of the holidays.

I've watched 3 Maigret adaptations, featuring Bruno Cremer (pictured above, 1991, France), Michael Gambon (1992, UK), and Rowan Atkinson (2016, UK).

I like the 2016 adaptation because of the production quality and of course, Rowan Atkinson, but equally the 1991 French adaptation because it's in the original language, French. I love the books written by George Simenon largely because of his writing style, and somehow the style comes across better in the original language even on the screens. Not that I speak or understand much French but still.

And now on the knitting front, I started a new project after finally finishing the Dunkirk fair isle vest. It's Weldon 528 fair isle jumper published sometime in 1940s, I assume. I decided to call it Run Rabbit Run, because of its delightful bunny ears fair isle pattern.

I took the colour inspiration from Home Fires. One of the characters whose name I cannot remember and too lazy to look up wears this exact jumper in this colour scheme.

This was also the first time I tried my hand on yarn dyeing, something I've been wanting to try for a long time. The original pink and blue Drops Alpaca yarns were a little too pale and baby-ish, so I decided to dye it just slightly using Wilton food colouring.

These are the original yarns.

Below are the pictures of before and during dye bath. I washed the yarn first using dish soap and then left it submerged in vinegar water overnight (1/8 cup vinegar for 50g yarn) because I wanted a really solid dye.

And here's after. The pink looks darker than it is.

I'm slightly worried that I'll run out of the pink and blue yarns and then I won't be able to reproduce it, but we'll see how it goes.

I looked up several articles and youtube videos to learn about dyeing yarns, but I found this article on Loveknitting very helpful, and this Youtube video helped me get a sense of the basics.

I love how the yarns came out and I enjoyed the process too. I think I'm bitten by the dyeing bug. I want to try dyeing with avocados next. So, here's to another year of crafting!

Rainbow Jumper

This jumper only took just over 3 weeks to finish, which is a record for me.
The pattern does knit up quickly, and colour work keeps it interesting. I like trying out new skills or stitches, and the slip stitch was just the perfect break from my fair isle projects.

I wanted to use up some odd balls of fingering yarns and this did the job.
It was my first time seaming puff sleeves and I had such a hard time. The finished sleeve caps are not perfectly symmetrical, but I'm hoping no one will notice when I wear it.

This pattern was originally written for 32-24" bust, so I added 4 stitches to the back and used US 5 needles for the bodice. In hindsight I think I could have done with adding 4 stitches to the front as well.
I prefer tight sleeves so I made the arm increase more gradual.

Here are my mods:
Back CO 113st, Armhole - decrease until 93st
Front CO 121st (next time CO 125st)

Welt: US 2
Up until the 7th colour(second light purple): US 4
the rest of the bodice: US 5
from second light purple after armhole shaping: US 4
sleeves: US 4 (next time just stick with US 5, to make seaming easier).

Sleeves - cast on 81st, increase each end every 4th row until 99 st. Increase each end every 4th row - whenever I start a new colour.