Summer Sewing

Ramadan, our favorite month of the year, is down to its last 11 or 12 days. We had a wonderful start to the month, when we were able to sight the Ramadan crescent ourselves.

Since then, it has been all business, fasting, the suhoor (pre-dawn meal) and iftaar (the break-fast meal) and adjusting to a different sleep routine. On top of the hot June weather, we had to deal with a viral fever, which took all four kids in turn. That made the start of the month especially full.

I have had little time or inclination to do any craft work. Here I am sharing the sewing I did a couple of months ago, for my eldest daughter. These are a couple of lawn fabric tops and a dress.

The first one is a chevron print sewed into a Japanese-style top, inspiration for which abounds on pinterest.

The second top is a floral peasant blouse with raglan sleeves.

 And lastly, there is the multicolored polka-dot dress with a circle skirt. All these were my own drafts.

This summer has been very productive sewing-wise. I have sewn a lot of things, most of which do not make it to the blog. The most ambitious of  all was the sewing of Eid clothes for the girls _ glittery, shear, hard to manage fabrics, turned into cute, fun traditional dresses. I do hope to share them here after Eid.

In knitting, I have an almost done sweater front, with lace details, to share. In the next post, insha Allah.

Linen Stitch Top

 

When I started this top, it was with the intention of using up leftover yarns and getting a small sweater (toddler size...maybe) as a result. As I mentioned earlier, I was too lazy to measure and estimate gauge and just cast on with a random number of stitches. It turns out that my approximation was way off, and I a bit off and the top ends up being a 6-year-old size. Other than that, it met the target of using up a lot of leftover yarns and has turned out to be as a nice, wearable top. The yarns are all DK-to-worsted weight, acrylics; pattern, none.

New Knitting Project

Before my knitting hiatus, I had started this project. This is to be a top, with linen stitch detail, which is actually an attempt at using up scrap yarns. I cast on with a certain number of stitching, keeping in mind, the amount of yarn I had. And I had no idea what size it would be. Having three daughters, mashaAllah, means I can be lazy this way. It is bound to fit one of them, sooner or later!  Now, I am estimating it to fit a 5-6 year-old. In other words, my middle one, next winter.

I am happy to report that I am finally back from my knitting break, and have had some time to knit on this top, this week. At the moment, I have just started the yoke and hope to get it finished soon.

Maxi Dress

On one of my recent excursions to our local yarn store, I bought a couple of skeins of variegated yarn. I planned to do something spectacular with them, only to realize later, that it is hard to pick the right pattern for this kind of yarn.
  Anyway, the first skein turned into this baby cardigan. For the second skein, I did a bit of deliberation and search, before settling on the Maxi Top/Dress pattern. Luckily, I had a right shade of contrasting yarn in my stash.

I am so glad I picked this pattern. It was such a fun knit, quick and easy to boot. And the final dress came out quite nice. I would recommend this pattern to all knitters who have a little girl to knit for.

This dress is for my second daughter. I knit the 4/5 size, so it has some ease on the 3.5 year old. That, of course, means it will fit her for sometime. Maybe, she can wear it as a top later on.

The dress was very well-received. I had to coax her to get it off after the photo shoot (it is still not sweater weather here).
Next, I have some larger sweaters to work on.

Spring / Summer Sewing 2014 - Part 3

The clothes for my 6-month old are done. I managed to get them done, before the deadline I set myself. The first one is a dress full of ruffles. There are ruffles at the bottom as well as at the armholes. It is a heavily modified version of one of my tried and tested pattern, from an old Burda magazine. You can see the my earlier project with same pattern here (the baby dresses).

 The second one is a two-piece outfit, a top with coordinating bloomers. This one is self-drafted. The yoke could have been neater, but it is still cute, nevertheless.

This post rounds up my sewing projects for this summer. I also sew a couple of shorts for my son, which saw a lot of rough use before I could do a post about them. And a few outfits for myself but those do not make for an interesting post.

Sewing: Toddler Dress

 Every year, around this time, when it grows steadily warmer, I have an urge to do some spring sewing for my kids. This year too, I have found myself drooling over all the lovely clothes on Pinterest, for the last couple of weeks. Sadly, I do not have much fabric at hand and no chance to go shopping until the kids' exams are over. But still, I found a piece of plain purple cotton and taking inspiration from this top, got out my sewing machine. I was too lazy to look up the associated tutorial and did my own thing, but there definitely is a free tutorial for those who maybe interested.

 It was a quick, fun project, in which I got to expand my skills in sewing pleats. And I may have to do another one for my older daughter soon, as she wants one too, in the same color.

 

Spring Sewing Part 2

 It has been ten days since my last post. Looking back, I know I indulged in some sort of craft activity, most of those ten days, still there is not much to show for it. I did sew a couple of my shalwar kameez but that does not make for interesting blog content. I also sewed a dress and a top for my five-year old:

Both have almost identical draft, just variation in length and placement of elastic gives different results. 

  Sadly, on the knitting front, my color work project did not go very well. I had started Dance of Robots for my son. The pattern is for 3-7 year olds and my son is eight. I was hoping to get the right size with larger needle size but my optimism was unrealistic. It makes me sad, because I quite loved the pattern.

 So I have ripped back and will start with something quite different. No color work this time, unless someone has any suggestions?

A Spring Top

This one got a fair share of ripping done on it as I fiddled around with the sizing. So I am really happy it is finally done. It uses Rowan cotton glace and my own design. It has a lot of room for my daughter to grow in, which is a good thing considering our springs are usually short-lived and will also work over layers during our milder winter.

New WIPs

A bit unusual for me, I am currently working on multiple projects simultaneously. And as a result, going is slow on all of them. So let me show you the WIPs (works in progress). Besides the clapotis, I am knitting another pair of socks. This one is the Monkey in Heirloom Jigsaw. This is my second monkey pair and I find them to be the most comfy pattern of all that I knit so far. I finished the first sock of the current pair yesterday.

The next WIP is a cotton top for my daughter. It is my own design in Rowan Cotton Glace. This has had its share of ripping, then re-knitting and ripping back, as I attempt to improve the design.

The next WIP is another of my designs...I am attempting an adult version of Sunburst Coat. It is still in the early part of the yoke.

Then another WIP, a set of placemats for our new dining table. I am trying to work out a pattern and size to make four placemats out of four balls of Peaches and creme (two yellow and two red).

That concludes the works on my needle but we have one other, bigger work in progress at our house. An entire floor is getting new floors, bathrooms, kitchen etc and almost one and a half months into the job, we are still looking at several more weeks of construction, sigh.

Cable Top- Free Pattern

I did manage to write a pattern for this cable top I knit last month for my daughter. And after some wonderful help from two awesome testers, the pattern is available now as a free download at my ravelry store. Click on the link below to download the file.

download now

Raspberry Lemonade is Up

After being test knitted in all the sizes (2,4,6,8,and 10 years) by some wonderful testers, the pattern for the little summer top is now up for sale at my ravelry store. The credit for the name goes to a ravelry friend.

Yarn weight: DK / 8 ply (11 wpi)

Gauge: 21 stitches and 36 rows = 4 inches in st st

Needle size: US 4 - 3.5 mm, US 2½ - 3.0 mm

Hook size: 3.5 mm (E)

Yardage: 250 - 600 yards (229 - 549 m)

Sizes available: 2 (4, 6, 8, 10) years

Finished measurements:
Chest: 24 (26, 28, 30, 32) inches
Length: 12 (14, 16, 18, 20) inches

Cable Top

With our household in the throes of gastroenteritis this week, I found little time and energy to work on lace. Instead I cast on another top for my dd. This was a very quick knit mostly because of the aran weight yarn (Rowan All Season Cotton) on 5 mm needles. I'm proud of the fact that I managed to knit it with the two balls of yarn that I had. I used up nearly all of the 196 yards. The pattern is my own and it is size four year so my daughter can have a couple of years wear out of it, inshaAllah.

All in all, it was great fun and now that we seem to be on the mend, I hope to resume work on my stole.

A little Summer Top

I finished the summer top for my daughter yesterday and took some pictures of her in the top. Then I though of taking a few shots of the top lying flat. And at that moment, tragedy struck. While arranging the top for the shoot, the camera flew out of my other hand and dropped down onto the concrete floor!! Calming myself with the thought that it had not dropped from a great height, I picked it up and tried to turn it on...nope...it won't work. It made me feel worse than I even care to admit. There are times when I wish I didn't have butterfingers and DH lectured me briefly on being more careful and all, and I do try but it's so hard.
Anyway, I spent a sad night, praying for the camera to work. This morning, it did come to life and I was able to extract the photos from it but when trying to take a picture, it just shut down. Now this also happens when the batteries are exhausted so I'm hoping new batteries will make it work, inshaAllah!

Now coming to the top, I ran out of yarn, in the end and so could not make it longer. Also, had to use contrasting color for the edgings. But, all in all, it turned out quite well. The yarn (SWTC's Bamboo) looks so shiny and lovely and the color is so yummy! I might be writting a pattern soon.

And my dd is just recovering from a fever and is looking a bit off-color.

Yet Another WIP

I've nothing really interesting to share at this point but I was RAKed the other day and the delicious yarns were too tempting, LOL. So, I have started a summer top for dd. Still at the yoke and worrying if I have enough yarn (one ball of SWTC Bamboo = 250 yards). As I'm trying to work out a design of my own, there has been some ripping involved and the going is slow.

A Little Dress

I finished this dress for my daughter yesterday. I managed to get a picture today while there was a little lull in the rain. My daughter is so used to getting her picture taken now in the various FOs, that she knows where, how and when to pose, by herself, LOL. Even when I was sewing on buttons and this was not exactly done, she came up to me and said in anticipation, "Amma, taffeer...?!?" ("Mom, picture...?!?").
Regarding the project, the yarn was Schoppel-wolle Turandot (as I mentioned in an earlier post) approx 320 meters, needle size was 4.5mm and 5mm crochet hook for the edging. The pattern is my own. I have jotted it down while knitting but have to put it together a bit. And I don't feel like doing it right now, maybe in a few days, inshaAllah!

February Girlie Top

I wanted to do a quick project and I had this one ball of Sirdar Spree, so the idea of a top for my daughter was born. For the lace part, I finally decided on the gull lace pattern (originally used in February baby sweater, I believe and more recently in Feb lady's sweater, which I also knitted a few months back). Hence, I nmaed the top February Girlie top. Although, it is winter right now, weather can turn quite warm here in Pakistan and quite soon too. So, DD should be wearing this in two to three months, inshaAllah.

FEBRUARY GIRLIE TOP

Materials:
· Sirdar Spree Cotton Rich Chunky 100gm ball(149 yards/136 m) 1, 2, 2 balls
· 2 stitch markers.
· Knitting needles 6.50 mm.
· A crochet hook for the cast on.
· Buttons…4 larger (2 cm diameter approx) for the strap and 4-5 small ones (1.25 cm diameter approx) for the back band.

Gauge:
12 sts x 20 rows = 4 inches in garter st.
Sizes:
To fit chest sizes 18, (20, 22) inches.

Abbreviations and Pattern:
Yo: yarn over
K2tog: knit 2 together
Ssk: sl 1 st knitwise, k the next st, pass the slipped st over.
Gull Lace Pattern: worked over 7 sts and 4 rows:
Row1: k1, k2tog, yo, k1,yo, ssk,k1, repeat across.
Row 2and 4: purl.
Row 3: k2tog, yo, k3,yo,ssk, repeat across.

Knitting:
With crochet cast-on, CO 56 (62,68) sts. Work 4 (4,6) rows in garter st,
Next row (RS): Cast off first 14 (15,17) sts, k to end.
Next row (WS): Cast off first 14 (15,17) sts, k to end. [28 (32, 34) sts]
Next row (RS): K1, k2tog, k to last 3 sts, ssk, k the last st.
Next row (WS): k all.
Repeat the last 2 rows another 5 (6,6) more times. [16(18,20) sts remain]
Next row (RS): K1 (yo, k2tog) rep till 1 st remains, k1.
Next row (WS): K.
Cast off all sts.
Lace Portion:
RS facing, carefully unravel the crochet cast-on and get live sts on the needle, starting from right end to the left.
Next row (WS): k all, increasing 1 (2,3) sts evenly spaced across the row. [57 (64, 71)sts]
Next row (RS): K 5, (yo, k2tog) rep till the last 4 sts, k4.
Next row (WS): K 4, PM, K 49 (56,63), PM, k4.
Start working the gull lace pattern, working the first and last 4 sts on each row in garter st.
Work 10 (11,12) repeats of the lace pattern or until the top measures the desired lenth (I made in on the longer side).
Next, work 8 rows in garter st, cast off.

Straps:
With the RS facing, and the piece held upright, join yarn along the upper edge, 7 sts in from the right centre back, pick up and knit 5 sts. Work in garter st till the strap measures 7 (7.5, 8 ) inches. (The strap will stretch quite a bit).
Repeat on the other side for the second strap.

Finishing:
Weave in ends. Sew the buttons along the right back band and two larger buttons each on each strap –for 2 adjustable strap positions. (No buttonholes were made because with the thick yarn and large needles, it is east to create a buttonhole between yarn loop as such, standard buttonhole would be too large anyway.) Block.