Damn. Someone had a wild Friday night.
Ok, ok. Actually it was really tame. I stayed in and finished that bathing suit pattern I was raving about! I know what you're thinking. My goodness, that's not much fabric. And you're absolutely right.
Friday, January 30, 2015
Sunday, January 25, 2015
Knitting for your butt
So I'm still editing my sock masterpost, but I thought I'd drop by and let you know that I've cast on the third knitted bikini of my career. It's gonna be a doozy!
If you're a relatively young knitter like me and especially if you've been knitting for a long time you've probably stumbled on a knitted bikini pattern and been taken in. Every Summer Vogue Knitting that I can think of has had at least one, and they all end up the same way. Worthless.
Swimwear is a separate category of fashion, just like outerwear, because it takes special skill in the elastic properties of fabric to make a good one. I once had the privilege of reading the blog on patternschool.com, a now defunct website* dedicated to the discussion and practice of designing, drafting and improving swimwear construction. It was absolutely fascinating, and it was obviously information that no person ever dreaming up a knitkini has had access to. Essentially, none of these patterns have enough negative ease and lazily offer side ties to call it a 'one size' garment. This means that even before a knitted suit gets wet it's bunching thick knitted fabric in your crotch. Shenanigans I call!
I was just about to design one myself when I stopped by Ravelry to see if anyone had done the work for me since my last effort in the '00s. Sure enough. It was three pages back in the search results for 'knitted bikini' with no comments and 15 projects, most of which don't have pictures. Oh, but those that do. Here before me was a gorgeously fitted, side seam having, beautifully simple and incredibly sexy suit with no traffic jam in the crotch and the perfect amount of butt-showing that I seek now that I'm in possession of the kind of body I want to show off. Check it out.
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/jessicadowntown/cheeky-knit-bikini
I'm two inches into the front and I can already tell by stretching the piece over my hips that it's going to fit absolutely perfectly. The yarn I'm using is a discontinued Bernat called Baby Stretch. I have no idea why babies would desire elasticated yarn, but I don't care because I got it for $1.97 a ball and it's going to be absolutely perfect for this. It's 46% acrylic, 46% cotton, 3% nylon and 3% polyester, bound with an elastic ply which I assume accounts for the missing 2%. The color is a beautiful lavender, saturated enough to look like a design choice instead of clearance baby yarn. I mean, I am a unicorn after all.
*available on the wayback machine if you care to indulge.
If you're a relatively young knitter like me and especially if you've been knitting for a long time you've probably stumbled on a knitted bikini pattern and been taken in. Every Summer Vogue Knitting that I can think of has had at least one, and they all end up the same way. Worthless.
Swimwear is a separate category of fashion, just like outerwear, because it takes special skill in the elastic properties of fabric to make a good one. I once had the privilege of reading the blog on patternschool.com, a now defunct website* dedicated to the discussion and practice of designing, drafting and improving swimwear construction. It was absolutely fascinating, and it was obviously information that no person ever dreaming up a knitkini has had access to. Essentially, none of these patterns have enough negative ease and lazily offer side ties to call it a 'one size' garment. This means that even before a knitted suit gets wet it's bunching thick knitted fabric in your crotch. Shenanigans I call!
I was just about to design one myself when I stopped by Ravelry to see if anyone had done the work for me since my last effort in the '00s. Sure enough. It was three pages back in the search results for 'knitted bikini' with no comments and 15 projects, most of which don't have pictures. Oh, but those that do. Here before me was a gorgeously fitted, side seam having, beautifully simple and incredibly sexy suit with no traffic jam in the crotch and the perfect amount of butt-showing that I seek now that I'm in possession of the kind of body I want to show off. Check it out.
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/jessicadowntown/cheeky-knit-bikini
I'm two inches into the front and I can already tell by stretching the piece over my hips that it's going to fit absolutely perfectly. The yarn I'm using is a discontinued Bernat called Baby Stretch. I have no idea why babies would desire elasticated yarn, but I don't care because I got it for $1.97 a ball and it's going to be absolutely perfect for this. It's 46% acrylic, 46% cotton, 3% nylon and 3% polyester, bound with an elastic ply which I assume accounts for the missing 2%. The color is a beautiful lavender, saturated enough to look like a design choice instead of clearance baby yarn. I mean, I am a unicorn after all.
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Return to the madness
You know, there was a time when I was great about taking pictures of everything. I made stuff, and then the pictures that I took of it were my reward and my way of sharing about the work. But now for some reason it's become a chore that I avoid. It's such a pity because I love to show what I know, and I gain so much enrichment from looking at other people's pictures of their accomplishments. So at any rate, I'm going to try to blog and to do better.
Way back in October, I went on an impromptu trip to Oahu to visit my husband and brought along a cake of handspun that I'd prepared out of a Dorset/ Texel fleece cross. The fleece came from my friend Katy who had gone to sheep shearing school and sent me her best work. I combed it, spun it worsted and made a 3 ply sport weight, perfect for socks. I dyed the finished yarn and worked it toe up using the idea from Wendy Johnson's toe up socks (Trilobyte, to be precise) converted to work with my yarn weight. I love them, and I knitted a good portion of them on military cargo planes and all of them in two kinds of paradise. And I never even made a project page for them... LOL
This hat was spun and knit ages ago. I don't even remember what kind of wool it is or what I was thinking when I dyed it but I do know that I'd like to rip it out and make slippers...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)