And this is what I got:

- A beautiful and very soft skein of exclusive indigodragonfly MCN Sock (75% sw merino/15% cashmere/10% silk) in colour ‘Driving under the influence of Muppets’.

- An intricate pattern for a pair of gorgeous mittens, ‘Preposterous’, by talented Torontonian designer Natalie Selles.

- Two very cute magnets that are already on my fridge, with 2 of Kim’s exclusive and beautiful colours.

- A pretty and very convenient knitting bag from the tireless ‘Cute & Cuddly Mutant Zombie Squirrels’.

- A ‘Gauge rage-o-meter’ tape measure with ‘indigodragonfly’ printed on it, also in blue!

- And last but not least, a recipe sent by my secret knitting friend, Lindsay to make delicious ‘Toblerone Chunk Cookies’, which I am planning to make this coming weekend, since I’ve started doing a lot baking this past weeks, and can’t wait to try them! Thank you so much!!!

Take a good look at my wonderful gift, and go run get Kim’s yarn… quick… just go!

(Pictures were taken with a new lens we are trying – and loving-, the Tokina AT-X 116 PRO DX, AF 11-16mm f/2,8)

Look! Otis is on the holiday card!

I chose to make version A, but without the belt loops (called carrier in the pattern).

I really liked the idea of trying an easy way to add 2 big front pockets, and did a French seam for the side seams, which look and feel like having a more professional finish. I also got to use my Janome blind hem foot for the first time, and liked how the hem turned out; not to mention that it was a lot faster to do the hemming, but because of the French side seams, I had a lot of bulky fabric to go over, so I left those 2 small areas, the left and right seams to hem by hand.

I used a heavy weight cotton fabric I got at Fabricland Toronto, where I also got the Simplicity pattern.

The front and back of the skirt are gathered, and I found the fabric to be heavy to do this easily: it took me to stitch 3 lines of basting stitches to do it in case 1 thread broke -which happened when I was almost done with both the front and back gatherings!-, but I am satisfied with the results.

I am planning to make another skirt with this pattern, using a lighter fabric to wear in the Summer. I will also be going down in the size of the pattern, since I found that the size I chose, even though is the correct one for my measurements, it wastes a lot of fabric in the gatherings. I would prefer to have a bit less and make the skirt a bit tighter next time!

Take a look at a couple of shots we took of my new skirt:

Winter skirt

Winter skirt

Winter skirt

I’ve also finished a new set I made for my friend’s Y.’s birthday. This time, I made a zippered pouch with clear zipper end tabs -no more puckering there!-, a key fob and a tissue paper holder. I used some dupioni silk for the exterior and Amy Butler’s print cotton for the lining. She loved her gift and how the fabrics match!

Finally, and because I am more into learning to sew clothes -and loving it!-, I got a new book I had pre-ordered a few weeks ago, ‘Simple Modern Sewing: 8 Basic Patterns to Create 25 Favorite Garments‘ by Shufu To Seikatsu Sha. I am totally in love with the simplicity of the lines of Japanese sewing design and patterns, but had always found the patterns extremely difficult to read, and not just because they are written in Japanese! The lines of the different sizes in a pattern are sometimes most of the times overlapped and it is just difficult to re-trace the size you choose without feeling your eyes are breaking! The patterns contained in this book are simple enough to trace on your own tracing paper and even the paper used for them is very strong, not like the tissue-paper used in commercial patterns.

Like the name of the book indicates, with 8 basic patterns you can create a lot more variations and it can be used by beginners as well as by more advanced sewists, to create your own modified designs. And that is what I am planning to do: start with the basics and modify according to my own designs and ideas!

- Oh boy… yet another bag!

But this time he said:

- Oh boy… that’s the prettiest bag you’ve made so far!

It is an easy pattern that involves some basic techniques, and since the original pattern produces a very big bag, I’ve decreased the size about 25%, to get a smaller one. I had seen some pictures of other people’s Birdie Slings and always found that it was too big for my liking.

The only thing I did differently from the pattern -other than decreasing the size-, was that I sewed a zippered inner bag pocket, instead of a big regular one. You can find a good tutorial for this type of pocket here.

One of the things I like the most is the fabrics I bought for the bag. I’ve found 2 BEAUTIFUL cotton prints at The Workroom in Toronto for the exterior panels and the zippered inside pocket, and then also got a solid matching cotton fabric at Fabricland.

The print cottons are from a collection called ‘La Petite École’ by Moda Fabrics.

I used a Japanese-themed cotton fabric that I got at JoAnn in Buffalo, and for the lining I used a solid brown cotton I had in my stash.

New fabric shoes in Japanese-themed cotton fabric

Again, I covered the buttons with the same exterior fabric:

But this time, I made a washable sole that I attached with velcro. For the sole I used some felted knitted fabric I had from my first experiment with felting. I had made a small bag using Lamb’s Pride bulky in a pretty yellow yarn, threw it in the washing machine for a few minutes and obtained a pretty dense knitted fabric… exactly what I needed for these slippers!

Since I wanted to ‘test’ this pattern, I used an inexpensive poly fabric I had in my stash that I got at Fabricland Toronto, and some floral print cotton for contrast that I bought at JoAnn in Buffalo, NY. I used the contrast fabric for the pointed placket, the sleeve edges and the hidden pockets. Loved how it matched the main fabric and I have actually worn it a couple of times, when the weather was not too hot in Toronto -we have a scorching heat of 35º Celsius these days!

I now have another fabric I am saving to make another tunic, which is a jersey knit, therefore, it will have its own challenges when I get to sew it, but it should be a good chance to try my hand at working with that type of fabric in a garment (Note to self: remember to get the appropriate needle for my sewing machine!).

I definitely learned a few things about making a garment, a thing I find pretty difficult, especially when it comes to fitting.

Pattern cut and laid out on main fabric

Detail of the pointed slit placket

New Look 6803

New look by the Toronto beach

Pocket in contrast cotton fabric

Since we went out to do stuff over the weekend, I decided to stay today and … well… relax and do a bit of this and that. The results:

1. A pretty small project: a fully lined zippered fabric cuff, to hold money and any other little thing I might need when I go out for lunch at work, and don’t want to carry my purse. I’ve used 2 of the same Amy Butler’s fabrics I had used to make this lunch bag.

2. Reading: I started Audrey Niffenegger’s second book (after her successful first novel, ‘The Time Traveller’s Wife’) ‘Her Fearful Symmetry’ yesterday. Strange novel about siblings rivalry, love in its different forms, a ghost, London’s Highgate Cemetery, and a London flat inherited by a pair of 20-year-old twins, which will be theirs, only if they move in from the US -where they live with their parents-, live in there for at least 1 year, and -second condition- if their mum and dad do not set foot into it!

There’s a lot of history behind London’s Highgate Cemetery. Lots of notable gravesites, and apparently lots of people touring the place as if it was a historic site. In fact, the author of the book worked as a guide of the cemetery during her research for the book! It is interesting to know that some critics have also pointed out a potential verbal pun in the novel’s title, since in a standard British accent “symmetry” and “cemetery” are almost homophonous.

3. Knitting: what’s in my ‘jumping sheep’ project bag?

I’ve started another shrug about a week ago, this time using Malabrigo Silky Merino in colour ‘Raspberry’. Am I crazy about shrugs these days? Yes, I am!

I am using Laura Chau’s ‘Dew Point’ pattern for the body, which I’ve knitted a while ago… remember? But I’ve decided to do a different ribbing, probably a plain 2 knit, 2 purl, so it is a bit stretchy. I have just finished picking up the stitches all over it to start the ribbing, so it looks a bit cramped right now…

4. Cooking: one of the simplest and also one of my favourite dishes, ‘Tortilla de papas‘. Instead of cutting up whole potatoes, I usually make it using frozen hash brown fried potato cubes, which makes it an even quicker preparation. This time I’ve added some red onions and bella mushrooms. Yummy…

And there is going to be some TV watching tonight! It’s ‘House’ season finale -which is getting darker and darker, I’m afraid to say-, as well as ‘The Chicago Code’s’, the latter, one of our favourite series lately!

Have a great week you all!

I love her work, so I decided to comment on the kids belts she was offering to give away and I won the navy blue!

It is beautifully made. I really like her idea of using thick rope or piping for the braid and the colour she used, a pretty navy blue, with the ends in a solid cream cotton, is a really nice combination. I am planning to give it to Little T., my niece in Toronto this afternoon, when we will be celebrating her 5th birthday, as one of her presents.

Visiting crafters’ blogs, who are also mums, always inspire me to make stuff for kids and babies, which I love! And with Spring coming soon to Toronto -well… yeah… officially it IS Spring, but we have a chilling -13 degrees Celsius right now-, there are plenty of pretty cotton fabrics I will be using to make clothes for the kids around us!

Here are a couple of pictures I took as soon as I received the package. Thank you Jessica for the beautiful work and your generosity!

You can be honest: what do you see is kind of odd, when you look at it?

Yeah… it is really tight! This Létt-Lopi yarn is so warm, that the sweater is really cozy, but even though I’ve knitted it to my size, it turned out to be a bit small. I washed it and left it for a few hours in water and Eucalan, then the yarn is a lot softer!

It is a good thing that I had plan this to be my first ‘steek’ project, so what I am planning to do next is, after I cut it in the middle front, I will be adding 2 strips of fabric on either side of the zipper and the edges. At least the body will be a bit more comfortable, and I will have to live with the sleeves turning tight… oh well…

This is a detail of the colourwork on the yoke, which as I said before, is a bit dull, as the green kind of looses itself in the surrounding grey:

But anyway… I am happy with the idea of having a grey cardigan that will be the result of steeking a sweater with colourwork. Now I am off to find a pretty fabric that matches to sew on the front!

]]> http://mariainblog.wordpress.com/2011/03/13/steeking-is-next-but-there-will-also-be-some-sewing/feed/ 1 mariainblog DSC_0869 DSC_0875 DSC_0872 DSC_0872 - Copy http://mariainblog.wordpress.com/2011/03/12/new-lunch-bag/ http://mariainblog.wordpress.com/2011/03/12/new-lunch-bag/#comments Sat, 12 Mar 2011 21:56:32 +0000 mariainblog http://mariainblog.wordpress.com/?p=1784 ]]> Hi there!

I am so in love with Amy Butler’s designs for fabrics, that I got a set of half yards a while ago from Mimi’s Etsy shop, and used 3 of the fabrics in the set to make a fully-lined small lunch bag. I wanted something pretty and practical and I added a cover that closes like a drawstring bag on top.

Here is a view of the complete set of fabrics I had purchased:

Half yards of Amy Butler fabrics

After I cut all the pieces for the bag I ended up with this:

Cut pieces for lunch bag

And this is the finished product:

I really like the result, the only thing I would do different if I were to make another lunch bag is to try one a bit larger, so I would not only have space for my lunch, but also for my reading material I usually take on the subway with me when I go to work!

And of course, there is no need to mention that I thought this could very well make a perfect knitting project bag!

I had this yarn in my stash and as I wanted to start an easy ‘mindless knitting’ project, I decided to make a pair of ‘Mitered Mittens’ by Elizabeth Zimmermann. You can find the pattern on her ‘Knitter’s Almanac‘.

I like the simplicity of the design. I did the i-cord cast-on using 4mm double pointed needles, and will continue the mittens using 5 mm needles:

I-cord cast-on for Mitered Mittens using handspun yarn

Detail of the handspun yarn

]]> http://mariainblog.wordpress.com/2011/02/27/needed-some-mindless-knitting/feed/ 0 mariainblog Super wash merino Super wash merino Super wash merino winded I-cord cast-on for Mitered Mittens using handspun yarn Detail of the handspun yarn http://mariainblog.wordpress.com/2011/02/06/some-progress-on-my-hela-cardi/ http://mariainblog.wordpress.com/2011/02/06/some-progress-on-my-hela-cardi/#comments Sun, 06 Feb 2011 20:27:18 +0000 mariainblog http://mariainblog.wordpress.com/?p=1741 ]]> News on my knitting world are that with the freezing temperatures in Toronto this days -yeah… I know it’s winter after all-, I’ve been progressing on my Hela cardigan. Here is a picture and some comments:

Knitting the yoke of my Hela cardigan

I think I should have used a different colour for the yoke, other than the green, a more contrasting colour, I mean. Even though I love that green, when used on a small part of the yoke, it looses itself into the gray.

What you see under the armpits are stitch holders, not some kind of crazy ornament…

I am excited though about knitting a very warm gray cardigan, which will most probably have a zipper after I steek it! This yarn, Létt Loppi is supposed to be one of the warmest wool yarns in the world.

I attended the baby shower of my dear friend M. yesterday, and gave her a baby gift set I made for her soon-to-be-born baby girl, Virginia. Here are some pictures:

Virginia's baby gift set - Swaddle blanket, bib, 2 burp clothes, diaper pouch

Virginia's baby gift set

Then, while browsing the Net I’ve found an image that made me chuckle and I am sharing it with you. I would love to see that little bird in action doing a zig-zag stitch!

Isn’t it lovely?

Wilma and her avian sewing machine

Have a great Sunday, wherever you are, and if you live in Canada… stay warm!

I should have done that before! The pattern calls for about 1,320 yards in size 3 (out of 8 different sizes) and I discovered I only had about 1,210 (11 skeins of Knit Picks ‘Wool of the Andes’ which comes in 110 yards per skein)… darn! The thing is that I wanted this cardigan to have full length sleeves, so I could not cut down in the size of the sleeves to make it up for the lack of yarn.

For some reason I thought I had 14 skeins, but I never checked to realize the bag only contained 11… what a silly mistake…

On the positive side -probably the only one I see- I am thinking of restarting this cardigan going 2 sizes down, as I found it comes really big, larger than I had planned if using the measurements of the sizes described in the pattern, and I think that after blocking it, it will stretch a bit because of the yarn. Also, if I do that, I should be able to use less than the 1,100 yards that are called for size 1, as I want to make the sleeves narrower, the pattern is written in a way that makes the sleeves really big. I would still like to have full length sleeves though.

Oh well… I need to remember to re-check how much yarn I have BEFORE starting any large project!

I had this, before ‘I saw the light’:

Now that I finished unraveling it, I have this:

Right now I think I will leave this project aside for a while, as I’ve started what will be my first ‘steek’ project -I had been wanting to try this technique, where you knit the piece in the round, then use a sewing machine and do a good 2 rows of straight stitch on both sides of what will become your cut, then do the actual cut in the front, turning it from a sweater into a cardigan. My knitting readers will most probably know what ‘steeking’ is, but if you are not a knitter and would like to know what I am talking about, check out this video from YouTube. In this case, the cutting of the sweater is very impressive, because the whole piece is done in colourwork, using several different yarns… yikes! Also, the knitter says that instead of using a sewing machine to ‘reinforce’ the stitches before doing the cutting so the sweater does not unravel later, she did a crochet reinforcement.

I’ve chosen the ‘Héla – 2 and 3 colour Cardigan’ from ‘Ístex Online Patterns‘, a website specialized in patterns for Icelandic yarn. I had some Létt-Lopi yarn remaining from my ‘Owls’, remember?

The finished Héla cardi might look a bit similar to my Owls, because I still have more gray than green, and I am planning to do the colourwork in the yoke following the pattern, but that is not an issue, as I want to have a gray cardigan anyway.

This is what I have so far:

I am now in the not-so-exciting part of plain stockinette stitch for the whole body, which is bottom up until you reach the sleeves. Then, after knitting the sleeves separately, there is where the fun part begins, the 2 colour yoke and then the steek/cut.

I’ve always found this yarn a bit harsh to the skin, but as it happened when I knitted ‘Owls’, after washing the sweater in Eucalan, leaving it for a few hours in the water, and a good blocking, it turns to be pretty soft and the yarn is indeed very warm.

Stay tuned for more as this WIP progresses!

Loved the design, how it is written with a matrix to pick up the sizes and stitch numbers, so you fill in the blanks within the pattern, following your own size. Very smart! I wish all knitting patterns in different sizes were written this way… good job Laura!

I also loved the yarn, 60% Merino, 40% Bamboo, from indigoDragonFly in colourway ‘Oh Glenna And Her Lemongrass Martinis’, a very soft dreamy yarn to knit with. I almost used a whole skein, which comes in a generous 650 yds, 225g per skein. I love your yarn Kim!

Here are a few pictures I took today, after blocking the shrug:

Dew Point - detail of the sleeve twisted ribbing and the Italian lace edge

]]> http://mariainblog.wordpress.com/2010/11/28/random-sunday/feed/ 1 mariainblog Dew Point Dew Point Dew Point Dew Point Dew Point detail of the sleeve twisted ribbing and the Italian lace edge http://mariainblog.wordpress.com/2010/09/07/merce-ha-recibido-el-paquete-que-le-envie/ http://mariainblog.wordpress.com/2010/09/07/merce-ha-recibido-el-paquete-que-le-envie/#comments Wed, 08 Sep 2010 00:48:23 +0000 mariainblog http://mariainblog.wordpress.com/?p=1607 ]]> ::Dear English speaking visitors: sorry I am blogging entirely in Spanish about this. It is part of the Ravelry ‘Las Hilanderas’ swap I participated in, and I am describing the package I sent to my receipient::

El mismo día en que recibí mi paquete de Bea, supe que Mercè recibió el que yo le envié, ya que era mi sorprendida.

El paquete contenía:

1. La lana hilada por mí, merino y seda en tonos verdes, azules y rosados, son 2 madejas de aproximadamente 295 metros y 270 metros.

2. Más fibra merino y seda de la misma partida, para que Mercè pueda hilar.

3. Mercè mencionó que le gusta hilar ‘lana de oveja, simplemente’, así que le envié unos 100 gr. de fibra Jacob de ‘The Fibre Garden’ (www.fibregarden.com) y que me gustó mucho para que pruebe.

4. También de ‘The Fibre garden’, fibra Falkland en tono rojo con matices en negro.

5. Un patron para tejer ‘Lady Wannabe’ por una de mis diseñadoras favoritas, Tora Froseth, de Noruega. Es un par de guantes que asemejan el calce de guantes de gamuza.

6. Una bolsa con cierre para que pueda guardar su tejido o fibra, hecha con 3 telas diferentes: algodón con florcitas rojas, algodón en color beige y la interior bordó.

Aquí hay algunas fotitos del paquete que mandé especialmente para ella:

El paquete de mi sorpendida, Mercè

El paquete de mi sorpendida, Mercè

Gracias Mercè por la excelente organización del intercambio. Espero se repita pronto!