Happy Friday! For you vintage knit-alongers, just a little note to say I'm going to let the preliminary post simmer for a few more days to get more opinions, and then next week will reveal the winning pattern so we can start thinking about yarn and supplies. :) Today is cold. This is old news for Chicago in January. But I thought I'd share one of my favorite winter items: my Topnotcher bonnet. You'll have to pardon ... Read more »
Vintage sweater knit-along: Preliminary post #1
This is the first of probably a few preliminary posts for our vintage sweater knit-along! (Never mind the fact that I’m having to write this twice, since I accidentally deleted my draft that I’d spent hours working on. Oh no, we won’t talk about that since it might incite rage in me.)Anyway, I wanted to talk about some of the basics for the knit-along. We’ll be knitting a short-sleeved sweater from a vintage pattern. ... Read more »
Knitting in a new direction
Sometimes a project just isn't meant to be that project. Case in point the short-sleeved sweater I started a couple of weeks ago, Fair Isle Yoke from the book A Stitch in Time, a beautiful book of vintage patterns that have been re-worked by the authors. The neat thing about this book is they show the modern pattern and the vintage pattern, so if there's any question or you're curious about what technique was originally ... Read more »
Weekend round-up
This weekend flew by! I didn't even have any time to knit or sew. Yesterday was the first time we were able to see Mel's parents to exchange (obviously belated) Christmas gifts, so we had them over for lunch. Then like entertaining superheros, we turned right around and hosted an impromptu gathering with some of our friends last night. Our friend Jen made yummy bruschetta. I was going to make our popular roasted garbanzo ... Read more »
Pink elephants on parade
Wow, I'm so excited to see that there is some interest in a vintage sweater knit-along! I will definitely do this.It sounds like several people could use the motivation of working together that an 'along' brings, want to finally dabble their toe in the vintage knitting waters, need a bit of extra help with the details or just want to work on their first garment. I'll think about the best way to go about all this, so ... Read more »
Vintage knitting pattern find: Patons Knitting Book No. 294
I need a little break from thinking about my birdies blouse sewing project. (Incidentally it dawned on me when I was cutting out the fabric that the birds are sitting on little bird swings, not in bird cages. Even cuter!) One thing I have a ton of is vintage knitting booklets, and I want to start sharing some of my favorite pictures, I think. There are so many precious gems inside! Maybe a regular feature?Today's vintage ... Read more »
Finished project: Blenders blouse
I finally got photos of my first sewing project of 2011. It was a project I started last year. In fact, it was the last sewing project I touched last year. I am now not 100% sure why I tossed it to the side, but I know one reason was due to a beginner's error of not remembering that if you don't clip corners of an angle before trying to turn it, it's going to be lumpy and weird looking and you're going to think you did ... Read more »
Wisconsin weekend
As I said yesterday, we went to Wisconsin for the weekend. Really just one night, but it's amazing how rejuvenating even a 24-hour mini-trip can be. Little local weekend adventures are some of my favorite things to do.We went up with two of our friends to the Milwaukee Public Museum to see their Mummies of the World exhibit.I knit in the car on the way up. In the picture below I'm wearing a vintage yellow acrylic cardigan ... Read more »
One step closer
We got home this afternoon, having had a wonderful brief trip to Wisconsin with our friends. I'll be posting photos tomorrow because—yay!—I have the day off work.In the meantime, I thought I'd post the fabrics I'm considering for my current blouse. After my epiphany earlier in the week, I didn't really get a chance to sit back down with my muslin until we got home today. I finished off the collar, set in one sleeve and ... Read more »
1940s pigtail loop braids
First off, let me send a huge thank you out to DeluxeVille for the blog plug yesterday! I was tickled pink and totally flattered. Her house is just so inspiring and dreamy for a lover of mid-century modern. So a warm welcome to any new blog readers who have found their way here from that! Yesterday, I was reading the Chronically Vintage post about Ladies' Home Journal. It featured an amazing picture from 1943 that I ... Read more »
More sewing with pets
Okay, what are my pets trying to tell me this week?! First it was Pia and the muslin, now it's Dinah and the sewing machine.Apparently she, too, is eager to find out how the collar will work out on my muslin (see previous post). I just sat down to work on it and suddenly there she was.You can just get a little glimpse of one of my prized possessions in the background, which I hope to photograph in detail sometime when the ... Read more »
Stick-to-it-ness
Yesterday evening I sat down to actually begin work on the muslin for my vintage blouse. I figured out the front gathers on the shoulder pretty easily, sewed up the shoulders and the sides... and then spent about the next 2 or 3 hours reading two paragraphs of my pattern. Vintage sewing patterns being a little skimpy on the instructions (if not downright pithy sometimes), it probably worked out to about 45 minutes a ... Read more »
uniform sewing
This afternoon, I sat down to make a muslin. I admit that I'm really not a big fan of doing them anymore than I'm a fan of knitting a gauge swatch. But like in knitting, I know when I need to do one and when I don't. This weekend I finished up my blenders blouse and I'm extremely happy with it. (I hope to get some photos next weekend when there's sun.) I'd do a few things different next time, but I know I'll be making the ... Read more »
Non sequiturs: Pasta sauce and business casual
I was initially planning to post today about the wonderful, amazing dinner that I cooked for us last night. For the first time, I made my mom's Italian pasta sauce recipe, which is probably very close to my grandma's recipe, which in turn is probably similar to my great grandmother's recipe. So if not in exact ingredients or steps, it's a sauce that's been passed down at least four generations. My great-grandmother died ... Read more »
Pin basting a sleeve in a vintage sewing pattern
Yesterday afternoon I picked back up a sewing project that I had abandoned last Fall. I didn't do a lot of sewing last year, and I know that's due in large part to being an on again, off again sewist over the years, even though last year I was really determined to make it more of a habit. I didn't. I'm usually pretty adept at reading vintage patterns but sometimes my execution leaves something to be desired, and that left ... Read more »
Happy New Year
I guess you could say it's been awhile since I've felt like blogging. Nothing happened, I just kept putting off posting photos from our Fall trip to Ireland and I turned around and bim, bam, boom! Suddenly it's 2011. Happy New Year!While the holiday season has only just finished up, I feel I can still be justified in posting the Christmas sweater I knit in December. Last year (oops, now the year before last-- look how ... Read more »