Along with spending a lot of time on photography as of late, I’ve also been keeping up with knitting and have started on to a new hobby – sewing!
First up, a finished knitting project – “Ingenue”, by Wendy Bernard, from the book “Custom Knits”.
"Ingenue", by Wendy Bernard
This was a really enjoyable knit – it is a very easy and straightforward pattern, and I love the construction of the collar. You make it twice as long as your desired finished length, then fold it over and stitch it down inside the sweater. It creates a very sturdy collar that really keeps its shape. I love it. I used Brooks Farm Four Play – 3 skeins, purchased at Rhinebeck (only about 810 yards!). I was unsure about using a variegated yarn, but I love the end result and the drape of the yarn is gorgeous. It was lovely to knit with.
Project number two is a sewing project – my first real one after the pencil case I made a couple of weeks ago. As I have written before, I have been getting together on Thursday afternoons with one of our wardrobe supervisors, Roy, at the theater, and he has been teaching me and Suzanne (one of our hair supervisors) how to sew. For our first big project, Suzanne and I both made “The Everything Tote” from the book “Weekend Sewing” by Heather Ross. We definitely had a lot of instructional help from Roy, but all in all, the bag was not so hard to put together. I used some red canvas for the outside and a black and white cotton print for the lining (FYI – the book states you only need 1/2 a yard of fabric for the outer layer and 1/2 yard for the lining – not so – you actually need 1 yard of each).
"Everything Tote", by Heather Ross
Next up on the sewing front is buying my own machine! In class I am working on an Amy Butler top, and for my birthday I treated myself to three skirt kits from Clothkits, so I’ll be putting those together. In knitting, I just had to rip an almost completely finished sweater (“Riding to Avalon” by Connie Chinchio) because I ran out of yarn, and there is no more to be had anywhere (it was Brooks Farm Solo Silk, purchased at Rhinebeck). I’ll use the yarn for something else. Right now I am working on a cotton top called “Empress Pullover” – a pattern from KnitPicks. I’ve had to completely rewrite the pattern to fit me, so we’ll see how it goes.
Here’s to a craft-filled summer!
