Friday, December 11, 2009

Not paying attention...

... so I've got to rip back 6 or so rounds on the earflap hat, because my decreases are all over the shop. I was too busy yakking on Wednesday night methinks. Plus, being an idiot, when I rescaled the pattern to fit my (big) head, I failed to make it divide by 9. It was supposed to be 81 stitches and I made it 112. I'm determined I shan't start from scratch, so it will have to stand as is. It'll be near enough, anyway.

Hoping to start work on a new machine knitting project on Sunday, if I can just locate the original swatch and figure out if I have enough yarn for what I want to do. Let's ignore the fact I have quite a few UFOs that I should really tackle first, eh?!

Dressmaking class has now finished for the year, and I've decided not to re-enroll on any community courses next year. I'm going to try a local sewing shop instead, because it's less of a time commitment. It's still gonna screw up Wednesday nights, though, but not as much.

At class, I made a toile of a top I'm going to make, and added 2" to the bust line. Had my first go at gathering - looks great, I want to add frills to everything now - and the modified top looked ok but screamed "BOOBS!" to anyone who looked at it. Pinned one half up to where it would have been if I'd not modified it, and I actually prefer the original cut - the pattern is quite a loose fit anyway. But it was a useful exercise. Going to start the real thing tonight. Also picked up a copy of Betty Foster's "Fashion Maker", an interesting explanation of how to make lots of different tops and other things from a basic T shape. Bit 80s (think batwings!) but I'm still tempted to try it out.

Picked up the latest (5th) edition of "Metric Pattern Cutting for Women's Wear" by Winifred Aldrich (was supposed to be xmas shopping, oops!). Anybody want my older edition - think it's the 3rd one, it has a dark turquoise cover? Added the menswear and children's wear versions to my Amazon wishlist. If they don't turn up for Christmas they'll be in my trolley come the 27th, I'm sure! :o)

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