More pattern drafting and other things...

Attended a second weekend course on pattern drafting - this time for trousers (I keep wanting to type "draughting" because I started work as a draughtsman - is "draft" an Americanism?). Anyhoo, having been measured all over for the skirt class, it was somewhat gratifying to discover I'd lost 5cm from my waistline and a similar amount from my hips. I've lost over a stone now, following Weightwatchers (the old points system) but not attending meetings. I have the books, and anyway I don't have time for meetings and I already paid them once :) I was already aware I'd lost weight, having had to put quite a few pairs of trousers and jeans into the charity bag because I really don't think the "dustman's trousers" look is appropriate for work, and most of my work trousers don't have belt loops to help keep them up. Discovered I can remove certain pairs of jeans without even undoing them, which is rather handy after a few beers! It was nice to have the results in black and white, though - I did measure myself at the start and put the details into a computer program - alas, this was on an old hard disk and himself has replaced it with a new one.

The skirt class had been very interesting and I was expecting to have to make similar adjustments to the front and back seams. What I wasn't expecting to find, was that I have a slight stoop. It must be my bust, I tend to stoop so as not to take someone's eye out with it. So my spine is a slight S shape, and my waist-to-floor measurement is 4.5cm lower at the front. We made our toiles from the standard "classic fit" model from the Winifred Aldrich book. That was the easy part. Then we were fitted. The top half of my back trouser block (from hipline upwards) was basically rotated a bit to make the back fit better. I also had to add some material into both side seams from the crutch down. As there wasn't enough time to do both legs, I only did one leg, but it made it very obvious when compared with the non-adjusted leg. We only just had enough time to finish (and guess who panicked and sewed her crutch seam inside out - frayed crutch, anyone?!). But the finished result was great. It also explains why my bought trousers always gape at the back like an old welly top. The only way around it is to pick elasticated waist trousers (not much choice of those about) or to choose stretch fabrics and wider leg styles. Or to make my own.

However, the rate I'm losing weight at, means I'll need to be remeasured and will have to recalculate these blocks. Probably should have waited 'til next year (when hopefully I hit my target weight) to take the course. Ah well, never mind! To that end, I've set up a spreadsheet with my measurements on the first page, and then various block patterns on other tabs that refer to these measurements. Update the measurements, and you can recalculate your block.

The next training is at the beginning of August and is three days because it's bodice and sleeve fitting, and is even more complicated - you have to measure the armscye before you can do the sleeve, and there are more parts.

What else? Well, I sold quite a bit of the yarn, but still have 2 bags of industrial, 4 bags of 4ply and 1 bag of "DK and up" yarns. I've sold two knitting machines and one ribber, I have another one that might sell soon and then there are various doodads and gadgets that will be going onto Ebay before the end of the month. It takes a lot of time to photograph everything, estimate how I'd pack them, weigh them, write them up and post them online (I'm steelbreeze23 on Ebay in case you're interested). And time is at a premium at the moment.

But (gasp) there has also been some actual machine knitting. I can't post much about it at the moment, because it's for the Dream Week in September. Suffice to say it's a cardigan, and I debated whether to do a peplum, but have decided against it as the yarn is quite stiff and I don't think it will hang right. Glad I ordered two cones, the gauge is something like 47 rows to 10cm so it's going to take more than one cone. I daresay it won't win, but I'm trying to make more of an effort than last year's last minute bikini for Flat Eric(a). My only concern is running out of time - every time I think I might have a free slot, something comes up that must be done. Looking at upcoming weekends, I only have about 9 days free between now and September. Blimey, where did the year go?!