Star baby quilt top - with a slight problem

A few weeks ago (actually, a few weeks before Thanksgiving) I was feeling like I had done a lot of apparel sewing this year and not enough quilting.  I have fabric and pattern all ready to go for two or three lap to bed size quilts, but I was also feeling kind of overwhelmed with work and job-searching (I'm expecting to graduate in May), so I pulled out a Simply Color charm pack I've had sitting around for a while and the leftover grey background fabric from my Half Moon Modern Half-Square Triangle quilt and went to town with this free Moda pattern.

It took two evenings to piece the top.  I didn't trim my HST units or pin any seams until I had all of the rows sewn together.  It was quick and easy and fun, and really satisfying to get it done quickly, and I think it looks great - but it is decidedly not flat, which I'm feeling pretty okay about.  I think it will quilt out just fine.  I am not stressing out about this little baby quilt.

The problem came at the end of the second night of piecing, when I pulled out the fabric I had bought for backing and binding when I bought the charm pack.  I only have one yard of the backing fabric.  Lately I've been in a groove of making baby quilts about 40" by 50" and so I assumed that I would have 1.5 yards for the backing, but I don't.  I don't have enough binding fabric to do anything but bind it (only 1/3 yard!) and I don't have any of the grey fabric left over.  I think what I'm going to do is trim 4" of of the two wider borders on the top and then piece that fabric into the back along with a few leftover charm squares that didn't get used in the top.

I'm not really feeling inspired to finish this quilt right now, but at least I have a plan for how to finish it.  I don't like to have long-term hibernating UFOs, but I also don't know of any babies who will be needing a quilt from me any time soon, so I think I'm going to piece the back and then fold it all up until I feel like finishing it.

Being a mathematician improves my knitting

I am a mathematician.  The fact that I am a mathematician shapes the way I think, and slips out when I tell my mom that she doesn't need to worry about my apartment flooding because it's at a local maximum, or how I have a special appreciation for the non-simply-connected geological features at Arches National Park, or in my knitting.  Lately I've been noticing how my mathematical ways of thinking are helping me knit this little cable cardigan (Trellis from Knitty) for my nephew.

Modular Arithmetic: This particular cardigan has an 18-row cable pattern that repeats several times beginning with row 9 of the sweater body, while at the same time you knit a buttonhole every tenth row beginning in row 5.  So I know that I need to put a buttonhole in row 5, 15, 25, 35, and 45.  I want to start counting my rows with row 1 of the CABLE PATTERN, so using the new numbering system for rows, I'll be putting buttonholes in row 7 (this is the second buttonhole), 17, 27, and 37.  Then using modular arithmetic (also known as clock arithmetic) I reduce those modulo 18 and work buttonholes in rows 7, 17, 9, and 1 of the CABLE PATTERN. For me, this is much easier than trying to keep track of one count for the cable pattern and another for the buttonholes - instead, I just track everything in terms of the cable pattern.

Symmetry:  If you look closely at my photos in this post and compare them to the photos in the pattern, you'll notice that I changed some of the cable crossings.  Many mathematicians care a lot about symmetry (non-mathematicians care about this too, of course, but we're trained to notice it wherever we can).  This is a case where I think the pattern-writer was wrong.  If you imagine a vertical line going down the middle of the back of the sweater, in the center seed stitch column, and think of reflecting one side of the sweater across that line, you would get the other side of the sweater.  This is called a reflectional symmetry, and it makes for a much more pleasing image than what is written in the original pattern, with all of the large fancy cables twisting to the "right" and all of the little cables twisting "left."  I fixed this so that the two large fancy cables on each of the front and back twist toward the center, and each of the little cables twists toward the large fancy cable it frames.  

Braids:   This one doesn't really improve my knitting as much as add to my enjoyment.  My research is in knot theory, which is closely related to the study of mathematical braids. Every knitted cable is a braid; in this sweater, each of the fancy cables is a two-strand braid, and each of the little cables is a four-strand braid.  Referring back to symmetry for a moment, the mirror image of a braid is its inverse, so in this sweater we see braids paired with their inverses.  It makes me so happy when my work shows up in other areas of my life!  I'm so glad I'm a mathematician - if I wasn't, I wouldn't be able to properly appreciate this little sweater!  

Re-knitting.

I feel like I'm not making any progress on my knitting lately.  I seem to be knitting everything at least twice.  This is a sweater for my nephew.  It's going to be a Christmas gift.  I knitted almost the entire body in the car on the way to and from our vacation in August ... and I'm going to rip it all out to start over.  August was way too soon to start a Christmas gift for an infant.  This is way too small.  I'm going to start over with the next size (or maybe two sizes) up.

This is my second attempt on the second sleeve of my Lofoten sweater.  I knit the first sleeve twice, too, and then I didn't think to mark which of the two sets of increases (for the two times I knit the first sleeve) was the correct one.  So of course when I got ready to knit the second sleeve, I followed the wrong one.

This first sock picture was my second (maybe third?  I can't quite remember) attempt at stripey socks.  Then I tried it on, decided the leg was too short, and ripped it back to the top of the heel because it was also kind of gapey at the back ankle and I didn't want the leg to be half ribbed and half not.  

Here it is now.  I'm much happier with it, and hopefully on this one I can replicate it on the first try when I get to the second sock.

Stars baby quilt

I made this quilt for a church friend whose baby shower was last Sunday afternoon.  It was a bit of a scramble to get it done - I started it about 96 hours before the shower.  The four star blocks are from Vintage Quilt Revival.  Except for the blue-grey background and the purple print in the stars, all of the fabrics were scraps and stash.  I think there are elements of four other baby quilts in this quilt.

For the back, I used a cut off strip from the top of this quilt, bordered with the grey background from the front and filled in with a green solid I've had in my stash for a long time - this is almost the last of it.  To wrap the quilt, I rolled it up with the back facing out, and when she opened it my friend thought it was the main side of the quilt!  I quilted it all over with loopy-loops, using charcoal thread in the bobbin for the whole thing.  I used the same charcoal thread on top for the background, and switched to an off-white for the star blocks.  Then I machine bound it.

 I labeled the quilt by writing directly on the binding at one corner on the back of the quilt using an archival permanent pen.  It finished at about 39" by 50" after washing.

I'm really pleased with how the quilt turned out, and it got lots of oohs and aahs at the baby shower.  My friend sat with it over her lap for the rest of the shower!

Now I'm about out of low-volume fabrics.  I'm also running low on the green solid and the blue wave print that has showed up in several of my recent baby quilts (although not this one).  I think I need to re-stock my stash.  I'm really wanting a fat quarter or half yard bundle of the new Modern Background Paper by Zen Chic for Moda ...

Washi!

I finally made my Washi dress!  I bought the fabric with the intention of making this dress at least two years ago.  I'm really happy with how it turned out.  It's Anna Maria Horner Little Folks Voile, lined with a solid navy voile, and it feels so nice to wear.

I used Rae's video tutorials for a lined dress.  It was pretty straightforward.  I made a bodice muslin and then sewed the medium as-is, but with probably about 6 inches of extra length in the skirt.  Robert helped me level the hem at the right level.  I'm really liking my knee-length dresses right now.  The lining is hemmed about half an inch shorter than the outer dress, and that seems to work well.  I tacked the inner and outer dresses together at the side seams, which are french seams on both the outer dress and lining.

By far the most difficult part of making this dress was sewing in the sleeves.  There are notches in the armscyes for the edge of the cap sleeves, but no indication of how the sleeves should be eased in.  It may be that the length of the sleeve edge is exactly the same as the length of armscye between the notches, but if so that wasn't much help for pinning them in since the two edges curve in opposite directions.  I ended up aligning the center of the cap sleeve with the shoulder seam, but I have no idea if that was the right thing to do.  I guess it was, because it worked.  When I make this dress again I will not do cap sleeves.  Aside from being a pain to put in, they cut into the front of my arms a little bit.  I think I would be more comfortable in a sleeveless version or one with long sleeves - and I want to make both!

An idea ...

I want to make my own long underwear!

Robert and I like to go camping and backpacking, and I've been wearing the same long underwear I got in high school for chilly evenings.  It's not particularly well-fitting, comfortable, warm, or cute.  The sleeves and legs are too short.

I've been dreaming about fancy wool or silk long underwear sets designed for backpacking.  The current plan is to buy a set of those for me with next year's REI dividend.  But then I had an idea: I could make a pair of leggings and a close-fitting long-sleeved t-shirt out of wool or wool-silk knit!

I'm looking at the Manila leggings from Seamwork and maybe modifying the bodice of the Lady Skater dress for the top.

I want the sleeves on the top to be extra-long and have thumb holes.

I like the leg cuff detail on the Manila leggings.  I like the idea of making my own long underwear, I think I could do it for less money than it would cost to buy a fancy SmartWool or Patagonia set, and I could make sure the sleeves and legs are long enough for me!

Now I need to start making practice leggings ... I think it will be a while before I'm ready to even think about buying wool knit fabric.

A Special Birthday Dress!

My niece turned 2 last weekend.  I decided to make her a special dress.  It is a mash-up of the Geranium from Made by Rae and the Puppet Show dress from Oliver + S.  I used the geranium skirt, the puppet show sleeves, and a bodice that was mostly geranium.  I made the 2T size, which it turned out was quite a bit too big.  I thought it would be the right size since I made the a Geranium top for her in the 18-24 month size for the 4th of July, and that fit.  The 2T size isn't that much bigger than the 18-24 month, but I think the way I combined the bodice patterns made the shoulders a little bit wider, and the sleeves made it extra obvious that it was too wide for her.

I had intended to cut extra length in the skirt, but I only bought one yard of the fabric (Heather Ross Tiger Lily voile), and I didn't have enough.  Instead I added a faux sash to the bottom of the bodice and lining, using some navy voile leftover from the lining of a dress I'm sewing for myself.  I was pretty proud of the way I added the seamless sash. I stitched the ends of the sash to the back bodice pieces (after sewing the shoulder seams), then sewed the bodice and lining together along the neck and back edges as directed in the geranium pattern.  Then I sewed the side seams (bodice and lining separately), then went back and sewed the rest of the seam between bodice and sash:

This way there were no side seams in the sash.  Of course, later I realized that I could have sewn the side seams first, then the sash, then the neck and back edges, since I was adding sleeves and therefore couldn't finish the armscyes as directed in geranium.  So this was a bit of extra work, but now I have it figured out in case I ever want to add a sash/waistband to a straight-up geranium dress.

I sewed in the sleeves - I had to trim off the armholes because they were incredibly small!  I used the armscyes from the Puppet show pattern, and I don't know what happened.  There was no way the sleeves would fit into them.  I ended up trimming quite a bit off.

Then I went to sew the skirt pieces and discovered that I had made a cutting error.  I cut pockets onto the front skirt piece but not the back.  I felt really stupid.  The dress lost its pockets.

I fought with my sewing machine's button-hole function, but eventually got it to work.

The inside of the dress has no raw edges.  I bound the sleeve cuff seam with the cuff seam allowance and hand sewed the bodice lining to the seam allowance of the sleeve and to the skirt lining.

I added a layer of gathered tulle between the skirt and lining to give it a bit of extra fullness. I had a bit of trouble gathering the tulle, but it turned out well in the end.  I gathered the tulle, lining, and skirt in three separate layers and then pinned them all together.  I wish I had read this post by Nicole at Five and Counting before sewing this - I think her way would be much easier.

My niece looks very cute in her dress, even if it is too big.  When she gets taller I can add a band of the navy voile to the skirt hem to give it some extra length so she can wear it longer (especially given that it is so wide on her)!