#OAL 2018

Hot on the heels of me-made May, I have signed up for this outfit-a-long challenge again this year, and I'll be making the v-necked cardigan on the left (although possibly not with patterned sleeves, I'm still undecided on whether to do them per the pattern, or just stocking stitch)

and at least one, and preferably two, dresses from this selection of fabrics.

When I was going through my fabric stash for me-made May I spent some time matching up stashed yarns with the fabrics and this particular one - Madelinetosh Sock in Pop Rocks - was a good match for these and that's what decided me on choosing to knit with it (as well as the fact that it's a summery colour, I'm not going to be knitting with thick or dark coloured wool in June and July).

So... wish me luck to get one cardigan and two dresses made in two months - it should be possible!

Penelope cardigan

I don't remember where I came across this cardigan pattern, but as soon as I did, I knew I wanted to knit it.

As it turned out I made quite a few changes from the pattern, the most obvious of which I suppose is that I ran the pattern up the front next to the button band, not in a straight line.  I also changed the pattern.  The smocking part is the same, but I changed the eyelet columns to be stocking stitch, not reverse stocking stitch.  Actually, I did that for the whole cardigan - the pattern as written has reverse stocking stitch for the right side and I prefer that to be the wrong side.  I also didn't do any patterning on the back or the sleeves, they're just plain stocking stitch.

In terms of construction, I knitted the body in one piece up to the armholes, then did fake side seams and split for the fronts and back.  The shoulders are done with short rows and seamed, and the button band was picked up and knitted on.  I don't know why I did it in 1 x 1 rib when the waist and cuffs are 2 x 2, suffice to say that I didn't notice until I was half way down the first sleeve and had already made the buttonholes (one-row 2-stitch) and sewn the buttons on.  I wasn't going to undo all that.  The sleeves are picked up round the armholes and shaped with short rows and knitted top down.

I used Malabrigo sock yarn in the Water Green colourway to knit this, and I have no idea where the buttons came from (they were in my stash but I can't remember where I bought them).  I'm really pleased with it, even though it doesn't really look much like the pattern photo!

Me-made May week 4 round-up

I spent most of this week in Paris - I'd checked the weather forecast and packed accordingly, and the weather gods didn't let me down - there was a lot of warmth and sunshine which was very much needed after the interminably long, dull and cold spring we've had here in England this year.

Day 22 - off to Paris wearing a Sewaholic Cambie made with Liberty Tana Lawn in the Paper Roses print, and rtw cardigan

Day 23 - le tour Eiffel dress no 1, no cardigan necesary

Day 24 - Springtime dress and lightweight wool cardigan (which really wasn't necessary except in heavily air-conned shops)

Day 25 - Tulips in Paris dress, no cardigan necessary, it was a gloriously warm day

Day 26 - Flamingolex dress and short-sleeved rtw cardigan (didn't get much wear)

Day 27 - One of my By Hand London Anna dresses and an rtw cardigan - again, the cardigan was really only necessary on the Eurostar and train home

Day 28 - St Ives dress and rtw cardigan for doing the food shopping in an air-conned supermarket

I am so pleased the day turned out to be warm, it didn't look very promising to start with, but I hung out the washing anyway and it was all dry by mid-afternoon, so, pretty good weather for a bank holiday!

Le tour Eiffel dress no 1

The second of my me-made May pledge dresses, this is the same pattern combo as the Tulips and St Ives dresses and, apart from the time it took to cut out, came together very quickly.  I really like this bodice/skirt combo, it's quick to sew up and doesn't take long to iron.  Much as I love big, pleated and circle skirts on dresses, this is an ideal work-wardrobe shape because of the quickness of the ironing!

This is another stashbusting dress which I wanted to get made in time to take with me to Paris and I got it finished with a couple of days to spare.  I had several people comment on it as I was wandering around - the sweetest one was a little girl, about 3 years old, who tugged at her mother's hand "maman, maman, regarde cette robe" with a big smile on her face.  I was very pleased to have got it made up!

This took more metreage than the Tulips dress because the fabric isn't as wide, and I think the next dress I make will be from a smaller print which I won't need to faff about with pattern matching...

I love the graphic of this design and have this fabric in two other colourways (hence this being no 1), which I hope won't take me as long to get made up as this did (I've had it for at least a couple of years I think).  Although I think I'll probably use a different pattern.

Tulips in Paris

This is the first of my me-made May pledge dresses which I made a couple of weekends ago.  I've had this fabric in my stash for a while and I wanted to get it made up and get some wear out of it before tulips are out of season for another year!

It's a mash up of the bodice from Butterick 5748 and the straight skirt from New Look 6824 and is the same bodice/skirt combo I used for the St Ives dress I made last summer.  The fabric was 58" wide and I only had 1.6m of it, I think it was an end of roll remnant, but that was enough fortunately.

The dress gets its name because I made it to take to Paris and the song 'Tulips in Amsterdam' kept going through my head as I was making it.

Stitchcraft summer top

I started knitting this in October last year as part of a knit-a-long which had an extended finish date of 31 December 2017.  Plenty of time to knit a short sleeved top I thought.  Well... by the time I'd done several swatches to see which would be the best size needles to use, the weather was getting pretty cold and I lost the impetus to finish something that I wouldn't wear for months.  Plus I had other, more seasonally appropriate, knitting to get done!

Pattern from the July 1938 issue of Stitchcraft

And so it languished for several months.  However as the days lengthened (sadly without the weather getting warmer) I decided I'd really like to get it finished, because I love the design and I knew it wouldn't take too long - the pattern is really easy once you get into the rhythm of it.  Plus of course short sleeves don't take long to knit.

I didn't do the collar because I didn't want that much wool round my neck in a lightweight top, so I altered the shaping of the neckline slightly and did a picked up 1 x 1 rib neckband.  Another change I made was to knit short row shoulders.

The flipside of the knitting not taking very long when it's in pieces is the time it takes to sew it up.  I can't remember now how long it took, but certainly a few hours.

I used Dream in Color Baby wool, which is sadly discontinued now as I would happily knit another of these tops with the same wool but different colours.  I've probably got something else suitable in my stash though if I'm honest...

Me made May - week 3 round-up

Well May seems to be speeding by, and it's already time for a round up of week three! 

Day 15 - Primroses for Spring cardigan and rtw t-shirt and skirt - I had an early start for work and it was a bit chilly, so out came a wool cardigan.

Day 16 - Bluebirds dress and rtw cardigan - I made this dress for OAL 2015, a knitting and sew along to make a complete outfit, OAL 2018 starts on 1 June and I've already got my plans in place.

Day 17 - Hummingbirds dress and rtw cardigan - I made this dress for last year's OAL.

Day18 - Art Gallery birds dress and rtw cardigan

Day 19 - Vintage Vogue 8728 dress - from their reprint range, and rtw cardigan

Day 20 - it was a lovely sunny Sunday, so it was maxi dress time! - Turquoise Anna maxi 

Day 21 - Back to work again - Green daisy Emery and rtw cardigan

Me made May - week 2 round-up

Running a little late with this update as I have been away with work for a few days, but I'm back now, so here it is.  Apart from one chilly, wet day (12th), the weather was reasonable for week 2, so it was mostly me-made dresses for this week.

Day 8 - Today I wore my pink birds dress and an rtw cardigan.

Day 9 - Another bird print dress today, this is from a vintage pattern and fabric I bought in Ikea several years ago, plus an rtw cardigan.

Day 10 - Today I wore what is still one of my favourite me-mades, my lime roses Elisalex and an rtw cardigan.

Day 11 - Today I wore my red daisy Emery dress and an  rtw cardigan

Day 12 - There was a definite nip in the air today, so I wore my most recent knitted finish which I have yet to blog about (I'll link to it once I've written about it).  This is a lightweight wool top which I started last autumn and then put to one side for the winter.  It's from a vintage pattern and I'm so pleased with how it turned out.  The skirt is an rtw from Lindy Bop.

Day 13 - Today I wore my Anna La Paloma dress which I made during Me-Made-May 2016.  I love this print, it's very Josef Frank inspired I think.  I paired it with a cardigan I knitted last year from a vintage pattern with Malabrigo sock yarn.  I'm knitting with this at the moment and I love it - it is so soft.

Day 14 - This is another of my 'Top Ten' dresses (I haven't actually got a top ten, but if I did, this would be one of them - the other one in this post would be the lime roses Elisalex).  It's the Happy Homemaker dress and an rtw cardigan.

And that's it for week 2!

Me Made May 2018 - week 1 round-up

Well the UK weather was all over the place for the first week of May 2018!  I went from wearing wool jumper and skirt in the early part of the week, to floaty maxi dresses at the end.  So, without further ado, here are the first week's outfits.

Day 1, not terribly warm, so a wool cardigan which I knitted last summer, with a cotton dress (and tights).

Day 2 was freezing, and this was the day when I wore a wool skirt, given to me by a friend and one of my most worn skirts during the winter, and a me-made wool jumper.

Day 3 - polka dot dress made from a vintage pattern, and me-made cardigan, also from a vintage pattern.

Day 4 - rtw dress and handknitted wool cardigan which I made last year.

Day 5 - warmer weather, so a lemon print rtw dress and one of this year's handknits

Day 6 - the weather was lovely and so it was time to break out a maxi

Day 7 - lovely and warm again, so another maxi, this time an Anna which had been languishing in my alterations / mending box waiting for me to finish top stitching the neckline which I have now done, so this will get quite a bit of wear this summer because (i) I love it and (ii) it feels like having a new dress because it's been waiting so long for me to fix it!

And that was the first week that was.

Home Fires Knitting Project

I have both series of Home Fires on DVD and have recently re-watched them.  It's such a shame ITV cancelled it, I really enjoyed it - good storylines, great cast, and it had some brilliant knitwear!  However, all is not lost as Simon Block, the series creator, has continued the story in book form.  Already available in e-book and audio formats, the written version is due for publication tomorrow, so I hope it'll be landing through my letterbox soon.

I've decided I'd like to recreate some of the jumpers featured in the show, although not necessarily in the same colourways.  This is going to be a long term project and will fit in around other knitting (and sewing).  Mustn't forget the sewing.  Anyway... below are some screenshots from the show and photos of the patterns and yarns I'll be using.

Firstly a feather a fan top - I spotted four in the show, all slightly different

I'll be using  Sirdar 1140 and some Koigu wool which I've had in my stash for quite some time.

Next on the 'to knit' list is this top - two versions in the show, Steph's (on the left) has longer sleeves.  This will take a while I think as the top part is moss stitch.

I'll be using  Patons 182 pattern and Cascade 220 Fingering

I'm keen to try this wool - there are several knitters on Instagram who use it for knitting vintage patterns, they wax lyrical about it and the results they get are stunning.

Also on the list are these two tops - the top one is Patons 607 and the lower one Bestway 1480.  These will also be knitted in Cascade 220 Fingering.

I'm also going to knit a 'bunny ears' top

Although I haven't made a decision on which wool to use for this yet - it may end up being 'make do and mend' knitted with leftovers!  The pattern I'll use is Weldons 528.

For the cardigan below I'll use Bestway 1027 which has a slightly different stitch pattern, but the overall effect will be similar I think.  I've got some green Madeline Tosh sock in my stash which I'll use for this.

Next is this short-sleeved top - I haven't found this exact pattern online so I'll use Patons 820 which is slightly different - no wool allocated for this one yet.

And finally, I love this fairisle top which Claire is modelling in the telephone exchange, but I don't have a pattern for this yet, so I'm still searching.

Plenty here to keep me busy for years I think!