Craft Enabled, Domestically Disabled

NaKniSweMo sweater

Scoop Pullover:

 
Things I had to do to this pattern in order to make it fit me:
(a) I could not get gauge properly on this project--the amount of stitches I was to cast on only made it to 3 inches wide (the row gauge was fine). So I made it in the bigger size, as someone else in the same situation did on Ravelry.
(b) I ended up taking in and sewing the welted parts in at the side by about an inch because it was already coming out so big on top that ah, it was very peekaboo.
(c) Doing the k3,p2 rib made the sweater very huge on the bottom. I actually ended up (a) going to k2, p1 rib after finishing the welting section, and (b) literally decreasing half of the stitches in the final welt row (er, the first of the last 4 knitted welts) in order to size down the sweater enough for it to fit well from the boobs down. Good choice.
(d) I made the sleeves longer because I never end up wearing short sleeved sweaters. At the elbows (approx. 7.5 inches from start of armpit), I went from k2,p2 rib to k2,p1 rib to size them down again. Another good idea.

Now looking at it on, it seems a little tight in the middle (oh well, I have a fat middle and I'm not gonna take up anorexia). It sort of makes me want to redo the bottom in k2, p2 rib, but...eh....

Minion hat

For a friend:

Final week of self-portrait

Here's everyone at once.

This one I pre-did last week. It...looks a little odd to me, kind of like the first one.

Two knitting rants

I am doing a NaKniSweMo sweater that has been driving me a little nuts. It looks like this. Has a big blousy top and then tapers at the waist, right? Eh...not so much...I ended up taking out the entire bottom section (which is supposed to be increased to a k3, p2 rib) and doing it in a k2,p1 rib to make it smaller. And on the last few inches of the welt at the front (the part going horizontally rather than vertically), I ended up taking out HALF of the stitches there to size the middle down to actually fit me. And I did some cheating to take in the top of the welting at the armpit areas so it wouldn't be so big that it's a super giant peek-a-boo at the tits when you look down.

I have bizarrely big boobs for the rest of my size. I have a relatively small back and a big ol' front for no good reason, which makes bra shopping and the like a pain in the arse. When it comes to knitting, you have to pick out what size you're going to make based on how wide you are around. Frequently, knitted patterns are about 4 inches different in size rather than 2 inches, which they should be. What that translates into is that if you are around 36 inches at the widest bit (this is fairly close to what I am), most patterns will go from a size 34 to a 38, so I can either choose to make Too Small or Too Big and see how that comes out. This is why I just gave away a crapload of sweaters, because a fair chunk of those turned out to be in the wrong size.

Sweaters knitted from the top down in the round are widely regarded to be the easiest to do, especially since you can try them on and see how well it's fitting in mid-project. They're not quite that easy for me, due to (a) raglan increases, which I somehow bungle so frequently that I need to literally count the stitches every fucking row in order to get it right, and (b) the sizing problem. I had to give up on making this one dress that's knitted in the round because if it's big enough to cover the boobs, then the rest of it is huge and saggy at the back. This is not quite as bad of a problem when you make the sides and back separately because I can make a smaller back and fudge the front to be bigger or have short rows or something.

At least in this pattern I could make adjustments. Now the bottom of it fits nicely because I way sized it down (and could). The front welted bit is still fairly huge, but I can yank it up and make it look like it's supposed to be off-shoulder or something if I have to.

But that said, I can't wait to be done with it. I'm on to the sleeves now and then I can move on to other things.

I reaaaaaaaaaaaaally want to start in on a mermaid peplum striped sweater, a la this one. This leads to my second rant of the day: gauge!

I have been having issues getting the correct gauge on projects lately. I do not comprehend how anybody has somehow managed to design a project that is in relatively small yarn (say, size 4 and below) where 15 stitches cast on equals 4 inches wide. As far as I can tell, this is not even scientifically possible and I don't know how the hell the designer did that. If you look at the yarnstandards.com's list of approximate gauges for each sort of yarn, I will pretty much come out along those lines while knitting. So it makes no fucking sense when people somehow came out with a gauge that I can't match. I had this problem big time with my Halloween costume this year because I couldn't get the weird stretched gauge that the pattern designer came out with. And according to lots of folks on Ravelry, I was not the only one. It was a simple enough pattern that I could fudge it (and fudge it and fudge it and take things in and fudge it...) in the end, but still. When I was doing the gauge swatch for the sweater I'm doing now, I could get the rows right, but not the stitches. I did find out online that if that's the case, you can just make a larger size sweater and then it will come out okay--which for the most part has kinda worked, at least on the top bits before I had to size it down on the bottom. But there's another pattern I want to do where I can't get anything to come out right, and....ARGHHHHHH.

Returning to the peplum sweater that I want to make, the pattern I found online is in tiny yarn with tiny needles. Now, I did get gauge on that (oh, goody) at the correct size, but I'd rather make it in bigger yarn. I don't like working in smaller yarn because it takes for-bloody-ever to finish the sweater the tinier it is. So while I could try to make it that small, in size 4 needles--and I actually have the supplies for it--I actually decided to attempt to convert it into worsted yarn. Because I've got tons of small balls of that kind of yarn around, and I'd love to use them to make a stripey peplum sweater.

If you search online for how to convert gauges from the original pattern's (that you can't get right) to your own gauge, this gets...fucking complicated. And made my brain hurt a lot. Happily, I did find one page online that will do the math for you. So I spent most of last week converting the pattern to worsted, and I spent most of Sunday picking out yarns to put into it. And I am just raring to start doing it already. Even though I should at least be finishing Jackie's minion hat for Christmas first. Not to mention that I offered to make her a Harry Potter sweater at some point...

It's probably a good thing I gave up on making gifts for the relatives.

More in-color self-portrait work

Here's last week's with the skin colored in. Not terribly darkly, mind you (I don't think the teacher liked that), but eh, I'm not all that baked looking on a regular basis anyway.

 

Since I had some time left--and apparently I can't color and still finish a drawing in 2 hours--I decided to pre-draw w/skin color another picture, and leave it generic enough to decorate later. It looks...kinda weird in the expression.

Some comparison shots:

Stuff I bought this weekend

So my friend and I attended the Art to Wear and More Show and Sale put on by the Sacramento Center for the Textile Arts last weekend. The photo album of this is very fun, if you are into that sort of thing. I wore the second sweater seen here to the show, which people loved. The emcee even had me stand up and show it to the crowd. It was its first time leaving the house (I finished it in March) and I'm glad it was well liked.

I...spent a shit-ton of money. But...it was worth it.

 

This is a lovely T-shirt dress. Remember when I used to do T-shirt reconstruction (which I haven't done for awhile after getting burned out on the blanket/quilt)? This is pretty inspiring to try. Adorable.

And this is the handmade sweater I mentioned in a previous post. Worth the money. I first saw another version of it in the fashion show and fell in love...but then tried on this version. *drools*

Sooooooooo pretty. My friend and I want to try making our own version of a peplum jacket now. Which is something I've wanted to do for a few years now after seeing this pattern and falling in love with it...but between the cost, the foreign country, and the tiny needles, I haven't done it. I did find a couple of similar patterns online, but I am also debating trying to figure it out by looking at this one. 

I have made a lot of sweaters.

To be honest, there's a good chunk of my early work that I don't wear. Either I picked the wrong size to make (for some reason, most patterns jump from a size 32 bust to 38 or something crazy like that, so I have to choose Too Small or Too Big to make), or I can't figure out in what kind of weather one wears a short sleeved sweater. Stuff like that. Anyway, they're good sweaters and the Craft Center staff auction is coming up, so I donated ah, 12 sweaters.

They have a wall all to themselves. It looks very impressive and cool.

I seriously don't think they'll go for much money, though. But hey, nobody sells handmade sweaters for a reason...normally you can't afford them at all. (Note: I paid $200 for a handmade sweater this weekend.) So hey, if you're in the area, there will be some super cheap deals!

A very pretty ball of yarn.

It starts out in the raw like this.

Then you spin it onto two spindles in the raw like this. (The second layer of the top batt was mostly blue and pink, hence the second spindle here.)

Now it's spun.

A half-done in color self portrait

....Yeah, I haven't gotten to coloring in my own skin yet. But I made sure to wear a very interesting outfit for Color Day!

Incidentally, I have dirty blonde hair and hazel eyes. It's...very odd trying to replicate that in color. In real life both look kinda gold, but trying to replicate the shades, I mostly had to use a lot of brown. Blech.

"Her favorite color is rainbow."

This girl totally dresses kinda like I do. I love thrift storing too (did it again today).