A whole outfit!

Yup, I did it! I made a whole outfit. I couldn't wait to share but the light here is terrible today so, here, have some fuzzy photies. 

The shirt is a nice, comfy loose style (the Itch to Stitch Mila) which I think would look great in a light lawn type fabric OR a cosy flannel) 

Mine doesn't drape terribly well (it wasn't meant to be worn, really, and is made of leftover curtain lining!) but is a nice fit. I graded between sizes at my waist.  Turns out that's why my jeans never fit - my waist is a whole size smaller than the rest of me!

So to combat the puffy back my solution was my tank top (belting it was another option - maybe the next one) It hides my lovely placket and heart buttons *sad face* but takes away from all that white *yays* And I fell in love with that yarn when I first saw it. I knew it would go great with my mustard Moss mini. I'm chasing the cat in this photo, not dancing. Honest. *shifty eyes*

The jumper cost less than a tenner to make and my shirt only cost the price of the pattern. Tenner for the mustard denim (had that pattern already) so..... Less than 30 quid? That's no bad, eh? Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to purchase some interlock knit and a top pattern. I will get over this fear of stretchy knit fabrics....

Finishing stuff (good and bad)

Well I got my wee jumper finished! Tank tops are great - no sleeves, heh heh.

I actually sussed my increases and decreases and got them all going the right way, too. About time!  So that was a success.

Less successful? My shirt experiment. I wanted to ombre dip dye the bottom 8 inches grey. It took aaaaages and was fairly tricky to do, and I do the graduated tints at work so am pretty experienced. But it looked pretty good when wet.

Then it dried. Yuk. It looks weird. 

Needless to say it has been in bleach this afternoon and is hanging drying again. So maybe tomorrow I'll be able to show a fully me-made outfit. Mebbes.

Yarny deets:

Yarn: King Cole Drifter Dk in 1366 Boston. 2 x 100g balls

Pattern: Design 23 top by Jenny Watson

Needles: 3.25mm for rib, 4mm for body

updating the cat

So that's been five weeks since Jones had his MRI scan and had his Primary Epilepsy diagnosis and subsequent medicating. And, touch wood, he's had no fits. At all. Yays! Of course, the two drugs he is on have their side effects. He isn't anywhere near as powerful as he was - his back legs in particular are weakened. Like, sometimes when he jumps on to a table he misjudges it (or his muscles just can't do what he's asking, I'm not sure which one) and he sort of belly flops his front legs onto the surface and scrabbles his back legs up the vertical to catch up. It's hilarious and sad all at the same time. But the really sad part? Is he's not our Jones anymore.

We always called him our dog. He was our official household greeter: anyone who entered through our front door was immediately inspected (for food, I suspect) and welcomed suitably with either a miaow, a leg wrap or a head bump. He had a particular affection for ladies' handbags which he would try and climb inside (you know the cats and boxes thing? Like that) and was just irrepressibly nosy. Well now he's not. My in-laws were in last week and he didn't even come out of his basket, just opened one eye and went back to sleep. He's not purring or head bumping or paddy-pawing like he always has. Not even once. Every evening I'd get a belly massage at some point and he was normally to be found sleeping at my feet on the couch. Not any more. He just sleeps or if he's awake he sits - normally in another room - and watches. Kinda like a stereotypical cat. He's just.....disengaged from the family. It's surprisingly upsetting.

He had test results last week for phenol levels in his blood (one of his drugs is Phenobarbital) and they were good, which is something. And given that he's been so good seizure-wise we've started (under our own vet's and the consultant neurologist's supervision) to wean him off his Keppra. Which is excellent news since this is the one that is an infant suspension - a kid's drug. And he hates it. It's in liquid form and smells like sherbert to me, it must be sickening to his olfactory senses. He only gets 1ml twice a day but it's a surprisingly large amount when you're trying to squirt it into a protesting cat's gob! This week we're down to .75ml - tomorrow we hit half a ml. And in a fortnight - if all goes well - he will be off it entirely. He'll still be on the Phenolbarb (which is, of course, the one with the worst side effects but in a pill which he takes no problem. They can't normally give it to cats but Jones is so big - not fat, just really big - that he's heavy enough for a half a pill! Anti-convulsion drugs for cats are few and far between because cats don't really get epilepsy, it's much more common in dogs. See? He IS a dog.) but one less thing muddying up his brain chemistry and changing his personailty. I'm scared to hope too much but I got a head bump yesterday. And a little purr when I arrived home. Here's hopin'.

I sewed a shirt!

This is the Mila shirt by Itch to Stitch and this particular version is my test muslin made in hanging-about-doing-nothing  cotton curtain lining. It's nice but not very drapey but I rather like it. So it got buttons and is accidentally a wearable muslin.

This placket is like origami witchcraft!  You cut and press and unfold, stitch, cut, tuck and refold and, voila! A placket appears. Witchcraft, I tell ya.

I have a plan to dip dye my shirt which is why the bottom is unfinished (so I can match the top stitching thread) but I'm not sure I love the back being so puffy with the stiff cotton. So my other plan is this tank top modelled by a Winona Ryder döppelganger. 

So yet more not-quite-finished stuff.  But hopefully a full me-made outfit soon!

Comics and clothes and zombies. And tea! Oh, my...

The end of the half term week ended in a pleasantly busy weekend for us.

On Saturday we were back up in Glasgow at a little Comic Con. Spouse met his pal who sells movie cell artwork and watched his table while Paul ran to the loo. Again. This happened last time we met him at a show!

Chook bought some artwork (not pictured) and a new poster for her frame. Bye bye unicorns, hello Manga! Yaaaas!

I got the best part of my first shirt finished. I actually did finish it tonight but think I might dip dye it, too. What colour though...

And yesterday was Chook's 6 year anniversary of riding. It was a beautiful day but bitterly cold - they were still trying to break up the arena floor at noon when we arrived. It was solid!

And, of course, it was St Valentine's Day. We don't celebrate but had still managed to buy each other gifts over the previous week in an Un-valentine manner. A glass teapot for me for, y Chinese flowering tea. A zombie choose-your-own-adventure book for him. Who says romance is dead?!

Back to school and work with a thud today.  I was only off 2 days but it felt like way longer! And I may have bought new yarn for a wee Fairisle tank top to wear over my newly finished shirt. Busy busy as ever!  

7 years in the knitting.

Yes, I started this shrug on April 2nd 2009 - or so my Ravelry profile tells me. 7 years of quilting got in the way but now it's finished! 

The pattern is the Shrug by Amanda Nova and is basically two rectangles sewn together. Simple, simple but quick (if you finish it and don't have a three quarters of a decade hiatus!) and satisfying.

(the back is straight, honest. It's just rippling on the hanger.)

The yarn is Ara by Dalegarn and is one of those thick'n'thin offerings that knits up all cool. 

The weather took a turn for the wet this afternoon so this is the best of a bad bunch of dark photos of me actually wearing it. And it is very wearable, which is lovely.  My style isn't what it was when I started knitting it but I think this might get some good wear. 

We've been on holiday from work and school today (it's half term despite the fact they seem to have hardly gone back to school after Christmas!) and we were up in Glasgow visiting the Gallery of Modern Art and spending money in Forbidden Planet and Paperchase. Geekiness and stationary - two of me and Chookie's favourite things! We'd planned to do the same in Edinburgh tomorrow but we've found there's a wee Comic Con up in Glasgow on Saturday so are gallivanting back up there. So tomorrow is staying at home and eating/sleeping/crafting and recharging the batteries. I have a shirt cut out - wish me luck!!

Yarny deets

Yarn - Dalegarn Ara in "fantasy sea" 5x 50g balls, 100% new wool

Pattern - the Shrug By Amanda Nova, a free Ravelry download 

Needles - 8mm straight bamboo

I made a God damn coat!!

I may be slightly over excited. Sorry. Not sorry. But look! It looks like a proper coat, slippy slidey lining and everything.

This is the Abbey coat by Jamie Christina.

Pretty and slightly (a lot!) retro I've made it in a wool/linen/alpaca blend with a kinda chevron pattern. It's not too thick for my first outer wear experience!

This is the pattern as it comes out the packet, no adjustments. Although I did seriously consider taking in the side seams at the waist I didn't in the end. More room for a wooly cardy underneath! Oh, I lie. I made the cuffs an inch and a half longer than the pattern - I wasn't feeling the bracelet length sleeves.

My lining was a bitch to cut and sew and has bagged slightly but I'm really happy with it, it was not a pleasant experience getting it together. I couldn't press it (or the wool!) without a pressing cloth. But they both did press beautifully so perhaps I shouldn't complain. 

My only little cheat was not putting buttonholes in the cuffs. The wool is so thick my machine refused point blank to sew them but they're not needed for function so I've just sewn the cuff shut with the buttons. I seriously considered doing hand bound buttonholes on the main coat before coming to my senses. *g*

Speaking of which the buttons themselves were the hardest things to pick! This was my final four. The entire Internet (minus my brother)  liked the top right one. I wasn't sure I wanted something so bold - as much as I loved them. And I didn't want black either, really. All grey keeps it neutral! So grey and white marble effect it is, like little mother of pearl buttons on a pretty blouse.

Yes, I am chuffed to bits with it! So much so that I might make another without the flounce (which I didn't interface so it's soft, flippy and doesn't stick out too much)  maybe in navy velvet or something.

I'll pop back with fabric amounts used once I can roll off my couch. I know I've about a metre left of the wool - a skirt? Who knows! It's also a finish on my Finish-along proposal. Yaay!

Garment deets:
Pattern: the Jamie Christina Abbey
Fabric: main shell 3.5m of 38%linen/31%wool/31%alpaca, lining 2.5m 100% acetate
Size and changes made: size 10, cuffs lengthened by 1.5 inches

Grrr. Lots on the go but no finishes.

I was putting off blogging in the hopes I'd maybe have a finish to show you but I seem to have lots of things almost there but not quite. Harumph. So I'll show my almost-theres in the hopes it spurs me on to get them done.

My coat! Looks quite coat-like, no? I had a sudden notion to just get it done last week and cut out the linen/wool before discovering I had nothing to mark the slippery lining with AND that I had no interfacing. Gah. Another project stepped up to fill the gap as I waited for things to arrive but last Saturday the Thunderbirds were most definitely go. I still have a cuff to sew on, topstitching to do and buttonholes to wrestle. Lots to go wrong, then. But it's looking (and fitting!) great. I hope that maybe this weekend it will be done.

This next one's a doozy. It's not even on my finish-along list coz I forgot about it! Before my quilting happened in May 2009 I had dabbled a teeny bit in knitted felted bags (I have NO photos of them and I made about 5. Rats.) and then started a shrug. And then quilting came along and it was quietly forgotten about. But when I found it a few weeks ago it didn't look far from finishing so when the coat ground to a halt waiting on supplies this filled in beautifully. For about 2 days before I ran out of yarn. Bearing in mind I bought this 7 years ago. Yikes! But the same place still had it. Yay! I'm not too worried about batch/dye lots since it's such a mixed up colourway anyway. So that's not far from finishing - next week maybe.

And while I was waiting for the shrug yarn and the coat supplies? I needed something else to be going on with so Spouse's new socks got started. I'm about to start the toe decreases on the first one and it's a nice, portable lunch-at-work friendly project so it maybe won't be long before they are finished.

I need to be getting things moving, my list of want-to makes is growing exponentially! Apart from the things on my finish-along plans I am desperate to get a Rockstar bag started although I've been restrained and am just dreaming so far. I have gone so far as to buy the pattern, print it, tape it and cut it out AND purchase the fabric for a first shirt. 

So, really, I need to get my fingers out and get these three finished. I did also find my local yarn shop has lovely King Cole cheaters Fairisle in. And a cardigan made up with it in the shop - it's such a pretty sample. What I really need is to retire.....