off the wagon...ish

Well friends, I fell off the wagon. But not too badly, I have to say. However, I am in danger of going back and doing more damage this weekend when Joann Fabrics has their President's Day sale, what with the whole 10% off your entire order business. What can I say? I love the Tutti-Frutti fabrics and would happily buy yards and yards of them for Daughter's summer wardrobe.

I went out with the sole purpose of getting some pattern-ease, so I could use the patterns I have but make bigger sizes. Those of you who sew - do you use this product? I started using it when I realized I could get a lot more use out of toddler patterns if I didn't hack them down to size 1, thus ruining sizes 2-4 forever. Now I can't imagine ever chopping up a tissue pattern again. It's so cheap - $1.99 per yard, 46" wide - and you just write on it with a sharpie or whatever. It's much firmer than tissue so the traced pattern will last and last, and once you're done with the pattern (ie: when your kid grows out of it) you can pass along or sell the original tissue pattern in un-cut, perfect condition. Try it, you'll like it!

So I tried to get some at W@lm@rt in the craft department, because I have been trying so hard to stay out of Joann Fabrics. The willpower, it dissolves in that place. But WM didn't have it. However, WM did have some excellent new toddler patterns for summer from my favorite company, McCall's easy stitch 'n save:


I don't know if these are actually new or not, but they are new to me. They are M5371, M5370, and M5351. The bottom one starts with size 3, so I guess we'll wait a year on that one. But maybe I can take it in a little and make it work this summer. My favorite is this one:


When I saw that little wrap top with the ric-rac on it, I freaked. LOVE!! As you know by now, I adore simple, simple, simple clothing for children that can be accented with trims and buttons. This pattern is perfect for that. Imagine the possibilities!! I adore view A with the coordinating pockets and trim. Can't wait to dive in and make this one.

Well, then I had to hit Joann's for the pattern-ease. I tried to just get it and leave, but you know how that place is. I managed to bypass the fabrics, but got hung up thinking about ric-rac and trims. After having a weird conversation with the lady at the cutting counter (Me: 5 yards of pattern-ease, please. Lady: so...you do a lot of pattern tracing? Me: yes. yes I do.) Daughter and I hit the trims. Lookee here:


These are some Tutti-Frutti fabrics and some cottons I got last summer on super-sale. There will be some sundresses, but also some shorts and/or tops, which will now have coordinating white pants or shorts or maybe a little jacket or whatever with perfectly coordinated ric-rac trim! The photo doesn't even do justice to the perfection of the matchiness. Yeah, watch out for some major ric-rac on this here blog...I have scads of it from my grandma's crafting stash and suddenly I'm liking it. Egads.

Moving on, luckily Joann's didn't have the yarn that I needed on sale, and I totally don't buy yarn at full price, like ever, because I think it is just silliness to do so. If you need it and can wait a week or two, inevitably one of the major stores will have a yarn sale. This week it was NOT Joann's so I got away clean yesterday. However, I am making myself a sweater and it needs a yoke, so I had to come up with some yarns.

I started Firth, from Rowan's A Season's Tale, a week ago today. I decided to buy the book sight unseen and knit the sweater based on Siri's gorgeous version, seen here. Luckily I had an Amazon gift certificate laying around and I was able to get the book used for a cheap-o price (it doesn't look remotely used, though, and has many, many awesome patterns, so it was totally worth buying). Thankfully Firth calls for worsted weight yarn, and I happened to have 5 skeins of Paton's Classic Merino, my go-to yarn for all worsted wool projects, in my stash. They are multiple dye lots of dark grey mix, but I had 2 the same for the sleeves and 2 the same for the fronts, and a solo skein for the back. I don't think there is much difference but since I didn't use multiple skeins for each piece, I can't see any problem. Here's the sweater and my chosen yarns:



Knit on US needles 7, 8, and 9, this sweater has been so fast to crank out. Here is where I am as of this post:


Two sleeves knit up to the colorwork portion, the back also knit up to the start of the colorwork, and the start of the left front.

I really like the original colors you see in the picture from the book, but a gal with my coloring cannot wear that pea green without looking corpse-like. Also, hello, this was supposed to be a stash-buster. Which it still sort of is, but I did go to Michael's today, where Paton's Classic Merino is currently $3.99 (you're welcome, broke knitters like me! Go stock up!) and I grabbed one skein each of new denim, leaf green, royal purple, and natural mix. The red skein may be crimson, I'm not sure. That's a partial skein from my stash and the label is long gone.

Now, normally my knitting mantra is "texture, not colorwork" but in this case I am making an exception out of sheer loooooooooove of the pattern. This is a sweater I will wear until it falls apart, I just know it. Simple styling, soft yarn, beautiful patterning. And did I mention FAST? It will slow way down now that I've hit the fairisle portion, but I still think I can knock this one out by the end of February (don't hold me to it, though).

Oh, and also? There are directions for a child size Firth. Daughter and I could be matchy-matchy! Ok, maybe that would be pushing it.

Have a great weekend, all! Stay warm!