Summer is here and it is nearly past time to put away all of the warm cozy things as the days themselves get warmer, let’s look at the things I made this past winter. Typically, I make the most during the colder months, especially leading up to winter holidays.
To start the cold season off, more in fall I anxiously knit this orange sweater, wanting something to keep me warm and cozy.
Yarn: Provincial Tweed Color way : Pumpkin Pie
This was completed in nearly exactly a month. I am proud to say that this is the first time I have knitted a wool sweater, and a sweater that fits and is decent enough to wear in public.
For family holiday presents I quickly knitted up dish cloths, which are always well received. For this massive project I actually purchased this book Kitchen Kaleidoscope and this bulk pack of cotton yarn. In retrospect instead of knitting dish cloths however next time I make them as gifts I think I will use the tunesion crochet method to work them up. Not only does this method work up very quickly, it also creates a very thick and bubbly textured fabric that makes for a great scrubbing surface.
Here is also a youtube rabbit hole seed for tunesion crochet. TL Yarn Crafts I really enjoy her tutorial videos even though this is not my main hobby craft, and her yarn reviews are very thorough.
I also made a hoodie for my mom, after having some shipping issues with the original base hoodie I ended up just quickly working up a hoodie in some left over fabric from this sewing pattern book Sewing Basics for Every Body. The patterns in this book are not always flattering, however it does have a lot of information as to the basics of sewing and how to make more flattering alterations.
Once long ago, I had a small part time job in a very small screen-printing shop. This is not that. Instead, this is a design that I fiddled with from a template and used a decent iron on to adhere it to the fabric. I don’t think it came out too badly and may make a few button404 shirts for fun in the future this way.
After the holiday season was over my fingers were a bit stiff, specifically the index finger I use when knitting to ‘throw’ the yarn. Luckily one of the holiday presents I received was hand spun yarn, which inspired me to dig out the franken spinner.
I bought this spinning wheel a few years ago, the seller was using it for wedding photography in Germany and didn’t know if it still worked. When I finally received it from shipping however everything it seemed to be in working order but I could not seem to get it to work. When I picked it back up this time I paid extra special attention to dusting, cleaning and oiling every moving piece of the spinning wheel and with the help of purchasing a new drive band and new bobbins was able to spin at least a sweater quantity of yarn. I also tried my hand at hand dying the yarn with food coloring to some interesting results. Now I just must figure out what to do with all the yarn I’ve made.
Here is another youtube seed for hand spinning yarn, JillianEve she is a great content creator and has some good information on all of the technical aspects of handspun yarn.
Once my knitting finger was healed it was back to knitting for me though, as that is what I have decided winter is for. After the success of the orange sweater, I tried to add to my wardrobe of handmade items with this green sweater, it has antler buttons which are very neat although smelly when wet.
1950s Mens Cardigan Button Down
Yarn : Wool of the Andes Worsted Color way : Noble Heather
This last project I started last winter and have worked on it throughout the year. It is finally complete, and I have realized quite a few things. First off quilting is not easy, I thought it would be one of those mindless sewing projects you can just work at when you want to turn your brain off, and I was wrong. Secondly hand stitching the sandwich pieces together is tedious and must be done with pliers. Lastly, I still plan to make one more quilt, but not with an official pattern or expectations. This was my first quilt, and it did not turn out like I expected it to, as such its been lovingly dubbed the ‘wonky quilt’. I wanted to make it as an homage to my grandmothers who made quilts, they have long passed on and I think they would say the name fits.
And that’s all I made during the past winter… well mostly. I’ve been making more things recently, however most of them have been flops as I’ve been learning something new, which is a topic of discussion for next time.
