The Big Reveal

Remember the Miette Knit Along I hosted with my friend Jo?  Well, we're both done with our sweaters now and we finally got some pictures of them!  I got Alicia to take my pictures when I was over at her house on Sunday, so one of my photos includes her adorable cat, Pluto.

Check it out!  How cute is Jo?  And can you believe that this is the first sweater she's ever knit?!  Here the zoom out:

Jo is going to be posting some pictures on her blog today as well - although I'm not exactly sure when "today" is in New Zealand!  I have a hard time wrapping my head around that International Date Line.

I know a few of you KALers are still working on your sweaters, but if you joined us and finished, and you'd like to have me add your picture to this page as well, just drop me a line with your photo and I'll add it in!

EDIT  7.12.12:  Linda L. sent me a picture of her finished Miette this morning - love those red buttons against the celadon sweater!  And she's got a brand new blog to go along with her new sweater!!

The Zebra Effect

My BFF loves zebras, and she's told me more than once about how their stripes keep them safe(r) from lions and the like:  when they run as a herd, the stripes create such visual confusion that the predators can't really pick any one animal to attack.

My new dress is a lot like that.

This is the Lisette Traveler Dress, view A.  I worked on this little by little over the last week, but did the majority of the sewing over the weekend.  And friends, it was not easy.  But only because of this cotton/poly seersucker I used.  My eyes just couldn't stay focused with all those stripes!

But the pattern itself was great!  This one has been on my list for quite a while, and I bought the fabric over two months ago.  I really love shirtdresses, but if you're curvy like me, you know that the RTW ones are not always suited to our shapes.  I was really excited to be able to make my own shirtdress, in a size that fit me.  I cut a size 10 on top, grading to a 12 in the hips.  In reality, I'm more like a 14 in the hips in Simplicity patterns, but my experience with them has been that they have a fair amount of ease, and at least with this pattern, it worked out for me.

It fits great, and on a day when I've washed my hair and put on some makeup, I'll put it on and take some pictures for you.

You probably can't tell, but this dress has four patch pockets:  two on the chest and two at the hip.  I won't lie: they were kind of tedious to make, but honestly, I can't imagine the dress without them.  Plus, now that allergy season is in full swing, I need a place to put my Kleenex.

No, I didn't even try to match up stripes!

I'm thinking that when I wear this for real, I'll pair it with that voile infinity scarf I made a couple weeks ago, and roll up the sleeves for a little more insouciance:

I like how the stripes and flowers look together:

I will be making this again for sure, in a fabric that won't fight with me.  In all these months of sewing, I've really only been using cotton and silk (with my first Jasmine being the only exception).  When I was prepping the fabric, after it came out of the dryer I was really excited because it was so wrinke-free!  (Well, except for the seersucker wrinkles that are supposed to be there.)  That should make this a pretty good traveling dress.  But after I cut it, man, did it fray!  Good thing Sergio was there to help me out with that.

In other news, I also did a fair amount of knitting over the weekend, but not on Miette!  I felt like I needed to get going on Winnie, because even though I told everybody to buy extra yarn for their Miette sweaters, I didn't buy any extra for Winnie!  (In my defense, I usually do buy extra, but I was already buying 9 balls, and I felt like that should really be enough for a short cardi.)  Anyway, after I finished the first front, it looked like my supplies were dwindling a little too fast.  So I powered through the second front and almost half the first sleeve, trying to gauge if I'll have to order some more.  But I think I'm going to be OK!

For the knit along, I know that Heidi has cast on, and I think by the time I publish, Jo will have too!  I'm really hoping to see some pictures other than mine on the Flickr group soon!  I think I won't need to do any more posts on it for a little while, until we get closer to removing the sleeves.  But if anyone has any questions they'd like me to address, please let me know!

Knitting Along

Do you know Jo?

I "met" Jo when she started commenting here.  I generally try to check out the blogs of commenters (although it takes me a while sometimes!), and in reading her blog I learned that she is new to sewing, knitting and crochet, and I think she has done a remarkable job of teaching herself these new skills.

A couple weeks ago, Jo and I started a conversation on Ravelry.  I had "friended" her, and offered to help her out with her knitting in any way I could.  She's been knitting small things, but wants to take the plunge and make her first sweater.  We talked about the merits of a couple different designs, and she decided she'd like to knit Andi Satterlund's Miette cardigan.

I'd been thinking for a while that I'd like to do more posts about knitting techniques, and long story short, we decided to open this up into a Knit Along of the cardigan. Would you like to join us?

The pattern, printed out and sitting on my knitting chair!

Miette is a free pattern, and it has gotten great reviews on Ravelry.  It's knit top down, which I think makes fitting easier for beginners.  I've spent quite a bit of time over the last few days checking out finished projects, and there are a lot of great variations on the pattern.  It's knit in worsted weight yarn with larger needles (5mm or US 8), so even for a beginner, it shouldn't take too long.

My idea is that the knit along will be very loose - no firm start or finish date.  Jo is working on making a sidebar badge for anyone who wants to knit along with us.  My plan is to write a series of posts explaining how I work my way through a project, and also leave plenty of room for questions.  I'm going to do several variations on my own sweater, and will be discussing the changes I'm planning to make in gauge, size and shaping.

Depending on the amount of participation, Jo is also considering starting a Flickr group.  Neither of us have done anything like this before, so we're kind of playing it by ear!  If you'd like to join us, or if you have any ideas on the subject, chime in!