knitting and a formal and Les Misérables

 

We had a church game night last night and my whole family went.  I am some what an anti-social person I like being in big groups but I like to be by myself and just people watch.  So I went but I took a new knitting project with me to work on I started the project right before I went.  Meaning I cast it on and did two rows.

The pattern is Victorian Neck Cozy by Wendy Johnson it is a free pattern so if you like it you can make it too.
 
I am using glamor size 2 yarn.  If I did this again I would go down two sizes in knitting needle for the neck area as this yarn is real stretchy and end sup too loose I think but I am fine with slouchy collars so I will not be frogging this.  It is hard to tell in the photo but this yarn has a metallic fiber in it and has sparkle.

I have not posted much in the last few days as I was doing a sort of repair project for a customer.  Taking a formal she bought on the Internet from China with no sleeves and a see through back and a long train.  I cut the train off  made sleeves and lined the back.  You can see in the photos where the front is see through above the bust area the entire back was that way and no sleeves.   

So the process of cutting off the train made it easier for the girl to wear and not have her hem destroyed plus it gave me fabric that matched the dress to make the cap sleeves and to make the liner for the back of the dress.   For got to take a picture of the before.  But here are some afters that do show the sleeves and the see through area in the front.

After liner put in top back

The dress is too small to fit my dress form thus the reason I do not have it zipped up but you can still see the area that I filled in with a liner.  Because if the bead work I ended up having to hand sew the liner and the sleeves to the dress and I did two rolled hems by hand on the sheer over lay and the liner of the skirt.

front with sleeve and you can see how see through the back would have been by how see through the front is.

Now just to deliver it to the customer so her daughter can either wear it to preference or prom.

I ended up redoing the sleeves to make them more of a flutter sleeve and a little looser.   They   looked better the second go round.

On a real happy note I get to make three jackets ( frock coats) for Les Misérables for a local professional theater  "The Hale Center Theater in Orem".  I am so excited to do this you can not believe it.  They are the design of the head costumer so I will not show photos of as I go as it is her concept.  But after the show is in production I will show them.  What I am excited most about is two are for Jean Val Jean and one is for Marius.  I figured I would be doing people that are not main characters but this makes me excited and nervous all at the same time.

Thank you all

I noticed this morning when I woke up that my snowy feathered cape pattern was number twenty of the "Top 20 of what is Hot Right Now" on Ravelry.  Thank you all so much I feel very loved this morning.  What a lovely way to start a day.

Update:
It got all the way up to 10  before it droped out of the top 20.

Some of you may remember last May when I was trying to get a job at a local theater company doing costuming for them.  Well I did not get the job then but they said if they got overwhelmed with a play I would be one of the first people they called to help costume contract work.  Guess what I got a call yesterday they never forgot me and want me to help costume Le Miserable so excited for this chance.  Hope I actually do get to do this.

Ravelry patterns now free

For those of you on Ralvelry  I have made all my patterns there free.  There are some new laws going into effect that affect pdfs.  I just do not care to deal with the European tax system.  That includes my Irish Crochet hat


If you like my blog and the free patterns and tutorials and want to say thank you  I have a wish list on ravelry of patterns (click here) I would like to make.  Thank you in advance for being kind and saying thank you back.

Love Sunshine

Snowy Feather Lace cape free pattern

I was going to make this pattern for sale but I decided to let you all have it for free.  So happy New year and Happy knitting.

Supplies I used

• one 16" circular needle size 5 3.75 mm
• 2+ balls of vintage size 10 total weight used= 3.4 oz
• Stitch markers 
• sewing needle to weave tails together
• 

Pattern for lace

 

Starting at neck

cast on very loosley 117 stitches join in round being careful not to get your stitches twisted.  If you need/want a bigger starting ring add in sets of 9 stitches.

work the four rows of the chart 15 times omitting the last round on the 15th time.

all even rounds are knit

for next knit round knit in the front and back of every stitch all the way around you just doubled your stitches

continue in lace pattern for 21 more repeats bind of with a very stretchy bind off. cut and finish threads

I wet finger blocked mine there is a lot of give in the lace to make it either narrow and long or wide and shorter if you want it longer by all means make more rows.

This hits me a little below the elbow and I am 5 foot 7inches 130 pounds.

Iif you find mistakes in the pattern please let me know just so you all know I knit lace loose so if you knit tight please add more stitches to your foundation.

If you use and like this pattern I have a wish list on ravelry of patterns I would like to make.  Thank you in advance for being kind and saying thank you back.  But please do not feel like you have to.

Love Sunshine

Mr. Laurence's brown basketweave scarf

In the play Little woman" Mr. Laurence is supposed to have a long brown wool scarf.  I started his scarf while waiting for another play to start that my youngest daughter was in this last week.   Below is the pattern I came up with while standing in line pretty simple really just 3 different rows is all.  Free pattern and supplies below.


supplies

• worsted weight brown wool
• size 8 knitting needles

cast on 26 stitches

repeat 1: k all stitches do this row 5 times before going to repeat 2


repeat 2: k9,p4,k4,p4, k5  do this row 5 times before going to repeat 3


repeat 3: k5,p4,k4,p4, k9  do this row 5 times before going to repeat 2

do repeats 2 and 3 till about 3/4 of an inch from desired length then do repeat 1 one more time.  cast off cut and finish thread.

I have not finished mine yet for the play I will add an updated picture of it when all completed.  Mine is 6 inches wide unblocked, length to be determined yet.  You of course can make yours what ever length you want.  Play calls for it to be long what ever that means.

update February 16 2013
updated photos of finished piece sorry I only have female dress forms

**If you like my blog and the free patterns and tutorials and want to say thank you I have a wish list on ravelry of patterns I would like to make.
Thank you in advance for being kind and
saying thank you back.

Love Sunshine But please do not feel like you have to**

Finishing a few wip's

I have had a few wip's for a while.  So Sunday morning when i woke up i thought i would weave in their tails as that is all that needed to be done for months now but never got around to it.

wip's = works in progress

These gloves are a free pattern called Belle Ruffle gloves.   As you can see by the number of projects they are a  popular free pattern.  I was just using up scrapes when I made these.  That is why the color blocking on mine instead of just two colors  But you can use a ton of colors with this pattern and fair isle knitting would work well too.  The buttons where given to me as a gift from a good friend.  She works in a collage dance department and at times people donate supplies they can't use and every now and again I am the beneficiary of some of those supplies and this is one of those.  The yarn used is scraps left over from my dear mother in laws stash.  I started these gauntlets back in November of 2012 i knit them up in about 2 days then they just sat around waiting for buttons and weaving in of tails.  I sewed the buttons on last weekend and finished the tails yesterday it is about time right.  But i guess it is not too bad as I can use them for Valentines day I guess to be sort of festive.

This hat is another long time need to weave in the tails is all project. took about 2 days to knit then it sat for about 6 months. My oldest daughter is in x-country and this was made during that season which is the first few months of school. yes you guessed it that season is long over but I guess it can be used next year during the season.  The pink in this hat is also from my MIL's stash of yarn.  The aqua I purchased to go with it.  Bottom photo closest to true color but in reality it is a little brighter than that too.

Day2: advent calender scarf = issues

Day one was a breeze day two not so much for me.  I have never placed beads in this manner nor have I done nupps.  The beads not an issue pretty straight forward.  But the nupps are a little nightmarish to me I have frogged that section at least 3 times but not more than 5.  

Day 1: advent calender scarf

This was an advent calender scarf knit along in December of 2010. This is a free pattern if any one wants to do it.  I decide I would save it till I could knit better than I could then.  To do this project I think I am at the point where I can attempt this and get a good result I am hoping I will learn lots and lots from this as one of my main goals in learning to knit was to make socks and to make lace both I am still working on.

supplies needed listed below

knitting fingerless gloves

Yesterday I was playing with making some fingerless gloves this is a pretty fast work up. 


I used red heart eco-ways bamboo-wool blend.  Has a real soft feel to it.

Supplies
1 ball of each color ( cream, peacock and cayenne)
I used 3 circular kneedle
sewing needle

Knitted fingerless gloves

This is the post that I had on Whip Up one year ago today. I hope you enjoy it encase you missed that post when I guest blogged.  There is also a crochet version of this on this blog already too.

Fall is just around the corner...

**If you like my blog and the free patterns and tutorials and want to say thank you
I have a wish list on ravelry of patterns I would like to make. 
Thank you in advance for being kind and
saying thank you back.

Love Sunshine
But please do not feel like you have to**

Ocean Spray twin leaf scarf

This pattern is from Vogue knitting from the spring/summer issue of 2010 pattern#27 in that issue but they also have it available for free on their website.  I am making it out of a blend of acrylic/rayon from bamboo.  The yarn is SPA by naturally Caron have not worked with that before real soft to the touch not fond that the yarn splits easy.  This color is known as Ocean Spray. I like it a lot not quiet powder blue that the pattern called for and not so dark as to become turquoise either.  It is supposed to have 46 (I think) repeats of the pattern and be a scarf that is over 5 feet long so you can wrap it a few times not sure I am going to make it that long as I never wear scarfs that long.  So we will see if I do what the pattern reads as or if I do my own thing usually my own thing wins out.

A knitters advent shawl

I found this by accident on Raverly but thought others might like it too it is a shawl that is done in knit.  It is a advent calender piece (sampler) so to speak.  I have not started one so I didn't have a photo to post but here are lots of others posted here for you to see.  Oh did I mention it is a free pattern in English and German.  This is what is known as a KAL a  Knit A Long.  Meaning lots of people are doing this at once with you all over the world and there is a forum to discuss it and ask questions.  So if you get stuck you have help  a great place for a beginner ( but please know the basics first but still a beginner) to start as
if you get stuck you can ask for help from lots who are working out the same patterns.
Must be a pretty good pattern with this many already making it

I am a guest blogger...

Whip-up invited me to be a guest blogger and post what ever I wanted.  So I thought it would be nice to post a knitted version of a fingerless mitten on Whip-up and a crochet version of the same thing on my blog.  That way both sides of the community have a similar pattern to work with.  Please check out the knitted one on whip up today and checkout the crocheted one on here later in the day.  Thank you and have a lovely Fall season.

making aurora

I have been trying to make a pair of gloves lately, actually lots of gloves not much success but that is another story.  Here is a pair I would really like to get done.  It is a very pretty pattern, but I have modified it as I am using a much smaller needle size 0 as apposed to a 3.  I also have more repeats and added a thumb gusset but the over all feel is still the same as the original.  I really love all the patterns from this fiber artist you should check them out she has lots of free patterns. Oh and this one was one of her free patterns.  I am using a size 5 pearl cotton that I bought thrift a long time ago for 50 cents.  I still have tons of this and I have used it tons as well.  I will be able to make more stuff with this when done with the gloves too.  It is amazing how much thread come on a spool. 

Update she dose have an etsy store where she sells finished gloves and a few other patterns that she has that are not free but real inexpensive.  So worth the price.  I have them and they are very well written and in English.  They have a lot more information than her free pattern which is to be expected.