The Self-Made Wardrobe Week 10
The Self-Made Wardrobe is a project where I only wear garments I’ve made, for one year.
You can read more about the project, and catch up on past posts, here.
Week 10 is finished! And I’m trying something a little bit different with the post this week. So leave a comment, and let me know what you think.
Day 64 – 10/3: black tank, black maxi, blue kimono, bead crochet necklace, black flats, various rings
Day 65 – 10/4: black tank, black & white 2 layer circle skirt, white maxi pinned up (new!), blue kimono, my default long necklace, sneakers, various rings
Day 66 – 10/5: black tank, cascading flowers skirt, blue kimono, black flats, default long necklace, various rings
Day 67 – 10/6: black tank, gingham skirt, jersey vest, brown boots, little princess necklace, various rings
Day 68 – 10/7: black tank, black maxi, blue kimono, black flats, default long necklace, various rings
Day 69 – 10/8: hand-knit brown/pink/green dress, white maxi, mustard wedges, tiny elephant necklace, various rings
Day 70 – 10/9: black tank, Versio pullover, black & white 2 layer circle skirt, sneakers, bicycle necklace
My blue kimono is kind of completely perfect for this sort of in between weather – most days it wasn’t cold enough for a full sweater, but not warm enough for just a tank top.
I’ve been wanting another full maxi skirt for awhile now – so Saturday morning I pulled this ancient white fabric out from my fabric stash, and made a white maxi length skirt in the same style as my cascading flowers skirt (the one I wore practically every other day throughout August). This new skirt is light and airy (though somewhat sheer), so it makes a fantastic underskirt – which is excellent because that’s what I want it to be.
The pink/brown/green knitted dress is one of the first things I made for the first iteration of this project (way back in May…). I haven’t worn it before, because I was planning on over dyeing it. That obviously hasn’t happened, and the colors are starting to grow on me. They’re interesting, if nothing else.
And my Versio sweater is done! Done. Done. Done. It’s lovely. It’s warm. More pictures, thoughts, and a full post forthcoming.
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What do you think about this post format?
I think it helps highlight the clothes – and it keeps me from talking incessantly about the weather – but I’d love to know your opinion.
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The Self-Made Wardrobe Week 9 – Welcome to October!
The Self-Made Wardrobe is a project where I only wear garments I’ve made, for one year.
You can read more about the project, and catch up on past posts, here.
It’s the end of week 9, and the second month of this project!
(I’ll try not to wait a month to post the wrap up for September.)
It’s getting a little chilly here…
I pulled out tights for the first time yesterday, and was cursing them throughout the day, but was very glad I had them when I was coming home last night.
We’re having typical New York fall weather, where you’re screwed no matter what you wear. What’s perfect for during the day isn’t enough once the sun goes down, and what’s perfect for mornings & evenings sucks throughout the day. And it feels like no matter what you wear, you’re stuck carrying layers around.
All that to say, I’m knitting like the wind.
The boring black sweater feels like the sweater that will never end – sometimes having a long torso really sucks – but it is moving along. I would say I’m a little over halfway done with the body.
I’m hoping to block my transitional sweater tonight, and install the zipper this weekend, because this really is the perfect weather for that sweater. The only thing holding it up at the moment is weaving in all the ends, but I’ll suck it up and push through them, because I want the sweater.
(Side thought: that’s one really good thing about shawls, you generally only have two – maybe four – ends to weave in when all is said and done.)
Anyway…
Welcome to October!
A sweater that took 3 years to knit. And some thoughts on making teeny tiny steps forward.
I’m working on my transitional weather sweater (hopefully). This sweater took 3 years to knit, and it has prompted some thoughts on making teen-tiny-itty-bitty steps forward.
I knit a lot.
I have a handful of unfinished sweaters hanging about, and thanks to a swift kick in the butt from the self-made wardrobe project I’m finishing a bunch of them up.
This particular sweater has taken me 3 years and 1 month to finish.
As far as sweaters go, this one is pretty straightforward.
But the interesting thing about it, is how much my knitting has changed since I started it.
My actual gauge hasn’t changed (thankfully), the actual number of stitches per inch is the same as it was three years ago. But my knitting has changed.
My stitches are straighter.
My tension is more even.
You can definitely feel the difference.
And up close you can see the difference.
The fabric looks and feels smoother.
If you had asked me, before I picked up this sweater, if my knitting had changed in the last three years I would probably have said “yea, but not a whole lot.”
But it did.
I did some quick guesstimates of the number of stitches in most of the shawls I’ve published patterns for between starting and finishing this sweater, and the total comes out around 788,000 stitches.
I can knit about 30 stitches a minute. (In a lace pattern, relaxed, and following a chart. Averaged over a couple hours with breaks, pauses, etc.)
788,000 stitches.
437 hours.
16 shawls.
When you think about the fact that that’s only the knitting I’ve done for the patterns I’ve published, (no swatches, no sweaters, no unpublished shawls), that’s a lot of stitches, and a decent amount of time.
Turns out my knitting has changed quite a bit over three years.
One stitch at a time.
Over 788,000 stitches later.
