The Versio Sweater – a body, sleeves, and a change of plans
The weather is (finally) cooling down again here in New York, and it’s starting to feel like fall (again), so I took the opportunity to finish up the sleeves of my Versio sweater.
The pattern is Versio by Ankestrick (here on Ravelry.)
I’m using a 4 different lace weight yarns:
1 skein of Julie Asselin’s “Merletto” – the blue
1 skein of Sweet Georgia’s “Merino Silk Lace” – the red
1 skein of Fiberspates’ “Scrumptious” – the gold
2 skeins of Cascade’s “Forest Hills” – the black
Holding 2 strands of yarn together throughout the entire thing, and knitting it on a US 8 (5.0 mm) needle.
I’m also adding the hood modification that Rililie on Ravelry wrote up.
The pattern is knit top down, seamlessly, and using the contiguous set in sleeve method. I had never head of this method for creating set in sleeves – but I might have fallen a little bit in love.
The armscyes are a little bit deep on me, so it does some funky pulling/puckering under the arm, but not badly enough to make it unwearable.
The striping sequence has evolved a bit during the knitting process.
The original idea was to just use the blue, the gold and the red, working the stripe sequence you see on the yoke, for the entire sweater.
Turns out, I was going to run out of yarn really quickly if I did that – so I added the black, and planned on working the stripe sequence you see in the middle section of the sweater, for the entirety of it.
But I was still probably going to run out of yarn – so I switched to solid black for the bottom portions, and reintroduced the gold for the hems.
I’m a little ambivalent about the project right now.
I like it, but I originally wanted this sweater to fill the role of an easy to throw on – but not boring – works with jeans or a skirt, sweatshirt type sweater, in my self-made wardrobe, and that’s not what this is anymore.
Now, I’m seeing it as more of a sweater to wear with heels and dark wash jeans, still casual, but a piece that needs a little more effort to wear (and not end up being worn being worn by.)
I’ll see how I feel once I add the hood. But this sweater has definitely morphed into a sweater that is different than the one I originally planned.
The Self-Made Wardrobe Week 5
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 here.
It was a mostly straight forward week, some sewing and some knitting, when I wasn’t melting. It would seem that August decided to throw us a swelter-y farewell party, which made for some really gross knitting weather.
And wrote some reminders to myself about what I like wearing and what I don’t.
But in much more exciting news, I spent yesterday conducting my first experiment at sewing jeans.
I took a rub off of a pair of jeans I have that fit pretty well (not perfect) but well enough, worked up a basic pattern, and sewed up a pair of long shorts.
I don’t have photos, I was too much in the head-space of figuring things out to remember to grab the camera. Next time I’ll try to remember the camera.
They didn’t have pockets, or belt loops, or bottom hems, or even a button when it came down to it.
Mostly I just wanted to check the fit and see if I could figure out the steps for putting them together.
I think I figured out a sewing order that I like:
Back legs to yokes. Front legs to back along the side seam. Back legs together. Fly. Front crotch. Inseam. Waistband.
Next time I’m going to try sewing the front of the crotch seam together, then inserting the fly, then top-stitching the front crotch seam.
The fit is sort of ok. I can get them on, walk around, and sit down in them, but really, no one needs to see that much panty-line detail.
Plus the fly is a little bit funky. Totally functional. But funky.
I think though, if I add a bit of ease, back pockets, and switch up the order I sew the fly/front crotch in, the next pair will be wearable.
Overall it could have gone worse. (A lot worse.)
I need to make a trip to the garment district to pick up metal zippers, some more pattern paper, some hardware, and top stitching thread.
But I’m a little bit thrilled about the prospect of wearing jeans again!
The Self-Made Wardrobe Week 4
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 here.
It’s the end of Week 4 of The Self-Made Wardrobe, and on Sunday it’ll be the true end of Month 1.
1 month down, just 11 months to go…
Fall is definitely in the air, and I’m both excited and petrified.
Last weekend (Days 22 & 23) I went up to my parent’s house, they live up in New England, and it was chilly. Just in case I needed a reminder to sit my ass at that sewing machine.
I wore the jersey dress I mentioned in last week’s post, and loved it. It was wonderfully comfortable for the train ride up and back. Plus I got tons of complements on it – and who doesn’t love that.
The days are still beautiful, and I can (obviously) still wear my summer uniform of skirts & tank tops, but one morning it’ll be fall, and there will be no going back.
Thankfully the sweater I’m working on is gaining sleeves quite quickly.
I have one or two more skirts planned, and then I really must put a moratorium on making skirts, because this is getting ridiculous.
Onwards to fall!
See you in September.
(eep!)
