The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The Good

Two shopping trips yielded the following lovely fabrics;

From a quilt show yesterday, the pink fabric shown at the top. Which is from Rosenbergs and is 98% silk, 2% lycra. It was a shockingly reasonable £5 a metre. I've got three and a half metres and will use some to line the wine coloured boiled wool jacket which I am planning to make this year. The rest of the silk will be made into a blouse.

The other four pieces came from Abhakan. The aubergine, red and purplish blue plains are all poly or lycra type knits. The printed is a cotton or poly cotton jersey. The plains are for tops for work and the print is for pajamas. Indeed, I've cut the PJ's out already today.

The Bad:

1. An overlocker needle broke at the very start of a project this afternoon. I don't have any spares since I couldn't find any at the show yesterday despite a thorough search. So the overlocker is now temporarily out of commission, just at the point where I had six knit items cut out ready to sew.

2. I spent two hours last night knitting the heel of my latest sock. I turned the heel and began to knit the gusset. And I thought as I worked... little sock you are not really turning neatly are you? Oh little sock, why are you not becoming magically sock shaped? And I looked at the little sock, and I looked at my instructions (and lets face it, I'm not a sock knitting novice) and I looked again at my poor little socky, and I thought AHHHH. Aha. No wonder my poor little sockie is not very happy and sock like. I have knitted one side of the gusset under the heel instead of down the side of the foot.

So I pulled it out to start again from the heel flap. And my very kind dog decided to assist me at that crucial point by depositing a small, rather damp, stuffed squirrel toy, on top of my knitting and scratching me, and the sock, to get attention. Sending the sock unravelling speed into freefall and necessitating the re-knitting of the entire heel flap.

3. I have to go back to work tomorrow.

The Ugly

And it really is very ugly. Let me introduce my version of Vogue 8634. Made, would you believe, in a size XS. Even though I measure as a Small. This one fits mum.... who measures up at a medium.

Mum is making this pattern and hers is coming out OK so far as we can tell. Others have made this and its come out fine. I've seen the reviews. I used a seriously crappy fabric, which could have had an impact on the result. Nevertheless, this is one pattern I will NOT be making ever again. I cannot get the collar to sit properly, the raglan seams are too short and the sleeve heads (top of the raglan) too wide for my frame. As you can see in the photo showing the neckline before I put the collar on. Something has gone wrong here, probably fabric related because my collar went on in a one to one ratio, no easing. Mum's had to have the neckline eased to the collar. Also, I altered this for fit in a rather haphazard fashion I suppose. Its got an extra small front, a medium back width, extra small neckline, small tapering to extra small side seams and an extra small collar. Its possible I ruined this all by myself with no help from Vogue's excess ease department. And finally, a picture of it on me. Actually that photo makes the thing look nicer than it really is. To be fair, I wasn't certain that the style was going to be one I would like myself in. It was mum's pattern and I just tried it to see if I liked it. And I don't. So I will move on to Vogue number two: which is another raglan. I've got the muslin version cut out but with the overlocker out of commission, it will be a day or two before sewing resumes.