My Friend Myrna

Agh, I can’t believe how long it’s been since my last post – sorry, you guys! Ever since that darned kidney stone I’ve felt totally drained; I think all the craziness, stress, and changes of the past year are finally catching up with me. Add to that I’m in the middle of moving apartments and trying to plan a major anniversary party and *poof* – no time to sew.

…so instead I’ve been knitting. A LOT. Oh, mama. Since the beginning of April, I’ve burned through two cardigans, one shrug, and a baby hat, and I’m well into cardigan #3. I think that knitting helps channel my nervous energy when I’m too scattered and stressed to sew. Plus, I’ve had a lighter load of playing at the ballet school, which facilitates more knitting – when I’m swamped with tons of hours at the piano, my wrists just can’t take a knitting binge.

When I was laid up in bed with the aforementioned kidney stone, I got tons of knitting done, cuz literally all I could do was lie in bed and wait for it to pass. So that’s when I got through most of Andi Satterlund’s fabulous new cardigan pattern, Myrna. This little gem only took two weeks of knitting. Granted, that’s with two days of lying in bed, but I think that’s still pretty good!

Isn’t she a peach? I love how cleverly the pattern is constructed – you start knitting the upper back, then pick up the front along the shoulder seams, joining front to back at the armhole and knitting the whole way to the bottom in one piece. The sleeves and button bands are then picked up along the edges, resulting in a sweater with no annoying seams to finish up at the end! I also love the way the sweater is shaped – Andi’s waist decreases always look to pretty. I tried to highlight them here, but mostly you just see a close-up of my armpit:

Oh, and one of the super fun, subtle details of this particular make is the keyhole in the back! Love it.

The yarn is Lion Brand worsted weight. Since this yarn is a little heavier than the yarn the pattern is written for (the Miss Babs Yowza that Andi used is a light worsted weight), I went down a needle size to a 7 to get the right gauge, and I’m quite happy with the fit!

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I am in the middle of moving, so my posts will probably be a little more sporadic for a few weeks as we get settled. However, stay tuned for a *super special* post coming soon! 😀

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Belcarra Blues (plus some news!)

Agh, now my titles rhyme…sorry, y’all! But I think I’m allowed for now – it’s been a rough couple of days here at chez Emily! Long story short, I ended up in the ER on Thursday with a kidney stone, and it took the entire weekend to get rid of the darned thing, which meant lying in bed and not sewing :(. Frustration of frustrations! However, yesterday I was finally able to get out of bed and tackle a bit of sewing, and managed to complete a project I had started before the whole dreadful kidney incident – my Belcarra Blouse!

I had been waiting to follow the sewalong, which had lots of great tips for assembling the blouse. The trickiest part for me was sewing the sleeve cuffs – you have to leave a precise 5/8″ opening at the top of the sleeve and cuff in order to get them to match. All it took was a little patience and a little unpicking to get it right, though, which isn’t too bad!

I went up a size from my usual Sewaholic size – I usually sew up a size 4, even though my measurements are a size 6, but this time I chose a size 6. I think I’ll go back to a 4 next time – this blouse is just a little too blouse-y for me, if you know what I mean!

See? Just a bit on the big side. I went with sleeve option B with the pintucks – its a nice little detail that I think adds a lot to a solid-colored top. It also matches the pleats in the skirt!

Oh, and speaking of the skirt, that’s my self-drafted skirt from a few months back. The fabric for the blouse is the same fabric I used for the contrast insets :).

And now for some news! I had mentioned in an earlier post about entering some garments in the Sewing Indie Month contests, and I am thrilled to announce that I made the “short list” for three out of the four! (Yes, I entered them all…I’m a sucker for contests :P). If you would like to vote, here they are:

My Jedediah Pants are in the Everyday Casual contest, the striped Coco made it into the Pattern Hacker contest, and my Megan/Anna mashup is in the Indie Love Affair contest !

Many thanks for all the great comments I got on those projects – your support means a lot!!