Baileys Irish Cream Cardigan

Before I got busy with glove knitting, I finished Baileys Irish Cream cardigan.  The lace pattern on it is very pretty, and every detail appealed to me.  Naturally, I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it. 

Mine was knitted with a sport weight yarn with 20% cashmere, slightly thinner than the pattern calls for.  Hence, I followed instructions for a larger size. 

Skirt: Christine Jonson’s Pencil skirt
Tank Top: New Look 6068 View B

Bronwen

I love Bronwen by Ms. Marie Wallin.

The original version is knitted up with a gorgeous yellow green called Hubberholme, as well as lighter burgundy, yellow, and brown edging.  Although I love these colors, I thought I need something to go with my navy blue work clothes and changed colors.  I am quite happy with my color choices: Askrigg, Wensley, Burnsall, and Gunnerside.

A friend of mine said the cardigan reminded her of a Chanel jacket.  Now, that is a compliment.  Then, another friend said that this is the best garment I've ever knitted.  Oh, my!

In stead of requiring two balls each of the four colors, I needed a third ball of the three colors used in stripes.  I think it is because I knit relatively loosely and I may have knitted sleeves longer than instructed.  At any rate, with such compliments, I cannot complain about this garment. 

I am wearing Christine Jonson Pencil Skirt with Bronwen in the photo above. The skirt was made with a black wool jersey, and I added a two-inch wide elastic to the waist band since my wool fabric does not have the required

Sewing Mojo

I have been struggling with motivation.  Not for knitting but for sewing.  Having had eye sight problems since January of this year has been one factor as sewing require good eyes.  But, I might be making that an excuse for my lack of motivation.  Well, I had frozen shoulders and that compromised me more than I can think of.  So, I just need to nudge myself back into sewing slowly.  I tend to think of sewing as one long and continuous process.  That is the major issue I need to amend.  I do not have such continuous time for myself.  I need to learn to feel comfortable with planning multiple steps into a sewing project.  I tend to get frustrated easily with sewing when I cannot accomplish intended tasks.  So, here we go.  I am going to take a few steps at a time in sewing. 

I have a beautiful black wool double knit for about 2 yards, probably a bit more.  I have been meaning to sew it into skirts.  I do not have warm black skirts.  I want something different than a simple tube skirt, a skirt with rectangle piece sewn together on center back seam and an elastic band casing at the top to go with.  So, what did I choose?  I purchased Christine Jonson's Pencil skirt pattern. 

The pattern package includes two long skirts, Pencil skirt and Slit skirt, both very stylish and with slits in the center back.  They have quite a lot of negative ease both at waist and hip.  And, they are for cotton lycra knit fabric with 100% recovery.   

I have enough fabric to make both Pencil and Slit skirts.  So far, so good.  Nor really.  Actually, it took me such a long time to decide on the pattern that I don't remember when I took out the fabric and decided that I need skirts.  It might have been a year ago or more.  Sigh. 

Next task, sizing.  Although my black wool double knit is not very thick, it does not have the recovery required by the pattern.  So, I chose one size larger for my measurements.  I shortened the skirt length by 4" and I made the hem width a bit wider for Slit skirt.  I was so indecisive and took me too long to make up my mind on sizing: a few days, on and off.  This indecisiveness makes me feel very unproductive and makes me feel like going back to knitting.  I had to fight it out by telling myself that I need black skirts.

I hope to find some time to cut the fabric this week: two to three hours for two to three skirts should be possible, right?  Wish me luck!