finale…

This turned out first-rate! And it fits just right! The shoulders and sleeves are perfect, the thickness of the knitted pieces matches well with the fabric.  I love it!

Do I get on with the next one while this is all fresh in my mind or pick a new project and save the light coloured denim for the spring? Decisions, decisions…

sew, knit, it's all stitches...

 A little sewing, a little knitting. I’m onto knitting the side panels and realized I forgot to take the cone weight out of the beginning amount - I’m down to 140g after the sleeves and feeling a little tense, even though visuals and common sense tells me the side panel is slightly smaller than the sleeve. While knitting the first side panel, I’m formulating a backup plan. I had used this yarn quite a lot and I remembered a small lace poncho I had made back in the poncho days -   https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2020/10/handy-work - Look at the bottom of that post for 'Glamour' - I remember making a ton of those - I could unravel that if necessary. 

At the underarm point of the side panel, it’s like making a neckline, although this one isn’t symmetrical - and, because I want this to be as smooth as possible, I’m going to shortrow the decreases but because of the indigo dye, this yarn won’t stand up to regular holding position of having the needles out and the back and forth of 50 or so passes over that row will make a lighter colour line across and though I might be able to convince myself that it doesn’t really matter since it is at the underarm and maybe won’t show so much, reality is it will show on the back. 

Here’s my tip - using the ravel cord method, put the first side - at right of 0, (here, this is the back side) to hold by knitting the stitches back out of work using the ravel cord and then cover the front with an old swatch, ( just happen to have a neckband waste yarn swatch that has a single-row cast-on that won’t add any extra bulk to the situation) hanging it on the sinker posts/gate pegs to prevent  damaging your work. 

Complete the left side, remove the
protective swatch, pull the sts back to work by carefully pulling out the ravel cord, and then knit the right side following the schematic. Second panel has to be knit in reverse…and I’m weighing the remaining yarn every 50 rows…no worries, at least 10g remain!

against all odds…

A denim jacket, like the camo one. Make it an inch

longer, don't use shank buttons and no fabric cuffs. Not sure if the shank button is the reason I don't want cuffs but changing it up is good! 

My options for the knit fabric…Wool Crepe Deluxe (what I used last time and know it works) in midnight, or denim bouclé, old stuff I used many times and. of course, there's that denimy-shades 6/2 cotton  http://knitwords.blogspot.com/2024/02/ta-da.html that I used last year for the remake of my Tennessee Tunic - perfect colours but it’s not really as ‘hard-wearing’ as I’d like for this project.  I want something that’s going to have a little stretch, yet still be firm enough that it won’t bag out or get a ton of pill balls on it so going with the  denim bouclé.

Checked Knitwords #35, 'Made to Fade'. It was stockinette T8, with a gauge of 28 sts and 55R. My theory lately, after all those button-front lace hoodies, lace and stockinette should be the same gauge…I looked up my all-time favourite lace skirt,   https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2012/06/update-better-late.html using this same yarn - that gauge was 29 sts and 52 rows at T8 lace carriage, took a chance, decided to call it T9 with the knit carriage and go with the 28s/52r gauge. The partial cone I had weighed 310g which I thought should be
enough. 

I got lucky and was able to recognize my mylar schematic from 5 yrs ago. Knit the first sleeve - it looked huge, 82 cm long! What the heck? With 'trust your swatch' ringing in my ears (even if you didn't actually make one ;)),  I quickly knit the second, threw them both in the wash along with a couple of jeans, crossed my fingers and eyes and went for a walk! 

Put it all in the dryer and channel surfed while waiting. Found ‘The Great British Sewing Bee’ ohmigosh, so much fun, even better than the great British baking show! The comedian here was better, the judges, so cute - an old gal, a self-described diva, and the man,  supposedly from ‘Saville Row’! the sewing was brutal, the contestants fun and varied, judges very liberal and nice, what a winner! I loved it!

After the dryer, I could hardly stand it! Unbelievably, the sleeves are the exact size (55 cm) I planned! Wow! If I tried a stunt like that back in the day!

, 

denim delight…

One of my favourite projects from the past few years has been that  camo Jean jacket from 2019, where, I knit the side panels and sleeves because I didn't have enough fabric for the entire sewing project -https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2019/07/camoflague.html - that’s the start of the story. If you’re really interested, go back and, down on the right side, click  on 2019, July to see what happened. Here’s the finale  https://knitwords.blogspot.com/2019/08/now-i-know-why.html  

I still love it, have worn it a lot, have wanted another but trying to find just the right print fabric in the right weight/thickness  been the main issue. Our local Fabricland has been drastically reduced, and travelling in the past five years, blah, blah, blah, you know the story. In October this year, I went to Vancouver to visit little sis. Checking the internet and local sources there proved discouraging. We even went to the island and hit Nanaimo, which had listings for 3 fabric stores!! Oh my! Yeah, you know it, the internet lies! They weren’t fabric stores, they were quilt shops! Disappointing doesn’t cover it. 

Anyway, last month, manfriend and I went to Duluth, Mn and found a Joann! Omg! There was two denim-y prints that looked quite good and since I couldn’t decide which one, light or dark, came home with both! 

Working on the dark one first…