i was wrong...

again...I don’t plan to make a habit of it, even though the past few weeks may seem like it! What I’m talking about this time is, I was wrong thinking that the brass zipper wouldn’t look good in my brown linen 1RT GirlFriend Hoodie…I mentioned last week, when I was multitasking, that I hadn’t liked the way was the zipper was and I washed it after removing the nylon tooth zipper. Yesterday, re-evaluating the front edges of the hoodie after being laundered, I decided that I had installed a-too-short zipper. I pinned in the nylon 20-inch one (same length as the one I shortened) and put the hoodie on and it did the same thing as the old one, buckled out like I had major stomach issues. Yikes! Took that one out and pinned in the remaining brown 22-inch with brass teeth, put it on and it looked excellent! I sewed the zipper in properly , put it on again and it’s perfect. I wore it all afternoon/evening and it was still fine. I put it on again this morning, with a white tank underneath, hoping I could get a decent photo to show you. I went over to son Derek’s after lunch and asked him to take a photo – I have a goofy look on my face, like I must have been talking, but who cares? You can really see the garment well and what's more important? I was hoping that putting white underneath would show how thin/lightweight/see-through-ish the fabric turned out and it shows up very nicely. I held out the bottom so you could see how the A-line shape is – I really like this! I know you’re going to get right on making yours now!

zippered....

They arrived and guess what? In my excitement, I had placed the order before I had finished the front edges against my own advice and, of course, the 22 inch that I originally decided on is too long! I had added a
brass-teeth #5 22 inch as well but didn’t care for the look of the brass with my tobacco brown hoodie so I am attempting to adjust the length of the #3 molded plastic coffee bean one. I need to shorten this by 2 inches which is 17 teeth on each side…I’ve only gouged my knuckle once, not a big deal, I can handle it – no blood on the garment is my standard. The hardest part is prying off the metal stops at the top of the teeth. I managed this with the aid of a little flat-blade screw driver and a small pair of pliers. After fully cleaning the teeth off one side of the tape, I realized that I only needed to get them off about 3/4 of an inch above the new finished length. The easiest part was replacing the stops, using needle nose pliers. Even though I am not totally happy with the colour of the zipper, I’m going to sew this in and then re-evaluate the situation. A couple of days ago when I realized this zipper would be too long, I placed another order with zipperstop.com and I have a #3 nylon coil in seal brown coming, along with a few others I thought would be good stock to have ;-), to add to the 6 others – like this jewel green one (not) that I thought would go with the cilantro linen that I couldn’t resist the first time! Glad I still have those old pinking shears! Haven’t used them in 20 years but you never know, do you?

Machine knit like you know what you’re doing! ;-)

P.S. got this all done yesterday and I wore it for the rest of the day…love it! Particularly the weight and texture – can hardly wait for hot weather! And what do you know, Cathy  R. must have known – she’s invited me to do her seminar in Monroe, MI next summer – the 21st and 22 of July 2017 – more on this later!

Happy New Year to all! I’m into mottos lately, like, ‘machine knit like you stole the yarn!’ Or, how ‘bout ‘machine knit like you could write a book about it!’? ;-)

final details...

My linen One-Row-Tuck GirlFriend Hoodie is done, awaiting the arrival of the zipper - I did order it from zipperstop.com and it should be here, maybe even before Christmas! I ordered two - a nylon one that was a #3 lightweight and a #5 metal, brass coloured teeth option and I can decide which one will be best - I have not particularly liked the nylon coil ones but I thought maybe it was time to try one again - the lightweight part caught my eye! and they seemed pretty cheap so what the hay? The hoodie's all finished up, washed and dried, bands on, ready for the last thing of machine sewing in the zipper. I opted for slightly narrower hem bands than the original MFH pattern - if you go to 'Just the Flax' (KW#47), I used the same graded-tension bands, same number of stitches, but I started at T10 and went down from there by one dot per row for 7 rows and then back up - yes, there is an extra row (8) on the front side of the band - that helps it to lay flat and not curl over or under. I made the cuff narrower yet, only 5/6 rows, but again same number of stitches as the cast-on edge. I used all the same finishing techniques as the Manfriend Hoodie, with the outside seaming  and the same front edge stabilizing for the zipper installation... I'm so happy with this, I'm looking around to see what else I can use for another one and, even though it's freaking cold here and this is supposed to be warm weather wear, I won't be waiting, I'll wear it as soon as the zipper is in - we do have central heating!

zipped up again...

I made the manfriend hoodie in red for Nathan (my grandson who turned 12 last month!!! OMG!!!). I actually made him the small size from the girlfriend hoodie without the A-line shaping. I did have the knitting done for his groundhog day birthday but it took me this long to locate a nice, metal tooth zipper and get it sewn in.
www.zipperstop.com is my new source - you can get virtually any colour you want with either silver or brass teeth at a very reasonable price - lots of options - check it out and they ship to Canada, again very reasonable and quick service once you place your order.

I cheated on the drawstring - instead of knitting a slip cord out of the red cotton Bonita yarn - I purchased a red tubular elastic, not sure whether he was old enough to now have a drawstring that wouldn't be called dangerous - first think he did was put the hood up and yank on the ends to pull it tight! ; )

follow-up...

I am just finishing up making the pieces of my fourth hoodie - the navy one pictured here is for my friend Vickie's hubby (get better soon, big guy!) and the watermelon/hot pink one is for her ( I couldn't talk them into matchy-match ones). I needed to make a couple more for my demos at the Founder's Fest Seminar in Minneapolis, July 25, 26, 2015 (http://www.midwestmachineknitters.org/events/foundersfest/).  I will be showing seaming and finishing on the machine and as an extra class, sewing in the zipper - Dee said she'd bring a sewing machine just for this. So the navy one is all done, with the zipper pinned in place, ready for the sewing - I thought I'd show it here, because I wasted time looking for a navy zipper the right length and after a couple of weeks of finding nothing in navy that wasn't plastic, decided to opt for this black tape zipper with bronze teeth - I think it looks great and elevates the jacket from plain, old... to Wow, where did you get the nice hoodie? I already knew I wasn't going to be able to find a good match for the watermelon colour, so I'll keep you posted on my solution - a grey with silver teeth  or white with silver teeth...