Thursday, February 09, 2006

Sock love



This picture is for Coleen who graciously requested a picture of my finished Badcaul sock. As stated before I adore this pattern beyond belief. A sock with cables knit up in less than a week!?!?! It just might be my new favorite sock pattern!!

I came home to find more sock knitting goodness left by my beloved husband. It's 4 skeins of Color your own sock yarn from knit picks & 2 skeins of amazing hand dyed sock yarn from Brooklyn Handspun. Marie's colors are even more amazing in real life. Isaac chose "flickering flame" and "bluejeans". I'm really thrilled that he was able to get me some of her yarn. He knew I was low on sock yarn & asked me for my favorite sites. I immediately pointed him towards Marie! I really lucked out to get 2 skeins!!

The "blue jeans" colorway is destined to become Elfine socks. Can you tell I am totally in love with all of Anna's patterns? Marie will be posting more yummy sock yarns tomorrow in her shop if you are so inclined! I really want some of the superwash she mentions here. Superwash sock yarn in flickering flame? Double Yum!!

Thanks for all the responses about my sewing! I am really excited about starting the sew-along. I'm glad to see so many of my blog friends have joined too!

I decided to upload a few of my favorite fabrics to a new photoset on flickr.



I think I am going to do a trial skirt with the vintage wrap skirt pattern I have. I have a ton of fabric that would look good & it seems it would be an easy first skirt since there is no zipper. The Betsy Ross pattern I ordered requires a zipper. I have sewed a zipper into the lining of a bag before & it looked OK but it was on an inside pocket not on the back of a skirt. Maybe I need to practice some more of that before I start the skirt.

Any experienced sewers wanna give me some pointers on putting a zipper in a skirt?

Comments:
Congrats on the cute new sewing machine!
I don't sew, myself (well, barely, I hemmed a curtain once and made a pillow shaped like an elephant :D ) but I can't wait to see your projects!

That sock is amazing.
 
That tree fabric you have over at Flickr is AMAZING! You totally need to make me a skirt and sell it to me or something since I can't even sew on a button (pretty pathetic, huh?).

And Marie's yarn is totally amazing. She is a super duper talented spinner, dyer, and overall fiber expert. She has this incredible Koigu-esque superwash yarn she is putting up for sale tomorrow. I definetely have to get my hands on that.
 
Stunning Badcaul!

And that sock yarn is seriously yummy looking.
 
That pattern rocks! I love it. I put in a zipper once. I read a few websites, found them complicated, and said screw it and did it myself. I just imagined what a zipper would look like and pinned it in and then sewed. Although I don't know if it would look so nice the second time around! I think it was just luck.
 
Yay! Thanks for the picture Leah! That sock is terrific! I love the colors and cables together.

I am also totally coveting that orange/yellow/red yarn. That looks amazing. I can't wait to see what you knit up with that.

You must have an awesome husband!
 
Thanks so much for posting the Betsy Ross link, you don't know how long I've been looking for a simple A Line skirt pattern, I've bought so many that aren't quite what I wanted!

Thanks also for posting about Sew I Knit, I've asked to join up, I've got a load of fabric and patterns for skirts that need a bit of encouragement to get sewn up!
 
When you're sewing, remember that tacking (basting, what do you call it in the US?) is your friend. Particularly when putting in zips. I tend to do concealed zips where you sew along the seam where you're going to put the zip with a long machine stitch (machine basting), then pin the zip in place, tack firmly and then sew along the sides of the zip. (You'll need a zipper foot which your sewing maching should have. It's basically a one sided presser foot.) When the two sides are done, you rip out the machine basting in the middle and voila, a tidy zip. Practice makes perfect!
 
Zippers usually go in pretty well if you have a zipper foot and follow the directions carefully. Zippers are cheap, so it doesn't hurt to buy one or two just to practice with on scraps. However, if you have trouble, know that it's very easy to insert a zipper by hand, using a pick stitch. It only takes a few minutes, is very strong, and if you get it crooked, you can easily rip it out and try again. (Ripping machine knitting shouldn't happen to a dog.) I do all mine by hand.
 
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