Kaino

I guess you can tell what happened to the orange dress from long ago.... My stash of closeout Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk DK has finally found the right pattern - this is the Kaino vest from Norah Gaughan Vol.1, by Berroco. I used the yarn doubled up so the vest is so so warm. Very comfy too, and looks good over long or short sleeves (I can't wait to try it with a dress). Norah Gaughan is my hero; my Ravelry queue is mostly her stuff, and I'd make all of it tomorrow if I could. I *did* have to break my yarn-buying diet when I realized 2/3 of the way through that I'd run out of yarn. Luckily for me this yarn is discontinued but pretty readily available, so I was able to get some at a great discount. Still, I feel bad about breaking my resolution, so I'm adding another two weeks to the end of my diet - July 14 is the new end date.

Refashioned top

This is a bit of a stretch in terms of post worthiness, but here it goes anyway. I bought this top months ago at H&M - tried on one size, it was too small, so I bought the next size up without trying it on...and the sleeves were still too tight. So it sat in my closet until I finally cut off the sleeves and hemmed the armholes. I did the sewing by hand because the fabric is very light and I'm not confident enough with my sewing machine on delicate material. I still love this top, I'm excited to finally be able to wear it, and now I have these awesome sleeve pieces, which I think will make adorable pockets on some future project of undetermined nature.

New Shirts

I finally finished a couple of shirts and thought I'd share the final products. They are both from the same pattern: Simplicity 4589. I was a little uncertain about how to read the pattern directions at first, but I figured it out and, obviously, both shirts are very simple.


The brown shirt is pretty great. I already wore it to work and didn't feel like a tool in it. The yellow shirt's arm holes are a little wide and I'm thinking I'll take a small tuck under the arm eventually. I wish this pattern had darts, but I think that might be a step beyond my current abilities...always something to work on.
Since these are my first attempt at sewing clothes, I'm pretty happy. Years of semi-quilting has at least given me the basics on how to use my sewing machine and how to sew things together. I am next going to work on making skirts and I'm also thinking of making a pair of linen pants with really wide legs.

On the knitting front I'm slowly working on these socks:

There has to be a Rita's Rule about knitting socks, but I'm too lazy to write one up right now. I have one finished and I'm working on the second one now. Maybe I'll have it done for the fall. We'll see.