Wearing History Smooth Aviator blouse!

Hello all!
Some time ago, I ordered some cotton fabric from Spoonflower. It is designed by Charlotte over at Tuppence Ha'penny . Long time ago I saw her blouse and wanted one!! I just had to find the right pattern for it.

The Smooth sailing blouse pattern from Wearing History is one that I really like. I used it for my birdcage blouse, and got to thinking it would be awesome with spitfire planes too!
When I found this adorable RAF sweetheart propeller pin on Etsy, the deal was sealed. I had to sew a blouse for it!

Isn't it just lovely??

I wanted the blouse to have a touch of 'uniform', something suited for a lady of the RAF. So the giant puffed sleeves originally in the pattern had to go. I trimmed off  3/4" of the sleeve heads, and made shoulder pleats to get an outward puff instead. I had to play around with it, but I think it looks rather smart. I also added a little buttoned down shoulder tab, for added 'masculinity'. I drafted my own chest pocket, which also was meant to have a tab, but I decided to just keep it plain.

Pleated shoulder and tabs.

The fabric is the cheapest option on Spoonflower, I didn't have any experience with them, so I just ordered this to try out. It is computer printed for you when you order, so there's a 2" edge all around your fabric piece that is NOT printed, just plain white. The fabric itself was rather narrow to begin with (110cm) so one should really take this into account when ordering. It felt  a bit stiff at first, and didn't soften much in the wash, but it didn't bleed much, so I am hoping the color keep up with wear. It creases easily, and get pin marks like nothing else, not to mention if you have to rip a seam. So I tried to keep errors at a minimum.
If I order again, I will try a better fabric :)

(Do your buttons, tart!)

When I came in from my photo session, I noticed I have one button undone on all the pictures. Oopsie.
It was getting dark, so these are the photos you get :) Also, if I was to change anything about the blouse, I think the pocket should be placed a bit down, and more to the side. Oh well.

All in all, VERY happy with this blouse! It turned out just how I wanted it to. Also it was much quicker to sew up second time around, and that helps a lot (and keeps the cursing and swearing to a tolerable level). I must be improving! I have this fabric in green too, so there will be more Spitfires!

Oh Marius... Why do you hate me so?

I try to keep my posts positive, yet this will contain a small amount of frustration.
Sometime before Christmas, Mr Pinhouse uttered a request for a traditional Marius sweater.

Marius Eriksen, after whom the sweater is named, sporting reversed colored sweater.
Read some about him here.
Most used color scheme on the right.

Since 1953, this sweater has been in every Norwegians heart, and closet. It is the epitome of the Norwegian spirit and love of the great outdoors. Our majestic snow covered mountains, in which we have skied, our long fjords that has fed us through the generations, our deep forests that provided timber for our homes. An embodiment of this nation that once was a small, poor country of farmers. Farmers, that within themselves carried the pride, skill and will, to build a great nation, that today is one of the worlds richest. (insert National anthem of Norway.)

Photo by Per Eide
source

So you see, I took pride in making this sweater for him. It is said to have been a tradition for girls/young women to knit, and give this to their sweetheart, so I went on to continue this tradition.

I cast on December 23rd, just two days after finishing my cable cardigan. I chose a mens size medium, based on measurements of my "client", knitted a swatch even. I spent the next nine days knitting up the whole body in the round, and cast off at the neck. It then hit me that the sweater looked small. In fact it was too small even for me, and I had to frog the whole thing.

I counted my stitches over 4", did some calculations, and decided I had to knit the XL size from the pattern and went at it again. Mr Pinhouse is a slender dude, and not that much bigger than me, so I figured this would be plenty big on him. The knitting went ok, although a bit lacking in the enthuze-department. I did inevitably, make an error on one of the sleeves, and had to frog half of it and re-knit. Tuesday the 4th of February, I finished the last piece.

I steeked the body, which was utterly terrifying. I've always cast off for arm openings, but granted; it is easier to knit the body in the round the whole way up, and slice it up after. The design is quite boxy, and the sleeves (also knitted in the round) are fairly wide, and set in at a right angle. The shoulder seam and the sleeve is meant to meet up below the shoulder, and it was here I started to get that panicky feeling. I could see that the the arm wasn't particularly wide, and the "point of in-set" was rather close to the body and wasn't going to hang low, off the shoulder. Uh-oh.

Our King Harald V, as a young Crown Prince and student at Oxford in 1960.
Maybe a bit on the big side, but here you can see the sleeves
set in low on the shoulder. (source)

I shamefully handed it to Mr P to try on, and could instantly see it was not fitting. Too small on top. Too tight around the armpit area, and over the back. Blah....I was miffed.
I mean; how on earth could this happen?? I used the recommended yarn, the same needles. I measured and calculated. I knitted it twice. It is a mens XL for Pete's sake!! I have seen extra large men, and believe me; Mr P ain't it... And no way would those men get into my sweater.

So, to wrap this up on a realistic note; Mr P is not getting his patriotic sweater (this week, anyway). Luckily, I can wear it without looking ridiculous, so it is not a total waste. I cannot help but feel like a small failure (even though I totally blame the pattern. Heh!). I really wanted to give him a sweater. I am considering trying again (in secret), but I must say it is not very tempting. If I do, I will not use the sizing in the pattern. I will have to come up with my own measurements and amount of stitches. The pattern repeat for the borders/color-work are easy to adjust and incorporate into whatever size, so if I can only crack the size code, I'll be fine.

Someone suggested I go up a needle size. But then I have no idea just how much bigger it will get, and I will not risk getting it wrong again. Besides, I like how the fabric looks and feels with 3.5mm needles and I fear knitting with size 4mm will make it to loose. I've never felt my knitting was especially tight, but obviously it is supposed to be much looser. The gauge in the pattern says 22 stitches over 4". I've got 26. Go figure.

Did you ever promise to make something for someone, that ended up all wrong? How did it make you feel? And what did you do about it?

Box pleats and corduroy

Hello all!

I have been dabbling with skirt sewing this january. I have also been sick and we have gotten INSANE amounts of snow lately, so there has not been much actual sewing time between all the sniffeling and shovelling.

But there has been results; a navy corduroy version of Simplicity 4824 from 1943.

Pattern envelope

I went for view 2, with pleats both in front and back.

Honestly, the buttons are straight, the hanger inside just distorts the whole thing ;)

I've always loved the look of pleated skirts, and decided to try one. The actual pleating was very simple, and also makes it easy to make adjustment on size if needed. I had some navy/dark petrol corduroy in my stash that was intended for some  40s swing pants, but with all the procrastinating this plan produced, I decided to just use the fabric for something else (also, this makes for more fabric shopping in future *win*).
It is perhaps a bit too heavy for a skirt with big box pleats, it got a bit bulky in places, but it works. I want to try this pattern with a lighter fabric sometime, just to see the difference.

The skirt is just 5 pieces, and has a side button placket. I used large chunky, pearlized plastic buttons, but kept them in the same colorway. I think it would look great with some contrasting ones, too! The skirt has top stitching, but it disappears in the nap, so I didn't use any contrasting there either. But these features are great for adding interest to the design, so I believe this pattern has lots of potential in a variety of versions.

I blind hemmed it by hand and added some contrast bias binding to the edge. I think it adds a little touch to the finish, which is otherwise just pinked seams and nothing fancy :)

As usual I find photography indoors to be quite difficult. My camera (still) has a broken flash, and I had to rig up some lamps that are intended for construction sites and I see it makes yellowish highlights appear. Sorry for that, I hope to improve...

All in all, I like the skirt. For my next version, I will use a lighter fabric, I will also shorten the stitching down the pleats. I think they should be more open (higher up) if that makes sense. I think it should have more width also (to make it even more A-line), but perhaps more open pleats will take care of that. If not, it should be possible to add on some to the pattern pieces.

I am also thinking it could be fun to sew up a matching cropped jacket to go with it?
What do you think?

Somebody loves me!!

Just yesterday, I had a nice comment on my latest post from a lovely girl named Kaitlyn, from Kaitlyn's Simply Vintage. She told me she had nominated me for a Liebster-award.

Moi?!!?

I was of course thrilled, and a wee bit surprised! Obviously, someone is bound to stumble upon my blog at some point, but they don't necessarily have to like it, but it sure is nice that some of you do :)

The Liebster award is a token of recognition that bloggers award to fellow bloggers who they think deserve more recognition. (The term "Liebster" roughly translates to "Dearest" from German)
The guidelines of this award are as follows:

You must answer the 11 questions set by the blogger who nominated you.
You yourself then pick 11 blogs who in turn have under 200 followers.
You must then think of 11 questions for the blogs you have picked and also tell them.
You must link back to the blog that nominated you.
Write 11 facts about yourself

So, onto the question Kaitlyn has given me:

1. Why did you start blogging? 

I think it mostly was down to curiosity, "can I manage to make a blog?". But as I realized that I indeed could, it turned out a great way to keep myself motivated, and organized. I liked having somewhere to track my progress. Blogging well is kind of hard work, and getting nice comments on your extra effort is very satisfying.

2. What is your favorite piece of music?

Oh.....tough one. There is so much nice music out there, and I listen to so much different stuff. I guess my answer would be whatever matches my mood at a given moment. Funk and Rockabilly is never wrong though!

3. Do you thrift shop? If so, what purchase are you most proud of?

We actually do have one thrift shop where I live. I've been meaning to go (for years) but never get round to it. Weird, because I love all kinds of old stuff, flea markets and thrift stores!

4. Tea or coffee?

Both! But whenever there is GOOD coffee to be had, I prefer it over tea :)

5. What colors are the walls in your bedroom?

They are a yuckie yellowish color. Me and Mr. Pinhouse bought our house 3 years ago, and redecorating bedroom is now high on the to-do-list (mine, anyway)! I dream of soft grey and white, with a contrast wall of driftwood (there will be discussions, I know...) Heh!

6. What is the best piece of advice your parents ever gave you?

All of them, probably. I was just too young and stupid to listen. "Get an education" is high up there!

7. What would your dreamhouse be?

Easy. Bilbo Baggin's house.

8. What creative pursuits do you follow?

I am good at switching focus, and there is sooooo many things I want to master.

I am however, determined get more practice playing my didgeridoo!

9. Are you a morning person?

That depends. If I have to go to work, it's no big deal getting up at 04.40 in the morning, but whenever there's a holiday or vacation, I'd rather be awake all night. I think I descend from those people that used to keep lookout for predators and kept the fire going when we lived in caves :)

10. What is your ideal fashion item?

I am not very good at fashion, personally. My lifestyle has always called for practicality, before style. Not that those two can't be combined, but factory working and horse owning do set some standards. But if I were to choose an item that makes me think of fashion and style, it is the hat. I wish hats could make a huge comeback, so that one could wear one without feeling slightly ridiculous :D

11. Do you collect anything?

No, not per se. But I do however notice my ever growing stash of vintage sewing and knitting patterns.....

My 11 Liebster nominees are (in random order):

• One Small Stitch
• Sewing ♥ Vintage ♥ Knitting
• The Sunshine Grove
• Vint Hill Vintage
• Cardigan Girl Knits
• The Nerdy Seamstress
• Sew Classic
• Sew Deputy
• HoffiCoffi
• My Sewing Suite
• The Forties Floozy

Go check them all out, some are currently hosting give-aways!! Yay!

My list of questions to the nominated bloggers:

1. What do you find most challenging about blogging?
2. If you could choose any super-power, what would it be?
3. What is the most important thing in your life?
4. Which object/tool could you not do without on a daily basis?
5. What is your favorite movie of all times?
6. What is your dream destination for travel?
7. Which wild animal do you find most fascinating? 
8. What is the most romantic thing anyone's ever done for you?
9. Who do you admire the most, and why?
10. If you could make a living doing anything, which profession would you choose?
11. Describe yourself in 5 words.

Lastly; 11 fun-facts about me:

• I love dinosaurs.
• I have moved 18 times in my life.
• I have eaten bugs on purpose.
• I once slept for 32 hours in one go.
• Snow makes me happy. The more ,the better!
• I talk to myself out loud when I am alone.
• I physically can't sing when someone is listening.
• I was Norwegian Champion in hairdressing for apprentices in 1998.
• I love travelling alone, no matter how far.
• When I was young, me and my best friend "adopted" a baby crow that had fallen from the nest and hid it in our basement. We nursed it until it could fly, and then released it.
• I cannot wear rings on my fingers. I loose them.

Thank you for nominating me, Kaitlyn!
This was actually quite hard, but very fun :) Can't wait to see what my nominees answers on my little "quiz"!

A new design in cable stitch

Finally!!
Happy new year, all!
After a lot of waiting for the planets to align, non-crappy weather and light (and a decent hair day) I gave up, and photographed regardless. (Well, at least the weather was decent :)

So I am happy to present to you; my entry for the Knit for Victory challenge/ knit-along hosted by Tasha.
The pattern is 'A New Design in Cable Stitch', free from the V&A Museum online.

The cardigan took me 4 weeks from start to finish, and was a fairly easy pattern. The sizing was, well, abit of a puzzle, and even though I added extra stitches to fronts and back and blocked it vigorously it is still quite small. I can wear it buttoned up, but don't care for the "skin-of-the-sausage-look". 40s fashion was close fitting, mainly due to rationing, but nowadays and extra skein of yarn is not a problem. But I think I will wear this open, thank you very nicely ;)

I initially wanted a green cardi, but the one shade in the store didn't turn me on so I ended up with this light blue, and I quite like it. The buttons are not vintage, but cute shanked plastic buttons with flowers on them in a "frosted" look.

The only thing I didn't like is how the cables don't meet up on the shoulders. Due to the decreasing on the back piece armhole shaping, it doesn't add up when assembling the cardigan. Purely cosmetic, I know, but being a perfectionist things like that annoy me.

If I was to knit this one again, I probably would make it slightly longer, so that the junction between ribbing and the cabled portion would hit my natural waist. But it was hard to tell during knitting if I would get into it at all! This project taught me a lot, and next time I will be able to better adjust these things.

After all, this is only my second knitted garment (other than socks, mittens, hats and scarves) and all in all I like this cardigan very much. I've seen multiple versions from other knitters in all kinds of beautiful colors and with fun buttons. It looks gorgeous in black!

On another note, my hubster uttered a request for a sweater, so I am now busy with a traditional Norwegian 'Marius'-sweater. It was designed in 1953, but is based upon stitch patterns from the 20s and 30s.
It is named after war hero and skier Marius Eriksen, and is very popular in Norwayland these days. The design is on everything from coffee mugs to Ipad-covers, even cars!!

source

I cast on Dec. 23rd, knitted the whole body on the round, found out it was too small (even for me!!!), frogged the whole buggar, and started over a week ago....sigh.
More on that later (just the arms to go now!) but here's a little teaser :)

So, tell me; what are you working on??

Blocking a knitted garment

Hello everybody, are you all en route with your Christmas preparations? 

I sure hope so, and I am sure many of you agree it is quite the race! 

My holiday has officially started, I had my last day at work this year on Wednesday. And if I am honest, I don't know how I would get done with all my shopping and preparations if it wasn't for those two extra days off. It also meant I was able to finish my Knit for Victory cardigan!! Yay!

I cast on November 21st, and I never thought it would be finished this fast! But the pattern was very straight forward, and I had very few problems along the way. Don't you just love it when things run smoothly?

I did however have the nagging feeling of knitting a child size cardigan, the pieces just looked SO small, and there was really no way to tell how it would turn out. Other than knitting the darn thing finished, naturally :)

I knew I had to block it, and having never done it before, it was an exciting new experience! 

So here's how I did it:

You'll need bucket, water, detergent, tape measure, towel, pins, cushion and knitted wool string :)
(a bottle of wine is useful too.)

I first finished all my pieces (obviously), and washed them how I would the finished cardi. I soaked the pieces in lukewarm water, using a mild detergent especially for wool. My yarn is 100% new wool. I was careful not to rub or wring it, I just gently swooshed it around in the water and squeezed what water I could from it with my hands. 

Rock and roll :)

Then, I placed the piece on a clean dry towel, rolled it up into a sausage, and stepped on it a few times. Yes, people, I did, just to get the towel to absorb the water. It works like a charm, and the pieces come out nice and flat and just the right amount of damp :)

Take care with the edges!  If you get scallops like these,
it may help using more pins, and just work the shape til it's even.

Next step is to stretch the piece to the right size and shape. My pattern had an illustration with measurements, so I just got out my tape measure, took some measurements of my own body for comparison and started pinning the piece onto my blocking surface. I used a garden couch seat cushion, but any pinable smooth surface will do. Just be careful your yarn will not bleed any color onto your pinning surface, it can do that when wet. I used large upholstery pins, but I am sure regular pins are just as useful. If they are without heads, pinning them at an angle away from your piece will keep it from slipping off.

Much better even edge.

Stretch and pin the piece into the shape and size you want, but make sure any edges are nice and even. When wet the piece is springy, but once dry it will hold the shape it dried into, so if you don't care for scalloped edges, do spend some extra moments getting it all even.
Also, make sure to match the length of the sides where front pieces and back piece meet, and also the shoulder area, so that sewing together goes smoothly.

Not too shabby:)

Just to give an idea on just how much larger you can make your pieces (Thank Gawd!!), here's my sleeves pre and post blocking! WOW!!

From straight jacket to wearable in a couple of hours :)

When your happy with the result, leave to dry :) Repeat with all pieces.

Now all's left is to weave in all those loose ends, and assemble your garment (which I have), so stay tuned ;)

In the meantime, don't forget to relax a bit and enjoy the Christmas spirit!

Merry Holidays to you all ;)

Knit-along coming along!

So the last few weeks have been quite busy over here in Norway-land.
Work is crazy, a lot of last minute scramblin' before the holidays, so when I finally get home from the factory and stable chores, I just want to pass out on the couch.

But there has been crafting! Oh yes!
Today is exactly three weeks since starting my Knit For Victory cardigan, using a vintage pattern from 1940.
It is free online on the Victoria and Albert Museum website, and is called 'A new design in cable stitch'.
And I must say it has been smooth sailings all the way! I have knitted some in the past, but mostly small things, like socks, mittens and hats. Oh yeah, and the Snowroses sweater :)
Here's my progress so far.

Back piece, not yet cast off because I wanted to coordinate
the armhole and the shoulder sloping to the fronts.

The fronts.
One of which I knitted one and a half time.... Forgot some decrease stitches at the armhole there.
Whoopsie.

Two thirds of a sleeve,
one and one third to go!!

This is my first cable knit, but it is really easy. All you need is an extra needle (a little wonky one for cabling) and the ability to count to eight, because you only do cabling (in this case) on every eighth row. Simple! I am "memory challenged", so I bought some markers to help me keep count, but so far I have only used one, for where I started the increases on the sleeve.

If anything, the hard part is getting the cables to look good near edges. For example, on the fronts I noticed after casting off, that the decrease rows on the shoulder was right on where a cable should happen, so it doesn't look right. If I don't fix it, I know it will bug the crap out of me, so there will have to be some frogging. But it is just a small piece at the top, so no biggie.

Damn.
There should be cabling... could be worse though :)

There are some similar issues on the arms. Because of the increase stitches happening on either side, there will be new cables appearing, and at some point they will be wide enough to get "twisted" like the others. Until they are, they are just flat stripes of knit stitches and look odd. But since they will end up on the underside of the arm, I can live with it.

I did knit a swatch before I cast on, and had the right gauge.
But I did so in Stockinette, and I am so worried it will end up too small. I added extra stitches to the back piece and fronts (about the equivalent of 1 inch, so around 3" in total). All that is left now is one and a half sleeve, but for some reason I totally forgot to check the measurements on the sleeve sketch in the pattern, and did not add any extra stitches either! Gulp.

What can I say....I was eager. So praying they won't end up Arm-Strangulators. Heh..

Like mentioned before, at this point I think it mostly resemble a cabled straight jacket, so I will obviously be blocking the beejeezuz out of it. I am actually very curious on that process, because I have never blocked any knitting in my life, so I don't have any idea on just how much it is possible to block. Interesting!

But that's a tale for another post! Onwards!!