Off and Away

So this weekend there will be no sewing.  I have to go away for a family matter.

Instead I thought I would show off one of the sweaters I knitted from a vintage pattern.

I knitted this sweater from a pattern I was given by my Grandma.  She was the one who also taught me to knit when I was 8 or so.  I still cherish the first knitting needles she gave to me.  I remember her telling me to take care of them as you could not get those needles anymore.  I took that to heart and they are still with me now.

This is the pattern. It is from a book called "Harmony in Handknits" by Beehive.  It is full of amazing knitted shirts and dresses.

I love the lace work on this

Photographer husbands should not talk to the model for fear of strange expressions. :)

It knitted up pretty well.  I made a couple changes like I knitted it on the round rather than seaming the sides as it was already going to take forever to knit.  It has not changed the structure of the sweater much.  I do wish I was better at seaming.  The set in sleeves were very difficult to sew in as the knitted fabric was so light it bunched up a lot.  As a result the seaming on the sleeves is not as smooth as I would have liked.  Overall it is really comfortable but as it is a short sweater I really need to sew some more high waisted skirts to go with it.

I want to knit this one next.

Last weekend I was able to work on my blouse a bit.  I was able to sew the bodice part together and I finally got the pin tucks straight.  Funny enough I did not notice until after that I actually did the tucks backwards.  I have pleats rather than pin-tucks.  The pin-tucks on the other side look so ugly though I decided not to worry about it.  Pleats and seaming it is.  I will try and get it right the next time I sew this pattern.  If it works out I have three colours of fabric to make it in.  Black, cream and purple.  I am definitely glad I am making this wearable muslin version first!  I am making all my mistakes now.  I have the collar done too and pinned to the shirt but I have not sewn it on yet. I am not super excited about the shape of the collar for this pattern.  I think I will reshape it into a proper peter pan collar for subsequent blouses.

And here I am picking out my first really ugly pin-tucks.  They were not straight at all! But do notice the sun.  Yes, it was sunny in Prince Rupert on Saturday.  See proof!

Today I went to the thrift store and totally scored.  I was able to get my hands on 16 vintage patterns some from the 1950s!  It was like shopping on Etsy except the patterns were only 25 cents apiece! I will need to research grading patterns, but I am so looking forward to the challenge. Yeah living in a small town.  Less competition for awesome finds.

Random Rupert! 

Whenever I look out at the water I am always amazed at how pretty it is here.  This picture was taken at Rotary park which is right down on the water on the other side of the train tracks.  You can actually walk right next to the tracks for about a half kilometer.  People are always down there walking their dogs, biking and other things.

This is a pretty typical view of the water here.

Then some days you get to see strange things like this:

It was so far away that I had to take a picture and zoom it to see what it actually was.  Yes, I do believe that is a hotel on the move.  I have no idea where it came from or where it was going, but it was sure funny to watch it bob out there in the straight.

Apparently a lot of houses were barged up to Prince Rupert from Vancouver back when Prince Rupert was just starting out.  One of these houses is actually for sale right now.  It is very run down though.  It used to be the house of the first barrister in Prince Rupert.  Now it is a rooming house. It is a huge house.  Must cost a mint to heat it.

Long Weekends = Sewing Fun!

So I have a confession.  I did not master the button hole last weekend.  I realized that I actually do not do the buttonholes until the finishing of the blouse.  Hello procrastination. I am your best friend.  What I did have to do was pin-tuck pleating.  This has brought out the worst in me.  Trying to get those darn seam lines straight it making me a little crazy.  I plan to try again today.  It is really sunny today so if I become insane I can go for a walk and kill the instinct to BURN IT ALL! :P

Also here is a picture of my next sewing pattern to be made.  The fabric is some cotton I was given by my Grandma before she passed away.  So real vintage fabric!

As a result I have very little to show this week.  Maybe by the end of the weekend something will have been accomplished.

On a different note. 

Hugh and I went to a really cool play last night called "Gods of Carnage".  It was one that my piano teacher was stage director for so we went to support her and had a pretty good time.  It also gave me a reason to bring out my new dress I bought from Etsy in February.

Unfortunately you cant see it because of my hair but it has the cutest peter pan collar.  When I bought the dress it was listed as a '50s style but I am thing more early '60s.  Anyway I love the yellow as it is a colour I cannot normally wear, but have always wanted too.

Now, please ignore my lack of head and check out those boots!  Those are my new Frye boots.  They are older than I am. Although not by much.  I stalked Ebay and Etsy for months to find these babies.  Finding boots that fit my calves is a trial so I was super excited to find these on Etsy.  They will be getting some TLC when I get to Comox in August by a friend of mine who is a leather worker so they will last forever!

Everyone in Prince Rupert seem to like the boots.  I have received many nice and some strange complements on them so far.  My favorite so far is this nice older woman who passed me on the sidewalk and said something like "Looking good, sexy." A strange experience.  Usually I am the person no one notices and people have a dickens of a time remembering my name. :)

Oh and finally, Check out the awesome socks.  I got these in Japan when I was last there.

Yar! There be pirates in these boots.

 PS: The cardigan is also thrifted.

 

Now for some Random Rupert!

One of the cute things about Prince Rupert is it's very casual affair with things like building codes and its affinity for random property placement.  It is not unlikely to see houses with no driveways, mountain climb like hikes up stairs to get to homes, the ability of thieves to run from rooftop to rooftop as they are so close together, wood beam foundations and random funky architecture.

This house is one of my favorites.

This is a labour of love.  There is an addition built onto the back but I love this house.  I wonder what it looks like inside...?

I imagine it is sitting on a wood beam foundation, but I can't remember.
 
And finally a little Japanese in honor of my meeting a new friend from Japan last night!

じゃね　みなさん！

Getting Crafty - How to sew when broke

As I have mentioned in the bio, I live in a town without a proper fabric or craft store.  Most of the crafty people (namely quilters) go to the nearest bigger city (2 hour drive away) to buy their fabrics.  Being without a car I cannot get out of town to shop.  So I must learn to make due with the odd trip home, internet shopping and my local thrift store.

When I first arrived in Prince Rupert I was unemployed, broke and bored.  While my husband went to work I frantically searched for work and haunted the local thrift store. On one such visit I came across piles and piles of white bedsheets all from the BC Ferry overnight boat.  My mind screamed "fabric!" I bought four.

But what to do with plain white bedsheets?  Dye them!

I picked the fuchsia dye as I had not tried the colour and ended up with mixed results.  As you can see my white bedsheet is now very, very bubblegum pink.  There is something kind of cute about it though so I let it stand. I decided that I wanted to try out a cute blouse pattern which has been sitting in my pattern box for quite a while.

I am thinking of over dying the shirt purple once it is finished and it will end up a dusky rose colour.  The view I am making is view A (the one on a real person) but without the extra ruffles down the bust.


As you can see in the picture above, I had to pin my pattern pieces around the edge of the fabric.  This is for one really important reason.  The poly-cotton blend fabric had worn out in the middle of the sheet from people sleeping on them.  This meant that the finer cotton threads had been worn out and only the polyester threads we still present in the middle of the fabric.

As dye does not adhere very well to man made fibers, the dye took quite nicely on the edge of the sheet where the cotton threads still remained but the closer you got to the middle of the fabric the lighter the colour became.  Not cool.  Creating pattern placement became a must.

Now everything is cut out and ready for sewing.  Yay...except next i am supposed to make the button holes first...oh nooooooooosssss!

Button holes terrify the crap out of me.  Purposely making holes in your fabric?  Awwww.  So as of January 26, 2010 this project became abandoned out of fear.

I am now two years older (probably not much wiser) but feeling much braver.  This weekend I will attempt to make buttonholes on my blouse or kill it trying.  Either way I will learn something I hope, even if it is to only use zippers or velcro in the future. :)

Buttons will be conquered!

And now for another Random Rupert

Cow Bay is the touristy shopping district of Prince Rupert.  It is where the cruise ships come in and has lots of cute little shops which sell the usual tourist brick a brack.  What I found the most fun about Cow Bay was its dedication to its name. Can you see why?

  

Funny eh?

We also got our first Cruise ship of the season last Friday.  I will post a picture when I have time to pull it from my camera.

The Cardigan (Why finish a UFO when you can start a new one!)

After a long hiatus, I have begun knitting again.  For quite a while nothing inspired me and everything seemed like too much work.  Don't even talk to me about my UFO's on that front. :)

But when I saw this cardigan, I thought it was so pretty.  If you want to make it, pattern is available HERE.

So I have begun and it is going pretty well.  The pattern is pretty simple as the cable only turns in one direction so it is a good knit for watching TV.

Look how much I have done!

See the pretty cable?

I will probably have to get some new DPNs for when I get to the sleeves.  The construction of this sweater is different from any raglan sleeve I have seen before.  This one you work your way up to the top of the armpit, cast on extra stitches for the arm holes and put these stitches on a holder, and finish the rest of the neckline.  Then you pick up the stitches on holders and knit down to the cuff on the sleeve.  Weird.

And now for a Random Rupert moment:

As some of you know, we were thinking of buying a house in Prince Rupert last year.  This is one of the many reasons we decided to hold off on our purchase.

Can you see the shared gutter?

Much of Prince Rupert was built during the wars and as a result of such a massive boom in population (workers and soldiers) the houses were built very very close together and rather haphazardly placed in some areas.  

Hugh and I want some room on our property and unfortunately Prince Rupert is lacking in this.  It is an island with a mountain in the middle and everyone has settled on the north west side as it is close to the ocean and the flattest of the island.

The houses are so close together that I think it is a fire hazard.  Also the lots here are super small and strangely shaped. The average lot is a 25' by 100'.  This obviously creates some very long and narrow homes.  It is kind of like looking at a trailer park. :P

Anyway, we decided to hold back on becoming a home owner for the moment although the fact you can get a decent looking house here for $150,000 is pretty awesome and terribly tempting.

Then again, if we move to PEI...