off the needles: trellis scarf

Trellis Scarf by the Purl Bee

Started: July 22, 2015

Finished: August 23, 2015

Fiber: Purl Soho Flax Down, 2 skeins in "Desert Blue"

Notes: This scarf was originally never supposed to be. The Mr. bought me these two beautiful skeins of Flax Down when he went on a trip to NYC in March, and I knew that they were destined for a shawl of my own design. I restarted the design twice, but two months later it was still sitting barely touched. (Maybe that design will come to fruition someday.) When we were getting ready to move, I found it again and just decided spontaneously to rip out the whole thing. It was too lovely to sit there unfinished, and I have heard knitters describe this phenomenon as being able to feel what pattern the yarn was supposed to be destined for. And now, I have a scarf that is lovely, and that I can't wait to wear. Flax Down is single ply and has a great halo, on top of being so soft. It almost has a natural, kind of handspun quality to it that is a little hard to describe.  I would love to someday knit a whole sweater with this yarn. The pattern is wonderful as well, one that was on my list for a while, and uses the same technique that I had just knit in the L'Arbre hat! After a few repeats it was easy to memorize, which is my favorite type of knitting these days. Interesting and beautiful, but simple.

The only modification that I made (outside of the yarn substitution) was to do one less repeat in the total width. I almost wish I hadn't - it is plenty long but I can wrap it around my neck a few times for extra warmth, so I'm not too worried.

Now Fall - please show up!!

sewing stitches: purl bee linen tunic with gathered shoulders

I did a thing. I made a top! 

Started and finished: August 6, 2015

Fabric: Pinstripe Linen Slub purchased at JoAnn's, 1 yard

Pattern: Purl Bee Linen Tunic with Gathered Shoulders

I saw this pattern on the Purl Bee when it was released a couple of weeks ago, and while it's not the typical top that I go for when thinking about what I like to wear, I was completely infatuated with how easy it seemed to construct. Four rectangles, and you gather the shoulders. Done! Not having a ton of experience with sewn garments (outside of some doll clothes I made when I was little), this seemed like a good starting point. 

Being a completely novice sewer(?), the directions were really easy to follow, except for the description of how to sew the channels at the sleeves to lace the cording through. (This could also have been because I was doing this at midnight and slightly delirious.) But I got there! And after being SUPER skeptical when I first tried it on, I now really like this top. And maybe most importantly, I proved to myself that I can, in fact, sew in a straight line.

I'm now more motivated than ever to bust out my vintage sewing machine for simple projects like this. Like knitting, it is such a thrill to be able to take a huge piece of nothing and make it into something beautiful and useful, and at this stage in my life it's cool that I can make clothes that are going to fit me EXACTLY the way I want them to. It's really empowering. Huzzah!

I hope everyone has made it to the new website and is digging the new look! After blogging with my old platform for almost a year I knew it was time to make a change, there were a lot of things I wanted to update about the website and honestly the easiest scenario was just to change platforms completely. I'm still tweaking a bit but am excited for the future of the blog and hope you are too!