A Problem of Fit

In the evenings, I’ve been sitting in the fading light, watching Bones on my computer and working on my sweater. Which will be done long before October, and therefore long before I can wear it. But I ran into a problem that might make it take longer than expected.

The Fit Part

I like this project, but remember how I said I was going to try to make this sweater more fitted?  Yeah, well, that part is testing my patience with making clothing.

Fit is the reason I don’t make clothing. It’s hard. It’s not easy to wrestle with your particular body type and its oddities. And the truth is that ready-made clothing is wonderful, but it leads to most people making do with a fit that is less than desirable. In my case, I discovered just how it is that I’m making up for the fact that most clothing is meant for women who are rather less generously endowed than I in the bust region.

So what really I meant by “making the sweater more fitted” was in reality my code for trying to give myself an adequate amount of bust room. The blue sweater that I made last year was great, mostly, but there wasn’t enough bust room, and it made for a weird fit. I wanted to fix that this time around.

I figured that I simply needed to add some stitches toward the top of the front.  I even added them in a clever manner that spaced them out.  I figured it was better to give myself extra room where, anatomically, I seem to need it most.  The red triangles are my increases from just under the bust to the top.

So far so good.  I held it up to myself and behold!  The edges came just to where they should!  It worked!

Then I pinned the front to the back and discovered a problem I had not expected. When I add room specially for the bust, it means the rest of the garment doesn’t have to try to make up for a lack of room.  It turns out I am not actually an extra large. I’m more like a medium.  I am just used to whatever extra fabric I have on the back of the shirts I buy making up for the fabric the manufacturer didn’t put on the front of the shirt. So when I made the back piece my “usual” (and wrong!) size it was just plain too wide.  I’ve got nearly three inches of room I don’t need.

But … how in the world do I do that without re-crocheting the whole thing?  Can I?  ::sigh::

I have decided, for the moment, to persevere with what I have.  I spent too much time crocheting the back to just frog it right now.  If it’s too awful, I will re-crochet the back, although the prospect does not delight me.  One thing I know, though, is that I will crochet my clothing projects differently in the future.

Is she looking at me accusingly?

I suspect it’s becaue she knows I started a new project when I’ve already got half a dozen in the works. I think my next post might have to be a “confession” post about everything I’ve got going, and the stage it’s in.  Might be good just to get myself a little accounting. I think I forget about things after a while. (Actually, Callie’s hoping I will feed her here, and confused about the yarn I’ve put in front of her face that she knows she’s not supposed to touch.)

So this sweater is loosely - and I do mean loosely - based on a sweater in the May/June 2009 issue of Crochet Today called the Summer Breeze Cardi by Elena Malo. It’s a fairly simple 3/4 sleeve cardigan, but the part I’m truly using is the yoke. I can’t find a decent link/picture, so here’s a picture of the cardigan from the magazine.

The changes I’m making to the pattern (dangerous!) are:

1. I am not making a cardigan, I’m doing a single front piece with a back piece, and I plan to do some shaping to it so it won’t be just a straight sweater.
2. I’m cutting out the bubble stitch detail. It’s just not me.
3. No button (obviously).
4. I made up my own stitch pattern for the body and sleeves. The way the picture is shot doesn’t show you there’s extra detail at the waist and on down to the hem, and I guess that just turned me off of using this mostly plain pattern.
5. I will be attaching a simple charmeuse shell to the inside. It’s not a closed pattern at all.

My stitch pattern is simple:  Row 1 treble crochet, Rows 2 and 3 single crochet. Repeat.  This is what it looks like. The yarn I’m using is pedestrian. It was handy: left over from my flower blanket, the humble and yet pretty Caron Simply Soft in Autumn Red. I really love the color of this yarn, actually, and I have three extra skeins (I got carried away). So yarn snobs will just have to sniff at my acrylic, and I will itch tremendously at their wool. It’s a fair trade.

The things I’m keeping about the pattern are:

1. The open-stitch yoke. I like how far down on the shoulders it comes. I may even only do two rows. I do hate things that come up too far on my neck.
2. The split in the yoke. Although I’m not making a cardigan, I’m going to split the yoke in front. I like the detail.
3. The 3/4 length sleeves are staying. I will need to remember to make mine fitted like that.
4. The construction of the arm and body pieces. I think the pattern is fitted together pleasingly.

I am not very far along on this, so we will see.  If all goes well, I predict I will have a sweater to wear in October (what, you don’t think I’ll keep at this continuously, do you?). The timing is really fine, because no one in their right mind wears a sweater during the summer months here when it’s 95 - 110 F all the time. It would just be awful to sweat that much.

Lastly, I leave you with me and my coworkers from last Thursday. It is an odd pic for me to post, as it is of people which I have never done before, but I’m feeling a bit nostalgic (already) because the one on the far left is leaving us. I’ve spent a lot of time with these three folks over the past three years. These have been my friends and cohorts in fundraising and putting on that enormous 550-person lunch I talked about: Abby, Margaret-the-wonder-boss and Will. Yeah, and that’s me in black, with a small flower in my hair. Abby’s going to be so surprised to see this here! She sometimes ready this here blog. Hi Abby!

I’m going to go figure out what all of the projects I’m working on now really are.

Textile Art: Jewelry Finds 2 (Thread)

As promised/threatened, I have more fabric-style jewelry from Etsy. Again, these people specialize in this type of jewelry, to often amazing effect. Clever, ironic and often complex, I would actually take one of all of these. Were I not a poor nonprofit worker, that is. I have big dreams of expensive fabric jewelry. You know, it really is amazing. I take all the metal and gemstones out and can still totally blow my jewelry budget.

My own thread-based jewelry has taken a breather because the thread kept taking the skin off my fingers, so I decided we needed a small break from each other. Never fear. I will finish.

Anyway, thread manipulated well is a beautiful thing. I often wonder how long these things take to make, and what kind of work was put into them.  Clearly none of these folks is a beginner at their task.  Enjoy!

The pieces: L to R and Top to Bottom

Textile Choker by kjoo.  One of my favorite pieces of jewelry that I’ve ever seen, made of crochet and felt. This must have been a ton of work. I like pretty much all of what kjoo makes. (Also in my favorite Etsy stuff there on the sidebar–>)

Soft Cotton wrapped bracelets by easternsky. These are much more practical for me than the choker, as they are cotton, and I am allergic to wool. Also: very pretty.  I love the look of wrapping, and it looks soft, and I like the way the color variations come through. (Also in my favorite Etsy stuff there –>)

The “White Gold Crochet Chain” from STITCHEDinMPLS is very tongue-in-cheek, and I love tongue-in-cheek. I also  love oversized crochet. It’s just a nice medium for a big chain, in my opinion.  For me, for some reason, this would be wall art. Don’t ask, I like things like this, it seems like wall sculpture to me.

The thread woven earrings made by FunkyLobez (pictured here in the Cozumel colorway) remind me a lot of parabolic line designs like those here and here that I learned in high school. I was quite obsessed with parabolic lines at one point (still am, I like intricate math). These earrings are much like that, but in color they are amazing, and some of the colorways look like peacock feathers.

Consider this Vive La Reine tatted necklace.  Now consider how awesome tatting almost always turns out. Like filigree, but with thread. I have not yet begun to learn tatting, but I have Ideas about it.

Sculpture plays a big part in Elin Thomas’ designs, which is easy to see from this crochet bracelet. Think that’s cool? Check out her crocheted sea anemone necklace for a bit of amazing … You still here? Go take a look.

Nice, eh?