Introducing: Baby Nerd

I'm not much of a gamer, but I used to play DnD back in the days. So I just had to make a homage to roleplaying and gaming on this cute little long-sleeved t-shirt I made for my youngest. 

The pattern is from my own head, an easy raglan knit top-down. 

I say easy, but I mean horribly, tear-wrenchingly filled with bad decisions, hair-tearing and lots and lots of swearing. First I knit a round yoke, but made a mess of the calculations, so it became way too wide across the chest. Fit for a 2-year old, rather than a newborn, not exactly what I had in mind, haha.

I unraveled, but didn't wash the yarn before starting again. You guessed it - the top half of the sweater looked terrible. I hoped it would look better after I washed it. In retrospect, that wasn't my brightest moment. I came to my senses a little late, washing it after having knit the main part of the body. It looked horrible. Wish I had a photo, but self irony was not a feeling I had at that moment. Unraveling one more time? No way.

How to salvage such a misery? For my part, it involves lots of swearing, and possibly alcohol. Being pregnant at the time, I substituted the latter with very loud music. (The teenager complained. He does that.) So now what? Wool shrinks, I thought. I tossed it back into the sink and gave it my worst. Hot water and agitation (I should say abuse, because that's what it felt like) made it felt. It worked almost too well - I had to tear the front and back apart when I finished. It doesn't look good, but it looks way better than before, so I guess I'm good. 

The arrows show the stitches that I cross. The white is the waste yarn that is ready to be removed now that I have picked up the under-arm stitches for the sleeves, 5 on each side of the magic loop.

To avoid seaming, I cast on and knit 3 rounds with waste yarn for the under-arm stitches, and I crossed the first and last stitch before and after the new stitches to avoid getting a hole. (I found this trick over at the Techknitting blog, but I can't find the right post.) Picked up stitches from the waste yarn for the sleeves, and crossed those as well. Perfect seamless armhole, works like a charm every time. 

Yarn from stash: Duo Silke/Merino, bought in Hirtshals in 2012. Maybe around 70 gram, but haven't weighed it yet.

Project page on Ravelry

Short inspiration

Spring here in the south always happens way too fast for me. While winter is still firmly lodged in my brain, everything turns green and suddenly there's dandelions everywhere. But with 18 C outside, it's hard to stay in denial. (The Easter holiday helped as well - six days all sunny, and pretty warm too.)

Sewing may not be the most economical activity I ever do (at least measured in time units), but at least nobody suffer while making clothes for me or my daughter. Except for me of course. Possibly those surrounding me as well. There is usually some, or possibly a lot of, swearing. (I'm a Northerner. I'm allowed. Culture and stuff.) 

Skirt for the very pregnant me. Still on the thinking/swearing stage.

I've been working on a skirt for my self, but sewing pregnancy clothes without a pattern really takes some thinking, measuring, rethinking, and quite a lot of swearing. (Sorry.) With the warm weather going on, I decided to make a pair of shorts for my daughter instead. She got to choose fabric, a surefire way to get her to wear whatever I make at least once. She chose a plain turquoise jersey. Huh. 

That ruler is a superb tool for winging things! And for guiding my rotary cutter.

I had no pattern, so decided to wing it. I measured her waist and desired length of the shorts, but forgot to measure the inseam. I used a pair of pants in the same kind of material as a rough template, and just had to make an educated guess about the length from the waist to the crotch. I used a fancy eraser pen from Clover to mark the fabric, with appr. 5 mm seam allowance. I sewed with an overlock stitch on my quite ordinary Janome machine. I just dotted along the crotch (or does it have a nicer name in sewing terminology?) and used the ruler to cut the diagonal on the top, and the straight line on the bottom. Then I turned the pants and drew up the other side. And cut. That's when I discovered that rotary cutters and jerseys are mortal enemies. 

Turquoise. With freshly made stains. 

The whole process took five hours, a wee bit of cursing, a lot of mistakes, and ended with a usable pair of shorts. My daughter put them on and they got dirty right away. Success! So I made a second pair when Terje (that's my husband) put her to bed. This time it took two hours, and then I cut the pattern pieces for two pairs of shorts instead of just one. When I got to choose fabric, I chose...monkeys! (Or apes. Are they apes?)

Monkeys. Or apes. 

Two shorts done. In 7 hours, that's about 1000 NOK (appr. 167$ or 100£). Quite expensive shorts. (I'm a teacher, that's not even a high salary.)

A list of sewing mistakes and discoveries (incomplete):

1. Forgot to measure the inseam.
2. Rotary cutters and jerseys don't go well together. 
3. Rotary cutters and rib fabric don't go well together. (I'm a slow learner. Or stubborn. Or both.)

Just a little reminder of stuff to avoid. (The cutting mat was a strike of genius forethought, as I bought it before I had even heard of a rotary cutter. You should not avoid either - they are both superb tools.)

4. It is very difficult to sew buttonholes in jerseys. You need backing. (At least I managed to test this on scrap fabric.)
5. It's hard to sew a nice fold with jersey. It flares. At least when the seam is close to the fold. It flares when you fold it double as well.
6. The rib fabric should be about the same size as the elastic, if it is a wide rib and a wide elastic. If the rib is wider, it just buckles, and that's not pretty. 
7. The diameter of the waist rib must not be a lot less than the diameter of main fabric it connects to. It will cause the main fabric to bulge and flare below the rib. 20% difference is apparently too much. Will try with 15% next time.
8. When cutting patterned fabric, it's a good idea to make sure the pattern match on front and back. Half a monkey off looks weird. Hence cutting the double amount of pattern pieces. It deserves a picture so I'll add one below.
9. At least I learn a lot from the mistakes I make. I bet the swearing would be much worse were it not for this precious fact.

Not good. At least I didn't sew the pieces together before I noticed.

Have a lovely spring, with (hopefully) few crafting mistakes, great weather and excellent company!