Tag Archives: Berroco Modern Cotton

May27

Making more stuff!

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The Any Yarn Will Do Sweater is off the hook! I went with short sleeves as it’s a cotton sweater with a summery vibe. It’s had a nice bath and is currently drying on the table on my deck, where it’s benefiting from the warmth but in the shade.

As am I! I am feeling very relaxed and blessed, with a weekend off and nowhere else I have to be and nothing else I need to be doing. Even though the thermometer says 30 degrees Celsius, it’s very comfortable on the covered deck, with a bit of a breeze.

I had two days off mid-week and the first was all errands and housework, but the second was wall-to-wall sewing, not counting cooking and eating.

These headbands were made from a YT tutorial by Anjurisa. I made the baby size first and then I decided I needed an adult sized one using the gorgeous crab print.

I have short hair and I don’t think this style of headband suits me so it may end up going to the mum of the baby who’s getting the small one!

The baby gift includes this, which I forgot to get a photo of when I finished it.

I’m getting a lot of mileage out of this panel. I bordered two of the squares with extra solid fabric, and put them back to back with batting and a piece of crackly plastic from a muesli box inside. It makes an interesting noise to entertain the baby when it’s chewing on the ribbons.

I then pulled out a couple of remnants and used the same pattern as the tank top I made last week to make another in this yellow daisy stripe.

And then I added some sleeves to this version but the brushed knit was thicker and made the hems too sturdy so I ended up tweaking the side hems and sleeves to look better (after taking this photo).

My next adventures will be tops made with woven fabric, rather than stretch, with another pattern I bought for only $3 because it was discontinued.

May18

One ball of yarn forward…

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…one ball back!

Here’s the Any Yarn Will Do Sweater after I split the yoke for the body and sleeves. A couple of people commented on my last pic of the circular yoke laid flat, wondering how it would end up as a sweater. Well, when it’s folded and you start working on only some of the stitches, it becomes a three dimensional shape.

Unfortunately, after taking that photo, I tried it on (a bonus of top down construction) and realised it was going to be far too big. I frogged all of the blue so that the last increase round was removed, added a few plain rounds, and tonight split the yoke again. It may still be loose on me but hopefully not ginormous. Because my stitch count doesn’t quite match the medium size count, I fudged the numbers by giving the front 6 more stitches than the back. Makes sense when you have boobs, anyway!!

Onward and…er…downward!

It’s been really smoky in the valley for two days now, with forest fire smoke wafting in from other parts of BC and Alberta.

The surrounding mountains weren’t visible and the sun was orange (my phone doesn’t quite manage to catch the orangeness).

Today I felt quite chesty due to the poor air quality. After my grocery errand, I spent the afternoon downstairs, faffing about with bits of vinyl and fabric.

The blue vinyl was a remnant that had a stitched join across it in a wavy line so I cut what I could to make a zipper pouch. And then I messed about with an even smaller bit and made a tiny pouch with an attached clasp.

And here comes the thunder. It just crashed outside and I’m going to go look for lightning.

Pause for relocation to deck to enjoy the storm.

Thunderstorms are a mixed blessing. We usually get hundreds of lightning strikes which can set off new fires in vulnerable areas. And if it gets windy it can fan the flames. But we need the rain to damp things down. Nothing like the smell of petrichor.

This was my other FO today. A pattern I already had. A remnant in the stash. And boom! A new tank top. Super easy and cute.

Take care, people!

May10

My favourite kind of day

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Today was another sewing day with friends. This usually involves me making soup for lunch, and a dessert, especially if it’s someone’s birthday, and carrying all my sewing stuff upstairs to the dining room.

Iron and ironing board, heavy table, cutting mat, quilt rulers, sewing machine, extension cords, etc etc. The beauty of hosting is that if I forget something I can just go and grab it.

It’s takes a little effort to set it all up but I am more than rewarded with a lot of fun and great memories.

We made a mug rug this time. We followed a YouTube tutorial by The Sewing Room … https://youtu.be/s3hTlJfHzNE

It was perfect for helping my friends learn some of the techniques of quilting in a small achievable project. Piecing, sandwiching, quilting and binding are all included. Mine is pictured at the top of this post. Whilst I have more quilting experience than the others, their mug rugs came out beautifully, and in fact their finishing on the back was better than mine!

My harem pants are finished! After I’d had some dinner (leftovers from lunch) I finished off the waistband (which has 10 rows of thin elastic sewn in with zigzag stitches) and attached it to the body.

The good news is that they fit! Now they have to go to work to be hung up for a month on display. (Excuse the odd look of my son’s hands holding them up for the photo!!!)

My crochetalong sweater has grown a decent amount this week. I’ve finished the yellow stripe and just started the first of the three blues. I have a few rounds left of the yoke, and then I can check that it’s deep enough before splitting for body and sleeves.

The pattern is the Any Yarn Will Do Sweater by DoraDoes and I’m crocheting it with Berroco Modern Cotton (the worsted weight one) and a 5mm hook.

We are three weeks into the CAL, five weeks to go.

It was a lovely day today and the temperature was perfect. This weekend, however, it’s forecast to shoot into the 30s (90s to US peeps) and I’m not exactly excited about that!

May5

WIPdate

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It’s Friday night and I’ve just quit the sewing for today.

This is my work-in-progress. I’m making the longer version. It’s similar to a style I sewed myself when I was in my 20s. I loved those pants. So comfortable!

They aren’t difficult, but I did sew the side panel on the wrong side and had to cut off two seams that I had sewn and zigzagged.

This is the fabric, a lovely rayon linen blend, but it has a strong vertical design which of course is going to be non-vertical in this garment.

The waistband will be a new experience – shirring! I’m leaving that til tomorrow.

These colours are the Berroco Modern Cotton that I’m using for the DoraDoes Any Yarn Will Do Crochetalong. She has two patterns with that name, a circular yoke sweater and a raglan cardigan. I’m doing the circular yoke.

Today I started on the mustard. Currently I’m on round 20 of a 30-round yoke.

And I have a finished object too.

This water bottle holder is inspired by a more complicated one I saw on YouTube. I made it up from scratch, but learned an important lesson. I cut the squares out for my boxed bottoms ahead of time and they turned out to be too big. Instead of a square base I have a skinny rectangle.

I may make another and improve my design but for now I have other things I want to do.

I’m working the next few days but hopefully I’ll have the energy to sew my waistband tomorrow night. At least it’s a 9 to 5 shift which means I finish a little earlier than usual.

Mar19

Fluffies and goodies

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I showed you the beginning of the grey cowl last time. It only took three days to knit two cowls. Ten mil needles and furry yarn make a project fly off the needles.

This is Spindle Buttersoft which is a discontinued yarn from the store where I work. Shame because it was very popular. It only took 42 stitches and about 40 rounds to use up the skein.

The Vegan Knitters and Crocheters group on Ravelry is planning an April KAL. It’s going to be a shawl knit/crochetalong, so knowing I wanted to use my stash of Berroco Modern Cotton in the colourway Matunuk I did a search on Ravelry for something in DK that wasn’t too challenging but also not completely mindless.

This shawl design by Annie Baker looks perfect. It’s a paid pattern on Ravelry. I don’t buy many patterns but this one drew me in. Freesia I caked up the three hanks of yarn last night. Doesn’t the yarn coordinate perfectly with my Caspian knitting needles!

I had some happy mail yesterday too.

A while ago, maybe a couple of months, I heard my name mentioned on the Little Drops of Wonderful podcast. Ali said I had won something in one of her makealongs and I was very excited! The package arrived (and was a total surprise because I had forgotten about it by the time it got here)!

I won a project bag and book and Ali had put in a couple of ‘You are a Little Drop of Wonderful’ pins and stickers. Fun!

I’m itching to do some fun sewing this weekend. Not sure what yet. Depends how much time I have.