Customfit and Craftsy

Last night I was up to the very wee hours of the morning sewing my  Customfit sweater, Shore Ledges, together.  But first – it has been so many years since I made a sweater (and those earlier results – well we won’t discuss them) LOL   The only seamed things I’ve made of late have been mittens and hats and I use the old standby of seaming which was basically a running stitch  like you were sewing two pieces of fabric together.  But I knew I needed to find mattress stitching among other things to finish off this sweater.

So I was searching out videos on line about midnight on  seaming knits and remembered that there’s a Craftsy class for that.  Went to look and see what I could find and Seaming Handknits with Chris Blysma was on sale.  Excellent.  How great is it that at midnight you can just jump into a class on line.  I haven’t watched the entire class yet – I was just hopping around to the parts I needed to learn – shoulder seams — how cool, joining vee stitches from each side of the shoulder and then pulling both ends of your sewing yarn and it magically (at least I think it’s magic) compacts to the perfect seam and hides your sewing yarn.  I had never seen that before.  And how to pick up different stitches whether it’s a stepped shoulder seam or not, mattress stitching side seams…. in no time I had it figured out and went to work and I must say I’m very pleased with how my seams turned out on a first try!  The side seams are practically invisible.  I’ll go back later and watch all the other portions of the class I skipped over to get to what I needed for the sweater I was working on – but that’s what’s so nice about the Craftsy class – you can go to the portions you need, replay them until you’ve got it or play them as you are actually doing your own to follow along, and go back to them whenever you need.  And I’ve found some great free classes there too.

So here’s my sweater so far – all seamed – and now I need to go back and add the neck trim around the vee.  The bell shaped sleeves and bottom of the sweater have a seed stitch edging and the vee neck is edged in seed stitch as well except it ends with two long ties hanging down the front.  Then all that is left is to bury the ends.  It was very early a.m. when I finished seaming and finally went to bed but first thing this morning with my fingers crossed I tried on the sweater.  I’m totally sold on using Customfit to get sweaters that fit me.  I couldn’t ask for a better fit and can’t wait to get the neck edge done so I can wear it.

My first Customfit sweater attempt — still has to be ripped out but that was totally due to my errors in measuring.  This one is great and now I have to think about what sort of Customfit pattern I want to generate next.

On to the chores I need to get done first and some brunch — then I just remembered some stash yarn that just might be enough for a spring sweater so I will have to try swatching and see how it looks knit up since it’s a multicolor.    I’ve got the Tressage KAL I’m working on at home (need to pay attention to the pattern for the cables so not a good bus riding project until I get farther along) so a simple spring sweater sounds like a good thing to use Customfit for next.

Snowy Sunday

Snow, cold, snow, even colder, snow, cold …. it’s a vicious circle around here with the weather.  One degree outside – heck at least it’s above zero I guess, and more snow outside, but not as much as was expected so that’s good.  It is getting monotonous tho.

On a “sunnier” (bad pun) note, I got lots of various stuff done yesterday.  First, my Weaver Dog Pound block is done except for the pressing and squaring up.

I think I will wait until I’m all done with the dogs to decide if I want to put buttons or beads or whatever other goodies I might find on them to decorate their collars.

 

I also got part of one of the “Head to Toe” stocking cap blocks done.  Still need to cut out the reverse image of a couple hats.

 

I got my new sewing chair put together yesterday, which was extremely easy, and it said on Amazon it was a big chair for tall people and they did not lie.  I feel like Edith Ann in her big chair. 🙂  I can put it so high my feet barely touch the ground which for a tall person is rare and its big seat is very comfortable on mine.

Look at it compared to my old chair which did not raise up near high enough.  No more chair cutting me off in the back of the legs because the seat isn’t long enough from front to back.  Love it.