Review of Burda 6893

I couldn't find this pattern on Pattern Review and wanted to leave a note somewhere. It's a double-breasted smoking jacket, a reissue of a vintage pattern, and the plan is to make a patchwork banyan inspired by Bilbo Baggins's dressing gown as seen in the film of the Hobbit. (According to the book Bilbo had a walk-in wardrobe. He loved clothes!)

Anyway, this pattern is not it. I made a test out of a length of £1 a metre fabric. The lapels are narrow.  It doesn't fit Andy across the back. The cut is very narrow and it has set-in sleeves, which mean that only a man with narrow shoulders can wear this dressing gown. It was tight across the back and he couldn't lift his arms in the largest size, which should have been too big for him. He just didn't like it. I did like the separate cuffs and pocket tops, which I'm trying to transfer to the next pattern I'm trying. It has a nice long belt, which Andy liked more than the short one on the McCalls pattern,

The Mcalls pattern had a couple of good tips:

•  Reinforce the shawl collar before assembling, which makes it a lot easier to sew.
• Add belt loops.
• Use bias binding to neaten the seams.

No Time to Knit

I am enjoying my PCGE course, but there is no time left over for knitting - not one stitch have I made since the last entry.

Dear Blogger, please don't delete my blog - I plan to return to it after my course xxx Louise

A Tangle of Ribwarmers

I'm so busy with college work at the moment, but I do a few rows each night.
The first ribwarmer was too big - so I overcompensated, and the second one was too small. The third one is going to be perfect, right? Yeah, right!

How Could Any Knitter Resist this Book?

Friend: 'Hi Andy, how's Louise?
Andy: 'Oh, Louise is fine. She's busy knitting herself a Henry the Eighth.'

Or a Madame Pompadour, or Nefertiti, or a little Puritan Couple, or - honestly, there's about 50 of them, including the one that made me laugh out loud: knit yourself a Biblical Rabbi!

Wonderful!

I may not actually attempt them at this stage in my knitting career - they look intricate, but I simply couldn't walk past this book.

Another Restart

Once I'd got the two halves of Andy's ribwarmer united, I tried it on him. HUGE! Massive, and even worse, stretching.

Sigh. Off to the frog pond.

Restarted. This time, I am not going to do the increases at the side of the garment. I am using a size smaller needles, so will probably knit the same number of rows, but it will be smaller and tighter.

Water Wheel Chunky Ribwarmer

As the size of the ribwarmer grows (slowly - very little TV time this week) the little imperfections mount up. I forget to knit on the tips or I forget which way to slip a stitch or drop the whole thing on the floor and other knitting crimes.

I think this stage of learning is called "conscious incompetence". I know I'm goofing off, but I can't stop goofing off. The thing to do is stay with it until perfection results.

Or good enough! The designer garments at the V & A were a revelation to me - they do not strive for machine like perfection, some of the sewing is irregular, the beading and hems especially, but the overall effect is good - and the slight imperfections announce the presence of hand work.

That's all very well, but I think until I can knit a garment I can actually wear, I'd better keep aiming for perfection.

Consistency...

Is really hard work! Despite my best intentions little glitches and gaffes are creeping into Andy's ribwarmer. I forgot to slip the edge stitch here and there, which should hide in the I-Cord trimming. Also, with the short-rows, I hadn't realised that when you knit back, you have to slip the stitch that was turned last time in the same direction when you slip it, then, after you have wrapped it, when you slip it back on the needle. Once I noticed this I decided to slip it knitwise each time.

I must be improving, right?

Not had much knitting time this week - I am knitting down the second side of the ribwarmer, still.

I did write down where I turned at the front, so they should match. I also used markers for the increases - which I might not make next time. I know what Meg Swanson means about not having wings at the shoulders, but I don't like the look of the fabric growing out on the way down, either. Also, it's something else to worry about! I marked the wrong side of the fabric and checked the appearance of the increases each time, but still managed to get one of them messy - I don't know how. It's on the wrong side of the fabric though, so I've left it.