At Her Leisure

Over the Thanksgiving break, I made a hat. It's warm and cabled, and the best thing is that I'm now down to one ball of this yarn left.



It was a free pattern, and it knitted up fairly quickly. There is an error in the ribbing chart for the size M/L that omits a stitch.

Here's the Ravelry project page: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/MCBurbage/garmisch-hat.

I blocked the body of the Studio cardigan, and it opened out very nicely.

I finished knitting the first front chart and got to the point where I had to cast off everything that wasn’t the collar only to find that when I had divided at the armscyes, I had miscounted. I had stolen about an inch and a half on each side from the back and added it to the front. It’s disappointing to rip back fifty rows but unavoidable here. Oh, well, at least it was the slightly easier chart that I did twice.

At any rate, now I’ve finished both fronts and am ready to start the back.

I got my phone to upload the picture I took to Flickr. The lighting is bad, and the couch clashes with the yarn, but here you go.



It's a bit out of date since I've gotten rather farther now and am 60% of the way to the armscyes and have the pockets in.

I did a lot of needlework this year, but I didn’t make a lot of things. I liked the things I did make, but they were generally lengthier projects.

It was a much better year for events. There were several DFWCG events, and I went to Costume College. A friend and I even made our own mini-event where three of us dressed up, ate out, and went to a play.

( This year’s projects behind the cut )

One of my goals for this year was to work from my stash. I was not nearly as successful as I was last year. The 1908 eyelet dress was all stash, but then the 1805 embroidered dress was all new materials. The 1876 dress was all stash, but the three bathing suits were all new materials except for a couple of balls of yarn. “Winter Lace” was stash, but “Street Scene” was new materials except for a few skeins of embroidery floss. The 1916 dress was stash, but the 1940’s dress was new materials. The stays, the nightcap, the vest, the Eleonora stockings, scarf, kerchief, skating cap, and flute décor were all from stash. The 1910’s purse materials were a combination of stash fabric and new threads. I bought wool fabrics for three dresses, wool yarns for two sweaters, and cotton yarn for a quilt that I haven’t started yet. I bought fabric and embroidery wools for an 18th century wallet. I bought some miscellaneous embroidery threads that don’t necessarily have a project planned. On the balance, I think that means that I had no net change to the fabric stash but increased the yarn and embroidery supplies I have. I shall have to try harder not to buy things in 2024.

Last night I finished the first pattern repeat of the scarf I'm making instead of working on the cross-stitching because I only had a few minutes after meet the teacher night. One of the goals of this project was to use up my leftover Aran wool, but I don't think that's going to happen. I'm 20% done and haven't used anything like 20% of the wool I have. Still, using up two out of three balls means there are two large balls fewer taking up space in the bin.

This year was disrupted by an unexpected job change and relocation back to the area that I grew up in. Up until June I was working on needlework as usual, and I started a cross-stitched picture in July, but it didn’t move very quickly as we got the house ready to sell, moved to DFW, and started dealing with all the issues that you’re bound to find moving into a new house. I didn’t end up making my new favorite thing this year, but I enjoyed most of what I made.

It was still a sparse year for events. There was an outing in Phoenix, a whirlwind trip to San Jose, and Costume College. I had intended to go to two DFWCG events, but I had a houseguest for the Georgian picnic and the Christmas event was canceled due to rain. Here’s hoping next year I can start attending their events.

( This year’s projects behind the cut )

One of my goals for this year was to work from my stash. I was very successful. I bought the buckram and flannel for my 17th century petticoat, the marine vinyl for my husband’s welder cover, the “Cardinal Joy” cross-stitch kit, and the fabrics for my son’s Hallowe’en costume. My mother-in-law bought the fabrics for her blouse. Everything else came from the stash. Since I didn’t do a lot of sewing, my fabric stash didn’t decrease very much, but at least I didn’t add anything to it. I did decrease my yarn stash a little more significantly, though I’m trying not to even have a yarn stash. It’s mostly leftovers from projects where I had too much and some things that I bought in 2021 with specific projects in mind and just got a little too optimistic about what I could finish in a year.

It grew in blocking.



I didn't worry too much about gauge when I started this and used the suggested US7 needle since I had a long cable needle in that size. Usually I go down a size to make gauge so I expected it to be a little over the given dimensions of 30" x 60". It was probably 66" before blocking. After blocking it's nearly 7' long. It doesn't seem to want to stretch wider, just longer.

We'll find out whether it's unwieldy or snuggly.

I've been working on my cable-knit wrap since I finished the 17th century waistcoat. I'm on the last repeat of the pattern and have about sixty rows to go. Once I finish that, maybe I'll actually sew something. It's been awhile, and I think I want to use one of those 1940's patterns the guy next to me at work loaned me before he retires sometime this year.

I've passed the halfway point on my wrap. Next week is back to the 17th century waistcoat.