Me Made May Week Three

So, we're most of the way through May already.  This month is moving much, much faster than April.  Or so it feels that way to me.  I'm posting way late this time. I was originally aiming for the Friday of the week following~not the Friday two weeks later!  

Anyway, on with the show.  I met my goal of wearing Me Mades this week, but just.  I am finding that I have fewer wearable me mades than I really thought.  I must push myself to finish more items.   The first thing up for Week Three is Stash Buster (Rav Link to my project page) a Cassis from Thea Coleman/Baby Cocktails.  This was the perfect thing for a trip into the city on a cool, but dry day.

This cosy cardi featured in last year's Week One.  In fact I think it's the exact same outfit (gah! I'm so predictable).  The one change for this year is a new accessory, a face mask. 

It's actually a Me Made as well.  I debated including it, but well, this is our new reality isn't it? I've made about a dozen of these, I took ideas from a couple of online patterns to put together something that a) I had the materials here in the house for and b) weren't unnecessarily complicated.

The rest of that week was spent hanging about the house, which considering it was not the most pleasant weather, wasn't a bad thing.  I spent time working in the studio (making more masks for one thing) so something warm and easy to move about in was the order of the day.  Me Made May pushed me to look past my flannel pj and my t-shirt and yoga pant routine.  This outfit was just as comfortable and warm as those options, but looked much smarter!

Love Me Again ,which was one of 2020's first projects, started in January and finished in February. I knit it from Berroco's Ultra Alpaca (one of my favourite yarns) in Cyclamen.  I should say the colour is a lot less pink and more red-purple than these photos make it look.  I can not get a good colour picture of this yarn.  Actually, rarely get good colour rendition in my photos.  Pretty sure it's me not the camera in the tablet though.  As shown here, that day I wore it with a RTW t-shirt and leggings.  

This is a pattern I've made before, the Neck Down Hooded Tunic from Knitting Pure and Simple.  My first run at this pattern is below in Week Two.  I don't often make patterns more than once, but this is a really good basic, straight forward knit (and see, useable hood!).

I made this as part of the 2020 Project Challenge on the British Banter discussion board or Ravelry.  One of the challenges was to make a pattern you'd done before, but with some change(s).

So, longer and with a high/low hem.   Love the sweater, but after  few wearings, I'm less thrilled with the high/low hem than I was originally.  I regularly forget I'm really, really, really short.  This is just too long, it flaps around just above the back of my knees and it's weird.  I'm thinking I'll be ripping back the longer bit and re-kntting so both halves of the hem are the same length.  The whole thing will still be longer than my orginal version of pattern, I'm just going to get rid of that high/low thing.

I have been working on/towards my two other Me Made May goals, but that's probably a post for another day.  Until then, stay safe.

Me Made May Week Two

Still not managing to get to this by Friday, but that's okay I guess, need to remember to be gentle with myself.

So here we are looking back on Week Two.  I made my goal of wearing me mades twice.   I had to do another run into the city on a less than lovely day early in the week, but it no one but family was going to see me, so comfy and casual was the order of the day. So I reached for jeans and a hoodie that I've had for some time.  

This was the featured item on Week Three of 2019, but back then I had a lot I couldn't remember about it.  I knew the pattern, but not much else. Since then I've been doing some deep digging into old blogs and found a post on this from September 2008(!).  The pattern is  the Neck Down Hooded Tunic from Knitting Pure and Simple. The yarn is Marjaana from Schaefer Yarns (now, sadly, out of business) in the Mary Breckinridge colourway.

This has been a great wearable (it's even survived an accidental run through the washer and dryer-thanks for doing the laundry kids-not!).  However, in doing photos for this, I came to realize it's starting to show it's age.  It's not past wearing, but maybe it's time for it to be an "at home only" garment.

I spent the rest of this week at home and the temptation to just live in sweats and/or pj's right now is really strong.  Having my goals set for this month really helps with movtivating me to actually get dressed!   This next outfit is still, technically, just jeans and a t-shirt, but it's a step (or two) up from what I have been wearing.

RTW jean capris (the weather was better this day) and a Split Neck T Shirt for Women , another Knitting Pure and Simple pattern.  I have quite a few of their patterns, I find them easy to follow and they make good, simple basic garments that will fit me with few (if any) changes.  These patterns were my introduction to top down and seamless knitting.  What a revelation that was!

I've actually made this pattern before, so I knew to make just a few changes.  First was to add an inch or so to the length (I just tried it on and kept knitting 'till it looked right) and I added an extra ridge to the garter stitch neckband (personal preference).

In an interesting aside,  this is one of the projects I swatched for during Me Made May '19.  Oh and the yarn used here is Denim Cotton Recycled from Lang Yarns in Petrol.

So that's the Week Two review, I've been focusing some on my other goals the last week or so and hope to have something coherent to share on that soon.

Me Made May Week One

Doing this one a little late, had hoped to have the weekly summaries up by the Friday following each week, but that didn't happen.  Oh well, such is life.  I met my goal of wearing Me Mades twice a week though, starting right on May 1st.  We were still in self-isolation, but I had to do a thing for work (handover on the doorstep) and thought P.J.'s were not the right look.

First up, is my version of  the Loop Pullover from Knitscene Spring 2013, worn with RTW plain black capris.  I actually swatched for this project during Me Made May 2019.  I knit it Bergereine from Bergere de France.  It's an interesting yarn, surprisingly heavy and it does tend to wrinkle, guess it's the cotton content?  I did leave off the i-cord decorative trim at the neckline.  I found, on my garment at least, the neckline sat very low and the trim would have ended up in an unfortunate place.  Not sure if that's a function of my technique or something that happened as the pattern was sized up.  Not a big deal, I'm still pleased with the final product.

This outfit is what I wore for my first trip back out into the community (which was weird after two solid weeks at home).  It's the Schoolhouse Tunic from Sew Liberated worn with a RTW tank top and denim(ish) leggings. The fabric is some bargin bin 100% unknown fibres (I'm thinking a cotton/poly blend) from our fabric discount chain.  This was my first finished make in 2020, actually finished on January 1st.

I've made this pattern before and worn that version to shreds.  The first one I made I went by bust measurement and made the 18/20 thinking a little loose would be okay.   It wasn't, I ended up taking in the side seams a fair bit.  When I got to doing this version, several years latter, I couldn't remember how much I'd had to alter, so just did my typical "jump in with both feet while flying by the seat of my pants" (awkward and potentially dangerous position I tell you) and made a straight 14/16.  Over all fit is much better, but I do think I need to see about a FBA to get this one to fit just right. Again, happy with the overall result and willing to wear it even if I was originally considering it a potentially (un)wearable muslin.

So that's week one.  Hopefully week two will see a better posting timeline and perhaps some movement towards the other Me Made goals.