Rainbow confetti
Well, following the recent theme… i have yet another pair of matching sweaters to share. Shocking, I know. Right?! 😅
This time, I opted for a textured pattern that I love and have made for myself a couple times already called Laurie, from Josée Paquin. It is so simple yet so texturally interesting and elegant! And I thought it was the perfect match for the yarn I had in mind.
The yarn I’m using is a DK Pima Cotton yarn my mother-in-law got for me in Peru.
She got me 4 balls, 2 of the Rainbow confetti colourway and one each of the happy confetti colourway and a plain natural. All together, those make a wonderful gradient, so that’s what I decided to do.
V’s sweater is worked from rainbow to natural and E’s sweater is the opposite, going from natural to rainbow, making an adorable pair. Now since I was working on a limited amount of yarn, I did my best to maximize the use of each but also wanted to make sure the sweaters fit for as long as possible. As such, I maximized body length and opted for shorter 3/4 sleeves.
As the Laurie sweater pattern doesn’t provide child sizes so I had to adapt the pattern to child sizes. All the details are obviously on my Ravelry project page as usual, linked here and here.
V’s sweater is about a size 5T. Back and front were worked over 85 sts with 26sts for each shoulder and 33 sts for the neck. The 3/4 sleeves were worked over 50 sts with 3 decrease rows.
E’s sweater is about a size 2-3T. Back and front were worked over 65 sts with 17 sts for each shoulder and 31 sts for the neck. The 3/4 sleeves were worked over 44 sts with 3 decrease rows.
I love these adorable little sweaters so much, and they are so buttery soft!! I hope the kids will get a lot of wear out of those.
Now then, until next time 🙂
Peach Fuzz trio
Life is busy folks! But even though I haven’t been posting here, I promise I’ve been crafting on. And I was so proud of my last few makes that I wanted to pop in here to show you what it is 🙂
A few months ago, I ordered Melanie Berg’s most recent book “Sweaters”, and I love just about every design in there (as expected! She’s such a brilliant pattern designer).
I decided to break the ice with the simple but oh so colourful Peach Fuzz sweater, paired with some wonderfully soft Sami 100% organic Pima cotton yarn I brought back from our last trip to Peru. The purple yarn used for the yoke is also Pima cotton, it’s the Pima Cotton DK from Cloudborn Fibers. I’ve had this in stash for such a long time and absolutely LOVE IT (some of you might recognize it as I’ve used it for a snowflake sweater before) and although it’s not as light and airy as Sami, I thought it paired well for the more structured rib parts of the sweater.
And because I loved this piece so much, I couldn’t make just one… so I made three – one for me and one for each of my girls. Can I just squeeeee over how cute this little trio is?!
For my own, I followed direction for the smallest size and used 68 sts sleeves. I made no other modifications to this wonderful design.
For the girls, I obviously had to whip up something a bit different since the book doesn’t provide child sizes. All the details for each sweater are provided on my Ravelry project page (here for the 2T version and here for the 4-5T) but basically I changed the neckline to add buttons and changed the striping sequence on the sleeves to accommodate smaller little arms.
That’s all folks! I’ll have another matching kit to show you again in a few months I’m sure, so until then, take care 🙂
Matching outfits
Happy summer folks!
While it’s been a very busy summer over here, I would like to share a few quick makes I’ve done lately for my girls in matching fabrics because why not? They’re so adorable!
The first set is this orange combo made primarily using Katia Fabrics jersey sold by panels, with a featured picture and matching pattern. My oldest is sporting a very plain 3/4 sleeve raglan tee, and the youngest is wearing a romper from Katia Fabrics pattern magazine Spring-Summer 2022. It is model #8, made in size 12-18 months (80 cm).
I made V’s tee first, then used the scraps to make E’s romper. The tee is using the featured pattern on the front, the matching pattern on the back and sleeves and solid for the neckband. E’s romper uses mainly the matching pattern for the body, then the solid orange for the pocket and neckband and since I ran out of fabric I used a matching fuchsia jersey for the two back pieces. I absolutely LOVE these outfits, and my girls will for sure wear them plenty this summer (They already have!).
The second set I made is this shirt and onesie I made using a cute animal print paired with lacey very light blue fabric. It’s such a soft combination, I think it looks quite lovely. V’s tee is again a simple ranglan with contrasting sleeves and neckband, and E’s onesie is made using another Katia Fabrics pattern magazine, this time model #6 again from the Spring-Summer 2022 edition.
I quite liked the onesie pattern as it is cute and versatile. It’s easy to change things up by removing or changing the sleeve frill, combining different fabrics, etc. It is also the same pattern I’ve used for the third set of matching outfits I made, this time adding another one for me!
The set features a beautiful leaf print linen fabric that I bought a few months back in Peru, combined with a plain white cotton weave. The model I am wearing is a Jumpsuit again from Katia Fabrics Spring-Summer 2022 pattern magazine (model #32) in size Large. V is wearing a beautiful frill dress from Katia Fabrics Spring-Summer 2023 this time, model #14 in size 3-4. The onesie is the same pattern as the previous set but with only the straps, no sleeve.
While I absolutely love every piece of this set, I must say that there’s a couple things I’ll change next time I make any of those pieces. First on my jumpsuit, I struggled placing and sewing properly the chanel for the elastic waist and the belt loop. Next time, I will install the belt loop last, on top of the elastic waist chanel instead. I also will need to add 1 or 2 inches to the top as I have a pretty long torso and I found the waist to be sitting a bit too high on me. My daughter’s outfits are perfect, but next time I’ll add a few inches to the frill dress skirt as I find it a bit too short but any otherwise, I absolutely love the finished garments. They’re comfortable and fresh and breezy and perfectly summer-y.
How about you folks, what have you been up to so far this summer?
Toddler things
While our family is cozy and warm here in Lima, I thought I would take a few moments to share with you my most recent spring makes.
Shortly after my first daughter was born, a clerk at our local fabric store showed me a pattern magazine from Katia Fabrics. Now I gotta say I had never worked with their patterns before and had no idea they even existed but I decided to get the magazine anyway after skimming through it as I thought the designs were really cute. It was the spring/summer edition called « Essence ».
While I loved their designs, I never quite worked up the courage to sit down and figure out how the patterns/instructions worked as it seemed kind of daunting to me at the time. The magazine sat in my office for a good couple years, but I finally picked it up this spring and decided to give it a go.
To my great surprise, while they do work very differently than other more traditional patterns I’ve worked with before, I actually found their method very intuitive and picked it up right away.
The first design I tried was a jumpsuit, and I gotta say it is probably one of the cutest things I’ve ever made.
It’s the design #19 in the book. I made it exactly as is, I believe in size 98 cm (2-3 y/o?). The only mod I made was to use stretchy jersey fabric instead, in 3 different colours/patterns to make it more fun and lively. The design in cleaver, easy to put together and just so cute! the straps are a bit too long so i had to tie them up but this will fit for a LONG time!
I loved my experience with Katia Fabric’s pattern magazine so much that i ended up going to fabric store to buy another one, the fall/winter edition called “Textures”.
From this magazine, I made a sweatshirt (design #17) in a fun animal printed fleece.
Again, I cannot express how clever, cute and easy to put together this design was. I love everything about it. The pockets, the hood, it is just perfect in every way.
My family and I will be enjoying the warmth and the sun for a little bit longer but soon enough, I’ll be back to share more spring and summer makes with you all.
Cheers 🙂
Maternity Makes
These past few months have been busy with all kinds of things, but as things slowly start to slow down for me, I wanted to share a few new pieces I sewed recently. As you’d expect from a now 37 weeks pregnant mama, the pieces I will share today were made with pregnancy and postpartum in mind.
The first one is like to share is another (is it my third now?) Heyday dungarees, from Waves and Wild. I made this one out of a very stretchy purple and yellow floral print my mom-in-law graciously sent me from Peru. While I don’t know the exact composition of the fabric, it feels very soft to the touch, it is matte and very very stretchy. I made the dungarees in size medium, and omitted the pockets to give all the space to the beautiful large floral print. I used encased seams with a top stitch for the body pieces, and normal seams for the straps, loops and hems.
Because of the immense amount of stretch the fabric provides, I was actually able to size down to something that will fit me postpartum while still being able to accommodate my growing pregnant belly. And I am so happy with this piece, I cannot even begin to tell you! I will definitely get a lot of wear out of this, pregnant or not!
The second piece I wanted to show you today is this nursing friendly Lily Top from Sew Over It. With the two overlapping front pieces, it makes this top perfect for both pregnancy and postpartum, even when used with a non stretch fabric like I did here. The fabric I used is a vintage fabric from Germany I got from kleindermache through one of her fabric destash. I am not sure what the fabric composition is but it is very light and airy, which is why I thought it was perfectly suited for a sleeveless top. The pattern comes with both a cap sleeve and longer sleeve, but I opted for no sleeves at all and finished the edges with biais tape instead.
I love the colours and print of this fabric and I hope it will fit as well postpartum.
Small things
Holidays are right around the corner ans I’m so excited! My Christmas tree is already up. What about you? Somehow this year I skipped Halloween entirely and went straight to Christmas mood, and honestly I’m all in for it. The past few months have been a blur and I gotta say that very much I’m looking forward to a well deserved break.
I haven’t had much time for crafting but did make a few small things – baby things that is. And I wanted to show them to you today. The set I’m showing you was made out of beautifully coordinated jersey print from Katia Fabric I bought a couple years ago when I was on maternity leave. It took me so long to finally get around to using it (life is busy you know!) but I’m just so glad I did. This fabric designed for kids comes in panels with 2 or 3 coordinated patterns you can use to make shirts, sweaters, dungarees or whatever else your mind can think of.
I opted for a simple sweater – pants combo as I felt that was the best way for me to use up as much of the fabric as possible. The shirt is a basic raglan top (you can head here for the FREE printable pattern from Jamie – Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom) and the pants are the mini modern joggers from Brindille & Twig.
Both of them were made in size 2, and I mostly used encased seams for my sensitive daughter who doesn’t like tags, threads and seam allowances.
Aside from using encased seams instead of regular or overlock seams, I did almost everything as per pattern. The only small mods I made were to omit the neck binding on the raglan top and omit the knee patches and the drawstring at the waist on the pants.
My daughter absolutely loves this set, and I gotta say that I love it just as much. It is so adorable!
Mini sweaties
Why is it that sometimes it seems like everything in life is all happening at once, and you just can’t seem to catch up with it all? The past couple months have been a bit like that.
Work brought me to Labrador, Canada in late February, then serious family matters unexpectedly brought us to Peru in March and then it’s just been a blur of private and professional meetings, trips and hotels, important decisions and a whirlwind of emotions. While we are still somewhat in the thick of things, I am trying my best to get back into a slower and more predictable routine to gain a bit of a better ground.
It may not be much, but I think taking the time to sit down and share the last few projects I’ve completed (even though they’ve been finished for months now) is a step in the right direction.
Both sweaters I’m sharing today have been made for my daughter earlier this winter, based on knits I’ve made for myself in the past. They are both large enough that they should fit for a year or two, so hopefully I’ll get a lot of wear out of them both.
The first one is like to share is this adorable midi snowflake sweater based on my own made in 2018. While the yarn used is different, I used the same striping sequence in similar colours. The light coloured yarn is my ever so favourite Berroco Modern cotton DK in colour Piper and the purple yarn was a new discovery for my (though I think it’s now discontinued) Pima Cotton DK from Cloudborn fibers. I ended up knitting the cuff on the last sleeve using leftovers from a different yarn as I miscalculated and ran out of yarn before completing the second sleeve. I did not want to break out a new skein for just the cuff so I hunted down something similar in my remnants and rolled with it. Overall I think it’s barely noticeable and someone who didn’t know who probably never notice. As usual, the snowflake pattern was a pleasure to knit. It’s my thing snowflake now (first child version) and I just find is so elegant. I always mess up the setup somehow though, but I guess that’s a minor inconvenience.
The second sweater I’d like to share is this adorable coral mini Raindrop. I guess saying it’s “based on” my own version would be a bit of a stretch as the colour, yarn, sleeves, edge and cuffs are different but I guess one could argue it’s been inspired by. The yarn I used for this one is a lucky find – earlier this winter I went to my local dollar store and found this coral Truboo yarn from Lion Brand. Let’s just say that at that price it was just a real steal and couldn’t pass this golden opportunity. And let me tell you – this yarn is just so incredible soft! A real dream. Though it does tend to pill fairly easy, but I really can’t complain.
I was lucky enough to put my hands on a few skeins of the same yarn in a cotton candy pink colour as well, and I may be working on a pair of matching summer tees with it. If you’d like to see, make sure to keep an eye out for the next post 🙂
Until then, cheers folks 🙂
Making Peace
It seems like everybody and their mother all have knitted a Bluesand Cardigan before. And with over 2700 projects on Ravelry, it’s one of the most popular cardigan patterns on Ravelry. And anyone who has seen this design before knows why – it’s so cleverly designed with distinctive small touches and details that really make this piece stand out. And now I finally have one, too! Though the journey to get there was not so simple. But first, let’s admire this wonderful thing in all its glory.
Now let me tell you a tale of times long past. Years ago, I had decided to cast-on this cardigan for the first time, hoping to use this design to feature one of my first handspun yarn. I had paired it with one of my favorite yarns at the time, Cascade Heritage Sock in two shades of gray. Guys, it was a thing of beauty. To this day, I still bitterly remember this project (you can in fact still see it over here, as I kept the Ravelry project page with all my pictures). But one of the downsides of such an elegant design with careful attention to details is that its construction is very intricate and require significant focus every small step of the way. And unfortunately for me, I was not prepared for this the first time around. A series of mistakes back to back caused frustration, anger and disappointment, and I ended up frogging the entire thing. Not to worry, although it took a few years, I ended up using the yarn for another wonderful sweater from the same designer (remember my Stormy Seas?), but I was still left with a bitter taste.
Since then, time has smoothed things over and I now felt ready to tackle this pattern again, stronger from past experiences. Tedious work folks, but I made it. and in less than two months, to boot. I worked it exactly as per pattern, except for 3 small details – I did not use a provisional cast-on and picked up stitches for the neckband instead, I picked up the neckband stitches in the main colour instead of CC1 and lastly I changed the decrease rows on the sleeves for a tighter fit. As always, you can find all the details on my project page so please feel free to head over that way. Now, that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s talk about the yarn.
This time around, I decided to stick to the needle size and yarn weight recommendation, and I went for a combination of Berroco Modern Cotton DK in color Piper as the main colour and I opted for a skein of Cloudborn Fibers’ Pima Cotton DK for CC1. And because we can never completely forget our first love, I ended up choosing to feature another handspun this time as CC2. This colour combination gives me beachy vibes with the sandy main colour and the Caribbean blue sea hue of the handspun. The purple adds a touch of warmth to the mix giving it wild sunrise vibes.
While I absolutely adore the colours, I was a little bit anxious at how this was going to wash. You know me, I put almost everything in the washer and dryer because if I don’t, I am likely not going to wear it. And while the two commercial yarns I chose are all cotton, the handspun is a merino-tencel blend. I was expecting a bit of shrinkage in the wash, but I was hoping to avoid a felting mess. And fortunately for me, everything went as expected. The yarn was actually fairly fine, finer than the two cotton yarns I was using it with. And so the fabric was feeling a bit loose and airy. I sent the cardigan in the washer with everything else, and then sent it to the dryer on its own on on air fluff. And while it did shrink, the handpun knitted sections retained some stitch definition albeit a bit tighter and fuller and which showcases the blue tonal shades beautifully.
The finished cardigan is beautiful, soft, warm and so so comfortable, please don’t mind me if I just live in it for a little while.
Cheers 🙂
Holiday jam
It’s been a busy few months folks! This fall has just been a blur and it seems like the next few months are going to be the same, but at least the holiday period gives us an opportunity to slow down and spend a bit more time with friends and family.
This is a bit uncharacteristic of me but I actually haven’t knitted (or sewn) any of my Christmas presents this year, partially due to the lack of time and more than likely also lack of planning / foresight. I feel like just yesterday I was enjoying the warm summer weather, then in the blink of an eye the colder season and the holidays have arrived!
While I don’t have any knitted gifts to share, I still do have a completed project which is this green Laurie sweater from Josée Paquin. The colour and the stitch pattern reminded me of a bamboo forest – what do you guys think?
This is actually the second Laurie I’ve knitted, but the only survivor. I had made this once before in 2015 as a NAKNISWEMO (national knit a sweater in a month) project, but the sweater mistakenly ended up in the wash and shrank/felted to the point of being simply unwearable. This is such a shame, because that sweater/dress was just SO beautiful! This time, to save me from the heartbreak, I made it out of a sugar cane viscose yarn that I am sure will survive an unplanned visit to the washer and dryer.
This yarn, Araucania Caña Ruca, is truly the softest most supple yarn I’ve ever worked with, topping even topping Mary Maxim’s Eucalyptus yarn that I loved so much. It is just a dream to knit with, and to wear. The yarn also has this lovely sheen and bright beautiful colours. I actually bought this yarn in Hawaii about 4 or 5 years ago so it’s great to finally put it to good use.
I used all but 20 grams of the 3 skeins I had, and was able to knit the sweater as per pattern albeit a bit cropped. I actually don’t mind it too much because the yarn does tend to grow quite a bit when worn, and slightly cropped sweaters actually work pretty good for me as a toddler-nursing mama. Mods, yardage and other details can as always be found on my project page so feel free to have a look there if you’re interested.
I am so very happy at how this sweater turned out and I’ve already worn it twice in the past week so I’m sure I’ll get a lot of wear out of it in the future.
In this beautiful season, I would like to extend my best wishes to all of you, a Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year 🙂
Cushy cozy things
Summer has slipped me by so fast folks… between birthdays and travels, I feel as though summer just slipped right through my fingers and boom, it’s already fall! It’s such a bittersweet feeling. On one hand I am happy fall is here as it is my favourite season after all, on the other hand time flying so fast makes me want to grab on so tight to each small little fleeting moment!
We have been enjoying the cooler weather, the warm cozy drinks and the fall colours as well as soaking in the last little bits of sun before winter arrives. We went on a wonderful hike on thanksgiving weekend and although I am definitely not as in shape as I used to be (or maybe it’s just what carrying a 20 pounds baby makes it feel like) but it was such a wonderful time!
As you can surely imagine, I haven’t made much progress on crafty things, though I do have an ongoing knitting project that is not yet ready to be shared. But I have made a fun little project for my daughter these past couple weeks. It all started with a bit of a lucky find, in the form of a clearance sale on outdoor patio gear.
I found these big lounge chair pads for cheap and decided to give them another life as cushy walk pads to stick around my daughter’s floor bed. so I found some beautiful percale fabric at my local fabric store and matched it with a printed cotton a had in stash. And the result, my loves, is just the cutest thing!
Crafty Effie 