Fall knitting is here! I’ve been working on this cardigan, off and on, amid a myriad of projects since July. As the days have passed, and a slightly cooler air awakens, I am thrilled to say this piece is ready to wear! I used to struggle to finish sweater projects and I would wander along with my yarn, for three or four months, dilly-dallying on a section because I was bored. This led to a lot of plans and not a lot of garments. This is in the past though. 2024 has been the year of sweaters for me, this being my seventh finished sweater this year! And its only September so I’m excited to see what else I can do in the last quarter of the year.
Do you remember what episode of Gilmore Girls this audio clip is from?
This Comfy Cotton Blend yarn from Lion Brand is a 1 to 1 ratio of polyester and cotton and the tag labels this color blend as chai latte. As I knit it, I saw it more as a banana split blizzard color and now in the spooky cloudy light of fall, I see it as candle light with highlights and shadows. Hence the name, the Candle Light Cardigan. I opted for now to keep this as an open cardigan without a button placket. Not out of laziness, but out of my intention to wear it. This was a cardigan I made specifically for the changing seasons, as a piece I could layer over my summer dresses and tops to get a little more wear out of them on these days when it is both cool and warm as the day progresses. I have two more yarn cakes of this color way which I can use to add a button placket at a later time if I change my mind.
I received this yarn as a gift from my mom as she was de-stashing it. It has been a lovely weight to knit and I like how soft it is. My only notes for Lion Brand would be to work on the splitting. This yarn split often as I was knitting which caught on my needles and led to messy stitches. Either because my needle held on to the stitch below or the yarn split and left some of the stitch behind. It was frustrating at times but not impossible to work with. The fabric it made has a good breathability and warmth to it which I was looking for in a changing seasons layering piece. This is a self drafted pattern that I knit on US 7 straight needles.
Happy Fall everyone one! (And Happy Spring to the southern hemisphere!)
The start of September feels like the start of the Gilmore Girls season. Probably because it used to start airing around this time of the year, but also the show follows a seasonal structure. Usually beginning before or during the school year as Rory embarks on her next academic chapter. A key aspect of Lorelai and Rory’s life is the Friday Night Dinners at Richard and Emily’s house, every week. Emily and Richard, being rather formal people, expect a dress code for their family dinners being formal. It reminds me a bit of dressing up for church as a kid.
There is also a silhouette to the outfits each of the Gilmore Girls wear. They wear a lot of dresses with small cardigans over top, but they also pair fitted blouses with a knee length skirt, usually flared for Rory or a pencil skirt for Lorelai. Rory dresses with a more demure style, that reflects her academic personality where as Lorelai is a bit bold with her patterns, textiles, and colors. It matches her personality of being independent and need to separate her life from her parents’ world.
I thought this combination married both the silhouette of Rory’s style with the bold and playful textiles of Lorelai’s personal style. The blazer is not a Potato Technology piece, I ordered it from YesStyle, but the bustier top and skirt are my own designs. The Floral Print Grafitti Bustier Tank, I designed in 2023 from 1/2 a yard of fabric. This piece was draped and cut on the form. I wish I had known about making craft paper patterns at the time because it’s going to be a challenge to reproduce. The Expressions and Lines Skirt is a new design from this summer. It is a satin graphic print that for the first time, I was able to cut out the pattern directionally without any mishaps! I’m so pleased. 😀
I think the combination of pieces look a bit 2000s, mid 2000s for sure, and capture the essence of the time period. The blend of Lorelai and Rory’s style is a reflection of how I consume the show now. Which character I relate to is a blend as I get closer to Lorelai’s age when the show begins instead of Rory’s age, which is so weird to realize. I’ve truly grown up with this story, being just 12 when I first watched it. Lorelai’s story finds me more each time I watch it.
A duck who is a little odd but can’t help but bring a smile to her friends. She is autumn because autumn is a state of mind. At least that’s what her mantra is! So she will toss those leaves proudly like confetti and don her jack-o-lantern gourd as her crown. How did a duck get a pumpkin carved? It was courtesy of her squirrel friend, who carved it himself with his tiny paws. With friendship and joy, she is basking in the red and orange glow of fallen leaves. The splendor from the trees!
This is a weird knitting project for me because I usually can’t follow a pattern, at least it has been a few years since I tried to make anything with a pattern, and that was Butterick Retro ’44 #6374 and Butterick Retro ’44 #6485. They didn’t go super well.
This is the only picture I saved from #6485 because it was so bad. It felt like a weird Star Wars dress. But I digress, with knitting, I would like to rectify my aversion to patterns to learn new skills and appreciate the creativity, celebrate even, the creativity and talent of my fellow knitwear designers. So I was inspired by Making Cassie’s Stripe Hype Sweater knitting project and through my move, I decided to use up leftover yarn in my stash to make a sweater someone else designed. It was one of the most rewarding knits I’ve made all year!
Who Designed the Stripe Hype Sweater?
The original Stripe Hype sweater and sweater pattern was designed by Veronika Lindberg and the pattern was published on Ravelry in 2023. Now I didn’t realize there was an actual Ravelry pattern, I just gave it a go off of other people’s versions of the Stripe Hype Sweater on Instagram and YouTube, like playing a song by ear. Whoops! Sorry, Veronika! But here is the link to her pattern.
My Take on the Stripe Hype Sweater
This is one of my favorite sweaters I’ve made because it challenged me to do things I wouldn’t gravitate towards like using white on a sweater. After all, I’m pale and I’m clumsy so stains. But dang it’s a fun background for the colors of this sweater. It taught me how to balance color, to mix colors with more abandon, and to bring balance and order to my pieces. This is also a make that grew my skills as it was the first project where I tried casting back onto sections – such as the ribbed collar and the sleeves.
It was a rewarding experience and reminded me that even though I like designing my own pieces there is always something new I can learn from using a pattern and although I can find it tedious, it puts limits on my creative energy to channel it into a direction I may not have gone if not for the guidance of the pattern. Always have a teachable spirit, my grandma would say, and yeah she’s definitely right about it when it comes to knitting!
Have you heard of the Stripe Hype Sweater? Would you wear or make something like this design? What colors would you choose? Until next time, thanks for being here, dear reader. I hope you have a lovely day!
We did something incredibly comforting this past weekend that gave us both a small delight. We went apple picking at our favorite orchard – Heagy’s Orchard in Northwestern Pennsylvania. It was the first time going back in four years and everything felt shinier, and happier, like the slump of the 2020s had shed and the area we used to haunt had come back to life, and so did I.
The interesting thing is I think now we instinctively felt like it was apple season at Heagy’s Orchard because these photos were taken on the same weekend, years apart, picking the same varieties of apples. None of it was planned. The pictures of my husband in the yellow plaid are from our first fall in Meadville in 2019, taken on Sept 5. The ones of me in a flannel and him in a hoodie are from Sept 7, 2020. And the first grouping, above, is from this past weekend, Sept 7, 2024.
How weird is that? I didn’t know we had a family tradition, him and I, but apparently we do and it was special to go back after such a long hiatus. Leaving Meadville-Erie area, a place that became home to us both after feeling like nowhere was home no matter how far we moved or how hard we tried in familiar places, was such a relief. Having to leave our home under the unfortunate circumstances of a dangerous living situation sucked.
It was frustrating that it was because drug dealers moved into the bottom unit of the house we were renting, with a considerable amount of domestic violence going on with them too, and the police doing little to nothing about it, which was despicable! There was so much pain and suffering in that situation. It only got worse when it became a squatting situation, the air was tense, and there was a gun. Not something you want to mess with. But not being able to fix the situation was a heartbreak that I shoved down in a box, to be left until I was ready.
Our new neighborhood in our new town where we lived from 2021 to the beginning of 2024, was like a high-strung Bailey Downs from Orphan Black, it never felt like home and so I had to keep that box shut and therefore couldn’t go to Erie or Meadville without feeling this rogue frustration, that until I returned there this past weekend, I couldn’t figure out why I was so frustrated and scared of the big emotion, But now I understand, it was a lack of acceptance compounded with the confusion of the dumpster fire that was 2020.
It was a lot of change in quick succession and my neurodivergent brain didn’t know what to do with in the moment, so I shut down. I was afraid I made a mistake leaving although I felt isolated and lonely after 2020, moving closer to family felt like oxygen. I’m glad in buying a house we are still able to go back up to the Meadville and Erie areas, because I realized I’m not done with that area, I just needed to be done with that living situation, and in turn, I really needed to get out of that suburban hell I fled to afterward to go back and see the place that made me feel home again.
The nature is just too pretty to be away from it for too long. There are these incredible ridges that stretch out in every direction. Fields, forests, creeks, ponds, marshes, and the closer you get to the lake it gets flatter until the big blue horizon meets you. It’s incredible. Is there a place or a tradition that helped you feel at home again after going through a tough time?
In honor of National Sewing Month and the 160 years of their existence the big four – Simplicity, McCall’s, Butterick, and Vogue Patterns are taking a look back at their patterns. The Simplicity Creators group turned this little moment of fashion history into a challenge, Sew Your Decade. I first learned about this through a video from Stephanie Canada where she took a look at the patterns Simplicity was highlighting on their ‘Stitch in Time’ historical presentation of patterns and fashions made by these four companies over the years. A lot of them were reproduction patterns and had dubious choices, including some 1950s patterns in the 1960s. But that’s more of an editing problem.
Because I have a lot of other projects in progress but I love historical fashion, I thought I would take a look through the historical pattern wiki and choose a pattern from each decade of what I would want to make if I had the time to make a garment from each era. I’m using the vintage patterns wikia and historical sources instead of the patterns on Simplicity’s site because the originals are just more appropriate and imaginative than the ones selected on the timeline and the reproductions they sell currently.
1800s Era (1860s-1890s)
Butterick 9111; ca. 1897; Ladies’ and Girls’ French Bathing Costume. Pictured in September 1897 Butterick catalog.
I choose this bathing costume because it is such a unique relic from the past but also because we’ve seen some new designs for swimwear come out recently that reimagine the typical 20th century-21st century swim suit, that look less like bikinis and more like a crop top and a skirt.
1900-1910s Era
McCall 1675; ca. 1907; Ladies’ Eton Jacket (with deep armholes). Featured in McCall’s Magazine September 1907.
What a fabulous jacket! That’s why I would choose this Eton jacket from 1907 because not only would it create a great historical silhouette, I’d love to try styling it with other items from my modern wardrobe.
The flapper dress patterns you see in the store are so played out and inaccurate. My choice was influenced by the wonderfully boxy lines of this robe. It encapsulates the straight up and down silhouette of the time while looking like a piece that could be dressed up or down, for around the house or used for wearable garment in the right fabric.
1930s Era
Simplicity 1832; ca. 1935; Ladies Swagger Coat and Six Gore Skirt. Coat has full raglan sleeve tucked at the wrist, patch pockets, stand-up collar and inverted back pleat.
Oh my goodness, this coat is fabulous. I may try to track this down in the future just to try my hand at it because I love these style lines. I love the raglan sleeves with the contrast of the narrow 1930s skirt. It’s so chic.
I like the academic style of view A and the elegant style lines of view B. I think I would get a lot of wear out of a dress in this style. The 1940s are one of my favorite eras for vintage fashion, I love the style lines of this time period and the 1920s-1930s.
The 1950s is not my favorite era of fashion, mainly because this silhouette looks horrible on me and it’s really over done when people think of “vintage” so for inspiration I went to 1958, the year my grandparents got married to find something interesting. I like the bow on the front of this and flounce of the skirt. The shape reminds me a bit of a bridesmaids dress I tried on that my grandma wore for her friends’ wedding in the 1950s.
1960s Era
Vogue Paris Original 1434; ca. 1965; Pierre Cardin – Suit. Side-buttoned jacket with standing, bias ring collar and cuffs. Tie belt at front, welt pocket and three-quarter length sleeves. Slim skirt.
I chose this one, first because I had yet to choose a Vogue pattern and secondly, because this suit is sharp and screams 1960s glamour. I love the over sized buttons. The classic shape and the slightly mod-artsy feel of the over all look.
This is a unique pattern. I like how many styling options we get in the line drawings. It’s an interesting jumpsuit I could see made up in several types of fabric for casual or fancy styling. I should see the blazer made in a contrast fabric or the same. Jumpsuits were a staple of the 1960s and 1970s so I think this is a great option to represent the decade.
This pattern is so extra. I didn’t realize how much the cottagecore aesthetic pulled from this time period – wow! I thought the 1980s was just inspired by the 1940s, but there is a lot more there to see. I think this would be a great upcycling project with bedsheets.
I originally wanted to pull from 1993, but this pattern is too perfect for me. I honestly want to make all three of these. I have fabric that would work for view B. I wonder how difficult it would be to track down?
Closing Thoughts
A special thanks to Vintage Pattern Wikia for making it possible to browse vintage patterns and for keeping these moments of fashion history alive. Thanks also to Stephanie Canada for putting this on my radar and for sewists like her who are keeping vintage patterns accessible to us to sew with. This was a fun challenge posed by the Simplicity Creators group and Simplicity itself for putting this on all of our radar. Although I’m not going to sew anything from what I found because I seriously have to many projects to add another right now. It’s a great way to appreciate vintage paper patterns and the effect they have had fashion and clothing in the last 160 years. Sewing your own clothes is such a great way to make things that fit you, and have your own flair, they also combat the unhinged mayhem that is fast fashion. It’s a win win 🙂
In the spring and summer of this year, I was on a self-imposed low buy to sew through my stash in order to use up fabric that had been hanging out in my stash for a few years and have less to move to the new place.
One of those fabrics was this lovely vintage blue that evokes blueberries to me with the dainty floral print. I had made a previous garment with it and had less than 1.5 yards left in my stash. This was a fabric I brought with me to my mom’s while we waited for closing so I set another challenge in front of myself – make something that would use as much of the fabric as possible and make something that would teach me a new skill. It also needed to serve a real purpose in my wardrobe not just something that I “could” make. Something I liked.
I landed on this sundress design with a button front placket, embroidery floss buttonholes, and tapered panels to give the dress an easy flounce. I made the panels similar to skirt panels with a bell shape and gathered them to fit, hiding the gather with the straps. It was a fun little project that taught me how to utilize my stash.
At the beginning of this blog I was reading through sections of the Bible that I did not know as well as passages that are taught quite frequently and I was letting God lead me in the process. This was my goal in 2023, and in 2024 I’m still doing that albeit a bit more chaotically than last year. I blame the move, but honestly, my focus has been all over the place except on my devotions since we moved which I am not proud of. Because of this I have been hopping around the Bible I was in Proverbs and then I was in Mark and now I’m sporadically reading through the minor prophets. I read through Jonah and now I’m back in Micah.
There was something that stuck out to me again as I read Micah chapter four yesterday but for a different reason than my reading in 2023. In 2023, verse three stood out to me because of the promise of peace, this time it was the historical process that caused me to stop and ponder.
He shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide disputes for strong nations far away; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore;
Micah 4:3 ESV
I was watching an I Like to Make Stuff video recently where Bob constructed a forge, followed by another video where he forges his own machete from a piece of steel. The process was fascinating! It is such a different medium from the fiber crafts I do because the material requires more persuading than scissors, stitches, or thread to be transformed. It requires heat to allow the material to be pliable, but you can’t form it unless you have a hammer to beat the metal into the form you desire. It can take many attempts of heating and hammering to get a crude shape. This doesn’t take into account the angle grinder or sanding to adjust the shape, plus the tempering of the metal through heating and dipping the blade to make it stronger. It’s a complicated process to make something.
This verse about ‘beating swords into plowshares’ and ‘spears into pruning hooks’ well depending on how expertly these weapons were made this is a lot of craftsmanship to be destroyed, and not reformed in one beat of the hammer. This would be a process. These would be precious resources that would need to be heated in the forge, hammered into shape, and reinforced with tempering. It would be a full transformation and would require work and commitment, so full submission to God’s will and full trust that you’re not going to need that carefully crafted weaponry or I think you would hold on to it. Because there was no Amazon 2-day to get more materials or a replacement sword or spear if you changed your mind. This was it.
Because we’ve lost this technology in our modern culture to other means, this picture of blacksmithing seems like an insignificant detail but I think it has a lot of weight to the meaning of the larger message in Micah 4 and the book in general. This was a full 180-degree shift from war to planting, something you only do if you have hope for the future and stability because you have to be there to tend to the crops and harvest at a later time. You are committed to the process.
I think it is also important that the weapons are not just laid down and cast away, instead, they are reshaped and forged by fire to reveal their new life as necessary tools in the kingdom. They had a past of different goals, but are shaped by a refining fire to become a new thing and serve a new purpose. For being an Old Testament book this surely has New Testament significance, as this is what being a new creation in Christ through repentance and salvation looks like. You are not cast away for a new thing, you are transformed for a new form and a new function.
Like a blacksmith with a forge and a hammer, the Christian life transforms us from one thing to another for a new purpose. Even if our former life was filled with contradictions to the one we are living now, that forge of refining fire changes everything.
In my post about summer knitting plans, I featured a lovely blueberry speckle cotton yarn. I expressed interest in making this yarn into a t-shirt. Initially, my goal was to knit a long-sleeved tee but as time went on and I started getting into knitting podcasts, I realized that knit t-shirts are truly adorable – and versatile! I pivoted and I am absolutely thrilled with the result!
This was my first time making knitwear for the summer and it unlocked a whole new world of design possibilities. For this project, I self-drafted my pattern, which consisted of four pieces. Two body pieces with a shaped neckline and two sleeves that were all sewn together afterward. I used size 6 US needles and used 7ish out of 10 skeins of 108 yards. A grand total of 756ish yards were needed to complete this project.
One Rabbit Riot 