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.
In middle school, I had a black off-the-shoulder sweater with a wide fold-over collar and a coordinating skirt in gray and black stripe. It was the first skirt outfit I tried wearing over pants, a trend that has come back in popularity over the past few years along with the 2000s style. All of this has made me nostalgic for my old sweater, but not interested in buying one like it because I don’t love the new take on 2000s fashion with our current-day fabrics and fast fashion construction. It’s just all off-kilter from the original subject material.
So, I had an idea. What if I tried making one with the yarn in my stash? I had several skeins of this navy tweed from Big Twist that I didn’t buy with a specific purpose, and it took up space. It seemed like a fun color I could coordinate like I did with the Houndstooth Denim dress worn as a maxi skirt. It was an ambitious make.
I’ve only been making sweaters for a few years and had no experience designing a pattern with no collar or shoulder seams. There was a lot to think about. How could I incorporate the big fold-over collar? How do you add sleeves with the new style lines? How do you keep it on the shoulder enough so it doesn’t fall down? As with most of my makes, I dove head first into the project ready to fail if that meant I learned something!
The first obstacle I found was not having enough yarn, shocking right? I was surprised I had multiple skeins of this blue, but it wasn’t enough to get the longer length, so I had a choice to buy more or get creative in this stashbusting project? I decided using what I had was more important than keeping the original vision so I chose this gray yarn I also had in my stash from the Bunny Hat project. It brought an interesting contrast to the tweed and I actually loved the color blocking once it was done.
The arm holes were such a challenge. As I was knitting this piece top down, I first knit the ribbed collar and then reduced down for the body section, leaving enough of the collar on the edge to insert an armhole after I was done with both the front and then back. All was seamed together and for a first try, I’d say it was a success. The geometry definitely worked. I had a free range of motion. It was a win!
What was not a win was my over-calculation when it came to fit. I forgot to accommodate the size needle I was using, a US size 8, which knits up with a larger gauge. I had been using US size 7 more recently and I sized like I would have for this gauge. My second mistake was not accounting for the stretchiness of this yarn. It is an acrylic and nylon blend that gets roomy with wear leading to a sweater that simply didn’t fit.
After the move, several months after this project was done, I tried this on again and realized that I had toned up more than I thought carrying all those boxes because the sweater slips right off my shoulders and off my hips too. It’s a total size failure! Now I’m not sure what to do with it. I’ve already taken in the collar back in April, I don’t think I can take it in again and it is constructed well so frogging this project is not going to be easy. It’s a shame because I think I had a good design here.
I think my only option is to potentially re-home it and make another one following the tutorial that I shared on Instagram which was my first time doing that. I felt such imposter syndrome! To my surprise, it was met positively even though it was not created for circular needles. It showed me that sharing my craft and creating tutorials is becoming a calling, free tutorials, and free knitting and sewing tips because I just want people to do this too.
I’m currently working on a big knitwear design project. Probably the most ambitious project that I have taken on yet in my time designing knitwear and fabricating sweaters. It is a sweater coat with varying stripes that I have knit in sections over the past few months. I’m currently three months into this project, and per my working style, I’ve worked on smaller projects alongside this big project to keep me stimulated and my motivation high.
This was my progress at the end of September. I had the entire bodice done and sewn together at the shoulder seams, back seam, and under the arms until the point of the sleeve opening. Because I sew, this process of knitting makes more sense to my creative brain than the knitting in the round process. If this type of knitting drives you nuts, it’s only going to get worse so I warned you. 🙂
September Progress
October Progress
In October, I honestly futzed around with the hood and collar and that was about it. I knit one other body panel so two out of four were done and drafted collar and hood patterns, over and over again. I initially expected to make more progress in October and to have just the sleeves left going into November. That didn’t happen.
It was that dang collar and hood section, that kept me in this place of indecision and design frustration. I initially made a collar with a normal stitch, not a ribbed which looks a bit cleaner. I think I was concerned about the collar looking cohesive and was afraid that a solid collar in rib instead of a knit-purl stitch with a stripe would look less cohesive. It looked odd actually. The stripe was good, but the flat collar which began to roll on the end looked ineffectual for a collar. After I sewed it in I carefully cut the collar away which was discouraging from a progress perspective, until I realized the stitched of the collar remained (because I was afraid of snipping the wrong yarn and destroying the shoulders) and the neck opening had this lovely fit and structure now. The shoulders were slightly gathered up to the neck opening and the fit was fantastic now! It just needed a new collar.
I had an idea – what if instead of a collar I went straight to a hood. I had been watching a lot of Gilmore Girls throughout October, seasons four and five to be exact which spanned the years of 2003-2005, peak 2000s fashion. And you know what was popular during this time? The duster! I had an idea, what if the hood was just one piece of this puzzle, what if I made it longer, much longer, added a hood, a rib trim around all the edges with a button closure! A funky duster the likes of Sookie, the Olsen twins, Lindsay Lohan, and even Lorelai herself would have worn during this time.
I knew I wanted to keep the stripe theme going, something that looked labor-intensive and expensive, like a bohemian duster or sweater coat that would be featured in an Anthropologie campaign. I wanted the hood to carry on that stripe motif to make it feel integral to the garment, not an add-on.
Last October, I learned how to draft hood shapes for several outerwear pieces that I crafted for my loved ones as a part of my Potato Technology’s Autumn/Winter 2022 Collection so I am pretty comfortable with the shape and sizing scale for a hood on an outerwear garment. The thing I underestimated though was how tricky it would be to form the hood as I went, as you do with knitting, instead of cutting the hood shape out of fabric. This kicked my butt. I spent a weekend making one half of a hood out of yarn and it was so cursed. When I took it off the needles it didn’t look like the hoods I had created out of fabric and thread. It was lumpy, too short, and not going to work for what I needed.
Once again, I got my scissors out cut the bind off loose, and proceeded to wind the yarn back into a ball. That is when I decided I had to move on to a new section of the project, for my own sanity. Because I still didn’t know how the hood became misshapen in the fabrication process. None of it made sense. Going straight back into making a new hood when I didn’t know how to solve the problem would be a waste of time and resources. I only have one set of size 7 needles, there was no need to tie them up in another likely failed attempt.
I pivoted to the the length of the duster. To make the bottom have more structure I decided to knit this section in two pieces.
November’s Progress (11/16)
This was a good move. I made the first half 30 stitches wider than the previous body panels to create some drape around the hips and the results are cute. The sweater has this sophisticated little flare that accentuates the waist – I was not expecting that! 🙂
With this step in the right direction, I got to work and powered through the last two body panels and the second flare panel at the bottom. It was a lot of work but only took two weeks to complete with focus, stretching, and snacks.
I have a tendency to let the garment lead me. I like to see how the fabric or yarn responds to the vision I have in my head and adjust the design accordingly to the way the project is coming together. The flared panels at the bottom of the sweater inspired me to pivot again, to step back from the hood and long duster to a sweater coat cardigan that could be buttoned into a sweater dress if I would be inclined to wear it as such.
That’s where it stands now. I began drafting a sleeve and designing the color work I had planned for the stripes before I continued any further because I could change my mind and add more length. The hood is out through, it’s just not the vibe.
When will this project be done? I sure hope by the end of 2023, but we shall see.
Two years ago, I made a longer cardigan using a complicated “Flying Goose Stitch” which I mentioned in Knitting Tests My Patience, it was a fun yet incredibly frustrating project to undertake as my first try for a cardigan. I thought the complex stitch pattern that involved a sequence of twelve rows that tested my ability to focus and count.
Credit to knitpurlstitches.com for sharing the pattern on Pinterest.
It’s funny looking at this finished project in 2023, compared to 2021, I actually like and I’m proud of how it turned out but that might be because the stitch photographs well. I remember the fit of this project being off, in the arms and shoulders because I didn’t know how to attach the pieces properly. This sweater took 4 months of tedious knitting. I remember listening to audio books while knitting it including Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Holier Than Thou by Jackie Hill Perry and various writings of C.S. Lewis. I remember not being able to focus if I watched something in the background. I’m happy to report my 2023 project is going much better! I’m about 1 month in of focused work on the project and I have all the shoulder pieces finished and sewn together with a bottom panel designed and attached.
I am not using a pattern for this project but I am making it up as I go along. I’m taking notes as I go to draft a pattern by process and for easier replication of the shoulder pieces. The shoulders are fitting fantastically! This current project is far more comfortable than my 2021 attempt. This new project is a blend of four colors of yarn. The stripes of the bottom section will be carried on in the sleeves. My plan is to make striped, colorful sleeves and a hood or dramatic collar. There will be a ribbed bottom edge added at the end to mitigate the rolling of the hem. I debated on making this a sweater dress after learning those are apparently trending for Fall 2023 but chose to continue with the cardigan plan as I think I will get more wear out of this.
I may even add more length if it feels right. There have been countless moments through this project that have made me question my design sensibilities. This cardigan has been hovering the line between a design I think is cool and straight up ugly. There were many times during the striped panel design phase that I thought, “I’ve ruined it” but I am happy to say now that I personally like the mix of colors and think it balances the upper portion into a innovative sweater design. I was inspired by the quirky knitwear of Gilmore Girls and that peak early 2000’s style. I like that it is colorful and that the stitch is simple. That was my biggest takeaway from the Flying Geese project was to keep the stitch pattern simple for efficiency. That has payed off! My morale is higher. The stripes actually help me keep pace. I’m learning to knit quickly, yet with care to keep my stitches even. I can also knit while watching something in the background. A lot of things actually.
Long-form YouTube video essays
Look Books of fashion
Sports!
Japanese Vocabulary
Skz Code with subtitles
Music Videos
NCT 127: The Lost Boys with subtitles
Favorites like Gilmore Girls and Impractical Jokers
The possibilities are truly endless thanks to that muscle memory! Thank goodness because I can get super bored with these projects. Speaking of my pace, I’ve been truly pleased by my progress this week. I completed a shoulder panel and designed the striped panel within 3 days so around 25 hours of work. That is blazing compared to my old pace. It’s wonderful to see that practicing and failure will lead to growth in some fashion. My hope is to finish this by the end of October, will I make my goal? I’ll let you know. 🙂
One Rabbit Riot 