13 in 13

At the start of last year I made a commitment to knit from stash as much as possible.  To complete 13 knits from stash in 2013.  I am happy to report that I did in fact finish 13 knits, in fact I finished 16!  

My yarn stash was not huge to start with, but I did have a couple of jumper lots which helped immensely when planning outfits.  My yarn purchases this year were also modest, but they are already fitting into my knitting plans for 2014!  As my life will include a train commute four days a week for the next couple of years I'd like to take advantage of that prime knitting time and get stuck into some big projects.  So I'm looking at 14 in 14!

Have a safe and happy new year my friends.  Thank you for your company on my journey in making stuff this year, I look forward to sharing more plans and adventures with you through 2014!

Jen xx

Outfit Seven: August

I've finally caught up!  Here is August's outfit... in August!  I have a confession, it has been ready for nearly a week and I've had plenty of opportunities to photograph it but I waited 'til I got my new hair.  It had been over a year and a half since my hairdresser laid hands on my hair, and it was incredible to get a proper style cut and colour instead of the shaggy growing out 'do I've been sporting lately.

I am very pleased with this outfit.  This was a big departure from the outfit I had originally planned, but given that elements of it have already been getting near constant wear I'd say it's one of the biggest successes of my 12 outfits so far.

Starting from the outside, this oversized cardigan is a simple big boxy shape with pockets, but in warm black drapey knit fabric it goes with just about everything in my wardrobe.  It's casual and comfy without being sloppy.  The pattern is from Burda Style 7/2013, 109A.  I have bought a fuzzy, lacy knit to make another for spring.

 I bought the fabric for my shirt at the same time as the fabric from March's skirt.  They are the same print on different backgrounds.  I love the bright red and bold graphic floral print.  It works perfectly with the pattern, you guessed it, another Burda mag 2/2009, 120.

Because the fabric is an almost sheer cotton voile, I used french seams throughout.  It was well worth the little extra effort to enclose all the edges, the finish is really clean and the seams are nice and secure.

I put a bit more thought than I usually would into the pattern placement.  I didn't want sheer background patches at the bust, or a great big flower arrangement bursting out of my guts.  I'm pretty smug about the way it turned out.  Perfect for the transition into spring that the weather has been hinting at this week.

When the pattern for the Maroo Mitts was released I fell in love with them.  I love the scalloped colour work, and the colours used in the samples were right up my alley too.  I've been hoping to get more confident with knitting colour work, but just hoping wasn't doing much so I've started practicing.  These are a fantastic introduction.  I had decided to knit them without being part of any outfit but noticed that the greys and yellow fit in so nicely with the colours in this outfit, and I just happened to have greys sitting in stash and yellow left over from my cowl, so here they are!

I bought this super smooshy grey 4ply yarn from Wendy Dennis a couple of years ago at the Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show.  200 grams was perfect for the Mara shawl that has been in my Ravelry queue for a couple of years too.  On 4mm needles I used about 90 grams got the garter body of the shawl and then 95 grams for the the ribbed ruffle.  Blocked out it became a great big squishy hug.

Finally pants.  For the record, I don't do leggings.  I wear running tights when I run, I wear tights under dresses, skirts, even under shorts.  I do not wear leggings.  These pants were borderline.  The ponte knit is dense enough to avoid unsightly sheer stretching over my widest parts.  The pattern had enough structural detail to take them far enough out of leggings territory and into pants land.

These were my first garment from a Style Arc pattern.  They are the April Pants.  I must say I was very happy with the pattern.  Again I put more effort than I have in the past into these pants.  All the seams are overlocked and topstitched, the result is a very smooth neat finish.  The fit is perfect, the pattern is great, I'm looking forward to making the Sandra  Jeans I bought at the same time.

You can see my assistant in some of the above photos.  When she wasn't wandering through my photos she was doing this:

Muddy puddles!

Me Made May '13 - The Rest of Week One

Day Four: Star Wars Day!  May the fourth be with you!  I made some alterations to my trousers from the April outfit and the fit is much better now!  Yay! With my striped t shirt, Effortless, and Song of the Sea cowl, this is an entirely me-made, warm and casual outfit.

Day Five:  The grey jersey dress with my thrifty green v-neck tee over the top.  I'm digging the t shirt over a dress thing, extra layer for warmth, extra wardrobe options, it's a winner!  Also wearing my Honey Bunny cowl.  I love the way the colours in the cowl are picked up by the rest of the outfit.

Day Six:  A busy day so I didn't manage to get a photo during daylight hours, and we're getting less and less of those as we head towards winter.  This outfit is the sleeveless blouse from May's upcoming outfit, my Damson shawl and Forestry cardigan.  The cardigan was made some time ago, and while the body still fits well, the sleeves are too big now, I'm trying to decide whether or not to rip the sleeves and  do them again because I really really love this cardigan.  The jeans in this one are thrifted, a whole 50 cents worth! 

Day Seven:  The pink cord skirt and tie dyed tights from May's outfit, my refashioned blouse and refashioned cardigan.  This one is another very me-made outfit!

So, one week down and I'm tracking pretty well.  I still have garments that haven't made an appearance yet and combinations that I want to try out so I'm really happy with the progress and versatility of my handmade wardrobe so far.  It will be interesting to see how I go as the weather gets colder, I must say I'm glad I'm a knitter!

Outfit Three: April

Now that the weather is cooling down my outfits are getting a bit more substantial.  April is four pieces, five if you count the bracelet I made by deconstructing necklace.  The main feature is the blazer.  I fell in love with this cotton drill critter fabric and bought a couple of metres of it with  plans to make a dress for Joss and maybe a bag for me.  The more I looked at it though the more I wanted to keep it for myself.  Now it's all mine! 

A simple blazer with a shawl collar, cropped sleeves and a single button.  I'm really pleased with my top stitching on this one.  I have a tendency to rush it and get all wonky, but I'm finally taking my time and getting good results.

This is the first time I've made a blazer so the whole thing was a learning experience.  I lined it with some light grey poly cotton I scored from the op shop.

Another first: double welt pockets.  I'm not 100% satisfied with them, but for a first effort they're alright.  One of the best things about doing 12 outfits is that I'm using techniques that I haven't tried before.

Blazer Pattern: Burda magazine 9/2008 pattern 129.

I have mixed feelings about the trousers.  They're comfortable, and the fit is ok, but the linen in there means they crease like crazy and get a bit baggy with wear.  They spring right back into shape with a wash but as you can see from the pics, after a day's wear they're not sitting very well.  More learning!

Trousers pattern: Burda magazine 1/2009 pattern 121

I got the wool blend jersey for April's top from the spotlight bargain table for $3 a metre.  It is lightweight, soft and super drapey.  I had planned to make a different top with it but that style didn't sit right under the blazer so I had to find another pattern.  This one is another Burda mag pattern, 3/2010, 118B.  The deep cowl neckline and drawstring waist make it a bit fancier than a plain tee and it dresses up and down really well.

Finally, the silk scarf.  It took forever to knit and I was so pleased to be done with it, but it was worth every minute and every hand cramp.  It is gorgeous and soft and drapey and light and warm.  I only ended up using half the 100g skein of yarn even though I did a full 13 pattern repeats.  This is also number 5 of my 13 in 13 from stash.

Pattern: Groovy in laceweight

Yarn: Sulky Silk from Mayhem & Chaos in Bad Things

Needles: 2.5mm

I tried to make every part of this outfit as versatile and wearable as possible.  With Me Made May just around the corner we'll see just how successful that was!

Just Keep Knitting

From recent posts it looks like all I've been doing lately is sewing.  There is a knit for April's outfit and I have been working on it.  And working and working and working on it.  It gets carted around everywhere with me and picked up whenever I have free hands, it's been to cafes,

sporting events, 

beach holidays, 

school pick up, 

and any car trip when I'm not driving.  It is also perfect TV knitting so it has spent a bit of time with the Doctor.

Right now though I've had to take a break for a couple of days to rest my hands.  Groovy in laceweight silk, and while it is beautiful to work with, the endless stockinette in skinny yarn on skinny needles has resulted in cramped sore hands.  Now its time to pick it back up and just keep knitting!  I really can't wait to move on to something thick and cabley.

SSS Ends in a Fizzle

My Self Stitched September didn't end with the bang I had imagined. It fizzled out in the midst of illness and grief. Here are the last few outfits I managed before I had to pull the pin:




The last couple of weeks have been difficult. I fell ill, my grandfather passed away quite suddenly, and we discovered that my son has asthma. This week things are getting back to normal, and I am looking forward to waking this little blog back up.

Coming soon: The biggest, most important sewing project I have ever attempted! My best girl Em and I have started work on her wedding dress!

SSS Days 15, 16 and 17

For some reason I had been keeping this dress in reserve for a special occasion. Then I remembered that every day has the potential to be a special occasion and threw it on to go shopping today! It's not really suited to cold weather, but with thick tights, long boots and cardigan I'm toasty warm!


Yesterday was a work day, which threw my whole week out because I usually work Tuesdays, but this week got all twisted about so Mr Huff could do his promotion exam for work on Tuesday. I wore a refashioned work shirt with a thrifted skirt.

The shirt is the uniform for the Jakarta branch of the business I work for. They send XXXL shirts to my colleague Al. They love Al because he's very tall and broad. However Al has recently dropped loads of weight and the XXXL shirts swim on him. When the latest batch arrived I offered to take it in for him, then we decided that I should take it in for me and we could have matching uniforms! So I took it up, took it in, added darts and puffy sleeves. Here it is in its original state! HUGE!


On Wednesday we went to Carlton to catch up with my in laws who were in town with Darron's uncle who had triple bypass surgery that afternoon (it went well and he's recovering nicely). We had a lovely lunch with them and then went to the Melbourne Museum to look at the dinosaur bones. The self stitched components of this outfit are my skirt and triangle shawl. The rest are all wardrobe staples, the umbrella was purchased that afternoon when the weather couldn't make up its mind about what it was doing. Melbourne weather at its best!

SSS Day 10 and 11

Day ten. Hmmm, not my best. I had a really bad day yesterday, every little thing ticked me right off. As a result there are no photos of yesterday's outfit (purple shirt and grey waistcoat) as I knew the whole photography biz would have pushed me over the edge and possibly made me too crazy to live with.

Happily today I am feeling much better! It may have something to do with the sunshine. It has been raining so much here I almost forgot what a sunny day looked like!

My new cardigan. I may just wear this every day until it falls to bits. Yay for project satisfaction! Add to that my Damson shawl, thrifted jeans, thrifted sunnies and generic grey tank, and you have me today. I haven't ventured far enough from home to even need shoes today.


I have noticed that this month my laundry habits are a bit different from usual. There is a rule at my house that if it was hand made, it gets hand washed. I have relaxed that a little as with limited wardrobe options I have to launder more frequently and I just don't have the time (or the inclination to be perfectly honest) to do a batch of hand washing every day. Not the most interesting thing about Self Stitched September I'm sure!

SSS Day 2 & 3

Day two and three of Self Stitched September:

I spent Thursday hanging about the house. We tidied up and I did a heap of sewing. I still managed to wear hand made though! That's a v necked T made by me, and the track pants I made last week. And just for fun on of my gazillion thrifted scarves!


Today Coen and I are going shopping for Fathers Day gifts. It's cold, and the weather is destined to get really miserable later so due to my limited supply of self stitched trousers, my thrifted jeans are making an appearance. Along with a purple raglan sleeved shirt I made a couple of years ago and my hand knitted Onerva triangle shawl. I got the belt and the grey top from Target last year.


Come on spring! I need some nicer weather to get the most out of my self stitched wardrobe!