jumper Archives - Handmade by Carolyn

black/white striped jumper

30/12/2024 2:21 pm \ 2 Comments \ Carolyn

hurrah! I’ve just finished my knitted project for December, aka the last monthly knit for the year! and possibly the last made thing for the year, depends whether I can get my already cut-out thing done in the next day or so. 🙂

I have to admit I was quite excited about this one, but it was definitely the most time consuming of the knitted projects for the year, just because it’s the biggest that I started from scratch… I had quite a diverse collection of random whites/creams and blacks/charcoal and decided to attempt the classic black and white stripes. There was quite a lot more of the whites than black so the white stripes are a shade wider than the black ones. Also the sleeve and bottom hem sections are in the white colour way too. There is just a very tiny amount of leftovers, nothing to speak of really, which makes me pretty happy.

As previously I made the design up myself, it’s a topdown, knitted-in-one piece, just like my pink jumper from August previously, with a raglan sleeve increase. The only difference really is that I knitted a rib finish for the edges so they don’t curl up, unlike the pink jumper which was stocking stitch throughout, thus the edges curl up on that one.

Speaking of the rib finish, I tried something new I’d seen on instagram, and I’m truly sorry I cannot for the life of me remember who it was who posted it so I can’t give credit for the idea. Basically, they said that rib is often uneven in appearance and that’s due to the difference in the way the wool goes around the needle in knit and purl stitches. They suggested the following; for knit stitches, knit through the back of the loop… and for purl stitches, wrap the wool clockwise around the needle – which is the opposite from normal. Apparently it uses a little less wool, anyway I gave it a go and I think the rib does look a little bit neater than my usual efforts.

I’m really happy with this one! the classic white/black stripes will be so easy to wear and I’m looking forward to giving it lots of outings in winter. I was a little worried about the bobbly cream coloured wool – are the bobbles going to be too hideous?! scary! but in the end they’re not twee to an unbearable extent and I’m ok to just let them be.

In case you’re curious, is it too hot right now to be wearing it on the beach like this? and the answer is of course YES. aah, the things I do…! I actually wore just a light top, carrying the jumper in my beach bag and popped it on briefly for the picture, and it was still enough to make me question my life choices!

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: jumper, Knitted, knitting, own design

green and blue scrappy jumper

09/11/2024 2:57 pm \ 4 Comments \ Carolyn

hello! I’ve knitted a new jumper, from that big inherited bag of scraps and leftovers that has stymied my dreams of a minimalist, streamlined stash for quite a long time now… I’m trying to make a project a month and this little number is actually October’s project.

It’s a bit late, but of course a jumper is quite an involved project and I’ve knitted two jumpers in as many months now, phew. I’m trying very hard to keep up the pace though!

Unlike my jumper from last month, I knitted this one bottom up, and have decided for once and for all that this is far less practical way of knitting something on the fly, when your purpose is to keep on knitting until the yarn is gone. It’s hard to explain without doing it for yourself.. but essentially you have to cast on for the sleeves, and then pick up those stitches again to continue on the sleeves; which is kinda awkward. Also, you have less idea about eking out your yarn to last until the neck edge. And also, I’d started knitting in stocking stitch, and then became dissatisfied with the curly up nature of the lower edge, and had to pick up stitches again to knit a final ribbed edge to the bottom edge. Of course, these are very minor concerns really; since any project in which you’re trying to eke out set-in-stone quantities of yarns and still end up with a garment that is actually wearable is ALWAYS going have some difficulties.

I didn’t take a picture of the “before” yarns, but actually this project changed shape and form several times during the making and new yarns got added in as I went along. I’m pretty happy though… because there were about 11 balls/part balls of yarn in all to start with, and now they are all GONE from Le Stash. I’m particularly pleased with the “turquoise” stripes on the sleeves, which are actually four strands of two different colours of an extremely fine mohair yarn that I had no idea what on earth I could use for anything at all. The four of them held and knitted together as one turned out to be a reasonably good thickness to actually use.

As I was finishing it and thinking about how I was going to wear it, I was suddenly hit with the certainty that I absolutely needed a long sleeve, white hoodie tee to wear with it. And since I sew, I was happily able to immediately acquire such a thing, with no need to go shopping.

I used our own Carolyn & Cassie Pinjarra pattern, the high necked top version. I cut a size bigger than my usual for a loose fit, and cut a hoodie piece to fit the neckline length. I also added a few inches of length to the bottom edge, again for that loose look. It was a pretty easy hack of our own pattern! so easy that I wondered for a little bit whether we should draft the hood up and add it to the pattern.

I’m wearing them both here; at top with my Closet Core Patterns Ginger jeans, and then with my long term favourite Closet Core Patterns Sasha trousers… I really need to make some new ones of this great pattern!

Posted in: knitting, sewing \ Tagged: Carolyn & Cassie Pattern Co, daily outfit, jumper, Knitted, knitting, own design, pinjarra twinset

little pink jumper

30/08/2024 2:54 pm \ 3 Comments \ Carolyn

I’ve knitted a little jumper… this is made completely from scraps and leftover wool from other projects and the (still) large bag of bits and pieces that Mum gave me a couple of years ago. Something from nothing! Seriously, my favourite sort of thing to make…

the unpromising beginnings…

I started out following a pattern, but before long ended up frogging and reknitting the entire thing just following my gut instinct. It’s a simple raglan design, top down, in the round, with double increases at the two sleeve junctions every row until the underarm, otherwise no shaping. Top down meant I could keep knitting until I ran out of wool; which to be honest happened a little sooner than ideal! Ideally I would have liked it a little longer, and with longer sleeves too, but well… c’est la vie.

To Craig, I’d voiced my concerns that I was going to run out of wool and he replied that I could just go and buy some more… so logical! But of course completely defeating the purpose of using up Le Stash! Honestly, sometimes I feel like the stash-reduction project is maybe just a martyred pursuit… but, you know. Also a virtuous one too, sometimes. I used up every single scrap of yarn pictured above, except for one small ball that I decided the colour looked a little off against the others.

I’m quite happy with how the yarns worked out distributed across the jumper, not too much concentrated across any particular section. When it came to changing the colours, I knitted a few centimetres past the previous colour change before changing to the new colour, so that there wouldn’t be a build up of knots and bulky weave-ins concentrated in one area; and this worked well too. I wove in all ends as I was going along, and am always thankful at the end of any project whenever I think to do this! Seriously, a life saver!

The thing is… I already have a vaguely similar jumper to this one, that is quite precious to me since the yarn was a gift from a dear friend. Do I even need another little pink jumper?! It is actually not too bad looking, I think; and very warm, and comfortable to wear. Serendipitously, Mum admired it the first day I wore it, so I may give it to her.

I’m also super happy I managed to finish this one a few days before my end of the month deadline! Yay! My knit/month pledge has turned out to be quite gruelling to be honest, and it’s difficult to fit in so much knitting. To look on the bright side, I’m two thirds of the way through, and only have four projects to go!

Details: I also made my ivory top worn underneath, and my jeans too…

Posted in: knitting, Uncategorized \ Tagged: hand knit, hand knitting, jumper, own design

white top… ghost horses jumper… patchwork underthingies

30/06/2023 6:11 pm \ Leave a Comment \ Carolyn

Perth dress/blouse

Hello! I have been so remiss in not posting this top, made months ago now… I wanted a new white shirt and if you’re feeling like a quick and easy shirt project then what better pattern to get out other than my own Perth pattern?! #shamelessplug

The back pleat goes “out”; I really prefer pleats to go “in, the fact that this one does not was not intentional but a boo boo. It’s, ok, I can live with it! I used some white linen/cotton from my stash; leftover from my Charlie caftan that I made *checks blog stats* goodness me, about six years ago now! And obviously made a few minor mods.

The length is about halfway between the top and the skirt cutting lines, and I lengthened the sleeves as much as I could to about three quarter length. I really love this sleeve length on a shirt! and for visual interest I added buttoned cuffs. I also added a little pointy-bottomed breast pocket, for almost the sole purpose of sporting a “circa 2023” label.

I also made the little black flecked white skirt.

Item 2; this (to my mind) absolutely beautiful jumper is also something I finished months ago, and have only just got around to wearing and photographing it for my blog here.

The pattern is Ghost Horses by Boyland knit works… I bought it through her blog site here but you can also get it through Ravelry…

The yarns are:

dark blue: Rowan felted tweed, col 170 Seafarer

variegated pink: Manos del Uruguay silk blend, col SB3317 Kilim

plain pink: Manos del Uruguay silk blend, col SB3236 Clafoutis

Le inside/backside

I bought the yarn from Morris and Sons in Melbourne, during our Harry Potter excursion over there, last March. Actually, March 2022, hehe; so embarrassed to admit that. I actually started knitting it straight away and got it to final ribbing stage within a few months. Then took like forever to decide on the finishing bands. I didn’t really like the slightly tight look of the finishing bands on the pattern envelope sample and tried multiple variations ie various k/P ribbing combos, stocking stitch, double yarn etc before finally settling on … well, these ones. Mine is same needle size as body, single yarn, 2K 2P rib, very loosely finished.

And at least it finally is finished!

yea haw! btw, I made my shirt, skirt and tights too…

Item 3:

I made a new underwear set… all from scraps and leftovers! this kind of project is super fun for me, mostly because it is so crazy and silly.

The pattern is my favourite, the Cloth Habit Watson, and the fabric is all from projects in my previous post; the T-shirt for Arthur, itself an old T-shirt of Tim’s; and the red and navy stripe from the skirt I made for Cassie. I had only small pieces, so it was fun to cut and join bits together to get enough for my set! I know I know, silly and crazy. But fun!

I’m belatedly a little annoyed that the white-fronted knickers are asymmetrically pieced so it looks a little lopsided, but at the time I was just happy to have enough to even cut a front! so I guess I can’t complain…

The strap elastic was also salvaged from an old, also me-made bra, the straps though were still in really good nick … the knicker elastic I had in the stash already too. In the last couple of years since we moved and I vowed to use entirely from the stash, I’m constantly amazed at HOW MUCH is in there…!

So that’s all for now.. until next time!

Posted in: knitting, sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: boyland knitworks, Carolyn & Cassie Pattern Co, cloth habit, daily outfit, ghost horses, jumper, knitting, lingerie, own design, Perth, shirt, Wardrobe Refashion, watson

fluffy blue speckles

10/08/2020 3:33 pm \ 2 Comments \ Carolyn

Oh hey! I’ve just finished knitting a new jumper. Perfectly fluffy and perfectly relaxed and slouchy, the most wonderfully comfortable lounge-able thing you can imagine. This is the We Are Knitters sparkle raglan sweater, a design by Krysten Ritter, in the “sprinkle blue” colour way. It comes as a kit with everything you need to make it all packaged up neatly in a lovely brown paper bag. It’s was the absolute hugest treat to come home and find this on my doorstep! a really delightful present to cheer myself up during a sorta low spell.

And it was truly such a joy to knit! unply-ed, unspun “fleece type yarn and giant fat needles meant giant fat stitches too, so it knitted up super fast. Quick gratification, for sure.

And how beautiful are these wooden needles? They look so cool… so much prettier than my old metal ones. I wondered if they’d be a tinier bit “stickier” than metals; and yes they were, but not so much as to be annoying or a problem.

The yarn is We Are Knitters “the meriwool”; absolutely gorgeously squishy stuff!! 100% merino, and supposedly treated with a superwash treatment to make it machine-washable. This is awesome news because I already dropped a bit of chocolate on it… whoops! I didn’t risk the machine was yet though, I’m too frightened! I just gave it a spot hand-wash just very gently rubbing wool-wash into the chocolate-y smudge and the spot came out alright. When I do get brave enough to toss my sweater in the machine I’ll come back and update on whether this worked out just fine or whether it was disastrous… but I’ll be allowing myself a few more wears first, just in case!

So; there was a slightly negative thing with my kit… when I checked out the requisite five balls for my size I noticed that one ball was from a different dyelot than the other four. This one ball had noticeably less blue sparkles in it that the other four balls. Not too much of a problem, I thought; I’ll just use that one divided evenly over the sleeves; as in, two rows of the majority dyelot, two rows of the odd-one-out, and repeat; for each sleeve. This worked out ok, I think but as I was doing the front and back of the sweater I couldn’t help but notice that as well, one ball of the majority dyelot seemed to have considerably more blue in it that even its fellow three balls from the same dyelot. You can see this at the top of the sweater in the lower picture, below. It wasn’t obvious when you were looking at the balls together, but once I’d knitted practically the whole ball it did start to stand out a little bit.

above, I’m wearing it back to front compared to the below picture… the pattern front and back are exactly the same as each other so you can wear it either way, which I really like btw! I’ll probably wear it like the below picture because I prefer the way the sparkles appear on this side…

Oh, the other thing I’m posting about here is this skirt… this is the Sabrina skirt by Forget-me-not patterns that I made last year in a lovely orange-brown herringbone wool that Mum gave me once. I recently added pockets to this, as posted here, and now I’m posting it again to point out that I’ve shortened it too. This involved a fair amount of unpicking an intricately stitched walking vent, just so I could stitch up again closed. Lol, the things we do! However, I’m much happier with it this length. I really like my winter skirts to be on the shorter side, and realistically I’m never going to wear this thick woollen skirt in the warm weather! The other, hidden bonus is that initially I stitched the burgundy-coloured lining hem in orange thread, a. because it’s the thread I used to sew the skirt in and I couldn’t be bothered changing it, and b. I didn’t have any matching burgundy thread at the time anyway. Now I DO have some burgundy thread, so once I trimmed the lining I stitched the new hem in matching thread. Yay! for tiny good things!

Look, with regards to the uneven-sparkle issue with my sweater; it’s fine really: I’m not actually bothered because I’m really very happy with it, and I even like that the body is a touch more blue than the sleeves and therefore has a slight visual point of difference. Sometimes I’m a bit more obsessive about how an apparently random distribution of decorative elements can then appear not so random in the end result; a foible of the design process that a regular person probably wouldn’t even notice but which can at times send my weird brain into a frenzy of debate about whether I should unravel the whole thing and start again. However, I shall NOT do this, because I knit for joy, not self-flagellation… and I am content to just enjoy my sweater for what it is. Which is fluffy and warm and pretty and wonderful.

Details:

Sweater, the sparkle raglan sweater design by Krysten Ritter, in a kit from We Are Knitters
Rust skirt; the Sabrina pattern by Forget-me-not patterns in an old herringbone wool passed down by Mum? I think? shorted and with pockets added. initially posted here
Turquoise skirt; adapted Burda 2/2015;109 denim from my NYC holiday, details here
Black tights, my own design, black stretch polyester, details here

yeah, unless it was pointed out, which I JUST DID of course! you can’t even really tell in real life. I’ve really got to learn to not point these things out…

Posted in: knitting, Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, hand knitting, jumper, Knitted, knitting, sweater, we are knitters

floral frikka with matching skirt

15/02/2020 1:13 pm \ 8 Comments \ Carolyn

… so here are a few things I made earlier! like; along with everything else that’s been going on I can barely remember when I made them. Honestly, I’m really missing writing for my blog lately, and “engaging” with other sewing folks on instagram – please note correct use of appropriate buzzword – with all the wedding sewing I’m doing it’s all I can do to keep up with just my daily outfit blog … and keep the pantry stocked … and some sort of food on the table each night… wait. Actually that is rarely happening nowadays, whoops…

Also, a pre-warning, after the wedding there’s going to be a veritable avalanche of sewn items popping up here. An avalanche I tell you!!

Anyway!! I’m just gonna go with stream of consciousness blogging again and see how we go.

This is the new Frikka hoodie pattern by Fibremood… funny thing; when the catalogue came out I immediately homed in on the Becky dress and was like, YES! that’s the one for me!! at that point noticed that it was for child’s size 2-14 … womp womp. So I chose the adult sized Frikka hoodie obviously. As it turned out, I had just enough fabric to cut out a little matching skirt, and so I’m pretty chuffed I ended up with a sort- Becky look after all. Win!

pseudo-Becky

My fabric is a surprisingly cosy cotton double gauze from Minerva. Suprising, because you wouldn’t ordinarily think cotton gauze would be warm. In my experience, it’s a lot warmer than you think! And so soft and cuddly, mmm.

note to self; wearing the hoodie up with a pony tail looks, um weird….

Some sewing notes; I added a kangaroo pocket on the front… #pocketho

I stitched the sleeve hem quite deep hem on the sleeves, a. because I really love a three quarter length sleeve, and b. so when cuffed/rolled up the right side of the fabric shows.

I didn’t have a matching cord on hand for a drawstring in the lower casing, and may not even bother actually. I think it’s fine just the way it is.

I really like the hood construction on this thing. It’s fully self-lined, in a very innovative (to me) yet intuitive and simple to construct way; with the two sides being cut on a fold, opening edge on the fold. Very clean and easy.

With the matching skirt; I didn’t have enough fabric for the waistband as well, so cut one from an old pair of jeans. The colour is a perfect match, and also denim is probably a better fabric for a waistband anyway.

I stitched on a, in retrospect rather insane daisy button, because it seemed appropriately fun and random at the time, but I may switch it out at some point. The petals are really knobbly so it’s kinda tricky pushing it through the buttonhole…

I also fully lined the skirt with ivory/grey polyacetate lining fabric, because the gauze is naturally quite “sticky” and I do plan on wearing it in winter, with tights.

Note to self; 40 minutes for a blog post.. not too bad! Now to get back to the wedding sewing!!

Details:

Hoodie; the Fibremood Frikka hoodie, made in this cotton double gauze
Skirt; kinda based upon Vogue 1247, except with no pockets or horizontal seams, same fabric, and lined
Poppy dress (only the skirt seen); Vogue 1351, poppy print silk chiffon, details here
Pink twist top; the Pattern Magic 1 twist top, thin pink stretch stuff, details here
Shoes; made by me and my own design, detail here

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: Clara, daily outfit, fibre mood, frikka sweater, hoodie, jumper, skirt

a knitting advent-ure

29/12/2018 1:07 pm \ 24 Comments \ Carolyn

I’ve knitted a magical, rainbow, unicorn of a jumper/sweater!

But, what is this, Carolyn?? I didn’t know you were into magical rainbow unicorns?! Well, of course there is indeed a story behind this…

my little “troll” progress keeper was my constant companion and cheerleader… 😉

So, in the past few months, idly hanging around on youtube I randomly got into the world of knitting youtubers, and watched a few videos… I think it was Katie of Inside Number 23 who introduced me to these wonderful things called knitting advent calendars … I thought they sounded like such a fun idea! at roughly the same time I’d been to Calico and Ivy checking out all the wool and other yummy eye candy they always have in there and seen and admired some gorgeous wool hand-dyed by a local lady going by the name of Dingo Dyeworks, and I mentally tucked the name away. Later on, in search of an advent calendar, I found that the same Dingo Dyeworks had produced one for this year. SO naturally… I bought one!

day 1; and I’m ready to party!!!

The advent calendar came in the form of 24 cute little boxes, each with a mini skein of wool inside; the colours of which were a complete mystery. There is also a 25th box, which is much larger and contains a full-sized skein of the same sock yarn, but I decided to base my “advent”-ure project on the 24 mini-skeins. The only thing you knew about them was that they were all on the Dingo Dyeworks “ridgey-didge” base; a fingering-weight 85% fine merino 15% nylon superwash, which I’d checked out in Calico and Ivy and liked. SO I laid my plans… to make a jumper, or sweater. I bought from C + I a skein of similar gauge yarn in an undyed cream colour and did a few swatching experiments, made a few calculations and a plan, decided I could indeed make a whole jumper from sock yarn. I knew knitting just a little bit every day would be perfectly manageable, and fairly painless. In fact, I always find the lead up to Christmas so full of stress and madness that I welcomed the thought of carving out a little bit of time in each day, to just devote myself to a quiet, happy and mindless project just for me.

If you follow me on instagram, you might have seen my daily “unboxing”, a single example of which is above… I had so much fun just opening the yarns and seeing that day’s colour! Honestly, even without the daily calming and meditative knitting session, and notwithstanding that I now am the proud owner of a divine new jumper – the texture of which is so baby-soft and so squishy, and basically too too heavenly to even describe… just opening the days’ little box each morning was also such an enormous joy for me. I also posted a picture in my stories each day of the day’s progress. If you want to see them all, I’ve saved the whole process in my permanent stories, called “advent”-ure, at the top of my page 🙂

day 3… 🙂

I started from the bottom, and knitted the same number of rows on each sleeve and the body section each day, and then when I got to the appropriate place to start the yoke, joined them all together and continued in the same way, decreasing raglan style up to the neckline.

day 14…

Before opening the first skein I wasn’t 100% sure there would be enough yarn in each little skein to do the width of stripe I wanted, in this case my plan was to “fill in” between the stripes with a few rows of the undyed yarn I’d bought for the cast-on… but after day one I’d happily determined there was plenty! in fact I estimate I only used roughly a half of each skein, even for the widest sections.

day 17…

I’d decided to just knit each colour as it appeared and not second guess anything at all! so the delicious Unknown of it all was exciting and fun; but I have to admit there were one or two days I was like “whaaa??” However I’d checked out the Dingo Dyeworks advent calendar from 2017, which was so so beautiful, and I just had to put my trust in this years’ being beautiful too.

day 20…

It is a little different, to be sure! and while not all the colours were what I might have chosen and there was even a coupla days where I truly wondered where this was all going! Would this advent-ure be irredeemably unicorn-ly?! However I’m very happy to admit that my fears were unfounded and I feel like my finished sweater is now one of my loveliest and, dare I say, the prettiest that I have?! and the colour-story worked out quite beautifully in the end. I’m still about 99% convinced days 16 and 17 were mixed up! but that’s neither here not there really, since you can’t really tell that in the end result.

aaaaand, day 24!

Knitting on this every day was, as I’d hoped, a calming and peaceful, meditative and fun! interlude in the lead-up to Christmas for me, so I am so glad I decided to do this … yes, it resulted in a smaller pile of me-made things I could give my loved ones; I bought a few presents for my family this year and I refuse to feel guilty about that! and I still did manage to make a few things. And I have a beautiful and unique new jumper!

back, indistinguishable from the front actually, but you know…

Details:

Jumper; my own design, made from the Dingo Dyeworks 2018 advent calendar
Skirt; Vogue 1247, made from curtaining fabric, details here
Thongs; fipper, bought on our holiday in Bali

Posted in: knitting, Uncategorized \ Tagged: advent calendar, Christmas, Clara, daily outfit, dingo dyeworks, jumper, Knitted, knitting, own design

jumper of triangles

14/04/2015 9:47 am \ 42 Comments \ Carolyn

I’ve knitted a jumper 🙂

I’ve knitted jumpers before but this one felt different because I didn’t feel like I was knitting an actual real entire jumper, a process that can sometimes feel a bit never-ending while you’re so engaged… this rather unusual and innovative design is essentially a patchwork comprised entirely of plain and identical triangles. So all you’re doing is knitting is a whole bunch of very quick and simple triangles, separately, one by one… you knit a triangle, toss it on the pile, knit another, whenever. The triangle itself is a super quick n’ easy pattern that you’ve memorised after the first couple. Making it a fairly mindless and terrifically painless project. Once you have enough you stitch them together into a jumper shape. So really it’s like, the jumper to knit when you don’t want to knit a jumper!

I bought the pattern pamphlet from Spotlight, thinking about the awkward quantity of fiddly diddly leftovers in my collection that were not enough to do anything with on their own but that were too much to throw away. Mission: Use Up Leftovers; and I think I’ve accomplished that quite successfully, ahem *smug self back pat* I used several different shades of grey, chocolate, beige, black, navy blue, mustard, natural and white; various Patons 8 ply and Rowan tweeds and several others too, basically a small collection of disparate leftovers I’ve held on to for forever. I also had to buy some new, don’t you always?! I bought some of the recommended Cleckheaton Country Naturals 8 ply from Spotlight. Which is where I bought the pattern pamphlet too 🙂

The pattern can quite easily look like a, er, regular jumper too if you aren’t keen on the multi-coloured harlequin look; you can always just use one colour for all your triangles. In the pamphlet there’s also pictured another, rather chic and stylish version made up in deep flecked charcoal which looks quite classic and mainstream and normal, and not patchwork-y at all!

But, as an interesting way to make good use of little bits and bobs I reckon this is a pretty good design idea, and is a nice and easy project for beginners too 🙂