Recently in Maude Category

Maude

I've decided to retire Maude. I'm now at a point in my weightloss where there's no way of salvaging Maude. While I hate to see the yarn be wasted like that, I'm not very upset. Being too small for something is just fine by me!

Teaching Knitting

A friend is opening a knitting store in August and she's asked me to teach some classes (yes, plural). She said she thinks I have a good grasp of techniques and she'd like them to be technique-focused. I have no idea what to teach! Some ideas that I've mulled around:

• Socks
• Combined or Continental Knitting
• Top Down Sweater
• Something cable-y

I really have no idea though, so I'm taking any and all suggestions.

For those of you who either have taught or work at a yarn store, what amount should I ask to be paid?

Knitting Meetup

It's tonight! I'm meeting Kim for dinner beforehand as well. I have a big document to get out by noon today, and I've been thinking the dinner and meetup is my reward!

Diet

I had dinner at Ruby Tuesday's last night. I'm not usually a huge fan of chains, but this one is different. Their entire menu lists the fat, calorie, net carb, and fiber content for EVERY entree! I was able to confidently order things off the menu and know I was keeping on plan. For those of you doing Atkins, there had to be 40 different things to choose from - entrees, wraps, salads, and sides. I ordered a seasoned Tilapia topped with shrimp and a cream sauce. For sides I got steamed broccoli and mashed cauliflower. And for dessert I had their 1 carb cheesecake. VERY GOOD! What I love the most is the fact that they let you choose what you want because their entire menu lists the nutritional info. Very liberating to be able to look at a whole menu and make choices without being afraid of hidden carbs. And if you're counting fat grams instead of carbs, the menu is for you too. That's the best part. Friday's does low carb. Applebee's does Weight Watchers. But Ruby Tuesday's is giving you the choice. I'll definitely be back.

A few of you have mentioned that you were interested in how I steeked my cotton Mission Falls tank so here ya go...

I started out by pin fitting the tank on my body:

Once I got a good fit all around (it took a bit of tweeking), I carefully took it off to make sure the pins didn't fall out.

Then, I laid the garment flat, folded along the center front and center back so the side seams were in the middle (hopefully that makes sense). I then pin marked the excess fabric that needed to be taken in on both sides of the side seams. Note: Since I knit it in the round there really aren't side seams. In my case I marked along the line where the side seam would be, which is also where yarns were joined.

See all those ends I was able to get rid of? Woohoo!

Then, I took out my trusty Viking sewing machine, and stitched along the lines marked with the pins. The hardest part about the stitching was the fact that the shaping was at the sides, so I couldn't just sew between 2 stitches. I had to sew across them at times. I fiddled with the presser foot tension, the stitch length, and even dried dropping the feed dogs. I finally determined I should use a very weak presser foot tension, and a stitch length of 3.5. I liked it better with the feed dog up - it helped push the fabric through and didn't catch it like I had been concerned about.

Once I stitched along both pin lines, I cut up the center.

Here's a closeup in case you can't see the stitches. Sorry it's a bit blurry.

And then, I sewed a second row of stitches about a quarter of an inch away from the first row. This second row is further out than the first row and is hidden in the seam.

I then clipped very close to the second row of sewing and seamed up the tank using the mattress stitch.

Voila! A tank that actually fits!

In case you're wondering why I had to go through this exercise at all, here's what happened. This is the first tank that I've made for myself. I pulled out some knitted tanks that I own to use as a comparison for sizing, but they all had some kind of rib in them. So they were definitely smaller than I'd like for a st st tank. So, I made the tank just a bit narrower than I would a sweater and it was just way too much ease. In all honesty though, I'm glad I went through the exercise. I taught myself that steeking isn't so bad, and I saved my time weaving in all those ENDS. Hell, it was worth it just to get rid of the ends!

I was finally able to do a knitting weekend! I spent most of Saturday and Sunday either browsing at a LYS or knitting. The weekends always go so quickly this way!

First off, Maude. She's just about done. I finished the front on Saturday and steeked the sides on Sunday. Here's a pre-steek pin view:

As you can see, it was way too big for me. I took off about a total of 6 inches from the waist down, and about 4 inches at the bust. BTW, the lines do actually go straight across my body. Trying to hold the camera and take a pic while wearing always gives you weird angles.

The steeking went very well and the new and improved Maude is all seamed up on the sides. I took progress pics to show how I steeked the sides and I'll post them later this week. All that's left on Maude is shoulder seaming and edging for the neck and armholes.

Oh, and I should mention that Maude has already been washed and dried once. It did beautifully. I turned it inside out as per the label and washed it in cold water. I dried it til almost completely dry. The colors didn't run at all. It did shrink about 10-15% in the length but I had lengthened the top to take that into account. Since I really wanted to have an easy care top I decided to do the extra few inches. It did almost backfire though -- 3 colors have only a couple of feet remaining!

I also knit up a small sachet for my mom. I ended up using a pattern in Vogue Knitting to Go Pillows book. It came out very cute and I'll post pics later this week. I'm - ahem - a bit late in finishing this. It's all knit up but needs to be seamed and filled.

Then, I cast on for Smooch in a navy blue Cotton Classic. Let me tell ya - thank god for Alison's explanation of the picot edge (scroll down to the May 26th entry). There's no way I would have figured it out based on the directions. However, going with my knittng karma of late it's too big. I had to make an adjustment for gauge and I have about 2 inches extra. However, I'm only 6 rows in so no biggie to rip. Now that I have Maude to size things up against it's pretty easy to tell when I'm off course.

I also cast on for a meshy knitting poncho that I'll tell you more about tomorrow. It's a pretty big departure for me in terms of the type of knitting I do and I'm really enjoying it!