The Accidental-Crew-Neck Vest

I decided I wanted to make a vest to wear to work and I wanted to make it purple and yellow however I didn't have enough yarn. So I added in some orange and green as well. I really wanted it to be a v-neck vest but I forgot and knitted up too high and then I didn't want to undo it all so I thought bugger it, it can be a crew-neck vest instead. 

I based the fair-isle pattern on one from a book called Knitting out of Africa, which a woman at work kindly showed me. The Africa one is knit sideways though so I had to turn the pattern around. Anyway, it all worked out in the end :)

The Braided Rug

I found this website where this woman had made a braided rug from old t-shirts so I decided I should totally do that and so I did. Obviously. Or I wouldn't be writing this post.

http://captaincrafty.com/2011/11/braided-rug-tutorial/

So there's a sort of junk shop a few suburbs away where they give away free clothes (The Green Shed for people who live in Canberra) and I collected a bunch of old t-shirts (I had to go there numerous times because apparently people don't wear brightly coloured shirts, they only wear grey and dark blue). I chose really old holey shirts so that I wasn't destroying anything too nice and then I just followed the instructions on the website and made a rug! But my rug just won't iron out flat so I sort of stretched it out on my hands and knees and looked like one of those water spiders to try and make it flat and not look like a bowl. But meh, I think it will go flat when people start sitting on it or walking on it or whatever.

It was very easy to make and I braided most of it while watching Eurovision (yes, I am obsessed with Eurovision - go Australia! Go Dami Im!) and then I left it to think about what it's done for a few weeks while I got the diligence (or botheredness) to sew it up because I like to leave half-finished projects around the house for weeks/months/years. Anyway, I like it. Make your own.

Roy's Gambeson

So I made Roy a gambeson for his sword fighting thing and it was a bit of a disaster from start to finish. We didn't have a pattern so we made it all up and hoped for the best. We used calico and batting for the inside.

First I measured him up. When he was at work, I cut out the pieces. Wrong! Shouldn't do that! Stupid idea! It wasn't long enough so I had to cut out pieces to add to the bottom.

Then we messed around with tea dyes and then decided to dye everything blue so I made a big bucket of blue dye (from a packet - I'm not a magician!) and we dumped everything in. It didn't really all fit in there so it dyed a bit unevenly (which I think looks fantastic but everyone has their own opinion). Then we dried it and ironed it and all the pieces had shrunk! This is when I cracked the shits the first time.

Anyway, being the stubborn turd that I am, I decided that I would make the damned gambeson anyway and if it didn't fit Roy then I would wear it as a vest or something crazy. So I started sewing it in a diamond pattern. On the back I decided to sew a cross shape because the era that Roy does sword-fighting in is 600AD - 1200AD (I think!?!?!) Anyway, whatever era it is there were lots of crosses around because Christianity was just taking off and they'd found lots of things with crosses on them in archaeological digs. AND I can't find any gambesons online that have crosses sewn on them so I want to be a cross-shaped pioneer (or a pioneer of cross-shapes).

So that's what the front looked like (the sleeves are sewn in)

And here's my lovely cross on the back. I decided that I would sew the bottom (the bits that I added to make it longer) in stripes, so I left them till last.

Because there's two layers of batting in between the calico, the seams are ridiculously fat and this worried me so I after I sewed the seams up, I sewed them open.

So that's what the seams on the front look like. 

And this is what it looks like on the back. I could have cut the excess back a bit but I didn't because I wanted room to adjust everything. 

Of course the arms were too small for me to sew the seams open so that's when I cracked the shits for the second time. 

Because all the pieces had shrunk, the front of the gambeson was a lot smaller than I wanted. What we wanted to do was have it so the gambeson did up at the centre front with ties but that wasn't going to happen. So I cut out more bloody calico for the front so that it could cross over. Of course, we then had to buy new blue dye. And then I realised that I would like some bias-binding, so I made bias binding (9 bloody metres of the stuff!) and then dyed that and the front bit. We didn't have enough batting to do a double layer, so the front cross-over bit is only a single layer. 

If I had to do this again (which I am never ever, ever, ever in a million years ever going to do again) I would sew all the seams down with bias-binding over the top. Of course, then I would have to make a gazillion metres of bias-binding. 

Anyway, I sewed stripey bits on the sleeves (because they were too short as well) and on the bottom and made some ties and sewed them on the front and now it's finished! And it fits Roy so he gets to wear the dodgy vest and I don't have to!

If it's tied up tightly, the left neck bit goes under the cross-over. I hate that bit. I want to cut it off but Roy won't let me because he likes how it sticks up like that. 

Apparently it's very comfortable so that's good. Roy's been wearing it around the house because he likes it so much. That is also a plus. He wore it to training the other day but he didn't really get to test it out much. As soon as it gets cut with a sword, all hell will break loose. You have been warned. 

Striped Cardigan

I made this striped cardigan from a Lincraft pattern book that I bought cheaply because Lincraft was shutting down in civic. I also got all the yarn really cheap as well.

It was knitted back and forth on circular knitting needles, including the arms which eventually get put onto holders to be done later. Then you're meant to knit the sleeves flat and then sew up the edges. Because of my extreme hatred/laziness of sewing, I knitted the arms in the round so I didn't have to do any sewing. And the front band was meant to be knitted separately and then sewn on but, once again, I didn't do that. I knitted the band straight on, knitting every second stitch of the band to every second stitch on the side of the cardigan. Thus, I didn't have to do any sewing except for sewing the buttons on! Score!

I wish I'd made it longer though.