Last week, the weather was so inclement that I rarely crossed the threshold. On Tuesday, during a slight thaw, I strapped on my ice grips and slushed to the supermarket. It seemed safer than digging out the car and negotiating the stone pillars at the end of the unplowed driveway. But the sidewalks were clear enough that I came back without the grips, carefully. I haven’t felt shut in even though the museum was closed and handbell and orchestra practices cancelled. I’ve been enjoying my extra week off.
W I P
A significant part of the time has been spent crawling on the lounge floor. Firstly, it’s because the dining table is covered in stuff. Secondly, because I bought some sewing patterns online, and they were PDFs, as is the modern way. On the plus side, you get your pattern immediately and can print only the size you need. On the negative side, after pages are printed you have to stick them all together. While they should have registration marks to align them, on the first pattern they were outside the print area. I devised a template to show where the marks should be, and this helped. The second pattern had clear registration marks, but the pattern booklet didn’t say how to assemble the pages. Should I line up the red lines, or the green diamonds? The internet confirmed it was the green diamonds. The third pattern had clear registration marks and comprehensive assembly instructions, but the marks sometimes disappeared behind the pattern’s printing.
Winter sunrise
Partway through the third pattern, the tape ran out and I resorted to a glue pen. This proved to be quicker. There was no fiddling with long lengths of tape, hoping it wouldn’t stick to itself or to the wrong place on the paper. The technique I used to align the pages was to place foam squares on the floor, pierce a hole in the registration marks and align them to the neighbouring sheet, then pin them down. Once aligned, it was a simple matter to tape the pages together, or gluing by lifting an edge, applying glue, and laying the edge back down. Then I cut out the pattern pieces. Given the amount of time it took aligning and affixing, next time I will seriously consider sending them off to be printed.
Snow textures
When I wasn’t scrabbling on the floor, I did manage to get some knitting done. As expected, progress has slowed, but this is mostly due to knitting less. The yoke is well under way, and the first pattern band of blocks of K3 P3 has been completed. In one more row, the gusset will be half done. The change in the pattern to an equal mix of knits and purls made the knitting feel a bit ‘sloppy’, so I’ve changed down to a 2mm needle to combat any widening tendencies. I’m not sure whether it’s the needle itself or its size, but it feels much better now.
I can’t imagine starting to learn to sew and having to go through all that. Do the people who print pdfs print sewing patterns on big sheets of paper, or do you end up having to put them together anyway? I would want assurances in advance.
It partly depends on how the pattern is formatted. One of the ones I had to assemble was only formatted for letter-size paper. The rest were formatted in various sizes. One could be printed on two big sheets which would then be stuck together. Some patterns are now available as projector files, where the pattern is projected onto the laid-out fabric.
Oh, this looks like an interesting sweater – love the blue. I imagine that I would have difficulty in lining up the sleeve pattern coming down the sleeve, with the sweater pattern. I like the sleeves, the way the ribbing runs from the forearm.
It’s winter and my attention has turned to knitting, gotta start a project! I didn’t make the armholes wide enough on a sweater I knit for my son, and I’m trying to get the courage to rip it down. Take the neck off, undo the shoulders, take the arms off. Not sure I can face it, or if it’s worth it. Mostly concerned about all the end pieces I wove in to secure them. Wish me luck!!!!!
If it’s not comfortable the way it is, I guess it’s worth the effort.
Enjoy exploring your new sewing machine – sounds fun after you get through the learning curve.
I’m not going to worry whether the sleeves line up with the body. As long as the bands are the same width, they’ll match up well enough. I hope.
Good luck with the frogging!