Pocket Stays

The summer edition of Interweave Knits has two sewing patterns in it, so I feel a little better about having "knitter" in my name, but some sewing on my blog.

Warning: The rest of this post may make you want to sew your jeans. And your shorts.

Yes, I'm so excited about the pants I made, that I'm showing you my tummy. Check Instagram for the rear view.

There is a key phrase missing from a lot of sewing patterns, even when the pattern has the feature: "pocket stay." I'm thinking that designers don't talk about it because they figure most people don't know what it is or how awesome a feature it is.

At a minimum, pockets really should come up to the waist. In Making Trousers for Men & Women, David Page Coffin writes, "I recommend extending your pocket bags to reach whatever waist finish you’ve chosen. This way, you can support the bag from the waist rather than only from the pocket mouth."

When I say, "pocket stay" in jeans, I mean a front pocket that comes all of the way from the zipper to the outside leg seam. It's also caught in the waistband (but, I think, all jeans-style pockets would be, anyway). In a way, the pocket becomes a kind of mini-lining that does two things. 1) Your pockets can't flip out. I don't know if I'm the only person annoyed by having to tuck my pockets back in when they come out, but it really bothers me. 2) Any tension on the front of your pants has a little extra support, which keeps the front of your jeans from stretching out as your day goes on.

For some people, this feature could act as a "tummy control" panel, but I don't think of it that way. I definitely notice, now, when I wear jeans that don't have a pocket stay, that the front tends to stretch out. But really, the not-untucked pockets is my favorite part of having a pocket stay.

Up until about a year ago, I wouldn't have known that this feature even existed in jeans. But I happened to try on a pair of Not Your Daughter's Jeans at Macy's. Even on sale, they were the most expensive pair of jeans I'd ever worn, but they felt awesome and looked great, so I bought them.

I felt much better about my splurge when I found an almost identical pair at Goodwill a few weeks later and only paid $5 for them. When I average the two, it bring the cost below my usual $40/pair budget. Coincidentally, that's what my jeans fabric cost when I bought it, too.

Killer feature in both of these jeans? Pocket stays.

Now I look out for them, or ask the designer about them, before I buy any pattern for a pair of pants.

So far, I've made J. Stern Designs' The Ponte Knit Jeans (My first sewn zipper fly! My first pants!) in ponte knit and, after Jennifer chatted with me on Instagram, in stretch denim. I  bought her misses' Jeans that have the same feature, with a different fit, but I haven't tried them, yet. My first two pairs fit so well that I might not branch out, though.

I own Stretch and Sew 716 - which has pocket stays, but doesn't call them that. Instead, it says, "The front pockets extend into the zipper stitching, creating a smooth, stabilized front." I haven't made any, yet, but I'm super-curious about how they will fit. Those chicks from 1980 look pretty pleased with themselves.

You can draft your own pocket stays to go with any pattern, of course. There is more than one tutorial for that out there, including this one.

Go forth and stay those pockets! Ask your friendly independent designer if their pants/shorts include that feature. Then buy them.

I find it amusing that my paypal account has basically become a way for me to turn my Ravelry and Craftsy pattern sales into sewing patterns.

Sip Study Knit Knitting Guild - June 18

See, I still knit. Although this isn't for class. Oops.

It's been quiet on the blog (and podcast), I know! There are two main reasons:

1) Sewing.
Yes, I know. I'm starting to calm down a little bit, but whenever I have a stretch of free time, I pounce on my sewing machine. Knitting will always be my first, and truest, love, but I'm really enjoying learning something from scratch.

2) Teaching.
I was chatting with a friend a few months ago and this phrase came out of my mouth:

"I love teaching. I really love it. More than almost anything."

You know how, sometimes, you realize, after you said something, that it's really, really true?

So, I've been building more teaching into my life. I know the podcast and, really, this blog, feed that need, too. But, there's no substitute for hands-on teaching.

I'm putting the finishing touches on two classes that I will present in the Chicago Area in a little over a month. Swatching and writing worksheets takes a lot of time! Here are the details, ripped off of the flyer the guild made:

--

Coming To The Sip Study Knit Knitting Guild In Hoffman Estates, IL
Come join us Saturday June 18, 2016
Two 2 - three-hour workshops

9am - 12pm - Socks for SSK
Lara will inspire us into the world of knitting the most unique, wonderful, and awesome socks of your life. Lara will start our customized class with an overview of why certain heels and toes fit different feet. Then, we can go through each step of making a toe-up gusseted heel as time permits.  Bring your favorite needles for working in the round and yarn to match.$50 members / $75 non-members

1pm - 4pm - Color Work for the Cowardly
Do you want to add more color to your knitting, but are sick of seams and tired of puckers? Join Lara for an afternoon of tips, techniques and a few tricks up her sleeve to make you fall in love with multiple-strand knitting and even intarsia (really!) Bring an open mind, small amounts of worsted-weight yarn in at least two colors and your favorite needles for working in the round. $50 members / $75 non members

Contact Emma at SipStudyKnit (at) gmail.com    -    Or check out our Ravelry Group Sip Study Knit

Sip Study Knit is a Knitting Guild located in the Chicago Suburbs Focusing on providing an educational experience for the intermediate to advanced knitter.

--

I'm pretty sure there are still open spots in both classes, so check it out if you are in the area!

V-neck Accomplished!

It's a slippery, slinky knit fabric, so it wasn't easy to sew, but it feels WONDERFUL on and I love the drape! It's the perfect background piece for a smashing knit wrap.

Yes, very pro photo - nothing like the lady's room.

I hacked the v-neck from this pattern onto the t-shirt I've made a few times. 

Party Like It's 1984

With Many, Many Apologies to Shakespeare

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.
I come to bury the 1980s, not to praise them.
The evil that shoulderpads do lives after them;
The good is oft interrèd with their bones.
So let it be with the '80s. The noble Brutus
Hath told you that decade was ambitious.
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath hair gel answered it.

--

Ok, all goofiness aside, sewing has spawned, for me, an interest that is...unusual. In the course of the last few months, I've become an enthusiast and collector of patterns from Stretch & Sew, a company that no longer exists!

It was founded by Ann Person, and you can learn a lot more about here here.

I was born in 1979, so I'm not especially wild about 1980s style. It's easier for me to be nostalgic about the 1970s and see the punk-rock side of all of the decades after that as fun. This could be because of my body shape. Those shoulder pads and big hair did very little for my ten-year-old, but already wide-shoulder sporting frame.

However, I pick up Stretch & Sew patterns wherever I find them, no matter the vintage or style. (I've had great luck at Goodwill and, lately, at the Textile Center Garage Sale.) I'm very unlikely to ever want a Dolman Sleeve dress. But, I DO want a good way to sew a v-neck, with awesomely clear instructions. So, this is going to be hacked onto another top pattern that I like, as a test.

I have to admit that those boots are pretty cute, though. That front view uses snap tape, which is pretty much restricted to children's clothes, now. It might look super-cute with a zipper, instead. Hm.

Craftsy's Cloudborn Yarn

When I heard about Craftsy's new yarn line, Cloudborn, I was curious. I mean, they already sell some of my favorite yarns. So, they should know a lot about what goes into a "good" yarn. But, knowing and doing are two different things. How would their yarns stack up? 

My sample package arrived and I love the way the colors go together!

First, the sock yarn. My sample of Cloudborn Superwash Merino Sock Twist is a hand paint called Slightly Serious. 100 grams of it (one hank) would be plenty to create a pair of socks. It's 80% Superwash Merino and 20% Polyamide. After a little googling, I'm 90% sure that Polyamide is what most people would call Nylon. It has several plies and seems well-spun. 

My Checked and Square socks would pair well with this yarn, I think. I may have to try it!

It should be hard-wearing even though it is very, very soft. And, I mean very. I think if you didn't want to make socks with it, it would also make a great Sockhead Slouch Hat (free pattern!) or an Autumn Dreams baby sweater. 

The Cloudborn Baby Alpaca Bulky is the softest of the soft. Don't expect it to be tough - 100% baby alpaca isn't going to be, but it is lofty, the color is even and even has a slight sheen. It would be darling as a Wee Speedy (free pattern!)

Last but not least in my sample pack is the Cloudborn Merino Alpaca Sport. 80% Superwash Merino and 20% Baby Alpaca. It's not a superwash yarn, even though the wool is superwash. The color I have has a heathered appearance - this is probably because the alpaca and the merino take up dye slightly differently. The alpaca will probably bloom with wear, so a complex stitch pattern may not show up well. But, these little RONA Wrist Cuffs (free pattern)? Divine.

This post contains affiliate links. 

I Love a Black Dress

I used this free pattern from Sew So Easy and made it a bit longer and used a neckband at the neck instead of a facing.

I love it! Sewing with knits isn't as hard as a lot of people think it is. You just have to adjust your technique a little bit. 

On REALLY Not Fitting

I made these knit shorts and I meant for them to be roomy - but not as large as they turned out. I was doing dishes at the sink on the first Saturday that I wore them, when I started to feel a bit of a draft. They, literally, were falling off! For those of you who know me in person, you'll know they have to be pretty darn big. It was a first-time event for me, I'll tell you that!

So, maybe I should have hedged my bets with a drawstring. Live and learn!

From Paris with Love

This is a shot from...oh, right before we came back from Paris, last October. Those two little bundles are fabric remnants I bought at Lil Weasel, which, even though it doesn't seem possible, is even cuter than its website. 

I'm finally making myself cut into the lattice fabric. There's just enough to make a shell. Wish me luck!

Math4Knitters: Show 48

Show notes and more at math4knitters.blogspot.com.

Math4Knitters: Episode 48

Woven Stockings, Caucasus, 700 CE

Really old, really cool knit sock from about 1100 - 1200

Click to make bigger.

This one is a bit smaller, but just as cool

My favorite version of an afterthought/inserted/pocket heel. (Full information about making this heel is in my book, Sock Architecture, and my Craftsy class.) If you watch the Craftsy class, you get to see me get REALLY excited when the heel bone and the thumb bone on a model skeleton are the same length.

New Apron!

Pardon the mess, I'm just excited about my apron! Check out the pretty cute pattern matching on the pockets. 

I love little three-pocket aprons for when I'm selling somewhere, teaching, or just knitting around the house. 

The three pockets are awesome for when you want to knit with multiple colors. Simply put each color in its own pocket, and you're way less likely to get all tangled up in yourself. 

When I'm teaching, my apron is great because I can shove my little sample piece of knitting into a pocket while I help a student. It reduces the amount of time I spend chasing down the yarn and needles I set down somewhere, usually across the room. 

And, also around the house, when I'm chatting on the phone with my sister as I knit, fold laundry, or whatever, it's great to have somewhere to hold my phone while I use an earbud headset!

To Set a Course, To Change Course

The view from my company's NYC office in the Garment District. Check out the dress form.

I have not moved to New York! I just went on a business trip. 

Maybe this is strange, but sometimes I try to imagine the other paths I could have taken in life. It leads me to a lot of questions.

What is a good life?

Why would you change your life?

How many chances to we get to make a big change?

If every other step in my life hadn’t gone the way it has gone, how different would I be?

I wouldn’t be as confident in learning to sew if I couldn’t take Craftsy classes, like this one, this one and this one.

I wouldn’t know as much as I do about knitting if I hadn’t dedicated so much of my last 17 years to it. A lot of that learning process was at the very beginning, but a great deal of it has been in the last few years. Bill Bryson says, every time that he writes a book about grammar or writing, he learns a lot more about it. I feel the same way about my knitting and writing.

Whenever I have a small fit of professional jealousy (it always passes if I sit quietly and maybe have a snack), I remember that Alison Bechdel has had periods of her life when that sort of jealousy nearly consumed her. That makes me feel much better, since I admire her work.

…and I try to remember something a fellow student told me when I was in grad school. I told him I was worried that I wasn’t as good as the other students, including him. He said, “Everyone will always be at different levels. The question is, are you improving?”

I had a career that I know a lot of people think was glamorous and exciting. It could be. It often wasn’t. I know people think that because many, many strangers I met told me that they envied my job. If they counted my nights away from home, the times I felt breathless panic when my phone rang, the moments when I had to respond blandly to another person’s pain or rage, or the meals with friends and family that I had to miss, would they still be jealous?

Is the popular-culture image of the artist as a tortured soul a way for society to assuage its envy of the artist as a “non-producer”? If you spend your day chopping wood, the guy who paints may seem a bit frivolous, right? So you imagine that he’s just bent up inside, unable to do a normal job, compelled by some dark force beyond your reckoning?

I could have been a lawyer.

I could have been a full-time teacher.

I could have remained a photographer.

I could have been a more well-known knitwear designer.

I could have been a professional seamstress.

Those all would have taken a change in my life to happen.

This is pretty rambling! This is what I am, instead of any of those one things.

I’m an artist. I also have a day job. I’m happy with that. Can I always do things as quickly as I like? Do I get to pursue every possible chance to practice my art? No and no. But, that’s ok with me. Maybe I’ve seen too many freelance photographers dangle over the precipice of contracts that don’t get paid on time and living on rice to make it all work. I have security and (usually) enough resources to do what I need to do to keep myself sane.

I’m an artist. My mediums are the written word, knitting, photography, sewing, weaving and spinning. My exact relationship to each of those things is evolving every day. 

I’m learning to be ok with that

Zippers!

It's still not always perfect (on the first try), but I am getting better at installing zippers!

Math4Knitters: Show 47

Show notes and more at math4knitters.blogspot.com.

Math4Knitters: Episode 47

A bit of a ramble today about some WTHeck moments I've had while reading sources. Sorry!

Textile fragment found during the Yale-French Excavations at Dura-Europos (around 250)

There is a lot more information about the Dura-Europos site here.

Socks made in the 4th or 5th century, found at the burial grounds of Oxyrhynchus, a Greek colony on the Nile in central Egypt.

These socks are currently at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Boxers

Sometimes a girl just needs something to wear around the house, you know? 

Math4Knitters Episode 46

Show notes and more at math4knitters.blogspot.com.

Math4Knitters: Episode 46

I ran my audio through some filters this week. I hope it sounds better. 

The Story of Portyanki, AKA "Chemical Weapons"

Wrapping feet in cloth didn't end when knitting burst onto the world scene. Russian soldiers were officially issued footcloths, called portyanki, right up until 2013. Want more? Read up here.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FootClothFromFinnishDefenceForces.JPG

Russians weren't the only ones who used footcloths well into the modern era. Finnish soldiers, German soldiers and others from Eastern Europe did, too. (I got that from Wikipedia, so proceed with caution if you accidentally end up a soldier somewhere from the time period after falling through time. It could be wrong.)

Why would you do this to yourself? Footwraps are definitely cheaper and faster to produce than socks. I could see them being made, easily, from old clothes or other linens. They dry faster than socks. You can re-wrap them in a different direction, so they could still be used even if they had a worn spot or a hole. 

This reusable nature wasn't always a blessing, though. My favorite tales of portyanki have to do with the smell. From the Moscow Times: 

"They believe that footcloth smell could defeat any enemy, because no European or American can deal with such a smell," she said. "They just smell it and die instantly."

Bykov agreed, recalling, "They smelled terribly, and everyone said portyanki were chemical weapons."

...and another thing that didn't occur to me...

Sometimes footcloths are a blessing in disguise, Merridale said, because when soldiers get their boots, they don't necessarily get ones that fit them.

"If you are good at wrapping portyanki, then you can wrap up five or six and end up with boots that really fit," Merridale said.

I also have a general theory that people who didn't (or don't) wear socks and shoes every day simply have less sensitive feet. A soldier backs me up in this BBC article about wearing portyanki: 

"Your feet become so hard you can drive in nails with your toes".

So, there's that. 

And Now, A Little Tale of My Hubris

As modern knitters and knit designers, it's easy to get carried away and think that the way that we write knitting patterns is superior to writers of the past. 

We are working under different assumptions and expectations made by our audiences, our publishers and ourselves. 

When you read "Maintain decreases, in pattern," don't think the writer is just being lazy. She/he may have severe space restraints. She/he may *gasp* simply expect that her/his audience is well-versed in knitting and would be annoyed by stitch-by-stitch instructions. 

A little over a year ago, one of my knitting students brought me a well-loved slipper that her mother made her about 30 years before. She asked me if it would be possible to write a pattern from it. I did my best. Then, about a week later, a friend of mine dropped an old booklet on my desk. I think it was to tease me, but I was delighted. It included a pattern for those slippers!

The Bernhard Ulmann Co. gave these slippers the charming name of “Slippers No. 2260” in Bucilla Vol. 340, which cost $3.50 in 1976. The pattern is probably at least as old as 1950, and if anyone hunts around enough, I’m sure they will find several versions. I’ve already heard many charming stories of people learning how to knit with this pattern, which I absolutely adore!

I thought the pattern would be perfect for my beginning knitting students, so I tried just photocopying it for them. As we worked through it, together, however, I found several ways to make the pattern easier to use and, frankly, more fun to knit.

So, I rewrote it. Our beloved, invented-in-the-1980’s ssk didn’t exist at the time, so I added that in. I also added some slipped stitches at the beginning of most of the rows, to make the top edge of the slipper a little neater. I’m also not crazy about counting stitches on every other row, so I put in stitch markers to keep my place. To be nice to our friends everywhere, I’ve also added metric measurements.

The original pattern was amazingly concise. I actually covered it up with my iPhone and I don't have one of the huge ones! But, the original author did something well that I did rather...less well. 

The toe of the slipper is all in ribbing. I wrote out stitch-by-stitch instructions for keeping up the ribbing along with the decreases. She/he wrote: "Work 6 (6-8) sts..."

Well, I completely messed up the second decrease row. If you follow my instructions to a T, your ribbing will be off. It is the last row of the pattern and it doesn't really show if you mess it up, but I'm sure it would be frustrating to get all of the way to the end and have it look wrong! 

I could have charted the toe. I probably should have. Instead, I wrote it all out, stitch by stitch, found the center of each row, and ended up with this big slice of crazy. 

It looks like I stumbled when I thought that the center stitch will be the same on an even number of stitches, worked an even number of times as when it's worked an odd number of times. 

In other words, I probably thought about: 

P1 (k1, p1) worked once - where the center stitch is a k1. 

but:

P1 (k1, p1) worked twice - the center stitch is a p1. Written out: P1, k1, p1, k1, p1. 

Now that I see it, I'm like, well, of course! But, I hadn't thought of it before. The sizes for this pattern don't have large differences between them, just a few stitches, which I think makes a mistake like this more likely. But, having noticed this, I will be more vigilant when I write slipped-stitch heel flaps. It feels like this could happen very easily there, too. 

I will test-knit the final three rows of each size, just to be sure that it's correct before I unleash this madness on an unsuspecting world. 

If you have already bought the pattern, please accept my apologies. That's what I get for thinking that a simple pattern is easy to re-invent! I'll send an update when I finish. 

Changing Horizontal Elbow Dart to Vertical Dart

p. 112

Source

Vertical Darts (Including Princess Seams)

p. 84-85

I can't claim to really understand  how this works, but it looks cool!

Reading this book has made me feel much less stingy about buying patterns. This is a lot of work!

Source

Math4Knitters: Episode 45

Show notes and more at math4knitters.blogspot.com.

Math4Knitters: Episode 45

Awesome illustration by Leslie Johnson

Books I mentioned:

History of Hosiery

Sock Architecture

The sound quality on this isn't quite as good as I would like, but I'm determined to not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. I am using a microphone, and I'll see if backing away more from the computer's fan will help when I'm recording. 

Changing a Bust Dart Into Shoulder Dart Tucks

p. 62

Source

Pleasant Pheasant Slippers!

I'm so excited that Dream in Color chose my slipper design for their February, 2016 Dream Club! The Pleasant Pheasants are fun, fast, and easy to knit.

As soon as my sinus thing (I don't know what's going on) clears up, I'll jump right in to podcasting, again. I can't wait to talk to you all!