Sally's 2020 work

I want to thank laurelkeet for letting me abuse her Needlearts thread and post my stuff there, but I think I had better start my own thread, rather than continue to abuse her. I confess she advised me to do this from the start, but I finally got the message. To start off, here again is that picture of my granddaughter in the smocked dress I made her.



It seemed to be in focus before. I wonder what I did wrong this time?

Sally, I'm delighted to see this thread! Not because of the aforementioned "abuse," which was no trouble at all, but because your work is so lovely it deserves a place of its own. I look forward to future posts.

P.S. the photo of your granddaughter looks fine to me

Looks fine to me too. I've noticed that sometimes photos that look fine in my photos on the computer don't always look as sharp when I post them here. I'm sure there's some technical reason, but I don't worry about it. Looking forward to seeing what you post.

I won't be posting very often, because my works are few, but I so appreciate the support and advice I have gotten here. Thank you lovely ladies.

Photo looks great to me; what a pretty dress! I made a smocked maternity dress out of some crepe-backed satin (I think that's what we used to call it) in the very early 80s. It was not smocked densely like your red dress, but more honeycomb. It was lovely. It ended up as a "dress-up" that my girls played with a couple of years. I did smock an ornament that I still put on the tree some years.

Are you working on anything now?

Thanks for coming by, Lois. That dress is very special to me. I wished the embroidery was in better focus. You can't see the mufflers on the snowmen, or the snow falling, or the snow on every branch of each tree. I'll have to find the picture of my daughter in that dress, and post it.

I made a similar smocked dress with a sea-shell fabric for my daughter as well. She had been to the Atlantic beach for the first time, and was wild about shells at the time. On the sea-shell dress I even made the piping from scratch, because I couldn't find a compatible color for it. My granddaughter wore it for Halloween this year, dressed as a suffragette.

I'm knitting a sweater, for myself for a change. I haven't made anything for myself for greater than 35 years. The pattern suggest a gansey to me, but it isn't technically a gansey.

I posted the yarn on laurelkeet's thread, but it is Chroma from Knitpicks, in the colorway "sandpiper". It looks like this:

>6 sallypursell: Oh, that's a lovely subtle blend.

>7 avaland: In practice, so far, it is a little darker, with the darkest shade more evident. That original picture is what Knitpicks had on their website. I love Knitpicks! I have a bunch of their yarn, and the interchangeable needles in two colorways, the some double-pointed needles of theirs. I just wish they had a pale colorway for the needles, other than that Sunstruck color, which I don't like. But beautiful as the needles are, they are generally dark, which isn't as convenient with darker yarns.

I'm a fan of KnitPicks, too -- great yarn at very reasonable prices. I also have one of their interchangeable circular needle sets, and I bought a yarn winder & swift from them (again, it was very reasonably priced compared to other sources).

>9 lauralkeet: I have the yarn winder and swift, too, but no great place to set them up. It's annoying. They need to have the yarn at the same height, at least roughly, and since our house is only just about 1000 square feet, and it is crammed with the tools for so many crafts and arts, it looks like we are hoarders, almost. We're not, though, we just had 6 people in the family, with our four kids, and the tools and supplies for each of their arts or crafts. We have sculptures from my daughter (they won't tolerate an outside environment), and the thousands of books, and stuff to do photography, sculpture, and sewing, quilting, knitting, embroidery, origami, candle-making, soap-making, baking, cake decorating, multiple computers, silk-screening equipment, a darkroom, drawing, painting, and drafting equipment, framing supplies, not to mention carpentry, pottery, plumbing, and plaster-work ... it goes on and on. Oh yes, besides the sewing and quilting supplies, I have collections of saris and yukata and kimono. We also have a 100 year-old house with no closets. Just imagine!

>10 sallypursell: oh my goodness! That's a lot of crafting stuff.

Here is the other smocked dress I made for my daughter, with the same granddaughter wearing it for Halloween, as a suffragette. This is the sea-shell dress; maybe you can see the sea-shells in the border around the hem. The bodice is lined with a coordinating print, one large sea-shell. The seams are finished and I made the piping by hand, so the color would go. The smocking is geometric, and in all the colors one can find in the shells: pink, pale blue, cream, pale yellow, salmon, light tan. It is quite pretty. I'm sorry the picture is so poor. I might be able to get a better one by going to my son's house to take a new one.



When my daughter wore it, she was taller than Lyra is, if I remember correctly.

>12 sallypursell: It's very pretty. I vote for close ups of the smocking, myself.

>10 sallypursell: ha! As I was reading your list, I was checking off what I also have or have had. Luckily, I didn't have it all at the same time, but it's quite a lot :-)

Another lovely dress. (was Lyra named for The Golden Compass?

>14 avaland: I'm not sure about the name. I think I asked at one time, but I would guess not. Her mother is a reader. I'll have to ask again. Given that I don't have better pictures of these, items which kept me occupied in pleasure for months, I think I do need to go take those pictures. And maybe the quilts I gave to nieces and nephews, too. I don't think I'll go to Romania to photograph that one, though!

What lovely dresses! I had a smocked dress my mom made that had to be pried out of my hands when I got too big for it.

>14 avaland: Lois, Lyra was named for Macannon mac Lir, or Llyr, the Irish/Celtic God of the seas and other things, too. Of course, it is a feminized form.

Their older child is a son, and his name is Cathal, a relatively common Irish name, famous from being the name of a number of Irish Saints, poets and bards, and numerous Kings of Irish kingdoms, most notably Munster and Connacht.

My daughter-in-law's maiden name is O'Brien, and she takes a (reasonable amount of) pride in being a descendant of Brian Boru, a High King of Ireland in early Medieval times, and also a one-time King of Munster, and head of his Dynasty. I also have some Irish heritage, and the kids wanted unusual names for their kids, names which would acknowledge their joint heritage.

My son has an unusual name (unusual here, I mean) of British origin, Corin, and my daughter-in-law is named Jessica, a very common name in her age group.

We gave each of our kids an unusual first name, and then a name from the family for a middle name. This, my oldest son, Corin, and his wife have followed suit: Cathal's middle name is Clayton, after both his father and my husband, his grandfather. Lyra's middle name is Eleanore, after Jessica's mother. All of them, even my son, use O'Brien Pursell for a last name, with no hyphen. I hope I haven't bothered you with all this information.

Thank you all for your praise of the dresses. Their designs took me quite a lot of time.

>17 sallypursell: interesting origin story, and I imagine the name used in the Pullman books has a the same roots.

>19 avaland: It certainly wouldn't surprise me. Does that imply the Pullman Lyra is semi-divine, as all the Irish seem to think they are? Just gentle joshing at some forebears of mine

Here's the actual yarn on my actual sweater. It seems a little more dramatic than the specimen from the website. I'll also post the swaying ribbing.
Remember that this isn't blocked yet.



The pale stripe is a pale green. I'm not any good at manipulating color in Photoshop.

The ribbing:

I visited my son and my granddaughter, and here are some details from the sea-shell dress:

First, the smocking. I guess it's not very original, but it seemed perfect for this dress. I made the piping by hand, and you will see in a moment that it is the right color.

Now, the fabrics. First the little shells print, which has all those colors in it that I used in the smocking. At the bottom is a border print of bigger shells.





The hem is put up with wide satin ribbon.

And here's a little secret--the embroidery is faced with one large nautilus shell. This is a picture of the inside of the bodice, with the front lining showing.



You can just see the zipper-pull at the bottom of the picture.

There's a peter pan collar, with piping at the edge, and little puffed short sleeves. All the seams are finished, flat-felled or cased.

>23 sallypursell: and >24 sallypursell: That is some amazing work you've done there. The smocking alone is praiseworthy, and the entire effort is wonderful. I admit I'm partial to flat-felled seams myself; you almost make me want to sew something. Almost.

>25 Lyndatrue: What a lovely and gracious compliment, Lyndatrue. Thank you so much. I did spend a long time on this dress, designing the smocking, doing that, then all the finish work on the seams. Still, my daughter loved it, and my granddaughter does too. It was definitely worth the time I put into it.

Very, very nice. So much work. It's nice when it can be passed down.

>23 sallypursell:, >24 sallypursell: these are beautiful! My sewing skills do not extend to smocking. It looks impressive.

And now, the bad news. The striped sweater, in self-striping yarn, is at a halt. It was dependent upon finding a spot in the yarn that matched where I started for the back. But I have rolled five skeins into balls and not found any matching sequences. I'm letting the back, which is finished, age a little while I decide whether to rip the whole back and recast the pattern in the round, or buy more yarn, still looking for the same place in the dyed sequences. I suppose it was wrong of me to start without being sure of a matching spot in the color sequence, but the page on Knitpicks certainly implied that the sequences were made to a plan.
Frustrating. And I liked the back so much, too.

While I let the near-gansey percolate a while I need something to knit while my husband watches the blow-'em-up, car-chase, gun-battle type of movie he likes the most. He used to switch off choice with me, but he's gotten refractory.

I decided to knit a scarf for a beloved younger brother of mine, and I found a mosaic knitting pattern I liked. Of course I can't make it the way it was designed. It's too narrow, for one thing.

I graphed out a variation of it in a width a little more than doubled, but that meant some significant changes. I was thinking about that so much that cast on in the wrong one of two colors. I didn't realize how much I didn't like it until row 14 or so, and I was annoyed with myself. It is simply taking too long to get this started.

It was supposed to be a quick start, but what with the graphing and all, it is taking a while.

It is in a buttery soft baby Alpaca, in the finest grade, and it is no trial to knit with. I am cheerfully starting it again. You see, it is in two colors, an off-white and terra cotta color, with the white as the background of the mosaic. Instead I started with the white as color A when it should have been color B. I'll show you that 14-row beginning, and you will see that the weights are all wrong--it definitely should start with the terra cotta.

That does look "buttery soft," Sally :-)

Sorry to hear about your sweater problem. It would take a lot for me to consider ripping out the whole back. Can you check with Knitpicks and see what they say about the striping. That scarf does look very soft. I like the color combo.

Ugh, I too am sorry to hear about the sweater. I agree with Betty (>32 dudes22:) that it would be worth contacting KnitPicks for advice.

I am interested to see your mosaic project as it develops. For the Master Hand Knitting certification program I need to work a number of swatches in new-to-me techniques. So not only do I need to learn the technique, I need to be able to demonstrate a certain level of proficiency which, realistically, doesn't happen on the first attempt. Mosaic is one of these. At the moment I'm wrestling with double knitting, although I think I've turned the corner from "frustration" to "fun."

>29 sallypursell: What if you just knitted the sweater in the round as far as the armholes and then there would be no worries about matching? The added bonus is not having to sew the sides together later!

>34 SassyLassy: Lassy, that is just what I think I will end up doing, but that means frogging the entire back that I have already knitted. I must say I like the results, and I feel inclined to do that. I prefer knitting in the round, anyway.

>33 lauralkeet: I have always found mosaic knitting to be fun, and not difficult. I think I tried it when I first got Barbara Walker's first treasury of knitting patterns--is that the right name?--that would have been very long ago. Maybe 1970? I knitted my first lace, first cables, first self-designed sweater, and first fair isle, I think. I knitted a huge sampler, which I carried around in a cardboard box, and I told people it was a "baby booty". It was knit in a tube shape, as I recall. I designed a scarf for the same brother I just mentioned, which had a piano keyboard, and the block letters " Tom Tenor Tom Thomas Tenor " It was way too long, but he really liked it.

>32 dudes22: Betty, it is a good idea, to check with Knitpicks. I though maybe to buy another skein or two to check, but they have been out of that colorway for a couple of months. This is what the Chroma page says, the line that led me to believe that the sequence would be repeated

For Chroma fans, please note that new colors now features a mirrored repeat instead of sequential.

Oh - so the repeat goes (let's say) up (1-9) and then comes back down (9-1) rather than starting over at 1? Maybe you should try re-rolling one of the skeins in the opposite direction?

>35 sallypursell: I hope I find mosaic easy and fun, as you have, Sally. I do enjoy learning new patterns even if they sometimes give me fits at the beginning.

>36 dudes22: that's a good idea!

>36 dudes22: >37 lauralkeet: I've already re-rolled all the skeins both ways twice! I kept thinking I had just missed it or gotten distracted, and needed to check again.

Good news! I had set aside one skein to use last, because there were so many knots and breaks in the strand. Now I find that one of the pieces is perfect for those first few colored rows.It matches the first 10 colors, anyway, and there is a second section which is a near match for the next few colors.

The mosaic knitting with the colors reversed is turning out well. I will show it to you all when I have enough to make it worth showing.

Great news! Glad you didn't have to rip out the back.

>39 sallypursell: I'm really glad you'll be able to finish your sweater. Can't wait to see the mosaic piece.

My first time to read your postings and I will say I really like the dress and what a cute model. I bet she loves it.

>42 mnleona: Well, thank you, mnleona. I appreciate that you took the time to tell me so. And yes, she does love it.

I finally have something to show on the mosaic scarf. I kept needing to revise the pattern and pulling it out again. I think this time it is worth keeping.



It needs blocking, of course. Here's a picture of it draped in my lap. Mosaic knitting benefits greatly from blocking. I don't think the picture looks as good as the real thing.

That's a cool pattern. I can see how all that color changing would get confusing.

Thanks for sharing your mosaic piece, Sally. I like that design. I mentioned upthread that a mosaic knitting swatch is part of the Master Hand Knitting program. You assured me it wasn't that difficult, and you were right. I worked a checkerboard pattern that I found online. I struggled at first because I missed a fine point about changing colors with the yarn in front or yarn in back, but once I got that I was on my way.

Here's my completed swatch:


I have no idea when I will use this again, but it's a nice technique to have in my toolkit.

>45 dudes22: Oh, I didn't have trouble. You don't really change colors for each stitch, you merely use one color per row, and alternate that. The color changes are accomplished by slipping stitches in the color you are not knitting with, and knitting the stitches in the current color. The problem was that I kept deciding to change things about what was placed where, and what needle size to use.

I have always liked the way the edge shows stripes of the colors (if you decide to do that). I think when it is blocked it should look as nice as Laurelkeet's in post 46.

>44 sallypursell: Catching up. That's a nice pattern, Sally.