Little things

August was not a good month. I spent most of it feeling quite heinously unwell, and alternated between lurking on my own sofa being miserable and lurking on my mother's sofa being miserable, which is a revoltingly boring way to spend your time. So: roll on September! My health situation is a little bit more under control right now, the next couple of weeks are allegedly going to be quite pleasant from a weather point of view, and therefore I am determined to be optimistic that September will be all round an improvement.

Apart from a sleeveless blouse (which I only wore once due to weather, but actually loved on that one wear, so that's a win) and finishing my Backshore sweater, I did manage to finish up a couple of teeny tiny projects in August.  It's heavy on the knitting side of things because knitting is something I can do while sitting miserably on various sofas with a good level of success, whereas sewing is a bit more energetic and therefore was more than I could manage for most of August.

First little knitting completed object: a sparkle scarf. Ages ago my mum bought (for £1.99) a ball of sparkly multi-coloured yarn from the reduced bin at Aldi (a discount supermarket, for those unfamiliar), and asked me to knit her a scarf with it.

Drop Stitch Sparkle Scarf

I picked and very slightly adapted the (free) Drop Stitch Scarf pattern (Ravelry link) and made her a long skinny, sparkly scarf. I can't say I loved the yarn, which is a chunky acrylic variegated with a thin gold thread, but I think it turned out very nicely for a £2 investment and a few hours of my time. At any rate, my mum really likes it and she is the one who will be wearing it, so that's a success. I like the pattern a lot: once you get the hang of the drop stitches it goes really quickly and I really enjoy the shapes it makes. I want a green scarf this winter and I am planning to invest in some nice Aran weight yarn to make up with this same pattern.

The second little knitted object I made in August was my first ever hat. Right at the start of the year, I made a cowl from some vintage DK and boucle yarns held double. It actually turned out lovely -- I love the burgundy colour and the nubbliness of the boucle and the way the two different yarns, which are slightly different shades of burgundy, combined together with they were held double. It also goes really nicely with my winter coat, which is grey. At any rate, I wore it loads and decided that when I got the chance I would make a woolly hat to go with it. I hit upon the (free) Quick and Easy Slouchy Hats (Ravelry link) pattern, which has three simple variations. My cowl is just seed stitch, so I made variation 1, a seed stitch, moderately slouchy hat (the instructions say to knit 8" above the ribbing for some slouch, and 12" for a LOT of slouch, and I chose the former).

I look like a total plonker in knitted hats, but if the weather is cold enough to need one, I prize a warm head over aesthetics. However, there will be no modelled shot! :D

And finally, I have managed to sew a TINY bit in the last few days as I've started to feel a bit better. Fortunately (or, not fortunately, but something) I had a fairly urgent need for something very simple to get me started sewing again, a basic white t-shirt, after there was an Unfortunate Incident involving my sole remaining RTW basic white t-shirt and a large pot of apparently laundry detergent resistant dark chocolate pudding.

The only remotely interesting details about this are that (a) after making a lot of tees based on New Look 6150, this is actually a new but only marginally different base pattern, Ottobre 02-2007-03. This is because that pattern has a really nice V-neck variation (pattern #5) that I plan to make next -- this round/slightly scooped neck version was a quick test of my mashup of the pattern my knit sloper before I try the V-neck version; (b) it's in tactel, which is a knit fabric I have not sewn with before, and which is remarkable only for wanting nothing to do with the iron in any way. Other than that, it's a basic white tee, surely the least interesting of sewing projects but I am happy to have finished SOMETHING, no matter how basic!

Next up: I have started a new sweater! Prepare for regular updates if you follow me on Instagram as I am once again planning the Knit A Bit Every Day approach and I enjoy documenting my progress; I will be sewing a (more interesting) knit top as I am able over the next few days, and I am absolutely, 100% determined that Operation Jacket is a go now that it's the first of September. My goal this week is to get the pattern traced.