bodner062

Many, many years ago I participated in a contest on PatternReview and won a prize. I think it was second or third place, but I can’t remember which contest it was. The prize was fabric from Textile Studio (a company that no longer exists) and I chose a lovely wool fabric. It was 2 yards (which is 1.80 meter). Every year when I examined fabrics in my collection at the beginning of the autumn/winter season, this piece of fabric came out and I always thought “I must make some special jacket from it” and back it went in my closet for that special pattern that I would someday make from it. This year I realised that my taste in jackets has changed and I no longer wanted a jacket from it, but that it would make a lovely coat. That provided a challenge: only 2 yards of fabric and the desire to make a coat from it. Sounds like mission impossible, doesn’t it? It took some browsing of patterns, pattern magazines and of course the internet and I found it. I checked all my Burda magazines from the ...

At the beginning of August I showed you a knitted sweater in progress. I finished it a couple of weeks ago and I’m ever so pleased with it. The base was a pattern by Asa Tricosa , but my version doesn’t resemble the original much. It’s mainly used for the general shape, number of stitches, increases/decreases etc. Center front I added a cable from the book Japanese Knitting Stitch Bible: 260 Exquisite Patterns by Hitomi Shida. At the sides I repeated the small cable at the edge. I love the technique that Asa Tricosa has developed, which she calls the “Ziggurat” method. It’s knitting top-down and with very clever techniques you knit the top of the sleeve in one pass with the body too. A way in which you can try it on in an early stage too and adapt for fit more easily. My fear in knitting sweaters was always that I would spend hours and hours (far more time than most sewing projects take) and after assembly would find out that it was not fitting. If you’ve been reading my blog for a l...