1 yard. 30 minutes. Skirt!

I haven't done much experimenting with jersey, but I think it's high time I started. I had some leftover jersey lying around, so I made a tube skirt out of it. Probably the quickest, easiest, and most wearable thing I've ever made. And it's sexy by suggestion, rather than by skin, which is my favorite kind of sexy.

All you need is one yard of a good, stretchy jersey, and 30 minutes of your time.

Cut 1 rectangle for the waistband, your waist measurement minus 5"x 8"
Cut 1 rectangle for the body of the skirt, your hip measurement minus 5" x your desired length plus 1".

Use a serger if you have one. On a regular home machine, use a stretch needle (it has a blunter tip than a regular needle to prevent it from attempting to puncture those crazy, spandex-y fibers) and the stretch stitch (pictured below), paired with a zig-zag on the edge to prevent it from rolling, which can add extra bulk to the seam.

Sew up the back seam of both waistband and skirt.

Fold the waistband in half, wrong side to the inside, and sew it to the top of the skirt, matching the back seams together.

Slap on the hem of your choosing, and you've got a skirt!

With love,

Melody

Knitting Thrifty

Between my gradual move from Brooklyn to Northampton (which includes simultaneous employment in both places) and my frantic holiday gift preparations, things have really screeched to a halt around here, and for that I am sincerely bummed. But with a mere 7 days 'til Christmas, I should be back in blogland soon. I have so many ideas that I just can't wait to get out of my head and into reality. And once my move is complete, I will even have a studio space that isn't my bedroom! And for that I am truly grateful.

But in the meantime, I thought of a fun tidbit to share with all you yarn-crafters out there.

With my new job at Northampton Wools I'm feeling pleasantly reacquainted with the knitting community. And as a prospective board member at my favorite place on Earth, Rowe Camp & Conference Center, this weekend I attended the board meeting there where in February, Debbie Stoller of Stitch & Bitch fame is leading a fabulously exciting workshop, which you should all go to, because it will probably blow your mind. Needless to say, I've got knitting on the brain.

New knitters often choke at the cost of knitting. They think that since you are doing the labor yourself, knitting a sweater ought to cost less than buying one. Sorry to say, it just ain't so. Unless, perhaps, you're knitting with a behemoth skein of Red Heart from Michael's... but no one wants to wear anything made from that crap, really. But I have here another option, if you're willing to go the mile for thriftiness. Or if, perhaps, you're already an obsessive thrifter, in which case you'll find yourself at Goodwill anyways, and you might as well know a good find for frogging when you see it.

Frog (v.) to disassemble knitwear into reknitable yarn.


Tips for determining whether your thrift store find or closet disappointment is frogable:

1. The bulkier the knit, the easier the frog.

2. Look for yarn you like, no matter the style of the garment. 

3. Look for like-new garments with little wear. Make sure it hasn't felted at all with improper washing. When a wool garment has felted, it shrinks, and the stitches fuse together. If the stitches look fuzzy and not clearly defined, it will be difficult to pull them apart.

4. Knit to shape, NOT cut to shape. This is 100% the most important.
If this a garment is not knit it shape it is simply not frogable.
Knit to shape means that the pieces of the garment were knit to precisely the correct size and shape, just like you would do if you were knitting it by hand. Cut to shape means that the pieces were cut from yardage of knitted material, machine-edged so it won't unravel and then sewn together.

To determine whether a garment was knit or cut to shape, simply look at the inside of the seams. They should look something like this:

Just like anything hand knit, the edges of each piece are knitted, self contained. There is no sewing machine thread, no serged or merrowed edge, no knit stitches sliced in half.


So you found a sweater to frog. Now what?

Wonderful! This is mine. I got it for $2 at Salvation Army. It's 100% cashmere. Made in Italy. Soooo soft. Fun color. Super frumpy potato sack of a sweater.

Start by taking apart the seams. Be careful to only break the yarn that the pieces are sewn together with, without breaking the yarn the sweater is knit with.

Once all the pieces are apart, determine where the cast off edge is and pull out the end of the yarn. It's okay if you don't get it right the first time. The knitting will pull apart very easily from the cast off edge, and it will be a pain in the ass from the cast on edge, you'll be able to tell immediately. And if you can't get the end of the yarn out, cut it! You might lose a row or two worth of yarn, but that's okay. Once you get it going it should pull out real easy.

Roll it into a ball! 

Sitting in a ball for a couple days should straighten out that kinkiness just fine. If you feel like going above and beyond, however, another way to do it is to roll it into a hank (a big circle, wrap it around the back of a chair, for example), wet the hank and hang dry.

DIY Gift Guide

For those of you looking for holiday gift inspiration, I thought I'd post a collection of my past DIYs that could make great gifts for your loved ones.

For the beauty in your life.

For the snuggle bunny in your life.

For the writer and doodler in your life.

For the elegant woman in your life.

For the stylishly farsighted in your life.

For the one who deserves pampering in your life.

For the stylishly funky in your life.

For the snow bunny in your life.

For the cook in your life.

For the technophile in your life.

For the gardener in your life.

For the animal lover in your life.

For the coffee or tea lover in your life.

Go forth and good luck!

Turn a Mason Jar into a Travel Mug: Knit it a Cozy!

As they say, necessity is the mother of invention. A few weeks ago I was rushing off to work at some ungodly hour of the morning, made myself some coffee, but WHERE IN GOD'S NAME IS MY TRAVEL MUG??? So I dumped it into a mason jar and played hot potato all the way to work. And I thought, "Gee. This would actually make a pretty decent travel mug if I just knit it a little sweater..."

I am, of course, not the first one to think of this. I went home and pulled up dozens of them in a Google search, even specially designed lids for the express purpose of turning mason jars into travel mugs (from Cuppow, a company birthed for this product alone).

You can also turn a mason jar into a travel cup for cold drinks, but creating a hole in the lid for a straw. Here are three slightly different, but equally wonderful ways of doing it:

with a metal washer, from Fine and Feathered

with a rubber grommet (spill-proof!), from The Chick n Coop

with a plastic yogurt lid, from Crunchy Can Feel Good

For the love of mason jars! This is a great little knitting project for your scrap yarn; I finished mine in under 3 hours!

Gauge: 15 sts = 4 inches

On size 8 double pointed needles, CO 14 sts on each of your 3 needles (42 sts).

Join your first round and knit in a 1 x 1 rib for 5 more rounds.

Switch to size 9 double pointed needles.

Make 1 st at the beginning of your sixth round. (As you continue with the k1, p1 pattern, this extra stitch will transform your 1 x 1 rib into a seed stitch.)

Continue in seed st until piece measures 5 1/2" from CO.

Flat Jar Bottom: 

Knit 1 round in stockinette stitch.

*K1, k2tog, rep to end of round.

K 1 round
*K2tog, rep to end of round
K 1 round

Cut your yarn, leaving a tail of at least 6". Using a tapestry needle, thread this tail through your remaining stitches and remove the needles. Pull the yarn towards the inside of the cozy until the hole closes. Weave in the remaining tail of yarn and snip off the excess. Weave in the tail from cast on edge, and you're finished!

A note about knitting on double pointed needles:

A lot of people are afraid of double pointed needles. If this is you, trust me! They aren't nearly as scary as people make them out to be. The most difficult part is keeping your stitches tight between needles. So just pull tight between needles and everything will be okay. Be adventurous! Give it a try! However, if you don't want to, this same pattern could be knit on straight needles, then sewn up the side. Leave a longer tail at the end, and after you close up your last stitches, use this tail to sew the sides together. Piece of cake!

With love,