Projects
The Joy of the Finish
I recently had a week off, which I spent in Dillon Beach, California with family and friends. I’d never been there, so was amazed to see cows grazing so close to the ocean. The rural character of the landscape was deeply restorative; we took long drives to explore. It was divine to wake each morning in a house enveloped in thick fog, and to sit with my coffee before others got up, sipping and stitching, waiting for a clear view of the coastline and somebody to make me breakfast.
What was I stitching? Well, I was unfaithful to my main knitting projects. The night before we left, I looked at all those little balls of linen for my True Friend sweater, and I thought, “Get real! An airplane is not going to provide good conditions for all those tangly little balls!”
I still took True Friend, of course, hoping for the best. But I had some back-up projects.
Dog Sweater as Palate Cleanser
I took my all-one-color, stockinette-for-the-road project (Relax the Second), and at the last minute, I threw in Nell’s leftovers from her Easel Sweater. By the time we landed in California, I had finished this:
A mini-Easel Sweater for Olive, in Jill Draper’s springy New York State Cormo. (Olive prefers sweaters from sheep she can hope to meet.) The pattern is the Madeline Basic 4.5, by Corinne Niessner. I followed the instructions for size C. My nod to Easel’s asymmetrically-colorful sleeves was pretty subtle, but it was the best I could do given the lack of actual sleeves on the Madeline Basic.
The most fun part was sewing on Nell’s surplus pocket from her version of Easel.
It’s very practical for carrying around one’s emergency cheese. (Actually not that practical. Poetic license.) Mainly, it’s a double thickness of warmth on Olive’s back, a pocket for joy.
Madeline Basic 4.5 passes the nap test.
A Detour from Sweater Knitting
Something got into me when I was packing for the trip. Cleaning out one of my hidey-holes for craft supplies a couple of weeks before, I had come across my Alabama Chanin Anna’s Garden Long Skirt DIY kit in a plastic bag. Status: halfway through the 3rd of 4 panels of a kit that I had started back in 2013. The sight of it irritated me.
Doing the math, that’s four New Year’s Eves that I had hoped to swan around in this amazing skirt, dragging the little train behind me all elegant-like, with a glass of fizz in my hand. Four New Year’s Eves that I had not swanned, had not dragged, and may have worn sweat pants.
I had a wedding to go to when I got home from vacation, on August 19. I thought: if I take this kit with me on my trip (which will be filled with endless crafting time, as we imagine all vacations will hold), and work on it a little every day, I might get through the 4th panel, and I can wear this skirt to the wedding.
I didn’t think I’d actually do it. In fact, I had only made a tiny start on Panel 4 by the night before we returned from California.
I worked on it for 6 hours on the plane home, and by then I was close to done. Pretty close.
When I say “done,” I refer to the sewing. I was working these panels in negative reverse appliqué, which involves cutting around the outside edges of all the stenciled motifs that you’ve quilted down with a running stitch. So you’re not really done until you’ve done the cutting, and it takes (me) several hours to cut a panel.
Three days from the wedding. Could I do it? I figured I would try, and if I failed, I’d wear my Faithful Black Dress (yawn) like always, but I’d get even closer to finishing the skirt, so it would be a win. A triumph of psychology.
I worked on the skirt for the 4-hour train ride from New York to Boston on Friday. When I went to bed in the wee hours of Saturday morning, this was my nightstand:
Two panels cut, two to go.
At some point in this feverish night of doom and ambition, I realized that I’d packed a jacket to wear with Faithful Black Dress, but not Faithful Black Dress. I’d thought I was doing psychology, but psychology was doing me.
There was no way out but through. I was not going to surrender and go to Macy’s and get something just barely o.k.
I cut out the last two panels Saturday morning and sewed the four long seams, marveling at how the fabric was transformed by removal of the top layer. With my perennial horror of clothes being too tight, I cheated the seams a little. When I tried it on, it fit, but it was loose enough that I knew I was going to need to take in the seams a little.
(Apologies for mirror selfie.)
So: I wore it to the wedding without sewing on the elastic at the waist, a trick I learned from Natalie Chanin herself. The skirt required hitching up now and then on the dance floor, but it did not, praise be, fall off.
I’m besotted with the thing. I have never felt quite so good in a garment as this skirt.
It looks as good on me as it does on Alabama Chanin’s willowy model, which is pure witchcraft.
There is just something about it. That something that you know as soon as you try it on. Who knew I was a skirt-with-train person? (Natalie Chanin knew.)
The moral of the story: finish what you start, not because you have to, but because it’s so satisfying. It’s a lesson I keep learning. I’m really sorry this project is finished.
It needs a sweater, though.
How satisfying indeed, and it looks divine on you!
That skirt is magical. Wow!
Beautiful! So beautiful that, at 6 a.m. here on the iPad, I decided I could make one for myself! Thank goodness the kit costs $398 so I’m closing this window right now. Close call!
Beautiful! I confess that I have signed up for a 3 day AC workshop this November. Crazy amount of money for 3 days but it felt right in terms of getting my sewing skills to a place where I like what I make.
Woohoo! I will see you in Florence in November!! 😉
It’s gorgeous! I think if I made a skirt like this I would find an excuse to wear it every day.
Beautiful job on the skirt! You wear it well!
You look STUNNING. Beautiful work!
Really gorgeous, Kay! Yay you!
Stunning!
Stunning. Like it was designed for you.
It needs a linen top. Maybe the tank in Drop Dead Easy Knits? Clean lines, smooth stockinette, just a little lacy thing at the hem.
Kay! You look AMAZING.
Kay, that skirt is purely inspiring, and you look amazing in it.
I don’t have an Alabama Chanin kit languishing, but I do have some yardage and all of her books.
I’ll wear my Easel to NYC some fall day and take sweet Olive for a walk.
So lovely. Even though it is the first day of the last year of my part-time grad program, I tried to convince myself that I had time to make one for myself! But perhaps an Alabama Chanin tee shirt is in the realm of possible. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Kay, looks gorgeous! One thing, it looks like you have an error in coding the link to the kit and you lost some of your text to it: http://I want to make another one right away, in a longer, swoopier stencil (such as Magdalena), which would be even more fun to stitch .
Fabu!!!!! Swan away !! Looks amazing.
Oh, very wonderful! That darn lesson about finishing things… I relearn it every time. If you don’t do it, it won’t get done! Nice.
Oh, Kay, that is so wonderful! I’ve never wanted a long skirt… until NOW!! What are the actual colors? Is it blue on black or blue on navy?? The negative reverse applique is perfect.
Peacock on black. It really changed color with cutting.
GLORIOUS! GLORIOUS! Thank you for the inspiration and the HOPE. Hope for my three AC kits languishing in the household. I had not the courage….what would happen if I MESSED. IT. UP??!!! Pulling out a box and a book today. Thank you! And you look marvelous!
Yes! This no of my four New Year’s Eves and start sewing. These kits are so forgiving.
This skirt is beautiful and you look wonderful wearing it. I’m feeling tempted. Thanks for telling us your story.
A work of art! I have all of the amazing Natalie’s books – you have inspired me to get them out and start a project – love all things Natalie – thank you for inspiring us!
Absolutely gorgeous!! Perfect.
Stunning. You look gorgeous. I’m working on my first AC kit, the journal cover, which is VERY small compared to this skirt, but you inspire me!
Just whip that up!
Yes, a long sweeping skirt with a train is just the right thing for you. FabUlous!
You, and the skirt, look absolutely fabulous!
Absolutely gorgeous! You and the skirt! And the inspiration…Today I will rummage through my sewing room to pick out a project to finish.
Looking good – hope the swanning was successful.
Stunning. You give me hope. I’m too large for the DIY kits, but I have all the books so I’ll give it a go.
Simply stunning. Love it and you should be wearing it all the time! I can just picture you and Olive walking in NY in your new garb with people seeing you and thinking-they must be doing a magazine shoot…
It is absolutely gorgeous Kay!!!! It looks so perfect on you!!! You were the belle of that wedding!!!! How wonderful!
Oh, and I LOVE those shoes too!!!!
Gorgeous skirt! Amazing job! A also love Olive’s coat. That pocked addin extra warmth is brilliant! On thing i claim stops me for knitting Bailey a dog coat is that he needs extra warmthnon his hips because of arthritis, but that always seemed like a hard thing to do. Not any more! (Although i think we all know poor Bailey is never getting a handknit coat from me. It’s a sad fact. — hoping reverse psychology works here!)
Hey, have I got the pattern for you! Decades ago I knit a dog sweater and I haven’t seen the same style since. It worked all the way down to the base of the tail and then squared right off to fall on either side of the haunches, down to just below the haunch. Then you sewed soft thin elastic on each side – one end at the corner and the other end to where the leg starts as you down the body. The sweater gives full coverage, it stays in place, and all the “utility bits” are free to do their bizness. Genius!
Beautiful! I love the colors!
New togs for both you and Olive? Win win win vacay work!
The skirt is absolutely beautiful, and it looks beautiful on you.
Love the skirt, and the epic finish! Love the Olive sweater, but I’m glad that you explained “my nod to Easel’s asymmetrically-colorful sleeves was pretty subtle,” as I first thought it was a case of simply running out of the darker yarn while traveling. But I get it now. You both look wonderful!
How lovely is that skirt! You do beautiful work, Kay.
The skirt is amazing…..I have several of her books but have not attempted to make anything yet.
This inspires me to at least try a top from one of her books. Wow!!!!!!!
The skirt is gorgeous, and it is even more gorgeous on you! I am trying so hard not to fall down the Alabama Chanin rabbit hole…. I don’t even really like to sew!
You are remarkable!!! This piece is a work of ART, & should be behind glass. 🙂
You look smashing. In fact, so good that I popped over to see if anything AC needed to become a long term project at my house. Alas, not quite me, but I’ll look again.
That skirt is to die for!
Oh, I hope you swanned and sipped happily! It’s beautiful. We’re in New York this week, moving a kid. Lots of people and clothes watching too, but no skirts like that skirt. I would have noticed.
Girl. You buried the lead.
That is so gorgeous! What a labour of love. And seeing how fabulous it looks on you has sent me on a search mission for a long skirt. If you want an evening type sweater to go with the skirt, may I suggest you take a look in Rowan book 54? One of my all-time favourites when I have a yearning to be glamorous.
This skirt was beautiful when I looked at it on my tiny phone screen. But when I got home and could really see it on a larger screen, the first word that popped into my head was “timeless.” Beautiful, for sure. But it’s more than that…a truly timeless beauty.
The AC skirt is absolutely stunning! It looks as if it was designed just for you. I also love the nod to Easel’s asymmetrical sleeves. Such whimsy!
What an incredibly flattering and beautiful garment. I hope you get many many wears out of it. Congratulations.