MMM'13 - Final Week and Recap

The whole undertaking of MMM'13 would feel incomplete to me, if I didn't report the last three days of the month. So here's what I chose - two repeats and the new cardi you saw only yesterday :)

Day 29 - Anais Cropped Cardigan by Kim Hargreaves. Nice yarn, fabulous color, beautiful pattern, a favourite knit. The RTW dress however is in disgrace with me and I'm thinking of cutting a Tshirt of a kind out of it, it's a nice silk jersey, begging for refashioning.

Day 30 - My linen shrug, in combination with a wooden necklace I made from ready-made parts and a RTW striped Tshirt. I need more striped Tshirts. May be I'll sew one myself.

Day 31 - Gardenia cardigan. This one might go to Gaby as a light cotton cardigan for the summer evenings, when she hangs out with her friends. She tried it on yesterday and it fits her well, but more importantly, these are her colors, they really suit her complexion.

So, Me-Made-May 2013 is over, hurray! Wearing all of my weather appropriate self-made clothes was not so difficult, but taking a picture of that every day was the real challenge and it got a bit old in the end. What I appreciate about such self-inflicted tasks is that they push you over the limits and the experience is usually educational. The last challenge made me change entirely my concept of photo shooting outfits. This year I dared myself to take most of the pictures with a timer and a tripod. I still have issues with relaxing, acting natural and smiling to the camera, but I'm working on that. And though tiring, taking the picture was at the same time the most interesting part of the game.

As for the outfit lessons - I need more dresses and skirts, especially for the summer. I'm a jeans girl, but looking at my pictures, I see that jeans every day is boring and at least during the summer I should wear my dresses more often.

Clothes making plans - I'll continue knitting summer cardigans, because I love wearing them. I might crochet another bag. And I'll try to sew a few wearable things too. The accomplished seamstresses at the MMM'13 flickr group were a true inspiration and I sincerely admired their collections of dresses and Tshirts. If I ever decide to take part in the monthly challenges again, it will probably be in at least three or four seasons, when I have accumulated enough new clothes :)

MMM'13 - Fourth Week

As was to be expected, the fourth week of the month is mostly repeats from the previous weeks. I do have other me-made clothes, mostly shirts, skirts and dresses, sewn when I was heavily into sewing, but most of them I don't wear any more or just didn't feel putting them on during the week.
I'm happy to report that Gaby continues to wear her cotton cardigans to school, she wore the blue cardigan yesterday and put on the lilac Joy this morning. I'm thinking of knitting her another one, probably in red, maybe with cotton and bamboo.

Day 22 - My most recent knit - Obsession by Kim Hargreaves. It was a good thing I added cotton to this bamboo, the soft bamboo thread is already showing signs of pilling.

Day 23 - Sabrina top, cotton and viscose.

Day 24 - Burdastyle 90s shirt. I have no recollection of the pattern, or even if it was a women's pattern or an adapted man's shirt, because back then I also made three checkered  shirts for my husband. I chose this photo for the blog because of the funny photobomb in the distance - a city child, running wild through the green meadows. She ran like that most of the time and also rolled on the grass - the call of the wild, what can you do :))))

Day 25 - My Christina again. Well, it's obvious, this is my favourite summer cardigan. I love its terracotta color and feminine design, Kim is a genius.

Day 26 - Miette. If it wasn't for MMM, Miette would have been my every second or third choice, it goes so well with all of my dresses.

Day 27 - And another easy choice  - the Vine Yoke cardigan. Soft and very comfortable. I'll tell you what's in the bag in my next post :)))

Day 28 - One of the self-sewn dresses I mentioned at the beginning, very flattering design. It was actually a long dress, which I cut short the next season - I think short dresses suit me better. And obviously a parade of cardigans couldn't be complete without Quanun. I'm thinking of a shorter cardigan with 3/4 sleeves, based on the Quanun silhouette. If you wonder why I am always carrying this bag - because it is big enough for the camera and sometimes tripod I bring with me :)

Hand-knitted vs RTW

Can you spot my yarn bomb in the background :)

I was rather emotional yesterday regarding my knitting. It's hot lately with some chill in the mornings and I urged Gaby to wear her knitted summer cardigans to school as I consider them more beautiful than any RTW hoodie or jacket she could put on. And because she is really the sweetest girl she wore her Joy on Monday and her Blue cotton cardigan yesterday.

However when she returned from school she told me about an equivocal remark a classmate had made regarding her hand-knitted cardigan. I know that there is still some prejudice (at least in Bulgaria there is) regarding hand-knitting and hand-knitted clothes. It's explainable and obviously originates from deep-seated scorn to manual labour and especially to feminine labour. A cardigan like this, made from 100% mercerized Egyptian cotton is of higher quality, custom-made and original compared to the made in China with polyester contents designer clothes at the mall, but I suppose it requires some maturity to appreciate the difference. And a teenage society is mostly about conformity, I know that.

Still in the afternoon she was happy to put the cardigan on again and pose for a few photos in the rose garden in front of our building. I know she knows that she looks beautiful and elegant in her cardigan.

Or maybe I'm just biased ...

MMM'13 - Third Week

The third week of the challenge - mostly hot weather, slightly colder on the 16th with heavy rain in the evening.

Day 15 -  Jasmine by Kim Hargreaves in cotton and acrylic. Soft and comfy, but if I had to do it again, I would make it in 100% cotton or cotton and viscose (as was my initial intention):

Day 16 - My long sleeved version of Elfe, cotton and acrylic. It's soft and I intended it for wear at home, but it doesn't get much out of the closet.

Day 17 - Sabrina top, cotton and viscose and  crocheted floppy brim black hat for the Friday theme - hats. The hat was only for the photo - I never wear floppy brim hats anywhere else but the beach. The top was very difficult to make, but it's again a garment I rarely wear.

Day 18 - Short cardigan Mystic River by DROPS Design and refashioned linen dress. Last summer I meant to blog about the refashioning of the dress, but as it was done in a hurry just before our vacation on the Black sea, I never got to it. The fabric is very crinklable (if there's such a word) linen, but light and pleasant to wear and the kiwi color is fresh in my wardrobe. Therefore I bought the dress, even though the fit was awful and then repaired it to fit me. I should wear it more often, I felt good in it on Saturday.

Day 19 - Easily what I wear most often in summer - my linen shrug and the crocheted bag. I have another crocheted bag in mind, but we'll see if I ever get to it among all my other plans.

Day 20 - Frenchy top, personal pattern. Easy to wear and flattering, I usually put it on when I'm feeling down. First time accessorized with this red stones neckpiece I think I bought in Greece - I liked the combination. Gaby was also in me-made this day - she put on her lilac Joy cardigan on her way to school in the morning.

Day 21 - Sea Breeze Top by Lion Brand Yarn, 100% viscose. This is what I'm still wearing at the moment. One of my first crochetted attempts, I've thought many times to frog it and recover the yarn for a knitted top. May be one day I will.

MMM'13 - Second Week

The first week of MMM'13 was the easy choices - the most recent knits and some of the most favourite. However, the weather during the second week was so varied - from cold and windy days for wool cardigans to pretty warm days, suitable for short sleeved cotton blouses.

Day 08 - Cadence sweater by Jordana Paige, cashmere and bamboo
Some chill was felt in the air and I took out a 7/8 sleeved cashmere sweater. This is one of my most favourite sweaters and I definitely must knit something else from this expensive but  very soft and pleasant to the skin yarn.

Day 09 - Central Park Hoodie by Heather Lodinsky, merino and acrylic
Cold and windy with some rain.Time for the heavy artillery - a warm wooly hoodie. Probably my most favourite wooly cardigan, excellent pattern. This one I wear a lot, challenge or no challenge.

Day 10 - Green Gable sweater by Rachel Bishop, cotton and viscose
After the two cold days - two hot days. On Day 10 I had a pleasant lunch date with a dear friend in the centre of the city and then a stroll to my favourite LYS. The Green Gable sweater is one of those I love to wear in spring, when it is still not too hot for knits. The color is gorgeous.

Day 11- Arielle by Kim Hargreaves, cotton and acrylic
This is a very beautiful design, which I knit with the wrong yarn (cotton and acrylic, I should have used 100% cotton). It took a lot of effort on 2 mm and 2.5 mm needle, but I don't wear it much, as it keeps me too warm. However the weather was OK even for 50% acrylic, still only spring.

Day 12 - Cabled Bolero by Norah Gaughan, Vogue Knitting 2006/07, with a self-drafted short skirt and a refashioned top.
The bolero is a very unusual knit, something like art for art's sake. I almost never wear it, but it always draws attention when I do. The construction is uncomfortable and the combination of mohair and short sleeves - unpractical, so it will probably have to wait for another me-made challenge to be worn again. However this day I discovered the combination of leggings with a short skirt and I liked it a lot. This is an outfit I intend to explore this summer.

Day 13 - Mohair shrug, improvised design and modified Burda '90s top
This shrug was made for my daughter almost five years ago and she wore it a lot with a favourite tunic. The shrug is now a bit small on her, with 7/8 sleeves and she rejected it. But I have a soft spot for shrugs - they keep my back and arms warm and unlike cardigans and sweaters leave the front free for movement, so I appropriated it. It's great for the evening, when the temperatures drop.
The top is also me-made eons ago from a Burda pattern and still worn, as I like this form. The neckline was too broad, so before attaching the neckband I made something like a small triangular internal pleat and sewed the row of buttons on top - turned the defect into effect :)

Day 14 - Tailored cardigan by DROPS Design, wool and acrylic
Another of those knits, worn only for the me-made sake - on a cold day like today I would have probably put on my Central Park Hoodie instead.
This cardigan was quite a  challenge with its programmed yarn. I knit it almost entirely twice. The first time fronts and back separately without color coordination and the result was a disastrous mess, then fronts and back together and the sleeves with pre-planned stripes and cutting the yarn - I had almost a 100 g ball of scraps left. What I don't like about it - the loud color combination and most of all - the sleeves. I saw that the upper part of the sleeves was turning too wide for me but in my inexperience followed the instructions instead of my body measures. I hope at least that now I know better :)))

Dundee World Cup

Today my daughter and I had a girls only day (because the boys refused to join us :)) and went to the Rhythmic Gymnastics Dundee World Cup.
As seen from the second picture, we were among the first to arrive in the hall and had excellent seats.
In  the spirit of MMM13, I wore my Verena cardigan, and she - her lilac Joy:

In the morning we watched individual contestants, manipulating a ball and a hoop:

We enjoyed it so much, that we decided to abandon our plans for the afternoon and came back for the team performances: 10 clubs event and two ribbons and three balls event :

I love watching rhythmic gymnastics on TV, but nothing compares to the live experience in the hall, cheering and supporting the participants together with the other spectators!
The award ceremony - Sylvia Miteva (BG) won the second place for the individual participants and the Bulgarian team was first in the team contest:

MayDay

I've been debating with myself all day long whether to blog about my first day of Me-Made-May or not. I know I said I'll report my participation in the challenge weekly, but the commencement of the month somehow feels special and calls for noting. So, I'm noting it with this post :)
When I took part in SSS'11, I thought more about what to wear and how to arrange for somebody to take a picture of me. But looking at the beautiful and masterfully taken photos of other participants made me realize how much I enjoy well photographed garments and how important the presentation of an outfit is (to me). This made me buy a better camera with a tripod and try to improve my pictures for the blog, giving more thought to the background of my photos. As a result I often catch myself walking through the neighborhood looking for beautiful or just interesting places where I could shoot any future finished object.

So yesterday, while walking to my Pilates class, I thought of the snow covered peaks of Vitosha and how beautiful they stand against the greenery of the city. And it occurred to me that I want Vitosha to be on the first of my MMM'13 photos. I took the pictures early in the morning, while there was still little movement along the high bridge over our river. As for the choice of what to wear, the month of May is excellent for my numerous little cotton cardies and I've got many more on my knitting wish list :)

I'm finding the MMM'13 Flickr pool very inspiring, I wish I could sew at least half as expertly as these ladies!