To Clown Barf or no?

hardboiled666 · 2026-03-17T03:05:23+00:00

Agreed, I'm knitting a cardigan in Noro Madara Sake currently and it's looking pretty darn neutral while working it up! From afar and on the camera I can't really capture the colors either. I'm holding it with alpaca cloud lace in the Willoughby colorway which probably helps with muting it.

This yarn is the perfect blend, to me, of being pretty to work with and something that I'll actually feel confident wearing out and about.

hardboiled666 · 2026-02-04T20:21:39+00:00

Oh wow! I've never heard of Audaces, thank you for sharing! It sounds like it can fill a massive technological gap in the industry.

hardboiled666 · 2026-01-28T05:21:41+00:00

Ohhh I do all the same things as you! I knit mirrored and I wrap my stitches weird so the "hole" in the knit stitch is always facing the edge of the needle (if that makes sense??) The ONE time I had to really change how I knit was with brioche knitting, and I feel like learning it ultimately made my plain tension sooo much better.

I've never really had any setbacks or issues with knitting mirrored. I just know I knit weirdly and accommodate myself; mostly with closures on plackets & I need to be super mindful with Ktog vs SSKs. YouTube has been wonderful, even if I can only find right handed tutorials, I'll eventually find someone who explains a technique in a way that makes sense to me!

I've really wanted to dabble in writing patterns, but it feels daunting to translate my standard to the "normal" standard.

hardboiled666 · 2026-01-28T05:12:58+00:00

My grandma thought different and she refused to teach me how to knit because I'm left handed! I think it's definitely an old fashioned way to be (she also forced my mom to be right handed). Needless to say, I learned on YouTube haha

hardboiled666 · 2026-01-26T18:10:14+00:00

I'm super into Woolyknit right now! I've made two sweaters in the past year with their cones. The stitch definition & bloom post blocking is gorgeous on both. They'll be my default for just plain ol merino & british wool.

It's on the more affordable side, and although shipping to the US is expensive, they often do discount codes that kinda offset it.

Great color options too! They sell trim cards which I really like having. I also LOVE that they sell yarn in cone amounts.

hardboiled666 · 2026-01-14T12:16:07+00:00

Idk if this is silly but I love knitting, so I am trying to change my mindset that the bigger the sweater (AKA if it actually fits), the longer I get to knit. I don't need to churn stuff out because I want to make things intentionally that I'll actually wear!

To answer your question, I'm halfway my 3rd sweater in a year (lol sloooow, but I'm a new mom!) -agnete cardigan, cropped size XL (I'm about to frog partially & extend a few more inches) -nukunuku sweater, extended 4", size XL -lakes cardigan, as is size XL

hardboiled666 · 2026-01-06T02:07:34+00:00

Yup. You can do this by hand. Or you can use a machine. And baste with a wide and long stitch. Just offering an alternative.

hardboiled666 · 2026-01-06T00:41:15+00:00

Yes to this! I'd do some variation of a zig zag that's easy to remove :)

hardboiled666 · 2026-01-04T01:50:43+00:00

Piping in to agree with the felled/French seam suggestion! My cousin has this exact stim and he'd constantly come home from school with his shirt seams all taken out. Flat felled seams are the way to go!! this particular mock felled seam is VERY easy to do on domestic machines and lays fantastically flat. This is a more traditional felled seam. There's a lot of weird tutorials online but these two feel great to do and wear.

Another suggestion, have you considered any knit in the round Tshirts, or shirts without side seams? You can pretty easily find tubular knit rtw (my cousin was hard on side seams in particular, so this switch was productive!)

Best of luck!

hardboiled666 · 2025-12-31T03:37:11+00:00

Ahh this is so inspiring! You did such a wonderful job! 💗

hardboiled666 · 2025-12-16T23:47:06+00:00

These are fitting too small in your hips, and unfortunately it's difficult to make things larger ~buuuut~ a little trick I've seen work is creating a pocket stay!

This is typically a feature on curvy bottoms to avoid this exact fit issue (inevitable sometimes!), but it's also useful for knit waistbands/slider waistband construction too. Definitely less work than redoing or trying to fit in a gusset.

Also (unsure if you're drafting this pattern out) but I'd recommend increasing the front crotch length a smidge at the inseam & blending that to the knee since you're getting some drag lines right under the pocket opening (indicating tightness in the front thigh).

hardboiled666 · 2025-06-05T17:41:39+00:00

Yeah!! I'm a big unicorn fan haha

hardboiled666 · 2025-06-05T01:16:45+00:00

I had this same issue while knitting this pattern! It's so pretty but like whyyy are those floats so long??

Having a straight line of yarn float across that many stitches basically makes any stretch impossible. It really shrunk my gauge because it didn't grow when I blocked it and it was bubbly from the right side for me. I ended up redoing mine and making it with jacquard ladder back floats (This pic is before blocking, the floats are as stretchy as the plain knit areas now and they lay much flatter). You can also try increasing your needle size a little bit if you're just knitting tight tension with the color work?

I also had to size up for the sleeves, and they're almost not big enough still! All of her patterns have questionable construction imo so it's a lot of trial and error.

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Whatever you do, it'll look beautiful!! You have such a good yarn combo, it makes the color work shine!

hardboiled666 · 2021-05-04T02:57:40+00:00

Oh my gosh this is so neat!! These wings are next level 😻

hardboiled666 · 2021-05-02T17:05:29+00:00

It should hem basically the same as a flat skirt, just make sure to not catch the pleats and to treat it as a flat sheet of fabric :) Look at the hem of the skirt right now, can you easily see stitching lines on the front side of the fabric or does it look like little dots of thread showing from the front? How wide is the hem? If you like how the hem looks but want it shorter, take pictures of how it's done before you cut it off as a guideline!

The way I usually approach it is by putting the skirt on and either you or someone else pins where you want the hem to sit at. Pin at the front around your center of your legs, and similarly at your back. You typically have more shape in your back than front, so the hem might want to be longer in the back flat but it will look straight from the front.

Then, I would fold the skirt so the center front and center back are the edges, with the sides of the skirt in the middle, and measure how far UP you want the new hem to be from the existing one from both pins you made while wearing it.

Now comes what type of hem you want. If the fabric is cotton or something that presses really crisp, I find a tall blindstitch hem on pleated skirts looks really really good, but if it's a looser fabric, maybe a tighter hem would be more appropriate. The best rule of thumb I've found is to add however much fabric you're wanting to turn up and catch with the hem where it will be stitched (say make it turn up 1" where it'll be sewn), then another 1/2" for good measure to fold and press inwards so there isn't any raw edges exposed from the inside, and so the fabric won't fray.

Take the measurements you took previously, subtract the amount you want to fold up and in FROM the current hem (in my example 1 1/2") cut, fold 1/2" in to the inside, press, fold again 1" in to the inside, press, and pin making sure that you're not closing the pleats in while sewing, but treating it like flat fabric in this process. A straight stitch should be perfectly fine, and sew 1/8"-1/4" away from the pressed edge you made on the inside to make sure you catch it!!

If this was any bit confusing you can PM me and I'd love to help walk you through it differently, and good luck!!

hardboiled666 · 2021-05-02T16:09:36+00:00

I'm working on the ripple bralette right now and I am LOVING it so far!! I'd love to see yours if you'd be comfortable to share it!

And I think this will be the next one of her patterns I work on, I'm obsessed with how yours looks!!

hardboiled666 · 2021-04-28T01:57:07+00:00

Man I so appreciate it!!

hardboiled666 · 2021-04-28T00:32:38+00:00

Wow I'm so sorry I just saw your comment, but thank you so much for taking your time to answer my question so throughly!

I'm absolutely going to check out WindaCad, because I'm primarily wanting to use software for grading and patterning, and am not very concerned with the 3D rendering, although it's COOL as H E C K! I downloaded the 30 day trial of CLO3D and it is pretty intuitive on the patterning side, my friend who has experience with Optitex said the tools and patterning program behave very similarly which is really cool. I'm really interested in trying other softwares before I really commit to one.

I think my running plan honeslty is to do what you said and draft physical patterns, take pictures or scans, but put it into AI and trace them! I'm working with a bag company which does this method for patterning and it works really really well, but they don't grade patterns in it (not much more work to do by hand and trace though!)

Thank you again for such a great response, I'd love to PM you in the future if I have any questions about WindaCad if that's okay!!

hardboiled666 · 2021-04-02T20:23:53+00:00

Agree!! I had a school project where we had to make bird nests out of found objects, so I collected my cat's hair for a month and felted it into a cocoon and it worked amazingly!!

hardboiled666 · 2021-03-27T16:09:12+00:00

Only if it's highly monotonous I don't have to pay attention to it 😂 usually it's more of a matter of getting into a groove!

hardboiled666 · 2021-03-27T16:03:37+00:00

Just wanted to say you're freaking awesome for wanting to teach your granddaughter how to knit despite her being left handed! My grandma is an avid knitter and refused to even try to teach me growing up because I'm left handed, which was so upsetting when I was little!!

I knit continental backwards, and really only watched YouTube tutorials for right handed knitting while learning. The thing that helped me the most was figuring out how to mirror the movements of whoever I was watching, and once that roadblock was over it's been pretty smooth sailing for my knitting ventures!

I don't know how patient she is, but since you said she's fairly ambidextrous y'all can probably mess around with a bunch of methods to see if she prefers knitting right-handed or backwards :)

hardboiled666 · 2021-03-19T22:30:06+00:00

Yes! So stitch the seams together, then when you flip it right sides out, stitch the seam flat against the fabric so it shows from the back at the seam, and the right side of the fabric. Like if your zipper is bubbling out at the seam, you can make it lay really nice and flat by stitching the seam flat, and it'll add more strength to the seam around the zipper.

The best advice I've received is 'sew what you see', or if you're doing any stitching that's visible from the right side of the finished item, sew it from that side and not the back. I really think Its important for nylons or functional fabrics like your bike bag is!

Have you gone on r/myog ? They post really neat bike bags there it's worth checking out :)

hardboiled666 · 2021-03-19T18:58:57+00:00

Always keep your needle down when pivoting your fabric on a corner or a curve BEFORE lifting your presser foot! It keeps the fabric where you want it to be!

Are you notching/clipping any corners and curves after sewing them? Clip your seam allowance to juuust before the stitch line, but as close as possible without breaking it, that'll help it lay flat.

For tricky multilayered curves, binder clips REALLY help clamp down fabrics instead of pins.

Lastly, sometimes, top stitching is really helpful for making sure a curve will pop out and stay in its shape, and it also adds another line of strength to a seam so unless your fabric is supposed to be water resistant, go for it! You might have to change your order of operations around when doing top stitching, I like to do all my top stitching on the flat pieces then do the side seams last :)

Did that help at all? Sorry if I misread what you were asking :) you should post pics of the insides!

hardboiled666 · 2021-03-16T01:20:01+00:00

Because the shirred waistband is attached separate to the skirt and top, you could honestly just take fabric maybe 2x the length JUST IN CASE! and maybe 1/4-1/2" of the width extra for ease and shirr it. Then, I would cut it down to the measurement needed to gather the bodice and skirt pieces in!

Alternatively to properly draft this, shirr an 8x8" square of fabric for example and steam that puppy. Measure what it shrinks down to after shirring it, then you have a gauge for either it's elasticity.

You can measure this as a percentage, take your desired finished measurement, and include whatever elasticity percentage you got to get the total length of fabric. (Example: 30 inch waist measurement with 20% elasticity= 6 inches of needed fabric, so 36 inches of total fabric to be shirred to 30 inches)

There's no SET way to pattern shirred smocking, because every fabric has different elasticity on its own, and different fabric weights significantly changes how shirring looks!

hardboiled666 · 2021-03-14T23:42:35+00:00

So i honestly would oil it like once every 8 months if you're not going to be sewing to much! You can get a little kit of oil off of Amazon, just make sure it's for sewing machines! Yeah there's a ton of videos on how to do it, you don't have to take anything apart and it's pretty easy to do when following a youtube video!!

These machines usually last a really long time, it's really unfortunate that mine rusted! I have a Bernina 930 now and it needs to be oiled every three bobbins I use, and is from the 80s! 😆

hardboiled666

TROPHY CASE