Changing Your Clothes

Shopping, Sewing, Upcycling, Repairing: Make the most of your clothes!

Tag Archives: knitting


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Makeover Monday: Cardi-Wrap to Cocoon

Ever since I made my first 3D scarf for last week’s Makeover Monday, I’ve been wearing it almost every day. It’s the perfect light-yet-warm layer that goes on easily over everything. (I’m wearing it even as I type right now!) In fact, this surprisingly versatile piece has gotten so much use already that it inspired me to root through more than my scarf collection for makeover candidates. And lo! Lurking deep in a stack of seldom-worn hand-knitted sweaters, I found this:

Cardi-wrap, pre-makeover

Cardi-Wrap, pre-makeover. This is literally just a long, wide scarf with sleeves set into the rectangle.

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Makeover Monday: 2 Steps to a 3D Scarf

On this new Makeover Monday, I present my Ode to a Scarf. I wear one scarf or another almost daily, almost year-round, so I have a lot of them: silk, wool, pashmina, mohair, cashmere, cotton, rayon; striped, solid, printed, jacquard; scarves I designed and hand-knitted for myself, gift scarves, thrift-store and hand-me-down scarves, even one upcycled from a skirt into a scarf.

Out of this motley but well-loved collection, there’s one scarf I love best: my hand-knitted brushed-wool entrelac scarf, in the most luscious combination of deep, dark brown and rosy, pink-y reds.

My favorite scarf ever!

My favorite scarf ever, pre-makeover. All it needs is to be wearable.

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Mix It Up 3: Using Yarn Grab Bags

A couple of days ago, in an effort to be creative with “orphan” balls of yarn, I started putting them together into grab bags I call “Fab Five Plus“: 5 different balls of yarn, all in the same color family, along with a coordinating hand-painted silk ribbon (that’s the “Plus”). Here’s one example:

Fab Five Plus in Citrus

Fab Five Plus in Citrus: 5 different yarns, plus coordinating silk ribbon!

Note: This Fab Five Plus collection is currently up for grabs (pardon the expression) in an eBay auction, ending 1/17/13; click here to go directly to that page. This link will most likely not work after the auction ends.)

This morning, I got this question from a lady who has placed bids on some of my Fab Fives: “Do you have a recommendation for a pattern for this combo?”

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Special Favors

2012. What a year! Looking back now, I think primarily about 2 events in my life: The first was when my daughter very nearly died of a sudden, total liver failure (still inexplicable), and what has happened since that terrible time in early March. The second was the official start of my blogging life, at the very end of July.

These seem totally unrelated, don’t they? I suppose they are, in most ways, but here’s where they come together for me: I am most profoundly grateful for both experiences. Continue reading →


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Changing Your Scarf: The 4 Seasons Project

The 4 Seasons Project. It started several weeks ago with the idea of creating color sequences based on each season that could then be interpreted for my line of yarns*. (For more on the development of the color palettes and skeins, and to see photos of each season’s color sequences, see A Colorful Year: The 4 Seasons Project on a Musing, my other blog.) Once I had the colors worked out and had put together the skeins, all (?) I had to do was design one or more pieces that could be knitted with this collection of skeins. Or better yet— design a piece that could be finished in 3 different ways! (I think there’s something in me that positively revels in making a project more complex.) The idea I came up with is a scarf that morphs into an infinity scarf (a continuous loop) that morphs into a cocoon-shaped jacket! (Sure… why not?) And since I needed a title for the knitting pattern I was writing, I dubbed this design 4 Seasons 3 Ways.

 * I create a line of one-of-a-kind yarns for Knittique; each skein has a color sequence based on the color palettes I develop. You can see these skeins, and the patterns I’ve designed for them, in Knittique’s Etsy shop.

Here’s Version 1: The Scarf

The 4 Seasons scarf

The 4 Seasons scarf. The ends hanging in front are (on left) Autumn, and (right) Winter; Spring and Summer wrap cozily around the neck.

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Calling all clothes lovers!

You and your clothes… it’s a love/hate relationship. You love the way a dress looks, but not the way it fits. Or the color of a sweater is fantastic, but the neckline just looks wrong. Maybe you’ve found an amazing skirt at your favorite thrift store, but it has a noticeable stain in an awkward spot. What’s a clothes-loving girl to do?

Changing Your Clothes is all about discovering the creative possibilities that already exist, right in your own closet! Everything I post here is my own projects, the solutions I find to my real-life clothes quandaries. (And I have a lot of those.) Follow my fashion-filled adventures as I alter, repair, knit, sew, recycle, reimagine, and reinvent my own wardrobe!

It’s about time to change your clothes— and love them all over again!