While tracking down fabrics for wedding projects, I ended up with a couple duds. Fabrics ordered online turned out not to fit in with the color scheme once I saw them in person. I ordered a couple 3-yard pieces that looked like they might be a nice golden yellow, only to arrive quite orangey. oh dear. What to do with extra yardage of not-quite-right fabrics? Pajama pants, yes.

Following Heather Ross' pattern Pajama Pants for Everyone from Weekend Sewing, I sewed up these two pairs of pants appropriately, on the weekend. One pair for me, one for Brian.

The pattern is great. I thought for sure the pants would be too big as the cut pieces were humongous. I used 1/2" seam allowances rather than 3/8" to make them a bit smaller. Mine are size M and Brian's are size L. There is a lot of extra length built into the pattern. On the size large pants, after cutting the fabric 3 inches shorter than the pattern, I hemmed up another 3 1/2 inches. and Brian is 6 feet tall. I bet you can make pants for a 7-foot tall person with this pattern!

I added a couple details to these pants. One, a little fabric loop to mark the back of the pants and allow them to hang on hooks.

And topstiching. There's something about topstiching.. I want to put it everywhere. Typically, you can only put topstitching either on the inseam or outer seam of pant legs. Doing both just doesn't work.. it is too hard to get the other side through the sewing machine once the leg is sewn up. Jeans usually have the topstiching on the inseam. For my pajama pants, I managed to do the stitching on both sides of the leg. Who knows why I decided to do this, its not a necessary thing on pajama pants. The legs are wide enough to barely make it through the sewing machine. On Brian's pants, I topstitched the inseam and about 12 inches at to top of the outer seam.

topstitching on the outer pant leg

For future pants (or maybe an upgrade for these), a back pocket has been requested.

You know what? Pajama pants are extra comfy when you make them yourself. And matching pants for fiances - oh yeah. Anyone else planning on sewing these?

These fabrics are from Windham's Cheddar and Poison Green Collection.

A friend requested a bunch of box bags for mother's day. She'll fill them with homemade cookies and biscotti for her mom and aunts, who apparently all love pink. So we shopped for fabrics and I started sewing them up. Extras will go to the etsy shop as they are finished (pink woodgrain ones are already there). If you've got a pink-loving mom too and want to reserve one of the in-progress bags, just let me know :-)

Isager alpaca is really nice. So nice that I forgot to check my needle size before knitting the yoke. oops. The pattern said size 3mm needles, which I hastily interpreted as US size 3, which is almost correct. So I ended up with a rather large yoke, and promptly re-knit it on size 1 needles.

Though the knitting was much more pleasant on the larger needles, I love the tight look of the smaller yoke. Plus, it should hold up better once its weighted down with the rest of the sweater. I am calling this my "Early Spring Sweater" (ravelry link) in hopes I will finish before the summer.

Next up, picking up stitches and working downward.

on size 3 needles: kinda big

on size 1 needles: better

ps. I stand corrected. Knitalongs are alive and well over on ravelry, where they are likely way more efficient than multiple linked blogs. But if anyone is interested in an old-fashioned blog-based knit along, I'd find it pretty hard to resist. What would we knit?

Cannot stop sewing box bags! Here are a few recent additions to the Streets and YOs etsy shop.. bright colors to round out the selection.

My sister sent a bit of yarn for me to try. She is knitting a sweater from it, and I will join her, as soon I decide on a color. Its maybe not something I would have chosen on my own, but I can't resist a sister knit along. The sweater is called Olive, from a booklet called Animono. The pattern specifies this light fingering weight yarn, Isager Alpaca Strik 2, to be knit on larger than normal needles, size 6s. The above swatch is on 5s. I think its about the right gauge. Its different than I'd choose without the pattern, but very nicely drapey.

By the way, what ever happened to knit alongs? Remember 2005, when we all knit along? Do they still happen? I realized I haven't heard about one in a while. I guess we don't need them anymore, after all, now there is ravelry, with its wealth of information about the previous knittings of any sweater pattern. And with a number of sweaters under our belts, we've learned to make most adjustments without conferring with others. That's my hypothesis anyway. Sound right?