When deciding on which classes to take at Sew Expo this year, for those instructors with whom I had no knowledge or previous experience, I researched each instructor of interest online via websites, youtube, or blog posts others had written. I love knit clothing and have run into some snags, rippled seams, etc as I've sewn my own and the Craftsy class I took on "Sewing With Knits" taught me a couple things, but I needed better info from an experienced pattern designer or instructor who had worked with and fit knits for adult bodies. 

Voila! My desire was answered when I discovered Pamela Leggett, the talented woman behind Pamela's Patterns had seminars on Cool Cardigans and also Knits That Fit. She has a super helpful & well designed website. I was amazed, thrilled, and learned a great deal from two of her 1-hr seminars at Sew Expo followed by asking a couple specific questions at her booth. Ultimately, I walked away much more knowledgeable, clear on how to adjust problem areas I'd never known how to handle or identify (arm hole shortening for too low garment neckline), and several patterns I'd purchased that will give me beautifully fitting everyday basics that my wardrobe desperately needs. Yay! No more time wasted searching for or wearing ill fitting Ready To Wear (RTW).

Pamela is the nicest person you could meet. Super helpful & elegantly dressed showing the many ways her patterns can be used. Her voice & persona are so cute, genuine, sweet and totally characteristic that I may be inspired to develop a puppet or character for an audio book after her (a compliment to be sure!).

I love meeting unique and knowledgable people like her. After her "Knits That Fit" class, I asked Pamela about the sway back adjustment I recently made on a knitted shirt without a back seam. my concern was that folding it out, then re-truing the line for a fold only added the fabric back in at the Center Back waist where I had just pinched it out. She told me that when knits first came out in the 70's & 80's, they had back seams to allow for better fit. But the fashion industry has eliminated them to save time and money. Her patterns already have the sway back adjustment and instructions. That eased my mind.   She has many great tips and videos posted FREE on her website: http://www.pamelaspatterns.com/you-tube-videos

Then she showed me a couple finished versions of her T-shirt pattern, from her own closet, that she put a back seam into for better fit. After talking with her, buying her T-shirt and Tank patterns, I'm definitely going to put the back seam into my knits. Because, I'm a curvy girl with a sway back adjustment and I like a nice fit. There are too many people running around in RTW with ill fitting clothing. I want to be the one people look at and think, "Damn she looks good. I wonder where she bought that shirt. Probably paid a fortune!" But it'll be our little secret. ;)

I'm currently working out the fit on my copy of Pamela's Pattern #104, The Perfect T-shirt.  In a future post, I'll include the multitude of mods based on my conversations with Pamela and comparisons with my own RTW and other shirt's I've made.  This is the 2nd step in the process (after taking photos of my RTW fits) toward getting a great fitting T-shirt.  Yay! I'm on my way!

Yes, I do make up my own lyrics to songs. It's a family tradition. I was singing about dingleballs to the tune of Jinglebells. Kinda fun, huh? Yeah, I thought so. 

I've been saving this bag of yarn scraps for ages. On 4th of July, I blogged about making potholders from my leftover dreadlocks making days (see pics below) and knitting project scraps. That project wasn't enough to satisfy. Besides, I had lots of different colored scraps.  I needed a way to pull all the colors together.  And they weren't really colors that I typically worked with. I'm a bright and bold color girl normally.  But these colors were soft, muted and nature toned.  I do love those colors and enjoy working with them, but they're not usually my first grab from the yarn or fiber basket.  

Then, my mom found this color work style, ready-to-wear, sweater with some crazy long fringe all round it. When I say long fringe, I mean long... 4". I looked at her like, "Uh, what do you want to wear this for?"  She said, "Dingleballs!"  Oh. my. goodness. That woman is amazing. The sweater was perfect and already had holes in it, from the fringe, that would be perfect for tying on a few dingleballs.  
So I took the sweater home and dug through my bag o scrappy goodness. Wonder of wonders, all these leftovers that didn't have a purpose or a project all of a sudden fit the sweater perfectly.  Various shades of blues & purples (dusty to royal), tans and browns, and a variety of olive greens including a few forest green. I even used some of the fringe (it had polyester in it though, ick!) to make itsy bitsy dingleballs. 

I made dingleballs using the tool from my kits.  But, I wanted to have big and small dingleballs. I thought that would give the sweater some character.  I do love the wee kit tool, but, the tools aren't offered in any size smaller than 3/4 inch.  I recently learned on Pinterest how to make a dingleball using a fork.  Using a fork doesn't give the same uniformity that the pom pom tool does. but the dingleballs are still super cute!  Below are a few photos of the finished sweater. I think it would be adorable with a belt and a fun olive colored skirt instead of my amy butler tunic. ;)

These pictures I took my own self. I used me a barbie-Q and the help of a nice little iPhone app that has a self timer. Self timers are good when you want to take your own pictures. Plus, I could set it up so that it took my picture every 4 seconds. How wonderful is it to fill the world with Birtha pitchers? Wwwwonderful!  I'll have you know tho... I iz not in nose above and below. So, I'm not fully in Birtha mode. But, you can suspect that I'll be back to parade my new pants more one of these dayz.

Feets are good to photograph.
My feets like to be free and nekked. Specially when it's summery. I likey that. A lots. 
Do you see how I have red dots on pink? That makes me happy cause I glow and offend your sweet wittle eye balls. Get used to it. Cause there's more to offend where that came from. :P

Bye Bye!
 -$- Birtha