#pattern library

[bevanne46]

FREE Library Quilt Pattern by Elise Lea for RK. https://www.robertkaufman.com/quilting/quilts_patterns/library/

[fashionbooksmilano]

The Complete Pattern Library

Keith Hagan, Ian Hemlin

A&C Black Visual Arts, London 2005, 112 pages, 15x22,3cm, ISBN 978-07-136-725

euro 22,00

email if you want to buy booksinprogressmilano@yahoo.it

This is a book plus CD package, containing 100 patterns (copyright-free) for use by all craftspeople. The patterns are divided into various geometric, small-scale repeats, florals etc. and each comes with a note of its origins and three colourways, resulting in an invaluable resource for everything from textiles to stencilling, stained glass and websites. The CD is suitable for both CDs and Macs and a wide variety of software packages.

13/01/24

[surfinthehighway]

Simplicity 9448 Collars:

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

me?? checking knitting books out both to support my library and to avoid paying per pattern??? it's More Likely Than You'd Think

[nemfrog]

Interlacing ovals. To and again. 1927. Rebound libary book.

Internet Archive

[charl0ttan]

I didn’t know what cishet meant for a while I thought it was something like crochet idk

behold a cishet man

[scribefindegil]

Do you sew? Do you have boobs? Do your tops never seem to fit correctly despite following all the instructions on the pattern? THIS IS NOT YOUR FAULT! Sewing patterns usually just tell you to match your full bust measurement to their sizing chart, but this isn't enough information to tell you if the garment will actually fit.

Here's the problem. Imagine three people who all have a 40-inch bust measurement. But one of them is completely flat-chested, one of them is very well-endowed, and the third has the mythical "average" figure that the pattern was designed for. Despite having the same circumference, their torsos are completely different sizes and shapes! So while our lucky "average" sewist can cut out the pattern as written and have it fit, that same size is going to be much too tight in the shoulders for the flat-chested person and much too loose in the shoulders for the buxom one.

And that sucks, because an adjustment to add or remove fullness from the bust is much easier to do than trying to re-size the shoulders and torso. Instead of starting off with the pattern size that matches your bust measurement, it's a lot better if you can start off with the size that fits your shoulders. But almost no patterns tell you how to figure this out!

What you need is to match the high bust measurement. Here's an image (from "Ahead of the Curve: Learn to Fit and Sew Amazing Clothes For Your Curves" by Jenny Rushmore, a GREAT book for learning to fit garments, especially if you're bigger) on how to measure high bust vs full bust.

The difference, in inches, between the full bust measure and the high bust measure is your sewing cup size. (usually not the same as your bra cup size, which is the difference between the full bust measure and the underbust measure. yes, it's confusing. sorry)

So how to use this to figure out what size to cut out from your pattern? If you're using a Big Four sewing pattern, those are all drafted for a B sewing cup, so the high bust for any given size will be two inches less than the given (full) bust measurement. Choose the size that matches your high bust. Then compare the full bust measurement to yours. If it matches, great! If it's smaller or larger, you will have to do either a full bust adjustment or small bust adjustment. They seem scary because they're slash-and-spread adjustments, but if you find a good tutorial they're not that hard. You can also just make a mockup in the pattern size that matches your high bust and either add or remove fabric in the bust area until it behaves.

What if you're not using a Big Four pattern? Well, if you're lucky you'll find a pattern you like from a company that simply provides the high bust measurement as well as the full bust in their chart. A few places, like Cashmerette, actually include multiple cup sizes in their patterns so you don't need to do any math to get a good fit. Otherwise, if the company tells you what cup size they're drafted with, you can figure out the high bust from the full bust: A cup is one inch difference, B is two, C is three etc.

If the pattern company doesn't tell you anything except the full bust measurement, scold them about it. If you have to guess, smaller sizes will most likely be drafted with a B cup. There's a little more variation in plus sizes. Regardless, if you're making a mockup try to get the shoulders and neck fitting properly before you worry too much about the bust.

Now go forth and sew things that actually fit your body!

[fioregocce]

And he has 2 hearts

[garadinervi]

Jacquelyn Strycker, Arrival, (collage of risograph prints on handmade Japanese paper and sewing), 2023 [© Jacquelyn Strycker]

Group Exhibition: Line & Thread: Prints and Textiles from the 1600s to the Present, Curated by Madeleine Viljoen (Curator of Prints and the Spencer Collection), The New York Public Library, New York, NY, September 7, 2024 – January 12, 2025

[conservethis]

The next time you think to tell someone, “Oh, just donate it to the library…” know that this picture was almost a week of work*. A week to fill up 8 boxes with donated books that were duplicates of books we already owned (which are now slated for surplus), 2 boxes of books unsuitable for (or duplicates of books already in) the special collection they were donated to (but which will be good additions to our general collection), and 3 boxes of books [not pictured] that ARE suitable for said special collection.

It’s not even my job technically, but I’m good at this kind of sorting work and agreed to help because it’d probably be another 5 years before someone else got to it. And we needed the shelf space back!

Donating books can be helpful and generous in some circumstances, but dang if it isn’t a LOT of work for library staff to triage donations. It’s why a lot of libraries either no longer take donations, or why they only accept very particular things.

And because my library is at a state university, we are technically a state entity, and as such we cannot donate said books to some other non-state entity. So we can’t just donate them to a prison library or a homeless shelter or other such things. They have to go through the same process as all other university/state property, and be sold as surplus, hopefully to be purchased and resold by a third party (versus just getting chucked into the recycling bin).

*and that was a week with a spreadsheet I already had to check the donations against our holdings. Making that spreadsheet alone was probably another week’s worth of work in itself.

[badassindistress]

This weekend I have started the rather ambitious project of tatting this yoke from the Priscilla Yoke Book(1916) from the antique pattern library. I'm probably going to change the pattern a bit for my purposes, we'll see how long it takes me to get this somewhere I'm happy with!

[strongbookthoughts]

Notes on Knitting Brioche by Nancy Marchant

Welp, I think I just found the limits of my knitting knowledge, because I'm pretty sure this book actually teaches witchcraft. Actually, no, I had a witchcraft phase. This is perceiving the 7th dimension and making it dance a jig. Dunno how helpful this one will be, but let's give it a go.

Okay, so brioche knitting is kind of a double layered ribbed knit technique that is stunningly beautiful. It can be done in just one color, but I gotta say I adore looking at at the multicolor ones, like on the cover of the book. And it's a great technique to have in your knitting arsenal if you live in a cold climate. Which I do not.

I'm pretty sure that if you're comfortable with color stranded knitting and lace, you'll have a reasonably easy time following the directions in the book. However, I'm literally hoping to learn the first technique this year, and have to look up my increases and decreases every time they come up, so let's just say that I am not a lace master.

I swearsies the pictures in this book are super clear. The author teaches you how to work every needed stitch in a single color, and then the next chapter reviews every single stitch for the double color techniques. It is detailed. It's just that I'm like a middle schooler trying to read a graduate level textbook right now.

There's an entire section on stitch patterns you can do with the basic stitches.

The patterns are fairly basic once you know the brioche techniques. Most of the tops go up to 50+ inches. The few that don't are designed to not meet over the bust. There are masculine AND feminine designs. I'm shocked. This book was published in 2009.

So... in a few years, if I manage to practice my knitting enough, I might hunt this down again. Or might not. I really do live in a warm climate. Now that I understand how thick this stitch pattern is, I'm overheating from just looking at it.

[chiko-akihari]

Growth

[surfinthehighway]

Simplicity 9251

[lphaneuf]

While I wouldn't recommend self-striping yarn for an all-over cable sweater, this is the yarn I want to use and the pattern that brings joy & relaxation. It doesn't "show off" the cables, but I'm liking the color play.