Kate Derosier

19 posts
Picture of a person wearing a boxy, open front jacket over clothes that aren't relevant to the post. The jacket is made from a lightweight canvas that is black with a printed pattern of zig-zagging white lines over it.

Cardigan jacket

I didn’t really take pictures as I was working on this, but I was pretty proud of how it turned out, so I think it deserves a blog post anyway!

I have this loose sort of cardigan jacket thing that I get a lot of wear out of, and I decided that I wanted to make something like it, but in a different color scheme. The jacket is a really simple design – the sleeves are the same piece as the body of the jacket, so there’s just two pattern pieces and three pieces of fabric.

I measured everything I could think of on the jacket, then drew it out and made a couple of changes to the fit (shortened the length, changed the shape of the neckline a little). It sewed up really quickly because it’s so simple! The picture below is from when I was trying to decide how long the sleeves should be:

Picture of a person wearing a boxy, open front jacket over clothes that aren't relevant to the post. The jacket is made from a lightweight canvas that is black with a printed pattern of zig-zagging white lines over it.

I decided the sleeves should be shorter than the hem, so they ended up being basically three-quarters length. Here’s the finished product:

Picture of a person wearing a boxy, open front jacket over clothes that aren't relevant to the post. The jacket is made from a lightweight canvas that is black with a printed pattern of zig-zagging white lines over it.
Close up image of an Ubuntu crochet blanket, folded so that the border is visible next to the middle, showing off the two flower like parts of the design.

All done with Ubuntu blanket!

Finally finished my Ubuntu blanket! I’m so happy with how it looks!

A top-down image of an Ubuntu blanket laid flat on a wood floor. The blanket is hexagonal. At the center, there are 6 large diamonds arranged in a star shape. Each diamond is a different bright color (orange, green, blue, purple, magenta, salmon). To fill out the sides and make a hexagon, there are triangle shapes in between each pair of diamonds. These side triangles have elaborate flowers on them made of the same colors as the diamonds on a light gray background. All the way around the hexagon is an elaborate colorful border.
Close up image of the center of an Ubuntu crochet blanket, where the points of 6 diamond shapes meet. The diamonds are different bright colors (magenta, salmon, orange, green, blue, purple) and there is a light gray border between them.
Close up image of an Ubuntu crochet blanket, folded so that the border is visible next to the middle, showing off the two flower like parts of the design.

It’s so big, it was really quite a challenge to photograph it. Definitely big enough to nap under on the couch. I’m kind of sad to give it away as a gift because I won’t be able to look at it any more – this pattern is seriously so beautiful. And now that the ends are all sewn in, even the back is pretty!

(You can find more information about the Ubuntu CAL at LookAtWhatIMade and Scheepjes.)

Photo of a fabric wall hanging. The background is a rectangular piece of off-white fabric, upon which are layered geometric shapes in navy blue and dark red. The shapes are sewed to the background with an intentionally visible white running stitch. It is hanging from a wooden post with large blue tabs.

Wall hanging

After watching a lot of The Great Interior Design Challenge I was inspired to make something to hang on my living room wall that coordinated with my couch. (Unfortunately, neither the couch nor the wall hanging particularly coordinates with the wall itself, since our apartment walls are yellower than I’d like and we’re not allowed to paint them…)

Originally when I decided to do this, I thought it would be a quick project, but I’d forgotten how much slower hand-sewing is than using a machine, so in the end I worked on this off and on for several months. I’m pretty satisfied with the results though!

Photo of a living room. There is a blue couch against a cream-colored wall. On the couch are pillows with a blue and red triangle pattern. On the wall above the couch is a fabric wall hanging with an abstract design of geometric shapes in blue and red.
Photo of a fabric wall hanging. The background is a rectangular piece of off-white fabric, upon which are layered geometric shapes in navy blue and dark red. The shapes are sewed to the background with an intentionally visible white running stitch. It is hanging from a wooden post with large blue tabs.
Progress photo of a crochet blanket. There are 6 diamond shapes arranged in a 6-pointed star. Each is a different bright color (blue, purple, magenta, salmon pink, orange, green). This picture is a close up on where the points touch, showing the texture details including bobbles and lines.

My first crochet-along!

I have way too many unfinished creative projects, but I couldn’t resist starting the Ubuntu crochet-along, designed by Dedri Uys and organized by Scheepjes. The other blankets I’ve made using Dedri’s patterns have turned out really good, and I really wanted to try doing the blanket week by week as new parts of the pattern are revealed!

Unfortunately, I haven’t been keeping up with the CAL very well. The 4th part was released on Wednesday, and I only finished Part 2 today, so I’m almost a week and a half behind. I’m really enjoying this pattern though. I’m using the large kit from Scheepjes, and at first I felt a little envious of the colors in the medium kit, but the bigger the diamonds get, the more I like these colors. I think it’s because of how variegated the yarn is – with small pieces, it’s hard to see them as a single color, but once the pieces start to grow, the two tones of the yarn blend together more visually. Besides, I think the person this blanket is for will like the darker colors of the large kit better than the pastels of the medium kit.

A black and tan dog sleeping on top of some pieces from a crochet project.
Progress photo of a crochet blanket. There are 6 diamond shapes arranged in a 6-pointed star. Each is a different bright color (blue, purple, magenta, salmon pink, orange, green). This picture is a close up on where the points touch, showing the texture details including bobbles and lines.
Progress photo of a crochet blanket. There are 6 diamond shapes arranged in a 6-pointed star. Each is a different bright color (blue, purple, magenta, salmon pink, orange, green). This picture is from above, showing all 6 of the diamond shapes. A small black and tan dog is visible sitting next to the star.