Knitpop Love

      I have become addicted to two sewing-related companies this summer. In such a good way. I finally got some pictures of things I have made with their fabric and patterns respectively, so I am going to rave about each of them in the next few posts. I'll start with Knitpop, the fabric selling company of Sarah Jaggers Knook based out of San Diego. She has a website, which sells tons of great stuff, but she also conducts about 3 x weekly online fabric auctions on facebook which are SO ADDICTING!!! If you want all the details on how these work, you can join the facebook group, read the pinned post and start stalking auctions; it becomes self explanatory pretty quickly. Basically, they cut a 1-2 yards of several somewhat coordinating piles of soft gorgeousness, post a picture and people start bidding on it.  Oftentimes you can score great deals (my last auction box was full of 12 yards of beautiful, high quality stuff for less than $5 / yard including shipping) and almost always you will see some unique things that she doesn't have the quantity of to post in her shop.
      Aside from buying fabric and having it show up on my doorstep 2 days later (everything always ships same day on 2 day express in flat rate boxes or envelopes) I have been loving learning about different types of fabric from this site and facebook group. They carry such a large variety of knits and have descriptions available along with seeing people post what they make with each thing. The best learning experience for me however, was when I bought a Knitpop scrap pack (which was AWESOME! I know not everyone gets quite as beautiful of a box as I did, but man it sure got me hooked- a big pile of 8 gorgeous fabrics for $25 + $12 shipping)

See what I mean?

Plus - huge bonus for me - just in case this picture isn't letting you know, most of this is on the orange side of pink. 

I don't think I could have designed a more perfect scrap box if she gave me free reign of her warehouse.

         Once it came and after I finished petting it and rubbing it all against my cheek and opening it up to get the full effect and gauge sizes, I got to work trying to to decide what everything was. I had seen the tie dye on the left being sold in an auction box listed as rayon spandex. The 2 cream colored ones were obviously sweater knits. I'm not totally sure if this automatically qualifies them as hacci or if a fabric has to have a specific tightness of weave to be hacci, but sweater knit is good enough for me. (One is ribbed, one heathered). The floral next to the tie dye is very lightweight, perhaps rayon spandex as well, perhaps jersey. The stripe is about the same weight as the rayon spandex although maybe a bit lighter and is also SO soft. It may be a brushed poly? Hmmm. I do feel confident on the rest of my analysis though: floral next to the strip is liverpool, next one down to the right is scuba and the floral on black is a ponte de roma. All three of the last ones were things I had heard of but not actually seen and touched and sewn.
        As much as I had read about these fabrics before and heard others say what they do or don't recommend them for, nothing beats having them in your hand to truly understand what the fabric is about. The scuba for instance (which gets its name from being a distant cousin to neoprene wet suit material) was screaming peplum at me. Unfortunately, I didn't have quite enough for that, so it became a regular tank top instead, with some of that ribbed sweater knit as a side panel to fill in where I was running short.

Yup, it's a cell phone mirror selfie. 

And the shirt is not top stitched as of yet. We will have to revisit this in the future. 

           The tie dye wanted to be cropped palazzos, because I really felt like I needed those in my summer wardrobe. I was unsure at first if I would have enough to make the pants and the waistband out of the same fabric, but not only did I have enough, I had enough to match stripes, make a large foldover yoga style waistband and still have scraps large enough to be project worthy on something for the kids.

The stripes I believe will end up as nighties for the girls, along with a shirt for me. They already saw some life as the trunks of the skirt (paired with the black floral ponte) in my last post.   I have a pretty adventurous pair of pants brewing in my mind that uses the black floral ponte. The liverpool is also a great bottom weight; I see knickers for back to school. I have yet to sew with it, but love the feel of it so much that I bought another liverpool print for some shorts for me and overalls for Fern during a July 4 flash sale that I found posted on Knitpop's website while I waited in the worst Cape traffic in the history of my life (because a little technology in the wrong hands can do a lot of harm.....getting off 495 to beat the traffic is a TERRIBLE idea, trust me).

During that sale, I also picked up some french terry that Fern has fallen completely in love with (me too!), a fun mustard jersey with doves printed on it and a (generous) yard of this purple dahlia on blue poly cotton spandex that I had seen in some auctions and then on the site and had been haunting my dreams. I probably should have ordered more, but I thought it was going to be a 4-way stretch fabric and perfect for leggings. It actually is more of a 2-way stretch, so instead I made a tunic (which would have been a dress if I had gotten a little bit more). Regardless, I love it.

 Photo credit is going to Fern on a lot of these. Man, pictures of myself are tricky. 

I cannot get over how much I love this print and how soft and comfortable it is. 

          The first auction box that I bought from Knitpop was on a day when Sarah's husband Sander was running the auction for a bit. (I kind of feel like I know these people - which I am going to allow myself to not feel creepy about. Our family business has turned customers into friends on more than one occasion). He was adding funny lines of commentary to each box....blurred transmission; eighties' mixed tape, hippy in a box. The one that spoke to me was dirty hippy. Ha! I will admit I've been called that name before. Plus the fabrics were great (cotton lycra tie dye and cotton spandex paisley). Plus I was planning to attend a Phish show a few weeks after this box posted for the first time in a few years. How could I pass it up? 

These are my two dirty hippy fabrics, although this picture was taken after I had cut into them. 

          Here's what I have so far:

Aaaaaaaaand.......that hoodie is reversible: 

 I think the girls may see a maxi or two from the tie dye. And I am hoping for a sports bra out of the paisley. Figuring out ways to use up all of this lovely knit fabric is such a fun challenge to be facing. 

 I actually have another auction box as well, in which I see a romper for myself, leggings for everyone, and multiple solid coordinates to help fill in the gaps. Once I have caught up a bit, there will have to be another post for that box!

Until then, thanks for stopping by!