I LOVE cables

Finally a pair of grass green socks just for me! I am ashamed to admit how many times I've checked Sensational Socks out from our library (intralibrary loan no less!) without knitting a single sock. The first few times, I just couldn't understand the appeal of it to so many knitters. Cannot say that I really know what tripped my switch but I'm a convert now. I'm waiting patiently for the other SS books to become available through the library so I can check them out. It bites to live in a town without a bookstore.

Vital Stats for these lusicious green socks:

Pattern: 3x3 Cable with Moss Stitch from aforementioned book
Yarn: KP Palette in Grass. A note about this yarn: it can be splitty and isn't super soft but I bought it as a filler to get the free shipping last order. Depending on how it washes up, I'd probably use it again for my own personal socks just because it comes is so many colors, wonderfully shaded from light to dark.
Needles: Bamboo DPN, US 2.
I used the 68 stitch version of the pattern without knitting a swatch first. Why? Because I know in order to use my US2s, I typically cast on 52-56 stitches and cables pull in enough to likely taken in the "slack". My gamble paid off. These are just the perfect amount of tight-loose to be comfy and not leave a tourniquet mark at the end of the day.

Hubster told me he thought these were going to be the ugliest socks I'd ever knit when I started the first one. When I finished it, he declared it a keeper. I believe I'll be ordering some girly pink for E a pair at Christmas since she likes the cable action as well. And she could identify them as cables!

In other news:
Spent yesterday cutting out and stitching together some adorable Holly Hobbie dolls for 3 of my very favorite little girls in the world. (Hi, G&R!). The evening tv watching slot made quick work of stuffing 6 arms, 3 bodies and 2 legs. I have to finish sewing the remaining legs together today, then I will hunt up fabric from the stash for outfits. Their heads are made from children's socks which I keep forgetting to buy when I'm out. And I need to find a suitable yarn for their hair. I am tickled E wants her own HH doll but still loves mine. Poor old gal has had "surgery" to reattach every limb and her head at least twice. I believe she even had a hair replacement sometime in the late 70s. Well loved.

ETA: I usually steer away from politics(namely the war for oil issue) here but this young solider's blog is one of my new favorite reads. Go check out Jake's Life.

Clessidra and Skirt

I finished these weeks ago. They lay in a heap on the floor near my knitting spot crying silently to be modeled and packed away lovingly until fall. The sobs were just too much for me. Forgive the icky indoor shots, we are having a bit of dreary, cold weather and rather than wait another few days and endure more sobbing from the socks, I begged one of the resident photogs to get busy already.







Vital Stats: Clessidra from Spring '07 Knitty. Knit on US 1 dpns using less than 2 full hanks of Bare. Actual knitting time was about 2.5 weeks,I think. While I have a love-hate relationship with Knitpicks most of the time, Bare is heavenly. I do believe underwear could be knit from it and be an enjoyable wear. It's just that soft to me. I have no idea why this shot looks so pixelated to me, I hope it's clearer to everyone else. (This is the Sexy Leg pose for someone who knows what I'm talking about. haha)






I am bit embarassed to blog about this latest FO. Not because I am unhappy with the actual finished project but because I'm unhappy with how I look. Anyone over 25 can relate to that, I'm sure. Ignore the knee socks...the photog thought we were shooting kilt shots appearently. Also ignore the green shirt...I was too lazy to change into the pale yellow shirt I have for this skirt. So there.



Vital Stats: 100% cotton print found on the $1/yard table at Stuff*mart, packaged bias tapes (2 packages: one single fold, one double fold). Pattern drafted by yours truly based on directions found in this great book, Sew What! Skirts that I borrowed from the library. I made the A-line wrap skirt (called Breezy Beach Wrap in the book) but left the actual ties off since this is a muslin of sorts and I am toying with the idea of using snaps to close this. The total time invested in this project, including drafting the pattern, boiled down to one evening after dinner. We eat dinner at 5, baths start at 7:30, so that's fairly quick. Total cost for this skirt is roughly $5.00. Intended wear: vacation '07. Will I make another one? Probably, from denim and a smidge longer. Do I recommend this book for everyone? Definitely. I am not a talented sketcher at all, nor have I ever been able to draft a pattern from directions before. This book is well-written although I had to read it, lay it down and let the info stew a bit before it completely made sense to me. (Hey, Christy and Amanda, I think you both would find this book useful. Especially since you have girls to experiment with!)

PICTURES!!

First up, for Christy's peace of mind, a shot of my first attempt at the HSP'07 sock. I was unhappy with the first 2, yes 2, attempts so I've switched patterns and am to the heel turn now. After frogging this one twice, I realized that all I had to do to make it fit properly was add 8 stitches but after the second one, I was too p.o'd to try that pattern again. Besides that, I think the pattern I choose ( Brainylady's Basic Cable Sock) might appeal to my partner more anyhow. The yarn is Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in Burgundy and let me say that is some YUMMY yarn!

Now for some actual finished work, (no more teasers in this post, I promise!). A summer top for E. from Simplicity 4208, view B. 100% cotton print from Joann's with ric-rac trim at the bottom above the ruffle. She now has 3 tops from this pattern and loves them all. Very cute, easy and fun, especially now that I have a gathering foot for Athena.



Next up, summer pjs and/or a top. E won't wear shorts outside to play, only skirts but she likes to sleep in shorts. Weird, I know. The top is from McCalls 5419, view B. I modified the straps after she complained of the bows coming untied on a dress from this pattern. I simply measured the straps of the below dress and used that number to create a bias strap/binding. The shorts are from Kwik Sew's Sewing for Kids book. Both have bias binding in place of hems, the top even sports a size tag while the shorts have a bias loop in the back to help her remember which side goes where. Very easy trick to use in children's clothing. Short version: take a piece of bias tape or soft ribbon about 3-4 inches long. Loop in half, insert cut ends into casing OR back center seam, stitch and presto! No more pants on backwards. A Sharpie marker can be used to mark size and pattern number if desired (a ballpoint pen works but fades after a while in my experience)






Now the dress that nearly drove me to drinkin'. Simplicity 5641, view E minus the ruffles on straps and bodice. First of all, pattern envelope sizes, actual piece sizes and measurements do not add up. I have had this problem with several patterns this spring and well, it pisses me off royally. This dress does not fit E as I would like but she loves it so I'm letting it go at that. The zipper took 5 tries to get in correctly thanks largely to screwy directions and not having done a zipper in years. Again, 100% cotton print from Joann's, ric-rac braided for straps.



Blurry close-up of braided ric-rac straps. E wanted ric-rac on this dress so badly but I felt the print was busy enough so we compromised on the straps. She choose the colors from my box of ric-rac and I braided them together followed by a straight stitch down the center to keep them braided after washing. This is one of her outfits for vacation in July. She refuses to wear it before then for fear it will get stained before Gram sees her in it.


And finally, for Thicket Dweller, the Rugters tomatoes I started from seed. I've tried for years to do this with no success. Being a hard-head has advantages at times. I really don't know why it worked this time but these are about a month old now, in need of repotting for a short time before I plop them in the ground. ALL but 1 seed germinated, I've thinned them twice now. Can't wait to taste them come late July/early August.

Is There A Sewing Gene?

This weekend was filled with fibery fun for the youngest duckling. For some time now, she's been pestering for lessons with the 'slow machine'. Pestering me to the brink of losing my mind. All I can say is thank goodness for older sisters (R) who spent an entire paycheck on a variable speed machine last year and is willing to share with E. I know, she's giving me that look in this shot, but believe me, she was/is all about the sewing.
Every day, she greets me not with "good morning, mama" but "CAN I SEW RIGHT NOW?" A large box of 6.5" squares has kept her occupied for days now. She can almost sew a perfectly straight line after 3 days of practice and I'm finding that sewing machine time is a powerful motivator with that child. Her grandmother and I have shared several laughs over her new-found obsession. We both cannot wait to see her in a quilt shop now that she understands how much fun we have.
One of the first things she designed and made on her own: a skirt for Barbie. I'm amazed with how she can just create like that without a pattern. R has that ability as well. I'm jealous. I admit it. Over the weekend, she has created numerous pillows and "blankets" for barbie and her merry band of cohorts. It made no difference that she already has a box full of this stuff...stuff I'd made for Christmas one year. Barbie now has pillows everywhere! I love it.

Thanks for falling in love with sewing so young, E. Practice often, long and love the art. I have no doubt you will soon surpass me.

Reason #2 Why I Love My Children

This morning, Miss E presented me with this portrait. While I love how much detail she put into this picture (shoes that tie, striped shirt, curly hair), what I love the most is she drew me SKINNY and SMILING. View of a mother through her child's eyes, it's a touching thing.


Crafting news:
Clessidra is now waiting for the Knitpicks order to arrive. Placed Friday AM, we'll see how long it takes this order to travel the 2 hours from the warehouse to my house. Once the yarn arrives, Clessidra and Mariah will be dueling needles I suspect.

A pair of boring, stockinette kid's socks will finish up before dinner today. The intended recieptent is the parish sock drive in the fall. I used E's foot as a guide and just knit to use up the last of this simple stripe I had. Hopefully between socks and mittens, I'll be able to use up the odd ball remenants of fingering yarn AND the parish drives will benefit too.

This afternoon has been spent finish up 3 little tops for a friend's daughter. Pictures are forthcoming. I used stash fabrics, a favorite pattern from E's toddlerhood and bias binding. A rather fast project if I'd have sat down and done them at once instead of dwadling about.

Sewing Still Life, Series 2

Freshly mended jeans belonging to Hubster. One pair had begun the day sporting a single patch and by breakfast's end, had 3 new ones. We never seem to find time to head to the thrift store together so these will have to do a while longer. With spring around the corner, these will be his around the yard and tinkering with cars jeans. Stains won't hurt them in the least.

Happy now, Lynn? LOL.

And Emily, who gets queasy at the thought of buttonholes, really they aren't any worse than kitchenering a sock once you learn how. The first buttonholes I ever made were done on Kenmore machine that had a special attachment with templates for the buttonholes in darn near every shape and size one could dream of. It made beautiful buttonholes and is honestly the mark for all machines I've owned since when it comes to buttonholes. The worst part of buttonholes for me is getting them all lined up exactly the same on the button band. Athena and I haven't quite come to an understanding about that. Largely my fault for not paying enough attention while sewing and not doing them more often. As long as they aren't cut in the middle yet, a seam ripper, good light and time will correct the errors. Learning to put in zippers was much harder for me but that too just takes practice.

No, the shirt is not done yet. In fact, it is exactly how it was the last time: awaiting sleeves, a collar and neckband along with the buttons and buttonholes. I had intentions of working on it this morning but then the family started moving about, making noises about breakfast and whining about school so my attention was diverted. Maybe tomorrow. There are many things I want to sew, spring clothes for E, some dress-up play clothes for a pair of princesses I know (Hi, Princess G!), new curtains for the bathroom. There is mending to be done yet but it's kept this long so more time in the basket won't hurt it at all.

Knitting is slow going right now. I have startitis, like many other knitters right now. As if 7 projects on needles were not enough, the urge is overwhelming. This multiple WIPs at once is a relatively new thing for me. Used to be when it came to knitting, I was a one project gal all the way. Even when it seemingly never-ending like the sweater I knit my kid sister in jr high or high school. I drug that thing everywhere with me to knit: the bus, school, choir practice, anywhere in the car. I swear it still took me most of the winter to finish. She wore it for years, then we passed it back and forth for a few more years until we were all sick to death of the pale blue, boxy thing. The temptation now is seeing what so many other uber talented knitters are doing, the yarns they choose and the changes they make to the patterns. Often I knit things because I cannot picture how the directions work out to form xxx or because I want to try something new. You bloggers are feeding my sickness here. As long as I can fight the temptation to buy yarn, it will be ok.

FO Picture

PJ Pants#1, 100% cotton fabric bought on clearance, sportswear elastic bought in mega quantities, pattern drafted from an old pair of worn-out Fashion Bug pj bottoms. No, I do not have a bow leg as it appears in the picture. It's just a weird pose since my photographer wasn't as quick as I thought. And the giant pink spots are actually cute dragonflies. Still searching for a tee to wear with these.

A list, a list...now where to start?

I have this habit of making giant to-do lists. Anything from changing the tp roll to buying groceries and paying bills can be on that list. Usually everything is lumped together on a single paper: chores for the girls, errands to run, things Hubster needs to do. This morning I did something completely new. A to-do just for sewing. And oh! how it grew in just a few seconds. PJ pants for me, skirts and pj pants for E, mending, flannel shirt for Hubster, new bathroom curtains. Where to start?

PJ pants for me seemed like a logical choice since I have one pair of elastic waist pants for winter. Pants with a waistband really irritate that incision that needed packed unless I leave them undone. Completely undone around the house which is rude even at home. So making pj pants turned out to be an all day gig. I'd saved and carefully ripped the seams out of my favorite yet unfixable pjs (Fashion Bug thrifted!) to make my own pattern. Tracing a plus size pattern takes time, space, planning and patience but I managed to trace the remaining pants parts and get a pair cut out of some cotton print picked up at JA on sale on top of clearance prices. We're talking, maybe a whole $2 in the pair including elastic now. My kind of price! Only took me twice to get them together correctly. Those blasted brain farts are dangerous, let me tell you. Had to rip out both inseams sewn with French seams. (Lynn, that means like the inside of Em's jumpers!) Only my small seam rippers are MIA so I had to use the Goliath sized thing that always either stabs me in the index finger or pokes a hole in the fabric. Thankfully, neither happened today. Only thing left now is to finish the hem and find a white tee to make a matching shirt. I haven't had matching pjs in years...I'm so excited because I have enough fabric in the stash to make 2 more pairs of pants! A couple of thrifted or clearanced shirts and presto! Mama looks stylish while she snores. Pictures when the shirt appears.

Brain Farts While Sewing

This morning while folding the laundry, I came across a torn sheet. So with sheet in tow, I made my way to the sewing machine, changed the needle back to something suited for a woven instead of heavy denim and mended away. Then I noticed the tag said "Extra Deep Twin". Um, dude,no twin beds here anymore. How it escaped the twin sheet purge when we obtained free queen sets for the girls, I will never know. That was months ago at least.

Brain Farts: They happen to everyone. Not everyone owns up to them though, especially when they could have prevented one by checking the tag first.

FO Rundown

Once again, I'm blaming Jane for something. She always gets my brain going and usually my needles too! One of her recent posts was a tally of FO for 2006, which reminded me that in January, I set a goal to beat her ungodly number of socks knit. Did I manage to do just that???

11 pairs of mittens
2 scarves
1 Clapotis
1 child sweater
1 hat
1 baby sweater
1 baby afghan
4 pairs wrist warmers
AND

26 pairs of socks!! That would include 10 pairs of infant socks and 16 pairs of adult and child socks.

Sewing FOs:
2 round handle bags
5 tote bags
Kitchen curtains
2 skirts for E
1 skirt for me
1 needle case
2 dresses for E
1 top for me
2 jumpers
1 Laura Ingalls costume
5 aprons
1 quilt completed start to finish
2 quilt tops pieced

I know I've sewn a lot more than this but did not blog about much of that. Bummer. Better luck in 2007.

Goals for 2007:

Find a pressure canner (hopefully thrifted!)
Knit 5 more pairs of mittens for the parish mitten tree
Knit 27 pairs of socks. (Jane, that is a challenge to you!)
Another Irish Hiking Scarf, possibly in blue this time.
A cardi for me, maybe in lavender?
A pullover or two for me...top-down raglans
Finish up the stack of quilt tops and sell them off.
Make some tote bags for my shop
A few summer outfits for my Ems out west
3 rag dolls...one for E and two for some cuties down south
2 visits with Duck.
Finish Christmas shopping by Halloween.


ETA: LUNCH WITH JAN. Make that raising you-know-what with Jan!! We'll probably get tossed from the place and threatened with the joint because, well, we just will. (Note to Jan: Forgive me for the oversight? It really HAS been on my mind for a while now. Somehow, I think you'd laugh until you pee when you hear about the adventures of the mighty-yet-completely-useless-appendix and his good friend, green-pus. I promise to only use my fork to eat with and leave the mud at home!)

What are your goals?