an American fabric-shopping in Paris!

Yeah, that happened! There's a lot more I could say about my trip, but we all know you're really here for the fabric chatter, right? Of course right.

Several people were kind enough to give me recommendations for places to check out, via Twitter. Specifically Sonja and Sarah--thanks, ladies! I knew I would have to limit myself on how many places I could visit, since I'd be dragging Doug with me, so I ended up picking one recommendation from each sewcialist.

First up was Les Coupons de Saint-Pierre. I'd been forewarned that this place was one you'd have to dig through piles, but I've been a thrift shopper since I was 13, so I have no problem with that.

To be honest, I could have spent hours in this part of town alone--there were so many tables full of fabric sitting outside multiple shops, just begging to be noticed! For a girl who only has a handful of Joann's in her entire state to pick from, this was a dream! But for the sake of my long-suffering husband, I restrained myself. Yes, there was a lot of digging to do. All of the fabric is piled onto tables by type, in 3-meter cuts--there was a huge pile of cottons, a section for linen, a part with leather hides, a huge section on the one side of the store for "silks", etc. (I put the silk in quotes, because upon closer examination, I deduced that the sign probably meant silky and the biggest pile was actually polyester. All of the labels were in French, of course, but I made sure to look up the words for the different fiber types before I left!) So I bought 3 pieces of fabric here. When we were walking to the metro, I spotted a fourth "coupon" on an outside table that I couldn't pass up, so we quickly bought that as well and kept moving. I forget the name of that shop, but it also had "Coupons" in the name, and looked to be pretty similar.

Here's what I ended up with, from left to right:

1. A fine-wale corduroy, covered in embroidery and sequins. This was on the 5 Euro table outside the store. My first instinct says jacket, but since I already have a brown corduroy jacket, I'm pondering a fall skirt. A Beignet, maybe? French named-pattern for a French fabric!

2. The piece on the side of the road I couldn't leave! It's a thin jersey, and I do so love brown and teal together. I think this could be very nice as the lately-released Muse Jenna cardi, though I don't have that pattern yet. 4,75 Euros.

3. A denim with a slight amount of stretch. I liked the cross-hatching in the weave. These will eventually become jeans, of course. I'll have to decide whether to make them skinny, since that's pretty much the only pants I saw anywhere in Paris, or give myself another pair of bootcuts.

4. An ITY floral jersey. This color scheme is odd for me, and almost completely outside of my palette, but something about it called to me. I don't know what this one will be yet, but it's not like I have a shortage of jersey patterns. I'm open to suggestions, though!

All together, the cost of these fabrics was just under 30 Euros. Which made the whole shopping trip cheaper than almost every single meal we ate. Those cafes are expensive when you're buying for 2! Even for just sandwiches!

The second store I visited later in the week was La Drougerie. I didn't end up buying any fabric here, because there was only a small selection and it looked like mostly quilt-type cottons. It was also sold by the meter instead of the 3-meter cuts, so it looked like that would add up quickly. It looked like the big draw here was the yarn--it's the first thing you see when you walk into the door, and dominates the whole first half of the store. There's also a room to the side where you can browse beads and buttons and trims, and again, I could have spent a lot more time here.




I decided to limit myself to just a small yarn purchase here, since the yarn is sold by weight. It's a good thing I came armed with fiber translations, because as usual, there's wool in almost everything! But I did find this super-soft linen/bamboo blend. It's called Kaleido, Ravelry has it categorized as fingering weight, and I ended up with about 330 yards. So probably enough for a hat or a lacy scarf or something along that line.


Finally, I did do some crafting while I was gone! This was mostly done during times like airport layovers and sitting in the hotel room at night-- I was originally thinking to knit on the plane some, too, but for both of the long flights, I ended up in the middle seat with not a ton of elbow room. This is the Unleaving Shawl from Knitty, which really looks a lot more like a scarf than a shawl and highly increases the chance of this actually getting worn. And it's a really simple pattern, unless I'm so tired from flying for 8 hours straight that I screw up the pattern and can't figure out how to backtrack and fix it. (Yeah, that happened once. Hopefully it's not too terribly obvious. I really should not knit anything other than straight stockinette when I'm super-tired.)

One other fun sewing-related story from the trip: Doug and I had just gotten on the metro later in the day after dropping off my fabric at the hotel, to head to Notre Dame. There were two older ladies in the seats near the rail we were holding onto, and one was telling her friend (in English) about something having to do with a silk-cotton blend and the pattern she was working with. So when there was a pause in the conversation, I asked them if they sewed, they answered in the affirmative, and the three of us got to chatting about sewing clothes! I didn't have time before our stop to ask their names or where exactly they were from, though I'm guessing America based on the accents (or lack thereof, to my ears). But they did like my Cooper bag that I was carrying, and had heard of Colette when I replied to their question of what pattern I'd used. It's amazing that I could instantly find someone to talk to in a random subway on the other side of the world because of sewing!

If you do want to see travel photos, I have a small selection up on my Instagram. I still need to sort through the photos on my SLR, and when I uploaded those and the ones on my phone this morning, I have over 700 photos from the week! But I'm also going to make a Flickr album of my favorites, mostly to make it easier to upload and print. After all, this is exactly the sort of trip that makes me want to dig into my scrapbook paper and play!

So who wants to swap some stuff?

Andrea, Gail, and Morgan-- the masterminds behind the Stash Diet-- have come up with another fun stashbusting idea. In the interest of decluttering, they're hosting a Spring Cleaning Swap Meet! I'm also in a mood to spring clean and declutter some. My husband and I spent several hours last night cleaning about half of our house--ok, he cleaned about half the house, all I did was the kitchen and the living room windows. That kitchen took forever! Though in my defense, it was a really deep clean. And we still have more cleaning to do today.  Anyway. So I dug through my stash and found a whole stack of patterns that I'm ok with parting with. Honestly, these are just the never-been-used ones, so I'm going to have to go through again and figure out which patterns I've tried that just aren't for me.

I'll ship these pretty much anywhere, though if it's outside of North America, I wouldn't mind if you're willing to chip in on shipping costs. I'm also going to keep it simple this time and say first come, first served. So here's what's up for grabs. (The two with the glasses are pictures that I didn't realize duplicated in the collage until after it was already on Flickr, and I'm too lazy to redo it.) And since I probably won't be able to get these out right away, let's say I'll leave this open till April 1.

1. Simplicity #2700, sizes 14-22. They're pretty similar to the Thurlows, and I know that one works for me.
2. J. Stern Designs #37 Women's Jeans, sizes 12W-24W. Generously given to me by the designer when I took her class on Pattern Review twice, because I was having so much trouble with fitting, along with the Misses size. I'm keeping that one for myself, but would love to see this one go to someone who can use it.   TAKEN by Linda.
3. Vogue #8781, sizes 8-16. Just too corporate for my lifestyle.
4. New Look #6977, sizes 6-16. For knits. I kind of feel like I'm too old for this one for some reason. TAKEN by Paskiaq.
5. Simplicity #4220, sizes 8-16. I bought this mainly for the top, but I have other similar things. TAKEN by Dottie.
6. Simplicity #2369, sizes 8-16. For knits. Also bought for the top, which I'm no longer feeling.
7. Simplicity #2344, sizes 10-18. I liked the jacket, but I have tons of jacket patterns that interest me more for now. The top is a knit, the rest are woven.
8. McCall's #5105, sizes X-Small-Medium. I have TNT top patterns that pretty much cover these silhouettes.
9. Simplicity #1915, sizes 6-14. I thought the waist casing would be enough fitting for my taste, but the Wardrobe Architect project has changed my mind.
10. Simplicity #1910, sizes 6-14. Bought as a possibility for the skirt of my wedding dress, but I didn't use it.
11. Butterick #5212, sizes 8-14. A bit more low-cut than I'm comfortable with.
12. Simplicity #3559, sizes 6-14. So cute, and totally wrong for me. I've learned the hard way that sheath dresses don't work on me at all.  TAKEN via Flickr by Frau Sma.
13. Simplicity #7090, sizes 12-18. Not feeling it anymore, but a teenager learning to sew might love it. TAKEN by Becky
14. Vogue #8099, one size. I don't even know how I got this pattern--probably something my mom was destashing herself.
15. Simplicity #4543, sizes 8-14. I've also learned the hard way that skirts with wide yokes don't work on me at all, either. TAKEN by Becky
16. Simplicity #2416, sizes 10-18. I was looking for a good maxi-skirt pattern, I still think the seaming is interesting, but I'm highly unlikely to make it now that I have the Gabriola skirt.

I have one other thing I can offer up, too, though due to bulk, I'll have to limit this one to the US.

Some time ago, when I first started knitting, I snagged a couple of sweaters at the thrift store and unraveled them as part of an experiment to see how much, if any, wool I can handle. You can see the original sweaters here. The offwhite one got trashed, the grey is currently being knit into my Roheline cardigan, and this is the greenish one. I was going to attempt to do something with it, but it seems that even tiny percentages of wool and myself don't get along, because my hands were still feeling prickly from handling this long enough to take a photo for Twitter, about an hour later. So here's the details:

• Yes, I washed this sweater before I frogged it.
• If I estimated right, based on the measurements on my swift and wpi, there's approximately 1475 yards in a sport-weight. Though the plys seem to want to loosen up quite a bit, so it might be better off doubled for actually knitting. 
• Divided into 12 skeins of various sizes, based on how the sweater was unraveling.
• Original sweater gauge is 4x4” square = 20 stitches, 28 rows in stockinette. 
• Fiber content is 74% polyester, 11% mohair, 7% acrylic and 8% wool.

It's a pretty color scheme of olive, pale yellow, blue and a darker green and brown all twisted together, and I really wish that my skin could handle it. If no one wants it, I'll just toss it or donate it back to the thrift store-- no harm done, since I only paid $3.50 for all of this yarn.
 

Stash Diet 2014

Happy New Year, sewcialists! If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I've been spending a lot of time in my sewing/craft room lately, going through things and just trying to get it neat so I can start 2014 off with a cleaner slate. There's a lot of stuff that never really got put away after the move, so I'm trying to do it right this time! Though, as of last night (and with a little help from my husband), I have it at "good enough" for now, so now I can start making things again. Woohoo!

I've also been doing a lot of tracking of what I have, and have discovered that I have an embarrassing amount of stuff. I'd mentioned in my Hits & Misses post that I didn't feel like I did such a great job of buying vs. using my stuff. But it's all useful stuff, and the cheap frugal part of me doesn't like to get rid of things that are useful. Especially when I still like the fabrics, you know? But hubby and I are also talking about potentially putting our house on the market this year and moving back up north. (Which, in this state, means 20 minutes away from where I am now, and above the canal so we don't have to keep paying that stupid toll any time either of us go to work.) And that means the more I use, the less I have to pack, right? We're also going to be attempting to crack down on our budget this year, so me using what I have instead of buying new craft supplies will be a huge help!

Andrea and Gwen have started a Stash Diet initiative for 2014, and I think it's just what I need. I'm going to be doing mine for yarn, too, since I also have a lot of that. But I also need some ground rules, so here goes:

The basic rules:

1. I will allow myself one new piece of fabric for every 4 from the stash that I use up. I will include lining fabrics into "things used up", since I already added those into my yardage totals, but will not include scraps or muslin. Giving away fabric will also count, since that means it's out of the stash.
   
   Side note--since I do have several curtain-type things on hand, I will count home dec fabrics towards the yardage totals, but not for new fabric purchases.
2. I will allow myself one new yarn purchase for every 3 that I use up, proportional to the size of the project. For instance, I can't buy enough yarn for a sweater if I only use enough for a hat. (Note to self: need ideas for yarn leftovers, since I frequently end up with about half a ball after knitting something.)
3. I will allow myself one new pattern purchase for every 4 that I use. For the purposes of this project, reusing the same pattern multiple times in a row will only count as 1, like the Thurlows that I plan to make all at once. Using a previously used pattern for a different view or after a passage of time, like if I make another Tiramisu dress, will still count. (This way, I can still buy the hot new indie patterns that strike my fancy!)

Exceptions:

1. Fabric or yarn that I need to complete a project. For instance, I already know that I'll need to purchase both Thinsulate and lining for the winter coat I recently purchased fabric for, because the lining that I did order fell through, and I don't have enough yardage of anything on hand for that.
2. Same goes for notions--I'll use what I can where I can, but sometimes you just don't have the right color zipper or enough buttons.
3. Materials for gifts, if I don't have anything I can use. I know of at least one friend who will be having a baby shower this upcoming year, and though I don't know what I'm making for her yet, I don't really have much in the way of baby-appropriate options on hand!
4. Travel exception: If we can swing the vacation we're hoping for, or if something magical happens and there's a blogger meetup I can actually attend, I will allow myself up to 3 pieces of fabric/skeins of yarn.
5. If unforeseen life circumstances happen, I will make an exception as needed. I say this because the last time I tried to do a major stashbusting effort, I ended up needing to buy over 20 yards of fabric for ny wedding dress! So, given my stage in life, although we are not currently trying, it's not completely out of the realm of possibility that I could unexpectedly get pregnant. It's also not completely out of the realm of possibility that we might decide to start that process sometime over the course of the year. If that happens, I'm sure I would need to buy some fabrics and patterns, because I definitely don't have enough knits or stretchy fabrics to make a cohesive maternity wardrobe! (But I would try to use what I had as much as possible.)

Here's where I'm starting at:
Fabric currently in: Approximately 333.5 yards, not counting scraps or muslin
(Edit: Make that about 339.5. I forgot to factor in a Gorgeous Fabrics order that I'd already made before seeing this post. Though, since one is to make a garment out of an otherwise too-small stash piece, one of those pieces does fit my parameters!)

Yarn currently in, according to my Ravelry stash: Approximately  19,928 yards. (Though this isn't entirely accurate, due to in-progress projects and some secret knitting.)

And this is how the shelves currently look. The 3 blue bins hold yarn, but I still had to leave a few projects' worth in a separate bag, not counting the bag of knitting projects I'm actually working on at the moment. The rest of it is all of the fabric, minus what's sitting in the basket in front--those are all of my Thurlow fabrics that I'm hoping to use soon. And there's also at least 5 pieces of fabric that are bagged in the closet with their corresponding patterns. And everything I've bought recently for coats and whatnot, which still hasn't made it in here from the laundry room. And anything for muslins, and scraps, and the several decent-sized pieces of fabric that had to get left in the scrap bins. Obviously, I need help!

What about you? Are you planning on doing any major stashbusting this year?

A Stash Confessional, part 1

You know, all things considered, I think I've been doing a fairly decent job with the stashbusting this year. I mean, sure, I've only sewn about 7-8 things this entire year. And I did have to buy fabric for the recent wedding gifts. And that dress. But aside from those two things, pretty much everything I've sewed this year was from things that I'd already had in the stash for awhile. I even managed to basically use up some yarn.

Of course, this doesn't mean I haven't bought anything recently. But I am trying to be more mindful of my purchases, and really think about how things will fit into my wardrobe. Either that, or they're for specific non-clothes purposes. I do need to go through sometime and figure out what my more recent totals are, since I've used up parts of yardage and acquired more, and I'll probably do that before the end of the year. But in the meantime, here's the more recent additions to my stashes, mostly as told through Twitter posts.

Check out my beach booty...yarrrrrrrrrrrrrn! pic.twitter.com/KHFxKvjUbv
— Becky (@sew_and_so) August 12, 2013

I bought some yarn back in August. There's this cute little yarn store down at the beach, and I went there with my cousins again this year. The orange yarn was bought specifically to make a scarf for this Craftsy class that I'm verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry slooooooooooooooooowly working my way through. (And turns out to be a different color of the same yarn that I bought last year and haven't knitted yet, so I hope I like it!) I have ideas for the other two, but no specific patterns yet--I'm thinking the green could make a nice little triangular wrap/scarf thingy, preferably with a leaf-like pattern. And the blue-purple one....I just thought it was cool and unique. Ideally, I'd like to make a cowl with some kind of drop-stitch pattern so I can play with the dual texture of it (it can be used as a bulky or a ruffle yarn), but I haven't had any luck yet with finding one on Ravelry. I'm a little afraid that I might have to try to come up with a pattern myself, which is more than a bit intimidating when I'm also taking a beginner knit Craftsy class to make sure I taught myself right!

oh, right, photo. pic.twitter.com/iwzw8FbZai
— Becky (@sew_and_so) July 31, 2013

I also got this over the summer--I'd gone to Joann's to acquire some supplies for my friend's bridal shower, and this came home with me. In my defense, it was a lovely-feeling cotton. And 70% off. And it was screaming at me that it wants to be a Pavlova skirt. Which will hopefully happen sometime before the end of next spring.

Need to tidy up the room so I have space to work. So here's my last piece of Doctor Who sewalong fabric. pic.twitter.com/gq18JFhpVD
— Becky (@sew_and_so) August 22, 2013

Also from Joann's, and surprisingly soft and snuggly. Hopefully it won't lose that too quickly in washing. And I'm not saying exactly what I bought this for yet, but if you know the show, you can probably guess.

Was just given free fabric! Debating whether one would be an even better 10th Doctor dress than my original plan. pic.twitter.com/WdXj3AuKgA
— Becky (@sew_and_so) September 17, 2013

That's right, 3 more pieces of pants-like fabric. When I stopped by my parents' to drop off my flute before the retail job--I'm kinder to my instrument than myself when it comes to dealing with the temperatures there at my outside register--my mom told me that one of her quilter friends that she'd seen yesterday wanted to pass those along to me. She'd bought them for pants that she apparently decided she'd never get to. So this means if I totally screw up my hopefully wearable muslin of the Thurlows, I have another opportunity to make brown pants. And then figure out what to do with the other two pieces.

Aside from those, I've bought several pieces of quilting cotton. Aside from the shower gift pieces, which I do have small yardages left of, I got some to make Christmas stockings for us and one gift. But I don't have any pictures of those, particularly since I only bought the gift ones today and they haven't come in the mail yet. (And I may have purchased a sweater knit, too. But I needed one more piece to get free shipping from Fabric.com. And it was on sale for less than $10 total,  and the truth is that I'd rather pay for fabric than shipping. Especially when it means I might be able to inject some much-needed color into my winter wardrobe!)

Stay tuned for part 2, in which I try to figure out various possibilities for things that have been sitting in my stash for awhile. Which will probably wait until after Pantsapalooza, but since I have nothing to show for that yet...note to self, next time you host a sew-along, you might want to pick a time when you don't have multiple weekends solidly booked in a row, k?

Random thoughts

First off--thanks for the kind words about the scarf! That was pretty different for me, but it was fun to make.

Second off--once again, not being able to do a craft compelled me to add to my stash. I spent part of the weekend and yesterday at the beach with my family. And while we were there, my mom/aunts/yarn-crafty cousins decided they wanted to check out this cute little local yarn shop. So this is what I brought home. The greenish one on the left (really more of a green-blue mix) is Chacabuco Multy from Araucania Yarn--it's exciting because it's from Chile, which I've actually been to, and it's hand-dyed, and it's cotton. You have no idea how exciting it is for me to find hand-dyed cotton, since I can actually use it! The brown and blue are Milky Whey by Kollage Yarns, and it's a super-soft soy/milk blend. I'm excited to have some new-to-me wool-free yarns to play with! And I think going to the store was inspiring for others in my family too. One of my cousins decided that she wanted to give knitting a shot, so we got her some cheap needles and yarn and I taught her how to make the knit stitch. She seemed to be getting the hang of that pretty well by the time I had to leave to come home (had to work today, boo), so I'm excited to see if she sticks with it!

I already have projects in mind for both of these yarns. I'm thinking the Whittier Hat from last fall's KnitScene for the Chacabuco, and I specifically bought the Milky Whey to try out the Branching Out fingerless gloves from Coastal Knits. My best friend and I have been making bucket lists lately, and I have several sewing/crafty-related items on mine. One of the things I added was to knit at least one project from every knitting magazine or book that I own. And since I didn't really have stuff for either of these publications yet, that means I'm justified in buying the yarn, right?

As for that background....several yards of dupioni silk that arrived yesterday. Guess I'm committed to that wedding dress thing. Or, as it's gotten dubbed by some of my geekier friends and family, the "One Dress To Rule Them All."  So now I have the lace and the outer fabric taken care of, and I just need to get some underlinings and linings. And bodice support stuff.

Between the beach and some wedding-related stuff, there hasn't been much sewing going on in the last several days! But I did get the basting in the jeans ripped out, at least, so now they're ready to sew together for real.

Year-end crafting

Now that Christmas is over and all gifts have been given, I can show the rest of what I've been up to this month.

1. Herbal eye pillows. They're filled with flaxseed, lavender, and peppermint. I got the idea and the basic instructions from this blog that I found while Google-searching how to do it. The pillows themselves are bits of muslin from testing out that little black dress at the beginning of the year, and I was able to use some 100% cotton scraps from several projects over the last couple of years. I made one for myself, one for my mom, one for the cousin that I got in the family drawing on my mom's side (as part of an after-work relaxation kit--she's a nurse, so she has to put in some long days), and one that I'm not sure what to do with yet.

I usually make a necklace or two for my mom's stocking every year as well. So here's this year's--she mentioned she didn't have much gold-toned jewelry. It's hard to tell from the picture, but the chain is broken up here and there by some antique gold-colored freshwater pearl beads.

I also got some lovely sewing and knitting (mostly)-related gifts this year from my family...

New fabric! From left to right, 3 yards of a lightweight charcoal denim that absolutely has to become pants, a black/white/grey silky print (I think about 2 yards), and a yard each of 3 cotton prints for me to make a new bag, of this style. It's kind of cool that I basically have an entire outfit here! I'll just have to make sure to choose a pants and top pattern that will work well together.

 And I got new yarn! 2 skeins each of this really thin bamboo yarn (I'm guessing for socks)...

....and 2 of this lovely colorway of the Serenity yarn I like. For acrylic, it's super-soft and I love their color palettes!

A few other miscellaneous things: 3 knitting books (2 with some really lovely patterns, and one that's a pocket-sized tips book), a tiny circular needle which I'm guessing is also for attempting socks, 2 pairs of scissors (a badly-needed pair of new fabric scissors, since mine are rather dull, and some pinking scissors so I can stop stealing Mom's all the time), and a little pendant from my sis-in-law.

Here's the close-up-- we both love Van Gogh, and I already had the "Starry Night" pendant. So this is the "Sunflowers", of course. I love that it came with two little sunflower charms so I can make some earrings, too! (Sunflowers are my favorite flower, as you've probably figured out by this point.)

So that pretty much wraps up the holidays. My seasonal retail job is basically done for the year, so unless my job hunt proves more fruitful over the next couple of months than it's been so far, I've basically got no work other than my flute teaching until March. So I think a lot of my non-job-hunting/non-work time will probably be spent playing around with some of these things. I'm hoping to get that mock-up of the raincoat cut out this week. And I have one more holiday-related project up my sleeve, which must get done this week. I'm also planning on doing the traditional year-end wrap-up post at some point this week. But first, I need to figure out where to put all of this stuff...

Reconstructing a reconstruction

About 3 years ago, I took a velvety dress from Goodwill and chopped it off to make a quick top to wear for Christmas Eve services. I've barely worn it since--I was never fully satisfied with the look of it. So I finished re-reconstructing it last night--I've been slowly poking at it in between sewing Christmas gifts, painting ornaments, and knitting away on my Cadence sweater.

I accidentally deleted most of my in-progress photos before a party, so this will have to do. Basically, I took off the black ribbon, and then cut the shirt around the same point because of course there was a mark from the stitching. I had to take in those princess seams a bit too on both the top and bottom, because it was still a bit on the overly loose side.

I cut some strips from the remaining portion of the original dress, used the newly-taken-in top portion as a guideline for how wide to make each segment, and did some gathering where I joined them to add some interest/conceal the oddness of having a princess-seamed waistband. (Incidentally, don't look inside the shirt here--it's not finished well at ALL, but I'm not going to let it bother me for this one.)

I think it's an improvement over that black band. And done just in time for when I need a solid green shirt for Sunday. No pictures of it on me right now--I've been condemned to glasses for the week, since I somehow managed to scratch my eye or something from sitting at the computer with my contacts in and blinking funny. And I'm ridiculously nearsighted, so either I'd be squinting funny, or just look funny period. (I hate the way I look in my glasses, honestly.)

Next up on the sewing agenda: the raincoat! My plan is to trace it out today, since I'm having one of those off-from-the-part-time days and only have a couple of lessons to teach later on. And I'll be test-fitting it with the fabric that I'm actually planning on underlining the lining with. It's less wasteful that way, and I don't feel bad about marking up or piecing together bits of flannel that won't be seen.

I'd also like to work some more on the sweater, since I'm about 3-4 rows away from finishing the decrease section. I think I'm going to try it on after that, and then start working on the sleeves so I can make sure I can get those long enough to fully cover my arms before I determine how long to make the torso. I'm hoping to knock it off quickly, ideally by the end of the year, because I'm thinking ahead to yet another cousin's wedding that will be coming up at the end of March. I don't have to sew a dress this time, thankfully, because I think this one will fit the occasion and season just fine. But I would like to knit a shrug to go with it, since the end of March is still kind of cold for sleeveless. I'm thinking this one, which I've been eyeing ever since I bought that magazine just after I started knitting, in black. I just need to figure out what sort of yarn to use, since the called-for yarn is way too expensive and not in black anyway. I'm kind of eyeing this--I've had to handle 100% cashmere before and it was ok, though not great, so I think I can take a chance on 5%. And the silk will make it a bit warmer too. And I know I'm good with cotton. The price is still a bit higher than I'd like, but at least black is a very versatile color for my wardrobe, so it's not like it would just get worn once. But I'm going to sit on that for a little bit, and see if I can find some time to run to the local yarn store and see what they have. After all, I still need to finish Cadence first.

the promised knitting update

I'm finding it easier to keep my sewing and knitting posts pretty much separated. And I haven't said anything about my latest yarny endeavors in awhile, so here's what's been going on.

1. I still haven't blocked that Stolen Moments wrap. Kind of a combo of lack of time/lack of good weather to do it with. I'm thinking that, since the recommended method involved rolling it up in towels and whatnot, probably the best place for me to let it dry is out in the backyard. And between all the cloudy days and rain we've been getting this month, and just not being home for a long enough stretch of time to do it....yeah.

2. The unraveling continues from those sweaters. The cream colored one is all unraveled, balled up, and listed with its estimated yardage and weight on Ravelry. I'm maybe 1/3-1/2 done unraveling the cardigan, and the grey sweater is in pieces, at least.

3. Largely due to #2, I ended up purchasing a ball winder and swift. I found the swift on Etsy, actually-- a more tabletop-type one that folds up and was way less expensive than the average umbrella-looking thing (something like $25 vs. a minimum of $60, based on what I saw.) It's making it sooooo much easier, and way more fun, to do the unraveling-- I found that I can just wind it right from the sweater onto the swift, estimate the yardage from that piece based on where I've got the pegs (measured around them), and then crank it onto the ball winder. And then I get these nice flat-ended balls instead of the round ones that just fall all over the place while I'm trying to knit/tempt the cat into evil/etc. (Actually, I like the idea so much that I ended up using it on almost all of the yarn I have.

4. Oh, yeah, actual knitting. I've got two projects in the works right now, though I can't talk about one of them yet.  All in good time. The other is the Drop-Stitch Lace Tank from a book I got called Fitted Knits (by Stefanie Japel). I guess you could say this is my first sweater attempt, though there aren't any sleeves involved. This is about as far as I've gotten--I've added two rows since the picture was taken, but that's not enough to make a difference in the look.

On a random note, so far, this project constantly gives me urges to listen to Arcade Fire. The yarn is by a company called Berroco,  and The Suburbs has this song (that gets stuck in my head a lot anyway) called "Rococo"...

And every time I think of it, I just keep subbing the chorus lyrics with "Berroco, Berroco, Berrocoberroco...."

I know, I know, I'm a geek. I've accepted that and moved on. 

If anything, this should give me the urge to go watch some movies based on Greek mythology. (Or get done with my current read so I can read the last of the Percy Jackson books.) The colorways all have something to do with it. Mine's the "Homer Blue". I'm calling this my Odyssey Tank, since The Odyssey is a waaaaaaay more fun read than The Illiad, IMO.

baa baa wet sheep

Wet mostly plastic sheep, really.

I was planning on sewing more last night after Nicole left. But by the time I got everything cleaned up, I was so tired that all I was up for was sitting in front of the tv for Doctor Who and the most brainless crafting I could think of--unraveling the rest of the Stay-puft Marshmallow sweater. I washed it this afternoon and hung it to dry and hopefully stretch out. (It's draped over my music stand, covered in plastic to keep it from rusting where I've chipped the paint off, with water bottles at the ends of the skeins to weigh them down. I found the idea on Ravelry and got all excited since I wouldn't have to buy anything to make this work.)

It hasn't quite unkinked as much as I'd hoped...might be due to the high synthetic content. But I think it is a little straighter than it was. Balling it up might help, too. It actually dried almost all the way in the approximately three hours I had it outside--the only damp spots were right at the bottom, where the water bottles were. So I've got it in the basement to dry the rest of the way.

Other things I did this afternoon:

• Went to the garden center where I work with my parents to help them get stuff for their gardens (with my employee discount, of course). The tradition the last couple of years that I've done for Mother's Day has been to get the stuff to fill her couple of flower planters on the deck, so she and I picked out stuff for that too.
• Planted said flowers in the pots, as well as the herbs that also go on the deck.
• Finished one half of a knitting project:

 This is the second set of Constellation Gloves that I'm making for a friend of mine (who loved mine and wanted to steal them.) I was planning on sewing once I got done dealing with the planting and yarn washing and laundry and such, but then my brother and sis-in-law stopped by to visit Mom. And then they put in a Star Wars movie. So I had to watch it with them. Darn. Finishing this was quieter than sewing, and quicker to grab. So there ya go.

Ok, off to finish tidying up here a bit. And then maybe actually do that sewing!

A day of small things. (And some rather oversized ones.)

Because I don't really have anything finished to show. Things have been kind of busy lately, since I had to work almost all day on Saturday, I was out on Friday night, and had way too much going on between church activities and flute choir on Sunday to do much. But I've been working on a couple of different things as I've been able to since the last post, so here's what's been going on in my crafty world:

I've been refashioning a shirt-- a 100% silk blouse that I thrifted some time ago. I skipped rock climbing on Monday to stay home and sew, since I got done teaching too late anyway, and made some nice progress on this. It's close to being done, I just have to deal with the sleeves. But here's a teaser shot.

This is one of the things I really like about refashioning--they're the perfect sewing project in a pinch for when I just don't have time to lay out a pattern and cut something out.

I knitted a gauge swatch for one of the tank tops I'm hoping to make soon. I think it's ok....the width was absolutely spot-on, but the number of rows left me about half an inch short of what the book said. So I'm guessing I just make this a little longer if need be. I hope it's ok, anyway, since I stopped at Joann's on Monday to pick up a couple of things I needed for said refashion, and already bought the circular needle that I need. (I'm excited about this yarn. Not only is it a very pretty blue, but it's sparkly! And it's cotton!)

I had stopped in Goodwill earlier this week too, in order to pick up something for another refashion where I didn't have anything good on hand to add to what I do have. While I was there, I saw a sweater with a low wool content, and almost got it. But I didn't. And then I went back today before I went to my band teaching job, and ended up getting 3 sweaters with low animal-fiber contents. As you can see, they're all kind of ugly, so my plan is to unravel them for the yarn and use them as test subjects to see how my skin handles them. So here's what I've got:

1. A bit too long for a tunic, a bit too short for a sweater dress. And a ridiculously oversized cowl that makes it look way too 80s for anyone's good. The blend is 55% cotton, 20% viscose, 20% acrylic and 5% rabbit hair. (I guess that would also be known as angora? Or does it have to be a certain type of rabbit for that?) I'm guessing worsted weight.

2. The original sweater I spotted and didn't buy. I'm not seeing how this sweater would possibly be flattering on anyone, really. Especially with that bubble turtleneck thing. It makes me think of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man. Come on, Express, you should know better. Anyway, this one is 45% acrylic, 44% polyester, and 11% wool. Definitely a bulky yarn.

3. The best one of the three stylewise by far, and if it wasn't so huge, I'd be potentially tempted to just keep it as is. I do love a long cardi. And it's super-soft. You can't really tell from the picture, but the yarn is really pretty-- it's kind of a blend of a mossy green, grey, a greyish blue, and something that looks kind of yellowish-green. This one's 74% polyester, 11% mohair, 7% acrylic and 8% wool. It also looks like a worsted-weight.

None of these seemed to really set me off when handling them in the store or trying them on for the photos, so maybe that means I'll be ok? I'm most definitely going to wash these first, since they do have that kind of musty thrift-store smell, and then I guess I'll start dissecting them and see how much yarn I end up with. Either way, 3 sweaters' worth of yarn for $10.50 is definitely not a bad way to start my experimentation!

edit, later this evening: So after looking at some tutorials on how to unravel the sweaters for maximum yarn yield, I decided to go ahead and work on dissecting the Stay-Puft Marshmallow sweater. (I'd already thrown the other two in the washer before reading that wool should be unraveled first, then washed. Hopefully the cardi is ok. I didn't put them in the dryer, and I wash everything on cold...) So far, it seems that I was able to work with the yarn for about 2 1/2 hours before my palms started feeling a little funny. The downside is, I think this sweater is also partially felted! The strands are definitely clinging together a bit much, to the point where I have to use my thread clippers to chop those extra fuzzies apart on a fairly regular basis. For those of you who have more experience with yarn than me--is this still usable?

Operation Salvage = success?

Well, the blouse is done as of this afternoon. In order to get a picture of the fit, had to try it on myself....so please excuse my pasty, banged-up legs, messy room and the horrible lighting. I think overall, I managed to salvage it pretty well, though I had to make some changes from my original plan (namely making it a sleeveless blouse, rather than a short-sleeved one), and some kind of oddball adjustments.

Here's the gist of it, without my hair in the way.

And here's my oddball salvage job. No, that's not a shadow-- that's a fake princess seam intersecting with a dart. I think I can safely say that the full bust adjustment attempt was a complete failure, and this was the only way I could get it even close to well-fitting around my chest in the end. And yes, I realize that the seam is puckered. I'm pretending that those gathers, as well as the dart that makes it look like I pieced together the side, were intentional design features. I made it work. Eat your heart out, Tim Gunn.

I guess it'll be ok that it's sleeveless, in the end-- I think the silhouette is such that I could possibly use it as a layering blouse if needed. And I still like the fabric, I think I did a nice job with the underlining, the silk organza worked out nicely as the interfacing, and I think I managed some cute buttons on this too. (Black probably would have stood out better, but I couldn't pass up the almost glittery-looking embossed design on these.) So overall, even though this means I still have a looooong way to go in my quest to perfect fitting, I think I can consider this a success.

Another exciting development around here is that I've finished the wrap, mostly. The knitting is done, and I wove in the ends yesterday.

This is what it's looking like right now--there's a row or two where I'm not sure what the heck happened because there's some odd line of holes (on the backrest of the chair).

But seeing as how this was considered to be a lace pattern, at least according to the designer (albeit a super-easy one), I think I did pretty well for a newbie.

I still need to block this. Once I figure out exactly how to do it. The pattern recommended basically soaking it and then rolling it up in towels or something.

I liked working with this yarn overall--it's Lion Brand Nature's Choice organic cotton. It's super-soft, and I hope it stays that way after blocking. It did have a tendency to shed a bit (especially when I knit part of this while on an exercise bike--then it was like my orange tabby cat on black), but I didn't have any trouble with knitting it on bamboo needles, even with my tendency to knit tightly. I have a little bit over one ball left, out of the six that I bought for this--the yarn was labeled as worsted weight but I think it's thicker, so I didn't need as much as anticipated. So I think I'm going to use the rest to make a pair of handwarmers sometime. I've been joking for years that I need a pair of skin-toned fingerless gloves to wear at church when I'm playing flute on worship team, because it tends to be so cold in there. And I don't think I'd find anything much closer to my skin tone!

In the meantime, I've started both a dishcloth and a second pair of the Constellation gloves, this time for a friend. And also tearing up something for my next refashion. Not much progress yet on any of those three things, but I'm chipping away at them..

I hope this isn't a craft fail in progress.

I started sewing my black and white blouse today--seemed like a good way to spend an afternoon that I did not have to be teaching band. (Reaping the benefits of standardized testing, ohhhhhhh yeah!) I'd had visions in my head of this coming together super-fast and having almost an entire new shirt to show for this afternoon. But no...it's being complicated.

First, there's this. I must have screwed up somewhere along the line with the FBA I did, because while I had a nice amount of room there, the dart ended up being rather low. (I'm not sure why, since things seemed all right when I was tissue-fitting the pattern.) It looks fine here, but there's a reason for that....you see how small the armhole is?

This is how wide I had to make the shoulder seams to get those darts in the right place--an entire inch beyond the seam allowance! I also had to take the sides in somewhere in the 1/4"-3/4" range (most at the waist, least at the top and bottom.).

And then chop these bits out of the neckline and armhole to make it functional again.

So then the mandarin-style collar was too long, so I ended up cutting this much off of that to make it work....only to remember after I cut it that I'd completely forgotten to factor seam allowances into that measurement. So I stitched the sides with a 1/4" seam allowance to compensate as much as I could. Guess I'm going to be trimming the neckline even more to compensate for the rest.

I'm going to have to see what's up with the facings after all of this--I haven't touched those yet. Hopefully I trimmed the armholes down enough for the cap sleeves to still work--though I have a bit of an advantage on that part, at least, since I picked the view that has just a cap rather than a full-circle sleeve.

If this blouse turns out well after all of this winging it I've had to do, I'll be shocked. And if I ever use this pattern again after all of this, I'm moving the bust dart up at least an inch before I cut a thing.

I really like this fabric, and I was so excited about trying the underlining technique in a more casual project now that I actually know how to do it right. So this is all kind of bumming me out. I don't want to end this post on a downer, so here's some happier things in my crafty world:

#1: The knitted wrap is almost done! At least as far as the knitting goes. I estimate that about 10 more rows should do it as far as using up sufficient yarn goes, while still leaving enough in the ball to do the last two all-knit rows. We'll see how my estimation goes. I'm going to try to finish it tonight, rather than beat myself over the head with this blouse some more.

#2: New magazines! I stopped at the bookstore on my way home from teaching last night to see if the April BurdaStyle was something I wanted to acquire. (It wasn't. Absolutely nothing jumped out at me when looking at the line drawings. There was one jacket that was ok, but I already have more jacket patterns than I'll probably ever sew.) So instead, I picked up the spring SewStylish and the summer Knitscene. Which just may contain my first attempt at a real sweater, once I finish the two summery tanks I have in the queue, because this cardigan is cute and it doesn't look terribly difficult. So it might be a good first attempt at sleeves. And, knowing how easily I get cold, layering options might also be the best way for me to go!

While I'm on the subject of knitting, I have to give a shoutout to Brinn, who very kindly commented on my last post to tell me how to raise the neckline on the tank top she designed that I want to knit. Very sweet of her!

#3: New fabric! And new yarn! Yes, my Fabric.com order came in.

So these are my apron fabrics, all washed up and ready to go. The flower print is actually much larger than I anticipated, so it's a good thing I was going for a more funky, colorful aesthetic! (To give you a sense of scale, the coin on there is an American quarter.)

And the bird fabric I picked up for the Crescent skirt (also a larger scale than anticipated--did I just not read the description or something?), along with the linen/acrylic blend yarn I got to go with it. Now that I see them in person, I'm not as convinced that the two things will go together--the greens in the fabric are a bit more of a yellow shade than I thought, and the yarn is more of a blue-toned green. But who knows--maybe they'll still work. If nothing else, I checked the yarn against my sunflower skirt, now that it's out from its winter hiding place under the bed, and it goes quite well with that. And if all else fails with this skirt, I can always pull out my basic white t-shirt.

yarn studies

(Pictureless post this time--sorry.)

Despite my best efforts, I'm having trouble not thinking past the couple of knitting projects I have in the queue to figure out what I want to attempt once I get done with those. I'm nowhere near being done the wrap I'm currently working on, of course, but all I have after that is a few dishcloths I'm making for fun and gifts, and then a second pair of those handwarmers. (A friend of mine, who doesn't read this blog, really liked them. So I want to make her a pair.) So those won't take too long. I've hit the point on the wrap where I've repeated the pattern enough that I don't have to look at the pattern or really have to think about it too much now, which means I can multitask and do things like read blogs or my Kindle while I knit. (Or my paperback books that I'm currently reading, if I can figure out how to keep them open...) So it should go faster, since I can do a few rows here and there during the times where I have time to sit, but not enough to get anything sewing-related done.

I have no idea what to make once I get through those things. I have plenty of scarves (too many, actually, but I've already pared it down as much as I can bring myself to), and no particular need for another hat at this time. I'm kind of torn about whether to try socks, gloves or maybe, if I'm feeling brave, a sweater. I have seen several sweater patterns that I like, and I do have this book that has some really great gloves in it. But I wonder how limited I am by my current skill level. Of course all of the sweaters I've seen and really liked so far are more complicated, and I wouldn't want to waste my time on a simple pattern if it's just going to end up looking like a shapeless mess on me. But I don't know how wise it would be to jump into a more complex pattern when, say, I've never made shapes other than a tube or rectangle yet. And then there's the fact that I have no clue how to do cables, and I seem to be often drawn to things that have them. And, well, I don't even know how to block things, though I'll have to make an attempt at that once the wrap is done.  Socks would fit the tube knowledge better, but then there's that pesky heel. And I actually do need gloves, because the boring fleece ones I've been wearing for the last two cold seasons have a hole in them, tend to leave my wrist exposed (even though I actually made the sleeves a good length on the coat itself), and, well, they're just plain ugly. But am I up to making fingers yet? I don't know.

And then there's the complication of yarns. As in, my wool issues. I did recently order that No Sheep For You book (as well as some other crafty reading), so hopefully that will give me some ideas. But I've come to suspect that maybe, just maybe, I can handle tiny little amounts of wool. Mainly due to a store-bought sweater that I've had for several years, and worn quite often--I was recently putting it away after washing it, and was surprised to see on the tag that it's 10% wool. I've never had trouble with it. But I wonder if it has to do with the blend, since it's 90% other things (including a nice chunk of silk.)

So I had to go to Joann's today to pick up some zippers and such for upcoming projects, and did a little bit of scientific experimentation on myself. Namely grabbing skeins of yarn with low wool contents (by the label) and sticking them on my arm to see how bad it felt. And, well, the results were kind of mixed. I seemed to be ok with this Patons lace-weight yarn (10% wool, 10% mohair, and 80% acrylic), and the Caron "Country" yarn (25% merino wool and 75% acrylic). But then, I'm not sure, because it's been over an hour since I left the store, and my palm still feels all prickly and unhappy. I'm not sure if that's because of the part lambswool yarn I picked up by accident or what, but you'd think lambswool would be better than a full-grown sheep...

So yeah, maybe I should just stay away from the sheep. Which could still be a problem for any of my three "what to knit next" options-- I know most sock yarns have wool, and I'd really prefer, if I'm going to put in the time to make an entire sweater, to use something more natural and longer-lasting than acrylic. But then, I spent some time the other day with a skein of alpaca-acrylic blend shoved down the neck of my shirt, and it didn't feel that bad. So maybe that gives me an option. (If I can find a nice alpaca or alpaca-blend yarn that doesn't also have wool. Silly yarn-making people.)