Nonbloggable Craft Blogging

First and foremost, I think the project I'm working on may not be bloggable. I don't think the intended really sees this blog... but I'd hate to be wrong! So it's up on Ravelry, for those in the know, and all I'll say here is progress sans pics. The progress, at least, is great! After some marathon knitting sessions (even if yesterday I was home sick but too sick to knit)... I'm done with 11 of the 14 pattern repeats. Less than 3 to go now, and then I just have one more pattern motif, and I get to make a small edging and kitchener the crap out of it. So fantastico! I don't think I'll make my goal finishing date of... tomorrow... but I might be able to finish it this weekend.

I started a sewing project, also not bloggable. I think that's going to be the trend until the wedding. Does it count as starting it if all I did was trace the pattern pieces onto newsprint and cut them out? Again, I was home sick, but too sick for anything particularly brain heavy. Tracing and cutting was fine, but I fear I was in no mood for cutting out fabric. The pattern is looking fairly simple, however- I'm wondering if it wouldn't be wise to rotary cut most of the pieces, as well. That would probably ensure the most perfect pieces, but would defeat most of my effort at copying them yesterday. Is it more important to have a better finished product, or to kick it old-school with my hand scissors? I suppose I'll decide based on whether I can find my rotary cutter and mat or not. They're in the craft room.

Aaaaah, the craft room. My little hidey-hole of fantasticness. Except right now it isn't. My wedding gown is sprawled all over the sofa, because there's no more room for it in the guest room closet now we have a long-term house guest. Happy to have the house guest, of course! But I'll be even happier when I drop the dress off at the alterations lady's home next Wednesday- hurray for getting it out of my hair.

In addition to the wedding gown, which is frankly enormous, there's also a drying rack full of sweaty gym clothes (again, an item that used to be relegated to the guest room that has been relocated for the time being). And then there's the tub of cross stitch items that I pulled out when I was thinking about cross-stitching the table numbers to look just like these on Snippet and Ink. I still am contemplating it, but in the meantime maybe I should put the bin away?

And I really want to work on my Storm at Sea quilt, because I am not going to be able to attend the quilt retreat this year, so I have to make my own quilting time. But I can't work on it because in the move from my apartment to the house, I apparently split the quilt in progress into at least three different places- and I can't find all the pieces!!

I apparently need to tidy up the craft room and reclaim my space, while I have it. If I don't keep it tidy, my machines and I might get relegated to the attic. It's finished, yes... but I need a/c in this nearly-August DC heat! As soon as the gown is gone in a week, I'm reclaiming my space and getting it into useable shape. In the meantime, I can knit like the wind on the sofa downstairs and crank out this first nonbloggable knitted item in order to start on number two.

I like bloggable craft blogging much better than this text stuff above. Here's an artsy fiance-taken photo from the 4th of July, in true knitting Mikaiya-style. Since this shell is for selfish little ole' me, it's bloggable!

Cranky vs. Quilt

Everyone's been a bit cranky around here lately. Going to bed early, sleeping late, but not sleeping. I think we figured out the reason though- it's rough living in the almost suburbs! A huge pothole on the other side of the street in front of our house has been causing cars to bottom out and fwap their way past, making incredibly loud (louder than average) street noise all day, every day. So it makes sense that it's been waking us up all night! They finally came and patched up the hole, so I am very hopeful for a sound sleep tonight.

The yummy crockpot chili that was all ready for eating when I got home from work has also helped my attitude. I need more long-cooking recipes, however... I am always gone 10-10.5 hours, so recipes that are done in 8 end up burning up a bit no matter how much extra fluid I add. The hunt for VERY long cooking recipes is on!

Now, the quilt show. I picked up a really cute kit to make a baby blanket out of flannel, with a super-soft backing. It even comes with the embroidery thread to knot it (as opposed to quilting it). Woo! I spent the last few evenings ironing fabric, and am so ready to get cracking on all these projects. Here's some of the inspiration I found at the quilt show, to boost me on in my quest for productivity in the sewing room. Amanda loves the modern circles, but I was drawn to the 30s prints and to the mariner's compass quilts. Among others!









I love the quilting on that one. So much to aspire to! But I'll tell you a secret... my points line up SO much better than so much of what I saw on Sunday. Shh... If only I could hand quilt, and not just piece like a pro!

Weekend update: Project Nest

Firstly, I got a package in the mail. My giveaway win from Pink Sky Studio came in! It's so cute- I am now ready to make a little teapot tea towel with her sweet little embroidery pattern. Oh interwebs, how kind you can be!

I also have been getting busy on the sewing front. My machines are HOME though I still haven't plugged them in. Baby steps. I did wash all of my gorgeous Heather Ross fabrics, and they're in the dryer now. I started ironing everything for my next big project, the super secret gifts I am making for my bridesmaids. No photos on the blog, methinks, but I am very excited to get going on them! And I went to JoAnn's today to pick up a few patterns. And fabric. G came with me, and we selected two really lovely home dec fabrics to use in Project Nest! Now I've cleaned up most of the windows, it's time to hang some curtains. Although there are curtains in the guest room, courtesy of one of George's former renters, and some in the master bedroom... the rest of the house has bare windows. I picked up a nice burgundy silk (ok, a polyester silk look-alike, but it's washable). That will look really swank in our dining room, when we take down the paper over the chair rail and paint the top part of the wall silver. The bottom is currently a nice colonial blue, but instead of keeping the blue we might change up the look and go with a steel blue or even a real gray- I think with the deep curtains it will look very modern in there, and I am sure will give us great pleasure on the rare nights we don't just eat in the living room!

I also picked out a cutesy big plaid in cream, two shades of sage green, and shades of deep pink for my craft room. I could repaint the room cream again, or I could go with the very pale sage. Either way, all the colors look very nice with my deep gray sofa (and I can make rose-colored pillows to match!).

We had a pretty big yard sale today. Massive amounts of our duplicate belongings, extraneous kitchenware, and lots of other things are all gone- some sold, the rest donated to Goodwill. We feel so much lighter, and the basement and garage are suddenly much more navigable.

As if all that were not enough excitement for the day, I made a delicious chicken, cauliflower, and potato curry... and finished Clapotis. My third, but who's counting? It's delightful, and I think I will not block it, to keep it's subtle drape. My resident photographer has promised me some photos tomorrow, once he returns from a birthday party and I come back from the Quilters Unlimited quilt show at the Dulles Expo Center. So exciting!

On one final note, I wanted to recommend a little local establishment. Instead of cooking the curry last night, G picked me up from the metro and we went to Yorktown Bistro, here in Arlington and not far from the house. It's very open inside, with nice enough decor, and the cuisine is fairly traditional Italian. Oh oh so delicious! My chicken parm was one of the best I've had, and G enjoyed his three cheese ravioli. The homemade tiramisu was stellar, and we were particularly entranced by their specials on wine bottles. All in all? The perfect date night. They do takeout and rent out space, as well... we might have more decisions to make than we originally thought, when it comes time to plan our rehearsal dinner!

Toreador, don't spit on the floor

OK, OK, I know those aren't the words. I have seasons tickets to the Washington National Opera this year, through Generation O. It's their club for the under-35 set- they figure if they can get us young, we'll be patrons of the arts when we're older. The tickets are about half price, so it's totally worth it. I missed La Traviata due to work (don't even get me started), but I saw the last two major productions- Lucrezia Borgia two weeks ago, and Carmen tonight. Generation O tickets tend to be available for dates when the alternate cast is singing. For La Borgia, that worked in my favor- the main soprano got panned a bit by DCist but I found the production top-notch and the alternate soprano was superb. The romance between the trouser mezzo and the tenor was a bit overemphasized, but the dude was in love with his mother, too. Who am I to judge. Unfortunately, I missed out on the DC-native Denyce Graves in the title role in Carmen, and the alternate mezzo soprano was ... subpar. She scooped to the notes, missed them fairly often, and worst of all I could barely hear her. The production was fairly banal as well. The sets were uninspired, costumes seemed VERY been there done that, even to a girl who technically has never seen this opera staged before. On the plus side, it really is one of the most entertaining operas, musically, and the orchestra was in fine fettle for most of the night. I adored the soprano, singing the role of the good woman foil for evil little Carmen. And frankly, the tenor Don Jose was pretty stellar also. It's just a bit of a pity when the title role is one of the worst performances I've heard at the Kennedy Center. Period.
I'm skipping out on Peter Grimes (didn't I see that in its first performance at IU?), but I will be sure to let you know how the next operas after that go!

In more craft-related news, I placed an Amazon order last week and I picked it up from the front desk tonight on my way back from the opera, humming Toreador all the way. I'm very pleased with my haul. First up is Jelly Roll Quilts, an excellent book of tips and tricks and patterns for those gorgeous jelly rolls of pre-cut fabric strips. I don't actually own any yet, but I'm thinking the Moda sale going on at my Mom's local quilt store Wish Upon a Quilt might be the kick in the pants I need. I'm thinking of doing a fairly simple nine patch quilt in the Nest by Moda line. It's all little bird eggs, bird tracks, and adorable art deco style birds. Adorable!

Also in my shipment is my favorite new knitting book. It's the long awaited Knitted Lace of Estonia by Nancy Bush. There is one scarf in this book that I don't really care for. Every other project? I want. I want to knit them. I want to wear them. I want to drape them all over my apartment. I want to hang them from the windows, and on my mirror, and the backs of chairs. I want to give them away as presents to everyone I've ever known. In short, this is the best compilation of knitted lace that I've seen outside Ravelry.

And soon after NaKniSweMo, I'll cast on. OH yes. And it will be all lacey gorgeousness for quite some time around here. It's too bad about that holiday gift thing- everyone's just going to have to make do with store bought (or Etsy bought). I can't bring myself to stop knitting myself sweaters and shawls long enough to be a good gifter this year.

Progress has Halted

The quilt was moving along swimmingly. I finished half of the outside squares. There are four small outside squares in each block of Storm at Sea- a small square with two sets of triangles around it, making a square within a square within a square. A square cubed! At any rate, half of those mini-blocks are completely done. And about a half of the remaining ones are done but for the very last seam, that very last triangle. And my sewing machine, my pretty little Singer Athena 2000, just up and halted. Bam. It tries to whir, and then the needle just locks.

I'm hoping it just needs oiling. Really.

In the meantime, I'll probably set up my Rocketeer and see how that goes. I have a sneaking suspicion I stopped using it because it also needs some love and attention from the Sew-Vac repairman. In which case all progress really will have to halt on my Storm at Sea.

ARGH!

Am I a truly terrible person for having a momentary delusion that this would be a great time to just buy a Bernina? I won't, of course. Two sewing machines is frankly bad enough for a studio apartment, if I move up to three (and none of them a serger, even) I really will be certifiably nuts. I know I have oil for the machines around here someplace, and I think I know where the closest repair shop is to the new place.

In the meantime, I guess it is back to the knitting. That cashmere stole really should be done before winter. Not to mention the mystery stole...

Rivah Quilt Guild Retreat 2008

My Mom and I drove out to join my aunt in the Northern Neck of Virginia for the Rivah Quilt Guild annual retreat. I've mentioned this for months now, and in the end it was everything I'd hoped for! I had a complete blast hanging out with these experienced quilters (nevermind that I'm 20-30 years younger than the youngest of them). They were kind and generous with their knowledge, and I think were a bit surprised that I'm not half bad for a beginning quilter. Just a bit slower than them!

I spent most of the retreat working on my Storm at Sea quilt. The blocks will fly together once I get all the fiddly bits done, but before starting to assemble the parts in assembly line fashion, I completed one beautiful block. The colors are exactly what I was hoping for, and the blocks together will make beautiful stormy waves. I plan to finish this one as soon as I possibly can, because I want to hang it over my sofa!


Mom started and finished her quilt top while we were there:


And Aunt Barb completed her quilt top, too:


We were set up in stations, two to a table. My neighbor, Jeanie, was a very lovely and very helpful lady- she gave me lots of tips and tricks for working on my aunt's gorgeous Bernina. It's going to be hard to go back to my (perfectly adequate) machines. First, my station:


And the rest of the working area:


One afternoon we worked on a challenge to complete a Sudoku puzzle, and then piece fabric squares in order based on the puzzle to make a completed little quilt top. My family all rose to the challenge, but none of us completed it first to win the prize! This is one of the ladies showing off her work in progress, with the completed sample quilt in front:


Another fun part of the trip was that every person was paired with a Secret Pal. My Secret Pal treated me well- I received some great quilting supplies (needles and little cutting mats and things), an adorable flowerpot pincushion, and a good bit of chocolate. Mom loved her little gifts, too!


I also cast on for my Mystery Stole 4 again- this time with white pearl beads. It looks so much better than it did with clear beads, so I hope to get caught up with clues 1, 2, and 3 this weekend before I go back to work.

The only unfortunate part of this trip was entirely my fault- I took Autumn Rose to work on, and as my mom and aunt and I are looking at it on a kitchen table, we all realized that it is just too darn small. So I finally had the gumption to check my gauge. Despite having done a gauge swatch, my fair isle was significantly smaller than when I did that little bit of test knitting, and I was off by at least 4-6 stitches from gauge. Across a sweater, that was enough to take it from my size to WAY too small. I'm suitably upset with myself, but so be it- I ripped out the whole thing, back to the corrugated ribbing (which was plenty big for my hips, at least). I didn't even tear up, but it will be some time before I attempt that one again! For the record, I apparently need to go up at least two needle sizes- it calls for a 2, and the 3 was too tiny. I'll try a four next time, and check my gauge a lot sooner!

In closing, I am so glad that we were invited to go on the retreat. The food was amazing (catered, delicious, plentiful, and we only had to cook breakfast!). The women were informative and welcoming. The campground where we were staying and crafting was well maintained, and the staff treated us very well. I hope to be able to attend next year! In the meantime, I have found a local guild that meets on Monday evenings, and I might just join them. I am not an accomplished quilter, but I have a lot of interest, and I feel like I have so much to learn. I don't feel daunted by anything in knitting, really- I figure with a pattern and time I can do just about anything I desire to knit. I can teach it, I can fix my own and others' mistakes, and generally I feel perfectly comfortable with it. I'm finding the challenge of sewing to be very suited to me at this moment in my life- I'm ready for something a bit harder, a bit foreign. I don't know all the terms, or how to do a lot of it. I don't know the tips and tricks like I do with knitting, my more native craft. It's exciting- and unlike sewing apparel (or knitting sweaters off-gauge), I don't have to worry about whether or not it will fit. What a delight!

Fun in Virginny

I'm heading out shortly for my quilting retreat 3 hours away in historic... someplace I don't know... on the Rappahannock near the Chesapeake Bay. I always craft on vacation, but this is going to be one epic craft fest.

Just to make sure I don't run out of things to do, I'm bringing the following:

One lap quilt in patriotic colors. Already have cut nearly all the fabric, nearly ready to sew.

One batch of fabric in muted blues and greens to make Storm at Sea. Not begun at all, but lap quilt size.

The cashmere stole (for anytime we're just sitting around- I don't need to pay much attention to the lace at all now, more than a third in.

Mystery Stole 4, which I had started but am now re-starting with a different color of bead. They're more like pearls, which will show up a lot better against my burgundy yarn.

Autumn Rose, which is still plugging along.

Yeah, I know this is a quilting retreat. But I tend to use a bit of profanity when I sew- don't know why, I just get frustrated quickly. When I'm knitting, I still get frustrated, but very rarely. Besides, I'm 9 million times more likely to poke myself with a sewing needle than a knitting needle. Finishing the little table topper is proof of that. Although sewing binding doesn't really release colorful language- it takes forever but at least it isn't difficult. The thought of binding a queen size quilt gives me the shivers.

I really did finish it, before 2am, even. Isn't it pretty?





I'll be back Thursday, hopefully with some great photos from the trip! Happy crafting.

More Fools & Horses

The boys of Fools & Horses came back to Arlington Friday night for some fun... and to play a lot of covers. It's what the crowd goes for. I have to say, I love their music best- but they do a fine cover of The Darkness, and Hey Jude brought the house down after a really crazy raucous song that I'm blanking on now.

Just a couple of piccies from the show. I was in a better spot this time for some really great photos of the guys. And I got some even better shots of my friends! I even got a free CD for bringing them with me- I'm frankly ashamed I hadn't bought their new album yet (even if the release party is officially tonight). I am not their biggest fan, compared to some of the ladies who show up every time... but I do love 'em. Maybe focusing on these delightful good times will help me get through the eternal slog that is hand sewing the binding onto my itty bitty table topper. I really am the slowest hand sewer on earth...

Recuperation

I apparently have been feeling more down and exhausted than even I realized- I slept until a pretty obscene hour today, getting a solid eleven or more hours of sleep. Sometimes after oversleeping you end up feeling even more tired and out of your head, but apparently I needed it- I feel really lovely. Like I've finally caught up a bit. I took the recuperative feeling and did a whole bunch of laundry and tidied up a bit. Just having a clear area near the front door makes a huge difference in this little efficiency. I started putting together my projects to take on the quilting retreat, and have just started sewing down the binding on my handmade gift for the gift exchange. I spent a fair bit of the afternoon working on Autumn Rose, too.

I am the slowest hand sewer on the planet, I think. I'm a good 15 minutes into watching Project Runway, and have completed about an inch of this binding. Thank goodness for sewing machines. I still feel like if I practiced more, I'd be better at it- and I'm thinking I would like to hand sew and quilt a doll quilt in the not so distant future. I also am definitely going to be making this out of a jelly roll at some point: Quilted Patchwork Hot Pads. I adore the thought of pre-cut fabrics that can be quickly stitched together, removing a lot of the prep work.

I also wound up some yarn for a few projects I'd like to start this weekend- obviously I don't have enough going on. The first is Mystery Stole 4. I participated in MS3 until it got to the wing, and nearly completed the symmetrical version. I'm hoping I like MS4 a bit better. The first clue came out on Friday, and it's so tiny that I feel certain I can finish it before week two comes out next Friday morning.

The beads are from Beadworks in Cambridge, MA, and the yarn is Tess Designer Yarns Superwash Lace- the same yarn I used for Hanami and absolutely loved. It's gorgeous and a breeze to work with.


I also pulled out some Dream in Color Smooshy in a beautiful barely variegated brown to make the vine socks from the latest Interweave Knits. I can't believe my sock yarn stash is large enough that I can make both sock patterns in this issue- I'm a very slow and inconsistent sock knitter, but I love the thought of little vines and bobbles on my legs. I think I'll only put the bobbles above the shoe line, so I can wear them with my adorable little red embroidered shoes.

O is for Olympics

In case you didn't figure that out. I believe I am way behind the ABC-along at this point, but I'll get around to it. Ravelympics Sweater = the letter O.

Today I'd like to talk about something besides crafts. Although to appease you, I really did finish the quilt top. I am impressed that despite the late hours and crazy emotions of this thing, most of the points line up. The ones that don't, bother me not at all. This isn't how I envisioned it, exactly, but it's still cute and I am definitely going to buy some flannel soon, so I can make it into a baby quilt.


I lied. This post is mostly about crafts after all. Here's a picture of the cashmere stole, too, for good measure. Too bad it hasn't grown much- my hands still hurt from Ravelympics.


I also would like to comment that for years I have evaded the whole shoe fascination. Yes, I owned plenty of pairs of shoes. But most were cheap, or inherited. And there were a lot of them because of the variety of purposes. Sneakers, summer sandals, SAS comfort sandals (pretty and mundane), plus heels for dress-up, shoes to wear with suits, shoes to wear with jeans and slacks, lots of loafers, and of course a few awesome cool colored shoes (pink and purple, red, red, red, RED). OK, so maybe I've always enjoyed shoes. What I am meaning, more, is that shoes were a means to an end, and I simply didn't buy them for much money. My adorable little red German shoes with embroidered flowers on them, great with jeans and never to be worn for long jaunts (too little padding in the sole). Silver or black strappy heels to wear to weddings and holiday parties. They were shoes with purpose. And almost all of them were given away or trashed when I started having serious foot pain and eventually went into orthotics. So sue me, I chose comfort. I threw away all of my heels but for the absolutely most comfortable, and I only ever wear them at work where I sit the vast majority of the day. I kept the loafers, but most of them are old and decrepit. Hush Puppies, my shoe of choice in grad school, apparently aren't very sturdy. But I realized the other day that in my wild fit of pique I threw out every black heel I owned. And a girl needs black heels. So I wandered through Georgetown the other day, when the Foggy Bottom metro was having one of its "let's just not have escalators" days. And I tried on a few pairs of shoes at a boutique-y store which I had read about on Yelp. And I might have bought a pair of quilted patent leather kitten heels(marked down to a completely reasonable price... and something like 1/5th of retail):


I also tried on these incredibly hot shoes. And they weren't nearly as expensive in Georgetown as that Saks price. But still hundreds and hundreds away from my budget. Someday I'll have events to go to that could possibly justify those shoes. In the meantime, I think I'll keep playing around with my kitten heels, and maybe once in a while scope out the clearance racks at the fancy shmancy stores. I'm still not ready to pay for Jimmy Choos or Manolos, and I still don't think my feet could take insane stilettos. But those 4 and 3/4 inch hot red heels were a breeze- in a shoe that well made and that well fitting, it was like walking on air. And as much as I love my super expensive comfort shoes, if I'm going to be spending that much money, I deserve to look fine, too.

What do we think of this little guy?

 

I am feeling not so sure about the arrangement of these squares. Just can't get it quite right.

On the other hand, I sewed all of them on Saturday and Sunday, from cutting the background fabric to piecing each little pinwheel bit. All that's left is to arrange them better and sew 'em up into a quilt top. I'm thinking it will be a better baby blanket than anything else, so I'll use some baby-safe batting and back it in flannel. The points are by no means perfect, but I'm not feeling particularly bad about that. This is an itty bitty quilt to sustain my heart, not to show off my (completely nonexistent) quilting prowess.

Any thoughts?

Time on my hands

I've been doing a great deal of crafting while watching truly awful TV on the DVR. First, I worked on some sleeves.


And then I cut the background fabric for my pinwheel quilt. And went to town on it, having nothing better to do. The storms this evening didn't help- I was planning on going for a long walk, but not in a torrential downpour. So I finished seven squares


And all the rest are ready to be sewn.


I think that these two may be my favorite prints.


In other news, I have been given a beautiful old Australian spinning wheel. I don't know the genus, in fact I still don't know how to spin. But it was a kind and considerate gift, all the same. It came with a bunch of knitting needles and what seems to be a shuttle, too- all items no longer wanted where they were. I hope I can put them to good use.

Toodling around the House

I finally did a massive housecleaning this past week- cleared out all the junk accumulated in the "front hallway" and tidied up the kitchen, did tons of dishes, and vacuumed the "whole place." The quotation marks are requisite, since my apartment is not exactly large. And the front hallway is... a couple feet of space between the front door and the living room bookcases, but no matter! It's growing on me. I loved my home in Bloomington best of all, because it was big and had great light and I had a sewing room slash study. This Arlington home isn't bad though- I still miss having a real bedroom, but I do love having it set up with distinct "rooms" and seeing the TV from bed those rare times I do that.

What did I do the second I got it all pretty in here? I decided to tear through all my sewing supplies, fabric, and patterns to try and organize things. I didn't finish a lot of organization, but I did find some entertaining things. I have two copies of two different costume patterns- but at least I know why I have duplicates. And I have an amazing vintage dress, in the right size approximately, but I'm still too scared to try making it.

I made my first eBay order in years - to get 30s reproduction quilting fabric. Or rather, little pre-cut squares. They came in beautifully laundered, ironed, and cut to 4 inches, and I need to get some subtle white patterned quilting fabric to make my pinwheel quilt. This should be a really quick project, once I find the background fabric. In fact, I think I started this whole sewing supply expedition to determine if I already had any! I also wanted to try playing with fabric while watching Project Runway- which is infinitely better this week than last.



Et voila, a bunch of sorted stuff:


I found a bunch of patterns I already have the fabric for and should be ready to work with ASAP: a spiffy long denim skirt in a swishy bias cut (dark denim inherited from my Mom needs to be washed); tons of a burgundy cotton blend I bought at Walmart months ago for a new RenFest skirt; and a quilted handbag (all the fabric is already cut out- beautiful pink and yellow Asian prints).

It's never all sewing around here. An updated sweater back:


And from just after I started the sleeves:

A few thoughts I've been thinking

I skipped out on an event today for no particularly good reason- I could have planned better, left earlier, started laundry earlier, woken up earlier, decided it was important and made way for it.

But I didn't. And I'm kind of glad. I needed this sort of afternoon to myself- I have been in and out of the house so much lately, only here to sleep, and I missed my little spot of home! It's small. But plenty big enough for me and my things, if I ever put away the last piles of junk near the bed. And it's dark. But my handy electrician boyfriend said he would look at my lamps (both of my standing lamps stopped working after the move, and I destroyed my desk lamp, too). In the meantime, I do have overhead lights in the kitchen, by the front door, and over the kitchen table. You would think that would be enough, but this is a surprisingly difficult-to-light apartment!

The reason I ended up getting home too late to go into the city? I was shopping for fabric. I'm not certain if I will keep this fabric all the way until September, for my quilting retreat. It is seriously adorable, manly and nautical, and hopefully it will turn into a lovely lap blanket for the boy. G Street is having a sale starting Thursday (wish they'd mentioned it BEFORE cutting 4 of the 6 fabrics), so I will probably go back to get the fabric for my first large quilt then. It will be a lot cheaper with the discounts, and then I can wash and put all that fabric away for the retreat- I suspect cutting out and piecing a queen-size quilt will take up most of that!

They say to bring your own sewing machine, but don't mention if you should bring an ironing board and an iron. I guess that we can all share. As for the sewing machine, my mom and I are both scoping out old reliable Featherweight Singers on eBay. Because obviously, what we really need? More sewing machines... I will probably just give in and bring my Athena, to save money, but it sure is heavy.

Still no knitting news. I haven't worked on the lace shawl in a week, and I've only knit a few more rows of the socks. I haven't touched Autumn Rose, nor any of the other bazillion projects. I'm hoping to get some knitting done at Jamie's tonight while he raids. In between bouts of Wii games, of course.

Forgot one thing

Mom came up for a very quick visit the other day. I think she really only drove up for the lamb at Wegman's.

She stayed the night, and was appropriately pleased with my recent projects. However, my (very little) attempted hand-quilting of the wall hanging did not pass muster. I'm not saying I'm a failure at hand quilting, I'm just saying that I suck really badly so far. I'm ok with this. I have a sewing machine. It can quilt for me.

In the meantime, my wall hanging has been whisked off by her accomplished quilting hands, and it's out of my hair. I don't mind this in the slightest- if she quilts it, the darn thing will finally be done. And I don't know who is going to keep it- Mom should, but I might end up with it hanging in my house. We'll see.

She did, however, compliment my general sewing. I think she has more faith in me than I do. Then again, I really did some perfectly lovely stuff when I was a kid- you don't ever really forget how to do neat and tidy seams. I still take suit pants in to be hemmed professionally, but that's because I hate hemming lining as well as the pants themselves. Completely reasonable.

I do wish I lived closer to her- we have so much fun crafting together. And we are very good at different sorts of crafts (she can do everything I can, and I have a lot to learn from her. But I'm by far the more obsessed knitter). How lucky I am to get to see her next week, for an evening, and then again over my vacation in December. Chanuka with the whole family- it should be a blast. And there will be much in the way of crafting. Maybe I'll bring my second wallhanging project with me? That one just begs to be machine quilted, once it is pieced... it's already cut out and ready for piecework, too!

Thoughts on relative difficulty and multi-crafting

I have not been working on my fair isle sweaters. Shame on me. Not even a gauge swatch. I've done this, though:



It's really quite large. I've already completed the first "V" section. The pattern is pretty simple, and this is my second time doing it- and my third baby blanket covered in Vs. I just love the "Victory" going through my fingers, I guess- there's something so natural about double crochet, chain, double crochet repeated.

I went to the "Un-Craft Fair" in Bethesda, held by the DC Craft Mafia. That was a blast- I was sad not to pick up a pirate onesie, but my cousin would probably not appreciate the admonition to eat one's "arrr peas and carrots." I did get a cute little pin (boyfriend purchased it for me), and I picked up a bunch of handmade soaps from a local crafter.

I also have spent a lot of time thinking about sewing. This is, in part, because I picked up a book at Border's after my knitting group last week and fell in love. It's this: Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts. Most of the projects are very simple, but completely elegant. Some look insanely easy, and some make me cringe at the thought of all that hand-quilting (this is the girl who STILL has not really begun quilting the wall hanging I made this summer, on vacation with my mom). And the more I think about these projects, and the ones I would really like to make, the more I think I'm going about certain things the wrong way.

I tend to buy pretty patterns, the more complicated the better, because they work with how I envision the end product looking. Which is fine, but realistically? I am a relative sewing novice. I may scoff at the super-simple projects I see on occasion, but the people who are making those very same simple projects are actually MAKING them. I have nifty patterns, some cool fabrics- even some of them cut and ready to sew- and yet I don't. I'm not saying I'm incapable of doing them- my RenFest skirt (two years in the making) is surely not difficult. It's a matter of setting the sewing as a priority, and knowing I can do it and do it quickly. I need some confidence builder projects, to remind me that I do know my way around a sewing machine, and the basic tips and tricks of the trade. My mother has probably been saying this to me all along- I surprised her by being pretty good at piecework right off, but she was right in general about me being too ambitious with my projects and my time tables. So here's the new goals. I'm talking sewing here, but they really apply to knitting, too.

1- Set reasonable time limits- or better yet, set none at all. Does it really matter whether I get that wallhanging to my friend this winter, or next fall? I may feel a bit sheepish about it, but frankly he doesn't know it's coming anyways. No harm done. Holiday gifts don't need to be done for this holiday season- there's always next year. This year? Just buy them a book or a cute handmade thing on Etsy. Who cares?

1a- The corollary to Rule 1 is, not to promise things unless they're actually finished. Seriously.

2- Pick the simple project, and only ONE simple project at a time, and it should be SMALL. That means I may actually get to it, make it a priority, and finish it.

3- Nice fabric is worth it. Again, something I learned on the wall hanging. The border green fabric was cheap- it felt cheap, it didn't hold its shape well, and it was very difficult to piece nicely. If you're doing the simple and small project, the fabric cost really won't be an issue. You can make an ornament out of a quarter yard of fabric- in fact, a flock of them. So 8 bucks a yard for decent fabric isn't really that big an issue- that comes down to less than two dollars, even if you only make one!

4- Be inspired. Read Dallas's blog for project ideas (after all, Dallas- you are probably my inspiration for getting back to sewing at all). Read LOTS of blogs for project ideas. If I can look at hundreds of knitting blog posts, surely a few quality sewing blogs wouldn't go amiss.

5- Don't get too tempted by quilting. Some projects that would be really great to do? A simple skirt. An apron. They don't require any hand quilting, and would be functional. Wouldn't it be nice to wear a hand-knitted sweater and handmade skirt to work next spring?

6- Explore color. Lately, oranges and turquoise have been really jumping out at me. Why not play with them? There's nothing wrong with pink and blue and black, but that's hardly the full spectrum.

In other crafting news, my boyfriend is a crafty dude himself. Check out his new toy:

You can read a bit more about it from him here: Electrographic Beacon Projector

What I did over my summer vacation...

A little trip in pictures. If you will recall, we last left our intrepid knitter just home from Mom and Dad's. Forget R&R, this was a working break! Here's the evidence:

Posing with a work in progress:


Pieced apples:


Messy work in progress (I love my mother's sewing table. Oh yes I do):


Finished but for the quilting:


I also received my snazzy bag from the Craft Exchange right before I left. The outside:


And print interior/alternate exterior:


And not to be biased, but my favorite project of all?? The Mystery Stole 3, Clue 2 completed about a half hour ago:


Hurray for pretty projects. Did I mention the four kitty hats that need ears? And the charity scarf that needs to be completely redone by Saturday? I'm getting there. I would have been significantly more productive if I hadn't had a stomach bug today, but that didn't keep me from knitting this week's MS3 clue. I did have to rip out three rows, however, since I evidently lost my place while losing my cookies. I'm not sure which bothered me more.

Next post: I take on quilting, the actual hand quilting part, and see how many kitty hats I can knock out in short order. Here's my first kitty hat, back in Bloomington, when I decided it was almost as fun to leave the ends out and go Fraggle Rock:
(Care of Yahoo Photos, which has conveniently sent all sorts of old photos I'd forgotten about into my Flickr account!)

Quilting Lessons

I took a very long bridge-the-gap weekend. Wednesday I had off for the fourth, and by taking Th/Fri off I get a 5 day weekend. Nice! I spent the majority of it learning how to quilt and making a wall hanging.

Yes, there will be pictures. But not quite yet.

This weekend I knit 4 kitty hats (rather, four bases, but not the ears yet). Also 6 or 7 rows of the Mystery Stole, which is a piddly number but I have a whole day tomorrow to work on them. I also knit another bit of a square for the baby afghan.

Much more importantly, I finished a wall hanging to give as a wedding present to a very old friend of mine getting married in two weeks. By finished, I mean I completed the piecing, got the backing on, and my mom was sweet enough to baste it and add the binding. All that's left is to quilt the sucker! Mom taught me the basics, and my stitches were looking almost acceptable on our practice placemat after a few hours, so hopefully another couple hours to practice and I'll be able to whip through and mail the finished project off. I also learned some neat tricks for making squares of two fabrics on the diagonal, without cutting triangles. I hate cutting triangles, so that was a godsend. This got put into use for another quilt project, which is super secret for now.

I also received my craft exchange project from Dallas's exchange group- crafted by the ever amazing and talented Dallas herself. Again, I have pictures to post later, but it is the cutest thing ever! Adorable bag, exactly the perfect shape to use as a purse and stick a small knitting project inside. It fits exactly under my arm, so I don't need to worry about things falling out. It has a cute little rosette flower attached (in hot pink, of course). Best of all? The whole thing is reversible!! I can do sophistocated black, or an amazingly cute and bright swirly print, a bit Pucci-esque. I love it! In fact, I'm already using it as my purse. I went with black for my night on the town tonight, but I suspect that print is going to get a fair bit of use this summer.

One more day of freedom. By next weekend I hope to have a bunch of kitty hats done, and to have completed the second MS3 clue. Here's hoping! Otakon is almost here... so I definitely need to get cracking on those hats, if I ever want to make back the yarn costs...