Alteration

I got sucked into a targeted ad on Instagram last year and I bought this lovely dress from Daughters of India. 

It's made of feather-light cotton and when I wear it I feel like a pretty princess. 

The one thing I didn't love was the puffed sleeves (with apologies to Anne Shirley). I almost always have a cardigan on and I just can't handle that much fabric all at once. 

Over the weekend I had some time to sneak up to my newly refurbished craft space (update to follow) and did some alterations on the sleeves 

First I picked out the stitching on the contrast cuff 

Next I cut off a few inches of the sleeve

Next, I ran a couple lines of gathering stitches along the edge of the sleeve but it was impossible to see it in a photo. The white on white was hard enough to see as I was sewing ;)

Then I reattached the contrast cuff and I was in business.

I don't have my sewing machine in my craft space yet, so I did this whole project by hand. It was very meditative and I am quite pleased with the results. 

 

Whale Shark Pencil Case, part 2

Unusually, the majority of the family had no plans today, which meant I got to spend some quality time at the sewing table this morning. 

First I used Wonder Under to make some diy fleece interfacing with a bit of leftover terry knit.

If you've never used Wonder Under - it's a thin layer of dried glue on a parchment paper backing

Once you iron the glue side to a fabric, you can reactivate the glue and attach it to another fabric like a little sandwich. 

The best way to get the parchment paper off is to poke a whole in the middle with your nails and peel from someplace other than the edge. If the glue didn't melt all the way then tearing from the edge can pull up the glue, too.

Next, I started assembling the Pencil Pouch. With the new shape of the tail, I ran into a snag. When I sewed up and trimmed it the first time I realized that I was never going to be able to turn it right side out:

So I cut a new tail out and left a little bit unsewn. It worked a treat. The fine wale corduroy coupled with the fleece interfacing meant that the seam.allowance  was held in simply by pressure.

I finished up the sewing and it is pretty cute! 

Until it's zipped up. Then it looks more like a blob fish, 😂:

It does hold lots of sharpies, which was a goal. 

The Youngest declared it "Wonderful" and "A little guy" but would like a pencil case which fits their longer markers (which had already been measured, and their measurements shared with me, oops)

Action items for next shark:

1. Find a white zipper for the teeth

2. Find sharkier fabric. Hopefully, a lighter gray with white speckles

3. Redraft the body pieces to accommodate longer markers, and potentially integrate the tail piece to eliminate extra seams.

It was fun to get back to some sewing. I've been avoiding my sewing area for quite a while. There was a tumble of dust and detritus from the floor above, and it's going to take a few long dedicated hours to get things tidied up and I haven't had the mental energy to tackle the job. But at least my sewing desk is clear and I need to remind myself of that fact from time to time.

Whale Shark Pencil Case, Part I

Whale Shark Facts!

The Youngest loves sharks, whale sharks especially.

This has been true for most of their life. 

Their 13th birthday is coming up soon and they made a request for a new pencil case. I found this adorable pattern on Etsy: 

But I thought we could get closer to a Whale Shark's anatomy with some small tweaks. 

 A whale shark tail is quite pointy, as are the pectoral fins. It also has a second dorsal fin closer to the tail. 

So I took my initial pattern pieces and drafted up some new ones with slight adjustments.

Now to cut everything out, and clear off my sewing space...

Part II coming soon...

Making Progress

About a week and a half ago I went through my sweater stash and tried to figure out the ones to mend and the ones to rip out. 

These four have lived full lives, but there were just enough things wrong with fit, or holes, or color, that I pulled them out to reclaim the yarn. (Ravelry links below)

The Alpaka Tunic was a fun little dress, but the seam across the chest never was very comfortable and there were a couple of holes from my little winged friends 

The Aspen was a good knit, but I knit it during a super stressful time and the proportions weren't ever quite right. It was supposed to be much longer, but I didn't have enough yarn in the stash.

I really liked the Boho Style Mosaic Cardigan, but this was another one I knit to keep myself sane in a rough time, and it never quite fit. I think I did some modifications, but I don't remember what and they clearly didn't work.

This was a fun one. I really liked the shape and the lace pattern on the back. I designed this one, the back was a washcloth pattern. The color never fit with the rest of my wardrobe, but I think it could be fun knitted into stripes or in colorwork. 

Now I am left with this lovely stash of yarn, and I have been digging through my pattern stash to decide what to knit next. 

There are still five more sweaters to deal with, but I think this is a good place to start. 

Taking Stock

I have nine sweaters that I don't really wear. I have had some body changes (hi there perimenopause, and life stress) so some just don't fit, and some have holes, and some I made during the aforementioned stressful time and just made mistakes. I looked through them today to determine which ones to repair and which ones to reclaim as stash.The one that I'm wearing in this picture just ended up being way too big. I had steeked that one so I ripped out the sleeves today to reclaim the yarn and I might make a pillow out of the body. 

It feels good to tidy up my sweater storage, and even better to have some "new" yarn to use! 

Back in Blogness

It has been a minute! 

Since my last post in the fall of 2020 our family has had a pretty crazy few years. Mostly very stressful, often scary, sometimes exciting, sometimes blissfully boring. 

The Eldest and The Younger both graduated from High School, and the Youngest is kicking butt in middle school. They're mostly not into having their lives shared online by me, so we'll leave it there. 

I have enjoyed Instagram and Facebook over the past decade and a half, but now that MZ has let his true colors fly I'm gonna take a little break. 

That got me thinking about what we did on the Internet before the social media took off, and for me and a bunch of my friends it was Flickr and Blogs.

I don't know how long I can resist the siren song of FB, since mostly I check in with friends there, but for now I'm very grateful to have this forum to talk knitting and baking and whatever I want. 

This year is my 25th working with House of Hope Choir School. It's been a bit of a whirlwind this year, but I still get to hang out with cutie pie kiddos  and play with toys. 

The weather is chilly, but lovely here in Saint Paul.

I finished my first knitting project of the year. 

I took a sadly damaged sweater and gave her a new yoke. This is the chart from Rusty Cardigan and then I improvised the rest of the sweater. 

This yarn was a dye project with black walnuts, and I really loved how the yarn took the color so I was happy to be able to rescue the yarn. 

I did end up buying a couple of balls of coordinating yarn for cuffs and collar, and I'm pretty happy with the final product. 

Also it goes so nicely with my favorite overalls! 

Hope to see you soon, internetland. 

Dyeing and Knitting and Stitching

I have stalled out a little on my spinning. 

Two Ewes Fiber Adventures Podcast were holding a Summer Spin-Off, and so I was motivated to get through some of my projects for Shave 'Em to Save 'Em. I have chronicled most of those projects here on the blog. However, Summer is over, up here in Minnesota, and so also is the Spin-Off. 

I have a little finished of some very soft, though not particularly organized, CVM which was naturally dyed  a soft sage green and also an undyed bit of lovliness. 

The knitting has continued unabated. 

The Yarniacs Podcast had a KAL for the Colors of Fall as designated by Pantone. 

For the  #YarniacsCOF2020 you had to choose pieces that fit in the color palates of London or New York for 2020/2021. 

I made a bunch of stuff, which you can find on my ravelry page, but the last one was a sweater for The Eldest, and he looks so good in it, I just have to post one photo.

I used the top-down shoulder shaping from Thea Coleman's Greenbriar. Totally genius pattern, and it fits really well! I improvised the rest of the sweater, I made it into a crew-neck, and added pockets and a hood. 

Lastly, I joined a knitalong with Denise of Earthtones Girl Podcast to make Autumnal socks. 

Now, I do not knit socks. 

I have always been more of a sweater knitter than anything else. I also end up knitting a number of Christmas stockings every year, depending upon customer requests.

However, I think I finally see the benefit of a small, portable project that I can work on without paying any attention to it. I have found that it's the perfect knitting to do while I listen to my piano students playing their pieces.

Anyway, I knit two pairs of socks since September 15, and I may knit one or two more pairs before the #fallingleaveskal2020 is over and done with.

In addition to the spinning and knitting, I have been playing in the yard with a lot of natural dyeing. 

This yarn was dyed with walnut, and I am kind of in love. 

It dried lighter, but still a lovely brown. Just a bit warmer than this photo.

I tried some eco-printing this weekend, and I think I'll make a few changes for the next time. I didn't boil it for very long, and I could have let it steep for longer as well.

We are reading Harry Potter, despite the author's abhorrent stance on trans people, and in full knowledge of her asshattery. 

The color of the fabric with just a few leaves was kind of inspiring, so I filled my dyepot with an armload of horse chestnut leaves, and got this nice soft tan. 

Then I made up a second dyepot of more horsechestnut leaves and also some chokecherry branches. 

This linen that I used was premordanted, and so all I had to do was soak it in some water, and let it steep over night. 

It dried a little browner than this, but it came out really pretty. 

My last project that is keeping me very occupied is a giant counted cross stich for a client. It's a good thing that I just got my LASIK touched up. These stitches are teensy.

I hope you're well, all you makers out there. 

Please join me in the Fifth Lamp Friends Facebook group!

See you around.