Monkeyroom

Handmade Christmas

2011-12-31T20:46:00.000-08:00

Now that Christmas is over I can share a few of the gifts I made.

I made an Orenburg lace shawl for my mom. The yarn is Fino by Alpaca with a Twist, and I knit it on size 3 needles. The pattern is by Galina Khmeleva from the Interweave Knits Summer 2000 issue.

This was a challenging project that kept my fingers occupied on many long airline flights and in hotel rooms. I started (and restarted and restarted) the border during a trip to Annapolis, Maryland. In April it flew with me to Buenos Aires and the Iguazu Falls in Argentina. I worked on it during the long flight to Berlin, while visiting friends in Le Mans, France (and while Aaron was at the track for the 24 Hours of Le Mans - I didn't go to the track but maybe next year we'll have grandstand seats and then I'll go and knit and watch the race). The shawl then traveled to Paris, then Dunkirk and finally London before coming home with me. Since I can't sleep on airplanes, a lot of knitting was accomplished on those long flights!

Here are some more photos:

I knit this black, white and gray scarf for my sister.

I used three different yarns: Boing and Arabesque, both by Trendsetter Yarns, and Paton's Silk Bamboo. I used size 11 needles and simply knit each row using a different yarn, leaving enough for a fringe. I alternated the bamboo with the Trendsetter Yarns to give the scarf some drape because the Trendsetter Yarns had a lot of texture.

I made a similar scarf for me using Arabesque (in pink) and another Trendsetter Yarn called "Skye" combined with the Paton's Silk Bamboo.

My brother-in-law received these handmade luggage handle wraps and tags from me. I patterned the handle wraps after some I have from my work (which are adorned with my company's logo). They're handy for spotting your luggage in baggage claim. I used nylon so that they would be more resistant to weather and dirt. Maybe I'll write up a tutorial on how to make these.

I made my husband some felted clogs, except they're not felted yet and I don't have a picture. I also knit him some socks, which I just finished and haven't photographed yet.

I'm looking forward to 2012 and more projects. I just photographed the rest of my yarn stash and loaded the photos on Ravelry.com. So much yarn...so many projects! It's exciting and a bit overwhelming to decide what to do first. Not to mention that I have a few projects that are not quite finished.

Living room = fiber room

2011-12-26T13:34:00.000-08:00

Until now our "formal" living room was largely unused, except by the cats, because we hang out where the TV is located, which is in the family room (or den). But now the cats will have to share space with my new Christmas present: a 4-shaft Schacht Wolf Pup loom:

I already had a few of my fiber things in this room: the basket on the coffee table holds my handspun - there's a niddynoddy sticking out of it with some handspun on it. My Schacht Flip rigid heddle loom had been semi-folded up in the corner but I got it out and set it up so I could alternate between the new Wolf Pup and the rigid heddle to compare weaving styles. Not quite visible is my spinning wheel. It's a Louet Victoria, which is a small, portable wheel. It's folded up and in its bag in front of the bookcase. And while not a knitting, spinning or weaving tool, but still related to fiber - my grandmother's 1919 treadle sewing machine is in the back corner. So now this sunny room will be the fiber room, but since it's the first room you see when you walk in, I won't be moving my stash into it, and I do need to tidy it up.

I've been praciticing a bit on the new loom and am really liking the pattern combinations you get with a 4-shaft.

I wasn't using my rigid heddle, I think it was because I knew the weaving patterns were limited to pretty much a plain weave, which just didn't excite me. I also made the mistake of warping the rigid heddle fairly wide and with rather thin cotton yarn. We bought the Wolf Pup from a local yarn store and it was already set up and warped, and I have a lesson next week. I've been having fun trying out patterns, and it even inspired me to do some plain weaving on the rigid heddle.

Christmas party dress

2011-12-23T17:14:00.000-08:00

Every year I make my "Christmas party dress." This year my husband's company party had a 1920's Prohibition theme. I thought Folkwear pattern #264, Monte Carlo Dress would be perfect because I don't think it's too costume-like to wear to other parties. I also wore it to my company holiday party.

Here is it without the tunic:

Here it is with the tunic closed.

Here's a closeup of the beading I did on the front:

And finally, here's my pattern review:

Pattern Description:
Sleeveless, drop waist 1920's style dress with a handkerchief skirt. The dress pulls on over your head. There are two styles of over-tunics: one that is a simple pullover and one that crosses in the front that can be worn open or closed.

Pattern Sizing:
XS (30 1/2 - 31 1/2" bust) to XL (44-46" bust)

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?
Yes, I think it did, however I initially misunderstood how the skirt is constructed. The pattern comes with a lot of instruction and information about making the dress and mentions that layering fabrics for the skirt is a nice effect. When I saw that you cut out two large square pieces for the skirt I assumed those two pieces would be layered, but this is not the case. The two pieces are sewn together so that each square is one side of the skirt. I chose a thin skirt fabric, thinking it was going to be layered, but it was ok with one layer because the upper dress part does cover enough, and I wore black tights underneath.

Were the instructions easy to follow?
The dress is simple in style - there is only a facing for the top neck and sleeve edge and no zipper. The instructions are fairly easy to follow but don't include any seam finishing instructions. My polyester fabrics unraveled easily so I used the serger to finish the seam edges of the upper dress part and French seams for the lightweight tunic fabric.

The instructions say to press the dress hem at 1/4 inch, then turn up and sew close to the fold. It's difficult to iron such a small hem on polyester and there's quite a bit of dress hem, so I first sewed a 1/4 inch hem then folded it and sewed it again.

Other reviewers mention difficulty with the shoulder straps - I also had a bit of a struggle with them. The instructions are ok, it's just that the front strap is gathered a bit and there's more fabric to get in place. It took a few tries and some hand sewing to get the straps looking ok.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
I really liked the fit and because of the style there was no need to wear body-shaping undergarments.

Fabric Used:
The top of the dress is a sueded polyester, and the dress skirt is a lightweight polyester crepe. Both the tunic outside and the lining are lightweight polyester fabrics as well.

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:
I graded the pattern for the dress from a L for the top to an XL from the waist down. I sewed ribbons with snaps attached to them to the straps so that I could keep my bra straps hidden under the dress straps. I added beading to the front after the dress was made instead of before, as the instructions say to do. I wasn't sure what beading I wanted to do and wanted to wait to see the dress completed to get some inspiration. I didn't find it difficult to bead it afterwards.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
I probably won't make it again because I don't need more than one 20's style dress.
I gave this pattern a "Highly Recommend" because of the nice fit of the dress for many body types.

Conclusion:
The most difficult part of making this dress is cutting it out. The tunic and dress skirt have large pattern pieces, and the tunic is cut on the bias. I traced off an extra tunic front so that I could ensure I had the layout correct and had enough fabric for all 3 pieces. Take note of any directional fabric. The motifs on my fabric were already on the diagonal so on the bias they either ran vertically or horizontally. I chose to have them run vertically but had I not noticed this I could easily have made a mistake and mixed them, which would have been disastrous!

Completing the tunic was also a bit more work than I figured it would be. The sewing wasn't so hard because it's just straight lines, and even doing French seams wasn't difficult, just time consuming. But once the tunic was finished, it needed to be pressed. Even though a sample showed I wouldn't melt the fabric with the iron, at least right away, I was still fearful of ruining it, so I used a presscloth. But trying to get a slippery seam to behave under a presscloth is really hard! So I first pinned the seam allowance in place around the entire perimeter of the tunic. Then I held the iron about an inch above and let it get a good dose of steam. Then I removed the pins, put down the presscloth and pressed with the iron. Then I removed the presscloth and used a clapper. Tedious, but worth it to get a nicely pressed edge.

Oh happy day!

2011-10-13T12:49:00.000-07:00

I am able to use my VIP Customizer embroidery software on our Windows 7, 64-bit machine and send designs to my Pfaff 7570! Woohoo! Happy dance!

It was a convoluted, ridiculously long process during which I had not one, but TWO blue screens on the computer. But I did it! It is sad (and frustrating) that it was such an ordeal, and crazy that I am so happy about accomplishing it that I will blog about it. But it works and I can continue to use the machine and software I've already invested in and hold off purchasing a standalone embroidery machine. Yes, there could be benefits to having a second machine to do embroidery, and it would be nice at times to have a 5x7 field, but there are drawbacks too. The biggest reason for not buying a second machine is that I don't need more stuff. Plus I don't have the room for it.

So for anyone who comes here in search of a solution, I will tell you what I did (and this will also document it for me in case I have to do it again.)

First, VIP Customizer will not run on a Windows 7 64-bit machine. I know I said I got it to work, but it's because I'm running it in XP mode. See, Microsoft realizes that although most software will run fine in Windows 7, some does not, so they have (thankfully) provided a way to run XP in a virtual mode and let you keep using your (old) software.

Make sure you're running Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate. You cannot run XP Mode in Home Premium. Sorry.
Go here and follow the directions to download and install XP Mode
Now normally you'd be able to open VIP from your Windows 7 desktop but, there's this little purple thingy in the way. Yes, the dreaded dongle. The dongle is not recognized on 64-bit machines, so I found I have to run VIP from within XP Mode.
Within XP Mode you just have to make sure you "attach" the USB token before you start the program. It's a drop down menu at the top of the XP Mode window. So that's all fine and dandy. I can run VIP and even navigate to the drives living in Windows 7 world where I stored all my embroidery designs. But the designs are no good if I can't get them to the machine.
I can't remember which upgrade it was, 98-XP or XP-Vista, where the cable that came with my Pfaff quit working. Or maybe it was the hardware that excluded serial connectors. Anyway, the solution is the Keyspan USA 19H adapter. It's the only one that works to convert the Pfaff cable to USB. And you probably need another little adapter for the pin-pin connection between the Keyspan and the Pfaff cable.
The next hurdle is drivers. I went here to download the drivers. I downloaded the W7 drivers just fine and W7 recognized the Keyspan cable but it didn't do me any good because the VIP software is running in XP world and it couldn't see the cable. I downloaded the XP drivers and the machine blue-screened. Not good. The cable came with a disc containing a Keyspan Serial Adapter Assistant program and drivers. However, when I plugged in the cable from within XP Mode and let the device wizards do their thing to search for drivers, it ultimately didn't work. There was a message that there was a problem and the USB cable could not be "attached" like the purple dongle could. So the solution was to download the XP drivers from the tripplite.com site but save them to a folder instead of just choosing run. Then, unplug the cable and from within XP Mode, go to the folder and click it and expand it and run the install.
So now the cable was finally recognized (attached) and I could go embroider, right? No. Wrong COM port. The cable installs on COM3 and it needs to be either COM1 or COM2 for the VIP software. From within the Keyspan Serial Adapter Assistant program, go to Port Mapping and change it to COM1 or COM2. It said COM2 was already in use but it let me pick that one anyway. All is good now, right? No.
Still couldn't communicate. Back to the Keyspan Serial Adapter Assistant program to see what I can change. I changed the Endpoints from "Compatible (Interrupt)" to "High Performance (Bulk)" and that worked. I have no idea why, I don't know what the two choices even mean, all I know is that I jumped for joy and let out a whoop when I saw this:

More pajama-sewing

2011-10-12T12:53:00.000-07:00

I made more pajamas. Boring? Yes, but a good way to get back into the sewing "groove." However just because they're pajamas doesn't mean that I am sewing any faster or cutting corners.

So here is my lastest creation, using Kwik Sew 2444 (out of print).

The pattern called for stretch lace, so this gave me an excuse to try and find some. The chain stores don't carry it and although I suppose I could have found some on-line, I'm fortunate to live near a discount fabric store, called "Fabrics R Us." It's one of those crowded, mish-mash fabric stores where you never know what you're going to find. Although they did have stretch lace, it was all too wide for this project. However they did had lots of fancy-edged elastic in many colors. I didn't have a swatch of my fabric with me but I think I did pretty good at guessing on the color.

And yes, I did buy more colors of elastic than I actually needed. But I was good and didn't even look at any fabrics - well, I couldn't help noticing the rolls of fake YSL vinyl. Name brand purses are not my thing, and it saddens me when women spend money they shouldn't on them...and counterfit is not a better choice. Ok, off my soapbox.

Here is my review, also posted on patternreview.com:

Pattern Description:

Out of print pattern. Two-piece pajamas. Pullover top with crew or v-neck, long or short sleeves. Elastic-waist shorts or long pants with cuffed legs. Generous ease.

Pattern Sizing:

XS-XL. I cut a large on top and an XL for the shorts. This is why I sew...custom-sized pjs!

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?

Yes, looks like the drawing. The top is very boxy - straight sides with no curve at the waist whatsover.

Were the instructions easy to follow?

The instructions were fine, but I didn't use them for applying the trim. I think the instructions would work fine for lace, but I couldn't find stretch lace that was narrow, in the right color, or that cost less than $4/yard. I did find picot-edged elastic in a color that worked (BTW, you can find white at Joanns and Hancock Fabrics), but it's a little thicker than lace and only has one "fancy" edge.

I folded the edge of the neck, sleeves, and shorts hem under by 1/4 inch and basted them. Then I basted the picot-edged elastic to the wrong side with the picot showing. I don't know whether I used the right side or wrong side of the elastic - I chose the side I wanted. I basted rather than pinned because I find that pinning distorted things, and I was tired of getting pricked by the pins. I used a narrow zig-zag to top stitch so that it would be stretchy. Then I trimmed the excess fabric on the wrong side so it was even with the edge of the elastic.

The casing for the elastic on the shorts was sewn using the serger. I had never used this technique before and was a little apprehensive, but it worked. First you join your elastic so it's one big circle. Then you fold the waistband over 1", with the 3/4" elastic inside, then fold it back onto the rightside of the shorts/pants so the raw edge of the waistband is even with the fold. Then you serge along this edge, being careful not to catch the elastic. I put the knife down but it probably would be ok to leave it up. There should be about 1/4" of space to work with because the elastic is smaller than the casing. This technique worked great and I never caught the elastic once.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?

I liked the simple cut of the pattern. The style was exactly what I was looking for.

Fabric Used:

A light weight thermal knit that was cheap...amost too cheap to bother with. The grain, especially towards the edges, was very wonky. Being that it was a thermal knit, I was able to cut a new straight edge and use the lines in the fabric to try to line up the grain. For some reason I didn't swatch this fabric and record any info about it. I don't even know where I bought the fabric but I hope I didn't pay more than a dollar or two a yard for it! I will be sad if these pajamas come out of the wash a total wreck. I did pre-wash the fabric though.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?

I would sew this pattern again.

Conclusion:

I don't know why Kwik Sew discontinued this pattern. I was a bit fearful for this project because no one had reviewed this pattern, it was OOP, and I had bad fabric. But the pajamas turned out just fine. Crossing my fingers they stay this way after a few washings.

Ella is the queen cat

2011-09-25T13:00:00.000-07:00

Ella prefers soft pillows...and thinks Felix is a pest and shouldn't be in her house.

Where does Felix sleep?

2011-09-24T22:55:00.000-07:00

Anywhere he wants.

On a box. Note the nice, soft blanket on the bed (for the cats) complete with cat toys. But no, the box is more comfortable.

In the sink...with the faucet poking into his side. He was sound asleep and snoring. Oh, and he doesn't have a big white "skunk" stripe - that's light coming in from the skylight.

And finally, on the fall centerpiece I just put together a few hours ago. Who knew that pumpkins and gourds made nice pillows?

Crappy fabric

2011-09-15T10:46:00.000-07:00

My sewing time is too valuable to sew with crappy fabric...yet I do. It's just pajamas I reminded myself as I struggled to get the grain line of the thermal knit to behave so I could cut out the pattern. Yet I persevered because the vision of the pajamas out of that fabric is in my head. Because I bought a spool of matching serger thread. Because I bought matching elastic lace for the trim. Because I don't give up.

I should banish bad fabric from my stash but sometimes you just don't know it's bad until you work with it. The cost of the fabric is not a good measure either. Some of my "cheap" fabrics are just fine. I get a secret delight every time I wear the pretty, comfortable shirt I made with fabric that cost me $2.97.

But really, this fabric tested me last night. I don't even know where it came from. I thought I swatched all my fabrics but I can't find this among my cards. I came across it in one of my many bins when I was looking for pajama and nightgown fabrics. The way the fabric was jaggedly cut tells me that it was probably a bargain fabric from Fabrix in San Francisco or maybe even Jomar in Philadelphia during one of my visits to my parent's house. I'm still hopeful that despite the grain problems I'll be able to get a wearable pair of pajamas out of it. I'd show you the pattern I'm making - it's Kwik Sew 2444 - but it's out of print, and I couldn't even find any reviews for it on Patternreview.com. Hopefully this is not a sign that the pattern is bad too. A bad pattern + crappy fabric = wadder for sure!

Now you know what I sleep in

2011-08-29T23:44:00.000-07:00

I like to sleep in knit night shirts and I was in dire need of some new ones. I've used Kwik Sew 2821 to make a few in the past but was a bit bored with the plain t-shirt type. So I flipped through my notebook of Burda magazine technical drawings and thought #114 in the December 2008 issue looked comfortable (and easy). Then I shopped my stash and came up with a yellow knit that I bought from fabric.com a long time ago. And here is the result:

And here's my review of the pattern that I posted on patternreview.com:

Pattern Description:
Raglan-sleeve nightgown with pleated front neck edge, and tie-belt.

Pattern Sizing:
38-46

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?
Pretty much.

Were the instructions easy to follow?
The instructions were adequate except I didn't follow the directions for sewing the facing to the neck edge and did something different - see the design change section for details on how I applied it.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
I like that the pleated front and raglan sleeves make it different than just a plain t-shirt type nightgown, like my tried and true Kwik Sew 2821.

I like the detail of the picot-edge elastic at the sleeves and neck, but I don't really like the way it's applied - just sewn on to the hemmed sleeve and neck, leaving the raw edge of the sleeves and elastic.

Fabric Used:
Cotton interlock purchased from fabric.com many years ago. It's a very nice weight, not too thin and not too thick. It's also very soft but I don't think it's a very durable fabric and expect it's going to pill terribly after a few nights of wearing it to bed and definitely after washing it a few times.

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:
Graded out from a 42 at the bust to a 46 at the waist and below. I checked the width of the pattern against Kwik Sew 2821 and it was the same, so I was good to go. I did not change the neckline height or the overall length of the nightgown.

I did change the way I sewed the neckline. The instructions call for attaching a strip of cross-grain cut fabric, folded lengthwise, to the raw edge of the neckline. It's supposed to be sewn right-sides together and then turned to the inside as a facing. Then the pico-edged elastic is stitched to the inside neck edge so that the pico edge shows. I thought this resulted in too much bulk - the seam allowance would contain two layers of the folded strip + the one layer of the body and then you fold the strip over on top of that (2 more layers). I was also afraid the elastic might be scratchy against my neck. So I tried something different. I first basted the elastic to the body fabric, a little outside of the seam line into the seam allowance, and then I sewed only one layer of the facing strip at the seam line, so that the pico edge elastic was sandwiched in between. I top stitched to hold it all in place. Then I trimmed the seam allowance and folded the extra fabric of the facing strip over the raw edges and stitched it down - on the seam allowance.

The other thing I changed about the neckline was that the instruction say to sew the neckline facing strip on and then fold the ends over each other. Forget that! I stitched the neckline strip together first on the short end and attached it in one circular piece, position the seam edge at the back neck and making sure the strip was evenly positioned around the neck. I did the same with the elastic trim.

I used my serger for the construction of the body, to finish inside hemmed edge of the sleeves, and I used a coverstitch for the bottom hem of the body.

I also left off the belt and belt loops. No need for a belt on my nightwear!

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
I do recommend the pattern and think I will make at least one more short sleeve and maybe a long sleeve one as well.

Conclusion:
A nice nightgown that fits well and is not too plain but not too fancy.

Plaid!

2011-08-25T15:23:00.000-07:00

I need to find some time to weave on my loom.

One link led to another on the internet and I found this neat site where I can generate a tartan pattern. This free online program lets you add different colors and select the number of threads for each. It then calculates the total number of threads for a repeat and the width of that repeat based on a 16 oz or 13 oz wool yarn. I think it's for people to custom order tartans made from a commercial weaving facility, but I think I can certainly use it to create some fun plaids and tartans for weaving on my loom. Here's a simple black and red plaid pattern I whipped up. It's made with 16 threads of black, 16 threads of red and 4 threads of black:

A knitting weekend

2011-08-24T00:41:00.001-07:00

Pictures from the knitting retreat I went on this weekend, called Knitting on the Coast.

No pictures of actual knitting, but some pictures of the sheep (and llama and cat) from Bodega Pastures, where we went on Sunday to dye some yarn and visit the sheep.

It was a lovely weekend.

Patrones X 5

2011-08-11T11:15:00.000-07:00

I picked these up when I was in Buenos Aires in April. They were easy to find at just about every newstand kiosk. I paid about 24-28 Argentinean pesos each (less for older copies, more for new ones), which was about US$6-7 a copy. Not bad.

I still don't like Home Dec

2011-07-31T14:18:00.000-07:00

I finished the window seat. Finally. Yay.

One side is striped and the other is the blue and white print.

Description: 86" x 18" x 2" box-shaped, zippered cushion cover with piping.

Pattern used: none, but I consulted Sandra Betzina Sews For Your Home for help with construction.

Fabric: heavy weight cotton from IKEA

Notions: One "endless" zipper, it's one long zipper sold with multiple pulls and meant to be cut to the length you need. I found it cheaper than the ones sold for home dec and the lighter weight zipper was prettier and opened and closed nicer than the metal upholstery zipper I had. For the piping I used cotton craft cord, which I found in the craft section of Joanns. It was the thickness I wanted and turned out to be much cheaper than the upholstery cording (which was either too thick or too thin). I soaked the cording in hot water to pre-shrink it. The inside cushion is 2" thick washable polyester cushion from Hancock Fabrics.

Construction: I don't know why it took me so long, except that I've never sewn a box-shaped, zippered cushion cover before and thought it would be difficult. It was cumbersome to deal with the long lengths of fabric, and I don't know how I can measure so carefully and still have things come out too long or too short on one side vs. the other (!!). But overall it wasn't that difficult to make. I put the zipper into the back size piece first and then sewed all the side pieces together. Then I sewed the piping to the side pieces. Next I sewed the top and bottom pieces to the side pieces along the long edges. I thought the corners would be difficult but this didn't turn out to be the case. I was able to sew along the end edges and the piping just sort of naturally curved at the corners. I finished the raw edges by serging them. Due to the bulk of the fabric I had to use my special serger piping foot so that the piping could ride in the groove of the foot and the edge could be serged.

Lessons learned:

Just do it. Don't let the assumption the something will be difficult keep you from doing it.
Be creative with notions. The zippers and piping sold in the home dec section were not quite what I wanted and turned out to be more expensive than what I ended up using.
I should have bought more striped fabric. I had planned on making the entire cushion out of the striped fabric but had neglected to include enough yardage to make piping. I really wanted the piping so I used some of the blue and white fabric I bought for curtains (and then decided the windows didn't need them) for one side. Actually my husband likes the blue side, so it worked out.
I still don't like sewing home dec, but I'm pleased with the results. I know that buying a ready-made cushion that would fit the space was impossible, and since I'm capable of sewing one I just couldn't have one custom made for me.

The challenge now will be keeping it clean. As you see, the cat approves of his new sleeping bed, although I think he would have preferred me to make it out of the fluffy "yeti" blanket he enjoys on the guest room bed.

Delayed

2011-07-11T13:37:00.000-07:00

A problem at the launch site has delayed the launch. First it was delayed one day but now it has been delayed again. It might go Tuesday evening but we'll find out for sure tomorrow morning.

Meanwhile, I have some software to write at work and some drapes to hem at home...gotta get some sewing news in there somewhere!

And I haven't forgotten to post more photos from our trip - it just takes so much time to weed through the 1839 photos we took. I've managed to write captions for all of the ones from Berlin, but it takes a lot of time to research the correct names and places. It's sad when you have a picture of a building or scenic view and you have no idea what it is. Even sadder if the photo contains people. I remember my grandmother, who was always snapping pictures on her Instamatic, urged me to identify people in photos. I'm grateful to her and other relatives who took the time to do that on the photos I've inherited. The software I use to catalog my photos (Adobe Elements) makes it very easy to add captions or tag photos with people's names, so there's no excuse not to do it - it just takes time.

Here we go again.

2011-07-08T14:40:00.000-07:00

Another launch.

Click here to watch it live

Berlin

2011-06-24T00:58:00.001-07:00

Berlin, a set on Flickr.

Sorry I've been out of touch lately. We went on a trip to Europe (yes, another vacation) while I could get some time away before work gets busy. We went to Berlin for a few days, then a night in Paris before taking the train to Le Mans for the 24 Hours race. Then back to Paris for two nights, a train to Dunkerque to visit friends (and a day trip into Belgium). We ended the trip with a train through the Chunnel to London for two nights.

I've only managed to select some photos from the first day in Berlin. I hope you enjoy them. And I hope I can post some more (and pictures from Argentina too - some are on my Flickr page already).

I won!

2011-04-20T13:46:00.000-07:00

Thanks Threads magazine!

Only one pattern

2011-04-18T11:19:00.000-07:00

Since I have a substantial stash of fabric, I've curtailed my fabric shopping by quite a bit in the last few years; however, patterns take up less space and who can resist a $1 or $2 pattern sale? But now my pattern stash is getting a bit out of hand and I can't justify buying more patterns and continue to acquire foreign pattern magazines, so I've cut back on the pattern sales.

Saturday I stopped by Hancock Fabrics to pick up some thread and was drawn like a moth to a light to the pattern table where Buttericks were $1.99 and Simplicity patterns were a buck each. But not much impressed me - or I finally found some will power. However, Butterick 5493 looked a lot like the simple tops I see at the store but don't want to pay a lot of money for. I think any one of these would be suitable for work, worn under a jacket or light sweater. Plus they have bust darts!

Berg Fashion Library

2011-04-04T12:09:00.000-07:00

This morning I heard a piece on NPR about the New York Public Library opening up access to a digital library of fashion images for its library card holders. The collection is called the "Berg Fashion Library" and it's available by subscription ($295)...or if you're lucky enough to have access to a library or institution that has a subscription.

It looks to me like I'm out of luck obtaining a New York Public Library card because according to their website, "an applicant must show proof that he/she lives, works, attends school, or pays property taxes in New York State." Out of state or international visitors can obtain a temporary card, but it's only good on-site.

There are universities that have purchased subscriptions, so lucky for you if you have access via that route. My university days are over so I don't have that option. It looks like a really neat database - there is a trial 30-day free look, but I think I'll stick with free options to view fashion photos for now.

Fun with photoshop

2011-03-25T13:20:00.000-07:00

I was going through some photos and made some panoramic views from some photos (click to see larger)

Cozumel, Mexico

Davenport, NZ (near Auckland)

Taupo, NZ

Wellington, NZ

Rome

Paris

New York

(it's too large to post here, so this is a link to Flickr, where you might be able to see it larger)

I made all these using the panorama tool on my Adobe Elements. I think it's a pretty cool algorithm that can make sense of a bunch of photos and make one image, especially for the one of the New York skyline. I only sorta-kinda took panoramic photos from the top of the Empire State Building, meaning that I wasn't too careful. I didn't want to crop it to a perfect rectangle and lose some of the buildings. If you are able to view the original size (I don't know how it works for visitors to Flickr), you can see a lot of detail in the buildings.

I can see that I'll be making taking more panoramic shots in the future and will be a bit more careful doing so.

A sewing day

2011-03-22T18:53:00.000-07:00

I had today off from work so I spent it sewing. Yay! Well sort of. I finally finished the sheers for the guest room (sewing room #2). As I've expressed before, I'm not a fan of home dec sewing. I enjoy selecting the fabrics and deciding what to make but when it comes to actually sewing the stuff...bleh. I have been guilty of buying fabric with the intention of making the drapes, pillows...whatever and the fabric sits and sits and then I go to IKEA to buy the drapes - cheap, washable, and fun prints. Why do I take on the home dec then? Oh yeah, I like the design process and don't want to pay the high $$ to have someone else do the sewing. I even made it super easy for myself. The fabric is plaid, which can be a nightmare when sewing clothes but when making drapes all the lines are a real help to make sure everything is straight. Honestly these sheers were so simple that it's embarrassing that it's taken me so long to get them made. But they're finally done. On to the next project.

Oh, and Alison was correct. We are headed to Buenos Aires for our vacation!

Where in the world?

2011-03-05T13:24:00.000-08:00

We have a week off next month and are hitting the road, well actually the skies, for another travel adventure. So guess where we are going?

It will be warm
It's a large, capital city
I don't speak the language but I hear/see a lot of it where I live
Shall we dance?
Don't cry for me...

My thoughts are with Christchurch, NZ

2011-02-22T08:55:00.000-08:00

Christchurch, New Zealand has had another big earthquake - 6.3 magnitude - and it has caused at least 65 deaths. I visited Christchurch in April-May of 2003. Here are pictures of the Christchurch cathedral from that trip. The larger earthquake last September damaged the cathedral (and miraculously no one was killed in that quake) but this latest quake toppled the spire and has largely destroyed the building.

My thoughts are with the people of Christchurch. I've visited New Zealand twice and found the people there are incredibly friendly. When we drove around the south island we rarely saw other cars but we knew that if we had a breakdown, when a car did eventually come by, we had no doubt the occupants would come to our aid. So it's especially sad to know they've had such devastation and loss come to them.

Finished Things...part 2

2011-02-08T23:52:00.000-08:00

So here's the promised second part of my finished things...sewing! I only just returned to sewing in December after an almost 2 year hiatus, and so far I made a dress, a nightshirt, jeans, a skirt, 2 tops, and a dress. O.K., those last 5 things were very tiny because they're doll clothes for my nieces. I also made a baby hat that was an old UFO. I had made a fleece baby jacket for a friend's daughter and cut out a hat pattern out of the leftovers but never got around to making it up. The little girl is now 11. But my sister just had a baby girl so I thought I'd finally finish the hat and send it to her.

The doll clothes were also the result of a UFO. The light green shirt in the upper right was already cut out. I again used scraps from a garment and probably cut the pattern out right after I'd made it, which was in 2004 according to my review. But I couldn't just send my sister one lonely little doll top, especially because she has two daughters who play with dolls. So I made some more. The green and blue top was already finished years ago and only needed a closure. Full reviews are over on patternreview if you're interested.

I did have fun making the doll clothes, even if they did take a bit longer than I'd planned. Those little clothes can be quite fiddly! I wanted to show the clothes on a doll but I don't have an American Girl type 18" doll. I do have my Kerry doll (and also Crissy) from the 1970's. I dug her out and dressed her up and hand some fun in the backyard.

I think Kerry is the American Girl's skinny cousin. So just like a size 0 model on a photo shoot, out came the binder clips!

And finally, one knitting item that got left off of my last post. Knowing that the fleece hat would be way too big for my sister's newborn, I knitted up a little bonnet. The pattern is from the book Last Minute Knitted Gifts and the yarn is Rowan Baby Alpaca.

Finished Things...part 1

2011-01-26T00:46:00.000-08:00

I have not been very good at updating this blog. In fact I've been awful. I just looked back to see what knitted things I've posted pictures of, since we all know that I haven't been sewing until recently, and with the exception of some hats I knit for the homeless, it's been a year since I posted anything. So I'm way behind.

I knit some socks:

Here they are in more detail:

I called these "Raspberry Jubilee." I started them while we were on a cruise last year. The cruise was actually for work (our annual meeting and 15th anniversary of the company) but spouses were invited. And though we did have work meetings, I did have time to relax and knit on deck or on the balcony of our room. The yarn is TOFUtsies from Southwest Trading Company and the pattern is "Eyes on You" from the book Socks A La Carte.

These were started in April 2009 and I remember it was rainy so I dubbed them "Gray Sky Socks." I finally finished them last year after having set them aside. I only had 1/2 sock left and had the pattern so that part wasn't a problem. Unfortunately I had no idea what cast-off I used for the first sock so I had to guess. Should have documented this project better. I have a chart of the pattern but I didn't even write down the name. I do now it's from the book More Sensational Knitted Socks. The yarn is Panda Silk.

The third pair of socks were my "Simple Socks" - so called because I wanted an easy project that I could knit without thinking too much. These are just simple stockinette with a 4x2 ribbed cuff. I really like these socks, mostly because the yarn, Austermann Step, is really nice. They'd be great socks for a nice snowy day. Too bad we don't get snow here. ;-)

The rest of the finished knitted projects were gifts. I ended up knitting about 6 hats for the homeless - they were easy and a great TV knitting project. The pictures I took all came out blurry (I have not learned that the point and shoot Nikon is nowhere near the quality of the SLR!). But I do have pictures of the other gifts.

This shawl for my sister was knit mostly on the plane trip to/from New Zealand. A flight attendant was intrigued by my knitting and amazed at how much I accomplished during the flight. I am so thankful they no longer ban knitting needles on flights. I have to keep my hands busy with knitting or I get really restless in my seat. This shawl was knit with Stitch Nation "Bamboo Ewe" yarn. The pattern, called "Morning Frost Wrap", is from a Stitch Nation pattern pamphlet.

One nice thing about being able to knit (and sew) is that sometimes you're able to come up with quick gifts. A couple years ago I knit a scarf for a friend for Christmas and always intended to make some fingerless mitts to go with it. The yarn is Malabrigo and the pattern is Malabrigo Hand Thingies, available as a download on Ravelry.

I also whipped up a little scarf for a friend for her birthday. The yarn is Rowan Kidsilk Haze so I called this project "Purple Haze." The pattern is from the book Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I should have snapped a picture of her wearing it because it looked much nicer on her than on my boring white dress form.

Part 2 will be the sewing projects I finished. Yes! Sewing projects beside the dress that has been my only blog post for the last month. Hopefully it won't take a year for me to post pictures of them!

The sewing drought is over!

2010-12-21T10:52:00.000-08:00

This is Vogue 1179, which I made to wear at my company Christmas party this year. It was quick to make and comfortable to wear.

Pattern Description:
Loose fitting, sleeveless dress with a cowl. It has some pleating detail in the front, is sleeveless, and is hemmed above the knee.

Pattern Sizing:
6-22

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?
Yes, I think it is pretty close to the photo and drawing.

Were the instructions easy to follow?
This is a very simple dress to construct so I think most sewers really won't need the instructions, though a beginner should not have any difficulties. The instructions are written for a conventional sewing machine, but it's easier to sew this with a serger.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
I like that the dress is loose fitting. I was hesitant about the length being above the knee but did hem it to this length because below the knee made it look like a frumpy house-dress.

Fabric Used:
I used a slinky knit (not sure on the fiber content). The pattern calls for moderate stretch and slinky is super-stretchy so I stabilized the neckline and let it hang over night. I will not store this dress on a hanger because slinky tends to "grow."

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:
I graded from a size 18 at the shoulder and bust to a size 20 at the waist and hip. I cut the cowl on the bias and changed the depth of the hem. I hemmed it with a 3/4 inch hem rather than 4 1/4 inches.

Other reviewers thought the armholes of this dress are high (tight), so before I cut the fabric out I compared the armhole with a sleeveless top I had that was of a similar type of fabric and found they matched pretty well, so I didn't make any changes. And considering I was using slinky I was more worried about the armholes stretching and being too large.

My construction notes
The most time consuming part of the construction was cutting out the fabric. Since the slinky was very stretchy I had to be sure to keep it flat and not let the excess fabric fall of the edge of the cutting table - something you want to avoid with any fabric, but especially knits. I also found I had to cut off the selvedges because they were pulling in the fabric and keeping it from laying flat. I used the ribs of the slinky as a guide for keeping on grain so I didn't need the edges. Also, I rarely cut out knits on the fold, especially slippery ones, so I traced off mirror images of the pattern pieces and cut out the fabric in one thickness.

I spent a lot of time fussing with getting the pleats lined up precisely but that turned out to be unnecessary. While you do baste the pleats to keep them in place, the pleats are only sewn at the top edge.

I stabilized the neck edge with a fusible straight tape rather than stay-stitching it. To ensure I did not melt my fabric I used a lower heat and a press cloth.

Like other reviewers, I sewed the cowl with one (serged) seam at the neck edge and left the raw edge, instead of sewing one edge of the cowl to the neck and then handsewing the other edge to cover the raw edge. I did experiment with the placement of the raw edge: on the inside or on the outside. Sometimes a cowl can drape so that the inside neck edge is exposed but on the outside it is covered by the cowl. In this case the inside neck edge is not visible but the cowl can shift to show the outside neck edge so that's where the nice finish should be. So, raw edge goes on the inside.

I used a coverstitch to finish the armholes and bottom hem. I did not use elastic in the armholes but may go back and redo them with elastic. That slinky is really stretchy!

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
I don't think I'd sew it again, but only because there are so many other dress patterns to try.

Conclusion:
Easy and comfortable dress. A great combination!

Veggie box surprise

2010-12-08T22:15:00.000-08:00

Ingredients:

1 pound of boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 onion
a few cloves of garlic
most of the vegetables that came in the vegetable box and were destined for the compost bin if they weren't used soon
(in my case this was: romanesco, carrots, bok choy, and cabbage)

Directions:

Cut everything up
Heat some olive oil and a little sesame oil in a wok
Add some Chinese 5 spice
Cook the chicken
Remove chicken and cook the veggies
Add the cooked chicken back in
Add soy sauce
Add a little hot chili sauce
Cook some more

Eat.

See, I can cook! Let's just say that cooking is not high on my list of fun things. In an attempt to eat more vegetables and less pizza, I have a vegetable box from farmfreshtoyou.com delivered to the house every other week. It definitely has encouraged me to cook and eat vegetables I might not otherwise try, like bok choy and romanesco. Some weeks I'm better at using them up in more interesting ways but it can be hard when I'm working long hours and dinner becomes whatever I can grab. This week has been one of those bad work weeks so it was time for a veggie-box surprise.

Christmas gifts I made - two years ago

2010-11-22T13:04:00.000-08:00

Two years ago, when I wasn't working and had time to sew (that's my excuse anyway), I made some aprons for two of my brothers-in-law. I never shared the pictures because I wanted to wait until after Christmas to post the pictures. But after Christmas I got a job and got busy and well, here they are...two years later.

I chose a music-themed quilting cotton for my brother-in-law who plays the violin in a symphony:

This Beatle-themed print, though a bit loud, was for the brother-in-law who likes the Beatles:

I used McCalls 2233, a great pattern if you want the whole chef ensemble or even if you just need a basic pair of elastic waist pants and a button shirt.

Here's my review of the pattern:

Pattern Description:
Patterns for chef's clothing: chef's jacket, elastic-waist pants, short sleeve shirt, chef's hat, kerchief, and apron.

Pattern Sizing:
Each pattern is single size, but still a good deal considering that you get so much in one envelope.
Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?
Yes.

Were the instructions easy to follow?
Yes, but I did things a bit out of sequence to save on having to jump up and down to use the iron. I suggest you read through all of the instructions first, then fire up your steam iron and press all of the hems at the same time. Also, make the the ties first and iron them flat when you do all the hems. Then you don't need your iron until the end to do a final pressing.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
I liked that it was a utilitarian apron in multiple sizes, including XL, that was suitable for a guy. I also liked that the pattern envelope contains so many pieces for other clothing and also included a chef's hat...should I ever need to make one.

Fabric Used:
Cotton quilting fabric, which I bought more for the novelty image than for the utility of the fabric. A heavier cotton would make a more durable apron but it could be difficult to sew through the bulk when sewing on the ties. Even with the thinner quilting fabric, there was a lot of bulk in these areas.

Pattern Alterations or any design changes you made:
Didn't change a thing.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
Absolutely I would sew it again. I think the apron makes a great gift.

Conclusion:
There are lots of apron patterns out there but this one is economical because it includes other clothing pieces. It's also a good choice if you need the XL or XS instead of a one-size-fits all apron.

A present for me!

2010-11-05T16:27:00.000-07:00

Look what I got!
It's not just a purse...
It's a purse and a knitting bag!

I was able to take a long lunch break today so I slipped out to Bobbins Nest Studio and bought myself a present! I always liked the idea of the Jordana Paige knitting bag/purse but I didn't really like the styles...until now. Her latest design, the L.J. Kaelms, caught my eye and was exactly what I wanted. Since I've been working crazy, crazy hours lately for work, this bag sort of makes up for it. Now if I could only knit while I worked. I could knit and do my work, which is mostly watching stuff and being here in case something happens, but I think my mostly male colleagues would think I was strange (if they don't already) and management would probably think I wasn't working.

Hello old friend

2010-11-01T15:07:00.001-07:00

Great idea!

2010-10-27T10:45:00.000-07:00

I'm a fairly novice spinner and therefore have not plied a lot of yarn. For those of you who don't spin, the first stage of spinning fiber produces what's called a single. Twisting two singles together, or plying, makes 2-ply yarn, three singles makes 3-ply, etc. Making 3-ply requires 4 bobbins: 3 for the singles and one for the take-up. I have exactly 4 bobbins for my wheel but one is usually full of practice spinning or another project. Bobbins for my wheel cost $30 each so it doesn't make economic sense to have a large supply of bobbins around. And besides, it'd be too tempting to abandon a spinning project to start another one if I had a lot of extra bobbins. I'd never thought about winding the spun yarn onto something else until I came across this blog post:

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

Rewind

2010-10-22T22:30:00.000-07:00

One thing I like about knitting is that it's "easy" to start over. I decided I didn't like the way the scarf was looking, and I've learned the hard way that it's probably not best to continue when you're not feeling it. So I don't know what the yarn will be but it's not going to be an this particular infinity scarf.

A little satellite knitting

2010-10-19T23:03:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the slightly blurry camera-phone picture.

No, I'm not knitting a satellite. I'm knitting during breaks between satellite contacts. I'm helping to operate 6 new Globalstar satellites that were launched earlier today and sometimes there's some downtime. Click here to see the launch (link might only be good for a few days).

This is going to be an infinity scarf. I'm knitting it in Wick soy/polypropylene from Knit One Crochet Two. The yarn feels more like cotton but it's softer.

Another reason I'm not sewing

2010-10-16T10:48:00.000-07:00

I'm busy because of this:

Soyuz launch of Globalstar - Oct 19, 2010

Runway-inspired knitting

2010-10-07T13:25:00.000-07:00

From the 2010 Fall RTW (yes, ready to wear) collections:

A bit of fair isle.

D&G - Fall 2010

And if that doesn't suit you, how about a large misshapen poncho that seems to have picked up a few things along the way...worn with antlers.

Topshop Unique - 2010 Fall

Or just a bobbled and cabled sweater...and really BIG antlers.

Topshop Unique - 2010 Fall

Keep good records

2010-09-30T10:53:00.000-07:00

I'm guessing there are other people out there like me. I have (too many) projects that are partially completed but finishing them now will take a lot more effort because I didn't take good notes. At the time I either didn't think it was important or thought I would remember the details. Yeah, right.

The other day I was going through a stack of traced off patterns and some sewn up muslins, and I had to toss a lot of them because at the time I made them I didn't bother to note the pattern number, size and changes I might have made. Granted, most of these were early projects, and over time I've become much more conscientious of the need to write down all those details when I trace off a pattern. At the time I may think it's unnecessary because I plan to trace off the pattern, make a muslin if needed, and sew the garment up - all within a reasonable amount of time. But in reality I might trace the pattern and then get distracted by a different pattern and shift my attention to it. Or I'll make the muslin and get discouraged at the fit issues and, well, there you go. Months or years later the tissues and muslins are useless, and the initial work is wasted.

I also have a few UFOs that are in the process of construction. Of course I never thought I wouldn't finish those items in a timely manner and didn't think it necessary to note what needle I used, what thread I used, or even take the effort to keep all the pieces and notions together. I admit that reconstructing all this info is partly why I don't finish those projects.

It's even more crucial with my knitting projects that I take good notes. I use a nice Moleskine notebook for this purpose.

My book is bound at the short edge but for some reason I couldn't find that version on the Moleskine website. I like the Moleskine book because it has a nice, hard cover so it won't get bent up when I toss it in my knitting bag. I record info for current projects, as well as instructions for things like Kitchener stitch, short row toes, sock heels, and variations of cast on/off. The gridded paper is great for recording charted instructions, and there's a little pocket in the back that's useful for storing stray slips of paper. My version doesn't have a bookmark ribbon so I use the elastic strap to mark the page I need. But the absolute best thing this notebook has done for me is help get my knitting back to me. I once left my small knitting bag, containing a sock project, on a Jet Blue airplane. Fortunately a flight attendant found it and looked inside the bag and saw that it was something I'd want to get back. She was able to contact me right away because I'd recorded my name and cell phone on the inside page of my Moleskine book. I never take my knitting anywhere without that book now!

I've found over the years that it's important to record the following things for a knitting project:

needle size - that's an obvious one but if you didn't and you borrow the needles for something else, you'll wish you'd recorded it
garment size - if I photocopied the instructions I usually circle the size I'm making but I've also lost my photocopy. And sometimes I don't or can't make a photo copy.
changes to the pattern - if they're short, like how many stitches I cast on for the first sock or sleeve, I include them here. More complicated stuff gets noted on the photocopied instructions.
cast on method - I finished a sock I'd started after it had sat for many months and when it came time to start the second sock I wasn't sure what cast-on I'd used. Not a big deal but it could make a difference in how the socks wear.
again with socks, the type of heel or toe - there are many variations and some are pretty similar.
start/end date
pattern name and source - just in case you lose those photo copied instructions!
name of yarn and dye lot - I'll usually record the name of the yarn but haven't ever recorded the dye lot, but I suppose if you lose the ball band and need more yarn it would be helpful to have this info.
stitch pattern instructions - if they're short enough I record the stitch pattern instructions. Sometimes it's handier to have the book open instead of my photocopied instructions. I've found that after I while I memorize the stitch pattern but if I've not worked on the project in a while having the instructions jogs my memory.
swatch gauge info - you may only get as far as the swatch for a new project and it's helpful to have the needle size and the gauge you got when you eventually come back to it.

I do have a notebook for sewing projects but for me it seems to not really equate to the way I use the notebook for knitting. Though perhaps I should revisit it when I get back into the sewing room.

It's been two weeks

2010-09-28T13:43:00.000-07:00

...and I'm still hobbling around with my surgical shoe, which is to be expected. Today I'll fill you in on how the surgery and first days of recovery went in case there is anyone out there in internet-land reading this who is contemplating this surgery.

The surgery, which was exactly 2 weeks ago, was about how I expected it to be. It was outpatient surgery, performed at a surgical center. I was instructed not to eat or drink anything after midnight the night before my surgery, which was scheduled for 8:30 am. My birthday was the day before the surgery (and my anniversary the day after - what timing!), so I enjoyed a wonderful birthday dinner, cooked by my fabulous husband, and had a glass of wine. I learned too late that I wasn't supposed to have alcohol the night before (oops!). No harm done though.

I arrived at 7:30 am, as requested, and after a short wait in the lobby was brought into the post/pre-op room. I changed into a gown, paper hair cover, and socks with gripper-feet on them and the nurse set up an IV and took my temperature and blood pressure. My husband was able to come back and sit with me while I waited. The anesthesiologist came to talk to me, asking me what I enjoyed for breakfast. Hah! Trick question! Then he asked the usual questions of prior surgeries and any complications. The post/pre-op room felt a bit crowded but everything seemed well orchestrated. The nurse wrote "yes" in purple marker on the foot that was to be operated on and later my doctor signed his initials on it in purple ink as well.

Eventually I was walked into the operating room and set up on a table. The surgery was performed with "twilight" drugs and a local for my foot. I might have slept in the beginning but was awake later on. I think the drug dosage was spot-on because I was just sort of indifferent toward the whole thing. I'll note that this was probably a better situation than what I experienced during surgery I had years ago where I had to be awake and I felt a bit too euphoric. In that case I was really nervous about being awake during the procedure and they probably overcompensated on the drugs. This time I was just peaceful without being out of it. I could hear the doctors and nurse talking about music - it was just another day in the operating room and another foot to operate on for them. After the surgery the doctor said it went well. I asked how big the neuroma was and he showed it to me in a plastic container. It looked like a glob of white tissue, about half inch or so in size.

The surgery took about 40 minutes. In recovery I started to feel a little pain and was given something in my IV that helped right away. My husband was able to sit with me and that helped a lot. I don't know how long I was in recovery but it wasn't more than an hour until I felt ready to go home.

I've read on line about some people who were up and walking about, driving, and back at work a few days after surgery. Maybe they have a high tolerance for pain, maybe they had no choice due to work or other circumstances, or maybe they were stubborn and didn't want to sit and rest. I was advised to be off of my foot for the rest of the week and fortunately I was able to miss work for that time. Also, my husband happened to be working from home for the week (and the next, and the next) so it was an opportune time for this surgery. While I sat on the couch with my foot elevated on pillows and chilled by an icepack, he cooked and retrieved things for me. Since I couldn't work from home, I watched lots of TV and knitted and knitted and knitted to pass the time. I actually enjoyed the downtime!

The foot was swollen and occasionally throbbed right after the surgery (they make pills for that, thank you very much). It hurt less the first day and more in the days right after, probably as the swelling came down. Two days after surgery I had the dressings changed at the doctor's office. I actually haven't looked at my foot and don't want to for a while. I'm the type who would like to sleep through colds and flu and injuries. Wake me up when I'm better.

I've been wearing the surgical shoe 24/7 - even at night because it keeps my foot from flexing and accidentally getting bumped. It also keeps the cats off of it! My cats like to sleep at the foot of the bed, right where my feet go, and I find that I have to move my feet around their hot, furry bodies. For the first 10 days I slept with my foot elevated on pillows and that kept the cats away. Now that I've done away with the pillows I've noticed the cats are back, so the shoe helps protect my foot.

I'm able to shower by using a blue rubber Dry Pro cover that I pull over the surgical shoe and then I pump out the excess air. It works pretty well, far better and much safer than taping plastic around my foot.

Walking is still a bit of a hobble and I'm not sure if it's because of the surgical shoe or that I can't put weight on the front part of my foot yet. I still try to stay off of it and keep my foot elevated when I can, even if it means hoisting it up on my desk at work when I'm typing on the computer.

I had another appointment for a dressing change last week and have another tomorrow. The doctor said the foot looks good (again, I won't look!) and he thinks I might be out of the shoe this week. We'll see! My foot does still hurt. My 4th and 5th toes have regained some feeling but everything still feels tingly. The upper foot feels constricted and I'm guessing that's due to the bandage. Sometimes I have a pins and needles feeling and sometimes it feels a bit cramped up. The ball of the foot is sore if I put weight on it, which makes me think I'll be sporting this stylish surgical shoe for a bit longer.

Week 2 of foot recovery

2010-09-24T13:06:00.000-07:00

So it's been 10 days since the surgery and my foot is slowly healing. I went to work this week, with the help of my wonderful husband who is driving me around. It's nice to have a driver...and a cook. You don't realize how much you need to get around on your feet until you can't. Thank goodness I have my knitting because it's been keeping me sane while I camp out on the couch in the evenings. At work I sit with my leg up on the desk. Not the most ergonomic of positions!

I thought I'd share some of my experiences with this recovery in case anyone else does a search on Morton's neuroma and finds my blog. I did lots of searching on line before my surgery and found plenty of people experiencing terrible recovery but I suspect that's the case because people with problems will tend to voice them and not the other way around. My podiatrist has done lots and lots of these surgeries and after talking to him I felt confident to proceed...despite what I'd read on the internet. Yesterday I discovered a coworker had this surgery done on both feet about 20 years ago and she recovered 100%, has no residual pain or numbness and can play tennis with no problems. That made my day!

So a little back story to some questions people might have. How did I get this? How did I know I had it? What did it feel like?

How did I get this? I don't know exactly but it may partly be due to my shoes and perhaps just the way my foot is. Morton's neuroma is a nerve growth that typically occurs between the 3rd and 4th toes and can be caused by wearing narrow shoes, having flat feet or over pronation of the feet. I was never a big shoe person. I didn't cram my feet into uncomfortable or too high shoes for fashion's sake, but I also didn't buy very good shoes. It wasn't until a few years ago that I started to spend more money on good, comfortable shoes. I think I first noticed this pain when I was ice skating, about 6 or 7 years ago. After about an hour on the ice the ball of my foot became sore and I thought it was just from being in hard skates. I also remember having that same pain while walking (and walking and walking) in Rome. I was wearing some fairly well-made shoes (Reiker) but the insoles seemed a little hard in the toe area and I attributed the pain to that...and to all the walking. A few years ago I had more pain in my feet walking around New York City and at this point I decided that maybe my shoes were too narrow. I figured age and the extra weight I'm carrying had caused my feet to spread a bit and the regular medium size was just a bit too tight. Since then I've been buying shoes in wide widths or with roomy toe boxes. But I still had problems. Last spring I was wearing my Reiker shoes, which I don't wear all that often, and the pain in the ball of my foot came back. I bought some insoles and that helped but the pain seemed to stick around even in other shoes.

What did it feel like? Originally it just felt sore on the ball of my foot. Sometimes I could feel a sort of twang that was definitely a nerve - a lot like when you hit your funny bone. Interestingly I didn't really have numb toes; however, the little toe on my other foot does get numb and I remember it getting numb even way back in high school when I wore a particular pair of boots. Turn out I do have a smaller neuroma in that foot.

How did I know I had Morton's neuroma? The internet. I originally thought maybe the cushion in the balls of my feet was wearing out, but when I searched on line I found that my symptoms matched up with Morton's neuroma. I made an appointment with a podiatrist and he confirmed the diagnosis (without letting him know I consulted Dr. Google - well actually Dr. Bing). He got me custom orthotics to get my feet stabilized and we hoped that the neuroma would shrink. But it didn't.

So I had surgery. I could have had injections of cortisone but that would have been temporary fix and also meant needles. In my foot. Ow. My podiatrist has a lot of experience with this condition and he says he can tell the cases that will ultimately need surgery and mine was one of them. I put off the surgery as long as I could. Normally people with Morton's neuroma feel better when barefoot but I didn't. I think it's because I have a lot of flex in my foot. When I pick up my foot after being flat on the floor, it flexes and crunches the neuroma. Well, it used to...the neuroma is not there anymore so I shouldn't have a problem anymore.

I'll continue the story of the surgery and the recovery another day.

Off of my feet and knitting

2010-09-18T19:07:00.000-07:00

I had foot surgery earlier in the week for a Morton's neuroma. It's a painful growth of nerve tissue that often occurs between the 3rd and 4th toes. I tried wider shoes, then orthotics, but it was not going to go away on its own and my options were cortisone shots, which wear off, or surgery.

Since I had to sit with my foot up, it was a perfect opportunity to knit. Yay for knitting! Last month in my knitting guild group I learned how to do the Norwegian purl, which is a continental style of purl stitch, and I really liked it. When I learned to knit I learned left-handed English style but I've been wanting to change to left-handed continental style. Now seemed like a perfect time to do it. I decided the perfect project for this was some ribbed hats for my "Hats for the Homeless" project.

Last year I asked some knitting friends to help me make some simple hats that I could send to the Southwest Chicago PADS organization, which my in-laws are involved with. I chose the Pro Bono hat by Angelina Fagan (instructions are here) because it's a simple 2x2 rib and it uses thick yarn so it knits up quickly. Last year I made and collected about 15 or so hats and this year I hope to make and collect more.

This week I knitted up two hats and am almost finished with a third. The pattern turned out to be a perfect project for learning a new way of knitting because I was able to practice both knit and purl in continental. I used some worsted weight yarn (doubled) that my in-laws sent me. I'm not sure where they got it but it was probably from an estate sale, thrift shop or was destined for the trash. I suspect it was someone's old fair isle project since there were numerous hanks of wool in 5-6 different colors. Judging from the tags on some of the skeins, I think the yarn was from the 70's. No bugs on it, but I had to wash some of it and some had to be discarded due to staining that wouldn't wash out. But I'm glad I was able to salvage it and repurpose it for these hats.

Now we landscape

2010-08-20T00:05:00.000-07:00

Now that the inside is finished (I know, I promised pictures), we can move to fixing up the outside. Our landscape "plan" was evolutionary over the 12 1/2 years we've lived in this house. Some things worked, some did not. Many of the things that worked became overgrown. I learned the hard way to NEVER use Roundup on the dandelions in your yard - it looked like a dog visited and peed in selective spots. Then during the bathroom renovations the tile guys set up shop on the front lawn and it just went downhill from there. Oh yeah, one last blow...Mr. Gopher came to visit. But thanks to a hardworking landscaping crew, our yard will be transformed and our neighbor two doors down will no longer feel compelled to share "helpful" gardening hints when he's out walking his dog (he paid big bucks to have his front lawn redone).

Anyway, here are some pictures of the work in progress:

Big yard waste pickup next week.

The landscapers were really good. They removed all the weeds but left the good plants that were buried beneath them. These are Gerbera daisies (my favorite flower).

More evidence of the thorough weeding. They left all the good plants, even reducing the overgrown Agapanthus to a more normal size.

Some transplanted Agapanthus in a new location. This is some of the new irrigation line. In the past we used the black drip line most DIYers use because that's what they sell in the big box DIY stores. But it didn't work all that well and we killed a lot of plants as a result. Plus every year we had to fix "geysers" when the pieces broke due to being trampled on or becoming brittle due to the exposure to the sun. Hopefully we'll be able to keep things alive with this system, which is a simple soaker line.

Here's how it will work around the trees. This section of the yard will be mulched.

The backyard is getting some improvement as well. We laid this brick patio years ago but the edge bricks were not secured in concrete and they soon began to tilt. I'm happy we're getting this fixed because I always felt like I was going to tumble into the pond.

Back from NZ

2010-08-09T12:56:00.000-07:00

I went to New Zealand last month for about 10 days. It was a fun trip despite it being winter there right now, which meant cold, rain, wind, and a late sunrise and early sunset. It wasn't the first time I've visited there and hopefully it won't be the last. Fortunately the nasty weather let up and we had some beautiful days.

We started the trip in Wellington, where my husband had been working for a month. This was the view out the hotel room.

We rented a car in Wellington and drove north to Napier, on the eastern shore of the north island. Napier was demolished in a magnitude 7.8 earthquake in 1931 and the town was rebuilt in the art deco style.

Earthquakes and volcanoes tend to go together and New Zealand has both. From Napier we drove inland to the town of Taupo, which is on a huge lake created from one of the world's most violent volcanic eruptions. Fortunately for humans, it happened about 26,500 years ago. Just north of Taupo are some geothermal areas. Credit for this photo goes to my husband.

We ended our journey in Auckland. We took advantage of a beautiful, sunny day to take the ferry over to Devonport, which is where this photo of the Auckland skyline was captured.

New Zealand is of course known for sheep. According to this website there are 12 sheep for every person in New Zealand. So of course I shopped for yarn. I even prepared a list of all the stores to stop at along our route. But just because they have sheep doesn't mean it's a knitter's paradise. Wool production is big business so most of the wool is exported, but there are some NZ made yarns. The real attraction of these NZ yarns is that many are blended with possum. These possum are not the bald possums we have in the US. NZ possums have soft fur, which is used for clothing and accessories because they are non-natural pests that don't belong and kill native birds.

So I helped the New Zealand economy and helped alleviate them of some possum...although not directly off of a roadkill or trapped possum. The clerk in one knitting store described to us in detail how she baits and traps possum in her yard and often gets up in the middle of the night to get the fur once the animal is caught because she said you only have about 4 hours to do so. Nice. I would have loved to have acquired some possum fur for spinning (it must be mixed with other fiber though) but I never came across any for sale. I couldn't even find any wool roving except for a store display, which prompted a pet of course. I did find plenty of merino/possum blend yarn though, which was much easier to get through customs anyway.

I also did a bit of fabric shopping while I was there as well. Within a few hours of arriving, (and after a nice shower and change of clothes) I found myself in Arthur Toye Fabrics in downtown Wellington. I didn't even have this fabric store on my list and literally stumbled across it. Lucky me, they were having a 50% off sale in anticipation of a short move across town. I found two must-have additions to my stash: a beautifully textured cotton/wool plaid and a luscious high end polyester. I hugged my package of fabric tight as I struggled through the horizontal rain and gale-force winds. Welcome to Wellington in winter! Later I picked up a nice piece of cotton/nylon fabric at Fabryx in Taupo. Also in Taupo I bought a selection of fat quarters at Clever Hands, all with a New Zealand theme. Here's the entire haul:

Here I am in Devonport. Note what is behind my right shoulder and part of the reason I'm smiling. The other part is of course that I'm looking at my wonderful husband who was so patient and accommodating of my mission to seek out the yarn and fabric stores on our vacation...and buy more yarn and fabric for my stash.

There definitely are knitters in Devonport. We spied these two works of knitting graffiti:

I'll try to post more pictures and maybe a video or two, mostly of sheep out the window of the car as we drove.

Magazine overload

2010-07-15T15:06:00.000-07:00

I have to do something difficult. No, I'm not getting rid of these Threads magazines (yet), but I am going to let my renewal pass by. It's not that I don't enjoy the magazine because I do. I just don't have room to keep collecting them, and frankly, I don't have time to thoroughly read them either. When the magazine arrives I flip through it and I see the helpful articles on sewing techniques, but I don't read them. I expect that I will someday go back to these magazines when I need sewing help and on a few occasions I have. But I'm also just as likely to reach for one of the many sewing books I own. Tauton Press put out a Threads DVD archive, which I bought, and perhaps they'll continue to make DVDs on a yearly or multi-year basis. With e-books and iPads and the like, maybe we're heading toward paperless books and magazines as the norm. Could be interesting. I'm not ready to find a new home for all of my old Threads issues or toss them in the recycle bin so in the meantime they take up room. And that's mainly the reason why I need to stop the flow of magazines coming into the house. It's not just Threads that I collect. All these magazines are starting to overwhelm me.

These are some of the knitting magazines, which I no longer subscribe to. If there's a magazine for sewing, knitting, spinning, weaving, machine embroidery...I probably have at least one copy. Often I just buy the single copies but I've had subscriptions to many of them. Then there are the foreign magazines and don't even get me started on the pattern magazines. My bookshelf is stuffed with ten years of Burda plus a smattering of Diana Couture, Elena Couture, La Mia Boutique, Patrones, Knipmode...

I also have a large collection of Martha Stewart Living magazines, which is boxed up because I don't have the bookshelf space. That's another magazine I stopped subscribing to.

So my magazine subscription is now down to only two: Burda and Elle. I might stop Elle in favor of a different fashion magazine. I like to mix it up and try different ones. At least I don't hold on to the fashion mags - I tear out pictures that interest me and put them into a inspiration book...when I get around to it.

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We have four cats in our house but only one of them seems to make the blog on a regular basis: Felix. Today he took advantage of an open pantry and foraged for his own food. Apparently it's much more fun and interesting to tear into the bag instead of just eating the very same food out of his bowl. He works hard for that food too - meowing, rubbing, reaching up to the counter...but I guess it's better straight out of the bag.

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And finally...

The deck is about 95% done - just a few steps left and some sealing and then it'll be ready to enjoy.

Shower cat

2010-07-09T10:17:00.000-07:00

Felix decided to take a bath in the shower.

He likes to roll around and show off his white belly. Action shot!

Taking a break during his manic "wash-fest"

And in other news...the deck is coming along:

Fabric delivery

2010-07-08T12:04:00.000-07:00

It's been 3 years since my last fabric.com purchase.

You can read that statement as if I were in a fabric-aholic meeting (if there was such a thing!) or as a confession, even though I'm not Catholic. Between 1999 and 2003 I had what I would consider to be an addiction to online fabric buying. Boxes from fabric.com arrived almost monthly, sometimes more often. Fabric.com has a record of my orders and apparently October 2002 was a good month for them as I placed 6 orders. Oh my. I started buying from them when they were Phoenix Textiles and I was enticed by their super cheap fabrics to practice my sewing. They were $1.99 or maybe even $.99. If I remember correctly, nothing was over $4/yard (and it was actually 39 inches) in those early years. According to my account at fabric.com, my first order was in September 1999 but it's so old they don't list what I bought. The order number then was only 4 digits - they're up to 7 digits now. I do remember that the fabric I received was nice, too nice I thought, for practice sewing. I bought more. And more. And more. I have sewn some of it and some of it has left the house in one way or another through trades with sewing friends or gifted to my sister. Most of it is stored away in plastic bins along with fabric from EmmaOneSock, Denver Fabrics, Textile Fabrics, Gorgeous Fabrics, Fabric Club, and a few more. Not to mention fabric bought in "brick and mortar" stores. And then there's the travel fabric. Oh my.

I love fabric. I love the texture, the color, even the smell. I enjoy imagining what I would do with the fabric. The problem is that lately I've only done the dreaming part. Knowing that I possess more fabric than I can possibly sew, I have curtailed my fabric shopping to almost nothing over the last few years. I allowed myself to buy fabric on vacations as a sort of souvenir, and of course I couldn't pass up fabric shopping in New York City. Lately I've been making home dec fabric purchases since we need curtains and pillows and such for the rooms that we've redone. And one of those rooms, my sewing room #2, as I call it, is close to finished. All that remains is to finish moving stuff back in, organize...and make some window treatments, pillows, and bedding with the fabric I bought.

I guess buying the home dec fabric was like an alcoholic taking a sip after years of sobriety. I fell off the wagon. The cat is out of the bag. I stopped ignoring the emails from fabric.com.

So 11 years after my first fabric.com purchase, I've again experienced the little flutter of happiness upon receiving a big box of fabric.

Well, not much fabric actually. The pillows required the box to be large. The chenille and cording is for a pillow. The rocket fabric is for me, for a kitchy shirt to wear when I work on satellite launches.

But it is a slippery slope. After making that online purchase I have "sinned" again. I happened to be at Joann's to buy a curtain rod and I couldn't resist two pieces of sale fabric. And I've been looking at other online fabric sites and dreaming about the fabric and what I can make with it. Hopefully I will find the restraint because I already have a lot of wonderful fabric that should be used and not packed away in plastic bins.

But I really did enjoy the thrill of new fabric!

Tour de Fleece

2010-07-05T13:45:00.000-07:00

Some of my spinning friends have joined a challenge to spin during the Tour de France. I thought I'd give it a go for a little bit; however, I can't spin and watch the race, so I don't think I'll be doing to much tour de fleece. But here's a look at what I'm working on:

Here's a look at some of the plied result:

Reveal #1, without furniture

2010-06-27T18:39:00.000-07:00

The guest room is finished. It's empty and ready for furniture...and stuff. I thought I'd take some pictures before it gets filled up.

But first, a "before" picture. However, I didn't take one before the demolition and I couldn't find any good photos of the room before we redid it. The best one I could come up with was one I took of a purse and skirt I made...with a bonus action shot of Felix about to jump up on top of a cabinet. There's not much to say about it really. The room was mint-green and had one window. And it had wood floors, but they were in pretty bad shape and there was water damage in the middle of the room (waterbed?).

We changed the window to French doors and added a window on the right wall. The paint color is a light purple-gray - Lowes Olympic paint "Bad Lands", to be specific. My husband refinished floors. We also added the ceiling light and added and moved some wall outlets. Ok, to be clear, the contractor did the electrical and put in the door and window and we had a drywall guy redo the walls. Although we're capable of doing the work, we just don't have the time anymore. I did get out the drywall mud and patch the inside of the closet though! I'm pretty good with the hawk (it's a flat surface with a handle that you use for holding the mud while you use a putty knife to apply it). And I also painted.

I designed the closet shelves and our contractor built them. I included a pull-out ironing board, which was expensive, but worth it I think. The closet doors are 3 sliding doors. The outermost one, which is visible here, will eventually have a tack-board mounted on it.

Here's a view of the closet doors closed. Two of the doors have mirrors on them.

Since I'm showing pictures, I should also show off the hall bathroom, which we also redid. This is actually the second re-do, although the first was only partial. About 10 years ago (wow, has it been that long?) we painted and changed out the vanity, sink and mirror. At the time I was into a beachy look so we painted the walls a sea-green and I added a little bit of decorative fish. Here is the before:

We didn't redo the bathtub at that time, which was a one-piece vinyl surround.

And here's how it looks now! The entire room was gutted and we had a skylight put in. I designed everything, from the tile layout to the vanity, which our contractor made for us out of walnut.

Here's a closeup of the vanity...and yes, there is a knob missing. Actually three knobs are missing. Some of them were damaged and I had to reorder and just haven't gotten around to putting them on. Originally we were going to have a Caesarstone counter but the walnut was so beautiful I didn't want to cover it up.

The bathtub is an airjet and it makes lots of bubbles.

I should also share photos of the master bedroom and bathroom, which have long been finished but I'll save that for another time.

Fabric is bought...now I have to sew it

2010-06-22T00:19:00.000-07:00

I bought all the fabric for the bedroom along with some ribbon and trims to use on pillows. However, when I had the purple leaf print and lilac stripe fabric in the cart, the fabrics felt a bit too young. I also decided that the stripe fabric might look like I hung a sheet on the wall, so I browsed the store for a different fabric for the window curtain. I ended up going back to a fabric that I'd seen before but wasn't quite sure of. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of it because it was on clearance and no longer on the Hancock website. It's from their Kathy Ireland collection. Yes, I could take a picture, but it's late and dark - i.e., flash picture only...anyway it's not very complicated to describe. It's purple and green large scale plaid - I think it's called window pane? There a little touch of gold thread in it too. Oh, and it's fairly sheer. I'm hoping it will make the room a little more sophisticated looking. I also found a deeper purple fabric for the other side of the duvet cover and maybe a pillow or accent on a pillow. I bought extra of the striped fabric for the bed skirt - I'll still use the striped fabric on the design board.

Duvet covers take a lot of fabric! I found this handy yardage calculation in the book Sandra Betzina Sews for Your Home:

A = width of comforter + 3 inches
B = length of comforter + 3 inches
C = width of fabric - 4 inches
D = repeat of fabric
E = B+D
F = A/C (round up - this tells you how many widths of fabric you have to use)
G = E x F

And finally, G/36 = number of yards to buy for one side of the duvet.

One side. I emphasize that because I calculated I needed about 6 yards of fabric (oh yeah, add 1/2 yard if the fabric will shrink) for that one side and this is for a twin size bed! No wonder we're not all making our duvet covers unless we make them out of sheets bought on clearance. Even with my coupon for 40% off one cut of fabric, I decided to not make the cover entirely out of the $9/yard cotton fabric. Besides, there wasn't enough on the bolt (I think a new bolt only has 10 yards anyway). I found a perfectly lovely deep purple ($3.99/yard) cotton blend to use for the other side of the cover but it's such a nice shade that I think it won't be the underside all of the time.

The guy cutting my fabric complimented me on my coordination of fabrics. He envied my sewing room plans and I got advice from him on how to rig up the roman shades on the French doors. All in all it was a very successful shopping trip.

Home dec fabric shopping in my future

2010-06-20T23:48:00.000-07:00

Wow, where has the time gone? My last post was over a month ago.

The guest room/sewing room #2 is almost done. I know I said that last month, but now it really is. I just have to paint the trim on the window frame and touch up the trim elsewhere in the room, then I can move furniture back in. And there will be pictures.

I've been shopping for fabric to make the window treatments and other stuff. The walls are a light purple/gray color and after looking at a few online sources as well as some brick and mortar stores, I'd given up finding home dec fabric with purple in it that didn't contain grapes or hyacinths. I didn't want a floral because I didn't want the room to be overly girly. Ideally I wanted something modern, a la Merimekko, and was even (sort of) willing to pay the bucks for it. But I couldn't find anything that really fit the mood or the scale. They have some fabulous prints if you have a large space to carry it.

I found the perfect fabrics nearly in my own backyard. No, not my existing, vast fabric stash currently housed in the cargo trailer in our driveway (no, the trailer is not full of my fabric even though my husband jokes that it is). I found the fabrics at the Hancock Fabric store about a mile away. I have made all my calculations and think I know the right amounts to purchase so I'm going to do that this week while the sales are on and the fabric is on the shelf. But fortunately it's also online so I have a backup.

For the roman shades on the French doors:

For the curtain for the window and as the covering for my design board (mounted on one of the closet doors):

For the duvet cover:

I plan to use some of the houndstooth and the stripe for neckroll pillows for the bed and also maybe introduce some yellow as an accent color in the pillows. I'm looking for a darker purple to use for the bedskirt and maybe I'll incorporate that into the pillows and/or duvet as well.

I flipped when I found that leaf pattern fabric because I have found so little with purple in it that wasn't (overly) floral or juvenile. It's a cotton fabric and it didn't really sit well with me for the shades, curtain or design board cover but I think it will be perfect for a duvet cover.

I really hope I can make these items. I don't doubt my abilities to sew them, but it's my motivation to do home dec that is lacking. I hate working with large volumes of fabric. But I am inspired by my choices, so I will just have to set my mind to it and just do it.

Measuring tape fix

2010-05-13T00:30:00.000-07:00

I stopped by Daiso at lunch today because who can resist a little bit of cute overload at the Japanese dollar (actually $1.50) store? Check out this little bear measuring tape:

And it is "convenient for the sewing and the body check." Perfect! Now I can do a body check. (click the picture to see it larger, if you can't read the expression at the top).

Since the "Bear's faced measuring tape" is metric I thought I'd keep it in my knitting bag for those times when I'm working on non-US patterns. But in the process of opening the package, which was maybe a little too easy to open compared to the indestructible rhino-proof plastic shells most things are packaged in these days. The measuring tape slipped out of my hands onto the wood floor and...

AAAAAAARGH!!!!!!

Actually the picture doesn't make it look as crazy as it was. Everything scooted under the coffee table, and I tried to find all the parts without knowing what parts I needed to find. The coil had completely "sprung" but I rolled it up and held it together with a clothespin until I could figure out what to do. Miraculously I found everything, including a little tiny spring. Now most people would throw the whole mess in the trash. After all, it was from the ~~dollar~~ $1.50 store. But not me. I'm an engineer. And I'm cheap and don't like to put stuff in landfills, so I fix things. But I didn't have a clue what went where or even how retractable measuring tapes worked. I searched online but found the same answer: throw it away and buy a new one.

So I had a glass of wine to ease my disappointment over the demise of my bear measuring tape and decide if I wanted to accept the challenge of fixing it. Of course I did. I love a mechanical challenge.

I'm going to share my discoveries in case you want to fix your retractable measuring tape instead of chucking it in the trash, because I suspect these little plastic ones have pretty much the same internal design. I figured it couldn't be too complex given that it was so inexpensive. I also figured that every notch and hole and piece of plastic served a purpose. I just had to figure out what went where. The only thing that was partially intact after the crash was the tape; it was still mostly wound around the outside of the black wheel, so that meant the coil had to go on the inside.

I was almost correct in the above picture. It turned out I had the assembly upside down but in this view, you can see how one end of the coil fits into the notched, plastic center post. There are four notches cut into the sides of the plastic wheel: the looped end of the tape slips onto the two notches that are closest together and the other end of the coil is secured in the other two notches. When the wheel is wound, the coil, being secured now at both ends, tightens and stores energy. I found that the way to get the tape onto the wheel was to wind the wheel so that the coil tightens and at the same time, guide the tape around the outside. But that's not all. When the coil is as tight as it will go, carefully undo the tape from the wheel but leave the looped end attached. Then you reverse the direction of the wheel (slowly!) and the tape will wind back onto the wheel in the opposite direction as the coil unwinds. When all of the tape is reeled in, the coil is no longer fully wound and ready to fly off. But when you pull the tape the coil winds up; release the tape and the coil reels in the tape again.

The next part was figuring out how the middle button (bear's nose) fit. The tiny spring in the center post was a key piece and made me realize I had everything upside down. It's correct in the above picture. See those plastic tabs in the inside of the wheel? Those are the "brakes" that are disengaged when the button is pressed. This is also why these type of measuring tapes go click-click-click when you don't depress the button.

So there you go. My little bear measuring tape is happy again and I solved a puzzle, saved a bit of plastic and metal from the dump, and best of all I have a cute tape measure for my knitting bag.

And if you're wondering, the bear measuring tapes also come in blue and yellow. I didn't see any other animals, just bears.

Sewing...in my head

2010-05-06T16:58:00.000-07:00

The guest room/sewing room #2 renovations continue. We painted last weekend (3 coats of primer and 2 coats of paint) but it turns out the guy doing the drywall wasn't quite finished. Ugh. Fortunately it's only affected one wall. We thought the window just needed trim but actually it needed drywall to finish the opening. So now there's a bit more primer and paint to do. Fortunately we have plenty of paint left over. The contractor is going to start working on the closet next week and either this weekend or next we'll get to the floors.

In the meantime I've been thinking about what I'll be sewing when the room is done and I can get both sewing room #1 and #2 back in order. Unfortunately it will be home dec. It's unfortunate because I am not very fond of home dec sewing. I hate wrestling with the large pieces of fabric. But since I can save so much money by doing it myself, I think I should do it. Originally I thought I would splurge and have someone make the Roman shades but I'm guessing that they'd cost around $400 or more. Am I right?

Here's the list, probably in order of priority:

Roman shades for French doors in guest room
Curtain for window in guest room
Window seat cushion for master bedroom
Duvet cover for daybed in guest room
Pillows for daybed
Pillows for window seat
Curtain for master bathroom window
Curtain for hallway bathroom window

I'm afraid I have to buy fabric for items 1, 2, 4, 5 and 8. Yup. I have to go fabric shopping. I really do wish I could use some of my stash but it's mostly full of wool, knit, and ITY jersey in 2-3 yards pieces. I do have some home dec fabric, some of which I purchased in Paris, of all places, but I don't think the colors will work since I bought those fabrics for a different room that was gold, brown, and green-toned. The walls of the guest room are grayish-purple. Had I gone with my second choice (and my husband's first choice) of green, then the fabrics would have worked. But I was feeling purple for this space...and I'm not repainting the walls. I should probably dig out the fabric just in case because it's been a long time since I've seen it and my memory of the colors might be different. And who knows, it might actually work. I'm always happily surprised when some orphaned piece of fabric in my stash matches perfectly with something else. Although I realize that's probably just a sign that I have way too much fabric.

I can see light at the end of the dusty tunnel

2010-04-30T16:03:00.000-07:00

We're making progress on the guest room/sewing room #2 renovations and I'm excited that I will soon be able to get back to sewing. The drywall will be finished today and this weekend I think we'll be priming the walls. It'll take a couple of coats since there's new drywall on the walls and the once textured ceiling has a couple coats of drywall mud on it now to make it smooth. I'm so glad we're hiring contractors for this work because we simply don't have the energy anymore to put in a full day's work and then work on house renovations in the evening. I also enjoy coming home and seeing the progress. It's like a surprise every day and they're doing a very nice job.

It's been at times stressful but loads of fun to design these renovations. I especially love that I've been able to customize things to fit not only our taste but how we use the space. Since this guest room is also used for my some of my sewing activities, I have been able to make some design details that will be very useful for me.

The room is a basic bedroom. It had one rectangular window, which was fairly high up on the wall and a closet with two heavy, mirrored sliding doors on it. The bed has a pop-up trundle bed underneath it. My cutting table sets up in the middle of the room and pretty much occupies all of the space, so I'm glad it folds up and can be wheeled away.

The major change to the room was replacing the window with outswing French doors. The doors lead out to a full view of two peach trees and to what will be a deck, which will wrap around the side of the house to the right where the new window is located. This new window is taller, with a casement window below and an awning window on top for ventilation. The view from the new window looks out on our side yard fence (covered with a Jasmine bush) and the neighbors well-kept back yard. And we can finally see the hills! This is the only south facing window of our house that is not blocked by the neighbor's house.

The pattern cabinet is a custom-made dream of mine. I used to have all of my patterns scattered throughout multiple cardboard and plastic organizer bins. Finally they will all be in one place. The cabinet replaces a much smaller bookshelf that was really a re-purposed small IKEA china cabinet. I will share pictures of the new pattern cabinet later when I do my big "reveal." The cabinet turned out a bit larger than I anticipated but it stores all of my patterns and has room for lots of sewing and knitting magazines. I also designed it with a pull-out shelf, which will be convenient for browsing the magazines or, as I've found, setting up my yarn swift and ball winder.

The other noticeable change is with the closet. The original closet had a standard clothing rod and some crooked wood storage shelves a previous owner put in. The new closet will have custom-built shelves, drawers and hanging areas and a pull-out ironing board. This ironing board is probably 20 times more expensive than your standard ironing board, but it'll be worth it. I had the contractor put in an outlet in the skinny wall space between the door and the closet so that it's handy to plug in the iron. Another custom change is with the closet doors, which will be triple doors on sliding tracks. Two doors will have mirrors on them and one will have a design board affixed to it. I plan to make the design board removable so I can change the fabric cover whenever I want to change the look.
There's still stuff to do like paint and refinishing the wood floors, and then I'll have the big task of organizing and putting things away. My first sewing project will probably be window coverings. The new doors and window let in a lot of light and although we bought them with super energy efficient glass, all that light will translate into extra heat too.

So there's an end in sight, and I am looking forward to it! It'll also be nice to finally be done (?) with the renovations inside the house, but I will have no excuse now for not cleaning things, especially dusting. The inside of the china cabinet is quite dusty from lots of floor refinishing and dry wall dust over the years, but as long as there was more to do....So I guess I'll be putting that on my to-do list now.

Places I've been

2010-04-05T11:48:00.000-07:00

visited 39 states (78%)

Create your own visited map of The United States

visited 15 countries(6.66%)

Create your own visited map of The World

Seeing these maps shows me all the places I hope to visit one day.

Like a jigsaw puzzle

2010-03-28T16:29:00.000-07:00

I made a small patio!

We bought the concrete stepping stones a while ago with the intention of making a small patio under a bench we have in the backyard. Like many projects, we had good intentions but other stuff stood in the way, like weeding under the bench just so that we could get to the point of being able to put down the stones. Here's what the area looked like before we hired three guys to save us from the weeds:

I'd like to get a few more of the concrete stepping stones and fill in some more area in the front of the patio but I'm too pooped to go out to the home improvement store to get more. It's a beautiful day today and just the right temperature but it was still hard work to make the area level and lay down the stones. I took frequent breaks and enjoyed the pretty blossoms in the yard.

The bees like the cherry blossoms too

The Wisteria is blooming and smells wonderful

I even let two of the cats out to have a romp. Felix loves to roll in the dirt.

I can tell I will be sore tomorrow from the digging and raking and lifting. I'm already feeling it, so I think I will finally try out that new air-jet tub we put in and have a soak.

Where have I seen this before?

2010-03-23T17:39:00.000-07:00

This looks a bit familiar, don't you think?

I'm in no way saying Indygo Junction stole my idea because I absolutely do NOT take any credit for the design of the pincushion I show in my tutorial. I copied that pincushion from one my mother made me in the 70's. I'm not sure where she got the idea from but I know she made them to sell at a craft fair to raise money for the Boy Scouts, I think. Anyway, if want to make a pincushion to hold the long thread spools, now you know where you can get a pattern...or how you can adapt the design to accomodate them. ;-)

Weed-be-gone

2010-03-23T09:21:00.000-07:00

The house projects continue. Work on the guest room/sewing room #2 will begin in a couple of weeks and we also took the first steps toward landscaping the yard.

On Friday the backyard looked like this:

And after two days and three guys we hired it now looks like this!

It's great to see the raised vegetable beds again and with everything cleared out we're inspired to put in new plants and flowers. Although I do like the very green "before" and the flowers were pretty, they were all weeds. Lots of weeds. The guys also weeded the front yard and removed two big juniper bushes, so they did a lot of work in two days! The next step is to put in large flat stones to mark the paths through the yard. There is no grass in the backyard, which is just fine in this climate where there is no rain at all from around May to October. The last window in the above picture is the window in the bedroom what we'll be replacing with French doors. After that work is completed next month we'll have a brick patio put in that wraps around the side of the house. And there's the front yard to work on too. Slowly but surely we're getting it done.

Itching to sew

2010-02-05T16:17:00.000-08:00

I haven't sewn in about a year, mostly due to the fact that my sewing area is buried under stuff that I had to move out of sewing room #2 during the house renovations so we could sleep in there. Too much stuff. Work on sewing room #2 will commence shortly...well, as soon as I move the remaining stuff out of sewing room #2. Until then I think about the day when I will return to the sewing machine.Where did all this stuff come from??? We watch Hoarders on A&E and I can honestly relate...to some of it.

I could clean up the sewing area, find some other place to stash the stuff, but I would have to clear a lot of things out of the way, and I simply don't have the energy or time right now. And I can't sew amidst chaos so I guess there will be no sewing for a while. I need to organize all of the pieces of the project, and I can only have one project in front of me. When I was in college, preparing for finals week was a project in itself. I would gather up the notes, books and other material and neatly organize and stack them for each class. Only then could I start studying. It's the same with sewing.

Last night I went shopping for a dress to wear for "formal night" on a 4-night cruise I'm going on later this month (it's actually for my work's annual meeting). I've never been on a cruise before so I don't know how formal to dress but I have been instructed to wear a cocktail dress, dressy pantsuit or gown. While shopping at Macys I couldn't help but think about all the dress patterns and fabric I have and how I could make a dress that fit so much better than the ones I was trying on. Nearly every dress was too tight in the hips and at the same time too big in the bust. Sigh. But I scored at Nordstrom Off the Rack. I found a simple, long, black knit dress and it was on sale and only $16. Unbelievable. It is sleeveless but the straps are wide enough to hide bra straps, and the top is the "twisty-top" style so it can fit bust sizes large or small. I plan to dress it up with jewelry and wear a cashmere lace shawl I knit. The other great thing is that the dress will take up very little room in my suitcase. I think it's a perfect dress to bring for only a few hours of formal dress-up time.

Thinking last night about the dresses I could sew really got me in the mood to get back to the sewing maching, but I guess not enough to find some place to put all that excess stuff. However I hope that it's enough to light a fire under me to get sewing room #2 cleared out so that the work can begin.

Knitterly news

2010-01-20T12:05:00.000-08:00

This post is a recap of the "dreaded" UFO (un-finished object). If you're like me you have one or two...or fourteen. Some are projects that aren't going to work out and rather than face this fact you stuff the annoying mess...and the discouragement...into a bag and shove it to the back of a closet or drawer. Out of sight, out of mind. Other projects are just stalled due to lack of interest or finish-itis. I suffer from the latter in a big way. For example, I love the act of knitting and sometimes the end result is not what I'm after. I have a few things that are just an hour's worth of work, if that, away from being finished and for some reason I just don't sit down and do it. The lure of a new project is sometimes just too great, especially if it's with yarn or fabric I just purchased.

About a year ago I took inventory of my knitting UFOs, so I thought I'd bring back the list of eleven items and see where I am with it and what new items I've added to the UFO list or actually finished.

1. White cotton sweater from Stitches magazine. FROGGED! It was my oldest. unfinished project and when I finally did finish the knitting I found that my gauge varied too much and couldn't be fixed with blocking. I didn't really like how it turned out anyway.

2. Liv - this was an Elsebeth Lavold pattern, knitted in Rowan cashsoft. It was going to come out too small. FROGGED!

3. Clapotis shawl - I blocked it sometime last year but still needed to weave in the ends, which I finally did last night. It only took me about 15 months to get around to it.

4. Felted bag out of Noro. I felted it at least but it still needs a lining and closure. NOT DONE

5. Cat bed that I knit and never felted. DONE!

6. Socks for my husband. These were my first attempt at toe-up socks. I almost made it to the heel but it's looking a bit narrow and I need to decide if it should be frogged or finished. UNCHANGED

7. Jaywalker socks. I ran out of yarn during the second sock so I frogged the toe of the first one, reknit it using a different but complementary yarn and used the frogged-yarn to finish the second sock up to its toe. The yarn I bought for the toes was a little thin so I doubled it, which made it a little too thick but better to have the toe too thick than too thin, I think. But the thicker yarn made the decreases really hard to work. I'm at the toe of the second sock and not looking forward to fighting with those decreases so the sock sits...unfinished. UNCHANGED

8. Blue t-shirt. This was a store pattern for a short sleeve sweater using two different Rowan yarns. I really liked the store display and it was a quick knit. I only have a few more rows to go and then the dreaded seaming to do. I stopped knitting it because summer ended...that would be summer of 2007...and because I'm afraid the sweater will look dumpy on me. UNCHANGED

9. Fingerless gloves. I had alpaca yarn left over from the Clapotis and thought it would make lovely and soft fingerless gloves. I started knitting some but the pattern didn't have a thumb, only a hole for the thumb, and I didn't know how to make one. So the gloves sat and my hands remained cold. UNCHANGED - but I knit and finished a different pair of fingerless gloves so my hands aren't cold now.

10. Capri sweater from Rowan magazine, knit in lime green Rowan Calmer yarn. I knit this in June 2008 while sitting on console monitoring a satellite that was just launched. I need to block it before I can pick up stitches for the front band. UNCHANGED

11. Lara - was a UFO on that list last year, but now it is FINISHED

Now for the new stuff:

12. Blue twisty top - I think I finished knitting all the pieces and it just needs to be blocked and seamed. And of course the ends need to be woven in.

13. Brown stripey socks - need the ends woven in. This goes into the category of may not work out so I'll just never finish it and put it aside instead. The socks are narrow and a bit snug. I know what you're thinking - frog them or finish them already!

14. Gray socks - I have a sock and a half completed. I put it aside so I could start a new project on the long flight to Japan. This has been my current knitting project but I messed up at the very end of the short row heel and think I need to frog the entire heel because I can't make the stitches work without leaving a hole where there isn't supposed to be one.

15. Multi-colored hat - the Japan project. I stopped it so I could start a new project on the long flight to France. Hmmm, there's a theme there. But I did finally finish it. It had a gazillion ends to weave in and I forced myself to stick with it and get 'em done. Yay.

16. The France project. Fingerless mitts in Rowan RYC Baby Alpaca. Soooooo soft. When I finished the first mitt, per the pattern instructions (Endpaper Mitts by Eunny Jang), I didn't like that the mitt went way up my arm. I wanted shorter mitts that were more at my wrist, so I ripped it almost all the way back and reknit it. This was after already ripping it back once because I didn't read the instructions correctly and made a mess of the pattern. But now they are done.

Of course I hope to finish the UFOs but in the meantime I have another 11 hour flight to France, which means another new project. I'm thinking of making an infinity scarf, which is just a scarf that is joined at the end and worn twisted around the neck. It should be pretty easy, no two-color knitting or intricate lace patterns.

One more year

2009-12-30T11:27:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year to review and reflect on the past year and look ahead to the next one.

Let's see how I did for 2009 and what I plan to do for 2010:

1. Blog more often - In 2008 I had 67 posts and in 2009 I posted about half that: 33 (counting this one). I didn't have any sewing content and only a little knitting content to talk about so most of my posts were about the renovations we did on the house and my travel. I am going to try to blog more about my textile projects next year, since that is the intent of this blog. There are some knitting projects in process that I should photograph and share, and I hope to get back to sewing and share those projects as well.

2. Lose weight. I should just take this one off the list! I actually did make an earnest attempt in October and lost two pounds (woohoo)...and then I quickly gained it back eating yummy food in France. At least I am eating a little healthier. Last summer we started getting a weekly delivery of a vegetable/fruit box, so now I'm eating more salads and greens and fruit than before. I do need to exercise though, which I will try to do next year.

3. Embrace my hobbies. Knitting, travel and photography (while traveling) were about the only hobbies I embraced. I guess home renovation is on the list too but in a different sense than it used to be. We used to do all of the work ourselves but now we don't have the time. But we do have the money so we put some of it into the local economy and hired a contractor to do the labor. I still did the design work, which is the part of renovation I like the most. I do hope to get back into sewing in 2010. My sewing area has been buried under a pile of stuff, mostly sewing related stuff, but it can't be put away until the renovations are complete. The bedroom where I set up my cutting table is next on the list for demo and redo so it's going to be a few months until I can sew again. I do have a custom-built pattern cabinet and bookshelf to show off, I just need to take the pictures and post them.

4. Think before I buy. I'm doing pretty well with this one and expect to continue next year. At the beginning of last year I did a major closet clean out, which was a good thing considering that we did a major closet redo as part of the renovations and everything had to come out anyway. I donated a lot of clothing and realized that much of it was barely worn. Some clothes no longer fit but even when they did fit I don't think I wore them enough to justify the purchase or a place in the closet. I decided that I needed to be more critical when buying (or making) clothes and I've been doing that. When I bought clothes for my new job I was very picky. It made it harder to shop but it was worth it. I also am very critical when I buy other stuff. More than a few times I found myself in a store, holding an item in my hand and really being honest with myself about why I wanted to buy it and if I was really going to use it or if I just wanted to buy something. Watching the show Hoarders on A&E also helps curtail the urge to buy more stuff. Believe me.

5. Find the good in my work. I have a job again and it is good. Sometimes I don't want to go to work, and I remember with a bit of nostalgia about the 3-4 months of unemployed "playtime" I enjoyed last year, but there really is good in my work. First, I'm fulfilling a critical need with my customer, which makes me feel very useful. Second, the retirement accounts are getting a nice boost. Third, the extra income let us renovate the house, travel to Japan, and enjoy life. As they say...money can't buy happiness, but it sure helps.

6. Nurture relationships. Same as last year - I think I did ok but can do better, especially with family. I call my mom every Sunday but don't talk much with my siblings. But I did call my sisters on Christmas Day and we had nice chats. (Hi D! Now that I know you follow my blog!)

I know 2009 has been a difficult year for many people, especially for those without jobs. I know we're fortunate but it wasn't just luck that got us here. Our parents valued education, which in my opinion is a solid foundation for so much in life. Also, my DH loves me but he also respects me, trusts me, and is a true partner and we have built a good life together. So on that happy note, I wish you all a great new year and hope you are all fortunate in your lives!

Home again

2009-12-14T08:50:00.000-08:00

Felix insists that I not leave again.

Travel photos

2009-12-07T13:59:00.001-08:00

Deux

I've posted a bunch of photos over at flickr. I went to Nice on Sunday and Genoa on Saturday (those pictures will be posted soon). I took lots of photos but these are some of my favorites. Enjoy.

Click here to go to my flickr page.

Still no sunny pictures from Cannes to share

2009-12-03T13:07:00.000-08:00

We had two sunny days this week but I spent them inside learning about satellite stuff and by the time we were through for the day, it was dark. Today it rained but the forecast for "le weekend" is partly cloudy. So maybe I'll have more cloudy pictures of Cannes, and perhaps Nice, to share.

My sore throat turned into a cold. Bleh. I'm sniffling and snuffling and taking cold medicine with the instructions in French. I can understand enough French to determine how much to take and when and that it's ok for me to take it because I'm older than 15.

Apparently the stuff works because I had renewed energy this evening and decided to go out, even in the rainy weather. I went to the Monoprix to look for sewing pattern magazines but they only had Burda and one rather dog-earred Fait Main, which I decided wasn't worth the 5.5 euros (about $8.30). I did pick up a superb Burda special knitting issue on socks. I briefly looked at it in the store but now that I've flipped through every page I think it was definitely 6 euro well spent. It's a bargain for what you get. These are not simple socks.

The magazine has instructions for 30 socks, representative of 20 different European countries. Each one is quite intricate and gorgeous and I want to make all of them. Well, except for the tacky one with the Eiffel Tower intrasia! Yes, the instructions are in French, but they all have charts and I have a knitting instruction book in French, so I think I can figure it out.

To my knitting friends out there, let me know if you want me to see if I can pick up another copy. I can't promise, since I bought the only copy at Monoprix and I only have this weekend and one Saturday to shop. And remember, the magazine is entirely in French. But let me know if you want me to try.

Some good, some bad

2009-11-30T09:09:00.000-08:00

Part of this post has knitting content and well, some of it does not.

I'll start with the very good - I'm in the French Riviera and I didn't pay to fly over here.

Ok, now the bad. I lost two sets of double points and a sock knitting holder (the needles were inside the tube) on the airplane, I had to rip back all of the patterned part of the mitts because of a very bad error that could not be fixed, it's raining and chilly, I woke up a 3 am with a sore throat and could not go back to sleep.

But there is some good. Work is going ok, I have free internet in the hotel room, the hotel room is big...a little shabby, but I really can't complain, I'm in France!, I found replacement double points to knit the cuffs of the mitts, so I can at least finish them.

My throat still hurts so I went out to the pharmacy to get some throat drops. Here in France the pharmacist dispenses assistance and an appropriate remedy. So I practiced what to say in French: J'ai mal à la gorge...but didn't use it. I walked in and there was a basket of "Vicks" throat lozenges packages. Perhaps not as potent as what the pharmacist could give me but hopefully they'll help. Since I have a few medicinal allergies I didn't want to risk taking something that might cause me a rash...or worse.

Since I was already out in the chilly air - and the rain has let up for now - I thought I'd see about replacing my knitting needles. I passed a rather pricey looking knitting shop yesterday and although I was sure the needles would be way overpriced (this IS Cannes and the shop looked like it catered to the elite), I decided to try it anyway. I again practiced what to say and brought along one of my remaining needles to show them what I was talking about. But the shop is closed on Monday. Oh well. Not wanting to give up just yet, I tried the Monoprix - a lower priced department and grocery store. Score! They had a section called "Le Weekend" with shelves of mostly acrylic blend yarn, a small selection of essential sewing supplies and a few pairs of knitting needles. But I guess something went right for me today because one of the pairs was 2.5 mm double point...almost exactly what I needed. I say "almost" because bamboo would have been preferable over the metal but they'll do just fine, thank you. And I didn't pay an exhorbitant amount for them either. Woot!

Now if I could get over this sore throat and escape without a cold or flu (had my flu shot, but not H1N1).

I give you knitting!

2009-11-29T07:37:00.000-08:00

I know I've been lax in posting any knitting or sewing content on this blog. Despite home renovations and jetting off to Japan, I have been knitting. (The sewing is on hold until the renovations are done and I can get my sewing area straightened up.) I may be knitting but it seems I'm not finishing much. I did finish one project - a baby cardigan and hat for a friend of mine. It helps to have a deadline.

The cardigan is knit out of one skein of Plymouth Italia Fingerpaints (discontinued) with the cuffs and collar out of Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride bulky. I used the remaining Brown Sheep for the hat. The pattern for the cardigan is "Toddler Cardigan" by Hope Blazer and Joanne Turcotte, and I used "New Directions Hat" by Margaret K. K. Radcliffe for the hat.

I started a new knitting project yesterday on the 10 hour flight from San Francisco to Paris and then the 1.5 hour flight fron Paris to Nice. Yes - I'm traveling again! But it's not a vacation. I'm in Cannes for work for two weeks. The new knitting project is the "Endpaper Mitts" by Euny Jang:

And I'll leave you with a not so "soleil" Cannes beach:

Happy Veterans Day

2009-11-11T12:11:00.000-08:00

This was many moons ago! I wasn't a pilot but I was in the Air Force and initially I planned to be a pilot. This photo was taken when I was an ROTC cadet, during my 4-week summer training. We all got 1/2 hour rides in the T-37. The pilot let me take control for a bit and he coached me through an aileron roll. Quite fun!

Pictures from Japan

2009-09-15T06:27:00.000-07:00

We visited the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology in Nagoya. Toyota started out making spinning and weaving machinery before they made cars. I have lots more photos of the spinning and weaving. This photo shows one of the more modern looms.

Some early woven cloth for yukata (a cotton robe as opposed to the silk kimono)

The Itsukushima Shrine in Miyajima (near Hiroshima)

Statue outside the Nagoya station

More to come...

Far from home

2009-09-10T04:06:00.000-07:00

I'm in Japan!

And it's true that the young women there wear some interesting clothes.

This emperor has GREAT clothes

2009-09-03T13:17:00.000-07:00

Valentino the Last Emperor is a film that came out last spring. It had limited showing in selected cities and alas, I missed seeing it. But on Sept 8 it comes out on DVD and Blu-ray (gotta get one of those players)! The movie is a behind-the-scenes look at the world of Haute Couture. Valentino Garavani is of course the star, but the film also goes into his relationship with his long time business partner, Giancarlo Giammetti, and follows the last two years of their 50-year career.

Oooh and there's a contest to win an actual Valentino gown. It's red and it's fabulous.

More monkeying around

2009-08-13T15:51:00.000-07:00

Knit Picks has a new sock monkey knitting kit to go along with their earlier monkey kit (which is no longer available):

Yes I bought it and no I haven't even started the first one. I'm a knitter (and sewer) with stashes. What did you expect? But I am almost finished this short sleeved twisty sweater from Sublime:

I may not be sewing right now (still don't have the sewing room(s) back in order) but I am knitting.

We're going to Japan!

2009-08-06T12:33:00.001-07:00

Nancy, Alison, and Rose were right!

Where in the world?

2009-08-04T10:39:00.001-07:00

We have our airline tickets for a 2-week trip next month! Yippee! So where are we going?

we've never been there before
it's an 11 hour, nonstop flight from San Francisco
we'll be lost and unable to translate any street signs unless they're in English
as much as we like to not stand out as tourists when we travel, it will be nearly impossible to do so
I will probably come home with fabric...likely to be silk
I will probably come home with some sewing notions that I can't buy here at home
we will likely eat fish for many of the meals
the train will be a fast (very fast) form of transportation
it's likely to be very warm this time of year

So where do you think it is?

Mad for Mad Men

2009-07-21T13:59:00.000-07:00

Mad Men fever abounds! The hit show has 16 Emmy nominations and Season 3 starts August 16.

InStyle magazine has an "inside" look into the fashions of three of the female stars. I like Peggy's outfit...and especially her tiny waist highlighted even more by the belt. But I can only imagine the undergarments (and dieting) required to get that look. Can she breathe?

If you want to copy the Mad Men look, Banana Republic has a Mad Men Style Guide to go along with the "Casting Call" contest run by AMC. So far I have to say that most of the entries in the contest look like head shots of professional 21st century actors - many didn't even dress the part.

Blackberry Jam

2009-06-16T22:55:00.000-07:00

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Flew the coop

2009-06-12T20:18:00.000-07:00

Oh well. I returned home this evening and found that Ms. Mourning Dove and her eggs are gone. Again. I read that it's not uncommon for Mourning Doves to abandon their nests. Still it makes me sad. I was hoping to see little Mourning Dove chicks. I really hope she chooses a more secluded location for her nest next time.

Location, location, location

2009-06-12T10:27:00.000-07:00

A Mourning Dove has taken over a hanging planter on our patio and used it for her nest, but I don't think she knew she'd have an audience of cats (we have four). Thankfully for her there's glass separating the cats from her and her nest.

Even though I know the male takes over for stretches of the incubating period, I'll just refer to the bird as "her." It's hard not to startle her since she's so close to the house and we need to move about the patio to tend to the pond and take out the compost. She pretty much stays quietly sitting on the two little white eggs, peering out with tiny black eyes. Last weekend I forgot about our feathered visitor and took my laptop out to the patio to do some work. She was stayed motionless in her nest while I worked at the table (off to the right in the above picture) but when my husband came around the side of the house to talk to me, we both forgot about her and eventually she lost her nerve and flew off. I am concerned for her eggs because she didn't return for half an hour. But she's back. I took the above picture this morning and she (or he) is there in the white pot on the left, pretty well hidden among the chives.

This is likely her second attempt this season. A Mourning Dove laid two eggs last month but one day both the doves and the eggs vanished. Since we never saw any babies nor was there any evidence that anything hatched, I'm afraid the eggs became breakfast for a squirrel.

The renovations on our own "nest" continue. Our contractor built us a window seat and bookshelves for the bedroom and installed them yesterday. I am really pleased with them. I'm also glad I made the last minute decision to lower the window seat height from the height of the window sill to 19 inches. There is some finishing work to be done, like trim and paint (white) and installation of the shelves, but here's a photo of the progress:

How we spent last weekend

2009-06-11T12:39:00.001-07:00

Refinishing your own floors isn't that hard to do, it's just tedious. You need to rent a floor sander and use a hand sander for the edges. Ear protection is a must as the sanders are very noisy. You should also wear a respirator or at the very least a mask because the wood dust is very fine. We rented the floor sander from the hardware store (Orchard Supply, or "OSH" for those of you in northern California). In the past we've rented floor sanders from that "orange" big box home improvement center and found them to be pretty beat up. Plus, the last time we rented one from them we saw they'd removed the skirt at the bottom that helps keep the dust contained (all of the sanders had it removed, why we don't know). Without that skirt there was A LOT of wood dust. I had to constantly use the shop vac while my husband ran the sander. The sander we rented from OSH is an orbital sander from Varathane and it works pretty well to sand and vacuum at the same time. It's really easy to push and you just have to move it around the floor...back and forth, back and forth. It takes a while and uses up lots of heavy grit sandpaper to get through the tough varnish, especially the oil-based stuff they used in the late 60's when our house was built. But eventually you can switch to a finer grit sandpaper and then finish it off with the finest grit. The next step is staining and varnishing. We use water-based polyurethane and put on about 4-5 coats.

Monkey business!

2009-05-15T10:40:00.000-07:00

By the time I saw the knitpicks.com catalog with the first Mr. Foster monkey kit, they'd already sold out. Boo hoo! But yesterday I received an email that the new Mr. Foster monkey kit is out, so I ordered it right away. He comes with patterns for a security officer suit, sailor suit, and doctor coat and scrubs. Cute!

Mysterious Mosaics

2009-05-13T12:12:00.001-07:00

The bathroom shower tile looks just fine and it's the picture that emphasizes the dark tiles and makes them appear very regular, especially when you look at low resolution, like on a computer screen. Weird.

Here's another picture of the tiles (now showing the completed wall) and you can probably see lots of zig-zags - or at least I can:

But click on the above picture to see a larger view (really large!) and the patterns made by the dark tiles are not as obvious. But trust me, in real life you have to work hard to see them.

Since neither I nor my husband was home to see the actual tile, we were relying on the cell phone picture of the tile. The message to fix the tile was routed through our contractor and then to the tile guy. When the tile guy looked at the tile, I'm sure he thought we were nuts, but he moved a few of the small tiles anyway. He asked his assistant to take a picture to send to the contractor but when the assistant prepared to take the picture he got a screwy look on his face as he looked from the camera to the tile and back again. Now they saw what we saw!

So mystery solved. The tile is just fine and we've all learned that pictures can lie, especially when it's a picture of glass mosaic tile!

Update on the house

2009-05-12T12:14:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of the bathroom shower and floor in various stages of tiling (they're cell phone pics, so pardon the quality and color):

Bathroom floor, looking in from the doorway:

Shower floor (those are temporary wood strips just above the strip of mosaic):

The shower as of this morning:

This one shows how wide the mosaic border is. The white tile will continue above the mosaics to the ceiling:

It's been a more labor intensive tiling job than the "tile guy" first thought. But he is doing an absolutely beautiful job. I'll probably be taking longer showers just to admire the tile. I am sure his other construction work is just as well done, so I highly recommend Dastrup Construction.

I finished writing this post and was about to publish it when I saw something in the above picture that made my heart just sink. Do you see it? The mosaic tiles above the inset shelf are not very random, in fact they are down right regular...in a ziggedy zaggedy way. I tried not to see it. I thought maybe I was just noticing it because of the lighting. Mosaic tile comes pre-arranged in sheets so it's not the tilers fault. They certainly didn't lay the individual tiles that way. Somehow the sheets, which are 12x12, must have come that way. But I knew it was speak now or forever live with the tile because tomorrow they're going to grout. The tile guys now see the issue and they're fixing it. Crisis averted.

The other projects are progressing. The bedroom drywall is up and after the tiling is finished, the drywaller will come back to tape, mud, and smooth out the joints. There are eight 4" diameter recessed lights in the ceiling (yay - light!) and the contractor repositioned electrical outlets so they are more accessible and added one more. The ceiling fan box is also wired. This is the fan we're thinking of getting. It will have maple blades and a brushed nickel housing:

(picture from Modern Fan Company)

The contractor is also building our custom bathroom vanity. It will be maple with brushed steel cylindrical feet and stainless steel drawer pulls. We're still mulling over the idea of a stainless vanity sink. But I hear from those who have stainless bathroom sinks that while they look great when clean, they dirty easily with toothpaste, water spots, and finger prints. A basic white sink hides a lot of those messes.

The front of the house (where this whole project first started) is also almost finished. The front doors are being stained and will be installed once the interior workmen are finished going in and out so we can minimize wear and tear on the new door.

So it looks like a few more weeks to go. I think we (as in me and the husband) will be refinishing the floors, putting in closet organizers, painting, and installing the light fixtures and ceiling fan. All things we've done before. We've also done tiling, drywall, and electrical ourselves but it's been good to pay someone else to do these things this time, especially after seeing how difficult the tiling is.

Hungry babies

2009-04-29T17:10:00.000-07:00

There is a pair of Peregrine falcons that nested atop the San Jose city hall. I've been watching them raise their 4 babies (eyasses), which were born on April 20-22, on the web cam installed by UC Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group. It's amazing to see such a huntress turn into a tender mama. The eyasses are growing quickly and yet she still tries to gather all four of them under her wings. I caught the afternoon feeding and snapped a screen print.

$1.95

2009-04-24T14:22:00.000-07:00

I have a weakness for 99 cent pattern sales. My ASG discount covered the 9.25% sales tax so for less than two bucks I have two new patterns. The first one has been on my "want" list for a while. Now if only I had the time and room to do some sewing!

McCalls 5661:

McCalls 5859:

A new window on the world

2009-04-23T22:20:00.001-07:00

The new bay window arrived this week and it was installed today. It has really opened up the view. The old window was about the size of the center window, which was still a good-size window but now it's even better. And it's made a larger place for the cats to sit. You can see that Felix already approves.

The plan is to build a window seat across the bottom width of the window with drawers in it for storage and there will be built-in bookshelves on either side.

And if you're wondering what the "polka dots" are, they're remnants of the glue that held on the wainscoting. Lots more work to be done!

Bathroom update

2009-04-20T17:13:00.001-07:00

I am an HGTV-junkie and I am most impressed by the beautiful drawings that some of the designers make to show their clients what their new rooms will look like. I particularly like the drawings Candice Olson does. I could not find an example of her sketches on the HGTV website (I assume she does them herself), but I so wish I could draw like that. Since I am the interior designer on this bathroom project (should I add that to my resume?), I found that I needed to sketch my ideas out for our contractor. In the past, when my husband and I did the work ourselves, I relied on his husband-ly telepathic abilities...which work so well as all wives know. Actually I would give him vague ideas of what I wanted and wave my arms around and gesture a lot. I talked of colors and textures and all he wanted to know was where the lights needed to be wired. Somehow the kitchen ended up exactly how I envisioned it. Perhaps he really does have telepathic abilities; however, I know our contractor does not so I actually dug out my sketch pad and colored pencils and made an attempt to provide a description of the tile layout to him and the guy who will be installing the tile (who I don't know but I doubt he's telepathic either). And now I will share it with all of you. I took a photo of my sketches, so they're not all that clear, but hopefully you'll get the idea.

Click to view larger...

The tile for both the floor and the shower floor is blue-gray with hints of brown. It's a porcelain tile from Italy (TC Textile) and it has texture to it, kind of like grass cloth. We'll be using large 13"x26" tile on the floor and small squares on the shower floor. We got the idea from the tile store. Here's a photo from their showroom mock-up:

The wall tile is an 8"x13" porcelain tile (Line Blanco) from Spain that is white with faint vertical brown streaks. The mosaic tile is from Mandala tile, Wavelength blend in the Rimini color, but the picture on their website doesn't really look like it does in real life. It goes really well with the two other tiles.

So it will be a modern bathroom, but not too far out. I know the last concept pictures I showed were of a more neutral bathroom with stone tiles but we decided to go with my original desire to incorporate glass mosaic tile. I think it will look great.

The skylight is in and it's fabulous to have afternoon sun in that part of the house. I want to put skylights all over the house now! All the electrical and plumbing is finished and the contractor planned to finish the shower and tape the drywall today. The bay window for the bedroom arrives on Wednesday so he'll shift gears to install that and finish the siding. The front door should arrive next week. I'll be getting my sketchpad out again to draw up my ideas for the bathroom vanity and the bookshelves/window seat that the contractor will be building for us. I kinda like being a designer.

What started out as a "simple" project to re-side the house...

2009-04-02T16:11:00.000-07:00

...has turned into a renovation of the master bathroom and bedroom too. We like the work our contractor did on the front of the house so we're having him move on to the two big projects we haven't gotten around to: the master bath and bedroom. It's been a long time coming. These were the only rooms that were "redone" by prior owners...sometime in the 70's judging by the style of the vanity, the color of the tile, and the wallpaper in both rooms. Unfortunately those renovations were very poorly done and we're only now finding out just how bad. We had an inkling because the crown molding was put in upside down. Unfortunately it's more than just cosmetic. There is water damage in the bathroom from a leaky shower pan. The shower pan and damaged wood were supposed to have been repaired as a result of the inspection when we bought the house. Come to find out that the work was incomplete and shoddily done and they just re-tiled over it and the shower pan has continued to leak...for the last 11 years.

I'm also happy that we're not doing the work. This time. We've done a lot of the work on our house ourselves and while I enjoy the accomplishment of DIY, it's a lot of work. I love the design process and I like understanding how everything fits together (like electrical and plumbing), but it is stressful because much of DIY is learned on the job, and I don't mean my 9-5 job. For that I first got an education and then had managers and peers to guide me. But even though someone else is doing the labor, I'm still providing the design input and I do enjoy that. I'll share with you what we're doing with the bathroom and I welcome any comments too!

Here is the bathroom layout, which I drew up in Visio because I love playing architect. (click to biggify)

We're not changing the layout except to expand the vanity, which was a 36" cabinet flanked by cat boxes on either side. We're incorporating space for one cat box in the new, custom-built cabinet. The new cabinet will have shelves built into one side but we'll temporarily remove the shelves and put the cat box in there. When it comes time to sell the house, out comes the cat box and in go the shelves to show off fluffy towels and a basket for storage. The other side of the cabinet will be drawers and the middle, where the sink is, will be doors. I know you might be wondering why we're not putting in double sinks. I think double sinks would take up too much cabinet storage and counter space and besides, the bathroom isn't really big enough for two people to use at the same time. Plus, the other bathroom is right next to the master bath.

The new vanity area will look a bit like the picture (shamelessly copied from the internet) below, but I don't think we'll have such a large mirror, there will be a light above the mirror as well as on either side, and the cabinet won't have doors on either end. But otherwise it is a good representation of the overall look.

Another major change is the shower. You can't tell from the drawing, but the wall between the shower and the toilet used to go to the ceiling and now it will be a half wall with glass above it. The old shower had sliding glass shower doors in the front which resulted in a too-small opening and also were hard to clean because they overlapped. The new shower door will look something like this:

The bathroom was always pretty dark, partly because of the big dividing wall and also because it only has a small window that looks out onto the narrow side yard and the house next door. We are installing a vented skylight in the ceiling and that should bring in lots more light. I was concerned about privacy because the house next door is two story while ours is a ranch, but it looks like the geometry of the skylight opening prevents a clear line of sight. Also, the skylight is only 22x22 inches.

We're also changing the door from one that swung into the bathroom (and got in the way) to a pocket door. Unfortunately the pocket door can't go on the other wall because the plumbing is being relocated to that wall. The wall to the right of the vanity will have to be built out some to accommodate the wall switch but it may not protrude too much. Also, we could install a medicine cabinet in that wall if we make the wall deep enough. Haven't decided about that yet. Yes, I considered moving the switches to the other wall and in fact that was the instruction I gave the contractor this morning, but I changed my mind by lunchtime. Putting them on that wall will reduce the size of the shower by a few inches and I just don't want to do that. Also, the pocket door will probably remain open most of the time so access to the switches when you enter the room shouldn't be a problem.

We haven't decided on the tile but here are some ideas. I like the look of the larger tile on the walls and the small tile on the shower floor, but not necessarily set on the diagonal. Hadn't thought about tiling the ceiling. We will also have a recessed light in the shower.

I like these rectangular tiles, with the edging on the top, but I don't care for the medallions. And what on earth are all the handles for? Maybe those aren't medallions but jet sprays? We're just going for a nice, but basic shower fixture - no rain heads or jet sprays.

Do you spot a theme here? I like the neutral palette and look of natural stone. This border's a bit too fussy for me, but it's another example of big tiles on the wall and small tiles on the shower floor.

I like this decorative border because it's simple. This picture was of the tiling in progress. The large blocks continued above the border but pictures of the final tile didn't show the detail of the border very well.

Our contractor said he can put in a shelf. I think this is what he described to me. I don't like the size of the tiles in the inside but I do like the two areas and the size of the mitered border is pretty good.

I like the look of the tiny tile in the inset but I'm not crazy about the thick mitered border and the thick shelf.

One more feature to the bathroom is a cabinet above the toilet. We had one previously and had no problem filling it up. Since I'd like to have a decorative mirror above the vanity we will lose the medicine cabinet we once had (and filled to capacity). But I think I've come up with an interesting alternative. Mount spice-rack type shelves on the inside of the doors to the cabinet above the toilet. I like the design below because the Plexiglas lets you still see what's on the shelves. Our contractor is going to build the cabinet so he should have no problem replicating this design.

So this is why I haven't been sewing. I've been busy playing interior designer. And exterior designer as well. This all started as a siding project, along with new doors. The doors won't be in for a few more weeks but here's what they will look like:

Can you see me smiling? I'm so happy and excited that these projects are getting done. The house already looks a thousand percent better even with only part of the siding up and painted. The bathroom is not the end of the projects (hopefully). The bedroom is next. We have talked with our contractor about putting in a tray ceiling (to make the room feel larger), recessed lighting, refinishing the floors, redoing the walls, and installing closet organizers. I dread packing everything up and moving it to wherever we can find space in the rest of the house, and we'll have to sleep in the guest room, which is currently occupied by too much of my sewing stuff, but I think the reward will be worth it. The rooms will be fabulous. And then I can get back to sewing.

Big orange sweater

2009-03-17T10:12:00.001-07:00

I actually finished this sweater in January and wore it a few times to my new job. It's the Debbie Bliss "Lara", knit up in Debbie Bliss angora/silk. I wish now I hadn't use that yarn because I hear that it pills like crazy and at least one knitter says her sweater now looks like a raggedy old sweater. I've only worn it two or three times and haven't washed it yet but I will try to take extra care knowing that the yarn pills. The sweater is very warm and comfy and fits pretty well (sorry, no live modeling). It was an interesting sweater to knit because it's done in one piece - you start from the cuff of one sleeve and work your way up the sleeve, across the back and front, and down the other sleeve. The downside is that you have a lot of knitting to carry around. All in all I'm pleased with it, so long as it doesn't pill itself into a raggedy old sweater.

Hawaii

2009-03-14T22:42:00.001-07:00

Was it really three weeks ago? Seems like yesterday.

This was the view from our hotel balcony, or lanai as they call them in Hawaii. Paradise...

"Ocean Front" is definitely the way to go. Well, at least once in your life.

We stayed in Waikiki.

But we rented a car so we could drive around the island. We saw some whales off of the coast.

We drove to the North Shore and watched surfers in Waimea Bay. Dude...those were some impressive waves!

We visited the Dole Plantation and toured the gardens. This is actually a very small pineapple.

And of course we relaxed. You can't see the Blue Hawaii drink I'm enjoying here. And note that I'm wearing Bonita, the tank top I knit.

Aloha!

Happy Blog-Birthday to Me!

2009-02-17T23:26:00.000-08:00

Five years!

It's very late and I'm just getting this birthday-blog in under the wire!

I'm sorry that I haven't been a very good blogger lately. Sure, I have excuses: I started a new job, my mom visited, I'm a terrible procrastinator, it's raining... I do want to continue blogging because it's been a great way to share what I make. My tutorial on the pincushion sewing kits is still finding its way into blogs and boards and I'm amazed by that! I also find this blog is a great way to document the things I've made and also some of my other projects, like gardening. But I know that I first have to actually write a blog entry about the stuff!

Ah well...here's to more years of blogging!

And no mom, your visit did not keep me from blogging. In fact our visit to the YSL exhibit would have been a perfect subject to blog about and I just didn't do it!

Closet clean-out

2009-01-19T15:19:00.000-08:00

I finally tackled my closet - well, the hanging clothes part at least. I might get to the stacked stuff later today if I have the energy. I tried to channel Stacy, Clinton and Tim* and be honest about what must go. Some people suggest that things not worn in the last year should go, but I'm not that brutal. However, most if not all, of the things I bought in the previous century went into the donation bags. I even parted with a few items I sewed, which was tough, but I had to be honest with myself that the Loes Hinse bouclé jacket was too big and the t-shirt with short kimono sleeves made out of lime green slinky just didn't look right on me. I also never wore and would never in the future wear the one piece wrap around silk blouse I made in a class I took a long time ago.

I removed, but will not permanently get rid of...just yet, a bunch of cute but just-a-bit-too-small blouses. They might be an incentive to lose some weight but I can't have them in my closet along side the few things that do fit. Nothing is worse than pulling out a blouse to wear in the morning and realizing that it's too tight. Actually there is something worse - wearing it out of the house and being uncomfortable and self-conscious the whole day!

Unfortunately now there's not much left in the closet that I'm excited about. You might think I now have a great excuse to go shopping. Actually I may have an even better excuse - I might be going back to work soon. That's one reason I wanted to do the purge, to see what I have to work with and what essentials I should focus on buying.

Tim Gunn has a list of 10 essential items he thinks every woman should have:

Basic black dress
Trench coat
Dress pants
Classic shirt
Jeans
Any occasion top
Skirt
Day dress
Jacket
Sweatsuit alternative

Looking at my wardrobe, I'd say that I have numbers 3, 4, 5, and 6, maybe 8, and probably 10. That's an ok start but I don't have anything in my closet that would be suitable for an important business meeting. Fortunately I probably won't have to dress up for work but I'd like to have some clothes that make me look professional.

As much as I'd like to be able to sew my wardrobe, I have to concede that it's just not possible. I'm too slow, for one. I also haven't had enough practice altering patterns to fit and that adds to my slowness. So I'm going to have to face the shopping mall or live with what I have. Last time I attempted a major clothes shopping trip, I got extremely frustrated. Everything seemed too-trendy, didn't fit, or I knew I could sew the same thing with fabric and patterns from my stash. Then I found Ann Taylor Loft and for the last few years it was a joy to shop. They had outfits at reasonable prices and the clothes fit. I must now emphasize that they WERE my favorite store. I stopped by there last Friday and was so disappointed that they've changed and, it seems, greatly reduced their inventory. I guess the latter is due to the economy and the former is an attempt to attract younger buyers. The few jackets they have are really short and adorned with ruffles, and their blouses are all about poofy sleeves and more ruffles. Maybe it's time I graduate to Ann Taylor (and not Loft), but gosh the prices at the Loft were so good!

Well, maybe I'll go tackle the mound of stacked sweater and tops. I know there are a few things that need to go and I'll probably find some things I've forgotten about.

*That would be Stacy and Clinton from TLC's What Not to Wear and Tim Gunn of Project Runway and Tim Gunn's Guide to Style.

Surveying the neighborhood

2009-01-16T10:26:00.001-08:00

I spied him out the kitchen window and retrieved my camera, changed lenses to the telephoto, and went outside to snap his picture. I took about 5 shots and then he (she?) flew away. I guess he (or she) is camera shy.

The knitting UFOs

2009-01-13T09:26:00.000-08:00

I enjoy knitting and by that I mean I enjoy the act of working the yarn into intersecting loops to create a fabric. I don't enjoy the finishing part. As someone who also sews, you'd think that I wouldn't have a problem with the final construction of a sweater but I do. I can't use my serger to quickly make the seams...well maybe I could but that would require adding seam allowances to the pattern and also the sweater could not be frogged if I hated it or tired of it. Seaming a sweater requires "hand sewing" the seams with yarn. It's fiddly, time consuming, and a major headache for a perfectionist like me who wants the seam to look invisible. And then there are all the ends to weave in. But if I don't finish the sweaters I knit then I don't have sweaters, only have sweater pieces.

I am itching to cast on for a new sweater project, but I am going to try to finish a few of the UFOs I have that are only a seam (or two...or three) away from being completed. Time for an inventory of my knitting UFOs.

1. White cotton sweater from Stitches magazine. This is my oldest project. I knit it on airplane flights and while sitting on console monitoring the health of a newly-launched satellite (the satellite behaved perfectly, hence the time - and need for knitting to stay awake). I picked it back up again a few years ago and finally finished it...well, the knitting part at least. Then I discovered that the gauge was different for the sleeves and being cotton, it won't block enough to make up for it. I don't really like the sweater any more, so this one will be frogged.

2. Liv - this is an Elsebeth Lavold pattern, knitted in Rowan cashsoft. I finished the back and started on the front and have discovered that it will be too small. This one will be frogged and hopefully reknit someday.

3. Clapotis - it's finished and just needs to be blocked. How pathetic is that?

4. Felted bag out of Noro. It's finished and just needs to be felted. I am such a procrastinator.

5. The felted bag reminds me that I have one more cat bed that I knit and never felted. The cats have used it as-is, so the wool will be mixed with cat hair when I eventually get it into the washing machine.

6. Socks for my husband. These were my first, and so far only, toe-up socks. I'm almost to the heel and need to see if it's time to knit it and also I need to see if the sock will even fit. It looks a bit narrow.

7. Jaywalker socks. I ran out of yarn during the second sock so I frogged the toe of the first one, reknit it using another yarn, and used the frogged-yarn to "finish" the second sock. The yarn was a little thin so I doubled it, which made the decreases really hard to work. I'm at the toe of the second sock and not looking forward to fighting with those decreases so the sock sits...unfinished.

8. Blue t-shirt. This was a store pattern for a short sleeve sweater using two different Rowan yarns. I really liked the store display and it was a quick knit. I only have a few more rows to go and then the dreaded seaming to do. I stopped knitting it because summer ended...that would be summer of 2007...and because I'm afraid the sweater will look dumpy on me.

9. Fingerless gloves. I had alpaca yarn left over from the Clapotis and thought it would make lovey fingerless gloves. I started knitting some but the pattern didn't have a thumb, only a hole for the thumb and I want a thumb, which means I have to do some thinking on how to do the gusset. So the gloves sit and my hands are still cold.

10. Capri sweater from Rowan magazine, knit in lime green Rowan Calmer yarn. I knit this last June while sitting on console monitoring a satellite that was just launched. I need to block it before I can pick up stitches for the front band.

11. Lara - I knit this sweater last year and finished all the knitting just in time for the hot weather. I finally blocked it last fall and started seaming it. My frustration over seaming this is what led me to post today. Because the sweater is knit in one piece, from one cuff to the other, the stitches run 90 degrees to what they do in a typical sweater. This means that the side seam is like a shoulder seam - and that means it's bulky. If I had it to do over (and I'm not frogging it so I can) I would have left those side seam stitches "live" so that I could do a three-needle bind off. The good news is that the sleeve seam came out nicely. I have the other side and sleeve to seam and then I need to attach the back collar and it'll be done. Just in time for spring and warm weather. It was in the 70's yesterday - a not-so-seasonal warm spell, but then we don't exactly have harsh winters here anyway. In my search for info on seaming, I came across this nice tutorial. Oh, and one more thing about this sweater - I used Debbie Bliss alpaca silk, the yarn the pattern was intended for, but I have found out (too late) that this yarn pills terribly. All this time (and money) spent creating a sweater that will look raggedy after a few wearings. Great. Well, at least I know this now and will try to treat it gently.

To me eleven knitting UFOs are too many and I need to finish at least the easy ones before I cast on for a new sweater. I mean really...blocking, felting in the washer, and one measly sock toe? I can handle that.

A gaggle of knitting FOs

2009-01-09T09:57:00.000-08:00

My knitting needles were smoking over the last few weeks. I made a bunch of knitted items for my in-laws for their birthdays. We visited them in Chicago last weekend to attend my father-in-law's birthday party.

I made this hat on the flight from SFO. I cast on during the ride to the airport and worked on it on the flight, finishing it as we taxied to the gate. The yarn is Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky. The stitch is a simple 2x2 rib. I used a pattern called Pro Bono, which is available free to those registered on ravelry.com.

The matching scarf, also in Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky, was actually the first project and it led to all of the others. I felt I couldn't give one in-law a hand-knit scarf and not the other. The scarf is just a simple 3x3 ribbing. I chose to do 7 ribs to signify my father-in-law's 70th birthday.

I used up some stashed Malabrigo to make my mother-in-law a scarf. The pattern is called Scrunchable, also from ravelry, but it's really just a simple k2p1 stitch pattern done on both sides.

I also made a matching hat and fingerless mitts using the Malabrigo Head Thingie and Malabrigo Hand Thingie patterns from ravelry.

It was cold in Chicago, as one would expect in January. It snowed on the last day we were there but it didn't delay our flight for very long. Here's a view of the Museum of Science and Industry and a frozen Lake Michigan, taken from my in-law's apartment.

I'll leave you with another picture of Felix hogging the heat register. The world is just too much for him.

A New Year...again

2008-12-30T15:21:00.001-08:00

A few other bloggers are revisiting their resolutions from last year to see how they did, so I thought I'd take a look at mine.

1. Blog more often - In 2007 I posted 64 entries and in 2008 I posted 66, not counting this one. That's not blogging more often. At least it didn't go down! I blame part of it on Facebook. I joined it this year and sometimes updating my status on Facebook trumps updating the blog.

2. Lose weight. Meh. I stayed about the same but I didn't work hard at losing weight. Without a 9-5 job, I really should get to the gym more often. I did go a handful of times in November and December. Maybe I'll make it more of a habit in 2009.

3. Embrace my hobbies. Without that 9-5 job, I certainly am embracing my hobbies. Although I sewed about the same number of garments as last year (8 this year, 9 last year), most were completed in the last few months due to that lack of 9-5 job thing. I did knit a lot more but I still have the problem of not actually finishing the items. Gotta work on that.

4. Think before I buy. I've done relatively well with this one. There's still too much stuff in the house but I think I've done well to keep shopping to a minimum and only buy what's needed. My fabric buying was down this year except for two bouts of travel-fabric buying, one in D.C. with fellow patternreview sewing friends and one in NY because what sewer can resist an opportunity to shop in the NY Garment District? My yarn buying was not so restrained but I knit a lot more things this year so that's good, right?

5. Find the good in my work. Well, the J-0-B ended and I have my sanity back. It was tough in the last few months but I dug my heels in, went to the office every day (instead of hiding out at home and telecommuting), and finished up the work I needed to finish. On my last day my co-workers took me to lunch and the manager even gave me a memento of the project. The lay-off from the contracting company was partly voluntary and I know they would have wanted to keep me if there had been suitable work. So it's all good.

6. Nurture relationships. I think I did ok with this one but I know I could do better. There's always room for improvement here.

I think I'll just repeat these resolutions for 2009, except #5 becomes slightly modified into "Find good work" And I really want to keep the word "good" in there because I don't want to find myself in a difficult situation again.

Fun with my new tablet

2008-12-25T13:53:00.000-08:00

My husband gave me a really cool computer tool for Christmas - it's a Bamboo writing tablet (no it's not made of bamboo - that's just its name) by Wacom. ***I've updated this post to alert any other tablet users of a known bug that causes a conflict between tablets and HP printers with Windows Vista. If you get the error message "hpqscnvw has stopped working" when you try to scan a document, go apply this patch: here's the link.***

I've been playing with the tablet today by using it to modify the picture of the purple dress to see what the dress looks like with various changes.

Here it is with just a hemmed neckline and sleeves (click on all pictures for a larger view):

Here is with a lowered neckline:

Here is with a lower neckline and trim added:

Here is with a lower neckline, trim and buttons:

So what do you think?

Merry Christmas Eve

2008-12-24T16:42:00.000-08:00

Since I had more time at home this year before Christmas, I decided to put out a few more decorations than I normally do. These are little cardboard houses that my family put out with our Christmas train layout. They're fairly old. Perhaps from the 30's or 40's? They are hollow with holes in the back, sized to hold a light.

When I was in my early teens or so I attempted to "fix up" the houses by removing the old, torn cellophane windows and doors, which had been poked at for years by little children's fingers (mine included). Of course I probably shouldn't have done that and certainly not with the red cellophane I used. It's also my "artistry" on the front doors.

I loved these houses so much that when I was first out on my own and celebrating Christmas thousands of miles away from family, I found and purchased small houses to decorate my own Christmas layout. This year I put up both sets, but the old houses are safely away from the paws of little cats. I only wish the old houses had been kept safe from my hands as a child.

As a child I was always making things and of course I continue today. Last week I took a class to learn how to make fabric baskets. I chose some Christmas themed fabric and created this basket. It's made by wrapping strips of fabric around cotton cording and zig-zag stitching the cording together. You start with the bottom and work you way up to the top, shaping the basket as you stitch.

I was warned that making these baskets is addictive and I believe it! I already have fabric combinations picked out for some more.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!

Party dress or prairie dress?

2008-12-19T09:05:00.000-08:00

I worked on a dress last week in hopes of wearing it to a Christmas party last Saturday night, but I wasn't happy with the results. I have thoughts on how to improve it but decided against trying to incorporate them before the party. Instead I wore my Burda dress from October with a black jacket.

The un-finished party dress is Vogue 8509. I made a muslin so I could modify the princess seam fit. The muslin looked like a dress for the 5th wife of a FLDS polygamist. I had (some) confidence that the finished dress would not be so prairie-like because I was using a rayon crepe instead of crisp cotton muslin. As I sewed up the rayon, the dress looked promising as a party dress...until I sewed in the sleeves.

I don't want to make another sleeveless dress, so I thought about ways to improve the look. The first thing that popped into my head was to add a ribbon below the bust. I had some black petersham (the dress is a deep, deep purple) so I pinned that on.

I bought some purple velvet ribbon from Britex and tried that on the dress:

I think I like the velvet ribbon the most, although I think I pulled it a little tighter than the dress actually is. The neckline is still unfinished and is supposed to be bound with bias tape. I planned to make a bias strip from the fabric and use that. I'm also thinking about lowering the neckline. Opinions on which ribbon and whether I should lower the neckline would be greatly appreciated! Also, I'd like your honest opinions about the dress. Is it still matronly? Anything else I could do to fix it?

Here's a parting shot of one of my silly kitties. Poor baby is cold. I don't know what he would do in a real cold climate.

Tiny woodworking

2008-12-09T21:51:00.000-08:00

I am in awe of the miniature woodworking by William R. Robertson.

Someday I would like to make miniature textiles by weaving and knitting and maybe even bobbin lace. I remember once using straight pins as tiny knitting needles to make a bit of knitting for my Barbie. I guess Probably the only reason I've not gone down the (miniature) rabbit hole is because just making full size versions take up more than enough of my time. There's a woman from either North or South Dakota (some place with long, cold winters) who comes to Stitches and shows off her miniature sweaters that are done to scale with the correct gauge as full size sweaters.

The scarf that has no end

2008-12-03T13:25:00.000-08:00

This is the scarf that has no end

It just goes on and on my friend

I just keep on knitting it

Because that's what a knitter does

Now I'll continue knitting it forever just because...

But it DID end and here it is

This was my first full-scale lace project. I enjoyed the knitting to a point. I got pretty sick of the pattern after a while but I found that if I didn't work on it, I'd make mistakes. So I decided to just finish it. It kept me occupied on at least 6 airplane flights, four of which were 5-6 hours long. I read somewhere that if you want economy in knitting, either knit with thick yarn because it knits up quickly and you don't need a lot of it, or knit with really thin yarn because it will occupy you for a long time. At this point I can't imagine knitting a full size lace shawl. I have more lace-weight yarn in my stash. What was I thinking?

I forgot to mention that this is cashmere. Scrumptious indeed. This of course made the knitting more enjoyable.

To preserve my sanity, I did switch gears for four days and knit this beret

Click here to see a picture that shows the hat better, but I liked my smile in the photo above. It's hard to take a photo of yourself - camera on the tripod, remote in hand, smile and act like a model. Hehe. Anyway, the pattern is called the "Starflower Beret" and it was the featured one-skein project from The Swift Stitch yarn store in Santa Cruz during the Yarn Shop Hop in September. I knit it as a Christmas gift and it's going to be hard to let it go. The yarn is Chasing Rainbows (55% wool, 45% mohair) and is delicious. It was a quick knit (hence I was done in 4 days). Here's a view of the top (it's also in the first picture, being blocked on a dinner plate).

On to the next knitting project!

The Big Apple

2008-11-18T22:37:00.000-08:00

Click for larger. You can see more pictures from New York City on flickr.com

During the first week of November I tagged along with my husband on his work trip to New York City. I had a great time except that I wore my feet out. I thought I brought comfortable shoes but I guess they weren't.

I grew up a few hours from the city (in South Jersey) but only managed to make a few trips there and I never got a chance to really explore the city as an adult. And now that I'm a grown up and travel pretty much wherever I want, it never really crossed my mind to take a vacation to NYC. I'm afraid Paris, London or Rome or lots of other cities I haven't been to are higher on the list. But the opportunity came up and I'm glad it did. I had fun playing "tourist" and fulfilled most of the "must-see/do" items on the mental list I'd made.

Hang out in Times Square. It was a mob scene, especially on election day but it was great to experience it. I don't think I'll ever go there for New Years however.
Eat at one of those delis with sandwiches named after celebrities. We ate at the Stage Deli; however, I didn't eat such a sandwich because they were monstrous. I had a hamburger and milkshake instead.
Walk in Central Park
Ride in a NYC taxi cab
Take the subway
Check out the reading room in the library. Quite spectacular.
Go to the top of the Empire State Building
Visit Grand Central Station
Eat a hot dog from a street vendor (and I'm still alive!)
Have a slice of NY pizza
Eat a soft pretzel - also bought from a street vendor
Buy an "I ♥ NY" shirt (5 for $10!)
Buy a $5 pashmina/silk shawl from a street vendor - which is actually kind of nice!
Window shop on 5th avenue
Shop at Mood and all of the other fabric and trim stores I've heard about - of course I bought fabric
See the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Have some NY cheesecake
Watch the skaters in Rockefeller Center (and Central Park and Bryant Park too)
See a NYC rat -- well, not actually on my "must see" list, but we saw one run out of a planter and try to scale the side of another stone planter.

I didn't visit the Statue of Liberty but would like to some day. I also didn't take a carriage ride. We almost did the carriage ride on Saturday morning, but my foot hurt too much for me to walk to Central Park and it was starting to rain anyway. Seeing a Broadway show would probably be on most people's lists, but it's not really on mine. I've seen shows in L.A. and could see them in San Francisco too. For me it's more about seeing the show and not that it's in New York. We really didn't have a lot of time to see one anyway.

I enjoyed the city more than I thought I would. Of course it helped to be staying in a nice hotel in a prime part of Manhattan. After the first night I even slept through the honking of horns and the blare of emergency vehicle sirens. There's so much energy from all the people walking everywhere, all of the time. The hotel was a-buzz too, first with NYC marathon runners (we arrived in the city a few hours after the marathon completed) then with convention goers. It was a kind of energy that sweeps you up and urges you to go somewhere and do something. I went fabric shopping (and visited the FIT museum) and had a great time!

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T11:33:00.000-07:00

These are my Halloween cats I've been collecting. It all started with the third one from the left (click to see larger). My husband says the cat is wearing "candy corn pajamas." And no, I did not knit the Jack o' lantern sweater for cat #4.

I'm on a roll

2008-10-29T12:54:00.000-07:00

I sewed this top yesterday.

It's Burda 8735, which is unfortunately out of print. I used a polyester knit that I bought a long time ago at Stone Mountain and Daughter. I'm pretty sure it was a sale fabric in their upstairs room. It was perfect fabric for this top. It is snuggly without being too bulky. The top has raglan sleeves and was very easy to put together on my serger. I wrote up a full review on patternreview.com here.

And check it out! I'm blocking Lara in preparation for sewing up the seams.

Lara is a Debbie Bliss pattern (from her book Alpaca Silk). I used Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk yarn, which is scrumptious. The sweater is knit in one piece, from the cuff of one sleeve across to the other. So all that's left is to sew the collar to the back neck and then sew up the under arms.

Not enough hours in the day

2008-10-27T15:50:00.001-07:00

How is it that even though I'm not spending 8+ hours a day at a job, I still don't have enough time to do all the things I want to do? Do you think my expectations are a bit high? I think so. But I'm certainly not bored!

This month we traveled to Atlanta to attend my niece's wedding. The wedding was very nice, the bride was beautiful, the groom handsome, and it was wonderful to see some of my relatives again. An added bonus was that my sister-in-law lives in Atlanta, so we stayed with them for a couple days and took the opportunity to visit the Georgia Aquarium. Here's a little bit of video I shot (not very good because it was shot from my little camera). It shows the whale sharks, which is their "main draw." My niece works at the aquarium and assisted with the transport of one of the whale sharks from Taiwan.

I liked the exhibit shown in the video and I also like a few other exhibits, but overall I have to say that I prefer the Monterey Aquarium. I suppose I'm biased since I live nearer to Monterey, but the Georgia Aquarium resembled a mall to me, and I was disappointed that except for the large tank with the whale sharks, the views to the tanks were rather small and there really weren't that many. I did like the wide range of habitats they displayed (river, cold water, etc.) but each one is heavily sponsored and it showed. I also think I like the Monterey Aquarium because it is near the water and relates more to nature than the Georgia Aquarium, which is in downtown Atlanta. I'd say if you're in Atlanta, go visit it but be prepared for the high ticket cost ($26 - ok, it's only $1 more than Monterey) and a bit of commercialism.

Here's another video to show you what we did the following weekend. I apologize for the poor videography. It's just a little video camera I use and it's not meant for high quality videos. I also tried to shorten the video but gave up - you of course don't have to watch the whole thing...or any of it for that matter!

This was the last race of the American Le Mans Series and it was held at Laguna Seca raceway, which is only an hour or so from here. It was the first time we'd been to this track but I don't think it will be the last. We had a good time and it was very easy to see the race. After going to the famed 24 Hours of Le Mans in France four years ago, we have both become fans of this type of racing. They race four types of race cars at the same time: two types of LMP, or Le Mans Prototype cars (the low, "Indy" or Formula 1 looking cars built just to race) and two types of GT, or "grand touring" (modified Corvette, Porsche, Ferrari, etc). The different speeds of the two types makes it challenging in the corners and for passing. This race at Laguna was four hours long and started in daylight and ended in the evening, with darkness, fog and much cooler temperatures. Before the race they let the spectators out on the track to view the cars (and drivers) close up. We were able to sit in the grandstand for the start and finish of the race and then we could wander all over to view the race at various curves and from different vantage points. The video shows the view from our chairs on a little hillside. We did wear ear protection!

Now that I'm home, I finally finished the knit top I was working on and thus have completed the outfit from Diana Couture magazine. First, a big thanks to everyone who commented on my dress. I meant to mention that in my last post. I'm not so great at leaving comments on other people's blogs even when I think in my head what I'd like to tell them, so I do appreciate your comments. So here's a picture of the outfit, although I'm not sure I'll wear it all together - the ties on the top sort of interfere with the bolero ties.

Here are the individual pieces:

I wrote reviews for them on patternreview: bolero, skirt, and top.

I do enjoy having the extra time to sew and already have a few patterns cut out or traced for my next projects. I want to add a few more, warmer things to my wardrobe because we're going to New York City - it's a work trip for my husband and I'm tagging along to play...look out Fashion District, HERE I COME!