Yarn Crawl

2009 Recap - Part I

I realized that I made a stupid mistake on Vine Yoke, so I have to rip back and re-knit the left front and sleeve. I put the wrong stitches on hold and instead of having two sides of a sleeve to graft together, I have the bottom part of the back and left sleeve to graft together. UGH. No biggie though, it works up fast. I did graft the other sleeve together and I got the garter stitch grafting perfectly invisible this time, after finding some helpful instructions in the SKC Ravelry thread on Kernel.

So I thought just for kicks we could look at the 2009 goals I published at the beginning of the year and see if I met any of them....

1. Convert Wheat Ear Yoke sweater pattern to be knit seamlessly and actually knit it. I've been wanting to do this for awhile but haven't gotten to it.
NOPE

2. Finish Mirepoix FINALLY - this will be my first steeked FO.

NOPE - I did make significant progress and also steeked one side of it but am not done as I lost interest. Maybe in 2010.

3. Incorporate my serger into my sewing projects to make them look as professional on the inside as I think they do on the outside. I haven't really ever used it (or the previous one I owned and sold) for any of my knit fabric projects, just my Husqvarna/Viking Platinum regular machine and my Janome 900CP coverstitch machine.

Not so much. This will be a 2010 goal though.

4. Buy a new dishwasher. Ours is driving me NUTS. It was in the house when we moved in and is the only kitchen appliance we haven't replaced. It doesn't match the new stainless appliances (it's black, like the rest of the old appliances were - the circa 1990 black refrigerator lives in the basement now) and more importantly, hasn't been getting the dishes clean even with two cycles anymore. It's gotta go.

Um, no. Didn't do this either. It seems to be working better now. I'm not sure what was wrong with it.

5. Work on the decor aspects of the house. Jim's done the heavy lifting, now I need to organize things/buy some new furniture/work on getting things the way I want them from a decor perspective. I don't want to get too specific on this one, as I'm not sure exactly which room to focus on first, but I will improve this house from that standpoint this year, in some way.

I did do this - bought lots of furniture (still have a few things to get) and organized a few things. I still have a ways to go, but I can say I met this goal.

6. Create at least one seamless sweater design and publicize it. Not sure of the exact avenue for this, but I'm thinking Ravelry for the first one rather than focusing on either paper or online magazines.

No. Not sure this is a goal anymore. I've tentatively decided that I like knitting and sewing, but just for fun. I have too much invested in my "real career" to turn my back on that.

7. Continue doing the treadmill workout every day with the Bowflex twice a week. The consistency seems to really work for me, so I'm keeping that up. If I miss once in a while, it's fine, but every day needs to be the goal to keep the habit going. I've been really consistent for the past two weeks (and include weekends now, whereas I used to take those off) and I think that is what this 2nd-half-of-the-30s body needs to look the way I want to. I also added in strength training back in as a supplement, not a substitute, for cardio.

I fell off the wagon on this one in a big way. I lost weight though, in spite of it, after getting off some asthma and BC meds I was on. I have about half the appetite I used to. I do want to get back into the treadmill and Bowflex, along with yoga for flexibility, though I'm happy with my current weight and just want to maintain that.

8. Learn more about my camera. I have a tripod and remote now, and want to incorporate those into my blog picture routine. I also want to explore and understand its features, as I still haven't found occasion to take it off the "Full Auto" setting as the pictures have been pretty decent without doing so. (Adrienne is cringing right now...)

I did do this to a small extent - I definitely incorporated the tripod and remote, which I'm happy about, but I liked when Jim was my primary photographer. His pictures were much more full of life than anything I can take with a tripod and remote control, and I may begin twisting his arm again to take my pictures. Having the tripod and remote control hasn't really improved my picture taking frequency, as I'm not too crazy about the way the pictures come out. Also I'm not all that motivated to play with the camera and figure out all its features. I just don't really care. I'd rather be knitting or sewing. So I think the best thing I can do for my blog photography is bring Jim back as official blog photographer. He does a much better job of it than I ever could and now this year with his experience photographing the Patternreview Fashion Show (and all the nubile young 6 foot tall models) he is well-qualified for the job.

So it looks like I didn't accomplish many of my goals for 2009, and that's true. But I did accomplish some other things despite a lot of life turmoil.

1. entered the 2009 Patternreview contest and participated in the fashion show - a great experience all around

2. sewed a coat from start to finish with all of the accompanying details and finishing touches

3. adjusted a pants pattern so that now I have a go-to template that I can use to make perfectly fitting pants whenever I want - the actual pants that resulted from this had buttonhole issues but I do plan to recut the waistband and do these over to wear the actual pants

4. made curtains with Jim's cousin Anna - this was a big accomplishment as we figured it out "from scratch" without any real pattern and knocked them out in about three hours

5. got to a weight I'm happy with and am prescription drug free (and free of other types of drugs as well - thought I better mention that although it should be a given)

6. realized that Jim and I can get through just about anything together

7. got back in touch with my parents, something that had been bothering me for years - it took changes on both sides to make this happen, and sad as Peggy's death was, it was the catalyst for this happening.

That's enough sap for today, as I'm starting to tear up. But suffice it to say that it's been a challenging year that has been good for my soul.

Part II of this post will cover what I knit/sewed this year - my usual year-end recap. Happy New Year, everyone! I am looking forward to 2010.

Getting Back Into the Swing of Things..

It's been a crazy couple of weeks! I am finally starting to feel somewhat normal again, which is odd as there are still a few more days of "holiday" to come.

Jim's dad is up and about and feeling good, which is a credit to getting the meds right (Oxycontin instead of morphine made a world of difference) and we actually had to try to stop him from doing too much by himself as he was feeling so good. He's lucid and acting completely normal, but isn't doing chemo so it is likely a matter of time, barring some miracle combination of willingness to live and divine intervention, which truly, I wouldn't rule out given his ability to bounce back from everything before. But we don't have our hopes up.

Other than that, (so far) the holidays have been good. I'm at work this week but am off again starting tomorrow at noon and won't be back in til Monday. I actually like working this week, as it's so quiet - there's only six or seven of us here - and it seems like a waste of vacation days. Jim always works this week too, so it doesn't make sense to take it off. I think I will continue to work this week even when I do have more vacation days to spare (starting 1/1 I have four weeks.) There actually have been two or three issues that have cropped up, so it's good to have tax representation now too instead of leaving people to their own devices, which usually involves doing whatever they feel like and telling me about it later.

But in the meantime...I am done with 1.) Gathered Pullover and 2.) Vine Yoke and just need to finish up the finishing on both. Today I'm going to sew the buttons on Vine Yoke and graft the sleeves, and hopefully have a modeled shot of it tomorrow. I also just need to weave in the ends on Gathered Pullover and model that one. Both came out really well, so I'm glad. I am 1/3 of the way through Somewhat Cowl, and about 2/3 of the way through Slanted Gretel Tee. So knitting has been moving along well! No sewing, but I plan to get back into that soon. No weight gain or loss over the holidays - which is just fine and what I expected. Bought some new Lucky jeans yesterday at the outlet as some of the others were too baggy, though, so that was good.

Talk soon, I'll be back into the blog thing with my two new FOs. I've missed it.

Winter Knitty's Up!

And I LOVE Spoke...must.knit. In the meantime, I still have to sew the shoulder and sleeve seams (I knit them flat) on Gathered Pullover, finish the 2nd half of the back of Vine Yoke and do the left front and sleeve, and also I started a new mindless project - Somewhat Cowl. I had the spring green Alpaca & Silk yarn for it in my stash since forever, and I finally decided to cast on as I wanted a new cowly sweater.

The party on Friday was fun - nothing too crazy, but a good time was had by all - and Saturday was my last sewing class. I ended up getting an A on my pants and a B on the half-scale little black dress project (which I did a pretty rushed, half a&& job on.) On the pants, I was a bit annoyed because my sewing machine suddenly decided not to make buttonholes correctly on the actual pants after diligently testing the automatic buttonholes on the swatch of the same fabric!! So I have to replace half of the yoke/waistband - which I have more fabric to do, thankfully - and redo the buttonholes manually. Apparently (as I read in the sewing machine manual later) the machine won't do automatic buttonholes properly on some multi-layer or thick fabrics as the little wheel that measures the buttonholes doesn't roll properly. So I could have done them without the automatic buttonholer using a different foot and the step by step instructions, but didn't have the manual with me. I still got my A but I want to wear the pants!

The good thing is that I have a perfectly fitting pants pattern now that I can use to make pants whenever I want! My teacher offered that if we aren't going for the fashion design degree, we could sign up for the class again and work on whatever projects we want, basically using it as sewing lessons. $300ish is not bad for 14 weeks of sewing lessons, but I'm not sure I'll be up for that or not. I kind of just want to sew on my own and work on what I've learned, getting neater (my one criticism from the teacher - that I could be neater about my sewing and seam finishing- which is right on point) and mainly just slowing.down. My biggest problem is I'm so focused on finishing things (for wardrobe enhancement) that I do blow past some of the small details or niceties at times (honestly, most of the time.)

My garments look good on the outside and fit well, but they're missing that "polish" on the inside and I do fudge things here and there. As I pretty much know what I need to do to fix that (slow down, take the time to do things and don't take so many shortcuts) I don't know if I need lessons for that. In fact, taking a class is almost counterproductive because it reinforces the "sewing on a deadline" mentality and rushing tendencies.

I did learn quite a lot in this class though, and I may sign up again after I have a semester off to digest and apply everything I've learned. My teacher was great for me in that she basically taught us everything one-on-one, as it arose in our projects, and didn't lecture. For me, that was good, as it didn't waste time on things I knew how to do already and allowed me to get the one-on-one help on things I did (hand sewing, lapped zippers - finally have a great method for these that I learned from my teacher, pattern adjustment on the pants, sleeve heading and shoulder pad placement.)

Anyway, I didn't totally plan for this to be a class post-mortem, but it's been helpful to put these thoughts into words.

Jim and I are probably going up to Wisconsin the first half of next week as my father-in-law Bob is not doing well at all now (cancer is back and has spread everywhere.) I feel so bad for Jim having to deal with all of this in such a short time. We probably will go up there the first two or three days of next week (his dad will probably spend the actual holidays with Jim's brother and sister like he did for Thanksgiving) then we have a get-together to attend on Christmas Eve with some friends, then Christmas Day we will go over to Vicki and Frank's and see them and the cousins/their kids, then go to my parents' house. It will be busy, but that's OK.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

KS 3408 Version 2.0 - Or, What I'm Wearing Tomorrow

I just finished my second Kwik Sew 3408 wrap dress - I wanted something new to wear to our holiday luncheon tomorrow at work, and I think this is cheery and festive in its red color, yet still office appropriate. I didn't want to go the glitzy route, even though a few people do, as it starts at 11 am.

We do get to close the office then for the day, which is nice (and probably necessary) as it also involves at least an hour and a half of -very good Napa - wine before we even get to lunch, which can be dangerous if not done very carefully. Thankfully I've been through many of these things now (mostly unscathed) so I know how to approach it (a larger than normal breakfast, eaten at about 10 am, like an egg bagel sandwich, and keeping my tendency to chug the wine in check.) I've even tried suggesting that we cut out the cocktail hour (sometimes it's two hours for other evening events!) but I have a feeling it's an institution.

Anyway. Here's what I'm wearing. I'm thinking I'm going to be lazy and skip the hems, as I'm not going to blind hem it and I think coverstitch hems will take away from the look. I've been on a high energy sewing kick (here's a sample of my sewing soundtrack tonight) (apparently now Imeem is part of Myspace and it won't let me directly embed songs into my blog anymore...grrr, but you get the idea)

but now I think I'm winding down.

I think J.Lo is crooked on her little stand. Or she had a "couple two tree" as our friend Tim would say...she also needs to be trimmed down a little in the waist and hips (yay) but she hasn't gotten with the program yet. She's still overdoing it a little.

Vine Yoke 2.0 Progress

I have half a sleeve left on Gathered Pullover, and Vine Yoke 2.0 is moving along very nicely as well. Here are some pics - the Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in "Black Forest" is working very well for the lace. I decided to make the 32 this time (2.5 -3 ish inches of negative ease) and that size seems to be perfect.

I also put the working stitches on waste yarn and washed it to make sure it didn't grow too much and it only grew lengthwise, the way it was supposed to. So I think success on this pattern is based on two key factors 1.) picking a size with at least 2" of negative ease and 2.) using a non-woolly yarn. I feel like the lace pattern lies flatter and shows up better in this 80/20 cotton/wool blend. I've figured out that I don't like Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece that much for stockinette stitch garments (too bulky feeling) but it works very well for lace work.

Clearly, It's a Sickness

My latest purchase from the Twist Collective...following my usual routine, they send an email, I buy the pattern. So many patterns, so little time. To compound the sickness, I'll probably buy the recommended yarn too, as it's an interesting blend of baby alpaca, silk, cashmere and camel - I know I don't have that already in the stash...

You Won't Believe This...

but I started another Vine Yoke last night, this time in a MUCH smaller size (30) (based on the comments and projects I've been reading/seeing over on the SKC group on Ravelry) and in a different yarn - Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in "Black Forest". So far it is looking really good. It will also help that this time I am using the pattern WITH the corrections and am not a knitting guinea pig. I'm done with the button band and am almost through the first yoke chart repeat on the first front. The BSCF lays really flat and shows the lace pattern off very well. I also am liking the pattern in black. Pictures to come soon!

Also, a PSA - for those of you who use Typepad as your blogging platform, did you know you can go back to the old platform they used to have by clicking a link at the bottom left of the screen in the new version? I went back. I couldn't stand having to click all over the place just to get to the posting template. I have no interest in "quick posts" or using Typepad like a version of Twitter or Facebook. Those applications have their place, but when I want to blog, I want to blog, not tweet. Just sayin'.

Check this Out...

I've been on a mission to discover new favorite yarns lately and have been wanting to try the Madelinetosh Tosh Merino. It was only $14.95 a skein over on Eat.Sleep.Knit (for 210 yards, which I think is a good deal - also they do free USPS Priority shipping on orders of $75 and up) so I indulged in "Wren" for Cambridge Cables, an upcoming project.

It looks like it will be a greenish brownish hazel-y color. YUM.

I also bought the Mondo Cable Pulli pattern today (though I'm pretty sure I could have figured out the mods on my own using the cardi pattern I already have, sometimes you just want to follow the pattern instead of thinking too hard) and I'm thinking I'll use my Noro Silver Thaw from my stash for it.

I know it seems like I'm doing more Christmas shopping for myself than for others but actually I am almost done with that shopping. I hit the Jo-Ann's after-Thanksgiving sale for McKenna, Mia and Noah (cousin Tracy's kids) and got them a ton of different types of craft projects. They really love doing that kind of stuff, and I think Mia is the one I'm going to be able to indoctrinate fully into my knitting/sewing web (mwah ha ha). She will sit quietly for HOURS working on those little lace-up sewing projects and will not rest until she's got it perfect. For five years old, I think that's pretty good. I think boys and girls are way different in terms of their concentration level at that age, because she seems much older than Landon, Paul's boy that we watched on Saturday.

Mondo Cable Cardi - Done!

I actually finished this the day before Thanksgiving and wore it that day, but didn't get pictures. Here it is today - I wore it to work.

Pattern: Mondo Cable Cardi by Bonne Marie Burns (chicknits.com)

Yarn: 3 skeins of Dream in Color Classy, in "Shiny Moss"

Size: 34, but see mods

Mods: no armhole stitches were cast on after separating the sleeves. To give it the look shown in the original pattern pic, about 2" of sleeve stitches were supposed to be cast on under each arm. I knew that more "closed up" or swingy looking cardigans don't work great on me, so I decided to just eliminate those cast on stitches and have a more open look. The finished bust measurement on mine is about 30". I also did the 1" collar option (there are options for 1", 2" and 4" - the latter is the version shown in the pattern pic) and decided not to do the two buttons at the neck.

Verdict: This pattern was very quick and easy to knit! I liked the subtle variegation of the Dream in Color Classy yarn but was not crazy about the fact that there was a knot (sometimes two knots) in each skein. The yarn wasn't super soft to knit with but it got softer and drapier once I washed it. I would use it again.