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!

Comments

[Maureen]

Quite the undertaking with the sweater. But the way you knit such beautiful items I am sure it will turn out wonderful.

[Jenny]

Spoke is sooo cute! I love Mr. Darcy for Joe. I'm putting that in the top of my queue for him. Well, you know, after the one I'm currently slaving over. ;) I'm sorry to hear that about Bob. Tell Jim to hang in there.

[austin]

I envy you. I love Spoke, but my knitting skills are no where near something like this. I love seeing everything you knit and an looking forward to seeing this.

[Jessica]

Spoke is the only thing I want to knit in this issue - I might keep it as a cardigan though, I'm not sure yet. I am sorry to hear about Jim's dad - I will keep you all in my thoughts!

[Debby]

I feel so sorry for Jim to be going through so much so soon. I hope he and his father can have a nice Christmas with the family despite everything.

There was nothing in Knitty that really spoke to me (bad pun) but I'm looking forward to seeing everyone knit Spoke! Congratulations on the great grades for your pants and coat.

[marjorie]

Ask your teacher if her offer might stand for future classes. It might help to work on your own for a while and then return to the class when you have some problems that would benefit from her expertise. The cost seems quite reasonable to me if you get the attention you need.

[knittymuggins]

I'm so very sorry to hear about your Father-in-law. Sending lots of hugs and good wishes yours and Jim's way. I hope you can spend some good quality time with him over the holidays :)

I love Spoke too! Seems a little intimidating for me, but I'll be anxious to hear what you have to say about it when you knit it up :)

[claire]

I am so sorry to hear about your father in law. I also agree about asking your teacher about taking classes in the future and working on stuff by yourself.
I hope you and Jim have a wonderful Christmas,despite what is happening.
Keeping your family in my prayers.

[Carol]

I'm sorry to hear about Jim's dad. Hopefully things get a little less stressful. As for the sewing thing, I think you are right. Give yourself a little time to play with wha tyou learned etc.