Yarn Crawl

Week 2 of Walking/Running Schedule

I am on Week 2 of my walking/running schedule - this week started out with running two minutes at a time alternating with one minute walks and will end with running four minutes at a time alternating with the one minute walks. This week increases the total walk/run segment by 4 minutes as well.

Per the plan, yesterday I did the two minute segments to start the week (Mondays have been tough) and today I did two and a half minutes. I've been doing four to five sessions a week and my heart rate has been getting up to about 135 on the running segments, which I think is in the right ballpark. I had previously been walking on the treadmill every day with a high incline, which burned more calories in the same time frame but was starting to mess up my knees and hips and didn't really get my heart rate up that much (maybe because I had been doing it so consistently for years.)

So I'm thinking eventually at the end of these 8 weeks, when I'm running the entire 30 minutes (and more, once I get out of the initial training period) my heart rate will be up the entire time and it will be even more effective than my old workout. So far it still seems pretty easy, but it is getting a little bit harder now. I like having a plan to follow though. Otherwise I go with my usual tendency to "go hard or go home" and end up totally killing myself.

New Knitting Project!

Cerisara, the new pattern by Bonne Marie Burns a/k/a Chic Knits:

I started it yesterday using some Vickie Howell Craft I had gotten from my last SP - I had been looking for the right project to use it in and I think this is the winner! I love that this design is knit from the top-down, and has just enough going on to keep my interest without needing a conversation-stopping level of concentration. Loving it!

I Was a Busy* Girl This Weekend...

I had to muster up the energy/courage to tackle the invisible zipper for my dress, so I cut out and (mostly) made the Simplicity 2475 "Amazing Fit" skirt pattern as it called for an invisible zipper. I know I can replace any type of zipper with an invisible zipper, unless it doesn't make sense (ones that have a lot of stress aren't good candidates, I guess - though I personally think they are as sturdy as regular lapped zippers and they are in most of my RTW garments.) But anyway, I figured I would try a pattern that features one first and sew it in successfully to build my confidence for doing it on the dress. I'd sewn in an invisible zipper before but never really was able to match intersecting seams very well. The bottom line is, now I feel confident about invisible zippers and I've figured out which method works for me (invisible zipper foot ONLY, no regular zipper feet, and 1/8" double stick tape instead of basting or pinning.)

First I'll show the 2475 skirt, which is kinda blah. I would start with a size down next time as this was just kinda lumpy on me. I haven't sewn the waistband facing on it yet (which is why you can see the serging at the waist - that will be covered by the facing) and that may shape it up somewhat, but overall, blah. I might try a muslin of the size down, and if that doesn't wow me, I'm throwing out the pattern.

I do like the pleats/pleat extensions in the back - hadn't tried that before and it was very easy to do:

Side view - "wagh-wah" (said in a singsongy, downward tone) is the sound effect that keeps coming to mind. But the zipper worked well!

And now, for the dress, in which I installed the invisible zipper, sewed the lining to the dress and hand sewed button loops to the outside neck on (one of which got stuck in my stitching and I have to pick it out.)

I have some fixes to do, which I'll detail in a minute, but overall, I'm happy with it so far!

It looks good from far away, but there is a neckline issue where the lining sticks out that I'll be fixing. Clipping the V-neck out and pressing it might be all it needs, but I'm going to recheck the stitching too once I turn it inside out again.

Side looks good

Back

I'm a fan of the zipper. I need to pick out that neck loop and sew on the buttons so I can replace that binder clip holding the neck straps up. I also have to slip stitch the excess back lining inside the zipper and sew on the hook and eye at the top of the zipper. Plus press EVERYTHING once I re-turn it back right side out after these fixes, and oh yeah, hem the lining and the dress. But I am on schedule, as the event is April 24th. Next to cut out Jim's vest and get that going. I'm off this Friday by myself as Jim has to work then so I will have some uninterrupted time to work on that then! But now I want to sew invisible zippers in everything. All I want to sew is woven items that have invisible zippers and linings. Can you believe it??

*And truth be told, bitchy as well as busy. I was a crab ass all weekend for some reason. Poor Jim. I really was on a mission to get things done though and sometimes I can be annoying when I get like that. Jim laughed just now when he saw the title of my post - I told him I was going to add the "and bitchy" part and he cracked up and said "Love you, babe..." - so I must not have been that bad :)

New Project

I got inspired the other day by Jenny's post on her new adventures in running and curious, I bought the book that she recommended on getting started with running. I've been doing the treadmill almost every day for 40-45 minutes on somewhere between an incline of 5 and the max incline of 15, but haven't tried running.

The book has you start out realllly slowly and eventually works you up to 30 minutes of running. I just did Day 2 of Week 1, in which you work up to 2 minutes of running at a time, alternating with a minute of walking. It seems very easy to me right now but I'm restraining myself from doing more as that always is my tendency - to do too much and end up injuring myself or burning out. So far so good though, I'm liking it.

My friend Dawn at work just did an 8K a few weeks ago after starting to run sometime last year and she wants to run with me once I get going, so it will be cool to have a running buddy. But primarily I plan to do my workouts on the treadmill as I have a high quality one (Lifefitness, the kind they have in the gyms) and also I like to work out first thing in the morning, which is convenient to do inside in the privacy of my own home. I need to go to a running store and get fitted for shoes, as I have low arches (not completely flat, but definitely on the flatter side) and I probably will need shoes that account for that pronation (I've been doing my research/reading.)

This weekend I plan to finish the dress (maybe everything except the hem) and cut out Jim's vest to get started on that. I also should sew together the mohair shrug but I may or may not get to that. I have had pretty much zero in the knitting mojo department - no projects are really catching my eye right now. I think I'm just burned out from the Ravelympics and working on that Sampler Afghan after that when I was up in Wisconsin. It's definitely a way to give a project bad juju (to take it with you when you go out of town for a death in the family....)

Sneak Peek

Over the weekend I made a lot of progress on the gala dress while it was snowy and cold out. I finished sewing all of the skirt pieces together and the bodice pieces together for both the fashion fabric (the dupioni silk) and the lining (Bemberg rayon, which I love love love.) I still need to 1.) make the button loops for the back neck and sew them on 2.) sew the bodice to the skirt for both the silk and the rayon 3.) put in the zipper 4.) sew the lining to the dress 5.) hem everything. I also was able to find all of the vest and bow tie hardware I need for Jim's vest, which is next on the agenda after the dress is done.

Here's a sneak peek of the bodice:

I have been using my serger to finish all of these ravely edges and it's been working very well:

I sampled serging the seam allowances open, but as I have a few seams that are 3/8" (on purpose) I liked the effect better of serging the seam allowances closed.

I finished the knitting on the mohair/blingy shrug on Saturday but need to block/sew the pieces together.

Gala Shoe Winner!

And the winner is...

Nine West "Champagne"

I also kind of liked these

as they were comfortable, but I decided that I didn't need two pairs of silver shoes.

The other two were just horribly wrong on my feet.

Gala Shoes!

More shoes today...I ordered these four pairs from Zappos yesterday and they will be delivered here to the office today. We like to do shoe runway shows here and I get thumbs up or thumbs down opinions from all the other ladies after modeling the various pairs of shoes. Here are my final four choices for silver shoes:

Nine West "Champagne"

Touch Ups "Alexis" (these are the front runner as they look the most comfortable, at least before trying them on)

Chinese Laundry "Whirl"

and Nina "Gathi"

I limited my choices to brands that consistently fit me well (except for the Touch Ups, which I'd never heard of before.)

I also bought myself a Jordana Paige Rio knitting bag in "Blue Lapis" as blue and yellow are the "it" colors this season. I've gotten so many compliments on my other Namaste knitting bag that I use as a purse that I figured I would just buy another knitting bag as a purse. This one is huge too, and the point that finally got me is that I was reading some people use it as a laptop bag. Sold! I had been thinking about getting a Rio for awhile, was waiting to see one "in person" at a local yarn shop and never did, so just decided to take the plunge, especially as I get way more compliments on that knitting bag than I do on my more expensive actual purses.

Obviously retail therapy has been the theme of the week.

And Now for Something Completely Different....

Spring shoes!!

Here are the shoes I got yesterday from Zappos (and kept - I did order another pair that didn't fit right so I sent them back.)

to hop on the gladiator trend (Kenneth Cole Reaction "Get2KnowU")

and these VanEli "Perkin" shoes for transitioning into spring when you don't quite want to get into full-on open toe shoes yet. I'm wearing those today. You can't see it in the picture, but they are this cool tortoiseshell patent leather. Love!

First Day Back...

Sorry to have been MIA for the past week. Jim's dad passed away last week and we were out of town for a number of days. He's doing OK, I think this is easier than when his mom passed in October just because he's been through it before, but still, never an easy situation. Depending on what you believe, they're together now and both out of their pain.

Anyway....back to the knitting/sewing.

I muslined another dress, Simplicity 3784, which looks very prom/bridesmaid on the pattern envelope. (See Version B below.)

However, in the matte grayish silver silk dupioni I got from fabric.com, without the ribbon, I think it will just have a general formalwear effect. I am skipping the boning and the horsehair braid for the seams/hem, respectively. I just made the "Miss Petite" adjustments to it initially and then had to adjust each of the four back seams by 1/4" to make sure the zipper will lay flat when installed as it was going to be a bit tight across the middle of my back. This is a very well drafted pattern, and I love princess seams.

I need to get cracking though. As soon as my newly ordered Bemberg rayon lining arrives (I ordered the "charcoal" originally as that was all Fabric.com had, and now ordered "silver" from another source) I will get going. I also only have the back to do on my mohair/blingy knitted lace wrap to go over the dress.

I also found this OPI nail polish online ("How to Jamaica Million") - this is an old favorite that I used to wear about 10 years ago that I found new on Ebay. It's now discontinued, but I knew I had to track it down to go with the outfit to top it off.

Isn't it perfect???

Dress Muslins and New Knitting Project

On Friday, I had oral surgery in the morning (some new type of gum grafting surgery that is supposed to make new gum tissue actually regenerate) and I hadn't expected to feel like doing much this weekend. However, I was pretty energetic and I ended up making two dress muslins, Jim's vest muslin and started a new knitting project.

First off, Butterick 4919. I like the way it looks on the dress form and on other people, but am not crazy about how it looks on me. There were three things I didn't like - 1.) extra fabric around the waist in the form of the wraparound ties - made me look thicker and shorter waisted 2.) skirt was too full and overwhelming on me and 3.) too much fabric in the bodice, which many other people noted and I would be willing to fix if 1.) and 2.) weren't issues. Here it is. It doesn't look horrible, and it wasn't horrible on me either, but I just knew I could do better to really flatter my particular body type and shape.

So I was back to the drawing board then, looking at my pattern stash for something else to mock up. I found this McCalls pattern

which is older but I think the style on the right (shown in animal print/black) is pretty classic, when done in one color, especially one like the grayish silver dupioni silk I have in mind. More on that later. I also liked that this pattern had petite adjustments marked right on the pattern tissue, which always makes the adjustments so easy. As I guessed, this one fits perfectly with just the petite adjustments.

I also made Jim's vest muslin (no pics) and the 36 is the right size, but I'm going to sew 3/8" seam allowances on the side seams just to be sure it will button smoothly without pulling.

I also went to Vogue Fabrics, Hancock Fabrics, and JoAnn Fabrics to look for dupioni silk, and Vogue was the only one that had any kind of decent selection. However, when I went there I hadn't yet finished the B4919 muslin and I thought I would need fabric wider than 45" for the fullness of the skirt as I was making the long version as well. Vogue's silk was nice, but they only had 45" wide fabric and it was $15.99/yd in the store, not the $11.99 on their website. HF and JF had a pretty pathetic selection of dupioni silk. At JF, it was literally three bolts of sad looking silk that was fraying and pulling on the bolt! Not.good. At HF, there were only a few colors as well and they looked cheap. So I am back to waiting for my swatches to arrive that I ordered from Fabric.com, then I can order my fabric.

I started a new knitting project to wear over the dress as a cover-up: - pattern #2 from the most recent Spring/Summer 2010 Vogue Knitting - in a yarn that cost me a total of $28 instead of $120 (as I couldn't find the more expensive yarn, but I'm actually happier with the one I'm using.) I made one sleeve and the left front (shown below) and am working on the right front. I did the first sleeve as my swatch as the gauge was measured over the chart pattern and it ended up working out perfectly as I started with needles one size down (10s.) Usually I always drop one size to get gauge, and so I had guesstimated I'd need to do that here too.

Here's the left front before blocking, etc.:

I was off by about 25% on row gauge and about 10% on stitch gauge but this was what I wanted, as I didn't want a 17" (from the underarm), 43" jacket. I'm looking for something that is still oversized but shorter, and so far it's working just by adding one additional 8 row repeat to each piece.

The picture doesn't do the yarn justice - it is Filatura di Crosa Gioiello, a great suggestion from the lady at Three Bags Full (one of my new favorite yarn shops, up in Northbrook - not too far from Vogue Fabrics and I hit both of them on Saturday.) I liked the shop a lot - it had a good energy about it and was pretty busy with a lot going on and a nice selection of yarns. On top of all that, to get an actually helpful yarn substitution suggestion was amazing. She could have very easily steered me toward another $40/skein Artyarns option but didn't, as she was actually thinking of what would work best for my project instead of trying to sell the most expensive yarn she had on the shelves. I will be back!