Friday, January 20, 2012


AT LAST - RAIN!

Warm sewing rooms are nice for napping on rainy days (and all other days too).


An email from my local sewing guild came around asking if people could sew up various types of blankets and cat beds. Cat beds. I was all over it. Leftover flannel from other projects along with a bolt of fiberfill for padding that was a gift from friend Emmy. A little of my time, and voila! 14 cat beds.



Finally. Done. I decided to make my Canadian cousin, who is having some health issues, a pair of happy house boots. The sewing together of the boots was easy but getting the bottoms to fit gave me conniptions. I kept having other projects take priority so it was a long time from starting to finishing of this particular project. I didn't like the commercial bottoms available so I bought some deer skin and sewed up my own. Lily, my sewing machine, was put to the test. I tried the leather needle and struggled. I had much better results with a wing needle but finally, a fairly small needle gave the best results. There was some issue with the thread breaking but overall, not that bad.

Gail was more than generous with giving me her foot measurements (she has the smallest feet of any of my friends and my cousin has small feet). Thank you Gail! The actual sewing of the bottoms after the fitting issue was resolved wasn't technically hard but very tiring. My fingers hurt. For those of you with eagle eyes, yes, that is some of the double faced wool that I made an overly large coat from (and unpicked and resewed for a much better fit).

Funny aside: I paid around $3.50 to mail the package to Canada. A few months ago I mailed my sister-in-law the tennis shoes she left at my house. It cost me nearly $11 and she lives down in Sacramento. Go figure.


The fingerless gloves are done and will be gifted next week. A nice quick project


Bright Star- photo courtesy of The Twist Collective (I guess I could have scanned it from my purchased pattern but this was so much easier.)


Progress is being made and I am liking it a lot. I decided to go down a needle and pattern size because I tend to knit loosely and turn out garments that are too large. Bright Star calls out to be a bit on the snug side. Classic Elite Waterlily on size 4's. I will likely use up all 8 skeins. I plan to drop the pattern line down below my bust a couple of inches and make the garment longer if I have enough yarn.

Friday, January 13, 2012

ONE OF THESE DAYS...






It's going to rain. Snow will fall in the Sierras. Hubby and I will haul out our cross country skis or our snowshoes and we'll go play. One of these days. I'm sure of it.


In the meantime Hubby works very hard.








Some critters - not so much. A pool of sunlight makes a small dog very sleepy. Cats too.


I do what I can.


I keep telling myself I should take advantage of the dry weather and get lots done outside. So far not lots but some. Mostly I want to knit and sew.


Finished at last: Cameo


It's not quite the vamp top shown in the book but I like it. It's very warm yet very light. I've already worn it several times. RY Cashsoft DK. Around 6 skeins on 4's (I think). I knit and reknit the little cap sleeves trying to get short rows that didn't look like crap. Good news: I did finally and now I know A GREAT DEAL about short row-ing. Not so great news: the sleeve looked quite dumpy and baggy to boot so out them came. I wish that 1) I hadn't bothered with so much short row effort and 2) I'd made a smaller size though this is exactly my size and I got gauge spot on.


Knit and Learn. It's what it's all about. That and mellowing out the urge to kill people. (Did I type that out loud?)




I decided to whip out a pair of simple fingerless gloves via a free pattern on Ravelry. Totally easy and the yarn was free too. Lorna's Laces sock yarn from my knitting group's Christmas yarn swap. I've never worked with LL before though Valerie gifted me with some a couple of years ago and I keep meaning to use it. The yarn is nice but I haven't really felt an urge to drool over it. The gloves are larger than I hoped for. I have wide hands and fairly long fingers and they are big on me. Still, off to Gift Land they will go. I have Bright Star up next on my needles and perhaps I'll work on a UFO.

GARDEN STUFF



The days are pretty warm for this time of year (like in the SIXTIES!!!) but there is and has been a fair amount of frost. There are still flowers to be found such as this Fall blooming Tagetes lemmonii.




And some blooms up high on the climbing roses.


Perhaps Hubby and I should do a rain dance. I am considering washing my truck too. These are desperate times.





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