sewdistracted

Fun in Chicago

I was incredibly fortunate to be able to spend this past weekend in the company of a group of fabulous women who all share a love of sewing, fiber, and for some knitting as well.  Barbara,  Diane, Patty and I all converged on Chicago to join Patti and share laughter, food, fun and fabric shopping.

I love this picture of Diane because it captures all the fun, laughter, and friendship that filled the weekend.

 

Here are Barbara and Patty perusing the remnant tables at Vogue Fabrics Saturday morning.  It was fun fabric shopping with fellow fiber fiends, and although there was some enabling going on, there was also considerable thoughtful advice and clear-thinking discussions of what works, what doesn't, and why we should be discriminating in what we buy.

We were fortunate to be able to meet Cennetta at Vogue and she joined us in a tiny booth for lunch which was fabulous primarily because we were all were able to share so many ideas with enthusiasm and laughter.   You should go check out Cennetta's blog as she is a far more organized and thinking photographer than I, as I managed to carry my camera around but mostly forget to take pictures.

I'm working on that, although perhaps far too slowly.

I did, of course, do some shopping.  For me that meant more at Fishman's  than at Vogue, although I found some lovely things at both.  Luckily Fishman's had the perfect coordinates for a grouping that has been haunting my thoughts for some time now.  I had shopped my stash but had not found just the right compliments.  I found one piece at Vogue and the rest at Fishman's and you will be seeing it all as it arrives and evolves.

Don't expect the evolution right away.  The Fishman's order is being held for one piece which was not in stock, and although I was initially disappointed not to have the fabric immediately, I also realized that I will be away for about 10 -12 days the beginning of May and wouldn't have gotten to it before the trip regardless.  It is so nice to have something that I have been fretting over finally begin to take shape and evolve into a coherent collection.

The only sad part of the weekend was that Carolyn  and Marji  couldn't join us.  They were missed.

pyjama top

I was going to just show you a flat picture of the  pajama top but, lucky you, you get this one instead.

I'm all packed up and ready to go now, and it is just as well that I didn't get to the robe, although the complementary prints will look nice together.  There is no more room in my bag.

I really like this top, and will make it again, in a softer fabric.  As you can see, although it looks fine, in the right fabric it really needs to be looser with more drape and float, but in this fabric that would be just unattractive.  I certainly don't need any extra room in the shoulders though, and should probably do my forward shoulder alteration to the shoulders and armhole/sleeve head  and then add from the FBA down.

We are departing tomorrow for Boston, where DH will visit his sister, and I head off to Chicago on Friday.

Have a nice weekend.

A little sewing

Well, I actually sewed something but I don't have pictures to show you as the batteries on my camera died and I apparently neglected to charge the spare....it has just been one of those days, despite the thrill of actually sewing. But I do want to be sure that I get something posted before going out of town Thursday morning.

I mentioned that I had a few panicked moments on Sunday when I noticed that I needed to sew something in a hurry -- I was thinking pajamas.  I am meeting some fiberly friends this weekend and there **may** be a pyjama party and I realized in a panic that I have no reputable looking pj's.  They are all either  threadbare or too small.  I was seriously considered taking my loose floppy gardening pants and big shirt but then I remembered several other upcoming trips and realized I really need something decent to wear in other-people's houses. 

A quick look through the cotton stash revealed this cotton by Carla Miller for Rowan.  I thought I had enough for a pair of PJ's.  The coordinating floral in Sunday's post is meant to be a simple robe.

Then I picked this pattern:

Truthfully it was mostly chosen because I didn't want to deal with buttons and buttonholes, knowing it would be a busy week, and it was on top of the first pile of patterns waiting to be filed and put away.  I actually only made the top.  For the pants I used my basic one-seam pants pattern.

The top turned out very nicely.  I cut a straight 16 and did no alterations because it looked like it would fit well enough (they are only pajamas) and again, there was the time issue.  They do fit, but they are a little snug through the hip, this will not bother me.  I did not do a turned back cuff on the sleeves, mostly because I just barely had enough length to cut the both the pants and the shirt and had to shorten the sleeve pattern in order to make it work.  It would be really nice in a soft linen or a lightweight wool knit, although for regular street wear I really need to make the top a bit looser and do a FBA.

The fabric is a little stiffer and heavier than I usually prefer in my jammies and it is too stiff for this top, but it is fine for my purposes and there will certainly be no modesty issue.  I don't know if I am going to get to the robe, I haven't cut it yet.  I can definitely have it for the trip to Tennessee to see step-daughter's family, but I might not make it this weekend.  The alternatives are not good though.  The only robe that fits is bulky and heavy and I was really hoping to make do with carry-on luggage as I also have to negotiate the Boston Metro, and the light robe is a little too snug. I may have to rely on the old Trenchcoat trick.

I had hoped to start it tonight but I took a little break to go online and pay a few bills only to notice some funny charges on my credit card.  Now I use that card a lot online and elsewhere and have never had problems before, but apparently someone and their friends or family think they are flying to Singapore on my dollar and I don't approve.  The card has been cancelled, the charges disputed, and I really don't know what will happen to the tickets, I don't care as long as I don't pay for them.   

Since I still seem to be riled up, perhaps I will get that robe cut out, but I do have two work crews coming at 8,  and I might have just used up my sewing allotment.

weekend update

I have made no progress on the UFO piles.  Well, no that is not quite true -- I did hem some workout pants so that I can go to the gym decently clad now that I can no longer hide beneath my coat.

This may not look like much to some, but these are really just  this year's UFOs.  There is at least another large box and drawer full hiding away and I really need to finish some of those as well, regardless of season.  The psychic weight of the UFOs is stifling my creativity. 

That said, and despite the fact that there are at least 4 unfinished current knitting projects, not counting the ones from last year, I am making good progress on a  new sweater.  The front and back are completed and have been blocked:













The yarn is Binario by Trendsetter and I am knitting it on US 9 needles, which yields a rather open lacy effect. 

I had intended to start working on the pattern for a particular project today and I did pull the pattern out and start studying the pieces, thinking about cutting and potential alterations and starting the muslin. Then in a panic I realized I need to start something else as well so I grabbed some pretty cottons and washed, dried, and pressed them, so that now I am ready to start tomorrow.  At least I hope I am ready.  I haven't checked my notion supplies for over a year and really have no idea if I have everything I need, but I have faith, and I know I have thread.

Here are the fabrics I am going to start working on this week:

Saturday Miscellany

I finally got out to work in the disaster area that was formally known as my front yard today and it was a joy to be rooting about the leaves and twigs, unearthing the dainty green tendrils.

The fritallaria are blooming:

They are hiding between the iris  and a few stalwart tulips that have ventured up for a second year's bloom.  I had been a bit worried about the irises after a few of them thought they were going to go for a third bloom last year in early December.  They were caught by a frost and a snowstorm just a day or two before they would have opened and I remember how the warm January of 2007 fooled my poppies into thinking it was spring and they were fully leafed out and blooming when we got the February snowstorms. Only two of the poppies survived, a fate apparently not shared by the irises.

I also neglected to plant tulips in the front bed last fall; in fact I didn't even pull the spent tulip bulbs and I was thrilled to see so many coming back up with buds. Of course they are much smaller than new bulbs, but I don't usually expect more than one year from my tulips. I did learn that the Ropell dip I gave them when I planted them in the fall of 2006 is apparently good for only 1 season, as quite a few of the tulips have been nibbled down to the ground, but I am hoping that a few of these buds will survive long enough to give me a few blossoms.

Between gardening adventures I have been knitting -- I'll update you on that tomorrow, and have absolutely been avoiding the UFO pile.

What I have been spending my indoor time with today is the new issue of Gourmet, which arrived yesterday and is devoted to cooking vacations.

I am reading all the descriptions of the various locations and courses and filling my head with dreams of new skills, wonderful flavors, and exotic locales.  There is not  a one that does not sound interesting to me.  I always want to cook when I go to new places and look at the markets and the food, and I would love to go somewhere and learn to cool regional or local dishes.  Although France and Italy and California sound wonderful, so do the more exotic climes.  I would happily travel from village to village in Soviet Georgia and milk cows to make my own fresh cheese, I would love to explore the cuisines of Turkey, or Laos, and I would probably try the Buffalo stomach too, it can't be that much different than the pig stomach we had in Chinatown once, when DH pulled over the waiter and said we wanted what they were having at the next table, despite the protestations that the dish was not suited to American tastes.

Anyway, it is a great magazine for dreaming, and of course there are recipes (not for beef stomach) to try,  and even a discussion of a culinary vacation right in my own backyard.  The CIA offers a culinary boot camp, an intense one week course in basic skills and techniques.  I have taken simpler, one day classes and learned a lot but I would still love to go to boot camp.  As a self-taught home cook, there are wide gaps in my knowledge.  Lucky me I wouldn't even have to leave home and DH wouldn't have to milk cows or wander around strange locales while I cooked.  Of course he might still miss me when I'm in cooking school from dawn to dark or beyond.

A favorite green and purple combination

It is definitely spring here, but still a cool spring.  Although I am bringing out the lighter clothes, certain deeper, richer colors still seem right at home.  This is fine with me, I actually like the cool evenings and mornings (although I would perhaps prefer that "cool" meant above freezing, and I enjoy the opportunity to indulge in one of my favorite color pairings.

Soon enough it will be warm enough to put the stretch velvet turtleneck away for the season as well as the purple cords and boots which aren't seen in this photo.  For now I can enjoy the richness of color the opportunity to combine a wider variety of textures.

A spring weekend

A sailboat on the Hudson is a clear sign that it must be spring.

Although it is cold today, with a chill wind, we finally had a few warm days and I was able to spend a little time in the yard.  A few new flowers are peeking up although they seem to be few and far between.  But  the hyacinths are up, looking a little chilly, but they are braving the cool weather. 

I wish I could have shown you the crocuses, but they were a little shy this year.  The blossoms were up, but stayed tightly closed most of the time.  Occasionally they would open up, most likely only to be hit with a chill and wilt before my eyes.  Still it was nice to see their bright little bits of color, just as these hyacinths are quite welcome  peeping up through the sea of brown.

The yard has suffered through a few years of workmen trampling on my flower beds and my own failure to give them the attention they need.  There is much to be done and I was happy to be out in the yard a little bit this weekend.  I don't see how I will manage to tackle everything, but it is really not something that I worry about that much.  Increasingly it seems that life is not to be measured in the number of things that are done but in the joy of doing.  That will be enough.

Still it was nice to see little bits of green here and there.  I tried to grow primulas for years  without success and it tickles me no end that these two, which were picked by DH about 8 years ago when he accompanied me to a local greenhouse, come back faithfully year after year.  I was convinced they would be another failure, but they keep coming back, reminding me to keep trying.

There were few fiberly activities over the weekend.  Yard work and a concert took up much of Saturday and Sunday found me possessed of a seasonally inspired need to clean, refurbish and refeather the nest.

I did find time to peruse the new Vogue Sewing:

I love the articles and information on the new Chado Ralph Rucci patterns and details about the garments and their construction. I have been a fan of Rucci's for a long time and have taken advantage of the opportunity to study his garments whenever possible.

Of course I bought the first two patterns, although I don't intend to make the dress right away.  I hope to start the shirt soon and have the pattern on a stack of things that I must make muslins of VERY SOON,

There is also, unfortunately, a rather large stack of UFOs that must be completed simply because they have grown to be such a burden on my psyche.  I am really hoping that I can work on both the UFOs and the muslins simultaneously......kind of rewarding myself for working through the stack, but you know that is not really likely to happen.  Still, it is a lovely dream, and looking at the pattern will hopefully encourage me to wrap up those pesky projects.

It is still a little early around here for spring produce, but  I just have to show you these beautiful  mushrooms that were delivered this week.  I know I am very fortunate to have a specialty mushroom grower near me and to be able be one of his customers.  Although he grows mushrooms much of the year, this week the oyster mushrooms were incredible.  Often when they are big like this they get a little thick and tough.  In that case I usually roast them.  But although these are large, they are also tender and delicate so I wanted to take advantage of their more subtle  flavors.  They were perfect for a quick stir-fry with a little chicken breast and some crisp snow-peas on the side.  And that is the perfect way to end a spring weekend.

Got Thread?

Look what my mom sent me:

Oodles and Oodles of my favorite Mettler thread!

Thanks Mom!

What to Wear

There has been a thread over at Stitcher's Guild lately called "So What did you wear today? Why?" which I have been following pretty avidly, even though I only posted there a couple of times.  Reading the various posts has caused me to think about what I wear on a daily basis, versus what I sew and whether I want to sew most of the things I wear (yes and no), as well as whether I wear what I wear because it is merely convenient, or if I wear what I really want.

Like all questions in life, the truth proves to be complicated and at times elusive.  I have been contemplating pursuing the question further here, but have been rather reluctant.  A lot of what I have worn lately has not necessarily been things I have sewn, but that is not really the issue.  More in my mind has been what is my view of the purpose of this blog and why do I want to post pictures of what I wear.  Is anybody interested? Probably not, but then, truthfully I never expected anyone to be interested and was rather shocked to correspond with people who actually read my words.      

Originally I started writing to help me coalesce my own thoughts and keep a record of what I was doing.  Although I also hoped that the blog would help me to keep family and friends updated on what I was doing, my main purpose force me to keep track of my own projects and hopes and desires for projects.   If my goal is to make sense of the random jumble of my thoughts in terms of sewing clothing that I will actually wear, pursuing some kind of survey of what I actually wear, and why I wear it, makes sense. 

But do I want to put pictures of myself in my clothes up on the internet for all to see?  I have always had issues with photographs;  I am not a "natural" subject tending to freeze when the camera is pointed my way, or I take the opposite tack and look like I am trying to hard.    Add to that my own mixed feelings about my own appearance as well as the role of appearance and "beauty" in society, and the whole thing gets rather complicated. 

One thing that appealed to me, long ago, before I started this blog, about some of the sewing forums was the idea that one could post pictures of what one sewed on mannequins.  This allows one to see the garment and hopefully the mannequin matches the measurements of the seamstress more or less exactly.  Using a mannequin also puts the emphasis on the garment, on the style and techniques, not on the person wearing the garment, and this appealed to me because I was able to focus on the "what" of what I made and the details of "how" it was made.  Showing photos of the garment on the person for whom it was made shifts the perspective ever so slightly away from the garment and toward the person wearing it.  I am not sure this is always a bad thing, and I understand that looking at a garment on a person is less abstract than looking at the garment alone, but I still struggle with this issue.  There is probably some perfect blending of mannequin shots and a final view of the garment as worn, but I am still working out the details.

So, as a person who thinks far too much and worries ideas to death, I wait.  I ponder.  And I get nowhere.

And then, as if there was some divine alignment of the heavens, materfamilias  wrote a post uncannily related to my own thoughts and dilemmas, except that she wrote far more coherently and cleverly than I could in my wildest dreams, surprisingly touching on many of the same questions, feelings and issues that plague me on this same subject.

So I decided to go ahead.

What did I wear this week?

I have three examples and each is telling in different ways.  It was a casual week, working around the house, going to the post office and the grocery store, acting as chauffeur for my DH who is not allowed to drive for another three weeks following open-heart surgery.

Spring finally arrived this week and so I started pulling out summer clothes.  Here you see my favorite summer sneakers.  I dearly love these things.   They are perfect with cropped pants or soft linen or cotton trousers. 

Summer has long been, in my mind at least, a time for looseness and lightness, not really for serious clothes.  In the summer I love brightly colored flat sandals and espadrilles and yes, casual canvas sneakers.  But sneakers are problematic.  They are easier to find than espadrilles in my neck of the woods, but as a person who has never learned to keep her shoes tied, sneakers present the added difficulty of laces.  It is not appropriate to run around, laces flopping in the breeze at the half-century mark, and it is perhaps nearly as embarrassing to have to double-knot your laces at this age.   Yes, untied sneakers seem to add to that air of distraction and dishevelment that seem to follow meeverywhere, but I don't really want to run around with my shoes untied no matter how much I love my Converse sneakers.  Most slip-on sneakers somehow never struck me as quite right, until I found these court slip-ons.  Now I have them in several colors. Admittedly what appeals to me is the idea that they look like they should have laces.  Even though I am fooling no one,  and I see them everywhere, I still feel like a kid who is getting away with something every time I wear them.  And what is more in keeping with summer fun?

This is what I wore yesterday.  It is one of my favorite transitional outfits.  When it is just a tad warmer I will switch from the suede mules to strappy platform sandals, but this will never be a heat-of-summer outfit anyway.

The sweater was knit in spring of 2005:  kingfisher  and although I love it and think it looks really good on I had trouble wearing it.  To begin with, being a viscose blend with nylon it is too hot for the humidity of mid summer.  Then I somehow had trouble finding the perfect pants.  The color is good for jeans but it looked terrible with any jeans I owned.  I was going through a period where I didn't wear jeans much though, and all I had were basic "work" jeans that I use around the house and in the yard.  I also couldn't get the perfect pants.  Everything was either too dressy, or too slouchy or just too something.   I have a pair of medium blue linen pants that look nice, but the linen is very summery and the sweater, although bright and cheery, is really not a summer sweater.  Linen pants look out of place on cold spring days or even on warmer fall days,  adding to the impression that I just can't get my act together.

But then, last fall I found this pair of jeans.  They are by Wörn jeans and they, surprisingly, fit me perfectly right out of the box.  I ordered them because they are cut a little higher through the rise than most current jeans.

But then, I learned that just having jeans that fit is not in and of itself enough.  They fit well, they look ok (but they are not the kind of jeans that draw "oh wow" comments from my DH, and I have some like that too, music to my middle-aged ears) but they have issues.  Namely I couldn't find anything in my wardrobe that went with them without looking dowdy or like "mutton dressed as lamb" or "aging hippie wanna-be", until I found this sweater.  Now I have the perfect pairing, even if I have only one outfit that goes with these jeans, I can also look at it is finally having the perfect outfit to wear with a favorite sweater, and therefore worthwhile.

The whole situation tells me several things:

I should make more sweaters in this basic shape as it is quite flattering.  Hanne Falkenberg's Mermaid is similar, and there are a host of patterns in this shape floating around the knitting world right now.  I should take advantage.

I really should find other long tops with this kind of fitted and flared shape so that I can wear the jeans with other things.  This is a good jeans shape for me and it always has been.  I basically, whether fatter (now) or thin, have too curvy of a figure to be a natural in jeans. So I am thinking I should try some of the more ethnic inspired floaty tops that have been around of late.  If i get the right fit through the ribs or waist with a gentle flair of asymmetrical bit of hem they might look quite nice.  So I need to find another look for the jeans, one that makes the perhaps questionable styling work for me without looking too "middle-aged matron".

It is not proving to be an easy task.

I really like the jeans.  They remind me very much of a pair I had with almost exactly the same fit and shape when I was in college. Of course, I look very different than I did in college, and I don't want to look like a middle-aged woman trying to relive her teen years (God forbid!  That is one period I most definitely DO NOT want to relive) but the jeans make me happy.  I have a picture with me and some college friends sitting around a pool in 1977 in those jeans, and these jeans somehow evoke some of the same feelings in me.

I wore this on Monday.  It was a bit chilly that day, and I was tired so I tend to gravitate toward long sweaters where I don't really have to think about how I look but I can convince myself that I am at least presentable.   They may not be my best look, but that is not the issue here.  As a person who lives too much in my head, I do sometimes appreciate the idea that a nun's habit provides a certain answer to how to get dressed and look pulled together, without really being interested in the necessary career path required.  But then, nuns don't wear habits anymore do they?

I suppose I looked a little frumpy here.  I felt pulled together and even pretty because of the bright purple scarf.  The long cardigan, although hiding any evidence that there is a figure underneath, tends to make me feel confident and happy on days when I am otherwise tired, as I feel like I just don't have to worry about things like whether my tummy is sticking out, or how I am standing if my back is sore.  I realize that long bulky sweaters make one look heavier, but I suppose that I really don't care about that issue so much.  So I guess what I am saying is that what makes one FEEL beautiful on any given day may or may not be what others thinks makes one look one's best.  But I think feeling attractive and pulled together is the key. I am wearing the same jeans.  These jeans I see tend to look kind of rumpled.  I never have figured out how to wear jeans and look crisp, no matter what jeans I wear or what I do to them.

I guess I am just not a crisp person.  Floppy is as floppy does.

books, books, books, a sea of books

Long before I learned to sew or knit I was a reader.  I have fond memories of summer afternoons walking to the local library and bringing home stacks of books, devouring them and then, and then repeating the entire process the next day.  I think it was because I repeated this process so frequently that my parents had me write book reviews of every book for a while one summer.  I don't recall that the book review assignment lasted all that long, but I kept reading.  It was not a big step from reading to acquiring books, although I do truthfully know several people who read constantly but have no urge to possess the books they have read.  It is too bad I did not acquire that gene.  I have managed, over the years to divest myself of many books, and I do read many more books from the local library system, but still the piles of books accumulate.

So now you know the truth about me, I am a hoarder of things despite all protestations to the contrary that I like things neat and clean…..no minimalist I. But I do accumulate specific things: books, fabric, yarn, patterns -- too many patterns probably, especially given my pattern buying the last week or so, but they do take up far less space than the fabric or the books. 

 
This week has been preoccupied with the books. We have converted one of the spare bedrooms into a workout room/library and most of my "spare" time this week has been spent putting up the shelves and filling them with the books slated for this room.  It is by no means the entire collection:  our new library houses only  the gardening books, oversized art books (both very small collections) and the fiction/literature and cookbook collections (much larger).  I had in fact hoped that there would be a little more blank space on the shelves for future growth, but that growth will have to be achieved somewhere else in the house, or curtailed.

The room is small and makes maximum use of the space.  This is the long bookcase, on one end of the room, about 9 feet long by about 9 feet high.  There are 8 shelves on each wall; you only see glimpses of the top and bottom shelves in this photo.   I had hoped to get all the fiction on this wall, and I probably would have had I not used the bottom shelf for oversized art books.  As a result some of the fiction wrapped around the corner to the shorter wall, as seen on the left side of this second photo:

Here is the corner view.  It is difficult to get a good photo in a room that is only about 9 x 11 feet, I can't get far enough from the shelves to include a complete shot.  The books on the right are on the long (9 ft wall) and the ones on the left are the shorter shelves (about 5 1/2 feet) There is a pair of file cabinets and a doorway to the left of the shelves.   

The short wall contains my cookbook collection, with the exception of that top shelf just under the ceiling, which is the beginning of the fiction and literature section, authors beginning with "A".  In the end it works out as that shelf is 8 feet up from the floor, effectively out of reach without a ladder and probably more appropriate for literary volumes than cookbooks, which will be used more frequently. 

That is Penelope Ann in the corner, my DSD's dressform.  She is in desperate need of a new, more flattering outfit.  DSD stripped Penelope of her clothes last time she visited and I haven't yet made her anything new, poor girl.  Penelope Ann would be about 5'6" if she had a head, so that gives you a relative sense of height in the room.

There is more to do; there is a walk-in closet in the room, out of view in these pictures, it would be behind the photographer that still needs to be cleaned out but I have had enough for now.  Even the prospect that this may become at least a partial fabric closet isn't enough to keep me slaving away at it right now....although I have enjoyed putting away my books, and revisiting a few of them, I have been neglecting my sewing and knitting and miss them terribly.