Divertissement

Over the weekend, I finally got around to doing something I've been wanting to do for a long time:  making zippered pouches.

I've been pinning various tutorials for different styles of bags for over a year, but I kept putting off actually making any.  They always seem to have so many steps, and I don't always have the mental energy to follow along.  Sadly, I wasn't able to figure it out on my own - and believe me, I spent a fair amount of time trying to do so!

Last Friday I finally got some time to sew, and decided I wanted to make something small rather than start a garment.  So I looked through my pins, and pulled up all the tutorials on zippered bags.  Bad idea - I was quickly overwhelmed!  Finally, I decided to just pick one website and make one bag to start with.  I picked Noodlehead. 

What a great choice!  This lady has a bunch of very easy-to-follow tutorials for designs I find useful.  She also has some lovely PDF patterns - I'm likely going to buy the Envelope Clutch pattern.

One of my goals in making these bags is to use up some of my scraps, so I started out with the Scrappy Makeup Pouch.  And scrappy is right - these bags can be pieced with very small bits of fabric.  Since I also have a lot of quilt batting leftovers, I used that instead of interfacing.  (Actually, this bag calls for batting.)  I used bits of fabric of random sizes to piece the front and back, but did cut them to the dimensions given in the tutorial.  Here's my first finished bag:

Perfect for holding my crochet hooks!

Chuffed by my success, I decided to make a second bag, so I got out my last bit of velveteen left over from the skirt, and some magenta corduroy.  I decided to get all fancy and add a D-ring and handle.  This one also used batting instead of interfacing.  Boy, did that take a herculean effort to sew through all those thick layers!

Same construction as the first bag, but not pieced.

On Saturday, I did indeed work on my quilt, but I couldn't leave well enough alone, and decided to try out the tutorial for the Open Wide Zipper Pouch.  Anna has made a really great chart showing three sizes for this bag, and even the sizes to cut the pieces for a constrast bottom!  I love this bag - it is perfect for knitting projects, as the top really does open wide!  For this one, I used fusible fleece to give the bag more structure.

I made the medium size, which uses a 12" zipper.

Sunday, I got up bright and early and headed off to JoAnn's to pick up some heavy interfacing.  When I got back, I tried out the Lil' Cutie tutorial.  This is such a practical little bag - just big enough for some cash and your keys, and a phone if it's not too big.  My phone is too big, so next time I make one of these I'll make it about an inch bigger each way.

This whistle keyring was the only one I had in the house!

I really had a blast making these bags, and I know I'll be making a lot more of them in the future.  I'm also very glad to have finally gotten over my apprehension about it.  Once I did it, it really made sense and now I feel kind of silly for being scared of these little projects!  It got me to thinking about how what is easy for one person can be confounding for another! 

Those of you who sew, have you ever made any of these?

Knitwear Extravaganza

Today I had a coffee date with Alicia, and before I left I managed to finish my Aura scarf.  Good thing, because when I stepped outside this morning it was only 20 degrees (F)!  A great excuse to pile on the handknits.

I started out with my Northern Lights dress.  I don't get many opportunities to wear this, so I was actually kind of glad it was a cold day.    All the while I was knitting my scarf, I kept thinking how good it would look with this dress, and I was right:

Then I reached for my orange thrummed earflap hat:

I made this about three years ago, and I always wear it when it gets very cold.  It really does do the trick!  I mostly wear it like this, to keep my ears nice and toasty:

The pattern is from Cocoknits:  the Fleeced Earflap Hat.  It was a blast to knit.  The fleece is merino sliver, broken down into bits and inserted between knit stitches.  After it's all knit, you "felt" the fleece with a hairbrush.  So fun - definitely a recommended pattern!

OK:  teal dress; check.  Neon green scarf:  check.  Orange hat:  check.  What else does this outfit need?  Hot pink puffer coat!

Yep.  I actually go around Chicago looking like this. 

Rowan

In the last week, I've added three issues to my collection of Rowan Knitting Magazine:

On top is issue 53 - for spring and summer.  This one is causing something of a kerfuffle on the Rowan Love ravelry group.  It contains a large amount of intarsia patterns with dropped shoulders, which is making folks kind of grumpy!  On my first pass I found exactly one pattern I might consider knitting.  Rather a disappointment.

I've been slowly adding to my collection over the last couple of years, in hopes of making it complete.  A couple weeks ago, I found two early issues at a relatively reasonable price, and went ahead and ordered them:

Rowan 4, from 1988

Rowan 8, from 1990

As you'd expect, there's a whole lot of oversized, drop-shoulder action going on in these two issues, as well as intarsia and stranded knitting which contains more than 2 colors per row.  Example:

Yikes!

Not super useful at the moment without a lot of alteration.  But a collection isn't really about being useful, is it?  I did fall in love with this ski sweater from issue 8 though:

I've been subscribing to Rowan since issue 21 (1997), and have managed to fill in over the years to the point where I'm only missing 6 issues:  the extremely elusive numbers 1 and 3 (when it pops up on Ebay, #1 sells for well over $100), along with numbers 5, 10, 12 and 14.

Today I decided to wear the first Rowan sweater I ever knit, from issue 21, the first magazine I received as a subscription.  I made this probably the following summer, so around 1998, and I still love it.  I remember finishing it up on our trip to Turkey, and walking to the little fabric shop with my mother-in-law to find the buttons for it.  Good times . . .

please excuse the mirror pic - it's all I have time for at the moment!

Yeeeeeeeears ago (1991) when I moved to St. Louis, there was a craft store called Leewards.  I'm pretty sure it was a chain, although I never saw one anywhere else.  It was similar to a Michael's or Hobby Lobby.  I would regularly find balls of 100% wool (even Shetland), usually German or Russian brands, for ONE dollar!  Every time I saw some in a color I liked, I would buy 15 or 20.  This sweater is made from one of those yarns.  It was a sad day for me when they closed their doors.

April, from Rowan 21

You can see from this and the first picture that this is a fairly boxy silhouette, as per the norm of the day.  I love the diamond stitch pattern, and my favorite part of this sweater is the notched collar.

So impeccable.  Any guesses as to the designer?  That's right:  Kim Hargreaves!  I'm starting to think I should make her her own tag, her name comes up so often here!

Are any of you Rowan collectors?  I'm curious if the back issues are easier to find in the UK than they are here.  It seems that the early issues that come up on Ebay are often in the UK, and it makes me wonder if they surface in thrift shops or garage sales.  Do they do garage sales* over there?  Please enlighten me!


*Garage sales seem to me to be a part of American culture, but I'm not really sure if this is true!  Over the summer, we took Niecey-poo to a garage sale, just as a point of interest about American culture.  She wasn't overly impressed!  They don't have garage sales in Turkey.  Because mostly they don't have garages, at least not where our family lives!

Velveteen/Rabbit

This morning I took some pictures of my little bunny friend.  He likes to tuck himself in between the gas meters and my garage wall.  This is the second winter he's been there, and I really like seeing him when I go out to my car in the morning.  (Yes, I'm pretty sure it's the same bunny.  Humor me.)  He is a little skittish though - as soon as I took his picture, he hopped away.

I guess nobody likes paparazzi.  Not even bunnies.

And today I'm wearing my new velveteen skirt for the first time!  So I made sure to save a couple of minutes to take some pictures.

Now, I know that I said I always wear a slip,  but today I decided to try going without.  The inside of this fabric is sticking nicely to my tights, keeping everything in place!  I felt like adding a slip would make everything all slidey - something I really can't stand, and have had to deal with a lot lately.  What remains to be seen is whether it's going to cause a lot of problems when I walk around!

New Quilting Project

Things have been kind of crazy around here the last several days, and it likely won't slow down until at least tomorrow.  I have not done a single stitch of sewing yet in 2013 - a travesty!  At least a little bit of knitting has happened.

But I didn't want to wait any longer to show my new quilting project:  Anna Maria Horner's Feather Bed Quilt. 

I first came across this design in late August, just before Niecey-poo and her family left us, via the Hawthorne Threads newsletter.  The moment I saw this quilt, I fell head over heels in love - it's what inspired me to try out quilting again after so many years.  I quickly ordered a half yard of each print in the "Patina" colorway  of the new Field Study line.  The pattern itself is a free download on Anna Maria's website.

I started my quilt about a month ago.  The first step is to cut strips of random widths across the whole 45" width of the fabric.

 

These strips then get sewn together to form a new fabric, which will get cut into the feather shapes.  Here's a picture of my first third of the pieced fabric, made about a month ago.  It contains one piece of each of the fabrics:

 
The pattern is very detailed, giving the yardages and layout diagram for each size quilt, and step-by-step instructions for piecing the feathers.

Since taking these pictures, I've finished another third of the pieced fabric.  I'm hoping to complete the final third later this week and begin cutting out my feather pieces.  I still haven't decided on a background color, but am leaning toward a cream or linen shade.

I'm not in a rush to complete this one.  I really like knowing it is there on the sidelines, waiting for those times when I feel like sewing straight lines.  My only goal is to have this complete by the end of 2013, and to enjoy the process along the way!

Moving on.

Time to get back to those WIPs!  I have a few that have been going for a while, but with all the year-end posts and things I sewed, I didn't have time to fit them in.

My "main" knitting project at the moment is the Lauren cardigan from Kim Hargreaves' book Precious.  I love all Kim's books, but this is one of my more favorite collections.  I've already knit 3 patterns from this book; this will be my fourth, and I've got a few more in my queue!

Lauren is a raglan batwing-sleeved cardigan with very fitted waist and round neck.  Here are some pictures from the book:

(Note how great it looks with a pencil skirt!)

I'm making mine in RYC Cashsoft 4 Ply - one of my very favorite yarns to knit with - in a deep brown shade called Bark.  And we already know that deep brown looks great with eau de nil.

I started this sweater exactly a month ago today.  I've already finished the back and most of the first front.  I chose to make the XS size because I think a small frame like mine can easily get overwhelmed in this type of garment.  I hope it works out!  It seems a little on the small side right now, but I have a very hard time gauging a finished size from the pieces.

I really love the texture stitch this pattern uses.  Kim has used this texture on two other sweaters I've knit:  Livi and Carrie.  It's fun and interesting without being overly demanding.

(Yes, this piece has been blocked!)

Another detail Kim often incorporates is a "ridge stitch,"  used at the front edges of a cardigan to emulate ribbing.  It's brilliant, because while it looks like a 2x2 rib you'd pick up along the front edge, it's knit right along with the rest of the piece!  Easy peasy!

Design elements like these and classic, timeless styles are what make Kim my very favorite knitwear designer.

There's a chance I may not have this finished in time to wear it yet this winter, but I'm glad I've started it.  It's been in my queue for a few years and the yarn has been in my stash for even longer!  And believe it or not, tiny yarn and needles are the most comfortable for me to work with, so this project gives me a nice, cozy feeling.

Time for some goal-setting

I've been thinking a lot about what I want to accomplish, craft-wise in 2013.  But I'm also wary of making too lengthy a list and setting myself up for failure.  So in the end I decided to keep it pretty simple.

When I think back to how I felt about sewing one year ago, it's really evident to me that I learned a lot over the course of 2012.  At the beginning of the year, I was pretty discouraged; my goal was to learn about and implement alterations for getting a great fit, but all the blogs I was reading left me feeling like everyone was "getting it" but me.  I spent a lot of time trying to discover everyone's secrets and find out how they learned these things.  And I kept on sewing and trying out new techniques and patterns along the way.  In the end, I think the answer was just that - continued reading and research combined with a lot of practice.  I certainly don't know it all yet, but I have come a long way toward achieving that goal.

This year, I have two main goals for sewing:

1.  Learn how to line or underline a garment.  Any garment, whether the pattern includes instructions for it or not.  To help me get there, I've ordered a book called Easy Guide to Sewing Linings, which got great reviews on Amazon.  I can't wait to receive it!

2.  Grade a pattern.  I have loads of vintage patterns to choose from, and sewing one of them this year could even be counted as another goal, because interestingly, my desire to grade a pattern has more to do with the technical aspects of it than the practical.  Am I becoming a process-oriented sewing enthusiast?


I also have a couple of very specific goals related to sewing:

3.  Make a lined coat.  I really meant to do that this fall, but time kind of got away from me and suddenly the weather had turned too cold for the pattern I have in mind.

4.  Make that darned Anouk Dress!  I do mean to be wearing it this spring - perhaps for Me-Made-May?

5.  Make a complicated quilt.  More about this in a day or two!


And some goals for knitting and the like:

6.  Knit a vintage pattern.  I've done this each of the last 2 years, and really enjoyed it.

7.  Knit a Phildar pattern.  I keep buying the magazines, but hardly ever make anything from them!

8.  Do more spinning.


And in the category of "other":

9.  Join both the 7 and 8 Million Meter Clubs.  Last month I told you all that I was doing the Concept 2 Holiday Challenge.  I did complete 201,000 meters on the rower between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve.  Toward the end of this month, I should be logging in my 7 millionth lifetime meter.  I'd also like to make it to the next million - doable if I stay on track with my average of 162,000 meters per month!


Well, maybe not such a short list after all . . .