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  • Distraction #725

    Although sewing is a distraction from life, and a very welcome one at that, life itself seems to offer an endless variety of distractions from sewing: the following is one of them.

    Distraction 725: Housepainting
        Subsection A: foundation painting.

    History: Having resided the house last year, and having admired how nice it looked, I could not help but notice how sad and pathetic the foundations looked in comparison.  Now foundations are not usually a particularly noticeable thing, but my garage is below my house and as one goes down the ledge from the front door to the garage the foundation grows larger, eventually becoming the front of the garage.  It is a typical foundation, concrete block covered by a layer of rough textured cement.  The color of the cement is fairly close to the taupe-beige shade we stained the siding and is not in itself unattractive EXCEPT…..

    In that little word, except, lies all the problems of life.  I need to learn to ignore the exceptions, as in the house looks good except...  The jacket is beautiful except… I love the way that sweater turned out except… you know the problem.

    The concrete had never been painted and was its natural aged gray color.  But it had crumbled over the years and in places the concrete blocks were showing.  In other places it had been patched, more than once, and every new patch was a different shade of gray.  It was not a pleasing patchwork like a crazy quilt, but rather more of a “I just can’t get it together” kind of patchwork, and since the garage and foundation are the first thing that anyone coming down my driveway sees, this unattractive feature had been preying on my mind.

    The patching was all done over the summer and I had to let the concrete age until it could be painted.  Technically this could have been done in September, but I was doing other things then and am just now getting to the task

    It is a sunny week with temperatures in the mid to upper 60s.  I thought I could prime and paint 378 square feet of foundation wall easily.  Easier said than done.  Mistaken assumptions abounded:

        1.    Paint coverage.  The primer said it covered 500 square feet.  I have 378.  The first can got me through 96.  Back at the paint store, the nice clerk said that of course for rough textured concrete that had been aged and never painted coverage would be more like 100 square feet.  Duhh.  I told the first clerk what I was painting, why didn’t he tell me that?

        2.    Painting rough concrete is very slow.

        3.    Painting is very hard on arthritic hands, especially when the arthritis is primarily in the metacarpal joints and first phalangeal joints, the ones used to grip the paintbrush.  I guess it had been a few years since I had painted.  I am much slower now.

        4.      Expect delays for unanticipated occurances like finding a hole under the concrete blocks running into the garage.  Gee I guess that’s how the rat snake gets in my garage bay.  Take time out to clean out, plug up, and seal the hole.  Wait for concrete and caulk to dry so you can paint it.

    I suspect my entire week will go along something like this. 

    At the moment, after spending hours painting the last thing my hands want to do is grip a pair of shears, or even a rotary cutter for that matter, so the cutting out has been delayed yet again. 

    Perhaps it is time to clean out the sewing room.

  • endless summer

    Although it is almost November, it feels more like September outside, perhaps early October at times.  Obviously I’m not the only one who things so. The dahlias are still going strong as evidenced by this photograph:

    Halloweendahlia

    Even the iris think that they might try for a third blooming period this year:

    Halloweeniris

    I’m hoping they make it.  No frost yet even though it is late.  The night-time temperatures have been flirting with that frost line, 33, 34, but not below.  I hoping the warmth continues even if only long enough for the iris to bloom.

    Meanwhile I’m reading The Tipping Point on the exercise bicycle and I have reached my own personal tipping point in that I can no longer handle the pile of UFOs and backlogged projects.  I have been frantically finishing up knitted items, decluttering, and catching up on many fronts.  My head might emerge above the piles yet.

  • Update

    Work has been taking up a little more of my time than I had anticipated hoped and so there has been less progress on George’s vest.    It is after all the end of the fiscal year and all that end-of-year accounting must be done.  Even though I pretty much have everything caught up during the year and there should not be that much extra work, it always takes a little longer than I expect.  Of course the fact that October always seems to be a very busy month anyway does not lessen the load.

    Of course the other impediment to my sewing progress has been that I have been caught up in a fit of clearing up and cleaning out.  There have been too many unfinished projects, both in the house (some of them due to contractors over whom I have no control), yard, and my fiber-related life.  Since I have no control over those projects that are waiting on others I have been doubly determined to reduce my own backlog.  Projects that are planned but not yet started don’t count; they remain in the realm of dreams rather than reality.  This is a trivial (as some of these are quite necessary) distinction but a necessary one.  It’s all a question of semantics after all.

    I have started cleaning out closets, storerooms, the attic, and the basement, bits and pieces at a time.  I have also been tackling unfinished knitting projects.  There really no sewing UFOs at the moment, and I am reluctant to start a new one until I feel I at least have some control of everything else going on around here.  This does not mean I will finish all projects before starting anything new.  Even a little progress has helped considerably and everything feels much more manageable to me.  There is also a partly done quilt and a couple of embroidery projects that will remain UFOs for now; one of the embroidery projects will also eventually become a sewing project. I don’t have the incentive or peace of mind to start major embroidery projects at this time. 

    The other delay in cutting is that I had forgotten that the lining fabric was not ready to be cut.  I had pre-washed it, but it was waiting to be pressed.  Pressing prior to cutting is always a slow meticulous process simply because the fabric is so slippery and it is easy to let it slide off grain.  I tend to pin it to the ironing board in small sections, carefully squaring up each section before pressing it with steam and letting it cool and dry.  Sometimes I think one of those steam suctioning boards would be nice, but I wonder whether they would work as well.

    Truth be told, if I don’t pressure myself into rushing through the pressing stage I rather enjoy it.  It can be a great stress reduction exercise as one carefully pins the fabric, presses, and waits.  I can let my mind wander freely over future anticipated sewing projects, dream sewing projects (always more numerous than actual sewing projects) and various other things that have been lurking around my brain.  It is very refreshing and dare I say it, zen-like, in the best of circumstances.  Of course if one is using steam, there is also the facial aspect, another boon.

    I also washed and pressed a piece of black douppioni from Thai Silks..  I haven’t always washed douppioni, don’t often in fact, and I had forgotten how nice the hand of the fabric becomes after washng.  Of course this will vary considerably with the quality and weight of the particular piece of douppioni.  I might even like this washed fabric better than the original although I will not be sure until after I have worked with it a little more.   I have quite a few yards.  I was thinking of using a small bit of it as binding on some gray linen napkins, not a definite decision yet, but a strong possibility, and the douppioni would have to be washable for that use.  I was also thinking about using the fabric for a blouse, possibly one of LaFred’s blouses or I have a couple of Neue Mode Patterns that would lend themselves nicely to this idea.  I remember meeting Fred Bloebaum once when she was wearing a blouse of washed douppioni with pants of washed silk noil.  I had been very impressed with the drape and character of both fabrics in her garments. 

    I am hoping that the washed douppioni will not have to be underlined which makes it more suitable for a blouse.  Crisp douppioni must be underlined in organza or something else to keep from wrinkling all the time which automatically makes it suitable for only more structured and tailored, almost jacket-like tops.   I know that there is a lot of information available about this but I need to play with it myself and form my own opinions about how much I like this fabric, and for what uses.

  • Stocking Up

    The rainy weekend inspired me to finally collect all the bags of vegetable and bone bits that have been cluttering up the freezer and catch up on stock-making.  I do need to make some primary stocks as well, both chicken and veal, but this weekend was devoted to secondary stock, that which is made from the various trimmings and extra bits that accumulate in the normal course of preparing dinner.

    There were 7 gallon Zip Lock bags all together although one contained chicken carcasses only so it was put aside for next week to join in the chicken stock festival.    There was a bag of grouse bones as well.    The grouse bones and a bag containing onions, fennel, and some oyster mushroom stems became a wonderful grouse stock, really quite nice and delicate, something I will have to remember, although grouse are not, quite frankly, a normal occupant of my larder.  The carcasses of four grouse and one gallon bag of vegetable trimmings became about six cups of very flavorful delicately perfumed stock.

    The other bags all contained miscellaneous trimmings: onion peels and trimmings, garlic peels, carrots ends and peels, mushroom stems etc along with a generous helping of chicken bones and maybe a couple of pork chop bones as well.  I am not a chef.  I do not segregate my trimmings into separate bags as I would never use them up.  They still make wonderful stock although sometimes surprises do occur – mostly pleasant. 

    The yield from 4 gallon-sized bags was a little over 5 quarts of stock.  Not a bad output for an otherwise miserable weekend, especially considering that it was not all that much work, aside from a little time straining and later defatting the stock.   One quart is already destined to become the base for tomorrow night’s soup.

  • Mardel’s Stash Building Blog continues…

    Yesterday was a bumper day, mail-wise.  The new Vogue and Bazaar came, filled with eye-candy for my continued perusal and inspiration, and a stack of knitting pattern books from Filatura di Crosa and Stacy Charles as well.   Also in the mail haul were swatches from Leandro Fabrics and Michael’s. 

    Leandro sent a stack of gorgeous super 120s wools, and, in a separate package, a new Chanel boucle in shades of olive with a deep fuschia pink yarn running through it.  Most of the colors of the 120’s were nice but did not inspire me, even though have been thinking of suits in plain fabric again.  However there was one deep maroon that really caught my fancy, as well as the Chanel boucle

    Stash2

    Michael sent a collection of Swiss cotton shirtings that were absolutely gorgeous.  The fabrics are great quality and have a truly sinful hand.  They remind me somewhat of the cottons used in George’s Charvet shirts.   At $12.50 a yard I really don’t think they are unreasonable for the quality.  I ordered three, shown below.

    Stash1

    I finally opened the package from Emma One Sock.  It actually came a week ago  Friday but I was in NYC that day and spent most of that weekend otherwise engaged. After that the box served as a resting post for my NY Sheep and Wool purchases until I could get them sorted out and put away.  Although I am usually tempted to open a package immediately, and probably would have had I been home when it arrived, I was afraid to do so with this because I knew I would want to delve right in. 

    My fears were well founded.  The knits are wonderful and I want to start sewing them but it is the red Oscar de la Renta wool that is truly fabulous.  It is much more vibrant and drop dead gorgeous  in actuality than could have been conveyed by any photo.  I hadn’t planned on getting to it right away but I am beginning to wonder if I should change that plan.    Sawyer Brook had a similar fabric in a muted gray/blue which was much more subtle – it spoke casual, country sophisticate to me, whereas this fabric screams feminine charm with a touch of glamour.

    ——————-

    I have finished the muslins for George’s vest.  I am pretty weary now, even though it is early yet, only 9:30.  I will cut another time, when I am less likely to make mistakes.  I have one more alteration to make, but it is simple, one shoulder leans more forward than the other and is less wide.  This is an alteration I make for myself frequently and I have marked it on the muslin; I will transfer it to the pattern tomorrow.  I knew that George was curved over a little more since he has had some collapsing in the vertebrae but I had not expected it to be as noticeable as it is.

    The sun came out a bit this afternoon so I went outside to start dividing daylilies.  The daylilly bed I am working in is pretty much packed clay and the ground is wet enough now to dig them up pretty easily.  I am surprised they grow at all in that area.  This is the one bed I paid a landscape company to build and plant and they did not do nearly as nice of a job as I usually do.  They cost me a pretty penny as well.  Nothing else grows there, the soil is too packed and they did nothing much to amend it except sprinkle an inch of soil on top. Some of the daylilies will go into the new stone bed under the kitchen window and the others will go into a temporary holding bed while I double dig their current bed and seriously amend the soil.  I didn’t get far today, the blade of the shovel broke at my third clump, not that I am that strong, there has been a fracture line across that shovel for some time. I guess that means I will be going shopping tomorrow on top of normal Monday work, gym, and household tasks.  I might not get to the vest until Tuesday.

  • Trpceski plays Rachmaninoff

    I haven’t told you about our trip to New York on Thursday because I just haven’t had a few moments to compose my thoughts.   Thursday was not our normal subscription night but the Philharmonic was hosting a dinner for patrons with a concert to follow and, as we usually enjoy this event, we decided to go in.  George was especially happy as he actually finished all his work early and did not have to go in to the office on Friday to dictate.

    Unfortunately the trip did not start out terribly auspiciously.  The train station was full – there was no parking – nada – nothing.  We were told we would have to wait for someone to leave, a surefire way to miss a train in my book.  The nearest metered or otherwise available parking space was about 4 blocks away, not option when the train was departing in 10 minutes.  George spotted a bunch of parking spaces for the neighboring pub and shops but they were limited to 4 hours, and did not become available for unlimited parking until 9 PM (it was fast approaching 3:30) I figured we would have 1 ½ hours where we would risk being ticketed and paying a $50 fine, or we could drive in.  George opted to drive.   Later, afer we were on the Taconic, he figured that if we weren’t lucky in finding a parking spot we may pay $50 in parking and gas.  We did find a spot.

    In fact the trip down was uneventful and quick, downtown Po-town to Lincoln Center in about 1 hour and 40 minutes.   The trip back was slower.  We drove back up the Thruway as it is brighter and easier in the dark.   Unfortunately we did not anticipate construction on Route 17.  Since George took the driver’s seat for the return trip, it was a fine opportunity for me to knit in the bright lights of shopping-mall-alley.

    Nyp1020

    But back to the concert.  Dinner was fine as  always.  The Philharmonic is not going to skimp on its Patrons; after all it needs us to shell out the bucks.  The concert was also nice although the beginning was less than promising.  The first work, the Bartok Dance Suite was downright boring, a surprise for that piece which has wonderful folk-inspired melodies; it usually makes me feel like swishing away.  Noseda may have been dramatically conducting but he was not moving the orchestra out of somnolence.  The Britten, Sinfonia de Requiem, was better, but still not up to the quality that I would expect of an orchestra like the New York Philharmonic.

    The second half of the concert was spectacular though, at least to me.  I have read the review, although I was not waiting for it, and I was apparently one of those audience members who was swept off their feet by Simon Trpceski’s playing.  I thought he was spectacular.  Yes it is true that the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto #3 was not as lush and romantic as it could be, probably here a combination of the youth of the pianist and the “play it safe” attitude the conductor seemed to be taking with the evening.  I don’t tend to expect great emotional depth in young performers, probably a great shortcoming of mine.  Still he made the piece seem easy, as if he could do it in his sleep (maybe he was asleep) and it is not an easy piece to play.  And he still had force and character, he did not just hit the notes.  The audience at the Philharmonic does not usually leap to its feet en masse, but it did that night; maybe we are all just swayed by a limp wrist, fast fingers, and a pretty face.  If so,  I joined them.  I truly enjoyed the concert and it was an evening I will remember.  If I was “seeing only the trees and not the forest” I don’t feel as I missed much.  The evening was worthwhile for what it was and that was pretty spectacular.

    I probably need to learn a lot more about music.  I hope that in doing so, I don’t lose the joy of listening.

  • A Vest for George

    I bought this fabric for George some time ago at Leandro Fabrics (Adam’s wedding) but never made it up. The fabric is a beautiful wool and cashmere blend in charcoal gray with subtle caramel woven checks:  The photographs I am getting are either too dark and you can’t see the pattern, or too light:
    substantial fiddling with Photoshop has occurred and I still don’t have it quite right but I am no expert.  The problem seems to be with getting the white balance/light settings on my camera set correctly but I can’t seem to quite manage it.   I suppose I should consult with George, he is the photographer after all, but then we will spend an afternoon fiddling with it and I would rather be sewing. 

    Glsvest1_1

    This is pretty close and I love the subtle variation in the two shades of caramel.  I actually bought a good bit more than I need.  What was I thinking??  Was I thinking at all?  I might have enough for a skirt as well.  The trick then will to be to convince the darling spouse that he is not doing me a favor by wearing the vest that matches my skirt when we go out together.   Hmmm…. Perhaps I should rethink this.

    This is the pattern:
    Glsvest1pattern

    I really am not sure of the fit.:  both of his existing vests fit badly, in different ways, so they don’t even provide consistent pattern help.  He is in between two sizes in men’s jackets so I will just work from there.  I did find a few minutes yesterday to cut a muslin and get it stitched together for a try-on.  Here are the results:

    Glsvest2

    I might get another muslin constructed today:  they don’t take all that long after all, but Thursday will be a complete wash-out in terms of sewing time as I have to go into NYC and if the weather is nice the weekend must be spent in the garden dealing with the partially landscaped pile of mud and leaves that is left behind after last week’s rains.

  • Anniversary

    19 years ago today I married my true love, snugglewumpus, and very dear friend.  Happy anniversary George!

    Many flowers arrived (among other things), unfortunately all photographed at night:
    Anniversary1

    from Miriam and Rich, whose anniversary is also today.

    More orchids:
    Anniversary2

    Orchids two years in a row.  Perhaps a collection is beginning.

    Anniversary3

  • Felting Dreams

    I spent a good part of this past weekend at the NY Sheep and Wool Festival at the Rhinebeck Fairgrounds. 

    One thing I was interested in looking at was rovings, particularly dyed rovings.  I had not been to the Sheep and Wool Festival for many years and it has expanded considerably in my absence.  One thing that really impressed me was the amazing variety and selection of fibers for spinners.  Some of these were amazingly beautiful and I loved the colors of some of the combinations of silk and wool and also some of the tencel blends.  If I knew how to spin this would be an amazing temptation, and as it was I was sorely tempted.

    I was looking however for wool rovings or fiber to use for felting and fabric embellishment.  I am totally inexperienced at felting but I have been feeling an itch to try some and I thought this would be a wonderful opportunity to get some fibers to play with and see if I liked the process. It was quicky apparent that the problem would not be in finding materials, but in limiting myself.  Luckily, since I am not sure about felting silk or tencel fibers I quickly eliminated them from the search.  Still there were more than enough options to choose: Here is some of what I came home with:

    Rovings1
    Both photos were taken in the late afternoon sun but the colors seem pretty close.

    Rovings2

    The show was really inspirational.  There were several felters present and some of them did amazing work: the traditional thick felt as well as some very sheer, modern delicate looking things crafted into exquisite garments.  There were also beautiful quilted pots and one woman who made wonderful purses and satchels with leather trim and beautiful hardware.  If my budget were not constrained by looming construction costs I would have been far more tempted into purchasing.  As it was the fair was a wonderful source of inspiration.

    I was also fascinated by the work of some of the weavers.  I have thought that I would love to take up weaving, but I never was tempted to work on a small loom.  This means that weaving will definitely remain in the realm of dreams for me.  I know I don’t have the time – I barely have time to sew and knit.  I can’t help dreaming of fiber arts though.  If I could spend all my time on those things alone…..hmm…it would never happen.  Get me started in the yard and I dream of spending all my time gardening.  Put me in the kitchen and I dream of spending all my time cooking.  I will never be able to indulge all the interests I dream of indulging.

    But maybe I will get a little felting done.

  • Rain and Samuel Johnson

    It is the fate of those who toil at the lower employments of life, to be rather driven by the fear of evil, than attracted by the prospect of good; to be exposed to censure, without hope of praise; to be disgraced by miscarriage, or punished for neglect, where success would have been without applause, and diligence without reward.

                                                                   

    Samuel Johnson
                                                                    Preface to A Dictionary of the English Language


    I love getting packages and two have arrived today:

    SamueljohnsonFirst, this book, Johnson on the English Language, arrived today.  It is volume 18 of the Yale works of Johnson, of which I possess not one of the prior volumes, and of which, apparently, three earlier volumes have not yet been published.  Still, I am excited.  I might have to get the others, I always wanted a works of Johnson – I suppose I cannot escape that English Major part of my myself no matter how hard I try.  I must try however, or channel my inner carpenter, because the bookcase situation is severely wanting and there is no space.

    I have already dipped into the book, reading bits of Johnson here and there.  It is a wet and dreary day, the 7th in a series of wet and dreary days and I am feeling a general sense of apathy and laziness settling in.  I would not have thought I suffered from SADD but the continued rain has certainly dampened my spirits, much the way the misery of February often affects my energies and ambitions.  There is some small consolation in watching the flood of water pouring down the driveway, driven quickly through the drain I put through the middle of the Iris Bed.  No more pooling of water on the lawn, no more washing away of hard-earned fertile soil.   Still, one can only watch the flowing of an artificial stream across the blacktop for so long before the gray settles back into mind and body. 

    The other package was my order of Nepresso coffee pods for the Nepresso coffee maker that Mom got me for my birthday.  Now I can happily look forward to an afternoon curled up with Johnson and some nice strong coffee or espresso.  I can think of no happier way to while away this terribly dreary afternoon. 

    But first, the driving cajun beat of Beausoleil and a good run on the treadmill await.