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Category: stash

Minor Burps Perhaps, But Still Here.

The world has not stopped, although at any given moment parts of it seem traumatized by events somewhere or another. I have not stopped venturing into the sewing studio either, even though at the moment there is not a great deal to show for my time or efforts. The studio is actually my sanctuary, a place where care, fear, and stress disappear. It is not that I have quite overcome the many-directional pulls of distraction, but in the end, it is not distraction that grounds us or provides meaning in life.

I did manage to get almost all the fabric unpacked, put on shelves, and catalogued. This is the first time in many years that everything is easily visible. I have to admit to being only "almost" unpacked because after going through all this, I found three banker's boxes of fabric in the basement, boxes which were never supposed to be in the basement in the first place. Alas there is no space on the shelves to unpack them so they remain in fabric purgatory, out of sight and out of mind until I at least sew something and clear some space.

There were other aspects of sorting and cleaning up going on — beginning steps of creating a system, although no system is finished until it holds up to actual work. There is always a disconnect between the imaginary world of design and the real world. I am certain that any attempts at organization will go through upheavals and revisions, but for the first time really, I am beginning to see and feel a place, a haven really, to come into and let the work itself take center stage.

It feels good to be in the studio. The pressing table has seen more use as a photography station than for pressing of late. I expect it will continue to do double duty, at least until the yarn has been sorted and catalogued. At least the yarn has at least been corralled into a single space and I have catalogued and sorted enough for any short-term projects. I admit, it felt good to be taking photos, to put my hands on every piece of fabric, to satisfy my organizational demons. Conflicting emotions arose, every piece feeding both creative instincts and angst over the too-muchness of it all. The best I can do is admit that there was a period when George was ill and I was not sewing, a time when I consoled myself by buying fabric. I cannot say it was cheaper than therapy, I can say that what you see on the walls serves as my retirement fund, my wall of dreams, and a place of great calm. There is no point in fretting over the choices of the past, only in accepting that we each do the best we can. Whatever choices we make or fail to make, they are intimately woven into the fabric of who we are.

There has been a little mending here and there and more than a few alterations. Mostly no photographs were taken of same, and that is OK. I have attempted some embroidery as well, although for the most part my fingers are out of practice and not quite as adept as once they were, partially due simply to inactivity, partly due to repercussions following last year's chemo-induced neuropathy. I will move forward, regrets cast aside. Hopefully skills will improve. There is no point in life in dwelling on what I once could do, even as I realize that I should have celebrated more and fretted less.

I did buy a shade card set for Appleton wools, necessary for a crewel-embroidery project that is mostly still in the planning stages. Shown here on a piece of wool boucle that had been washed and partially felted. If anything I love the colors more after felting than in their original state. I was all gung-ho with excitement when I conceived of this project, but tiredness, arrhythmias, and life slowed me down, and it got put aside for a few weeks. Not to be concerned, there are several projects on my cutting table now and I want to work on all of them. Something will come of it all, even if that something is not quite what was initially envisioned.

This is the year for play after all. It is not the results that are important but the process of exploration, of doing, of experimentation. Who knows where it will all lead, and ultimately it is not really important if it leads anywhere at all.

March 23, 2022
Another Three

The fronts of Raspberry Confection are on the blocking board and I have started on the sleeves. Progress is slow. My fingers are very tingly and/or numb and this makes knitting lace a bit tricky. I am contemplating putting them aside for a week and working on something else.

I signed up for Stephen West's Mystery Knit-a-long and the yarn I ordered arrived. I am always happy when I choose colors online and I actually like them in real life. I have never done one of these before but I am looking forward to it.

Modern Daily Knitting's new field guide also arrived (and I swear I thought I had that photo lined up straight). I am not yet sure I am actually going to knit any of the projects but already it is inspiring various imaginary wanderings.

Have a good weekend.

September 17, 2021
Magical Mystery Tour

Knitting time and gardening time are currently in fierce competition with knitting getting short shrift at the moment. I cannot tell you how many evenings I have sat down, happy to pick up my knitting, only to fall asleep after merely a few rows. So although I am progressing on current projects, that progress is currently rather slow…

Instead I shall entertain you with new acquisitions. These are things that have arrived in the first two installments for the mystery blanket knit along I have joined.

First up, two balls of yarn. These are the photographs from my yarn stash catalog and are therefore functional but not glamorous. These are the first two yarns for blanket, but they are not enough, in and of themselves, to complete even one square. And so they occupy a liminal space awaiting the arrival of their friends — neither stash, nor project — hoping the blanket party can soon begin. Without going into it, let me just say that the yarn and I are joined in our liminality; it has just been that kind of year so far.

But there are other goodies as well:

This set of gray yarns from Trendsetter came with the options of either a shell or the adorable bears. I am opting for the bears.

And I adore these two colors for a future scarf: Lana Grossa Colorissimo is a sport-weight wool, and luscious Artyarns beaded silk and sequins light. I did see this scarf at the reveal, but have no memory of what it will look like other than the fact that I liked it. At the moment, just looking at the two yarns makes me smile in anticipation.

This pack of yarns came in the second box. Alas I missed the reveal zoom as I had a prior commitment and I have no idea what this will look like when it is done. All I know is that it will be a sweater. All these pinks makes me sparkly happy.

A little mystery can be a good thing.

March 31, 2021
Hello Again

Sometimes things work out for a reason. I never wanted to delete this blog, and yet I never really planned on coming back either. I am still blogging at restingmotion, and will continue to do so, and yet, as I find myself knitting again I also find my mind purling away, and here I am again.

Let's just go with the flow for the moment and see where we end up.

I've been knitting. I stopped for a while. Well, I didn't exactly stop, but my progress was slow and intermittent at best, and often retrograde. And then, suddenly the yarn and the fingers and the brain waves have connected and creation once again takes place.

First there is this scarf:

It is complete and has a role and a life as itself, a lovely lacey scarf, and yet it is also incomplete, with potential yet unexplored.

The yarn is Lontue by Auracania. The pattern is for the Janus Shawl, but as you can see it is not yet a shawl. The basic idea is that you knit this lovely lacy scarf and then you add the the crocheted edging that turns the scarf into a shawl.

For now I am stopping at a scarf, but I have not yet abandoned the idea of finishing the shawl, I am just making the most of this transitional phase. I am finally unpacking and organizing my studio (sewing/knitting/needlework) and in the process of putting up shelves and workspace have piled all my materials in a room in a most unorganized fashion. Somehwere in that pile of boxes and bags are the remaining two skeins of Lontue and the pattern, and they will eventually be unearthed and this scarf may yet be transformed into a shawl.

Once I finished the scarf, which seemed endless as it was a project with which I struggled through a long period of intermittent difficulties, I was ready, finally ready, to start something new. Plans and ideas popped into my head like bubbles and I didn't exactly know where to start, until I saw some bright green cotton yarn.

I had actually planned on starting a different project when a lovely green silk, rayon, and cotton yarn by Debbie Bliss, Stella, came into my life. I didn't have much, 5 skeins, or roughly 450 yards and the yarn is fairly thick and heavy, so I knew I wanted something rather open and airy. There was a model on the floor of an open drop-stitch top, and I knew it would work, so I picked up the pattern, "Summer Poncho Knitted" from Loopville, my new LYS.

I was thinking this would be a quick project that I could wear now, while the weather was still warm to hot, and that a little instant gratification might be just what I needed, something to whet the creative juices and make me eager to jump into a more time-consuming project. A week later I had a sweater and I like it.

The sweater is really very simple, two large rectangles knit in a k5, p5 rib with every fifth stitch being dropped on bind off. I knit it on size 10 needles, and although my gauge was actually smaller than the pattern, the silk and rayon content of the yarn, along with its weight, actually made the final cloth much more drapey than the original, so final dimensions, post-blocking, actually ended up slightly longer than the original although with the same width.

For now I love it. Whether or not it will be a longterm staple in my closet or it will be ripped and transformed at some future date is yet to be determined. I keep making similar sweaters, but I also keep forgetting how easy they are to snag. Perhaps this will be the exception. Perhaps I am becoming more mindful. Perhaps not. For now, this is perfect.

Green Janus Shawl (Scarf) on Ravelry

Green Summer Poncho on Ravelry

August 28, 2013
Other entertainments

I seem to run in fits and starts. At times making time to play and write seems easy, at others I fall into bed exhausted at the end of the day and wonder where all my time went. Sometimes I distract myself as well and end up on completely new tangents.

I started the weekend looking for a piece of blue knit. I knew I had it but I couldn't find it and this really ticked me off. Somehow in the middle of the searching process I decided that it was time to finish cataloging the yarn in the yarn/fabric closet, a job I had worked on extensively last December, stopped for holiday guests, and never resumed.

The impulse to organize yarn may have also been prompted by the fact that I came home from knitting group with four bags of yarn Thursday night. My LYS is going out of business and I did my part to reduce the inventory. I did finish the yarn inventory though, and got everything put away (whew, room for everything!) And I also mentally revised my "to knit" list to fill a few gaps and knit what I think I need now.

The blue fabric eventually turned up, pretty much right where I was originally looking. I put it on the cutting table where it has been sitting ever since. It is an inexpensive knit I purchased just for its stretch factor and because I liked the color. At $3.00 a yard it was a good fabric to play with, to experiment with knits and hopefully learn a little something. The plan was to test a summer dress and a top or two, items I actually intend to make in other fabrics, but which I am just unsure enough about that I would prefer to make a first version. If v1 works, at least it is in a color I love, and if it doesn't, no beloved fabric has been wasted. Somehow though, my motivation got washed downstream with all the rain and the change in the weather.

My work in the fabric closet was more than just an organizational exercise however. As I photographed new yarns, folded fabric and reorganized I found myself being revitalized with new ideas swirling around in my head. Although not finding something was frustrating, and at that moment the idea of a stash felt stifling, having it organized and accessible, being able to take out the pieces and let the ideas flow is liberating and inspiring.

Before my fabric closet foray I was stuck in a rut of a few summer outfits. I was thinking about what I would make next, but only in a limited way, as a single piece to add into the mix. Playing with fabric and yarn, and taking inventory, opened my eyes to connections and possibilities I had forgotten.

The blue fabric and those dresses offer possibilities beyond the immediate. Besides it is still August, and although it feels like fall now, there are still summer days ahead. So this fabric remains on the table, and I hope to get started on it this week, but that may be iffy. We are going up to Lake George on Thursday to see my brother who is up from Texas and on Saturday I am having a passel of the neighbors over for dinner, all a great deal of excitement and interruption to our normally quiet routines. We'll see how it all goes.

I'll leave you with a plate of cookies. I whipped these up last night from this recipe by Aran Goyoaga, who writes the blog Canelle et Vanille, and they are half gone already.

In fact I seemed to do a lot of baking over the weekend. G had a chocolate craving so I baked brownies, then I baked brownies again. My baking pantry has seen little use of late and at this point I was out of chocolate and cocoa so I needed to make something else. This cookie recipe had been at the top of my file, waiting for the perfect opportunity. They are fabulous. In fact this is my second batch. Did I mention G has been suffering from a major sweet tooth? Better him than me. Anyway the first batch, which I made with shortening, looked more like the original photos in the blog, but mine are darker because I used unprocessed cane sugar rather than regular white sugar. That first batch was devoured in a day. For this second batch, I was out of shortening, so I used butter. Butter causes the cookies to spread more, but they are still soft and delicious. I do love to bake, especially if someone else will eat the goods and save me from myself.

Not only had I forgotten how much potential I had in my fabric closet, I had forgotten how much baking calms my soul and eases stress. Back in my college days I would bake cakes and cookies and brownies for the dorm before finals. And I continued to bake for years, until the combination of relearning to bake with gluten-free flours, and just the other stresses of life seemed overwhelming. This may have been a mistake, luckily one that is easily rectified.

August 24, 2010
This yarn is calling my name.

I've got this yarn sitting on the middle of my cutting table. My intention was to sell it, but the more I looked at it the more I realized I wasn't quite ready to let it go. It is a cotton blend and I have 726 yards and it supposedly knits to a gauge of 3 1/2 stitches per inch, although I haven't really tried it yet. I am sure I can do something with this, but I haven't spent enough time to figure out what it wants to be.

Should it be a cardigan? A pullover? Something lacy? I suspect the first step is to play with some swatches.

Although I have other things to work on and those UFOs are still calling my name. Some swatch play may be in the works.

Do I want a pu

April 7, 2010
I’m still here and I’m still not sewing.

That doesn't mean I am not thinking about sewing.

I have started getting a "collection closet" together. It is shared space which will house both yarn and fabric and I have gotten some of each on the shelves. What you see here is mostly new purchases (yes it is true, when not sewing the temptation to buy fabric is somehow that much greater) but also some older fabrics that have been sitting around in my sewing room for some time.

The closet is not going to hold my entire stash, but I would like at least part of it to be a staging area for grouping together upcoming projects. I am not sure how I am going to go about it yet. At the moment I was just happy to get a few things put away.

I have these basket units from The Container Store that used to be in my clothing closet where they held sweaters.

So far, I like the baskets for the knits and I think I will continue to store them here. I have lots of space as I haven't moved that much over here yet. They look awfully pretty, and I can see what I have easily.

I am also going to use some of the baskets for coordinating fabric groupings – that is whenever I get back to sewing anything. Perhaps dreaming of groupings is pushing it a little too far.

But I still have that taupe grouping that I didn't make this summer sitting right on my cutting table. It is buried under a bunch of other things at the moment but it will eventually be unearthed. And luckily it is a color that can easily take me in toward fall.

August 28, 2008
Fishman’s Fabric Haul

I promised to post photos of my haul from Fishman's Fabrics after my Chicago Weekend, a month ago now. I did have swatches of a group of fabrics for which I was trying to find coordinates. For the most part I was successful.

First are two pieces of silk organza. They are two separate shades of gray, a very nice quality of organza.

They were purchased to go with another piece of organza, to work with a particular set of garments:

Unfortunately in the intervening time my plans have changed so the garment I described to my companions is now going to exist in a different fabrication. Needless to say these organzas will be used. I am fairly picky about organza, the cheap stuff really makes me itch and is not worth the agony incurred when using it in a garment.

Two colors of silk duoppioni, the perfect shades to coordinate with a particular fabric, and another piece of duoppioni which coordinates with my original fabric as well as with a stunning piece of linen I found at Fishman's.

Here you can see all the fabrics that I was planning to work with, the original fabrics which were already in my stash, and the new additions:

Well, actually, I don't have the organza in this photo, but you get the idea. I will be telling you more about these fabrics over the next few days as I plan the garments I intend to make. At least some of these are also possible for the June Capsule Contest over at Stitcher's Guild, about which I will also be writing.

There is one last piece of fabric I purchased at Fishman's, A stunning piece of linen, destined to be a dress:

I want to write more but now I have to head out to dinner and my hotel for the night, where I unfortunately do not have internet access (because my portable computer is still not working and not yet in the shop).

We had big thunderstorms here this afternoon and lost power briefly, phone/internet service for several hours and we also lost our water supply. There was one big, really really close lightening strike. I suppose that the electricity in the ground fried the pump that operates our well.

I won't know more 'til tomorrow. DH thinks we are going to camp out here without running water for the weekend. I am not convinced.

May 21, 2008
Oooh! Fabric!

There has been no sewing this week, although I still hope to whip out a simple robe in the two days remaining before my departure for Tennessee and DSD’s doctoral hooding.

However, a package arrived from Vogue Fabrics with my Chicago purchases. It included this:

The silk duopioni on the left is an odd shade of gray/brown/bronze that happens to pick up the colors in a group of fabrics around which I wish to build a small grouping or collection. In fact all the fabrics in this photo blend into that grouping and are in the color families I was seeking out.

The two left fabrics were on sale for $2.99 a yard. The two organzas on the right are 54" wide and were also on sale. I purchased more than I will probably need for my group, although I might use them as underlining. I am not worried about finding a use for these. Organza is a basic and these colors are perfect colors for blending with many of my fabric choices.

Then we get to the frivolous stuff, the fabrics that were not in the plan. One was on sale, one was not.

This cotton lawn was light and felt sinfully soft and smooth. It is a good shade of red for me and I love the geometric pattern. At $2.99 a yard it seemed like I would be foolish to resist. It will become a lightweight summer top.

I also purchased this lovely wool. Several of us looked at it and decided it wasn’t quite right. When I went back for a second look it seemed like it was the perfect shades of gray with a touch of brown and muted blue that I wear well. When I saw that it was a panel and the size of the panels I knew what I wanted to make and so, after further consultation with Patti and Patty, it went into my bag. Since this will be a fall project I will not start it now but I am planning to put it in my bag for San Francisco in July, when I will be participating in another Sandra Betzina sewing week. It looks like I am developing a sense of what I will be sewing that week and I will start gathering together my projects and setting them aside the end of this month, when we get back from Tennessee and the Carolinas. I will update you more about the plans at that time.

The package from Fishman’s has not arrived. One fabric needed to be ordered and I was told it would be about a week before they would be able to ship. If it arrives Monday I will post photos. Otherwise, since I am leaving for 10 to 12 days early Tuesday morning, it will all have to wait.

I DID finish one knitting project:

This is the tee I have been working on knit from Trendsetter’s Binario yarn. The pattern is by L’Atelier in Redondo Beach, CA and is part of a set called "Compare and Contrast". It was the sweater-of-the-month for May 2007. Hey one year late, not so bad.

I have started the contrasting vest that goes with it, but I have already worn the tee once over a thin cotton turtleneck. It may be May but it is still cold here. Unfortunately it has been cold and gray, gray, gray, so photo ops have been limited. Perhaps by the time I finish the vest, the sun will have come out again.

May 3, 2008
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:

April 20, 2008