A WordPress Site

Restingmotion

  • Lessons from the china closet

    We have been looking at china.  

    What does this have to do with sewing and clothing you ask?  Surprisingly, a great deal.

    I wanted new china.  I don't particularly like what we have and use everyday, although it was a great improvement over the china we had before: china I liked more style-wise but disliked contextually.  That china was a wedding gift to my DH and his first wife; she didn't want it, he kept it.  The stuff we have now is the result of protracted negotiations and was a compromise for all parties; neither one of us was happy, but we could both accept it.  It is time for a change.

    As we were looking at china, looking at what is available, what we have, and what I actually like, as opposed to what I was expected to like, I was struck by something.

    CHina Dreams
     

    Apparently my taste in china runs to extremes, as it actually does in many other things as well.  I tend to like very plain, simple, modern pieces, things one of G's cousins calls "stark", or very ornate embellished pieces.  As for the majority of china patterns, which for the most part fall in between these extremes, there is very very little I like, although I am drawn to a few simple patterns with strong bands of color and little embellishment, patterns with an almost architectural feel.

    What struck me was that I could apply this knowledge to my wardrobe as well.  I like very simple austere clothes, and I actually can do minimalism on occasion and pull it off, but I can't stick with it.  I am also drawn to very dramatic, sometimes highly constructed, pieces.  And then there is my love of the dramatic accessory and interesting color combinations.   

    And yet, although most of my clothing choices tend to be fairly classic, I feel  rather blah and discomfited with fairly classic ways of putting things together.  I need, in my clothing choices, to stick with very simple structured pieces, almost to the point of being stark, or go for a strongly  decorous effect, and I feel compromised when I try to take a middle path.

    I spent a little time perusing china patterns just to make myself a kind of visual guide.  I think over time it will prove quite clarifying.

    I am sure there is a way to work this out without looking like I am going to a monastery one day or a party at Versailles the next.  

  • A TNT jacket

    I'm still sorting and assessing and putting my life back to rights.  In my bits and pieces of spare time, I've moved from the closet(s), which I haven't finished, to the rest of the house: cleaning, sorting, rearranging, and settling, with a rather hefty dose of negotiating going on as well.  It is a slow process, but worthwhile.  I think of it as a rather grand spring cleaning, and it was long overdue.  

    But while I was involved in spring cleaning, Spring seems to have actually crept in unannounced.  I wasn't quite ready.  After all I just found all those lovely wools to wear. 

    IMG_2746Luckily I do have choices now, and one of my projects has involved figuring out how the bits and pieces that remain can work together, and what I actually am missing and need in my wardrobe as well as what I have to work with. 

    With the return of warmer weather and the promise of spring clothes I am also finding the remnants of TNT patterns past.  The trick is to reassess them now and see if they retain enough appeal to be reworked to fit my figure as it is now.

    Take this long jacket.  This is made from an OOP Vogue pattern by Sandra Betzina, 7022, which is a princess-seamed cardigan jacket.  I had made it several times by the time I made this long version.

    This iteration was made nearly 7 years ago and was part of my (step)MOB outfit.  The matching dress no longer fits; it is too small through the bust and too large through the hips and thighs.  The coat, however, is not bad.  It is actually a little too big, probably the only reason it does not pull through the bust, and if I were wearing it buttoned over a simple and thin sheath dress the sizing would be obvious.  But it works worn as a duster with pants or jeans and it will get me through part if not most of this season.

    The fabric is really interesting in this coat.  It has a woven raffia like appearance on the surface, but this is just a surface effect of a knit fabric.  The fabric was from Cadena of Spain and I purchased it after seeing the same or similar fabric used in a collection of suits by the Italian house Mila Schön around 2001 or 2002.  The fabric grew with excess manipulation, although it steamed into shape beautifully, it shed little bits of fiber everywhere, and it snags easily. But it is beautiful.

    Vogue 7022  Here is the pattern picture. 

    The question is whether I would use this again.  I don't need jackets for work, but this is a basic, if boring, shape. I really think I feel better and therefore look better with a bit of tailoring in my garments and this gives me the feel of a cardigan with a little extra structure.  But whether it works or is dowdy will all be up to the fabric and the fit.  I think it can be pulled off.  The pattern will need some alterations for my new shape, and it desperately needs to lose the shoulder pads.  It may work best for me in the longer length, but I will need to play with the muslin to be sure, and for me, it will all depend on the fabric.

    What I am uncertain about right now is whether I am looking at this pattern realistically, or if my judgement is clouded by the jacket I am wearing and my love for it.

    As for my needs list, this outfit, for all that I feel right at home in it, the following notes were added to my file:

    New white shirts that fit: (muslin was in works — finish and make shirts)

    New Jeans.  These are getting too baggy to wear but for the most casual of days.  They will make good jeans for yard work after a replacement pair has been procured.

    Replace the coat.  I like the feel and structure of this more than a long cardigan.  Look for soft, interesting fabric, that lend a more casual feel to this tailored jacket. Check fabric collection for a suitable replacement in a shade more appropriate for current coloring.  Check patterns for dusters and long jackets. No rush, this one will get me through most of the spring.

  • Reading about Knitting

    IMG_2673
     Two new books.

    Mostly these are books for reading, and learning; they are books to use, more than books to knit from.  At least that is how I see them so far.

    The Knitters Book of Wool was a Valentine's day gift from my sweetie, and I've dipped into it here and there with intentions of sitting down and actually reading it.  It does seem to clarify some things for me and I am sure it will be useful.  It does have patterns, some of which I will probably knit, but I'm not really interested in the book for the patterns.

    I had been waiting for Knitwear Design Workshop and eagerly ripped the package open the day it arrived.  I have spent a little time with this book, and have started reading it, and flipping ahead here and there.  It looks very useful.  It also looks like it will be a great deal of help with pattern rewriting and reconfiguring of the sort I am doing with the ruby  bubbles cardigan I am currently knitting.  I'd really like to sit down and spend some time with this book, just getting all the information down pat.  It has patterns too, but only a few.

    As for Ruby Bubbles, I finally finished the long stretch of stockinette between the waist and the underarm and began the underarm shaping tonight.  I don't really know if the slowdown was due to the fact that I was distracted with a spring cleaning and resorting of house, closets and internal cobwebs, or if it was just a long stretch of boring stockinette and I grew bored.  Probably a little of each.

  • Spring Rowan

    Rowan 47 has been here for a little over a week.  As usual, on first inspection there were numerous things that caught my eye, but as I peruse the magazine I notice that first impressions are oft deceived by pretty pictures, not particularly what will actually work for me.

    Relax  Here are the things I like, and would really consider knitting someday.

    Relax.  I already have the summer tweed in a nice turquoise color to knit this.  I can see this so easily with soft linen pants on a casual summer day.

    Sedate  Sedate is a beautiful cardigan knit from kidsilk haze and fine milk cotton.  I love the contrast in textures and patterns on this cardigan.  It looks like it would be a pleasure to wear and I love the graceful sleeves.

    Harmony  Harmony is another beautiful cardigan, one that I initially passed over, although I really don't know why.  I think it was the color in the photograph.  Oh the sweater looks lovely in this photo, soft and feminine, and perhaps that was the problem.  It looked too soft and feminine and classic for me.  But I kept coming back to it, and the more I came back to it, and looked at the pattern and the diagrams, the more I knew I really liked this pattern.  I would just do it in a stronger color.  The pattern calls for purelife organic cotton 4 ply, but it would also be lovely in a fine wool, or perhaps even more of the Blue Sky Alpaca Silk.  I am really in love with this Blue Sky Alpaca Silk.

    Merry  Lastly I am very attracted to a crocheted sweater, even though I haven't crocheted a sweater in nearly 20 years.  Merry is designed by Marie Wallin and is knit in Lenpur Linen.  Usually, when I love a crocheted sweater I am later disillusioned when it starts to crop up on Ravelry.  That does not meant there are not exceptions.  I crocheted sweaters long before I learned to knit.  Still, I think I will wait and see how it turns out before I jump in.  Besides I have plenty to knit on my queue.

  • Flush

    I'm still cleaning out the closets.  I spent a lot of time for a couple of days doing the basic stuff, things I wear every day like pants, skirts, and knit tops.  And I've worked a little bit every day since, but there are still things I am avoiding, like my sweaters.  But I've gotten rid of a lot of stuff, really an amazing amount of stuff.  

    IMG_2646  So what I have I found in the closets?  Quite a bit actually.

    I have 8 pairs of pants I can wear now, and one pair of summer pants, over there on the far left in the photo.  By summer I will need pants as the striped pair shown here are anything but basic, unless perhaps I run away and join the circus.

     Pants are perfect for right now when it is cold and windy, snowy and slushy outside and the fact that I have so many choices amazes me.

    The pants are grouped by heel height, and within that by color.  I always aim to have basic pants in at least two, if not three lengths, to accommodate different heels. 

    From left to right:

    2 pairs of black pants I can wear with flats:  one Saint John knit pair, and a pair of slim fitting matte jersey pants, that will actually be comfortable well into spring.

    1 pair of gray stretch cotton chinos.  This sit a little higher in the waist than is currently fashionable but they fit so well it is almost uncanny.  None of the problems I usually have with pants is evident in this pair.  I should trace them off and compare them to my pant pattern from November.

    1 pair of yellow cords.  I need some color to keep me sane.  

    Then there are two pairs of black pants to wear with mid-heels 1 1/2 to 2 inches or so.  One of these is solid, the other is a lovely suiting fabric with gray and red pinstripes.

    Finally, on the right, two pairs to wear with heels, black and winter white.  As I said, I am set. 

    IMG_2628  The skirt population took a bigger hit.  But even here I have enough choices to get me through the season.  

    White with red and black appliques.

    Two pencil skirts in black, one with little pleats at the knee.

    My favorite turquoise plaid Pendelton skirt, which has been taken up twice and will not be taken up again.

    There are several other skirts, all skirts I made in 2005 or 2006 that have been put aside as they can be easily altered and worn and still look good.  We will see if I get to them.

    Otherwise everything else has gone.

    Two things I have learned so far:

    1.  I do indeed have a few TNT patterns, or will after a few very minor alterations.  They are all patterns for things I made in 2004 or 2005.

    2.  Good fabric truly is worth the investment.  The things I own that are made of really good fabric have held up beautifully and fresh and new.  The styles may not be perfectly current, but they are classic enough and the fabric good enough that they are fine.  Things I made out of less than stellar fabric often look tired and worn-out, even if they haven't been worn that much.  They weren't worth the effort that went into them, unless I was sewing them as a quick thrill to wear and toss.

    Quick thrills aren't usually my style.

  • Next: An experiment in sweater fitting

    You might recall that back in December I posted a list of what was next in the knitting queue.  I am sticking roughly with that plan except that the gorgeous blue Stacy Charles cashmere has been pulled until next winter.  I just didn't anticipate that it would take me two months to finish the striped cardigan, and I thought the cashmere would be a quickie winter project.  Now I feel it is too late to begin it and actually enjoy wearing it, so I am putting it on hold.  

    Silk cocoon cardigan  Instead of the cashmere I began the Silk Cocoon Cardigan from the Spring 2009 issue of Interweave knits. I am using the recommended yarn, Blue Sky Alpaca's Alpaca Silk.

    I started knitting my swatches right after I finished the previous sweater, but it took me a couple of tries to get the cocoon stitch, which you see on the yoke and the sleeve cuffs right.  The first time I was too tight and was having a terrible time with those repeated "p5 tog" stitches.  Now that is not that unusual, that I knit tighter in the gauge swatch than I do when actually knitting the garment, so having one run through the pattern one time, when I went to larger needles and tried again, the whole thing was too loose and floppy, but at least my fingers got used to the pattern.

    IMG_2550  The third try (on the original size 3 needles) worked perfectly.  Here is a close up of the pattern stitch swatch, mostly because it is also fairly close to the right color, at least on my monitor.

    On gauge and ready to go, I decided to approach this pattern a little differently than usual.  

    I've been working with a shirt muslin and doing so has made me think about fit more.  Now I know knits are different than wovens, and the stretchiness of the knitted fabric makes up for a lot of things, but I wanted to really think about the shape of this garment, the size, and how it would really fit me.  I decided to use the information I have learned in my sewing experiments and see if I could knit an even better sweater.  After measuring, thinking about it, and marking all my changes to the pattern, there were so many cross-outs, starred passages telling me to go to the back of the page, and general rewrites that I figured I just might as well rewrite the pattern the way I was going to knit it.  The whole process, fitting, marking, and rewriting took me the better part of two days.  I don't yet know if it was worth the effort.  The worst thing that can happen? It doesn't work and I learn a lot.

    I started with my usual adjustments, which were confirmed as necessary in my fitting class last November:  namely I took out about 3/4 of an inch at the center back, just below the waist, tapering to nothing at the side seams, I do this with short rows.  I also add 3/4 of an inch in length at the center front over the bust, again tapering to nothing at the side seams.

    When working on blouses, I also learned that I needed to add 1 inch at the center back above the shoulder blades so the neckline of my shirt would sit at the proper place. Since taking that class I have noticed that many of my sweaters dip to the back in the same way, so I added that dart to the center of my back after I had begun the armhole shaping, at about the level of the scapulas.  

    After all this I looked at the actual dimensions of the sweater, and compared them to my actual dimensions.   Inspired by "Mother Daughter Knits"  and my pattern experiments, I checked the shoulder width, the sleeve length, and where the waist shaping occurs in the pattern compared to where it occurs on me.  This led to another series of changes in the pattern, including making the sweater bigger at the hem in back, to cover my bum, which also meant increasing the number of decreased stitches before reaching the waist, and making the fronts comparatively smaller at the hips.

    IMG_2610  Now that all the math is done I am finally knitting.  I'm in the middle of the back waist shaping and have just finished the short rows for that scooping-out at the center back.  So far, it is going well.

    Will it all yield a better sweater? I honestly don't know, but I hope so.  Call it a grand experiment.

  • Through the closet door and into dreams: Ralph Rucci Fall 2010

    Chado1  I've been cleaning out my closet.  This time I am being really brutal.  I must love it.  I must love it on.  No settling.

    I am finding that I had forgotten how nice I feel in nice clothes, that I like tailoring, that I love a beautiful dress and heels, nice ladylike flats too, but especially heels.  I like dressing up.  Where have I been?  How could I forget?

    Oh yes, I remember now.  Caregiver.  What a terrible word.  What a terrible style.

    Chado9  I want to repudiate caregiver style.  Oh wearing jeans has been good for me.  I have learned to be casual; this took a long time, and there are days this is all I want.  But more often I want to be in a suit or dress and heels even though this is not the wardrobe expected in my life.  

    One must gauge the climate.  One must also gauge the temperature of the woman, and find a meeting point where both coexist in comfort.  I am working on this; slowly yet, but working nonetheless.

    I want to wear what I want simply because I want to wear it.

    Chado7  I'm not far enough along in the closet restructuring to report anything, but I have been inspired to look at the fall collections.  Of course I started at the top, with my favorite, Chado by Ralph Rucci.  You must go look at the collection.  It is amazing.  Almost every piece is gorgeous.  The man is a genious.  Obviously I am stark-raving-mad for this collection.  I like it so much I have looked at it over and over.  I like it so much I haven't looked at anything else.

    Chado23  I am so inspired I'm loopy.

    Chado36  There are so many things here that speak to me.  Some are ideas for things to make.  I'm not really planning direct knock-offs.  I stopped that years ago, I'm more interested in stealing inspiration, and Ralph Rucci's work is all inspiration.  Besides, my skills aren't up to creating some of these things, not yet, perhaps not ever.  

    But my love of this collection goes beyond just wanting the clothes, and yes I do want them.  It goes beyond just dreaming of making the clothes, or using them for inspiration.  This collection reminds me of something fundamental and basic that is in my style, something with which I had floundered for a while. 

    If style is also a reflection of who you are, of the place you want to mark in the world, when the world throws you for a loop it is conceivable that even style can get lost.  Chado46  But to deny one's style is to deny a fundamental piece of oneself, whether that style be "high" or "low", combat boots or Christian Louboutin.

    I love these garments in and of themselves.  They are perfection.  They remind me of what I like, they remind me not to go down frivolous paths following whims.  

    Sometimes I just look at something and say that is how I wish clothing could be, how I wish life could be, the life for those clothing.  

    Aspirational.  

    Chado47  Inspirational.

    Clothing that makes me wax philosophic. Not a good sign.  Did I not tell you I was loopy? We all know I am not good at philosophy, and I am worse at writing about it.  

    Did you know that in college I was told that I "write badly very well", and that I should write the blurbs that you find on the back of novels, enticing the reader to open the pages?  

    It is true.  But it is not correct.  I let my mind wander far too freely to write blurbs.

    Even in the context of these fabulous clothes my mind wanders beyond "where could I wear this" and "how could I reproduce that" and thinks of blurbs.

    These are dream clothes.  They are not clothes for driving the garbage cans up the hill, or doing all those other practical things.  I don't think dreams need to be practical.

  • Progress

    The hardest thing seem to be just accepting the world as it is not as I would like it to be.

    No that is not correct.

    Even harder than accepting the world is accepting myself as I am and not as I would like myself to be.

    I'm working on it though.

  • Where have I been?

    Nowhere.  Here.

    What have I been doing?

    Everything.  Nothing.

    Or at least that is how it seems to me.  I've been busy doing many things that all seem to be the perfect things to be doing at the time I am doing them, and yet I have nothing in particular to show for these things.  Not that having something to show is necessarily what life is about.  But still there are blogs, mine to write, others to read:  so much to say and see and do, and still life sits there either being lived or waiting to be lived.  I'm all for the living.

    And so I am living it.  And for me that means I am doing a lot of things.  Planning various things that need done, I like schedules and charts and research.  I like lists.  I've been reading and knitting and cooking.  I've been cooking up a storm, making stock and cheese and just cooking the three meals a day that we seem to need to have on the table.  I suppose we always eat, and I always manage to get meals on the table but sometimes I cook more, experiment more, sometimes I just get meals on the table.  I have fun with this.  I can't imagine not doing it, just as I can't imagine not sewing.

    Sewing.  That is what this blog is supposed to be about isn't it? Well yes.  And the distractions from sewing, the things sewing distracts me from.  

    I've been working with my muslins, working on them a little here and there.  Don't think I have tons of muslins lined up and garments will just roll out, they will, but I'm not there quite yet.  I've been working a little bit but mostly I've just ben absorbing the process, working on things and wrapping my head around what they really mean.  And I have not been subjecting you to the small variations and details that I play with, but the results will eventually be apparent, or at least I hope they will.  They are already starting to show up in my knitting. 

    I seem to have needed

     a long time to just flounder about, wondering what I wanted, wondering which shelf or box I had placed put my true "self" in when I got busy taking care of other things that were more important.  When those other things settled themselves down again, I found that I wasn't quite ready to put myself back together, or I was but I didn't remember how to do it.  And somehow I opened the right box and there I was.

    Hello self.

    I'm comfortable in my skin again.  It is not weight, although I am losing weight and am back at a weight where I feel more  comfortable with myself.  I'm growing my hair out again. I am exercising every day and that takes a big chunk of time. Somehow, amidst all this, I've rediscovered my old sense of style, rediscovered that I do have a sense of style, discovered that I don't have to look for it, struggle over it, fret and ponder.  It is just there.  Where did I lose that knowlede?  

    I'm glad to have it back.  It is very calming. 

    What I want now is a plan.  

    I remember now:  I do love clothes.  But I want the clothes I want to wear.  And I want to sew the things I want to wear, not sew something just to sew something.  Some of the things I want to wear and sew are simple, some are not.  Some of the things I want to wear I will not sew.  That is OK too.  

    And the days are just all too short.

  • Wearing it.

    IMG_2581  I wore the Elaine Striped Cardigan today and I love it. 

    These particular pants aren't perfect, but they really are the only things I like with this sweater that I can wear at the moment.   

    If I were not losing weight I would make some alterations on the pants, (the folds at the pocket require a simple, but time-consuming, fix) but it is not worth the time at this point.  They will get me through a little more of this season.  Better to spend the time making new pants.  I have a few different shades of maroon wools, and hopefully one will go with this sweater.  I also think a pair of dark khaki or olive green pants would be lovely and I might have something that will work.  Certainly both colors would work with many other things as well. Jeans in a dark wash are another possibility, but again, I have none that fit me now.

    I will get there, I'm still working through my priorities, weighing what I want in fit and style, knitting and sewing projects, versus the demands of exercise, trying to eat well, and reaching goal weight.  It is not so much about being a particular weight, or even "thin" but about control and overcoming the penalties of a few years where control went out the window and  stress ruled the day.

    At the moment diet and exercise have priority, and everything will follow suit, hopefully in a measured fashion.