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Restingmotion

First Day

It has been a fabulous first day. Actually it has been a fabulous first day and a half, as Wednesday evening I arrived in New York and finally met Marji, although if feels like I have known her a long time. We chatted and had a lovely dinner and stayed up far too late.

Today I got to meet Robin!

The first day in class was a dream. Kenneth King and Susan Khalje are such warm, encouraging, knowledgeably instructors it was a joy to be learning from them.

In class we mostly did muslin fitting although several people moved beyond muslins and actually cut fabric or at least underlining. Marji's jacket muslin looks really fabulous on her (as does her dreamy fabric). And I swear I wanted to steal Kenneth King's jacket all day. It was just so cheerful. Marji is probably actually thinking she would rather be running down to the Starbucks on the corner, and I was probably thinking the same thing when I took that picture but since I was standing waiting for a muslin fitting in my pants, with a zipper that was refusing to zip, neither one of us was really quite geared up for a coffee run.

I did get both my shirt muslin and my pant muslin fitted and I am still working on the pant muslin this evening. I should be ready for second fittings of both pieces tomorrow.

Kenneth complimented the pant muslin and said it fit pretty well and then proceeded to pin out a huge diagonal tuck which looked more like a geographical mapping of the grand canyon than any pant dart I have ever seen, and then he showed us the magically simple way to correct it on the actual pattern. After years of fretting, the charming, skilled, and talented Kenneth King has probably solved my diagonal slanting side seam problem. The proof will be in tomorrows fitting and the final pants, whenever they appear.

After a fabulous and tiring day, Marji and I met Carolyn for dinner and had a wonderful evening filled with good food, laughter and much talk about fabric and sewing. Thank goodness for fabulous friends, friends I wouldn't have made were it not for the internet and sewing.

November 19, 2009
New York: We have pants

I got the pant muslin done and, wonder of wonders it worked on the first try. There are bits of tweaking to be done, but over all I think I am close, very close.

I started the muslin at 4:00 yesterday afternoon. There are actually two patterns I wanted to work with and I started with this one mostly because I thought it would be the easiest based on the old pant muslin I had as a starting point. Besides, it is a style that has historically been very good for me.

Pattern: style 105 from the October 2006 Burda WOF magazine.

I traced the 44, which I actually thought might be a little small and I was right. Bummer that. Then I laid my old pant muslin from 2005 over the pattern to see what obvious adjustments I might need to make. The left front was perfect (so does this mean I am 25% a size 44?).

The right front needed an inch at the waist going straight down and tapering to nothing at the hip.

The back needed more work. I needed to raise the waist about an inch, and add more width at the waist too, tapering down. I did not need the same amount of width on the left as on the right, nor the same taper. I also needed to change and lengthen the back crotch curve. None of these things surprised me. My back is flatter and long than my front.

I tried the Burda pants first because in the past I have grumbled that Burda patterns are often short through the torso for me, need a lot of alterations but I hadn't tried pants. I had assumed I was long through the lower torso as well, until I did that body mapping earlier, when I learned that I was actually pretty short from waist to hip. I thought it was possible that the Burda might work, and it does. I need more room at the high hip because I move from my waist measurement to my hip measurement very quickly.

After tracing, marking and cutting the pattern I was very very tired. After making dinner I just sat and watched television with G, drinking a glass of wine and catching up on email. I figured I might not get to the muslin last night, but I was too tired to care. I was also annoyed with myself for slacking on the exercise front. If I had continued with my exercise regime from August and September I might have fit into the size 44 pant or smaller. Vanity, vanity all is vanity. I thought I would work out late, when G went to bed. Instead, at 9, feeling refreshed I started sewing.

Really the hardest part of making pants is the fitting. Once you have a pattern they are quick to pull together. Despite getting my zipper discombobulated again (invisible side zip on these pants) and discovering that I had marked the seam lines and darts on the front side of the front pant pieces rather than the back side of the fabric I had them finished by 10:30. The fit, in a dark mirror in a dark house was good enough for class.

Now the question. I plan on making these out of black wool crepe. I have to wash some bemberg today to use as lining. I would have sworn I had washed black bemberg, but I don't. I also have some brown wool crepe that I could use for these pants and I could take that. I have no brown lining fabric so that will have to be dealt with in NYC.

Or I could take the gray flannel and the other pant pattern I intended to make, the pants from Vogue 2922.

If I take the brown I need to steam the wool crepe but I can do that this afternoon. If I take the grey I just need to wash the bemberg. If I don't take the grey I can continue looking for the Alice and Olivia pattern I originally intended to use to make the grey trousers and do it at home later.

I'm not sure it matters which pants I make. Once I have one pant muslin fitted, everything else is just variations on a theme, or at least so I think.

Today I have to figure out these packing issues, get packed, and exercise. I need to find a new way to get the workout back into my routine. I miss the early morning workouts before breakfast. But the current reality is that I can't get up early enough to get up before G. Anytime after 1 AM, if I get up he will be up with me. I have to go to bed before midnight also or G will be up and keep me up, so that puts a quash on working out late. If I work out after 9, no matter how tired I am I can't go to sleep before midnight and I'm doubly screwed.

This will be my goal for December: working out a way to get reasonable amounts of sewing time, knitting time, and workout time. It is a tall order. It is also all I want for Christmas.

And because I promised a friend, here is a picture of the blue cotton fabric I am using for the princess shirt. It is a lovely shirting recently acquired from Michael's in a lovely shade of blue. I don't have appropriate shirt buttons either, so although I 'should' spend all my time sewing, I will also be spending some of my time shopping. I hope Marji wants to shop too, we buy so many of the same fabrics it would be really fun to go to a fabric store with her.

November 17, 2009
Pattern Weights?

Here are my sewing assistants: Sam and Moisés. They seem to think their primary role is to hold the muslin in place on the cutting table.

November 16, 2009
There is activity in the Sewing Room

I think I mentioned that I have begun working on a sewing project and I've been working steadily all week although I don't have anything I am ready to show you yet. This is because I have spent most of my time on tracing the pattern, marking the seam lines, and making a muslin and am not yet ready for the actual garment, although the further along I get in the muslin process the more excited I am about the project and sewing again.

To my mind the results of the slow start bode well. I had forgotten how much I enjoy all the steps to making a lovely garment: the tracing, the marking, the cutting, the pattern alteration, even the muslin process as well as the sewing. And it is good that I am enjoying all these things because we all know I have only sewn simple simple things in the recent past and I want to make and wear much more interesting things, but since I have no TNT patterns that fit me now it will be a slow process.

It struck me today that I have spent more time "sewing" or at least working on a garment, in the last week than in the entire past year. And the more time I spend the more determined I am not to lose this again.

It feels good. Damn Good.

I am terribly slow. And I have lost much in terms of skills. I forget things. Sometimes I have to do things over and over before I get it right. Already I see improvement though. I do better if I am not sewing late at night, but that can't always be helped. I also remind myself that not only did I sew more often before, I was also less distracted when I was sewing. But distraction is a part of my life now, a part of life for anyone who is living with and caring for a partner with some form of dementia; the trick is finding ways to keep working on things you love, and learning to just let things be.

This is what I'm working on: The Plain and Simple Princess Shirt from Hot Patterns. There was no particular rhyme or reason to my choice, other than wanting to make a fitted shirt and that the pattern just arrived in the mail.

I am going to be going to a "sit and sew" with Susan Khalje and Kenneth King next week, where I will also meet Marji, and Robin and I am very excited even though I am also very nervous because I am just out of practice.

To tell the truth I was a little panicky when I started. Because I was panicky I just decided to take it slowly and work through things one thing at a time. To that end I didn't do much in terms of flat pattern adjustments, just tracing the pattern according to a comparison of my measurements versus the sizes on the pattern. I did not do a FBA, even though I knew intellectually that I needed one, because the bust point wasn't marked and, although I can figure it out on a princess seamed shirt, I was a little confused about how the alterations for the bust relate to the alterations for the upper chest and armscye and sleeve cap. So I decided to start from the top down, realizing full well that I would have to take the muslin apart and probably add a piece of fabric in to the muslin as I went along.

So as I said, I decided to plunge ahead. I cut a 16 through the neckline which sounds big but makes sense since generally men's shirts fit me better through the neckline than most women's blouses. Then I cut a 12 at the shoulder seam, cutting an 8 at the front armscye seam tapering to a 12 at the back. Of course I had to adjust the sleeve cap accordingly and this was the part that worried me a bit. And it seems to have worked well. I can see how I needed less fabric at the underarms than I would have from cutting a bigger pattern and yet I need much more fabric near the center front, over the bust seams. Somehow, by not doing all the alterations the first time I can see more clearly what needs to be done and why, which is good because there is a lot more to do.

But I'm not working on it now. I've decided to save the rest of the muslin for class. Hopefully I will get the muslin done and get the shirt made. Today I did a little work on the muslin, but then put it aside and selected and pretreated fabric and started getting stuff together to pack. I also started rooting about for a pants pattern and prepped a piece of wool crepe to take with me, assuming that I get the pants muslin made before I go.

Monday and Tuesday are busy days but I think I can still get a pants muslin pulled together, perhaps not as nicely as the blouse muslin I worked on with the stitching lines all basted in black thread, but functional. Besides I've made pants before but I've never made a fitted blouse that actually fit.

November 15, 2009
Haiku Knits

I pre-ordered Haiku Knits from Amazon which means it has been sitting around here for a few weeks now. I keep looking at it.

I finally cataloged the patterns I am interested in to my database today and I ended up with 10 patterns out of the 25 in the book. Many patterns are ones I would make up as shown, others are more inspiration pieces in that I love the shape or the combination of the yarns or the ideas that the design inspires. These patterns make me want to play with yarn, to master texture and drape and the nature of the knitted fabric, to make the final garment something that is exactly what I want.

So I suppose the book is in part a book of dreams, because my knitting impulse is more in keeping with blind following of directions than blazing a trail and designing my own. But it is also a book of patterns. Patterns I would love to knit.

Tonight, because I am tired and have been standing at the cutting/drafting/marking table for hours and I am not feeling particularly eloquent or long winded, I shall share only my three favorites.

Two are made exclusively from Habu yarns, one is a combination of Kidsilk Haze and Habu yarn. Not all the sweaters in the book call for Habu, but many do.

Most of the sweaters in the book are not this traditional. And yet it is the traditional models I share. Perhaps it is a reflection of my state of mind, of this wanting to create garments that are just right in and of themselves but which also get along well as bit players in a wardrobe.

Perhaps I am just tired.

November 11, 2009
Sometimes the only thing to do is jump right in.

I have nothing to show yet, but I have started sewing again. Or at least I have started on a project. I am still doing the pattern work before I cut the muslin and I really have no idea how this is going to work out. It has been so long; it has been too long.

After checking measurements against a multi-sized pattern and a bit of wild panic, I figured I wanted I wanted to combine three sizes and make a few adjustments to the flat pattern. As I calmed down I remembered that I have done this before, that my plans make sense from a historical perspective.

As I started working at the cutting table I remembered how much I love this, not just the sewing but the pattern work, the planning, the drafting. And I have even threaded my sewing machine yet. But I will. And eventually I will get my groove back.

I'll let you know what happens.

November 10, 2009
New Knitting Project

No, Avril is not done. But I need to lay her out on the cutting table and stitch her up before I can continue, and he cutting table has been claimed for more pressing needs of the sewing variety.

In the meantime, I needed something to knit. Enter the Elaine Striped Cardigan, pattern # 284 from Schaefer yarns.

Actually, I would not have chosen this project from this photo, but it is the best I can do. I saw a sample of this sweater in my LYS, Yarn Central in Hopewell Junction and admired it for some time before I eventually tried it on and decided to make it.

The store had one color of the recommended yarn, Elaine, that Iocked but not in a coordinating color so I chose some Manos to use as the main color. I came home all excited, wound up the skeins, and threw them in a knitting bag and promptly forgot all about them. Until now.

I am about 22 rows into the left front; the pattern has you start with the fronts, and I am loving knitting this. I had my doubts when I knit the swatch, but the yarn does grow a small bit when blocked and the knitted fabric becomes more flat with a softer hand.

It is going a bit faster than I anticipated as I only worked on it a couple of hours last night, but it is an easy rhythm and the colors make me smile so I am hoping it will go quickly.

November 9, 2009
Anny Blatt Fall 2009

I'm far enough along in my current sweater that it is time to consider what's next, so I knitted a swatch this morning and blocked it. I wasn't particularly fond of the swatch unblocked, but the wet it shows more promise. The decision will turn on the hand of the dry swatch. More information will be forthcoming.

I had originally thought I would start this Anny Blatt sweater next, but perhaps I was a little over-ambitious in how far I would have progressed in my general fitness and weight-loss goals. I have decided that I would like to wait until I am a little closer to where I want to be before I actually start this project, even though it will not be the fastest knit. Because it is on tiny needles it will also be a knit that I will not be happy to have rip out and reknit just because it is too big.

Instead today I will show you a few favorites from the new, Fall 2009 Anny Blatt books, sweaters I would love to knit even though I am well aware that I currently have a backlog of several Anny Blatt sweaters including one that was started and then turned into a tangled mess by the blessed baby cat, Moisés.

From Anny Blatt Book 206 there are three sweaters that caught my eye. The first is this one, Valliere, done in intarsia in three different yarns, all in the same shade. I adore this; I love the subtlety of the change in texture and color afforded by the different yarns, I love the simple elegant shape (and yes there is shaping in this sweater) and the modified bell sleeves which are not to big. This sweater falls into the "must knit" category for me.

My second favorite sweater in this book is another intarsia sweater, Mazarin, which is very reminiscent of the lovely intarsia sweaters that I associate with Anny Blatt in the 90s. I'm just going with what I love here. I love the deep v-neckline and the fitted shape. I love the asymmetrical color work. What I don't particularly love are the pearls and beads sewn on this sweater, not that I have anything against pearls on sweaters (see Mine) just that I don't like the pearls on this particular sweater. Luckily, they are not required. I would leave off the pearls and the little intarsia dots running up the front of the sweater and otherwise leave the rest of the pattern alone.

I am also rather fond of this sweater, named Achery. I have been wearing more stripes, and horizontal ones at that lately, which is not such a bad look, especially as my torso above the hipline is my slimmest part. I like the stripes but mostly I like the hem and sleeve finish combined with the stripes, although generally this sweater seems more like "summer" to me but perhaps that is because I see it more in "summer" colors.

Certainly the colors shown are not for me, which is a shame in one sense as I would love to use the yarn, Lady Blatt, which is a combination of camel, silk, and cashmere. Alas Lady Blatt does not come in 4 colors flattering enough to my complexion to make this sweater; there are three colors I would use, but I haven't convinced myself that there is a 4th color that fits my vision of the thing. Not to worry, there are many other yarns in the universe and my lusting after Lady Blatt is probably best confined to a smaller project than an entire sweater.

I'm still fretting over the whole turtleneck issue, and whether I should invest in more turtlenecks from a style-perspective. From a practical perspective they are fabulous as they keep the neck and chest warm and look a little more sleek than a scarf. I suppose now that I think about it, I am never giving up turtlenecks, unless perhaps, my neck collapses and my chin rests on my collar bones and I don't see that happening.

Which brings me to the lovely Myrica from Book 207. I love the cables that increase in width as they move up the torso, bringing the eyes upward, the godets that flare over the hips, the lovely lattice at the neck and cuffs. When I was first looking at this book I also happened to be trying on sweaters and I was convinced I wanted to unravel a favorite, now too large, cashmere sweater to make this. But I have come to my senses. Not about unravelling the cashmere, that will be done as it is a lovely sport to DK weight yarn, but in terms of using it for this sweater. The cashmere is too soft and fluffy, and this sweater will look better with a yarn that shows the cables more crisply.

Last, there is the lovey Melonie. I suppose this is a more standard, classic, ladylike sweater in a fairly popular stitch pattern, but that doesn't make it less lovely. Certainly it is the perfect shape, with a lovely V-neckline that always looks good on me. It is a sweater that would be perfectly at home over skirts or pants either casual or more tailored and therefore fits my idea of a perfect wardrobe basic.

November 8, 2009
Catch Up

It has been a busy, busy week and I intentions and even ideas have fallen by the wayside.

We had house guests for a couple of days mixed in with a bunch of other excitement (we lead a pretty quiet life and it doesn't take much to count for excitement around here.

And we have certainly done our part to support the recovery this week as well, starting locally with a crew of tree cutters, a bucket truck, a huge chipper truck and a trailer for the logs as we finally took down the big cotton wood tree by the house, as well as a hemlock tree that was almost as tall as the cottonwood, but bare of leaves for all but the 8 or 10 feet which rose above the shade of the cottonwood and other trees. There were 6 trees total, two of which were dead and posed a threat to our power lines in the next ice storm and it took the crew about a day and a half to get everything cut down and cleaned out. Unfortunately none of the trees were particularly desirable as firewood so everything was hauled off.

The washing machine also sprang a leak about a week ago and the repair person was here on Friday AM and told me I needed a new pump and a new motor, to the tune of something like $500. Now that amount of money would buy a new top loader, but I don't intend to replace my top loader with another of its ilk as I see no point in investing in the old technology. Even so, it was too much to spend on an 18 year old washing machine as well, so off we went to the appliance store.

A new washer and dryer are set to be delivered this afternoon, probably in about an hour (which may be when I finish this post) and I am very happy not to be contemplating a trip to the laundromat. The original plan was not to get the dryer, although the dryer I have is 16 years old, and the enamel is chipping off on the drum so I have to be very careful about rust spots on the clothing if things are left to sit in the dryer. But I quickly realized that the front loaders were just enough larger than the old machines that it would be a pain to work around the washer to get at the dryer, so we got the set and I am happy and even eager to run some laundry.

Best of all, I purchased what is my new favorite concealer, even though it is almost as expensive as sin. You need the teeniest, tiniest little bit, it blends beautifully and covers even dark circles well without slipping, sliding into the wrinkles and creases around the eye or looking like you have applied a layer of spackle. And it lasts all day.

I say "almost" as expensive as sin because it is actually $5 cheaper than my previous favorite concealer, the one I thought I would never abandon until someone sent me a sample of this one, Cle de Peau's concealer. The only think I don't know is if a container lasts as long. The Cle de Peau stick looks bigger, and it would usually last me a year or a little longer. The La Mer looks like it holds less, quantity wise, although I also use far less, just barely enough to be visible on the brush. Only time will tell.

Oh, and I did some clothing shopping and found out I could go down a size in a favorite pair of pants. I also rediscovered a few old favorites that I had been saving and which now fit again. I was so excited after a few weeks of no progress that I thought I would go public and add the little "weight loss ticker" that I have seen a few places around the web.

November 7, 2009
Fall Knitting Magazines: St-Denis

Some time ago, having hit the wall in terms of storage space, I started scanning my assorted loose knitting patterns and storing them as PDF files. I always intended to make a database of the files as I went along, but life kept getting in the way, I switched from an IBM-type computer to a MAC and my old Microsoft Access was no longer supported. I toyed with delving into Filemaker or looking up other alternatives, but never got around to it.

Then I saw Patty's pattern database on her Ipod and I knew the time had come. It did not take me long to put my existing PDF patterns into the database. And I also started a database of sewing patterns as well since I save all the pictures and line drawings from the pattern websites when I buy the patterns. This will save me many notebooks worth of space on my already burdened shelves.

Now I just create PDF versions of the patterns I want to keep, put the photo in the database, and ditch or sell the pattern magazine. I am a little behind right now because a stack of fall things have come in during the last couple of weeks and I haven't quite kept up.

Today I scanned in the patterns from Véronik Avery's new St-Denis magazine. I used to put up pictures of things I liked in the knitting books partly so I could find my favorite patterns after the fact, but I don't need to do that anymore.

I thought I would share a few pictures with you though, just because I am so enamored of a few of the patterns. This child's sweater by Franklin Habit is adorable, and I wish grandson Owen lived further north so that I could knit it for him. I am inclined to ask if he might use it, although I am perfectly aware that no one is going to hand-wash his sweaters. The doll is adorable too.

The cardigan called Hunter Jacket is classic; just the kind of thing I would pull on again and again. I am sure I have yarn in my stash for this and probably even a need for a basic short cardigan in this style. In fact one of my favorite short cardigans is in line to be ripped and it may well be reknit into this style.

But the sweater I am really mad for, the one that prompted me to buy the book in the first place, is Gothic Snowfall. In fact, if I didn't have a couple of other color-work sweaters either on the needles or waiting on the sides, sweaters I am also mad to finish, I would be jumping right into this project.

In the past I have seen a project, fallen in love, put it aside and it has been lost in the piles and blog posts, temporarily forgotten.

This pattern will not be forgotten (although I am aware I have said that before). At the moment it is my "goal sweater" the one I will knit when I finish a few Rowan and Anny Blatt projects that are in line ahead of it. There is also a new Dale of Norway sweater I want to knit. It would be foolish to think I will get to it this fall, but if I am determined, I should be able to have it for next fall.

There are a lot of other lovely patterns in this book. A vest, a couple more cardigans, some lovely gloves, an extremely handsome sweater for a man. The patterns are designed by good people whose patterns I love. I highly recommend it.

I'll end with a question. Since I no longer need to post pictures of what I like here to help myself remember I am not sure if I should continue. Do you like these posts of favorite things from the different books and magazines. Should there be more? Fewer? Only books that seem special? Or should I skip them altogether?

October 31, 2009