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Restingmotion

Who says Angora sheds??

Some people never learn.

I knew that waiting around was in the cards for today. I knew that I would be knitting while I waited.

So why did I wear black cotton pants when I knew I was knitting with a lilac angora blend?

The sleeves of Lilac Serenade are now completed — but not yet on the blocking board. I can probably still get that to happen tonight. I had hoped to start putting the sweater together tomorrow, but the sleeves will probably not be dry.

And it ends up I have another waiting-room spell to attend to tomorrow. So I spent part of the evening swatching for the next project.

No I am not finishing a UFO. At least I am starting something that was on my queue.

Presenting Granite from Rowan 43 in color Amethyst Bamboo Tape. I even did the math for the (few) alterations.

At least this won't shed on my clothing. And I should be able to wear the finished sweater well into Autumn.

August 5, 2008
Watermelon Season

Watermelon season is finally here.

Tomato season has been here a couple of weeks, although just barely. Despite the heat, it has not been a good season for tomatoes. I wonder if that has something to do with the incredible amounts of rain.

In the photo: Watermelon and Tomato salad. A summer favorite, not as elegantly photographed as in The Elements of Taste. And in this instance, not exactly true to the recipe as I was forced to make do. Still it was wonderful.

Sweet, crunchy, with a touch of a burn in the aftertaste…. this is not watermelon the way I had it as a child. And the watermelon reduction which makes this salad proves very versatile. Somehow we always have a little more watermelon than we can eat.

August 4, 2008
Blocking Lilac Serenade

The Serenade cardigan is finally on the blocking board after sitting around for nearly two weeks.

During the interim I have finished one sleeve and am about half way through the second. The sleeves seem to be taking a long time, especially considering the body of the sweater went so quickly. It is all due to attention span and interest though. I love the sweater. Now that it is a little cooler, I am even considering wearing it soon, that certainly is helping the progress as well.

I have NOT worked on any other UFOs or other projects although there are plenty lurking in various stages, some which still require a good bit of knitting.

My concentration just hasn’t been up to the other projects, and I might just start something new when this one is done. Lots of inspiration is rolling in right now as fall magazines and pattern books begin to arrive.

August 4, 2008
New Patterns, Part 1: Coats

Of course, when my sewing time is reduced to dream-time, I am all the more easily seduced by the lure of a pattern sale. Actually I had been looking at the Vogue pattern site since my magazine came on the weekend, and have been adding things in and out of the cart depending on the time of day, my mood, and probably the amount of cloud cover in the sky.

So of course the urge to click “buy” when the sale was announced did not go unheeded.

I will start with the coats.

When I first looked through the Vogue site, I noted the new Sandra Betzina coat but thought that it was just not going to work for me. The one piece body and sleeves, with my small upper chest but wider shoulders and bust just looked like a headache starting to happen, the photo just looked too much like a bathrobe..

But then, when I was reading the magazine there was an article by Sandra Betzina about making this coat out of Patent Leather. That really caught my eye.

Now I love patent leather, and this coat looks fabulous. I should have known. Whenever I have gone to one of Sandra’s sewing weeks I fall in love with the clothes she has made from her patterns, even patterns that I initially dismissed from looking at the pattern envelope or the way they were presented in the Vogue magazine.

If I were in San Francisco this week, as I had hoped to be before further issues arose with DH’s health, I would probably be looking at the original of this coat, and adding this pattern to my stack.

But I already have a red patent leather coat. It is Valentino and fit me about 20 pounds ago. If anything should encourage me to lose those 20 pounds it should be that coat.

And although I like the tucks at the waist, I have a Marfy pattern somewhere that has tucks, but is otherwise a much more tailored coat.

I did not buy this pattern. But I still like that coat. The possibility always exists that someone will sew it and post some fabulous version on the web and I will have to have it.

But for now, I have at least managed a teeny tine modicum of restraint.

So, what coat patterns did I buy?

I don’t actually object to cut-on sleeves, and this Issey Miyake pattern is just lovely. I see they call it a jacket. I call it a coat, but it is probably more of a lightweight coat or duster than a seriously heavy duty winter coat. Because of the princess seams and the gussets this will be much easier to fit and probably a lot of fun to sew as well

I would love the long version of this coat in a nice wool crepe. The short version would be nice in lightweight double knit and I also think I can also seeing it transitioning away in a nice linen crepe I have hidden somewhere in the stash.

Although I think the Koos van den Akker coat made with the slashed fleece is very interesting, I am not at all sure that I would be making this coat as it is shown. Well I might if I found just the absolutely perfect piece of fleece.

But I am actually attracted to the coat for the basic shape. When I get back on track with my coat sew along, I am planning on making a coat with a long wrap or shawl collar, much like the one in this pattern. I was not planning on raglan sleeves, but I think the basic shape of this coat is a classic, and one I am sure to use at some time or another. I also wondered if the fact that the pattern was designed for fleece might be useful for my fused wool yarn fabric. I am really not yet certain about the characteristics of this fabric or if it will prove to be difficult to ease.

So this coat went in my basket and is on its way to me now. I also have a kind of a muted mulberry/mauve fake fur with a suede like backing which might work for this coat. Or would that be just too much purple fur? Perhaps I had better think about that a little further.

Then I succumbed to these two patterns; obviously they are variations on a theme.

I chose the vogue pattern for more than the coat. I like the little top and skirt as well, but primarily I am attracted the the coat. It has problems, namely that I would look like a shapeless big bubble in it. I absolutely do not like the view with the collar buttoned up around the neck. I think it looks terrible around the shoulders and upper chest. But I love the view of the collar with the funnel neckline folded down. I know it is not practical. The cold winter wind would blow right down the front of that coat. But it does provide an opportunity for wearing a fabulous shawl or scarf, or it can be made in a lighter weight fabric for those fall days when you need a bit of a light coat but don’t need to be out battling sub-zero winds. This pattern actually calls for a lighter fabric and anything too stiff would defeat that nice shape of the folded back collar.

The McCalls pattern is somewhat similar, and looks better through the shoulders and collar than the Vogue. If I wanted a buttoned up collar, this is the one I would go for. It doesn’t have that “my breasts have become an extension of my chin” look that the Vogue coat seems to promote. Because the collar is a separate piece, it gives you more opportunity to fit the coat to the body. I also like the idea that there are front seams in this coat, with inseam pockets. This gives far more fitting options.

I could probably just take the Vogue pattern and add the front seams. But with the sale price it seems so much more interesting and yes, fun, to compare the patterns and play with them.

July 23, 2008
More Anny Blatt

It appears that “tomorrow” became three days. Oh well.

Anny Blatt book 203, “Couture” is not as interesting to me as the previous book. There are a lot of sweaters that remind me of sweaters Anny Blatt did in the 90’s and even late 80’s, but I think the originals are better. Most of the patterns are just a little “off” to me, or perhaps it is just too much bling.

At first I was thrilled by three sweaters with classic shapes and interesting intarsia patterns, but after due consideration I realized that the only one that really calls to me is this cover sweater.

Even with the pailletes it calls to me. Or perhaps it is just the summer flowers which indicate a longing to be out in the garden.

I probably will not knit it anyway for the same reasons mentioned in my previous post, namely I am already backed up on colorwork sweaters and this is not calling to me loudly enough to displace those items already in the queue.

The only other sweater in this book that appeals is this rather classic cardigan, called Lorraine.

Again, it is not that unusual or special, pattern wise or even stitch wise, but it is just a lovely classic cardigan of the type that I would wear over and over and over again.

I guess that alone should be enough reason to knit it.

But attraction is fickle, at least my attraction to knittng projects, and being steadfast and integrating well into the wardrobe aren’t always what I am looking for in a knitting relationship. Where is the excitement, the suspense, the surprise?

In terms of knitting thrills the cover sweater is more enticing. Will either one get knit? Well, fall is not here yet.

July 23, 2008
Warm Woolen Sweaters and Crisp Apple Strudel

This post has been revised with improved photos

Double click on all photos to open a full sized version in another window

It always happens this way: In the midst of summer heat and humidity, when the air is too hot and too heavy and the thought of holding yarn, much less wearing any kind of sweater has slowed my knitting down to a long slow drawl, the winter knitting books begin to arrive.

You might think that looking at winter knitting patterns in the middle of summer heat would be the last thing I would want to do. You would be surprised. The lure of winter yarns is much like the thrill that comes every December when the spring gardening catalogs start to arrive, whetting the appetite for balmy spring days surrounded by beautiful flowers. With winter knitting magazines come dreams of crisp autumn days and cozy winter evenings in front of the fire. Winter dreams consist of all the things I love, hearty stews, crispy duck, warm wool and cashmere, full bodied red wine, brandy by the fire, snow, cranberries… Not that I don’t love summer berries and produce, crisp linens and beautiful flowers, but the heat and humidity? Bah. That I could do without.

And so just when I think that I summer will never end, the fall temptations begin to arrive.

The new Anny Blatt Intemporel, Book #204, is filled with sweaters I would love to knit. In fact the shorter list here would be the things I don’t like. The problem is that I want to knit everything even though I know it will never happen. Still, dreams are cheap enough.

First of all I love the cover vest. Well, that is not exactly true. I love the cover vest as it is styled in the cover photograph. Upon looking at the line drawings I see that it is just a giant rectangle with a ribbed neck. It will probably not stay in place properly, and most of all it will not give me that wide shouldered – narrow hipped look of the model. In fact it probably doesn’t even look all that great on the model when she is standing straight. It probably falls off her shoulders and just looks wide and floppy.

I toyed with the idea of fixing it, wondering if I could extend the ribbed front look with some garter stitch or something and make a round drawstring waist, breaking the lace in two. In the end these idle fantasies are always too much work. There are too many other things in the world to knit.

When I saw the long cabled sweater on the back cover (leda, far right) I was very excited. When I saw that there was another one inside I felt like i had hit the jackpot. I can live in this kind of sweater when the weather turns cold and I much prefer the longer length to the more traditional shorter style of cabled sweater. I think the pattern on the turtleneck is the more interesting of the two, and when I was younger it would have been my first choice. But it is a very long expanse of sweater and I am increasingly appreciating the wearing potential of a more open neckline.

For those of us who are tall or who like long sweaters. This issue is the mother lode.

The long cardigan on the far left reminds me very much of a long black cashmere cardigan my MIL gave me shortly before I married her son. I still have that cardigan and it is probably one of the most frequently worn cardigans in my closet. Since it is more than 20 years old at this point, I keep meaning to make another, but I have never gotten around to doing so. This cardigan is the exact same shape and length as my favorite cardigan. The Merinos yarn called for in this pattern is a slightly heavier gauge, but the yarn is yummy and the interesting basket weave stitch is attractive and will hopefully not be too tedious to knit. This project would probably be a very good investment of knitting time.

The red cardigan coat is just so lovely, although I am not completely sure it is my style. I think it could work wit the right outfit, but at this point I think this is more of a fantasy knit that will marvelously enhance my fantasy wardrobe.

While I am on the subject of long sweaters, here are two more that caught my fancy. The long dusky plum sweater calls for “fine kid” and is knit on 6 different sizes of needles. I love the line of this sweater and it is a very flattering look for me. I love the lace patterns at the hems also, although I may have to make the sleeves slightly narrower simply because I am the kind of person who has an unfortunate tendency to drag my sleeves through my soup.

Isn’t the scarf wonderful too?

I jut adore this color work sweater too. I love the fit through the waist, the way the sweater flares from waist to hem, the beautiful lusciously feminine colors. Most of all however I have to admit that I love the idea of this sweater because it is knit entirely in Angora Super and I love angora. Geesh, I feel soft and pretty and cuddly just thinking about this sweater. But I have several color work sweaters in the works and they are all currently stalled. So I don’t think this is a reasonable investment at this time. Yes I could buy other yarn, but it is the angoraness (yes I know, not a word) of this sweater that appeals as much as the pretty colors.

Finally there are two shorter cardigans:

One Classic.

One not so classic.

At the moment I am drawn to the less classic one. I like the modified empire line, it is soft and feminine but still has enough structure that I think it will look stunning with a narrow tailored skirt, or with pants as shown.

And here I have gone on an on and haven’t even looked at the second of the two Anny Blatt books that arrived.

Tomorrow

July 20, 2008
I’ve Got Mail

And it looks like something to savor slowly:

Ooh la la! Fall fashion magazines. The dresses on the cover of both the Vogue and the Town and Country are fabulous. I haven’t really looked at the fall fashion shows yet, not even the couture. And if these dresses are any indication of what I will find I should start looking.

The Vogue patterns magazine also came filled with ideas for fall sewing. It also reminds me that I haven’t looked at the newest batch of patterns on the website.

I will take a look at those this weekend. It will be weeks yet before they wend their way into the pattern drawers at my local Joann Fabrics.

Not that I am really ready for fall sewing yet. I do still want to work on that taupe collection that did not materialize as a June capsule. There is still lots of time to wear it. And I am woefully behind on my coat(s) as well.

A new Patrones also arrived and I was very disappointed to see that it is soaking wet and the pages are sticking together. It was, as usual, wrapped in a plastic bag. The bag was dry on the outside and wet on the inside. I wonder what happened. The pattern looks OK but the line drawing pages are a mess. I need to look more closely and trace off anything I might want before it becomes completely illegible. Luckily, at first glance, there is really not that much in this issue I am interested in — all summer things, and I have many far more interesting summer things filling my dreams.

So there is lots of fodder for dreams and wishes and even some creative pursuits here. But I have no trouble storing up dreams. There are so many inspiring ideas. And already I am looking at some fabrics that are on the shelf and looking at them in a different way. Dreams and wishes. You will be reading more about them soon.

July 19, 2008
Dreaming of Spring

At last, a finished Object.

I named this sweater “Dreaming of Spring” because of its spring colors, and because it is a warm sweater that I was knitting in February. I intended to wear it through the spring season, which ended up being quite long, but instead I set it aside and forgot about it.

It is a blended sweater, knit with two strands of yarn on size 19 needles with a gauge of 1.75 stitches/inch.

All yarns are by Colinette:

Mohair, 2 skeins, light green color

Skye, 1 skein, dark umber

Tagliatelli, 2 skeins, blue purple

Zanziba, 1 skein Dark Umber

Shimmer 5, 1 skein, Toscana

I had a Colinette kit for a throw, which I had purchased long ago, in colors that blended with the decor in my family room. It never got made. The family room has changed slightly, and I am no longer interested in the throw. I love the yarns but they were not the most flattering colors (yellow greens with some pinks and purples).

One night at Knitting group one of the other knitters was entranced by two deep purple skeins of Colinette Tagliatelli. I was entranced too. She decided not to buy the yarn, When I got home it suddenly occurred to me that the deep purple would look lovely with the soft yellow-green/celadon type colors in my Colinette kit and I stayed up too late playing with my pantone kit

A couple of days later I went back to the yarn store, kit in hand, and the Tagliatelli was still there. It looked like a good combination. I ended up buying another Colinette kit as well, dismantling both kits and grouping the yarn into selections for two sweaters, each one using yarn from both kits.

I worked out a sequence for the yarns that appeared attractive to me. The sweater is knit with one skein of mohair throughout, the other skeins are rotated. There are actually two shades of green mohair: one yellow green and one a blue/gray green. (I called them yellow moss and blue moss.) One stripe is knit with both skeins of mohair, making a transition between the blue and yellow mohair stripe sequences.

This is the sequence I decided upon:

yellow moss shimmer 5

yellow moss tagliatelli

yellow moss blue moss

blue moss skye

blue moss tagliatelli

blue moss zanziba

Then I just started knitting, having a rough idea in my head of what I wanted. I decided on the length, took a few measurements (waist, length from hip to waist, length from waist to underarm, etc). I added short row shaping at the bust to make a dart, and so that the stripes wouldn’t get all wavy and wonky on me.

In the photo on the right the sleeves have been pushed up to elbow length as it was much too hot today for even a loosely knit mohair sweater.

I think it turned out quite nicely and I am looking forward to being able to wear it.

July 12, 2008
I love it, but will I regret it next week?

I did not realize until late yesterday afternoon that the photo on my last post was indicative of the degree of incoherence that would be found in my prose. When I read my own post the next day, with the attention of posting again, my first urge was to do so serious editing. Then I felt that I should really just delete the whole thing and start over. But I hate to do that. Better to walk away. Better to leave it up with a pointed reminder to myself: “don’t do this” or “the dangers of writing on the verge of exhaustion”.

Of course I do tend to ramble on in a barely coherent fashion when I am talking, so at least I passed the “write the way you speak” test.

Or perhaps there is some common thread between my writing and my clothing choices: I have a great deal of trouble editing.

Yesterday I intended to write about this outfit. The top is a dress I bought from Eileen Fisher after reading this post by Une Femme. I remembered that I wanted some long graceful tops and was having trouble finding something. It would really have to be at least 32″ to cover my butt, and I remember Sandra Betzina saying that I should wear 35″ long jackets. I saw this dress. I have a few Eileen Fisher pieces, but not many. Most of them do not flatter; the pants are mostly too short. But I figured that UPS is my friend, and it could always be sent back. Besides I would rather try something I can send back with little effort than spend precious time making something I wasn’t sure I would like.

When I first put it together I liked it, but I had doubts. I wondered if the dress over the pants was too “hippy dippy? Perhaps it is bordering on some kind of “middle-aged tunic-wearing, I’ve put on a few pounds so I’ll just add a couple of long scarves and give up” kind of look?

But I like the wide low neckline with the necklace. I like the long soft flowing length. The fabric is light and quite cool on a hot day. The way the dress kind of floated a bit when I walked made me smile and feel pretty. And I like this length (35″) on me over pants. I was quite comfortable and happy in the outfit all day.

I realize the cotton/lycra pants are a little stiff, and it might look nicer with narrow silk or a very light wool. Or would that be too much float and flow, heading me into Bea Arthur in the Golden Girls territory? If I make softer pants will I regret it? Is it worth the effort? Am I going to look at this photo next week or even next year and think “what was I thinking”. Will I look back and say “the long downward slide started there, with that outfit, I can see it now”.

I admit that have always defining my style. I know what it isn’t more than what it is. My clothing choices are probably mostly boring, but I do like things that were more ethnic, sometimes artistic, sometimes dramatic: I like unusual jewelry, ethnic pieces but also spare modern pieces, big cuffs. I like cowboy boots. I also like Manolos.

I love elegant clothes and beautiful fabrics. But I don’t really feel I can pull off the full-blown polished classically elegant look. Perhaps it is the hair, which always does its own thing. Truthfully I like letting the hair do its own thing, I find it more appealing than perfect polish. I suppose my penchant for flippy hair and sitting on the floor do not quite go with the elegant socialite look.

I love long skirts and bright bright colors. I love ethnic prints. I also hate the full blown gypsy-boho-artistic look on me although I can admire it on others.

But I don’t always manage to mix the pieces together well. What I think looks like a bit of incongruence looks to others like a mistake. And I am not confident enough to quell that inner demon. Perhaps I have just reached a point where I am tired of making boring choices. Perhaps I am tired of letting what I think other people want me to be shape what I wear. But at the same time, I am not quite ready to embrace the inner me without some concession to how I appear to the world and some concession to those inner demons. Perhaps it is just time for me to come out of the sartorial closet and play.

July 11, 2008
Still working

Here I am looking tired, still setting up the new computer and running the old computer on the cutting table. It is taking longer than I had hoped, not that I should be surprised at this point in my life, although the task is not so much difficult as time consuming, especially as I want to sort through stuff as I transfer. Computers, like houses tend to fill with stuff.

The old computer keeps shutting down on me, one of the frustrating issues that prompted me to get a new computer in the first place, and that prolongs the process. Today also we have had several thunderstorms and about 3 inches of rain. It hasn’t broken the heat any but the power has flickered on and off and I have lost the internet connection a couple of times.

Linking directly to the old computer was becoming too problematic so I am transferring the data from an internet back-up but the last batch of data hasn’t arrived. I don’t remember if I actually sent it, or just got everything lined up and meant to click send but didn’t either due to an interruption or absent-mindedness. It is also possible that I accidently clicked on the restore to CD option rather than the “restore to download” option. Silly me. I also did not think to order a copy of Adobe photoshop until after I set up the computer so I am waiting for that as well, but things are progressing. Of course some data requires manual conversion from PC to Mac format as well. Actually I am enjoying this enough that I wonder why I didn’t do it sooner. Of course, for a long time Apple was pretty much a dirty word in this community which revolved around IBM.

I haven’t spent all my spare time at the computer. I did shorten three new pairs of pants for DH and it was so nice to just sit in a chair and lose myself in the rhythm of the hand stitches. Even though I might prefer to make something new for myself, I can really enjoy just sitting down and listening to a piece of music and hemming. Frankly it made me happy to see that my newly serged edges and hand hems looked much better than the original ones that came on the pants — not that it is at all important, or that anyone will ever know but me.

Since I am also interruptible when hemming, I was able to get all three pieces done, whereas I don’t think I would have had such a long stretch of time in the sewing room. Don’t think that means I am going to get better at doing the mending though: there is still a huge stack, and I would rather just make new, unless it is a favorite garment.

I’ve been thinking about clothes and summer shoes, and not just because Materfamilias happened to post about sandals today. I have been thinking about the occasional post about shoes or what I am wearing or just what I am thinking about clothes and style as that also all channels into what I sew (and knit) as well. I find that I am have been getting more and more interested in clothes again, perhaps partly because I am either more confident (ha!) or just more willing to experiment with what I like with less concern about what other people think about my choices. I have been collecting more and more inspiration photos, and in doing so, and looking at clothing websites, I am also realizing that I am just not interested in making all my own clothes. I will still shop. People do things that I would never think of, and if I can find something that I like and looks good on me and fits (a lot of ifs, I know) I have no problem buying. And of course shoes are easy, because I am not going to make them anyway.

So today, even though I was home all day, I am just the kind of person who has to feel a little pulled together and ready to answer the door when FedEx comes or I need to run out to the Post Office. But since it was a casual day, I am just wearing a white tee and periwinkle cotton knit pants.

I actually made these pants in 2005 and this is an old photo. I don’t have Photoshop up on the computer and can’t figure out how to crop out the part of the picture I don’t want, and things are too piled up to get a decent new picture, so this will just have to do. They have held up really well, look practically like new, except for perhaps a little fraying at the bottom of the hem. So I guess it does pay to buy or make clothes out of good quality fabrics. Even though these are cotton kni they don’t sag or bag and look just as nice as they did in that photo.

But of course, I had on accessories as well. The scarf is one of the first scarves I ever bought myself. I picked it up at a craft fair soon after I graduated from college. The silk is rather light and delicate and it has been hand painted, The colors seem perfect for so many summer things, and the weight is just right for the warm weather, so it remains a favorite. I actually don’t wear it all that often anymore, but when it do wear it, nothing else seems to quite work as well.

And yes there were shoes. I wore one of my current favorite pairs of casual, flat sandals. I bought these last summer from Thierry Rabotin.

I actually had qualms about white sandals. I hadn’t owned a pair for several years. But DH thought the shoes were very graceful, and they are. Since they are also very comfortable and go with so much, I am glad that he encouraged me to buy them. As you can see, they have had their share of wear.

July 10, 2008