Restingmotion

Snowed in with a warm new shrug

I love how absolutely quiet the world grows when it is snowing. Even though I live in town, my driveway is rather long and you cannot see the street from my house. And although I have neighbors within sight on all 4 sides, they are really only in view during the winter months and then if I go search them out; my position, half-way down a series of small ledges makes for a certain semblance of privacy.

When it is snowing it seems quite isolated. I have no idea what is going on in the world beyond the white blur outside my windows. The FedEx delivery person walked down my driveway to deliver a package this afternoon and said the town had finally plowed the street just ahead of him. He also told me there had been a major accident near the construction site on the main highway just outside my house and the highway had been closed for several hours. I never knew. That explains why no one came to plow until we had over 8 inches on the ground, no one could get to me. I suppose it is a good thing I didn't have to go anywhere.

So instead I did a little Christmas baking and puttered about the house, and did a little knitting as well. I also took a nap because I have a vicious cold, and there is nothing quite like a snowy day and a cold to make one want to curl up and hibernate.

It was also a perfect day to wear my cozy new shrug that I knitted over Thanksgiving. If you have been reading my other blog, PurlsandMurmurs you might know that I had finished it, and I promised a picture of me wearing it but I hadn't gotten to it yet.

In fact, I wasn't thrilled when I finished it, It clung to the body too much, and seemed to bunch up around my neck. So in a fit of frustration I threw it in a corner, and then moved other things on top of it because I had to clean out the bedroom to put in a floor. By the time I found it again it had been shoved and pulled and stretched and it looked quite relaxed and cozy. In fact I am quite fond of it now.

Ignore the spots on my tee. I did not spill my lunch on my tummy. I had just leaned over the wet railing to stare down at the neighbor below . Silly me. This picture was taken yesterday, when it was nice and occasionally sunny, and didn't look at all like we were about to get a foot of snow.

I shall reiterate the details here since I am going to be combining blogs and in the future will just use this blog for all my creative endeavors. There will probably be a few bits and changes around here as I find my way through incorporating new bits, but don't worry there will actually be sewing as well.

This shrug was inspired by this pattern from Tahki-Stacy Charles :

I looked for the yarn, Shannon, at my LYS but they did not have it. As I was wandering around avoiding my knitting one evening, I saw the Nashua Vignette that I ultimately ended up using.

When I looked at the pattern Theresa pointed out that it was very similar to a pattern written for Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande, and that the shaping was a little nicer in the Plymouth pattern. Since I wasn't using either yarn, I decided to go for the Plymouth pattern.

This is the photo of the Plymouth Shrug:

When I looked at the patterns they are not that different, and are actually about the same size (although you wouldn't know that from the photos) but the shaping for the armhole opening is different.

In retrospect I suspect the Tahki pattern might fit better around the arms.

I am knitting it again, this time in the recommended Baby Alpaca Grande. This is not the recommended sequence of events. I probably should have knit the alpaca shrug first, then modified the pattern for the wool. But then I have always had a strong tendency to go at things backwards and upside down.

December 13, 2007
Ideas from Chanel

From a rather prolonged autumnal season, we have moved in to full winter, in all of its Hudson Valley "loveliness". In short November may have been warmer than usual, but so far December is colder, and we have had three sleet and ice storms in as many days although yesterday we alternated a bit between rain and ice. Thrill. I don’t really mind winter in theory, and I like the snow, but it never lasts here, much to my dismay. What I truly dislike though is the general dreariness. Everything is dark and damp and cold. I like light. So why do I live in a house that does nothing to maximize available light?

I spent a significant amount of time yesterday trying to take photographs of a jacket I want to share, as much for my own ability to remember, as anything else, but dark house and bad weather lead to poor photographic opportunities. It took several rounds of photographs before I just gave up. Since the forecast is for more of the same all week, and the jacket in question needs to be returned to its source, we will have to suffer through not so great photos.

I received this Chanel suit, made of brown wool crepe, from a personal shopper. The photo does not do it justice, but you can get a glimmer of the seaming from the photo. Click on the picture to enlarge.

Since photos of the jacket on me showed even fewer details than the flat photo, and did even less for the jacket I have attempted to sketch it:

This is partially a guess, as to the fit of the jacket. I could not find an photo of this jacket on the Internet, and the belted waist seam on me is about 2 inches above my waist, but since I often have to lengthen jackets by one to two inches, I am assuming this is meant to be a waistline seam. It would actually look nice cut higher as well. The seam was not flattering, however, on the place it actually hit my body

One of the things that attracted me to this jacket is the sleeve detail. Note that the sleeve is three pieces, two of which are cut on with the body. The third piece consists of a gusset that is aligned with the side panel of the jacket. There is a center seam running down the shoulder line. The back piece is cut in one piece with the side back panels. There are also two center back pieces to the jacket with a center vent. I could not get a photo that shows any of this detail.

.Here is a slightly expanded view of the front seaming.

Take a look at the buttons. They are covered in self fabric and then a fine chain is sewn on top, I would use a very fine link chain. Where the chains cross there is a little "CC" symbol, but I think this would be particularly nice with a bit of simple beading at the cross as well.

Although this photo is not as clear, you can see the waist seam, and the way the waist is finished below the notch collar and under the belt. The belt and belt loops could be easily removed. I actually like the really low neckline of this jacket, it makes it perfect for showing off a beautiful top or a blouse, and I think the shaping of the sleeves is also interesting. The gussets and the shoulder seam allow for room for fitting and give a rather sleek modern line, which is really not apparent in my crude sketch.

This only serves to remind me that it is probably time I invested in a better digital camera, one that allows me to set the shutter speed so that I can maximize what light is available. There was a time, not so long ago, when I believed I would never want more than a simple point-and-shoot camera. As so often occurs when the word "never" creeps into my vocabulary, I have been proved wrong. I will start looking after the new year, I know Santa has already arranged for my gift and it will not be a camera.

December 11, 2007
lap robe/floor mat

I believe that I have mentioned that my simple, "quick" projects rarely turn out to be all that simple, or if they are simple, they do not prove to be quick. It must be something in my basic constitution…

I had an idea that I would make a soft cushy mat for the floor, something like a yoga mat, but not a yoga mat. I needed something long enough for an adult person to lie on but which was also comfy and cushy and snuggly. I needed something that could be rolled or folded for storage and which could go in the washing machine.

Thursday I went to the mall to buy two of those long bath-sheet sized towels, because we didn’t have any towels that large. I bought the softest, cushiest towels I could find.

I didn’t have time to go to the quilt shop before they closed, but I found this lovely Kaffe Fassett cotton in my collection. I had one yard, more than enough for binding the edges of my mat.

Towels and fabric were washed Thursday night, so I could begin Friday evening. I really thought I could do this in an evening. After all the steps were so simple…

First make bias binding
Press under hem allowance one side of binding.

At this point I realized that I I would not be able to sew the binding onto the "front" side of the quilt/mat with all the layers intact because it would be too thick to easily manipulate through my machine, and there would be far too great a risk that I would not be able to keep things straight and all the layers properly aligned. So I decided to attach the binding to only one towel, mitering the corners as I went, realizing that I would have to anchor the layers together by hand when I wrapped the binding and finished the other edge.

Next I sandwiched all my layers together, first aligning two layers of thin batting with the bottom towel and using binder clips to hold everything together. Then I positioned the top towel over the batting, and carefully positioned it, wrapping the binding around the edge and repositioning the clips to hold all the layers. This actually worked quite well and the binding was quite easy to manipulate into position.

This is probably obvious to people who regularly quilt things, but it took me a few minutes to figure out the binder clip technique. I started with pins, but quickly realized that my longest pins were not going to work with the thickness of the layers. I think it was also much easier to keep the edges of all the layers lined up exactly using the clips, whereas the layers would be more likely to shift with pins (unless I used thousands of them). Luckily I have a good sized box of binder clips salvaged from the office when we closed it last spring.

This morning I settled down with a pot of coffee and started to sew, anchoring the binding to the quilt and stitching through the layers to hold everything in place. I think the final result is quite nice. It makes a nice soft mat to lie on, it can be rolled into a comfy bolster…

And it also makes a nice warm, snuggly lap robe or blanket. I know because after I finished sewing, I sat back in my chair with it spread over my lap and I took a little nap.

December 8, 2007
1 shrug done, one in process

I did over pack for Knoxville in terms of knitting projects at least. I did most of the driving down, which left little time for knitting, and I drove more than half the way back as well. I didn’t anticipate a lot of knitting time while I was actually there.

Still, I got that multicolored shrug finished. It was only a partial success.

Oh, it is lovely enough, and it looks just the way I imagined, at least when it is flat on the table. But it isn’t what I imagined on me.

I used this pattern:

Which uses Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande. I did try the sample on at my LYS and liked it so I wasn’t going in completely blind. And truthfully my finished shrug looks a lot like the photo on the pattern, but not exactly. The Nashua Vignette is wool and is a knitted tape and it has much more spring to it than the brushed alpaca yarn called for in the pattern. So my vest, although knitted to the same gauge, holds its shape much better and clings much more to the body. The overall impression is that it is thicker and bouncier and springier, giving it an entirely different drape on the body….not the look I was going for.

I should have known better. I am vaguely aware of the differences in fibers and how they work, although I am now thinking that perhaps I should get myself a copy of that new book:
The Knitter’s Book of Yarn.

Although the finished garment doesn’t look bad on, I am still on the fence. It doesn’t go with the outfit I planned to wear it with, but I have another outfit in mind, once I make the dress that is.

In the meantime I am knitting another version, this time in the recommended yarn, so I will wait until I see version #2 before making a final decision. It shouldn’t be much longer:

December 6, 2007
My sewing machines miss me

I miss them too.

I had a crazy desire to just make something this weekend which is now almost past and I almost drove myself crazy with it. I just couldn’t squeeze in the time and I was frustrated and anxious and generally sewing deprived. Are there physical manifestations of sewing deprivation? I think there are.

But I know that my life has been too crazy of late.

And I know that one more UFO is more than I can bear.

So instead I managed to pack up all my stuff for our trip to Knoxville. And I spent part of that packing time with wardrobe play, figuring out what goes with what and starting to formulate a plan not just about what to wear on this trip, but what I want my wardrobe to be and what I need to sew and knit to make that wardrobe a reflection of those aspects of me I want the world to see when I dress in the morning.

Oh, and I also cleaned the house because that way I can at least walk in the door in 10 days and not feel like I am starting out behind (yet again). Because we all know that I will still be behind. But illusions are everything. And at this point in my life finishing things is more important than starting new things, even new things that feed my half-starved creative soul.

And I still know that those sewing machines will welcome me back whenever I find my way back into their world. And I will give thanks for that. And I will give thanks that my life is generally good and if I am overwhelmed I am overwhelmed by the excesses inherent in this comfortable life I lead. It could be so different. And I am grateful.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

I will be back in December. And yes, I will sew again.

November 18, 2007
Ready to roll

We are off to Knoxville early tomorrow and will be gone around 10 days. I have managed to pack a few travel projects. I had hoped to take the Vancouver sweater as well but it doesn’t look like that one is going along. It is getting late. I don’t have that together and we are leaving early tomorrow. I probably have too much knitting as it is.

Generally, the projects I am taking are simple. With a 900 mile drive each way I would normally get lots of knitting done. DH has always felt it is his duty to drive and mine to sit and knit and I can’t say that I have objected all that much, although I generally do enjoy driving. Last trip I drove almost half the trip, probably for the first time in our 21 years of marriage. This time he has already told me that he doesn’t feel up to driving much, so it looks like I will be driving more.

But I had already pulled out the yarn and packed it up. So I may or may not be knitting. Either way, I won’t be blogging as I am not taking the computer this trip. I haven’t gotten as far along as I would have hoped with taking pictures and getting things together on Ravelry either, so I have little to show you.

My first project is a ribbed shrug using this yarn:

It is a quick project on size US 10 needles and I am already about 1/3 of the way through it.

November 18, 2007
Color Meme

I copied this from Kristi over at fiber fool but I actually got it from Marji . I haven’t read my way through everything yet, but I have been thinking about this color meme. Well anything about color is always intersting, isn’t it?

1. What is your current favorite color? purples and wine reds generally, although deep true green and deep blue green run very close behind.

2. Had your favorite color changed over the years? Yes and No. I always come back to purplish shades or greens, but I do go through phases where some color or another catches my fancy and i obsess about it continually. Sometimes this is a color that is trendy at the time but often it is not.

3. Is your current favorite color one that is currently trendy? (Do you
see it in the fashion rags or on the clothes rack or in the linen aisle
right now? How about 5 years ago?) I don’t think either purple or deep blue green is particularly trendy now. The greens that have been trendy of late have been too yellow or too bright. I am however currently somewhat fascinated by orange, which is trendy, and bright yellow. The bright burgundies are also in it seems, and those fit into my general "purplish" purview. They go well with orange as well.

4. What is your favorite color combination? That is a much harder question to answer as it is much more variable. I like deep dark browns, the color of dark chocolate with most of the cool pastels. I love dark brown and light bright turquoise. Fuschia and bright orange are a perenial summer favorite. I love midnight navy with green, blue-turquoise (as opposed to the greener kind) with some purples, softer greens with gray. I think there are too many to name, they vary with my moods and the season.

Favorite three-color combinations are deep prune/muted leaf green/wine or wine/khaki green/and deep pansy purple, wine/khaki green/deep taupe brown are also very nice. In fact I can go on an on about my favorite combinations that include shades of purple, red-purple, and purple-blue, mixing them with almost every other color in some combination or another. Favorite color combinations that are outside of this range include red/black/white and yellow/light or medium gray/dark gray. Another really powerful color combination for me, perhaps a little too intense to use often is yellow/purple/black.

AT this moment I am fascinated by Medium jeans-blue/pine green/amber and white as a combination and combinatons of shadow-blue and mineral-blue with yellow and olive.

5. Is that combination a popular one? (Is it use in prints you see in
the stores and catalogs and magazines now? How about 5 years ago?) brown and turquoise is back again. Orange and pink are popping up again as well, primarily because orange is fashionable now. Otherwise some of my color combinations are probably popular at any given time.

6. What is your favorite way of using color in your knitting? (Are you
a stranded knitter? Do you prefer simple stripes? Do you prefer just
accents at the hems/collars?) Hmmm. I’ve done stripes. Often I just combine whole blocks of a color, like entire garments mixed with garments of other colors. I can play with my combinations more that way. In terms of color-knitting, I have done stranded knitting, and enjoy it, but I also like intarsia. I tend to like an all over pattern like more than isolated spots of color, unless we are layering whole garments as mentioned above.

7. What colors look good on you? reds and greens are probably best.

8. What colors look bad on you? orange and Intense pure Blue and their attendant colors.

9. Do you wear colors that don’t look good on you just because you like them? That is really a tough question. There are colors I can’t wear near my face but can mix with colors that I can wear, as for example in the discussion of orange above. But I don’t wear most oranges or yellow-browns, or golden colors. There is some part of me that feels I want to wear any color I love and will try to find a wear something if I love it enough, and I have occasionally fallen in love with something in every portion of the color wheel. Generally my skin tone is cool as is my hair. But my eyes are green and they have a lot of olive/yellow in them, and there are certain warm yellow greens that are quite attractive on me. As I have gotten older my hair has actually gotten darker, it used to have a lighter, warmer tone, so I am heading more toward cooler colors. But I can’t say that I am purely one season. Technically I am a summer but pastels don’t particularly suit me and some fall colors do. So I find this whole color thing terribly complicated. Again my hair and skin are cool and my eyes are warmer. Intense pure blue is almost as bad on me as intense pure orange.

10. What is your favorite neutral color?
black/white/ivory/tan/brown/gray – if brown or gray do you prefer cool
or warm versions of those or does it matter? And, how dark? Deep brown, more to the cool side than the warm side. Grays, but grays need to be more neutral or warm. Blue grays can be difficult just as true blues can be difficult. Increasingly black, which was too strong for me when my hair was lighter and I was younger, and is better now. I assume that eventually the gray will gain a bigger stronghold in my hair, I will be 50 next year, I will eventually taper more toward wearing more grays, but for now I am enjoying black.

11. Is there a sweater pattern that uses more than one color that you’d
like to make, but you wish to change the colors from what is published?
If yes, which one? What do you not like about the published colors? There is always at least one each season. The problem is that I usually find the chosen colorway to be strikingly beautiful and am never as happy with alternate colorways that I devise that are more suited to my particular coloring. In colorwork patterns particularly this can be quite difficult, or perhaps it is not but I don’t understand the complexities of color enough to pull it off.

This season I am fascinated by Eunny Jang’s Autumn Rose pullover. The problem with it is that the colors are probably too autumnal for me to wear, although there are colors in the sweater that I can wear. But I really like the published colors and a part of the reason I love the sweater is that I love the color combinations; I am just not sure I could wear it. I think the only way I could happily adapt it is to make a large swatch in the published colors and then make swatches in my alternate colorways and live with them for a bit to see what worked for me.

The problem is that there are so many things I want to knit that I am not sure I want to devote this much energy to planning this sweater without actually getting a sweater in return.

November 14, 2007
A clost full of sweaters and nothing to wear.

It surprises me that given all the sweaters I have knitted over the years, and the number of sweaters piled on the shelves of my closet, that I could not find a sweater to wear today. It is not even that I don’t have any appropriate sweaters, just that I don’t have the sweater I want to wear TODAY.

I think I have the yarn for that sweater. I probably already have a pattern picked out. I probably have several patterns picked out and I probably have the appropriate yarns stashed. And truthfully, even if I started knitting today, it would not be on my back today. In fact by the time I finish the sweater in question, and I am envisioning a 3/4 or long sleeve cotton or cotton blend sweater with a casual weekend kind of feel, it will be too cold to wear it and I will be annoyed with myself yet again for knitting something I can’t wear right away.

You know that is how sweaters end up on the UFO pile….I start them with great intentions but when they are near to being finished it is the wrong season to wear them so they get put aside and forgotten. When the right season rolls around again, and it always does, they remain forgotten because I am already dreaming of and working on new sweaters which exert a much stronger pull than the old mostly-finished sweater in the UFO drawer.

And so yet again I find myself with a closet filled with sweaters and no sweater to wear.

Does one ever catch up?

November 14, 2007

What Color are You?

This bit of sewing amusement has found its way here by way of Linda over at Danvillegirl Sewing Diary:

you are turquoise
#40E0D0

Your dominant hues are green and blue. You’re smart and you know it, and want to use your power to help people and relate to others. Even though you tend to battle with yourself, you solve other people’s conflicts well.

Your saturation level is higher than average – You know what you want, but sometimes know not to tell everyone. You value accomplishments and know you can get the job done, so don’t be afraid to run out and make things happen.

Your outlook on life is bright. You see good things in situations where others may not be able to, and it frustrates you to see them get down on everything.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

November 14, 2007

Reading update

"We are never very far from those we hate. For this very reason, we shall never be truly close to those we love. An appalling fact, I knew it well enough when I embarked. But some truths deserve our attention; others are best left alone."

So begins my new novel, Cold Skin by Albert Sanchez Pinol, and I am immediately drawn in. It is a dangerous thing, this novel which is also beautifully written. I had picked it up for bicycle reading. Beautiful language is not usually what I seek out in a bicycle book. Not that I object, but beautiful prose can be a deterrent to exercise. Beautiful prose makes me want to stop pedalling, to curl up in a comfy chair with a cup of coffee and savor the language. Bicycle books are meant to keep the blood flowing and the legs pedalling with a gripping story. I may find them formulaic, with imperfect characterizations and even heavy prose, but all is forgivable as long as I keep to the stated goal: more miles pedaled.

That does not mean I don’t enjoy good fiction when I can find something that I can actually savor while I ride. This book promises both, a good ride and a good read.

It seems that my reading has been either missing entirely, or of one extreme or the other of late. Until a week ago the last book I read was Floor Sample with which I was very enchanted in the beginning. In the end that is what I look for in a book, something that enchants, something that forms a connection, almost like making a close friend. Few books live up to that potential of course, and of the ones we read, some are just passing acquaintances and others become friends to some extent or another, but few become lifelong companions. Those books we love deeply are few. But even knowing this I am eager to start each new book, and disappointed when it does not fulfill that promise.

Julia Cameron’s book was like that. It seemed full of promise at the beginning and I eagerly looked forward to each meeting. And truthfully I was drawn in to the story through a good portion of the book. But then it faded, slipping into what seemed to me just another accounting of the passing of life. Although that is not exactly true. The book has a rather open ended conclusion, but then life, while being lived, is also open ended. I suspect too that my own frustrations with this peripatetic lifestyle shadowed some of my perceptions of the book. "Settle down" I wanted to scream. This moving back and forth really gets you nowhere, you keep repeating the same scenarios. But that is not true. That is how I see it as I am much more of a person rooted to a place. But the personality and the art are always linked, and I admire Ms. Cameron for continuing to allow her art to thrive. At times the spark seemed to have gone missing in the book, but that may be that it is just all the more difficult to write about one’s own more recent past than it is to view that which is more distant. Not that I should complain. We all start out with great promise, but so often then are worn down by the repetitiveness of life and the need to get things done and account for our accomplishments. That the writing fades should not surprise me. Who am I to judge? I too subject the world to a meaningless drivel of boring words and accountings of the mundane passings of life. Of course I am not selling my words in a book, but still they are being flung out there, ever ready to blanket the world in boredom.

After that I did not read. There seemed little time to slip away into that magical kingdom ruled by words and imagination. Even bicycle books were ignored as I gravitated to the treadmill and running to a driving beat. But my brain longed to escape, and my knees longed for relief brought by that circular motion.

Last week I read Louse Erdrich’s The Master Butcher’s Singing Club and thoroughly devoured in a few short hours. Then I began bicycling again, and finding myself at the gym without a book, picked up Mary Higgins Clark’s ‘ll be Seeing You which was not such a treat, but did its job as exercise distraction, although just barely. Admittedly I can read some pretty bad things on the bike, but I have trouble getting through Mary Higgins Clark every time. Even on the bike the temptation to skim and skip ahead was almost overwhelming. Luckily it is a short book and fast read. Two sessions was about all I could take.

But now I have something better, but it too is short, and unlike Clark, this one encourages me to stay on the bike longer, travel further and read more. It will be finished before the week is out, even if I resist the urge to take it to my favorite reading chair and shut out the world for a while.

November 12, 2007