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Restingmotion

Around the World in 40 menus?

I was looking at the menu for the week, Thai two nights, Mexican one night, Italian another and I was suddenly reminded of "Around the World in 40 days". I wondered if I could go around the world in 40 menus, or even better 40 weeks, having a couple of menus from a given country each week. There is still time this year if I started when we got back from Tucson. I would even have weeks to spare for when I just didn’t feel like it.

Are there 40 countries from which I could find menus and recipes? There must be. Can I do different regions of some countries, for example Basque cuisine from Northern spain versus the food of southern Spain, or Naples vs the Veneto. The food of the Yunnan region of China is much different from the food most American’s think of as Chinese. What about American regional food. What about Canada? There must be Canadian cuisine but I know nothing about it.

The idea is kind of exciting. I might be totally crazy. I think I will give it a try.

February 1, 2006
Plans

I finished the floor plan for the soon-to-be-transformed sewing room. The room is small, 10 1/2 by 13 1/2 feet.

There will be no sketches of the views of shelves and walls from different angles. That would take much to much time, other views will live in my mind until they materialize, in whatever permutation they finally take.

I also looking at new colors. The old sewing room is white, with one deep blueberry wall. I am tired of that. The blue wall will become white, with a white modular cubby unit. White to better show off the contents of the cubbies. Everything else is subject to change..at the moment I am thinking green…

maybe verging into blue.

I like color. I don’t want the room to be overwhelming but I want it to make me smile whenever I walk in, as well as after I have been there for hours.

February 1, 2006
DARN!

Monday was darning day. A rather rare occurrence, but in the general
theme of things it came following mending week, where buttons were popping
hither and thither and all manner of things were coming undone.

First, there was this Eileen
Fisher Jacket, which seems to have gotten snagged, creating a hole.

I really can’t see the
stitches here, it is not just the photo, and I can’t really see the
pattern. Size 0 double points
shown. Some knitting was required but
the stitches were coming undone in many directions. Despite the fact that this sweater is fairly
new, the little yarn sample that must have come with it had gone missing
although I found yarn pieces from sweaters that left my life decades ago. Perhaps some reorganization is required in
the buttons and threads box.

The closest thing was purple
wooly nylon thread, not close as you will see. Not an excellent job, functional but certainly not pretty. Luckily it is hidden in the drape of the jacket.

Then Tabasco caught herself in the cushy knitted blanket, creating
a hole:

Luckily, although knitting
was also required here (2 rows) the needles and stitches were much bigger:

You can see the darning
needle as I prepare to Kitchener these off the needles. I really do like grafting, which is perhaps
why I don’t mind darning too much. The
discovery of the Kitchener stitch was one of the defining moments of my
education, opening worlds of doors, a veritable “aha” moment when I could see
possibilities opening up before me. To
prove what a total nerd I am, the other such moment in my education came when I
took Organic Chemistry, another life-altering experience. Since I took it in an intensive form that
condensed the entire year into one-semester, it was roughly 3 months of
euphoria: hard work, but very happy work. That course was part of the “pre-med eliminations” and although I made
the cut academically, I discovered that I was temperamentally not cut out for
pre-med. I hated the intensity and
competition, I lacked the necessary drive.

Back to darning; there’s
still more.

Despite having just stated
how much I love grafting, I obviously messed this up on the first sock. Of course, over the last months these socks
have been in constant rotation, pretty much going from wash to feet and back
again, so the problem might have been just a wear spot. Picking up a narrow row of dropped stitches
on size 0 needles was no picnic and took me close to an hour. None of my crochet hooks was small
enough. I do have two tambour bead hooks,
the larger one would have worked, but it has gone missing and the small one was
much too small.

When I finished the repair, I
also shored up the grafted seam, where I saw a couple of other weak spots. When I originally finished the sock I tried a
technique that billed itself as simplified grafting, which I found less easy
and less effective than the real thing. I don’t know why I bothered.

Which leads me to the final darn, my darning Waterloo:

This is the back neckline of
a silk and Lycra turtleneck I got for Christmas. I was told it was a pretty inexpensive
turtleneck, and the problem might be in the manufacturing, but I doubt it. I have had this problem before on turtlenecks. The problem is caused by my exceedingly fat
head, 23 5/8 inches around. The neck on
which this behemoth sits is not proportional, being slightly smaller than
average. Herein lies the problem: a
turtleneck that actually hugs the neck strains at the width of the head. Popping of stitches often follows.

Sorry that the photo is so
blurry, I could not quite focus on the tiny stitches. There are 32 stitches in that little hole
pictured above. Way, waaay, to
small. The hook shown on the ruler is
the small tambour bead hook. It was
small enough to pick up the one stitch that had dropped down about 30 rows and
crochet it back up the ladder. Once that
was accomplished I spent a considerable amount of time trying, unsuccessfully,
to get those stitches on the smallest needles I own, 0000, but the needles were
too big. Do they make smaller knitting
needles? Finally, eyes burning,
convinced that I was going to go blind, I sat back, spun my chair around, and
when I opened my eyes what did I see? The sewing machine! Frankly dear
reader, I saw salvation staring me in the face. I cheated; I stitched that seam right up. The finished version is not attractive but it
is firm and stretchy. Since it is at the
back of the neck, virtually hidden when the turtleneck is turned down, I can
easily pretend that I don’t know it is there.

January 31, 2006
Meet the Dress Forms

Presenting Penelope Anne (forward) and Matilda (background):

Penelope is modeling the new pants for her human, my
DSD. They don’t fit her perfectly, as
well as they do DSD in the photos I took, but they are pretty close. I spent several hours this morning reconfiguring Penelope’s padding. In her original
form her measurements were mostly right (she was a little small across the
shoulders and lower hips) but she was too round and barrel shaped. She needed to be thinner in profile and wider
side to side. She is still not quite
right but she is the best I think I can manage without the actual person here
for comparison. I did manage to square
up her upper shoulders in the back and get a little bit of that back curve that
is needed, but she does not come close to having the kind of sway-back her
human does.

Still, I hope this is a good place to begin.

I also padded out Matilda who had remained frozen in my
shape from a couple of years ago. She is
now cushier through the waist and tummy, much like her human. Now we actually wear the same size.

January 29, 2006
up from nothin…

I needed another portable project and hit the web. I found instructions for toe-up socks here. I have basically ignored them except for the instructions for the Figure-8 cast-on which seems fiddly but works. I suppose it gets easier with practice. Luckily I had two sets of size one dpns as I broke one on the cast on, too bad that I only have wooden needles in this size.

The yarn is Sock It To Me Collection Colori which my mom gave me for Christmas. The colors are pretty but I am wondering if a garterstitch toe might have shown it off more. Perhaps I will use some kind of pattern for the body of the sock.

I knit this on the train to NYC yesterday. We listened to a lot of wonderful Mozart. Had a lovely drink before the train, and then came home.

On the trip home I managed to knit until the conductor collected our tickets, which was just outside Yonkers. Then I was tired, my back was sore, my hip was sore, my feet were going to sleep and and I was terribly cold, so I wrapped myself up in my coat and tried scrunching myself into a corner and escaping into sleep. I slept from Yonkers to New Hamburg, an accomplishment in and of itself.

January 28, 2006
A Bit of a disappointment

I finished Phillipa Gregory’s new book of fiction on Tudor England, The Constant Princess. It was a very enjoyable read, Ms. Gregory is a good storyteller, and it had enough imagined historical detail and political intrigue to keep me pedaling away on my exercise bicycle. The fact that I read it as a bicycle book, despite the weight of the hardcover, was a good choice, as I don’t believe it is up to the standards of her previous books and I would have gotten quite frustrated with it without the distraction of being strapped into an exercise bicycle. The historical detail in these books is always loosely tied into known historical fact, and often quite imagined. I am well aware that they are fiction and not accurate. Usually, the story, and the character development are wonderful though and this carries one through, not so much in this book. Many characters are lose stereotypes, barely sketched out, pops for the main character, who comes across as somewhat shadowy as well. The previous books have also given a more engaging view of the complexities of court intrigue and politics in the period. A bit of a disappointment really.

An escapist novel is always a wonderful thing but this one disappoints. A good historical novel, although fiction, engages the reader in alternative world and at the same time encourages the reader, or has always encouraged me at least, to want to learn more, to explore the actual history learn the facts about a time and person. This book does not accomplish that aim. It is quickly forgotten.

The next book is promising to be far more fulfilling. I started reading Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking today and was entranced. Poignantly and beautifully written, and yet very forward driving. I have trouble stopping and the book is difficult to put down. Still I will force myself only to read this on the bike.

January 27, 2006
All progress stopped on the
green and blue scarf. I still adore the
colors, but the scarf was looking ratty and I was not happy with it. From a
distance the color combination and texture is nice, but up close, all the
little loose threads annoy. I am such a
fiber/color driven knitter that it is always a disappointment when something I
fall in love with in the skein does not work out.

In this case however I am
realizing that the problem may be partly due the pattern I am using but is more
probably related to the Plymouth yarn, the Carombolo, which is hairy with little bits of fiber sticking out all
over it. This kind of yarn often gives
me troubles and I should have thought about this sooner. The original affair, with the Great
Adirondack yarn, is not really affected here. I still ADORE this yarn, looking at it…touching it….ahhhh…pleasure. The Plymouth yarn is only filler, no emotional investment here,
and it can easily be eliminated.

The trick here will be
separating the Great Adirondack from its evil companion, which in true nasty
yarn fashion has twisted itself interminably around the Great Adirondack yarn
making the unwinding a very unwieldy process. As I start to separate the two yarns into separate skeins, the Carombolo
twists and winds and makes a veritable rat’s nest that will take hours to undo.

I knew there was a reason
that I don’t usually wind yarns together even when planning on knitting them
together. Live and learn.

As I don’t have the patience
required for that kind of endeavor at the moment, it is on hold. Besides the yarn IS beautiful all balled up…

The little hairy bits are
quite evident here as well, but they look nicer in the ball, not so nice
knitted up.

I think I will save this for
the moment as an object of art in my sewing/knitting room. Perhaps I could eventually work out a little
display of yarns that are beautiful in their own right, which may or may not be
knitted up eventually. There are
certainly yarns that I find are much more beautiful in the skein than in the
sweater, Prism’s Stuff immediately comes
to mind, beautiful each time I see it, but far to fluffy and hairy for me to
actually live with in a garment. It’s
awfully expensive too, at least if I think of it as yarn I will not use. If I start to think of these things as art,
as something beautiful in their own right, the perspective, and the price point
analysis changes. We have certainly
spent more money on things that have brought less pleasure.

Worth thinking about, don’t
you think?

January 27, 2006
In which I dream of sewing Armani and Chanel

Yesterday was one of those days were everything went wrong and I
got to be everyone’s errand girl. I had
hoped for some sewing time, thought I could whip up a sweater set, which
actually looks different every time I think about it, so who knows how it will
turn out, but that is another story for another day, a day of actual sewing.

Yesterday was a day of virtual sewing.

The day might have gone better if I had not spent so long in
the morning perusing the Paris Couture Collections at Style.com. I really don’t regret that, the couture shows are my favorite. I could post tons of photos, but Liana has
already posted all the photos that I thought best and her comments and
selections are much more astute and observant than mine. Truthfully, I love reading her take on the
collections as much as I love seeing the pictures themselves. If you are interested go have a look.

When I got home, about 7:30, after being in the gym at the height of the evening post-work
rush, I was tired and crotchety from running around all day, and not in my most
productive frame of mind. I collapsed in
my favorite chair and allowed myself to think back over the collection pictures
and start imagining what I would sew if I could sew everything I wanted from
these collections. It might have been
more productive to go right up to my sewing room and get to work, but in some
ways the dream time was more refreshing. About the time I was winding down my mental sewing and preparing for the
actual thing, DH had arrived, dinner had to be made, and my time was once again
wrenched out of my control. I
increasingly admire those who work all day, come home to feed and tend their
families and still manage to sew on a daily basis.

First I was thinking about Armani. Now there were several nice things in that
show, and I have several ideas, but primarily I was thinking of this suit:

Now of course Liana posted this on her blog and pointed out the directionality of the stripes. I too had to lighten the photo considerably to get a sense of what was going on here, something I might have missed if she had not pointed it out. Once I looked however, I was inspired.

Notice that the the stripes on the body do not go all in the same direction. The lower portion of the jacket is cut on the cross-grain so that the stripes encirlcle the body and emphasize the waist. This is contrasted with the fabric at the bodice or upper part of the jacket, which is cut on the bias. Notice how the stripes seem to radiate out from the top closure at the base of the collar, and how the stripes curve around the bust, emphasizing the curve. This contrast would provide a slimming feature even for those were no longer quite slender through the waistline.

I don’t know if these shoulder portions of the jacket extend right into the undercollar with the bias of the fabric aiding the drape of the collar or if the collar revers is cut seperately. Liana might have figured this out. She is much more observant than I.

Also notice the bias sleeves, except for the cuff, where the stripes go around the wrist.

To aid my memory I sketched out my interpretation of this jacket:

I really like the shape of this jacket and the angles of the
pinstripes. I think there is a lot to learn and be inspired by in this jacket particularly the use of grain and the bias, and the use of the directionality of the fabric to emphasize this. Not only do you have the drape of the bias to emphasize womanly curves, an Armani strength, but you have the visual lines created by the fabric which can emphasize or de-emphasize our strengths and weakness, creating a shape where it might not be all that obvious, as well as emphasizing what is there.

After my peregrinations on Armani, I started thinking about the Chanel show. Liana showed this dress:

which I think is very nice with the shrug-like
shaping and the slightly fuller skirt.

There was also this dress:

As you can see, the second dress is a variation on the first. I like the more geometric treatment at the neckline, but both are very nice and quite adaptable.

By manipulating the photos extensively in Photoshop I was able to make out some of the seaming, but my Photoshop skills are not so highly developed that, by the time I could see what was going, there was much of a presentable picture left to post. Both dresses have horizontal seams just at, or just below, the bustline, and both have horizontal seams at the hip as well, much like the lighter dresses in the show. On the second dress, the seam is definitely below the bust, but I am not convinced this is the case in the first dress. Both dresses also have princess seams which extend at least as far as the pockets below the hipline, and probably extend beyond that as well:

Here is my interpretation, kind of a melding of the two styles:

The potentials for this shape, with variations on sleeves, neckline (full or cropped shrug), and skirt width, are endless and I can envision it in various fabrics. Even though the waist seems to be the emphasis this year, the basic design of the dress is quite classic and could flatter many. Of course, for myself, I would leave the flaps off the pockets at that low hip level, as this would most definitely not be a flattering look for me. But then, that is one of the joys of sewing one’s own.

Even though my sewing explorations last night were virtual, I can see that the ideas generated will spill over into my actual sewing and who knows where these ideas might turn up?

January 26, 2006
Green and Blue

Most of my available needlework time over the past few days
was taken up by hand sewing. Quite
frankly making tiny little hand stitches in a hem satisfies my need for calming
handwork just as much as knitting and I was content.

However, on the weekend I did need a car project in a hurry,
and so I started this:

Yarns are Great Adirondack Ballerina and Plymouth
Carombolo. I fell in love with the
colors of the ballerina when my mom and I were in Great Barrington. I was very happy to find the Plymouth yarn to match.

Sometimes all that is wanted is perfectly mindless
knitting.

January 26, 2006
Pants for DSD

Finally!

Here I am finishing up the hem on Miriam’s pants, closely
supervised by Tabasco (those
little lines do disappear with pressing).

In all truth I should have begun these before this; there
was no reason for the delay other than my own mental peregrinations and over-contemplation
of the task at hand. All that remained
were simple repairs, putting in the waistband, and doing the hem. In fact, it probably took me longer to remove
the elastic that I had “basted” at the waist than it took me to put in the Comfy Waistband from Pamela Isaacs Erny. I should have used that technique from the beginning. I had properly marked the waist at the first fitting;
fixing the completed waistband when I changed the darts would have been much
simpler than ripping out the overly complicated stitching I had used to begin
with. Live and learn.

The problem looked like this:

The pants came back from DSD with very few alterations. The right hip needed to be taken in where
there was an extra bulge of fabric below the hip curve (she has a high hip and
I misjudged the curve). The inexplicable
part consisted of two blue chalk marks
marking a “big fold” in the back, which I could not see for the life me, even
modeled on the intended recipient. I
could see the lines, I could see where they pointed (upper hip) and I could see
that the pants were perhaps a little snug across the upper hip in the back, but
I could not see any fold or wrinkle when she was standing in front of me. She and her DH insisted it was there, and I
do believe them.

I wondered if perhaps when I took up the excess at the side seam I eliminated
the problem but that seems unlikely. I
then wondered if perhaps when they pinned out the excess, not being very
proficient in the dressmaker’s art, they pinned a little tight and caused the wrinkle. I will never know. I didn’t see it but, just to be sure, I
released a little fabric from the upper hip in the right back just to be on the
safe side.

The test now will be to see if the pants fit now or have
been made worse by my fiddling.

I love the comfy waistband and I am sure DSD will too. It is so simple I am amazed that I have been
using more complicated and less attractive methods for years. This will also make it easy to alter if I did
indeed mess up the back with my manipulations, or if alterations are needed in
the future.

I did not like the look of machine hems on the texture of
this cotton knits and it looked kind of fiddly on pants that were otherwise
clean with on other exposed stitching so I decided to hand hem them. This has taken me two evenings and a little
extra since I like to put in three rows of tiny stitches as espoused by Cynthia
Guffey. I have about 4 inches to go and
then I need to take the pants and mark the alterations I made to the original
pattern so that I will hopefully know what I am doing to the next pair. I suppose that if I had planned on hand
hemming the pants I might have taken time and changed the thread on the serger
to be a darker shade of blue, although I kind of like the two rows of pale blue
serging at waist and hem.

January 24, 2006