A WordPress Site

Restingmotion

  • Second Caftan Cut

    I cut out the second caftan last night.  This cotton print is heavier than the first and much busier.  I am having grave doubts and am wondering what I was thinking.  I knew I loved the print (why oh why??) and could not imagine wearing it as an actual garment.  If I could not picture this fabric as a top or sweater set in my mind’s eye, why did I think I would like it as an even bigger garment like a caftan.  I know that I like caftans out of large, gaudy even, prints that I might not otherwise wear, but this, this may have been a serious miscalculation.

    Caftans4

    Well, since I started, I am going to go ahead and finish.  Who knows, it might be nice. 

    Once again I ran out of fabric and did not have quite enough for the sleeve.  Since I purchased the two caftan fabrics together and they both have Lycra, this was anticipated, although I was naively hoping that the first knit was an exception.

    Caftans5

    Two points here:  First the sleeve will have to be cut on the cross-grain even though the garment was cut on the lengthwise grain.  I wonder how that will affect the drape of the sleeve and the join of the sleeve to the garment.  Secondly, as you can note in the photo, there is a little piece missing about mid sleeve, roughly in the elbow region.  I decided to piece the fabric so I would have enough to cut the sleeve:

    Caftans6

    There will be a little pieced in area under the arm.  I am hoping it will not be particularly noticeable. I may be acting on totally blind faith.  It would have been better had there been a way to piece the fabric at one end or the other, but I see no possibilities there.  I briefly wondered if I should have but the entire garment on the cross-grain; it may have been tricky as the garment is 58" long: with shoulders and hem it probably would not have fit.  Too late now anyway.  I suppose if I had not started this process at 9:30 in the evening I might have thought of these things before I cut.

  • Reading Achebe

    The irises were transferred to the new flower bed between rain showers.  I also got 10 of the 24 poppies planted.  The remaining poppies and about 3 dozen daffodils will be planted tomorrow morning before we go to Pittsfield.  Perhpas there will be photos tomorrow.

    We indulged in a little late afternoon swim and cocktail hour  and it was a lovely change.  Instead of working on my sewing or knitting, I read the Chinua Achebe book I picked up in Red Hook on Thursday.  It was very interesting and made me rethink my impressions of many books I had read peviously by Achebe, Tutuola, Naipul, Gordimer and Conrad.  I might have to indulge in some re-reading as well.

  • No regrets, but…

    If you are one who pays attention to detail, you might have noticed that the caftan was unhemmed when I took the photo the other night.   This was intentional.  At that point I was feeling a bit lazy and thought I would just not do the hem.  The knit was stable, it was not necessary.

    As usual I changed my mind.  But until after wearing it that evening.  The next day Matilda got to wear the caftan so I could sit, obeisant, at her feet and turn up the hem, which is now complete.

    Since finishing the caftan I have kept myself entertained by putting away my summer fabrics and bringing out the fall/winter and “transitional” fabrics.  Transitional is an open term and here refers to whatever I might feel like sewing that is not obviously fall/winter.  As I told you some time back, I had previously sorted the pile in my sewing room into the “sew” and “store” piles, but I had not progressed beyond that point.  Since then I took some fall fabrics out of the closet and can now transfer the summer fabric to their spot. 

    Usually, when I buy new fabric, it is immediately indexed and stored.  This summer all rules were suspended (I am still paying the price) and the new fabrics were just stacked up in my sewing room, a most unsatisfactory method of fabric storage.  One evening I sat down with all the summer fabrics, the two boxes they are to be stored in, a pile of index cards, and my handy glue stick and set to work.

     

    This resulted in 21 index cards of fabric that I p

    Summerfabrics

    urchased this spring and summer and did not get around to sewing, and one, the yellow linen, of which there is enough leftover to make a little camisole, but that fabric was a stash fabric and not a new purchase.  How embarrassing.  I will not even tell you how much yardage is involved, but I am sure you can make an intelligent guess.  More fabric than I could normally sew up in one summer.  Now these will be the first things pulled out when spring sewing approaches.  As I begin to look at the spring photos from New York Fashion Week, I think that they will all be quite appealing next summer as well.

    At least I am trying to make a concerted effort to not buy much fabric this fall, unless I have a specific garment in mind and I am actually ready to sew it at the time I buy the fabric.  Even then, I have to sew more stash fabric.  So far I have been successful.  The fabric situation is not yet out of control and it shall not become so.   I think there is a hording gene and it runs in my family.  I hope not to succumb.

  • Hanging out at the bead store

    I went up to Red Hook to Bead@Spring today to look for beads for Charm.  I started to get beads for this sweater shortly after I purchased the Rowan 4 cotton glace, but then got bogged down and shoved it aside.  My first foray into bead shopping was at BeadsONFifth when I was in NYC with Mary in early July.  Although it was a nice bead shop, I had trouble finding anything I wanted for this sweater and I spent a long time.  I finally came up with some tiny delica seed beads in two colors and some large dusky amethyst colored beads, which might be a lttle large, but which really look nice with the yarn.  Then I was stumped.  The beads were thrown in a corner, along with Charm, where they sat, taunting me, ever since.

    Each time I would drive through or by Red Hook I would be reminded that someone told me the bead shop there was really nice, and I would be determined to bring my yarn next time.  Well, you know how it is, next time just never materialized.  This week I was determined to get those beads ready, especially since I intentionally left this sweater out on the stack to be completed soon, rather than retiring it until next spring.

    Today I finally managed to get my act together.  I spent about an hour and a half, looking through the beads, counting out beads and generally making a decision.  The original Rowan pattern calls for 4 types of beads (two of which are pearls) and charms.  I couldn’t find enough of some of the beads I liked so I am using a greater variety of beads in smaller quantities each.  There will be no charms in my charm.  I haven’t found anything that I liked,  nonetheless I am really excited about the possibilities now and think the final result will be quite charming.  (Ain’t I just terrible?)

    Charm

    The colors aren’t nearly as vibrant in the photo as they are in real life.  Now I am eager to get started, although I know I will curse the day I said that once I get going on this sweater.  Most of the sweater is knit in plain old stockinette and I will rue this decision.

    At any rate, I have to finish Posh or Tesla first, and hopefully finish Wine&Roses as well.

    And speaking of Tesla, she is progressing again.  I was much more careful getting started this time, knitting on the table where I could see it, and I did the cast-on and first two rows at knitting group where Alexine could very kindly spot me. 

    Tesla5

    I wonder where that pinkish tint has come from — it must be a reflection off Wine&Roses which is sitting just outside the photo. 

  • Beware of Good Intentions

    Beware of Good Intentions
    And the Passions in their eyes
    For None of them can open
    The Gates of Paradise

                                                David Byrne "The Gates of Paradise"

    Pardon my ranting, raving, and rambling.  I suppose I have been a little frazzled and as a result, not as coherent as I would like to be.  I should not have inflicted my silliness on you.

    Following is a rather long quote I saved to my quote file when I was reading Ian McEwan’s "Saturday".  It seemed like a rather apt and well put description of a modern phenomenon, and I still like it:

    Have his anxieties been making a fool of him?  It’s part of the new order, this narrowing of mental freedom, of his right to roam.  Not so long ago his thoughts ranged more predictably, over a longer list of subjects.  He suspects he’s becoming a dupe, the willing, febrile consumer of news fodder, opininion, speculation and of all the crumbs authorities let fall. He’s a docile citizen, watching Leviathan grow stronger while he creeps under its shadow for protection.  ….  Does he think he’s contributing something, watching news programmes, or lying on his back on the sofa on Sunday aftrnoons, reading more opinion columns of ungrounded certainties, more long articles about what really lies behind this or that development, or abut what is most surely going to happen next …  Either way, it amounts to a consensus of a kind, an orthodoxy of attention, a mild subjucation in itself.  Does he think that his ambivalence — if that’s what it really is — excuses him from the general conformity?

    No answers, just something else to think about.


                            

  • Crazy!

    I sometimes think the world has gone to crazy extremes and there is no place left in the middle anymore.

    FEMA is a joke, brimming with incompetence.   I have to say the same for the government as well.  These are the people who are supposed to be looking out for us?  And they think we are stupid enough not to notice?

    The republicans are so far to the right I am surprised that they are even on the horizon, and yet, they seem to have successfully convinced us that they are pretty close to the 50-yard-line and we are going to be OK.  Are we waking up from this nightmare yet?

    But the democrats!  Sometimes they too get so wrapped up they are almost rabid!.  At times they act like the poor revolutionaries (remember Nicaragua) who overthrow the Fascist government only to become Fascists themselves when they get in power.  The parties used to be much closer, now they are like polar opposites, and yet they both get so caught up in the screaming and justifying that they forget the ocean in between them.

    What ever happened to responsibility and caring for your neighbors and your family/community/country?

  • First Caftan Done

    The first caftan is done.  It was a pretty easy project, it just took me a long time because I only worked on it a little bit each day, and I dawdled.  I would say that I spent about 4 hours on this, and would have finished it in 3 except for a bunch of stupid mistakes and frustrations in the home stretch this evening.  Even then, if I  had used faster techniques and just sewn more efficiently, it would have taken less time.

    As I said before though, it is not a contest.

    Caftans2

    I think it turned out really well.  It is very loose on top, which I realized from the pattern dimensions,  and with some fabrics I might want to take some of the bulk out of that area and cut a smaller size, probably an 8.  With this drapey knit it is fine.  Also the sleeves were long enough, even with a couple of inches chopped off — I have short arms what can I say .  The shoulders are so wide that the sleeve seam is about 4 1/2 inches below my shoulder on the arm, again, nice on this thin drapey knit but not necessarily  in everey fabric. 

    Actually the sleeves would have been long enough but I had trouble getting them hemmed without either stretching out , or not being stretch enough to push up, or just not looking right.  I redid them so many times, I wore a hole in the fabric and had to cut a bit more off.  Then I just put elastic in a casing so they would stay up at my elbows and pushed them up.  The fabric does not have enough body to be a push up sleeve unless I made it very tight, which is not the case with these sleeves. 

    In fact, the sleeves are too wide and I have made a note to narrow them considerably at the wrist.  In a knit they would be nice, even a little long, if they were narrow because then you could get a rippling effect at the wrist.  In a woven, I might have to put in a button so I could have them more closefitting or I might make them shorter, bracelet length maybe and a little more fitted.  I would have narrowed the sleeves down on this caftan, but then I though I would like them longer and I just didn’t feel like adding the extra fabric.  The caftan is really nice as it is and I love wearing it.

  • Begin Again

    Tesla on the needles!

    Tesla1

    It’s actually a bit more open and lacy than it appears in this photo.

    Aarghh!!!

    Tesla2

    Notice that I got Tesla twisted on the needles, not once, but twice!  I am knitting in the round, there is no way to untwist this mess.  I can’t decide which is worse, that I let this happen, or that it took me so long to notice.

    I hadn’t done this kind of thing for years, since I was a beginning knitter.  About 12 years ago I tried my first circular-knit sweater and I got it all twisted — a horror show.  Afterward, I could never figure out how it happened since the difference between the knit and purl side was so obvious, well I guess it wasn’t obvious to me then…  I would have said only stupid knitters did things like that.

    Wrong!!

    Well, as a feeble excuse the sweater is in garter stitch so the inside and outside do look much alike.  I must have gotten it twisted early on, before I could really see what I was doing clearly.  I was knitting on the Taconic and the yarn is kind of tricky until you get the hang of it.  Any excuse will do at this point.

    The worst thing is, I noticed the twist on the way home from Pittsfield, soon after we left, with a whole 1 1/2 hours in the car ahead of me.  Did I start to rip?  No.  I dreaded casting on in the car, thin yarns with thick nubbins, DANGER ON CURVES.  I could see myself loosing count and starting over and over.  I could see myself trying to use stitch markers to keep the count and dropping them every time we went over a bump.  The car would be littered with hundreds of little tiny round stitch markers and there would be nary a one for my knitting. No I did not rip.

    Did I have another project with me, perhaps the socks?  NO, of course not, it was only an afternoon trip.

    What did I do?  I did what any compulsive knitter faced with an hour and a half trapped in a car would do.  I kept knitting, even though I knew I would have to rip it out as soon as I got home.  Better to knit anything than to sit there like a lump, bored to tears, squirming around in the car seat making a nuisance of myself.  You think children chanting "are we there yet" is annoying; you haven’t heard an uncomfortable, bored, peevish adult without her knitting.

    And so rip I did:

    Tesla3

    Tabasco thought she would offer advice.

    Tesla4

    And so I am back at the beginning.  Tomorrow.

    Tesla and I have played long enough today.

  • One Bed Down

    Irisbed7

    The Iris bed is DONE!  Well except for planting but some of that will have to wait for the bulb order.  Planting is the EASY part.  I picked up most of the perennials at local nurserys today and will get them planted tomorrow morning.  After that I have to wait for fall bulb orders and for the irises to die back a little, the yellow ones are reblooming now, and I don’t want to transplant them until after the blooms are spent. 

    This past weekend I added 40 cubic feet of topsoil and other amendments, by the bagful, mixing them all in by hand.  I watered thoroughly yesterday afternoon, added some more soil this morning, and compacted the soil somewhat before a final raking, leveling and watering.

    I admit there were times when I never thought it would look this nice.

    And look what bloomed under one of the pine trees: 

    Septflower

    The leaves have been coming up for about 5 years; this is the first time we have seen blossoms.

  • Driving and Knitting

    My darling George practiced a new skill today.  Driving north on the Taconic Parkway he decided to practice steering with his knees.  Embarrassing as it may be to admit to this, I did not at first notice that the car was going a little wonky. I was after all wrapped up in my knitting, and truth be told sometimes the car goes a little wonky when George is driving with his hands, depending on traffic, his attention span and the boredom factor of any particular stretch of road.  This is why knitting is so important on car trips.

    Anyway he got pretty good at it despite the curviness of the Taconic.  I remember my dad steering with his knees while lighting a pipe when I was a kid.  Sometimes the lucky child who was in the front seat would get to help steer.  But that was a simpler time and the highways in Texas were much straighter than the ones in New York.

    When George attracted my attention and eagerly showed off his newfound skills I was immediately struck by the potential here: If I could learn to drive with my knees, I could both drive and knit at the same time!

    After a moment’s euphoria, sense returned.   That said, I think driving will be best practiced with both hands on the wheel.