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Restingmotion

  • Yarn Fiend Strikes Again!

    Oops!  I went shopping!  I can’t help myself; I went to the new yarn shop, Yarn Swift, to get yarn to round out a project composed of miscellaneous sample and leftover skeins and instead of coming out with the completed yarn for one project I came out with three.

    I don’t know what comes over me — I walk into a yarn store, or a fabric store, or a trim store — and some evil fiber maniac takes over, a raving lunatic who fondles and drapes and piles things up like crazy.  I dissavow all knowledge and responsibliity for her actions.

    Here is what sent me to the yarn store in the first place.  This accumulation of goodies has been sitting on my sewing room floor, waiting for me to go to the yarn shop.  I was intentionally putting this off, but at the same time I wanted to get the project out of the "waiting for materials" pile and into the "can be knit" pile.
    Springmix1

    And here is the completed assortment for this creation, which will be some form of sweater set.  The shell will be mostly the blue Euroflax linen with a little bit of one or more of the other yarns, the cardigan will be more of a mix:
    Springmix2

    These two photos were taken within seconds of each other; I can’t imagine why the light and color are different.

    I also purchased some green Euroflax linen.  I was actually considering this color for the sweater above but the blue seemed to go better.  I have had this shell pattern, Lily, for some time but never got the yarn.  Following Liana’s  progress on Lily reminded me  of what a nice pattern  it is.  When the green yarn didn’t work for the above  mix, I knew just what to do.  Here’s a picture of my new green linen and a copy of the Lily pattern:

    Lily1

    Last but not least, there was this really printy rose yarn on the sale table.  Another summer tee, I’m not sure of its actual configuration yet, but probably something very simple:
    Rosetop1

  • Mistress of the Universe…

    small though that universe may be (the boot’s universe, that is):
    Stone1boot_1
    Given that I have been hauling stones, swinging picks and sledgehammers, and plan pretty extensive use of the tiller this summer, we felt it was time that I got a decent pair of workboots.

    George said he would get me a pair of steel-toed workboots for my birthday.  I think the boots are great, even though there was once a time when I would have said I am not the kind of woman who would spend her day in workboots.

    Given that the other type of woman is still very present in my psyche (Manolos not Timberland) I certainly hope that he has something else wrapped up for my birthday (Tuesday).

    Notice however that my Sandra Betzina jeans pattern painting pants which were too short with sneakers are just the right length with the new boots.

    Here is a picture of my first stone flower bed, my most recent distraction from sewing:

    before:                                                                                        and after:
    Stone1a1    Stone1a2

    This flower bed had fallen down considerably but it had been used in recent years, unlike the other one, which is still ahead of me, and is in far worse shape.  Even so I had to dismantle and rebuild about  80% of the stone wall.  This one was 9 feet long; the next one is 19.  But I have some other flower beds, the ones I painted the 4x4s for to work on as well
    .

    Here’s a better perspective on the whole job.
    Stone1a3_1

    Well I must go back to work, lovely as this lunch break has been.  Tomorrow we are off to Boston for Leonard’s birthday party.

  • New Project

    I started a new project even though I still have Wine&Roses to finish plus two other UFO’s.  I need a project to knit when we drive to and from Boston this coming weekend and I didn’t want to get started too late.  I also wanted to work on it at knitting group on Tuesday evening; since we sit outside I felt it was much too hot to be working on Wine&Roses there.

    This is what I chose:
    Phildar3I am actually using the Phildar cotton called for in the pattern, which I have never used before.  It is knitting up very nicely.

    I really like the shape of this tank and I am looking forward to wearing it.  However I hate knitting even rib.  I don’t mind an odd rib for some perverse reason, such as a 3×2 or some other thing, but 2×2 rib just drives me up the wall with its tediousness.  Once, long ago I forced myself to knit a ribbed shell just because I hated ribbing and always messed up.  I no longer mess up but it is still my least favorite thing to knit.  The problem is that I like wearing ribbed shells.  Perverse huh?

    The front is not bad and I am looking forward to knitting it.  The back however is all ribbed.  I will like wearing that because sweaters tend to be too baggy in the back and the ribbing will solve that problem. 

    I thought of starting another project as well, just to spell myself when I get sick of ribbing, but the unfortunate truth is that I would just knit the other project and avoid the ribbing.  Besides, I really want to wear this shell this summer.

    Here is my progress so far:
    Phildar1

    It is really turning out nicely.

    It has been a long time since I tried new cast on techniques and I decided to learn how to do a 2×2 tubular cast on with this project.  I have at other times, been taught how to do a knitted/purled on cast on for rib and how to do a long-tail cast on in ribbing but have never been completely satisfied with either.   I used the technique described in Knitters Handbook by Montse Stanley and am pretty happy with the way it turned out.  Yes, it does slant, but overall I think it is much more attractive than most other methods I have used for casting on at a ribbed edge.

    I will try to post a close-up, I am not sure how much detail will be visible:
    Phildar2

  • tee time

    I started with the simplest sewing project, the purple cotton interlock tee.
    Vogue7128
    I cut the fabric using this old pattern, which I have had for many many years.  I used to use it quite frequently for both knit and woven fabric tees and shells.  It is fairly over-sized and meant for shoulder pads but I just ignored those.

    I cut View C, the v-neck, the only version meant to be pull-on although the patterns are all easily adaptable.  I cut the size 8, much smaller than I now usually wear, but remember that this pattern is meant to be over-sized and I did not particularly want an over-sized tee.  Looking at the finished project, I could have cut the body a size smaller, but should leave the shoulders as an 8.

    It worked out very well and looks good on.  The v-neck on the illustration is a bit lower than on the actual garment, at least as it hangs on me. The armhole openings don’t seem quite as low as illustrated on the pattern envelope either, although in the photo on Matilda, it looks as low as in the illustration.  Matilda has no arms though and I do so it is possible that my armscyes take up more space than hers.  I suspect this is because I am taller than average and sometimes have to lengthen patterns to increase the armscye depth.  Some patterns that are meant to be very close fitting are too tight for me in that area.  Although there appears to be ample room here in the sleeves, this does fit under most jackets.

    Vogue7128purple2

    I like the top and it took very little fiddling to get a nice fit.  It is looser than the more fitted tees that are currently popular and I have had a lot of struggles with those kinds of tops.  In the end, this kind of loose, drapey tee tends to look better on me, but I still feel it less finished when I want a top to wear with a more tailored outfit.  It is boxy enough to skim the body but not as big and over-sized as a purchased men’s tee.  I can also make it long enough.

    Generally this is a pattern that I still think I will use a lot, for knits and maybe again for silk or other woven tops.  It is certainly easy and good for casual and knock-around tees and is more flattering than most purchased tees as well.

    I could easily curve the sides seams in for a little more waist shaping and I could add darts which would eliminate some of the pull lines which I get on all tees that don’t have darts.  I always get boluxed up in this darts v. no darts issue with knit tops.  The tops fit better with darts but somehow we are so used to not having darts in knits that I sometimes feel it is funny to put them in.  I guess I should make up my mind someday.

    Vogue7128purple3

  • Fall Interweave Knits

    The new Interweave Knits finally came, I had been waiting for it all week, since Alexine who lives a mile from me had it last Tuesday at group and I didn’t.    Ahh, knitting magazine lust, it can drive you crazy.  I would hurry eagerly to the post office every day, I would count the hours until the mail is supposedly in the boxes (11 AM), I would rush to my box and open the door and..disappointment.

    Well, it finally came.  I eagerly snatched it out of the box and hurried home.  I forced myself not to turn the pages. I made a cup of coffee; no peeking while I waited. I carried Interweave and my coffee to my knitting chair and turned on the light and — disappointment.  All that excited anticipation for not much.  What a shame.

    Union2market
    This issue is actually not all bad, it is better than the previous two, at least to my mind.  The cover sweater is very intriguing and I have been thinking about it since the magazine arrived (Saturday).  I will probably even knit this, or at least I will think about knitting it.  At 7 stitches to the inch it will require a lot of time, and for a project I am not yet sure about that is a big commitment.  I don’t usually like wide bell-shaped sleeves but in this case I am inclined to think that narrowing the sleeve will detract from the sweater.  This at least gives me a dream idea, and it has saved this issue from instant oblivion.

    The other really worthwhile article in this magazine is the article on Shibori knitting, which is filled with inspiration.

    Otherwise I would have to say the issue is more blah than bad.  There are a lot of boring sweaters, there are several sweaters that have promising shapes or patterns but are knitted in way too bulky yarns, rendering the pattern unwearable in this overheated world and also completely unattractive, except perhaps for the naturally bird-like and they would be overwhelmed by the sheer bulk.

    I am wondering why I renewed my subscription.  I have had a long love-hate relationship with this magazine.  I know it is popular in knitting circles and I have sometimes wondered why.  Perhaps I have bad taste.  I love Vogue Knitting, which often has terrible designs, and which seems to be reviled by many knitters, because they at least attempt to stay abreast of fashion trends, and their good patterns can be very very good.

    In recent years every magazine seems to have fallen prey to the lure of bulky yarns and Interweave seems to the be the worst at the moment.  Yes they are fast to knit, but it is a wasted effort because why would you ever wear the results of your labor.  At least there are some more fitted sweaters in recent issues, still not appealing, but for a long time I thought of Interweave as the home of the baggy shapeless sweater.  And yet I continue to read the magazine for the promise, for the occasional good article, for the ads and for the inspiration, for there are always patterns that seemed to start out as a good idea and then take some horrible turn for the worse.

    There are several articles by very good, well-known, knitting designers, and yet the sweaters are pretty awful.  How does this happen.  Is it hard to keep coming up with new ideas?  After a certain period is there nothing new under the knitting sun?  Is it that the poor designer is thrown in a knitting dungeon of sorts with a terrible yarn and a terrible idea and forced to knit themselves out of the darkness with inadequate tools?  I suspect that yarn marketing has a lot to do with the bad designs.  Magazines are driven by advertising space, but what about integrity in design?  I suppose that is another one of those idealistic dreams that don’t hold up in the cold hard light of day.  Even knitting designers have to make money to put bread, and yarn, on the table.

    I decided, after reflection not to post all the awful designs, as there are actually quite a few that are not completely awful, just very badly executed, as I mentioned earlier, a good idea gone horribly awry.  But there is one exception, not actually the worst thing I have ever seen, but a great disappointment to my soul:
    Cableshrug
    I have long loved the work of Shirley Paden.  I think she has designed many interested fashionable and sophisticated knitted garments.  I have been known to buy a knitting magazine just because it contained one of her designs.  I had not, until now, seen a Shirley Paden design that I would call terrible, or that I would not consider knitting;

    The bubble has burst.  Everyone can make mistakes, goodness knows I make many.  But for one of my design idols to produce this?  You could carry your whole dinner with you in your sleeves.  It looks like a blanket rolled up into a shrug.  Oh, in the lovely fuzzy photo (another recent trend in Interweave knits) a kind of romantic image of knitting is cast.  You can almost imagine how cozy it must be, until you actually look at it and think about keeping it on your shoulders, about not dragging the sleeves through your soup, about getting your sleeve sucked up into the vacuum when you reach down to pick a penny up off the floor.  If only we lived in some marvelous knitting neverland.

  • Bettina Finished

    I finished Bettina last night and I am wearing her today. 
    Bettina6_1

    I really like the way this sweater turned out.  I like the wide neckline and the way it hugs the shoulders.  I like the picot edge:

    Bettina5

    When I first started knitting summer shells, I was not sure I would wear them but now I can’t seem to have too many.  They are a little nicer than t-shirts but cool and comfortable.  The trick, for me at least, is not making them too fitted, if they hug the body too closely they get hot, but the same is true for a t-shirt or a tank as well.  I have always preferred a loose airy shirt to a fitted t-shirt on a hot humid day.

    It certainly is hot and humid today and I have been perfectly cool..

  • Cutting

    I spent part of yesterday afternoon and evening cutting out a few simple projects to work on during the next week or so.  I probably could have cut more but as usual I spent a lot of time diddling about daydreaming, playing with patterns, caressing the fabric, and just generally enjoying the process.  It is really nice to be able to indulge myself this way sometimes, instead of just rushing to get something finished.

    JuneprojectsMost of these projects are simple and somewhat experimental.  I have no idea if a couple of them will even work out, but that is not really the point, I want to try them, and although in a way it sounds wasteful, I am not as interested in having a new garment as I am in the process itself and making it work, or if it doesn’t work, learning something from the experience.  Of course, having new clothes is usually a wonderful by product of my efforts.

    First I cut the yellow linen, which has a stripe of a thin sheer thread, almost like a lurex.  I have had this fabric for quite a few years, from the days when I was mis-cast as an autumn, and I have been unable to part with the fabric because I love it so much even though I could never wear it next to my face. 

    It is a lightweight linen, probably more of a top weight but I am going to make wide drapey pants.  I thought I would try making a pair of drawstring pants, perhaps only modified drawstring this time.  I still like the idea of drawstring pants more than I have liked the actual results on me.  As the fabric is quite light and sheer, it will be suitable for having extra width and the pants will be lined with matching bemberg.

    I took a lot of time cutting out the pants, partly because I had to press the linen again as it had been folded on the shelf, and I allowed myself the luxury of pressing at leisure and enjoying working with the fabric and day-dreaming a little.  I traced the pattern pieces onto the fabric, as is my wont,  inspected everything before cutting and then finally cut and stacked the pieces.  I find that I am much more accurate using this technique as opposed to pinning the pattern to the fabric and cutting from that.  I like having the actual lines and markings on the fabric and it saves me much time later on when I am tired or distracted with other things.

    Then I cut out the green knit.  This is one of the cotton knits I ordered from Nancy Erickson in January.  I never got around to cutting this one.  The pattern is a designer vogue pattern, Vogue 2483, probably OOP,  meant for non-stretch wovens, the only part of the pattern I am interested in is the top.  As this knit is really not that stretchy it might work, but I tried to allow for that when cutting.  This was the pattern I originally wanted to make from this top but had second thoughts earlier in the spring.  The knits are nice and I wear the periwinkle pieces a great deal but I am not as happy with the fabric itself as I had hoped so I don’t mind experimenting with the green.

    The fuchsia is a remnant of a cotton knit I had made a dress out of a long time ago.  I had enough for a top and I saved it but never made it up.  I spent a lot of time with this piece of fabric because I couldn’t decide what pattern to try.  My first choice wouldn’t work because I did not have enough fabric, the second idea was a design adaptation I couldn’t work out in my head, the third choice just didn’t appeal to me somehow.  In the end I decided to use this to remake an old t-shirt type pattern from the 80’s that I used a great deal, Vogue 7128.  It is pretty over sized and was meant for shoulder pads at the time.  I thought I would play with re-doing the shoulders and sleeves and trying to reuse the pattern.  I always loved this top and surprisingly some of the tops I made with this pattern still fit pretty well.

    Of course I will regale you with the details of my successes or failures as they occur.

  • On puttering about the house

    Painted4x4s_2

    I was up at 7:30 this morning and out in the driveway staining the 4x4s by 8.  I overestimated how long it would take me this time, I finished all the beams, two coats each, by 9:45, which is pretty good time.  This was a change because for the first three sides I had seriously underestimated the time requirements for the job.  Perhaps that it was 8:00 AM and already in the mid 80’s and humid and I just wanted to get done. Perhaps I was just too tired (we went to bed at 2:30) to lapse into my usually contemplative state, enjoying the process of what I was doing, and so I just pushed to get it done as quickly as possible. 

    Nonetheless, it is hot and I am happy to spend the rest of the day indoors; well, except perhaps for  a swim or two.

    There are times when I wonder why I get myself into these jobs, why I bother, why not let the yard just exist as it is (it is perfectly nice) or hire a landscaper and have a perfectly nice yard much like everyone else’s.  When I was growing up, everyone pretty much did most stuff around the house themselves, partly because no one could afford to have it done and partly because that was just part of the culture.  Now, most of my friends make money and are good at many things, but have no idea of how to plant or landscape or fix anything inside the house.  Many of the men I know are proud of not knowing how to swing a hammer or use a saw; rewire a light or tile anything.  Most of their wives are the same, I have often ranted at how proud some of my friends are that they "can’t sew on a button".

    And yet, for all that there is some part of me that would love to be able to pay wonderful competent contractors to do just what I wanted around the house and property, there is another part of me that would not be at all comfortable with that way of life.  I like being able to putter about, to fix things, to get my hands dirty.  To me, being involved physically in the place I live gives me a power over it and makes my home a part of myself, not just some place I occupy.  This is part of why I am really not eager to move.  My home is, as I have often said, my refuge from the world, and it is  a place that I have played a significant role in shaping.

    I was thinking the other day, after reading an article in the New York Magazine, in the end a really insignificant article, about the image of the high-achieving, driven, ivy-league graduate and how I have never fit that role completely.  Oh, I am very grateful that I went to Vassar, admittedly not ivy league, but close enough, and my college years very much shaped who I am today.  But many of my classmates were driven to achieve something — some form of success in the outside world, not necessarily money, but that was a part of it.  Some of them have now, in their 40’s cut back or left careers and started families, which is a change from the young women who did not want to limit themselves to being "moms" while they were still in college. 

    But I was never particularly driven in that way.  Oh I can be driven.  In whatever job or career I have pursued, I hate not knowing something, I am driven to know everything possible, to not appear stupid, to master everything that is available.  Because of that I can be a very driven and hard worker.  But once I have hit a wall I am bored and ready to move on to something else.  I have never been driven toward a career.  Marriage and home have always been higher in my goals, but not in a "conservative religious family-values" kind of way that is popularized now in parts of  American Culture.   There has always been some part of me that thought the labor of life, working to keep a family going, working on a farm, growing food or flowers, fixing your own house, creating something, almost anything really, was somehow more rewarding than trading stocks for example.  Not that I want to be a farmer and have to work that hard every day.  I just think that making one little piece of life more enjoyable, and putting your stamp on it is enough.  Not everyone can change the world and not everyone should.

    I suppose I am a dilettante. Oh well.

  • The First Week of Summer

    Remember those essays we used to have to write the first week back in school — "what I did on my summer vacation"?  Well, here’s what I did the first week of summer:
    Painted4x4s_1

    That’s right, I stained 4×4’s, 33 of them, with two coats of oil-based stain.  The second coat went on 1 – 2 hours after the first for maximum penetration into the wood.  It was a real pain in the *** working down low like that, but I did not have enough room on the sawhorses for all of the beams.

    And yes, I DID finish a knitting project!  Aiko is done.  Here she is sunning herself on the newly painted (and dried) lumber:

    Aiko8Now there was a small problem with Aiko, namely that I did not really like the neckline when I finished it.  As you can see in the original pattern Aiko sweater  the neckline is kind of a wide mock neck, meant to frame the face but not hug the neckline.  Well I should have realized from the artful photo, that they couldn’t get the neckline to hang so nicely.  The model probably has a bunch of knitting pinned up behind her neck.  Either that or she has a much wider neck than I do.  If I had been thinking when I read the pattern I would have realized that 8 inches wide across the neckline is too wide for me.  I may not have narrow shoulders  but either I have a narrow neck or they design patterns way too big.  Usually 6-7 inches across the neckline is all I want.  I should have adapted the pattern for less width and perhaps a liitle more depth if I needed extra room to pull it over my head.   

    I ripped and redid the neck as a close-fitting turtleAiko9 which did not work because the neckline edge was still too wide and I thought it looked funny.  Then I went back to the original design and just picked up the stitches and knit the ribbing straight up, making it a little longer than suggested, and going up one needle size at the halfway point so I could turn the collar over.

    I actually like it this way, with the collar folded down and I like the way it sits just off my collar-bone, framing the face.

    It is too hot to wear heavy cashmere today so this is all you get to see.  The only reason I could tolerate this photo was that I just came out of the pool and my hair was wet (personal air-conditioning) and I went right back in the pool as soon as I got this hot thing off.

    I am progressing on my other projects.  Bettina has been put together and I just need to crochet the edges.  I might do that tonight.  I have been working on other things today, cutting out a bunch of sewing projects, but if I get tired of that I might go back to knitting.

    Wine&Roses is still on Matilda.  I think I will weave in the ends with her on the dressform.  At the moment I am going to leave the fringe along the front edge, because I really like it there, and try to think of a way to incorporate the fringe into the front band.  I haven’t really addressed what I am going to do about the front band anyway.

  • 5 Reasons

    Five reasons I might be able to sew this weekend:

    1.      The mason is still working on the foundations in the areas occupied by raised beds which are attached/next to the house.

    2.        The 4×4’s needed for the raised beds are not completely stained yet and then have to dry.  The top 3 sides will be dry by Saturday morning, when I can turn them over and stain the fourth side.  Even then, they will not be ready to use before Monday.

    3.       The iris bed is not next to the house, but I have no place to put the irises as all my pots are filled with the plants that belong in the beds where the mason is working; therefore, I cannot dig up the iris bed.

    4.        My back is too sore from bending over painting 4x4s, and the arthritis in my hands is acting up, so it will be hard to dig.

    5.        I haven’t yet purchased the gravel for the french drain that will have to run through the middle of the iris bed.  Even if I purchase the gravel, my back is too sore to unload it from my car.  My DH would happily purchase the gravel and unload it, but then I would feel obliged to start digging and nothing else is ready (see items 1-3 above).

    Surely, given the above, I can find some time away from the distractions of  a summer weekend to play in my sewing room.