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Restingmotion

  • In San Francisco

    Last week was a really stressful week, with computer problems in the office requiring me to work late every night.  Needless to say a lot of knitting was not accomplished.  I did finally block the body of the Wine and Roses cardigan, although I only knit about 4 more rows on the last sleeve.  I was too tired in the evening to even manage selecting the next yarn in the sequence. 

    I did work on Aiko on my flight to San Francisco yesterday and had an interesting time frogging  a section on the little turn down tray table they provide on the plane.  The front is completed up to the beginning of the armhole shaping so it is progressing nicely.

    My San Francisco trip is really a sewing week and I don’t usually get a lot of knitting done while I am here, but I do hope to post a picture of the progress on Aiko soon.  Otherwise, the only knitting related activity for this trip will probably be a visit to Art Fibers, a really neat yarn shop a few blocks down Sutter from here.  They have a really unusual yarn selection and I will keep you informed if I pick up anything really interesting.  Hopefully by that time the ethernet connection in my hotel room will be working and I can post pictures.

  • Bird of Paradise

    Kingfisher is done!!

    Kingfisher4 It is really a simple sweater, knit side to side with short rows at the bottom to form the godets.  The pattern called for the same short-row shaping at the sleeves but I left it out as I have a very annoying habit of dragging sleeves through just about everything.  I like these straight sleeves much better. 

    The little bit of flare and curve at the hip caused by the short rows adds a very feminine bit of flare to the top.  Putting it on brought on a definite "I feel pretty" moment and that, combined with the belated appearance of a little sunshine, inspired a little spring dance.

    I pulled out the cardigan knit from pink and wine leftover and miscellaneous yarns, which I had dubbed "Wine and Roses" Pink_stripe_002

    and worked on the last sleeve.  I had just started the sleeve when I put it aside; I had knit about 15 rows.  I finished the first stripe sequence repeat, now about 35 rows including the cuff, and the sleeve is a little over 1/3 done, the photo is misleading because I really zoomed in to see as much of the yarns as possible.

    It really doesn’t take a long time to knit as the guage is fairly big, but changing yarns every row slows the process down, not nearly as much in the knitting as it will in the finishing.  I hope to get the body on the blocking board today, so I can finish the second sleeve and get the sleeves on the board before I leave for San Francisco on Saturday. 

    I really don’t imagine that I will be wearing this before fall, so there is no real rush to finish other than to get it out of the way.  Finishing will take some time as some of the novelty yarns tend to ravel and care will need to be taken with ends and finishing.  Luckily there is a lot of wool to help hide the more "high maintenance" yarns.

  • Chado Ralph Rucci

    I’ve been lying low and not really sewing but I have been catching up on a few knitting UFOs. 

    Chado2 I was fortunate enough to be in NYC on Wednesday and have time to go by Bergdorf Goodman to take a peek at the Chado Ralph Rucci fall trunkshow.   (photo courtesy of www.style.com)  By the time I arrived I was tired, having been on my feet far too long, and was feeling a little shy.  The boutique was busy with Mr. Rucci talking to people who were actually buying the garments  so I pretty much stayed out of the way and just fondled and examined as much as I could.

    The clothes themselves were really incredible although I am having trouble putting my impressions into words.  It is rare that I see a collection of clothes that strikes such awe.  The online photos really do not do the clothes justice. What really amazes me is that the basic silhouettes of the garments are quite classic and simple, he works with a fairly well defined set of shapes,  but the workmanship and the design detail were absolutely fabulous.  The fabrics were incredibly high quality, the techniques were unusual, and few garments had seams in the expected classic places yet they looked exactly as if they were the way they were meant to be.  The collection really combines great tailoring skill, with an understanding of the architecture of women’s bodies and an artists eye.  There was no piece that was ho-hum and yet each piece was quite wearable. I am constantly amazed at how he uses seams, combining interesting design with fitting and structural support.  There were many garments of double-faced wool, cashmere or chinchilla (I am not sure what) butt-seamed together or constructed and bar tacked, joined with leather strips or joined with pieces of stretch illusion like fabric.  Often spectacularly detailed seaming added design interest and structure in lieu of layers of interfacing — the structure was a part of the design, not hidden behind the lining — and yet, none of these clothes would look out of place or "funny" in any part of the country.

    They were, for the most part pretty formal clothes.  Suits, beautiful coats "I’m mad about coats" I overheard Ralph Rucci say to a customer, beautiful tailored, fitted dresses that were perfectly timeless and modern all at once.  The work reminds me of Geoffrey Beene, if anyone, in that it has that modern almost apart from fashion look that was so appealing in the best of Beene’s collections.

    I have been thinking about the collection a lot.  I did overwalk, and my battered leg was swollen and painful the next two days so I was pretty much holed up at home.  Mostly I think looking at these clothes reminds me to take pride in workmanship and to be more daring in solving fitting problems, trying to incorporate the solutions into the design of the garments.  I am reminded to be more open-minded, to take chances and to be less bound by "rules", ever realizing that it takes great understanding of the process and the techniques involved to break the rules.

    There are definitely things I could learn from these clothes, although they are definitely "city" clothes, and as such, not as appropriate to my wardrobe as they once were;  simple but far to sophisticated for puttering about the garden and running to Home Depot, the farm stand, or the local nursery. 

    Increasingly I am learning that I have a closet full of beautiful clothtes, many of which I have made, although by no means all, and which I wear less and less frequently.  I don’t need to wear a suit everyday anymore.  Will I still make signature garments?  Yes, in time, as I enjoy the process too much to give it up.  But now is the time to make quick causal things and simple garments and oddly, that is what I am leaning toward doing although it is really a different kind of sewing for me.  I have not come to this easily.  There was a time when I hated to sew quick simple clothes.  It has taken me a couple of years really, but I am settling into my new lifestyle and I am finding I like more casual and even arty styles than I would have once imagined possible.

    Well, sewing is always an education and often and adventure.  Have fun.

  • Lazy Days

    It has not been an ambitious day.  I was up early, well 7 AM, but since it was after 3 when I retired it made for a short night’s sleep.  It took me until well afternoon to figure out that the reason I was really just muddling about was that I was probably tired.    Since the day is generally rainy, cool, and blah, and it is too dark to take an appealing picture of Kingfisher, a nap seemed in order. 

    I have to remind myself that it is ok to have days in which nothing is accomplished, that the body and the soul need down time to just sit around and daydream.

    The new Cast On arrived today and I enjoyed looking through it before my nap.  In the past I have had mixed feelings about the magazine, but not about the organization as I have learned many things due to my membership.  The magazine comes with the membership but was generally uninspiring except for some good articles on technique.  A couple of years ago the organization was sold and the magazine has been evolving.  If this issue is an example of what the future holds, I think it is an amazing transformation.  There are a couple of good technique articles, which does not surprise me, and several good and interesting patterns, quite a few of which I would make as written, as opposed to taking an idea from a pattern and completely redesigning it to suit my own taste and ideas of what a sweater should look like.

    I think, probably for the first time I think I am saving the majority of the issue.  In the end I will cut it up because I have cut up all the past, but I might save it a few months until the next issue comes out and see if the trend continues.  It is certainly easier to find sweater patterns if they are filed separately in notebooks, but like so many magazines, it is not easy to cut the patterns apart without photocopying many pages as the magazine layouts are not meant for cutting and filing, with different patterns on the front and back of one sheet of paper.

  • New fabric additions

    Wednesday I met Mary in NYC.  The fabrics I purchased at Mood and B&J arrived yesterday.  Today my fabrics arrived from Sawyer Brook.

    Aprilbj These are the B&J fabrics:  the blue and violet are cotton poplin that I will use for some casual summer suits.  The white with green dots is a really lovely Swiss cotton dotted Swiss voile, which I purchased primarily because of the green dots.  I love dotted swiss and I love green, how could I go wrong? On the far left the rose pink tweed will be a jacket and I have a lot of things that will go with it. 

    The purple wool, 2nd from left, is my only non-summer fabric and was purchased because I wanted to make a skirt with feathers on the bottom after seeing a photo of one by Marni in the new May Vogue Magazine.   I went to  M&J Trims and purchased the feathers first as I figured that would be the hardest part for me as I get really picky about that kind of thing.  Then I looked a couple of places before finding the fabric I wanted.  My skirt will not look at all like the Marni skirt and is more fall oriented.  Still, I can’t wait to make it:  Here is a picture of the fabric and the trims:Purplewooldetail

    I am really eager to make this even though I might not wear it right away.  If I don’t get it made this week, I will be going to San Francisco for one of Sandra Betzina’s Power Sewing weeks and I will take it with me.  Who knows, I might even be able to wear it.

    I started looking for the tweed at Mood, but didn’t find anything I wanted for the skirt.  I bought silks this trip, mostly for linings.

    Aprilmood2_2 The black with the paperweight design was just pretty.  The other three were purchased to go with specific fabrics and you will see them in the near future.  The peachy fabric on the far right can be seen in more detail below with the cotton from Sawyer Brook.

    Aprilmood3 I am planning on taking this combination with me to work on in San Francisco.  I am stil planning on making the fairly straight DKNY jacket; It will be a very casual jacket, purposely minimally structured and I think it will be a lot of fun.

  • Summer Roses

    Since I spent a good bit of time "resting" this past weekend, I had plenty of opportunity to get into trouble.    A packet of swatches arrived from Sawyer Brook while I was away and now I have succumbed to the lure of new fabric:

    Rosefabric   This rose cotton/lycra sateen caught my eye right away.  I immediately thought of it for this suit:   Valentino Suit courtesy Bergdorfgoodman.com

    Valentino2_1

    I originally thought of making this in a stretch poplin or perhaps a cotton/linen with a little bit of texture or cross/dye interest.  But I really like the rose cotton.  However, the suit in rose strikes me as being a little TOO feminine and flirty for me.  I would like the very feminine shape in a color like gray more than pink.

    I think the pintucked and tied jacket idea would work beautifully over a pair of pants however, something like this pattern from voguepatterns.com, Vogue 7685, V7685photo courtesy of my scanner as I have had this pattern for about 8 or 9 months but haven’t made it yet.  It is still available however.

    The jacket could be made sort of like a cross between a blouse and a jacket, something without all the tailoring and interfacing.    Kathryn at Sewing World posted this pattern a couple of months ago and I ran right out and purcV2789chased it:

    Of course here it looks too light and blouse-like.  I would probably put together some cross between this pattern and a jacket pattern.  I know I have several suitable options but have not yet looked through the pattern file for likely candidates.

    I also ordered this kind of interesting striped cotton:

    Stripe_1 which I am thinking of using for a jacket to wear over the pants, possibly over the blouse as well, depending on how I make the rose blouse/jacket.  I am thinking of using this pattern, Vogue 2738:

    V2738pdf

    A DKNY now OOP.  I think this combination will make a nice casual, fun summer jacket.  Of course, there is always the possibility that the fabric will arrive and I will wonder what I was thinking.

    Well, the fabric is on its way and only time will tell.

  • Sins of Omission

    I should have realized that my list of projects seemed woefully short.  I left two out, one of which was sitting right there in the middle of the floor taunting me…

    Fuschia bulky cardigan.  Actual knitting on this is almost done, I am on the last sleeve.  It got put aside because there are about 14 different yarns in a 20 – 22 row repeat and I needed a project to take on a trip.  14 yarns makes for a lot of confusion in a car or on an airplane.  Of course,  when I finish knitting I will have all those yarn ends to deal with.

    Antea1

    Antea Shell (shown above) is a little rumpled as it has been folded up in the top of my closet.  It is waiting for me finish the edges. 

    I would pick this up and start knitting right away but my hand was a little stiff this morning knitting the Aiko sweater on 5 mm needles.  Kingfisher was on 5.5 mm so I don’t know why the 5 mm would bother my sore thumb more, unless it is the difference between bamboo and Addi turbos.  It might be, as I find my knitting guage is different on needles of the same size but made out of different materials.  I have been frequently told that this should not happen, but it does, and I have frequently changed needles if my guage was just slightly off, and a different needle material often makes the difference.

    At any rate Antea was knit on 2 or 2.5 so it might have to wait just a little longer.

  • Sweater Lust

    I should empose a moratorium on new knitting pattern books.  Of course this will never happen, but at least I realize that I should do this.

    Knitting2005_003_1

    I have been trying to make sense of the piles of knitting magazines that have come in the past few weeks, and the piles of projects on my floor, and a few other odds and ends, trying to determine what I will knit next (Kingfisher is almost done and would be done if I was not spending so much time dreaming over sweater magazines). And what yarns  I will order, if I am going to order yarns. 

    Of course I do realize that I could order nothing and still find plenty to knit, but that does take the fun out of everything doesn’t it?  Besides I love the knitting magazines just as much for the new sweaters I will knit as well as for those I will only dream of knitting.  Each sweater book is kind of like a wish book I can curl up with and dream about the sweaters, the knitting of them, the wearing of them, the lives I might have if I could knit and wear all those sweaters.  Kind of reminds me of being a kid and poring over the Sears and JC Penney catalogs, dreaming of what my life might be when I grew up, if I could wear anything in the catalog and marry the handsome male models and live happily ever after.

    What is life without fantasy anyway?

    I am trying to think about any speciality yarns that may not be available if I don’t grab them now and, probably for the first time ever, I am actually looking at the list of things that are missing in my closet and trying to incorporate these items into my knitting plans.

    Originally I thought I would post a list or review of the things I liked in each magazine as they came in and this might help clarify my thinking, but they came too fast and I was busy getting ready for my trip.  Now I am all backed up.  I also have trouble limiting my choices to the reasonable and manageable.    There are probably about 35 sweaters I would like to knit from the spring books that have arrived and this is not really including the Harris Yarns book (which had problems as you wil recall) or the spring Adrienne Vittadini or Phildar books, neither of which I have ordered yet.  I will not knit 35 sweaters this year, much less this season.  I hope to narrow the list down to things that I hope to finish in this lifetime though.

    CURRENT  OR PENDING PROJECTS:

    Kingfisher Sweater has about 16 more rows on last sleeve (knit sideways, sleeve head to cuff).  Then blocking and finishing.

    Pink Cashmere Aiko Sweater remains stalled with only the back completed, but I will pick it up next week.

    Summer Blendy Sweater set in sand and toast colors was knit two years ago and blocked.  Then I decided to rip out and shorten the shell.  Since then it has been waiting for ripping (too many yarns, too many ends, what a headache)  I will finish this and wear it this season.

    Olive Mohair cardigan:  This was the first sweater I finished.  It needs to have a border crocheted around the edges for stability (the pattern did not call for this and I was to ignorant to know better) I have the yarn and I have some matching stretch silk charmeuse with which I will line the sweater.  AHA!!  This is a sewing project and not a knitting project, it can be moved to another list!

    Purple cardigan from Anny Blatt summer 2003:  Still missing half the yarn.  Will look for others to replace and finish as I really like the color and the cardigan.

    Angora cardigan with ribbon borders:  I gathered together the ribbon and glitter yarns for a border on a sweater but don’t have the angora yet.  I have an idea and color in my mind but haven’t found the yarn.  Actually I originally had a yarn in mind but could not get enough before it was discontinued,  one of those situtations where the yarn store kept telling me it would be in next week for six months.  Did I believe them?  At first yes.  Was I stupid?  probably.  Will I do it again?  not at that store.  This might be easier to put off until fall when a wider selection of angora (or fine mohair) will be available.

    3 skeins of pink/red Rowan Biggy Print which could be a scarf if I find one more skein. 

    Bag of mixed turquoise, green and blue novelty yarns.  These are waiting for me to find a solid cotton to tie them together and make them into a summer cardigan. The yarns are various leftovers, things I was entranced by at shows, and samples sent by mailorder companies that I loved too much to send back even though I had no idea what I would do with them.

    Did I say I had a problem or what? And I still haven’t made any decisions.

  • Layered Shell Finished

    I was finally able to crochet the edges around the layered shell.  Matilda is modelling the shell with my favorite long linen skirt:

    Layered3 Of course if I were modelling, the large black and blue marks on my shoulder would offset the whiteness of the sweater very nicely.  I am just not sure I could get it off afterwards.  Hopefully this shot will show more detail:

    Layered4

    It is somehow a little bumpier on Matilda than on me, but I am softer so perhaps that counts for the difference.

    This version of the sweater is lighter and drapier and perhaps will be more wearable than the original, which although sleeveless and cotton, was rather heavy.

  • Waiting for Venus

    Last night I got home about 10 PM and quickly changed into my jammies so I could curl up with a knitting project.  I was too tired to cast on or do anything too complicated so I sewed up the white and beige layered summer shell:

    Knitting2005_008 Luckily I got it put together last night because I would not have been able to do it today. 

    This morning I turned around at the top of the stairs to shut the door, lost my balance, and went shushing down to the bottom of the stairs on my right side, right arm extended, head first.  Not a pretty site.   We thought I broke a bone at the base of my thumb but did not.  Actually I am just bruised and battered and banged-up, with no serious damage.  Still I could not grip the darning needle today and I could not hold the crochet hook and make the right motion to finish the neck and sleeve edges on this sweater.  So it waits.

    There actually wasn’t that much I could do today.  No sewing. No knitting. No entertaining myself on the computer since I could not hold the mouse, press the mouse button, or type.  I spent the day on the sofa with my right foot elevated and iced and my right arm elevated with ice.  I did manage to catch up with the three issues of The Econonmist that arrived while I was away,  and finish The Fall of France by Julian Jackson.  By evening I was tired of reading (can this be true??) and was ready to flex my knitting muscles.  Apparently the ice paid off.

    It took most of the day for the swelling in my hand to go down enough that I could hold a knitting needle but I did manage that this evening, so I started the last sleeve on the Kingfisher sweater:    

    Kingfishersleeve

    Unfortunately I did not get very far before I ran out of Venus. Hopefully the yarn is winging its way across the country to me now and I can finish this sweater over the weekend.  I am slightly less than 1/5 done with this sleeve and there is probably enough yarn to knit one more row (knit sideways).

    I am going to have to find another project, or  go back to the cashmere, not that this is such a bad life.  Of course, I have to stand up and walk to find yarn.  hmmm…

    Well, tomorrow is another, brighter, day.