Made in March

New Post at Fiberly One's new home:
Made in March

Of Skirts and Shirts

New Post at Fiberly One's new home:
Of Skirts and Shirts

Trying to catch up

There's that general premise that as you get older time seems to go by more quickly. Add to that 9 planes in 21 days, of which onl 6 were spent at home and the month of April was just a blink in the proverbial eye. That, along, with a last minute visit from my mom that proceeded the three weeks of travel, in part explains my absence from blogland. I started writing this thinking I'd do one big post, but as I looked at all the unprocessed pictures, I realize my catching up will have to occur over several posts. So here I start in the middle.

I promised some pictures when last I posted:

Dianne's skirt and jacket
These were finished well before they were gifted to Dianne but, of course, couldn't be posted till she had them in her hands. It started with the Sandra Betzina skirt pattern, Vogue 2933. Tom found the fabric, at the Mill End Store in Milwaukie and I decided that I need to make something to go with it so we picked a cool eyelet.

The skirt was completed, with the "help" of some Pattern Review-ers to sort out the "wings." The fabric feels like rayon, but is a poly microfiber (the clerk at Mill End was sure the bolt description was wrong so did a burn test).



The jacket was Vogue 8398. I took my sewing machine and serger up to Puyallup with me and set up a little sewing station at the hotel. I underlined the eyelet with silk organza to give it some body and got most of it completed during the trip, just wanting to use my "good" machine to do the topstitching of the bias tape facing.



Another shirt for Tom
Tom got three new shirts in March - two to take to San Jose and one for his birthday - not that I need an excuse. I managed to post the first SJ shirt, but finished the second on the morning of the trip and forgot all about it.



The birthday shirt and the birthday boy with his second biggest fan.




Alpine Lace Scarf
It's done. All the time my mom was in town, she said she didn't think I'd ever finish it. And there were times I didn't disagree with her. Like immediatly after I made the decision to unknit back 14 inches to correct the mistake in the border that probably only I would see, but I'd know it was there. But I did finish it.

Bay Area bound

It's time for our annual trek to San Jose to take care of taxes. It's not that we couldn't just send the information down, but what's the fun in that. (An "no" the trip is not tax deductible—we asked.)

In preparation, I did a little yarn shop research, found a couple of new-to-me shops to try to visit and posted a list of Bay Area Yarn shops on my website.

In addition to the trusty iPod Touch, I'll be taking a Herringbone Stitch Chemo Cap, a free pattern from Fiber Rhythm, I'm knitting in Knit Picks Shine Sport. It's my carry along project so, though it's an easy project, it may be a while before it's finished, since I only will get to it when were waiting for something and I need to keep busy. Or I may get it done while we're away. You never know.
 
And the obligatory lace project: Alpine knit scarf from Victorian Lace Today in Claudia Hand Painted Silk Lace yarn in Pecan.



Tom gets to take a new shirt.

Happy Heart Day!

I didn't have any Valentine's Day fabric, but I did have a dog fabric with hearts, so Tom got a new shirt for the day.








Elderflower skirt is mostly finished. The knitting is done, but my body is such that to fit my tummy, the waist ends up being a bit big. I need to sew in some elastic in the back so the skirt doesn't feel like it's going to fall off, which I'm sure would be entirely amusing to some, but no.

Tuesday talk

New shirts
Although I didn't gift Tom with the promise of at least one shirt a month for 2008, I've just continued the tradition. Considering I haven't stopped finding new dog fabrics, it only makes sense that I keep making shirts.
 

New Machine
Tom was the first to benefit from my new cover stitch machine, which made short work of finishing the sleeves and hems. I have mentioned that I am susceptible to suggestion and the Fiberly friends has been talking about cover stitch machines on and off for a few months. A couple of weeks ago, I succumbed to the power of suggestion and started researching machines. In the end, with feedback from my Fiberly friends, some local sewing guild members and reviewing Debbie's excellent Coverstitch FAQ, we headed to Montavilla Sewing Center, where I opted for the Baby Lock Cover Stitch, to sit along side my Baby Lock serger and sewing machine. I think I am set for machines for a good long while.

New Knitting
Although I haven't posted recently to Ravelry, I have been browsing and among my friends projects, I found the Elderflower skirt by Ruth Sørensen. It intrigued me because I love skirts and it's knit without a gauge swatch, so it was just a matter of picking out some yarn and knitting away. Here's my progress from last week. I'm now on the stockinette portion, and admit to being a bit bored, but it is a good take along project since stockinette doesn't require that I pay attention. The yarn is a sock yarn I picked up when I first started knitting for $1 a ball. Craftmart became Lee Ward's which became Michael's. The yarn has been aging in my stash a really long time.

Looking back on the year

As I finally get back to this thing we call blogging, I took a look at what I accomplished on the fiberly front. I did so many more things in my head than I did for real, I still think I did pretty well.

Last Christmas I promised to make Tom at least one shirt each month. In part, the idea was to reduce the stash of dog fabric. Although I admit I did augment the stash, I think I did put a very small dent in it having made 26 shirts - 11 in August for our 25th Anniversary. I finished the last shirts of the year over the weekend.
 

Although I planned to sew for myself, most of the 15 sewn projects ended up being gifts, including a set of placemats for Dianne, a jacket, top and pants for my mom, and bag for Tom's aunt Flossie. Tom's Christmas present was a Simplicty 3890 jacket sewn from wool we picked up at the Pendleton Woolen Mills outlet in Milwaukie. And I made a jacket for one of Tom's nieces.

McCalls 5479; Fabric Mart wool blend fabric

Mostly I knit–20 projects, in total. I started (and finished) Michelle Rose Orne's capelet from Vogue Knitting Winter 2006, as a gift, but changed my mind about the giftee.


Instead, I put my newly learned crochet skills to the test and made the Chrysantemum lace shawl from Amazing Crochet Lace: New Fashions Inspired by Old-Fashioned Lace by Doris Chan from Muench Tahoe (stash) yarn.


Looking at the bigger picture of my fiberly pursuits, I guess I can't complain—but I still want to do more next year! To see all the sewing, knitting, and crochet projects - except shirts - plus a couple of other endeavors click here.

Oh yes and
Happy New Year!

Don't forget your black-eyed peas.

Three shirts

In my dog fabric shopping I found little dogs and palm trees. What better fabric for a Hawai'i trip? The plan to include it with the Anniversary Shirts didn't happen, but it's done now.







Last weekend, we were shopping in at Holly Hill Quilt Shoppe in Willamette Falls, at their Batik fabric sale (ends today, btw), and Tom spied a fabric that he really liked. So that was added to the fabrics I'd picked out and Tom has another shirt for the trip, to take along with the fish, sushi and shirt shirts from the Anniversary batch.



I have a new "swim" suit, but needed a cover up. At first I thought I'd make just that, but then decided it would be better to just pull on a pair of shorts and a shirt, which could do double duty from a trip perspective. I chose Vogue 8258 and settled on a very pretty red rayon batik, figuring being the shirt-making whiz that I am it would go pretty fast. HA! I love to wear rayon, but soft slippery rayon is a bit fiddly. And in the end the blouse became a light jacket because the lapel just wanted to be longer...or maybe I just liked the look of it better. I also opted for improvised 3/4 length sleeves since I didn't want the cuffs and the short sleeve length in the pattern view doesn't suit me.

Some things finished

September shirt
I cheated a little here, since it really was a shirt started for the anniversary project, but it's a shirt and it's September, so it's Tom's September shirt.







I Do
It's not that it was difficult, even though I did effectively knit three sleeves (but have only two to show for it), I'm just so easily sidetracked with other things, but here it is. Frogging the first sleeve was a good idea, since it would have been much too long. And I did like working with the Rowan Calmer yarn—very soft.




"Swim" suit
I was quite pleased with how quickly this came together and it fits. You'll have to take my word for that now. When I have occasion to actually wear it (in about 14 days!), maybe there will be other pictures. In the meantime, it is done!

August Shirt(s)

For our anniversary, Tom gave me a beautiful ring. There was nothing I could think of that was special to buy for him, so I decided to make him twenty-five shirts. Life happens and I only managed to finish eleven, but he seemed happy with that.
           

More Suggestions

One of the things I neglected to include in my list of things that no-doubt are a result of my "suggestability" is my long list of WIPs/UFOs. And still I add another thing to my WIP. I hesitated to mention this in my last post in the event that it was just a passing whim, but here it is.

Mystery Stole 3
One of the PDX Bloggers (PDX=Portland, for the out-of-towners) asked if anyone was going to join the Mystery Stole 3 Knitalong. I would have been fine if I'd ignored the post, but I had to check it out. I knew I shouldn't with a bazillion yards of fabric in the sewing room with patterns "assigned," the hairpin lace loom sitting in the family room along with the Sasha skirt, etc. But I did.

Yesterday morning after staring at the pattern I'd printed out, I picked up the Sporfarm alpaca yarn I'd found at the in March (because it was laceweight and already wound into a center pull ball) and started knitting. The good news is that it is done in steps as the clues are published, so I can just put it down and work on other projects.

Clue 1, Chart 1 done


Clue 1, Chart 2 done


I'm seeing a ram in the pattern...

Patriotic Dogs
Tom has a dog shirt for Valentine's day, several for Christmas, and a even one for Halloween. He (jokingly, I think) commented that he didn't have a Fourth of July shirt. Well he does now.

And now for some things fiberly

In addition geek-stuff and celebrating 49 years, I've managed a few fiberly endeavors.



Luna Moth shawl


Before we left on the trip, one of the Elann Shawl Knit-a-long-ers asked for a detailed picture of the Luna Month Shawl.






From the camera
I started the Fiber Trends Möbius scarf before the aforementioned trip, and finished it while spending time with Cody, so it's been done for a while, but languishing on the SD card.






If it's June...
There must be a new shirt for Tom.







Something new for someone new
Today I'm meeting Michelle's daughter and gifting her with a summer outfit, just in time for a cooler day.


And something not-fiberly
We had our nice birthday dinner on Friday because on Thursday we were invited to a reception at the Oregon Humane Society honoring the top three Doggie Dash teams. It was our first visit and we were very impressed with the organization and facility. And not just because we received a certificate.

I'm back

Just wanted to let you know that, in fact, I have not fallen off the face of the earth. I've done precious little knitting or sewing this past two weeks. Instead, I've been escaping through geeky stuff that involves TheHudsons.com, learning CSS and databases (FileMaker, of course).






The first result of my efforts are our pictures from Scotland.







I did accomplish a thing or two before the trip, including making Tom a second May shirt on that Tuesday morning before we took off.