In some parts of North America, people are getting a little relief from the snow.
Here in the California Bay Area, we are finally getting some long overdue rain and we're all really excited about it.
Kids get to bring out super-hero themed umbrellas and I get a good excuse to stay in and do some extra sewing and knitting.
During the last storm my kids got the block village and build a pretty considerable tiny city up. Including a section of London, a small railroad, and a forest full of trees and sheep of all things. That would be a knitter's dream forest!
I actually don't mind a little stay at home catch up. I also discovered that after several hours of culling away that my office does indeed have a floor that does not include boxes all over it. I minor miracle really.
The really big news this week is that Flat Stanley arrived at our house. It was sent to us from my niece. He is busy learning to drive, and also learning to knit. I'll have to teach him how to quilt as well perhaps later tonight.
In other random wanderings, I found Yumiko Higuchi's amazing site devoted to her embroidery. It makes me want to run out and embroider everything. I was never a huge fan of embroidery, it seemed very grannie to me before I saw Yoko Saito use it in conjunction with applique. Now that I've seen how Yumiko uses it, I could understand getting really really into it.
Hello. Nice to meet you.
I am Marisa's DIY Skirt (in progress) and she asked me to write a guest blog post for her today about my life as a half finished skirt.
Let me start by saying that I am really thrilled that the entire back half of me has now been stitched and all the cut-outs are complete. I'm feeling really confident when people admire me on that side.
The front of me, as you can see from the above, has been progressing slowly but surely. There is still a long way to go. One of the front quarter panels is almost done, and the other one is almost started.
Marisa does not neglect me, so please don't think I'm trying to throw her under the bus here when talking about my half completed state. She puts new stitches on me each day although she's busy and at times only works on me for 15 minutes. I'm still feeling the love, and I know that she will eventually complete me. I'm not getting the feeling she will give up on me. I am admittedly complicated...a project that cannot be rushed.
I hope that your long term complicated sewing projects find inspiration from this blog post and that you can also empower them to write in your own blogs. It isn't every day that a Skirt gets to write a blog post.
Best wishes to you, and perhaps I'll come back and write again when I'm almost complete. I'm really looking forward to getting out of the house.
Stitches West is a knitting convention in San Jose, California.
They have lots of vendors and tons of classes so for me it's a great chance to pick up some cool new yarn and take a class or two.
This year I took the argyle sock class with Anne Berk. She was an awesome teacher and everybody in class learned a ton. Class was especially fun because three of my best friends took it with me and we had a serious blast.
The above photo is of swatches that we all made in class. Mine is the aqua colored one near the lower center.
I'm looking forward to making some fun socks with what I learned. I may even make some mitts for the kids. That would be even faster to finish.
Spring is coming though, so time to knit faster is here.
I got some yarn from this vendor Plucky Knitter. They have their own yarn base that no other vendor uses, it is made strictly for them. It gives you amazing stitch definition and I think that may be due to it having more twist in the yarn. Either way, their yarn is hard to come across so the booth was wall to wall people. I did work my way in though so plucky socks are on the horizon.
I also got some Bugga! yarn and started in on a shawl called Catkin. It may take me a zillion years to finish it. Maybe more than a zillion. I'm still very focused on my DIY Alabama Chanin skirt, so the knitting is happening but...at a certain pace I guess.
Oh and I tripped over some stitch markers by Neese's Pieces that were made out of hand blown glass. Very unusual and pretty.
Next year I hope I can take another class with my buddies. I cannot remember when I've ever had so much fun. See So Sue's blog post about it here, and check out my friend Sharon's blog Knits are for Kids too!
There are only two 'events' in the quilting and knitting universe that make my pulse rise.
PIQF (of course!) and Stitches West.
Last night was the Stitches West market preview, so I took a run over there in the evening to check out the yarn and take advantage of the late hours. It was a real hoot.
I ran into boat loads of podcasters, including the Knitmore Girls, The Yarniacs, and Never Not Knitting's Alana. I also had a sighting of the Knit Lit Chicks but they were on the go so we didn't get to chat.
It was fun to see all the latest goodies in the yarn-land. I ended up with a couple more balls of sock yarn because, well, one can never have too many socks. Right?
My family may be sick of all the hand knit socks I make them but they have yet to ask me to stop and the kids are growing out of them at times too. I have a bit of a more is more approach to socks.
The most fun I had was of course in the A Verb For Keeping Warm booth where I could have just stayed all night, but resigned myself to a couple of yarn balls (including what you see above) and headed home.
I'm taking an argyle sock class all day tomorrow so wish me luck with that.
Have a great weekend. If you're in the California Bay Area, stop in at stitches...the colors are amazing and it smells like clean sheep!
I won't show you photos of the plants in my yard because they are more or less hibernating and looking rather sad.
It's nice and toasty inside so my little air plant is happy as can be. I play rock music for it - recently Tame Impala's release called Lonerism. Well, suppose I play it for me too. Pretty addictive.
Our little kid has been fighting a bug this week. No fun for him and no sleep for parents. I'm sure you probably know the drill. He seems to be on the mend, so perhaps our week will get back on track.
We took a casual 7 hr drive (each way that is) this weekend to LA for some fun with the extended family. It was a blast and I made good use of time on the road. Amazing amounts of progress were made on my skirt. It's actually almost done!
Ok, it's nowhere near done. Sorry to excite you. I did work on it a lot, at least 5 or 6 hours in total and I did get almost all the cutting done on the 2nd of the 4 panels. As soon as I'm done with that it will be all down hill (pun intended) from here.
I tried on the handspun wrist warmer I knit ages ago.
When I made it I thought the colors are too wild for my taste so I never made the 2nd one.
It hasn't been cold enough here so far this winter to need them really, but the more I look at the the more I like it.
Am I starting to lose my mind? Look at all this wild color!
My quilting needles have been bumping into the squishy-ness of cotton jersey lately.
It feels like trying to nail jello to a tree when you compare it to the act of working with quilting cotton.
The Alabama Chanin DIY skirt that I'm making is still on the front burner and it is progressing but it seemed like a tank top to match would be a fun project. I cut out a corset top from the pattern in her book and made it with jersey Nani Iro that I got from awesome online shop Superbuzzy.
It's my own person Japanese twist on this cool process. I have a few more alterations to make and I'm even toying with adding a few beads to it. I might also put some of the gray fabric used on the skirt around the neckline and arm holes to tie it together. Either way, it's looking good but not done yet.
Getting ready for my argyle sock class...
There is a tiny bit of homework which seems to be knitting up quickly.
I'm looking forward to class more so because some of my best friends will be taking it with me. If I never learn how to knit an argyle sock, I'm not sure it will matter much.
I put the homework off as long as I could and there is some small sick pleasure to the art of procrastination.
It's looking like it will end up coming together before the class. Sweating = done! Ok, mostly done that is.
Spotify finally came out with an app that sends basically and music you want to your phone.
The free version has ads which isn't a big deal.
I did some comparison shopping on wireless speakers and although the Jawbone mini Jambox doesn't sound better than every option out there, it's certainly the best looking of them all by far.
Please find me happily rocking out to Young the Giant (from my home town!), Calvin Harris, and San Cisco.
Will it make me sew any faster?
Not the best sunset photo I've ever taken, but probably not the worst either.
It had some pretty colors and we caught it as we were waiting for my weekly half hour of knitting to start.
Oh, I mean, my son's weekly half hour piano lesson. How easy it is to mix those two things up, isn't that funny?
My Alabama Chanin DIY skirt is still progressing along. Not sure if you can tell from the photo, but it's almost half done. Only a small part of the upper right is not sewn yet.
I'm liking the look of it and I also really like the feel of it. The way the fabric feels is actually different after you the all the sewing and cutting. It has a better drape to it. I'm excited to finish it and wear it. The sewing process is slow though and my creative time is pretty limited these days. It is a blast though and the Olympics are coming soon so that may help me finish it off.
In celebration of the Olympics, we are getting a Tivo. They are supposed to be easy to use so I'm looking forward to that since our DVR that we have now is simply put horrible.
Meanwhile, I'm catching up on some old shows trying to watch a few things on the old DVR before we kick it to the curb. I only have 1 more Downton episode left to watch.
Hope this week ends up being less hectic than it looks like it might be. Hope that you have a nice week too. Squeeze some sewing time in. Just do it!
The January bug bites and organization is on my mind. Not in a big way of course, since I'd rather create stuff than organize.
Still though, I've put a little effort into making a tiny bit more space.
Is it just a matter of devoting time to ensure you have a well-curated stash, or how best can you ensure you have just the right amount of tools, fabrics, yarns, paints...to create without having most of it fall on your head when you open your closet door?
Ideas? Solutions?
There's only so many small scraps of yarn you can hide in jars on your desk, as I've found.
Lots of people are obsessed with washi tape.
I had picked up a couple of rolls of it but was still warming up to it.
If you look around out there for photos of what people do with it, it's really sort of amazing.
Since it has Japanese roots, I figured I should pick up some in colors that I like more and see if it sticks, har har.
I stuck a bunch of it over the keys on my computer keyboard just for fun. Good thing I can type. My little 3rd grader might get a kick out of playing his learn to type game on it now. Certainly a much better challenge.
Trying to relax on a week night triggered a session of Dawson's Creek watching on Netflix. Wow, it's been a long time. This was seriously 'it' back in 1998. I even love the songs! Maybe I'm showing my age here. I should stop now before you lose all respect for me.
The 1930's double wedding ring quilt that is usually on my bed is missing only a couple of small pieces.
They are just altogether gone leaving little traces behind.
I have owned this quilt for a good while now and perhaps subliminally known that the construction method was not what I would have done if I was the quilt maker.
Each of the colored pieces were sewn to the next using a sewing machine. Then the rings were hand appliqued down to the background fabric.
The pattern is so beautiful that I have considered making one many times. I have only thought to do a pieced version though. Hand applique on the edges of both sides of all the rings seems too much work to be reasonable. I would never finish it!
It is cool that somebody else finished it using this method. I guess I love this quilt even more now. It made me want to to some repair work on the missing squares out of respect of all the work that went into the hand applique.
It's kinda funny really that I never tried to figure out the construction method used on this before. The quilt and I finally understand each other. Sorry it took me so long, my friend.
2014 seems to be in full swing for us, moving along quite swiftly, pun intended.
It's the calm before the baseball season storm rolls in with less after school duties and a tiny bit more free time.
Channeling my optimism, I wound up some skinny yarn into a ball. It's Anzula, sock weight, and I will someday make a Boxy sweater out of it by Joji Lokatelli. Probably not on my short term project list, but still...on the radar.
I'm not in love with my clover yarn ball maker. Someday I hope to get a more serious one, perhaps the Heavy Duty Yarn Yarn Ball Winder from Nancy's Knit Knacks. Will take some saving up first.
In other news, Stitches West is coming up. If you knit and live in Northern California, it's worth checking out. I'll be in the argyle sock class with a few of my best buddies.
And a random thought, I found some baker's twine from The Twinery that is to die for that has silver sparkles in it. I want to wrap everything with it. Maybe I've lost my mind. Perhaps it's time for the weekend.
Hope you have a great one.
Just a quick progress report for you on my Alabama Chanin DIY skirt.
It's almost 25% done and I'm still really REALLY getting a kick out of working on it.
Because the paint color is almost the same as the background fabric, it is strangely easier to work on in the evening with a lamp rather than in daylight.
It's easy to cut out the pieces though on the weekends during the day so that is sort of how I'm sorting out the sew/cut work.
Maybe I'll finish it up over the Winter Olympics or something. I'm already looking forward too that.
I think that the Alabama Chanin Company will soon come out with a non-hand made line of clothing that should still be made in the USA but will probably be more affordable. I'm really looking forward to checking that out.
For Christmas, I'm not the easiest person on the planet to shop for, but yarn is always welcome.
Between my little sister and my DH, they gave me a sweater's worth of yarn from Brooklyn Tweed's yarn line called Shelter in colorway Thistle.
I have not swatched for the sweater yet, but I'm looking forward to it. I want to make this pattern called Greenwood that is a pretty simple looking cowl neck pullover.
Some impressions on the yarn:
It is super squishy and lofty. It will probably be very warm. I has a lot of bounce and personality, more than most yarns I've seen. The color is out of this world.
It did break when I first put it into my yarn ball winder, so I think it is quite delicate. I don't knit super tightly so hopefully it will not break during the process of knitting.
I noticed an unusual amount of VM (AKA veg matter, AKA hay or other prickly scratchy stuff) in the yarn. I guess I'll try to pick it out it as I go although I'm still not totally sure what to do in truth.
The yarn is otherwise very nice so I will press on.
Call me a sucker for a good shade of purple and an nice bouncy yarn.
As a quilter or a knitter do you find that time passes too quickly?
I constantly feel like I could use that 8th day of the week, or that 25th hour where nobody bothers me and I can do some creating.
Because it feels like time flies and also because I am having so much fun these days, I decided to start a One Line A Day Journal.
My rule is that I try to capture whatever happened that day that was good. I don't write about the bad, annoying or sad things for the most part. I often write about the boys because they have so many good things going on right now. Much more so than the adults. I do record when I finish a creative project though.
I started this last February. It has a page dedicated to each day of the year. In another month or so I'll have the treat of reading what happened to me last year on the same day of the year. I'm looking forward to that.
Perhaps I will bore my DH to tears. Perhaps he will fall asleep faster? Perhaps he should be thankful that I only have one historic year of information at this point!
For less than $15, it's been a lot of fun for me.
I have even taken it on trips with me. Once I was sick and asked my DH to write in it for me.
Is it too much if I make a beautiful taupe quilted cover for it? Maybe with a little applique of our house on it?
I look forward to seeing the first issue of the year come out from both Quilts Japan and Patchwork Tsushin because they have the calendars in them.
Some years I pick up a second copy for my mom because the calendar is so knock your socks off incredible.
Other years I cry over quilts that just don't speak to me or photography that could have used some help.
This year both calendars are a bit on the so-so side. You can judge for yourself, but I'm not sure I'm over the moon about either of them.
The issues themselves are a different story.
Quilts Japan #156 is an incredible issue. It's full of the bright primary colored floral prints that I love and have collected for a while. The quilts are bold and beautiful. This is one of my most favorite issues.
Patchwork Tsushin #177 was lukewarm for me. It has a lot of holiday projects as well as some whimsical designs with pom poms and ric rack. Not my personal favorite, but somebody with a sweeter cuter aesthetic might really love it.
Either way, it's nice to kick the year off with some Japanese eye candy, that's for sure.
Hope that your new year was full of joy and peace. We had a great holiday in general and relaxed for once.
I'm still working away on lots of creative projects. Progress is more tortoise than hare, but progress is progress.
My Alabama Chanin DYI skirt is almost 1/4 done after a road trip of working on it and some evenings watching movies. It will probably be a while before it is actually done. I may have to have a small party whenever I get another quarter of it finished. I'm also thinking of playing around with some embroidery on the waist band just for decoration and to have some fun.
Some movies I saw were good, some not so much:
The Internship - feel free to skip it
South Pacific - time to re-watch this movie is always now, I could watch it all day
The Perfect Game - awesome, inspiration story of a Mexican little league team, highly recommend
Next up for me is The Lightening Thief. I hope it's worth seeing.
I'm also knitting my first KnitSpot knitting pattern by Anne Hanson. It's a sock pattern so very portable called Waffle Cream socks. I'm knitting them for my DH. It's a lot of 1x1 work, so slow, but looking ok so far. Photos of that soon.
As for my theme for 2014, I think it will be Finishing. I have so many incredible projects that deserve to be finished, let's see what I can do to put a fork in a couple big ones.
Wish me luck on that. It won't be easy.
You have your theme picked out? Broken any juicy resolutions yet?
