This and That

I've been doing a little knitting, though not much. I finished some plain green ribbed socks for me, started some purple and black socks for me, started a couple of hats, and I think there are few other things in progress right now. I don't have any new knitting pics today, though.


Last week I wove this scarf:


And a close up:


I used a hand-painted 100% merino sock yarn for the warp and a solid black 75% wool/25% nylon for the weft. I'm pleased with the resulting fabric, though I have still got a lot to learn about creating nice selvedges. In this case, I was trying so hard not to have my weaving draw in, I ended up with a lot of slop along the edges. Sooner or later I'll get that down.

Today I finally finished a shirt I started sewing several weeks ago. There's no reason that this should have taken more than two days, except that I think I was avoiding it out of fear that it would be a disappointment.



This fabric is a bit of a mystery to me. I think I bought it on a remnant heap somewhere, without any clue to fiber content. Since I know I paid next to nothing for it, it was kind of a test run for the pattern. I'm not entirely happy with the pattern and not sure I'd use it again. The front view looks ok, but the fit in the back is pretty sloppy. It's made to be a shirt-jacket and have enough ease to wear over other clothes, but even so, it's probably not the best choice for a woman with a lot of curves. It'll be a nice extra layer in transitional weather, so worth the effort of sewing it. But it's more for comfort than style.

Our cat Guy Noir had a close call with a car in mid-October. He spent nearly a week at the emergency animal hospital. He had broken his pelvis in two places, and the base of his tail. They did surgery to put a pin in his pelvis, to keep the worse of the two breaks in proper position for healing. He came home October 20, and is to be in confinement with minimal activity for 4 weeks. He has about 10 more days of confinement, then a slow re-introduction to normal activity.

That's the news here.

Tightwad Sewing

About a month ago, my friend Leslie and I hit the Diggers Outlet for a morning of thriftshop recreation. One of the things I grabbed was (apparently) a tablecloth made from this fabric. It's a home-dec weight, maybe not quite upholstery weight, but kind of thick. It was pieced to make a large circle and clearly a home-sewn project. I used about a third of it making this bag. The brown cotton webbing was already in the house, though I didn't have enough to make the shoulder strap, too. I'll have to see if I can find more at one of the local fabric stores. I had multiple packs of black piping in my sewing cabinet, too, so didn't need to buy that, or make my own.

I used a pattern from Terrific Totes & Carryalls: 40 Bags to Sew for Shopping, Working, Hiking, Biking, and More , by Carol Parks. I check this one out of the library about once a year and haven't actually sewn something from it before. This bag is the small duffle.

The pattern instructions call for stiff interfacing on all the major pieces, which I skipped. I thought the fabric had enough structure. Now, I kind of wish I had used it. The pattern is not lined, though I'm considering making a lining and adding it. It just seems not quite complete without it.

Because this fabric has a directional pattern, I also modified the main section and large side pockets to have a seam in the center bottom. Otherwise, the elephants on the other side would be upside down.

The bag is about 14" long and calls for a 12" zipper. I wanted to finish last night and didn't want to run out on a zipper errand, so I substituted an 11" zipper I found in my sewing cabinet. It makes the opening a bit tight, so probably if I make another, I'll try to use a 14" zipper and really run it to the edges of the top.

One thing I would definitely do differently is make the handles a bit longer. I wonder if there was a typo in the book, because it said to use a 75" length of webbing, leave 20" loose for each handle, and attach the webbing in one long continuous loop, with the ends lapping at the bottom. 75" just wouldn't have done all that. Next time, I'll allow 85".

The other modification I'll make on any future versions is to attach D-rings with webbing sewn into the top end seams. The pattern instructions say to just sew the webbing onto the bag itself, but I think it would be stronger and more elegant to catch a loop of webbing into the seam.

Overall I'm very happy with this and can imagine making more bags along these lines.

More sewing...

So, here's another project for the 5 People/5 Things Note on Facebook.

I sent Erica H. in the Bay Area this double point needlecase. Seems like I just mailed it and she got it already.

She told me she likes pink. We got that covered.



Happy knitting, Erica!

Mostly Spinning

It's been interesting working with the Brown Sheep mill ends. I started on the mixed browns a few days ago. As I mentioned in an earlier post, this stuff is a little compressed and benefits from some loosening up. I've been pre-drafting each section before I spin, and it makes a big difference in my results. There are also section with a lot of very short fibers, from where the roving was blunt-cut, and those tended to form clumps unless I took pains to get them out.

This skein is from the first bobbin-full plied back on itself. It's very thick'n'thin and has a real beginner look to it.


A closer look:


I was afraid that I wouldn't like the effect when I got it plied, but I do. It reminds me of a calico cat. I thought I would prefer fiber with more even color distribution and placement, but this is ok.

While I was spinning, I was thinking that it would be nice to have access to a drum carder, so I could blend the colors and loosen up the fiber more quickly. Mr. SABLE looked on Ebay to see what was there. I thought briefly of asking my friend Fern if she wanted to goes halfsies on one, but I really knew this is not something I need and put it out of my head. The next day, I was driving to St Paul with Fern, who also bought a couple pounds of the Brown Sheep mill ends and we were discussing our results so far. Then, she asked me if I might be interested in going halfsies on a drum carder. It must be fate. She's going to look into the choices and let me know.

Here's a picture of the Romney sliver I bought from Paradise Fibers a while ago.

This yarn is pretty hairy and rustic, but I was spinning it right off the ball and doing no pre-drafting whatsoever. It was fun to work with and was spinning very quickly.

In Other News
Yesterday I went to Last Saturday Knitting. We've moved to 2 p.m., which seems to be working out better than the 10 a.m. slot. I tried to work on my Fair Isle project a bit, but I was just starting a new repeat of the big reds and yellows band and I kept either screwing up or thinking I did, so I cast on some new socks instead. I can do colorwork in a social setting once I have the visual cues in place to read my knitting. Maybe next time.

That Fair Isle has seen darn little action this past week. I drove over 1000 miles on the two round trips to St Paul. I had the Lost Wednesday. And a couple of less-memorably lost days in all that. I'm afraid not much knitting will get done until fall, in spite of the fact that I have no aversion to knitting in the summer. It's just that family life has a way of interfering.

I need to make myself another swimsuit. The second one has grown obscenely sheer from chlorine exposure. This happened to the first one. Marji helped me out with finding a source for chlorine-resistant swimsuit fabric, so as soon as that arrives, I'll have my next project cut out for me. So to speak. (If it really was cut out for me, that might simplify everything. Remember the old Frostline kits?) I would just buy a bathing suit, but being both long in the torso and plus size, I kind of need to make my own. Unless I want my butt cheeks hanging out the bottom, or a two-piece with my stretch marks hanging out the middle. Even in my life BC (before children), when I was just tall and not plus-sized, the tall suits were never tall enough. The first time I realized I could sew my own suit and emerge from the water with out any tugging whatsoever was a truly liberating day.

Meanwhile, we're hoping to take the kids and the canoe to Devil's Lake today and I need to find a way to cover my backside. I'm thinking about doing surgery on a suit I got at Target 6 years ago. It's the kind with a dress over a tank suit and the suit part creeps A LOT. I think I might slice off the the bottom around the waist and either serge in a 2 inch strip of stretchy fabric around the waist (it will all be hidden by the dress part over) or cut the bottom off an old Land's End suit that had other fitting issues, and serge that on, adding the needed length. Sounds like I have my agenda for the day worked out.

Why I Shouldn't Go to the Fabric Store Unsupervised...

What I went for:


What I bought:


I went in for one navy separating zipper. And I came out with all that other stuff. Plus, 1 yard of super-heavy-duty double-sided-fusible interfacing. Anyone want to make a guess or two what I'm planning to sew?

For the record, the selection of separating zippers at my local Hancock Fabrics was very good. Much better than the selection I found at the local JoAnn's Superstore when I went looking for one for the Morgan Cardigan. Next time I'll remember to try Hancock first.

On the way into the fabric store I saw a bumper sticker:
I know Hell exists, I work in retail.

Having done my time in retail, I had a chuckle.

At the checkout counter, I tell the man ringing up my stuff that I only came in for the zipper. He was pleased and made a comment about all the good stuff I found for my stash. If he only knew about me and my stash, maybe he wouldn't see that as a good thing.