Knitting big and knitting little

I finished my youngest sons's socks and here they are. Yes, I know the stripes didn't turn out exactly the same and this was me really trying.

He will be happy with them this way and will probably lose one pretty soon and wear it with an orphan from another pair I knit.


More organic this way.


Having a party for him here today, and as there will be a few folks, I am ordering in. Birthday boy's choice. I am suppose to phone up the Jerusalem Cafe and say the guy who loves fava beans wants enough food for a party.


We should be good and if he doesn't dig up the front lawn to put in a garden so I will be food sufficient things should go as planned.


Seriously, he has put in several gardens of his own and can grow anything. None of his vegetables ever have so much as a bug bite in them. This green thumb thing, which I don't have, is no joke.


Some people can just grow anything. He hovers and I think that helps. Those plants know he is watching them every second so they are careful.


What makes a 26 year old kid garden?


Your children always surprise you and that's the best part.


Whenever I finish a pair of socks I am left with a small ball of sock wool. I have saved many of these and even went so far as to download a patten for knitting little tiny squares that would, in about a century, become an afghan.


I can kid myself a lot but even I could see this was never going to actually happen.


But that still left me with a huge collection of sock wool scraps.

Then it hit me and I remembered the "Bag 'o Barbies" I picked up in Florida for $6 for the little girls.

Now I am fully aware of the gender issues involved with Barbies. I know more than a few mothers of my daughter's generation who have banned them and I see why.

I really do.

There is the giant boob issue (although the new Barbies have gone down a couple of cup sizes) and the fact that she represents a woman who is largely over involved in her wardrobe ...

However I wonder if those who have banished Barbies ever really played with them.

Ken was just a prop.

Someone to walk across the floor in little bouncing steps to say in a fake low voice "Barbie let's go on a date" and then went back into his Ken coma.

Barbie always replied to this invitation with "First I have to change."

That was it. 

It was all about changing Barbie into different outfits. It was all about the clothes.

Yes Ken was just a prop and if he hadn't had that one line to give Barbie a reason to get dressed up there would have been no Ken. I suspect he knew this.

It was Barbie the original single girl with her huge suitcase of clothes. All coordinated, all accessorized.

As one of four girls I have serious Barbie playing experience. 

We had tons of clothes. The best ones were from an elderly aunt or cousin on my mom's side who for some reason sent us once a huge shipment of knitted clothes. These were the best. The clothes bent, which Barbie's arms didn't, and they were easy to take on and off. No struggling with tiny snaps or pulling on a tight fishtail evening dress over those curvy hips.

I have to insert here that my dear mother made one giant mistake in her life, and I hope she still regrets it.

Somewhere along the line she decided we were too old to play Barbies so she gave away a highly developed now vintage collection that I am sure, if she kept it, would have bought us a condo in Florida.

I am still most mad about that red velvet flared coat with the matching pill box hat and matching shoes and purse. If I had a real sized outfit like that I am sure I would wear it every day and was confident when I was eight that I would grow up to do just that.

Side story. 

My daughter had her Barbies and inherited her mother's love of accessories. That aside one of most exciting moments of raising the current birthday boy was when, as an infant, he once opened his mouth when I was changing him and stuck out his little pink tongue on the end of which was a perfect little Barbie doll champagne glass. We had been wondering where that had gone.

Back on topic.

Barbie doll clothes are the answer, a fairly realistic answer in my view, of what to do with the left over sock wool.

See I have already started.

Through Raverly I have discovered a completely out of control Swedish site of hundreds and hundreds of free Barbie knitting patterns.

Check out the accessories page.

Not to be believed.

Flypaper thoughts

• Speaking of which.
• Have you ever noticed there is always one fly?
• In your shower with you, up and down in the kitchen.
• Until you get the Autochoice catalogue, then it disappears.
• It went to the bedroom.
• It's official.
• They should have stopped Mad Men at season four. 
• The clothes have gone downhill since they stopped with the Jackie O suits.
• The accelerator cable gave way on my husband on the way home from the golf course.
• All he had in the car was dental floss.
• You got it.
• He says you really have to double it up and pull on it out the window all the way home.
• Said it worked great.
• How do you think I would look in a Jackie O suit?
• Not like Betty Draper.
• Finishing socks for my youngest's 4th of July birthday.
• No son is interested in hearing where he was conceived.
• Even if it was in the US and isn't that cool.
• Take it from me.
• Apron sewing again tomorrow.
• What's with all the bias binding?
• Did my tax late today because I thought I was owed.
• And I have been busy.
• Added up to me owing them $7,300.
• In my condition. 
• Not fair.
• Turns out they owe me $370.
• Should have stuck with the math.
• Never have used that Latin.
• Hic est Britania.
• It's never come up.
• Only numbers I do are 5/8, 45 and 60.
• You got it.
• I can also do 115 and 150 but still have 5/8" seam allowances.
• Never adapted to celsius 30 years ago.
• 70 and take a sweater just in case.
• Only semi-multi cultural.
• I am considering fake fur sleeves on a black wool jacket.
• Was going to do a vest.
• Might look like Fred Flinstone.
• Not Betty Draper.
• Off to do a shopping list.
• I feel like a 15 1/2 year old boy.
• That desperate for wheels.
• Have something to add to the list.
• Dental floss.

Stitching some seams

I decided yesterday to start sewing again essentially so I wouldn't lose my mind. 


With this crowd no explanation necessary.


I wanted to just have a hour long easy project to do that would get me at the machine watching those lines of stitches form fast without a pattern or a lot of intellectual effort.


So I made up an apron from a random yard of cotton that I can't even remember buying or for what. 


I didn't have enough for pockets which was too bad, when I have an apron on I pick up pins and needles that seem to run around on the floors around here, and I sort of pleated the neck straps and the top of the bib so it wouldn't gape. 


See even aprons have fitting issues.


I tried to disguise this a bit with a foot of lace I will never use for anything else and a big floral button in the same category.


Listen I wear aprons all the time. All the time. 


I don't wear them as a political statement in solidarity with generations who did Women's Work, and looking around at the blogs I certainly don't wear them because of my alligence to the role of Submissive Wife, a concept I don't know much about and am not going to be exploring.


I wear aprons, to cook, to eat spaghetti, to clean, to wash the dog, because I am really messy. Sometimes I wear them in the sewing room when I am dressed in a dark color and sewing something with threads.


And there was that time in a former life when I tore down to the Legislature to a press conference I had organized and whipped of my coat, and there I was wearing an apron.


My worlds collide.


Of course the thing about aprons is that in their role as spill catchers they get kind of messy.


So a person needs a bunch unless you want to walk around your house in the stained version of some flasher's old raincoat. I have been meaning to make a few aprons for a while and for that reason, but since StyleArc doesn't have an apron pattern, and neither does Claire Shaeffer, I haven't got around to it.


But this seems like a current situation relevant project.


So here I am in the first iteration as non apron sewers say. I had a lot of fun making it.


And now I can say I am back on the horse, or in this case the pony.


More of these to come I think.

New clothes

Calypso Flowers left a comment on these pages that got me thinking. She reported that the sleepwear discussion of a while ago prompted her to make some new housecoats (robes to my American friends) and how much she was enjoying them.


That made me smile because one of the things I did before I went into the hospital was to go a little crazy buying nightgowns and housecoats. I became obsessed with wanting to look put together when I wasn't. 


Now I don't have a doctorate in psychology but you don't really need one to understand that I was channeling my awareness of things I couldn't control into something I could. I didn't spend a fortune, I Targeted, Amazoned and L.L. Beaned and continued with sewing projects I had on the go. I also bought new blush and lipsticks to coordinate.


It has really perked me up to have something new to wear every day.


Which makes me think about sewing.


The whole concept of investment dressing is interesting, I have written about it before. I understand that a cashmere and silk wardrobe might make sense for a certain kind of professional life I can no longer image, but can you think of what it would feel like to pull the same thing out of the closet every morning for five years?


I mean where is the kick in that?


Am I the only one who has ever sent something into the thrift shop donation bag just because she is so sick of it?


At various points in a woman's life she needs a bit of a lift to get over the hump or to feel less spiritually ragged.


When you come home with a new baby for instance and are not getting any sleep and everyone expects you to snap to it because this is all a natural process.


When your kids all leave home to start their futures and it seems like you are left behind when all the fun people have left the building.


When you have been in the medical system and it seems like your body has had strangers' hands all over it doing things that really are not how you would choose to spend the day.


When a career or partnership ends and you wonder what if those where the best years of your life?


Well let me tell you those are times when you really need new clothes.


My mom, an only child, lost both her parents when she was 16. She always told us that that summer the aunts got together and sewed her a new wardrobe, and put a red rinse in her hair.


And it helped.


I talked to my oldest friend this week who is planning on taking an earlyish retirement the day after her birthday this December. 


Her plan between now and then is to wear what she has, to buy not one new thing, and on her birthday to throw her entire wardrobe right out.


It's not that she has disliked her career, it is just that she wants to recognize that she is moving into a new phase.


So in all our earnest wardrobe planning we need to remember that maybe the objective is not an end point of a fully functioning closet - sometimes just to have something new is reason enough to sew.


On a side note I am going to have to sew something this weekend. My recovery is going really well and a lot of the credit goes to Big Nurse.


I am more of a run around than lie around kind of person and I am not really cut out for this but BN takes all orders seriously.


To give you an idea of what I am up against he has scales he uses to weigh what I want to lift.

The phone is to calculate the weight more exactly.

And he has been cooking treats for me. Coming home from work in the middle of the day to make cupcakes, with sprinkles, and even making home-made fish sticks as fish sticks are my secret comfort food ( we get pretty wild and crazy here in Nova Scotia).

There is a lot to be said for marrying an eccentric.

Fitted Knits vest

I decided yesterday my life could not move forward until I finished my best project so I sat myself done in front of the Obamacare ruling news and continued with my one step forward two step back process. 


BTW those were excellent suggestions to work on my own patterns a la Zimmerman, to use markers so I dob't lose my mind when counting, and to learn to knit continental. 


Really appreciate the help and with be working on all of these.


Now this is a wool vest so I will be wearing it in the inevitable winter with a blouse but this shot, and the picture for Fitted Knits which I borrowed from the library for the pattern, should give you an idea. 


I think my neckline is a bit higher, probably because I didn't pick up enough stitches, but it is comfortable so we aren't going to worry about that.


At all.


I also had my photographer take a shot of the necklace I made up to wear. It is Lia Sophia letter pendants on a chain I already have. The initials of my kids and two granddaughters. I think it is terrific. Good thing to have around your neck when you have to go to your happy place, like a three hour work meeting.

Burdamode and the new profile

Recently I posted about the new McCalls early fall patterns and how they looked very '70s and '80s to me. On an impulse I had a look at the latest Burda Mode magazine, online in the French edition, to see where the trends are going. BTW most of these styles are also available, and can be viewed and bought as downloads, at the Burdastyle site.

For quite a while now Burda magazine has lost me, somewhere along the way of plunging necklines and clothes that seemed too artificial for me.

But I would be the first to say that Burda often foreshadows what I see in the stores and on the streets over here by at least a couple of seasons. So it is a good indicator of how shapes, styles are trending for me.

Based on that it looks like we will all be resetting the clocks back to more than a few decades as first suspected. I mean look at this jacket:

Now before we all panic, here are the pluses. 

Easy to fit and easy to sew. Might be able to let that extra ten pounds glide by too. But it will take some getting used to and as with any profound shape change I will have to be careful not to cut into any good fabric with something that may start to look dated before I wear it. Some serious pattern culling might be required.

Who is going to be the first to try this new look out?

The difference between sewing and knitting

I am starting to feel myself again but not quite ready for extended time in front of the sewing machine, unfortunately.


I replaced a zipper in a jacket for my husband over the weekend and I felt a bit off afterwards but I am not totally sure that wasn't because even the thought of spending good sewing time doing alterations, particularly zippers, makes me nauseous.


So I have been doing a lot of knitting. Knitting is a source of great conflict for me. The conflict lies in the fact I love the look of so many sweater patterns but I am so damned slow that I can't actually make them.


So far I have made one sock for my son and part of a vest for me. The sock looks better on a foot and the vest is more promising even over a nightgown with the circular needle under my armpit than it appears here.


This whole process has made me consider the differences between knitting and sewing, at least my knitting and sewing. Here goes:


I know how to sew, I don't really know how to knit. I can read "line coat" in a Burda pattern and I know what that means. "LL1" means an hour on YouTube and a distracted two more hours on Ravelry looking at all the gorgeous sweaters I could knit if I had a life expectancy of about 350 years.


Which brings me to time. I could sew an entire SWAP wardrobe, OK in knits, in the time it will take me to make this vest. Don't think I am not thinking about that. There are rumors, started by one of my sisters I believe, that crochet is faster but that must be the case for people who know how to turn at the end without it all coming out like crooked steps. And those instructions, nothing but numbers.


Which brings me to numbers. I am not so good with the numbers. I attribute this in part to doing the last part of my high school in Quebec where it was quite easy to sneak through the system with next to no math if you did enough French and arts. In fact I believe I was able to substitute drawing for geometry and an extra French literature for algebra. Seemed a smooth move at the time. Not particularly useful when you are knitting however when even accurate counting is a challenge.


You know I once had a job, that I was nearly fired from on a daily basis, as a counter. As a summer job I worked in the Hudson Bay northern stores warehouse in Montreal. The job was to unpack the goods, generally stuff that came in from China, count it to see if we had been stiffed and then send it over to be repacked and put on the ships that had to leave for up north before the ice set in. Myself and an MA in English were the counters. We would each start at one end of a pile of say baby rubbers pants or thin little pajamas that would have been totally useless in Baffin Island in the winter and count to see if the were in fact 500 pairs. We always got completely different numbers and then we would have to try again generally limp with hysterical laughter until we would decide to give up and say yes there are 500 pairs.


My knitting is like that only it matters. I can spend most of an evening seeing if in fact there are 236 stitches, not 237 or 231, between the markers. And ripping back down to the point where I was supposed to decrease one stich at the end of every ninth row, twice, and every fifth row three times, keeping in a pattern that has you knit 3 and then knit into the back of the next two stitches, twice, on alternate rows. I would write down what I actually did, three times, on even not alternate rows, on the right side, not the wrong side facing me, if it didn't make me too tired to think about it.


Does anyone have a cool cloth they can put on my forehead?


On the plus side you can get into knitting for about $20, although you won't stay there, and no one harasses you that you really need a fancy set of knitting needles that cost $10,000 so you can reproduce embroidery that looks like it might have been done on pajamas from China.


And knitting can be undone, unravelled, rolled into balls and reworked into something better, after you have had a little cry. Don't I wish I could do that with some of the beautiful fabric I have wasted on not the right pattern? Stuck it back together and tried again.


And knitting can be done anywhere at any time and turn time that might go wasting into something you can cross off the Christmas list, or even wear.


Which is a plus until I can get back at that sewing machine and then let me tell you.


Look out.