I completely have no shame

You will see what I mean.

Everyone knows the purpose of a blog is to show other folks how skilled you are, all you make, and how well.

That's not going to be happening here tonight.

I finished my darling Heidi baby's hoodie and it really is full of mistakes.

This pattern, knit in one piece with all sorts of fancy (to me) increases and decreases, was way beyond my skill level.

Sort of like a sewer who had done a very nice apron and Christmas tree skirt doing the Channel jacket.

Listen I learned a lot. 

Learned things even other than the fact that I have a very long way to go before my knitting is ever to me what my sewing is. 

My problem with this project was the pattern which was one you couldn't see from the wrong side, not like patterns where you can see what is happening in the row below and anticipate what you are supposed to do from that. With this pattern you had to turn it around before you could see it was messed up and this often not until you had done a bit of knitting and increasing decreasing a few inches later.

I ripped out about as much as I knitted. Over and over again. And the TV debate was not much help.

But I finished it, and being an unreasonably optimistic, I like to think of this as sort of evidence of the triumph of the human spirit rather than a small sweater totally full of embarrassing mistakes. 

Also it is amazing to me how much the camera in fact does not lie. I don't need to point out my tortured errors because they are pretty obvious but you know it does fit her perfectly.

The other grandmother, who was also at the party and is a truly competent craftsperson, commented that it will be covered with drool soon and no one will ever know I purled when I was supposed to knit, which I thought was pretty nice of her.

I want you to know this was not all I gave the baby for her first birthday.

Moving forward, after I got this all wrapped up this afternoon I decided it would be good for my self-esteem if I sewed something.

So I whipped up this Adele top from StyleArc. I have made this top before and it used up some knit I was going to make a summer dress from, but after this hot summer I decided that rayon knit dresses are not completely cool. In fact after a sweaty summer I ended up wearing my rayon challis dresses most and have since decided that really is the best cool summer fabric. 

Unless you count seersucker or a nice cotton lawn, and other things I want to add to my stash as soon as I get myself within a thousand miles of a decent fabric store.

Oh yes the picture:

I told my photographer to be more artistic so he shot this from up higher.

I also got my hair cut by a new hairdresser I really like today. A complete Nova Scotia character. She told me while she was cutting this afternoon that she realized early in her career she had a true calling.

Years ago we had a mine disaster in the province (Springhill if you are from here you know it) and her sister, also a hairdresser, heard that the women were all holed up in a hall waiting for news, you know those awful waits that go on for days. So my hairdresser and her sister packed up their gear and went to the hall to help out.

"We did hair straight for three days. Best we could do and at least they looked good."

I think she and I are going to get along.

Now I am going to leave you with a question.

I have some wonderful sort of beige gabardine type heavy water resistant fabric that is the tail end of my last NYC trip haul from last year.

I am considering two patterns. 

Looking at the person who is a terrible knitter shot from above in the last picture which one do you think would work best? I need to do some decent sewing to get my creative legs back:

And finally finally, now the sweater is done I am catching up on my very neglected blog reading and want to congratulate the talented sewers and US bloggers who are part of the new Mood network.

I am thrilled to see so many familiar faces and really will enjoy seeing their creations. Just like you learn so much from a pattern when you see it made up, it will be very useful to see some Mood fabric turned into garments - so much more instructive than a small square on the computer screen.

I am putting together my shopping list for November and geared up to be inspired.

Still knitting that sweater

Only three days to go until the birthday.

I was thinking if the baby was in Brownies I would have badges I could sew over the mistakes, but as she is turning one that isn't an option. And I wouldn't be much of a grandmother if I wrote on the card "here you go this nearly killed me."

Seriously though I have learned a lot and the next one, if hell freezes over, would be perfect.

I recommend Crafty workshops though. Gives you somewhere to post messages like "someone help me" and "never mind I just read the instructions."

So that's the life update, apart from my job, which I am doing between rows, and the fact that I am pretty sure I put in a massive order to StyleArc in my sleep last night.

I will sew again.

Have a good weekend

I had this idea I would save time with the baby's cardigan if I had a pattern that did not call for much sewing up. This one is a bottom up raglan where you do the sleeves in the round then attach them to the body.

It appears that I have knitted on the sleeves so the underarms are at the top and the sleeve cap underneath.

This was not as easy to do as you might think. 

Also my seed stitch appears to be punctuated by blocks of mistaken stockinette which I am hoping, because they are so regular, might look like a very progressive pattern. Is there such a thing as an edgy baby sweater?

Maybe not in Nova Scotia.

I'm quitting for the night, not because I think it will look better in the morning but because my dear husband has signed me up for his company's golf tournament tomorrow.

It will be fun he says, just relax and have a good time. No one will care you can't really golf, just a friendly game.

With a bunch of men. 

Right. 

Not likely to be competitive at all. 

And the prize for the winners is a trip for two to some place this golfer will never be seeing.

Real casual game.

I was going to be making some sort of an outfit for this event but I have been busy knitting some sleeves in upside down.

So I went and bought a jacket and some pants as Costco as I do not really want to overinvest in this thing.

You didn't know Costco carried golf clothing did you?

Well they don't.

Over and out. 

Still knitting ...

Time marches on and I am getting closer to that birthday.

This is the sweater I am making. I don't really need a class but the pattern was what I was looking for.


OK, maybe I need a class, I skim instructions to my own detriment, and having things written out really s-l-o-w-l-y is helpful.

Plus seed stitch hides a lot.

I took a break from this and started a knitted doll but am back to my sweater.

The doll so far is looking like something my dad used to throw for the dog when he was training her to retrieve, except it has red shoes. And so far no head. Which actually is just like the dog toy come to think of it. She was a chewer.

The other break I took was the big seasonal wardrobe change over when things from the basement go into the closet, and things from the closet go into the basement.

I like doing this job a lot more when it is summer clothes I am bringing up.

It is amazing to me how I go overboard in one direct and make wardrobe holes.

A few years ago it was dresses. Then I had my skirt year and lately it has been cardigan jackets. Suddenly I have far too many tops and no pants really that are all that presentable except for a few pairs, so I am going to have to attack that once this sweater is done.

Where are you standing the beginning of this season?

What are the holes in your wardrobe and how did it happen? Are there somethings you can sew but don't? Are you still struggling with a TNT?

I could do with a sewing discussion right now.

Thank you Mitt Romney, you are good for knitting

I have suspended sewing this week for talking at the TV and knitting.

It is Miss Heidi's birthday in two weeks and I have decided that I need to knit her a sweater. Every time I ask my daughter what she needs I am told that she can use what Scarlett has- subsequent child syndrome.

Having grown up with a red headed sister behind me who had to wear my red velvet Christmas dresses I have decided to disregard what might be in the hand me down box and make originals for this little sister.

Problem is I am the world's slowest knitter.

The only boost I am getting is the US presidential election. This keeps me up late and knitting and entertained. Mr. Romney has been particularly helpful this past week in that regard. I talk at the TV expressing my own expert analysis and offering insights only Mr. Rascal and a sleeping husband can hear.

This is helping with the row count.

What interests me is that no one has called me in as a commentator. I have so much to say.

BTW my past life has a politico has made me aware of one reality. Elections are won by whoever gets the vote out. 

You have no idea.

Whatever candidate has folks who will go pick up the old folks in the rain and drive them to the poll, whoever has people go over and watch the kids at supper time so the parents can get down and vote, whoever works the phones and calls people who have promised to vote on the day to see if they in fact have done so today, will probably win.

That is why the worst thing you want just before an election is some sense that it is in the bag, then your voters, too busy at the grocery store, don't make it to the polls.

On the day (or days in the case of advance polls) it's the neigbours who make it happen not the Superpacs.

OK enough of that.

I have to get this sweater done because I am having a pants crisis and have some sweater knit from Metro Textiles and some knit from Parons I need to get sewn up before I drop my credit card on their counters too when I go to NYC.

And I am pretty ready to do that.

Butterick 5760 and me

In my quest to develop some more TNT I made this cardigan from Butterick 5760:

It was a pretty straightforward sew with a few observations:

• It is quite fitted. Not usual for the Big 4 but nice and sort of ready-to-wearish
• The instructions have you interface the bands, attach them, and then do a sort of usual knit binding around the neckline.

Of course the binding is not interfaced and it goes right over the top of the band to the edge. (Are you visualizing this?) 

That means that the un-interfaced neckline can pull as a soft thing against the firmer band thing and there is a bit of a wrinkle in it.

If I make this again and I will I will apply the neckband and then sew on the extended front bands. This will deal with that problem and allow me to put a buttonhole up closer to the neck.

Here is my finished version in some rayon knit I had hanging around:

 

I had this idea that if I put on a belt it would define my waist more, but that was before I remembered I don't have a waist to define, so I actually wore this the whole day beltless.

I really am pleased with the potential of this pattern and am on a sort of a cardigan of all types roll at the moment.

On other Saturday night news around here you might be interested to know we are doing our usual expanding dinner cooking for both sides tomorrow and my husband is also making up a giant batch of his home made yoghurt.

Not to imply we are back to the land, hardly, but he loves to do odd projects.

So today after a round of golf in the rain with the dog coming along (no one else was on the course because of the rain and we know the manager - we had only to put Rascal on the leash at the 15th hole owing to the large porcupine on the green) my spouse has come home to make his yoghurt.

He puts a the whole bowl of whatever it is cooking along by keeping it the right temperature on an old pilled heating pad carefully monitored with an asphalt thermometer from work.

I couldn't make this stuff up. 

It's actually pretty good yoghurt considering the origins and I know he is precise, accurate and safe because no one has fired him from work yet and I am still alive.

The high point of my own day (no it wasn't playing 18 holes in the pouring rain) was running into Miss Scarlett and company at the supermarket.

"Nice top Babs, but what's happening to the neck?" (it had those gathered things on it).

"Let me see that, did you sew it yourself?" (I lean closer so she can turn the neckline in to see the stitching)

"Why are the sleeves a little bit short?" (I explain the usefulness of 3/4 length sleeves and she pushes hers up).

Pretty smart three year old with all the right interests.

The way I figure interest in garment sewing skips generations in my family (my grandmothers were clothes sewers, my mother and daughter think it's too fussy).

But I can tell you this one, Miss Scarlett, is one of us.

Wardrobe config part two

As you can tell I am continuing to think deeply about major issues and what works for me, as opposed to everyone else.

The truth is when we are all kids we are pretty clear about what we want to do, and what we like.

I am reminded this every time one of the little girls spits out weird food or does that hit the floor in despair over the injustice of life thing - like being told to do something not when they want to or how they want to do it.

All that changes, maybe beginning the first time someone says, "what a good girl you are." Translated as  you did something you didn't want to, but I wanted you to do it.

Fast forward to the expectations of boys, and then men, and workplaces, and all that advertising stuff that we think we are too intelligent to be affected by but of course are.

If you sew you also are influenced by looking over to the next sewing machine (I am getting highly poetic here so this is a figure of speech, a metaphor or whatever) and thinking you should be sewing better, faster, more stylishly, more often. And if you read blogs let's face it sometimes you get this feeling really frequently. Unless of course the blog you are reading is this one.

I am the only one who has tried to peer into the background of those shots for housework/chaos of life evidence to see how they really get all that sewing done? I am self-revelatory phase, you might have to excuse me here during the confessions.

The thing is it is easy to get detached from yourself, I am totally into reattachment activities right now as you can tell, and far more significantly from the reasons you sew.

In periods of deep mediation, while staring at serger this evening, it occurred to me that I am really a fabric sewer.

I have the shelves to prove it.

I just love fabric.

Sewing and patterns give me an excuse to have it, work with it, be consoled by it, and be elevated by it.

Now I like a good pattern, but I really like it even more if I can cut it out more than once, many more than onces.

A good pattern to me is like designing a good course for my students, you tweak it and improve it every time you do it, but a good course can bring out the best in a totally new group of students - that's it's job - but it's working with the kids that matters.

Connecting with good fabric is like that moment when I am lecturing and I look out and some student catches my eye and they are smiling/laughing and we have that moment character to character.

The character of fabric matters to me. 

When I remember a favourite dress it's for the fabric, and when I think of my best sewing memories it's the fabric.

Do you remember you first fabric shopping experiences?

We used to have these department stores in Canada called Eatons - ruined of course by a bunch of second and third generation dingbats - with terrific fabric departments. 

I used to wander around those departments (kids used to go downtown by themselves on the bus when they were young in those days) and used to have to go and sit down at the pattern chairs every once in a while to give myself a break when I was too overcome by the fabric.

That was good fabric.

I have been thinking of this lately and kicking myself that I didn't pick up some off white boiled wool last spring at Mood - now that is a real fabric department store- and thinking that one piece of fabric you regret is worth 50 yards of fabric you got just because.

I am thinking that this TNT thing, with a few new pattern accents thrown in, might be me, after many detours, because that's where fabric sewers land.

What comes first for you?

The pattern or the fabric?