Raw denim

I thought you would enjoy this.

My youngest son has just brought over a pair of "raw denim" jeans to hand wash. The idea of hand washing is beyond his great brain.

I had to google the instructions but he was right.

Raw denim is denim that has not had the dye rinsed out. Therefore as you wear it, the dye comes away in the creases and you get patterns of fade that are individual.

"Like the human finger print!" the manufactures claim.

Honestly.

In case you are ever up against raw denim here is what you are supposed to do:

1. Wear them all the time. Sleeping in your jeans is recommended.

2. Waiting 6 months to wash them.

3. Yes you read #2 right.

4. Fill a bathtub with lukewarm water and a non-detergent detergent.

5. Turn the jeans inside out and submerge them and weigh them down with something.

6. Soak for 45 minutes, rinse, and hang outside, upside down, to dry.

7. Go back and see your mom in 6 months.

On the leading edge over here.

Elles not so swell

First things first.

The parents are back and the little girls are no longer my responsibility. 

We had a great time.

Like riding a bike, but I am sure my own kids weren't this well-behaved.

My daughter reports that both children were happy and relaxed when they arrived home.

She also reports that they are interested to know why all the TV remotes in the house now seem to be broken and what happened to the dishwasher. 

No idea. 

I wonder if they have also noticed that they now have a 3 year old who can sing Barbara Ann by the Beachboys right through without any mistakes, and that the kid who doesn't eat does great with potatoes mixed with yoghurt, if you let her eat with her eyes closed.

The scrape on the car had nothing to do with me BTW. I am blaming it on the man who was installing the new kitchen cupboards. He was trying to make a fast get-away.

You get what you pay for.

Seriously it was all fun except for that damn pink bear who went AWOL about every 20 minutes. Note to all new mothers who create small children dependent on one cuddly toy.

Buy duplicates.

After all the excitement I went back to my regular life which right now involves marking 147 assignments (this is a real number not something I am putting in here for comic effect, in fact nothing is here for that purpose, this is my real life).

I am taking a break from the marking to blog. The last email was from a put-out student who was offended I had queried her use of the semi-colon - something she puts in there randomly every third word or so.

"But professor you don't understand, semi-colons are part of my style."

I resisted emailing back asking her if she was e.e. cummings and instead quoted Hemmingway who said a writer should use only three semi-colons.

And that was in one life.

To keep my spirits up while I mark I am doing my standing desk thing at one end of my sewing cutting table. For every 10 papers or so I let myself go cut something out. I am getting a lot cut out.

And if I really need a break I do some stitching.

One of the things I have done is a muslin, apparently, of StyleArc's Elle pants.

I love the Linda pants but wanted to see if I could do something with a narrower leg.

Well I got that. Here is a lousy iPhone shot in the bathroom:

About all you can see here is that these are some skinny pants. This is one leg and I can get my own leg in it, it just won't bend. 

Obviously the stretch woven I was using was more woven than stretch, but even if it was stretchier I didn't really have those legging things students are wearing for pants when they shouldn't in mind for this project.

So one of the things I have cut out is another version of the Peta pants with the bottom hem brought in an inch either side and the profile of the Elle's used to blend in the seam.

We shall see.

In the meantime about a month ago someone asked me how I pretreated wool jersey.

Well what I do is put the dry jersey in the dryer for 10 minutes on a low/fluff type heat with a wet but well wrung out tricot half slip. 

This seems to get just a shade of shrinkage out of the fabric without actually shrinking it. I then lay the jersey out on a table to recover overnight.

This seems to work.

Now back to my assignments.

Scenes from the babysitting front, day two of five

Not a lot of time but here goes:

• If someone spills milk on the edge of the counter you might want to check to see if any went into the drawer below. Or the drawer below that. And the one on the bottom. Also check under the pot lids.
• If you were to pull off the tabs of the disposable diapers by mistake, black electrical tape works just great and is water proof.
• If you smell toast burning yes it may be because you are having a stroke.
• Or you may have burnt the toast.
• Do you know they now make spaghetti-Os in the shape of princess crowns? A good plan B if you don't have any bread left.
• Don't lose the pink bear.
• And don't say "where the hell is that bear?"
• They remember to tell those things.
• Why would a person who won't get into the car after pre-school because their sleeves are wet from painting want to stand in the rain without a jacket on because they don't get wet in the rain?
• Look behind the chair for the bear.
• The best person I have ever slept with may be this Golden Retriever.
• Nutella rocks.
• Before they leave make sure you know how the remote works.
• How was the debate?
• I got stuck on mute.
• If you draw a heart on a Hallowe'en monster it is not scary anymore.
• Nap time is over.

About blogging and being a noticed blogger

A little while ago I congratulated the Mood bloggers.

Coincidentally, I heard from a few folks who were not happy they were not chosen.

Listen, it's a great fabric store. 

I am quite happy to be a private citizen who can go there as this is allowing me to disguise my visits to a much missed son as fabric buying trips. I love Mood, and whole lot of other places in the garment district, and I have been thinking of them all there in NYC increasingly as the fabric store at the bottom of my hill becomes increasingly depressing.

That's where I am. Frankly my sewing is more about experimentation/stress relief/fooling around than distinguishing myself at this stage of the game when there is so much going on.

But I do understand. A long time ago I wrote a lot for Threads and had a good time doing it. Everything I thought was interesting they thought was interesting and that was just great.

However somewhere a long the line the editorial direction changed and I started to be sent ideas and fabric, and what I was doing for fun became an assignment. I remember being asked to do a piece on stripes and was sent some high stretch silk (try matching stripes in something really stretchy, under pressure) in a colour that I would never wear and more or less hated.

So I decided to give it a pass unless the project was what I wanted to do, and let's face it what I want to do is pretty erratic.

I admit however feeling slightly disgruntled when I saw other names in that magazine, even though the simpatico editors I had worked with had moved on, even though I had moved on.

It was no longer my turn.

I also had to remember that just because someone else was doing a great job didn't mean I wasn't.

This is a lesson I seem to keep learning and re-learning in my life.

In the family I am no longer the big cheese, although it causes me great pain to admit that. I thought around the table last night that I no longer am the one telling the funniest stories, I am more the listener, and more the person who packs up the leftovers, and does the dishes in a quiet house.

Of course I would give everything to have one of those meals we used to have, everyone at home, everyone on the verge of a food fight, but that stuff is happening more often than not at other tables.

But I like to think I was the one who taught them to make people laugh.

I just checked and there are 7 billion people in the world. Being a really deep thinker I have figured out that means I am not always the one chosen and that the high points are just going to come and go in my life.

I stopped doing radio when I was introduced as someone who used to be as a political operator and I don't want to be known as a "used to be."

Which sort of brings me to blogging, although not really.

Why do any of us blog?

To be famous, discovered, appreciated?

Well some bloggers are, and good for them because there is a lot of work in excellent blogging.

Sometimes I am slack about it and I am well aware that the garments I show are not as wonderful as the clothes I was sewing when I had more time, and maybe when I took it all more seriously too.

Sometimes I wonder if it is worth it, particularly when someone emails me and tells me off, but then I read a comment and someone tells me that they spit out their coffee when they read something I wrote because it seemed true or funny to them that morning and I kind of find it reassuring to know I am not alone in the world.

Don't we all?

Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving

I am turkeyed out so this will not be all that coherent. Sort of like my fly paper thoughts, only the just-loaded-the- dishwasher version.

First of all with all the cooking going on my sewing this weekend has been limited. Another Adele top which is in a nice very soft rayon but this will do the pointed hem tops for me for a while. Time to move on.

Too tired to put it on me, and even the dress form is off kilter, so this is more an evidence than an illuminating photo.

Now onto what is firing around in my head tonight:

• Thank you for the coat feedback. The first one is more me and I felt that in my gut too. Have to decide if current fabric options in the sewing room are up to scratch or if I need to get something worthy
• Pattern hasn't arrived yet so I have lots of good angst time left
• My kingdom for a news anchor whose upper lip still moves.
• Three-year-olds think cookies shaped like turkeys and look like they were iced in the dark or at least by someone who left her glasses in the car are perfectly normal and in fact great.
• Do any of my Australian readers remember what wonderful fabric departments Buckley's and Myers had in Melbourne?
• If they are gone now don't tell me.
• I have been on a fabric diet since May and my nerves are shot
• I am going to knit that sweater again, one day, except this time get it right
• At least I can knit socks
• For both feet
• I miss my son in New York so much
• His sister will see him next
• I have a great recipe for pickled crudities if you are interested
• Helps counter balance the gravy.
• My husband cooks the turkey at 425 and it is succulent
• I was through the menopause before I found out you could cook anything above 350
• My sister-in-law gave me a seam ripper in a leather case
• I would not buy this for myself
• She is an ace
• Starting Thursday I am babysitting the two little girls, 1 and 3, for five days.
• The baby is still nursing 6 times a day
• This is Monday night
• I might not work on a coat muslin this weekend
• If you don't get enough email, try making a political reference on a blog
• All I was saying was where's staff?
• I am still saying that
• Do you think the kids will watch the VP debate with me?
• Might, we will all be up
• Bake at 350 blog has the best sugar cookie recipe ever
• See 350
• I am getting more exercise and cutting back on portions
• I have put on four pounds
• And that was before turkey cookies
• I used to be an ace with really little kids
• Wonder if that's still true
• Wonder what my sister in law is doing this weekend
• I need to sit down and do a whack of pattern reviews for pattern review
• Do you think I should do a SWAP this year?

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.