Ms. Cleaver Chronicles

Thanks to taking a few much-needed days off from work and a national holiday, I just wrapped up a 5-day weekend, which was absolutely lovely.

It didn’t hurt that after weeks of rain, we finally had a string of sunny and warm days.

Somethings I did

• Slept in everyday
• Drove to MA/NH border and bought a great new dining room table and chairs that surprisingly fit in the back of my Matrix.
• Ate almost every meal outside
• Spent hours knitting in the backyard
• Finished sewing a dress
• Went to an indoor picnic (on the one cold day of my weekend)
• Put the new grill to use
• Tried to ID our backyard birds
• Went to the local Memorial Day parade.
• Went to the drive-in restaurant

All in all, I feel totally refreshed – exactly what you want from a long weekend.

First, can I say that I am so over this rain? I think we’ve seen the the sun for a total of three hours in the past week. I know I spent four years in Oregon, so I should be used to the rain, but I’m watching the weather forecast right now and it’s showing rainclouds all this week too.

Boo.

At least I have lots of indoor hobbies, right?

And I may have picked up another one this weekend. Knitting is such a gateway craft for me: it beget spinning, weaving, dying, and now, needlefelting.

Meet Hedgie, my first needle-felted creation. When I saw this class offered at the Fiber Gallery, I knew I had to take it because hedgehogs? So cute!!

I found needle-felting to be quite intutive once you get started and I managed to only jab myself in the finger once.

I may have to pick up some more tiny bits of roving and make some more felty-friends!!

I’ll admit that post-Lent, I’ve missed doing outfit posts, so I’m bringing ‘em back (albeit not daily-maybe weekly).

I’ve been thinking a lot about personal style lately and I’ve been trying to think what, if anything, defines my style. I have a hard time putting my finger on it (though my knitting circle can select with great accuracy, what would be a “Leah sweater”) and I thought by continuing to document my favorite outfits, I might be able to get a better grasp on my personal style.

Chambray Dress: Bass Outlet

Forecast Cardigan: Made by Me

Boots: Naturalizers – perhaps unsurprisingly, I’ve worn a hole in the bottom of these

How do you define your personal style? Any tips for pinning it down? Does it help you in any way or do you think it doesn’t matter?

This is what a day’s worth of dying by a bunch of enthusiastic amateurs (and one real pro) looks like and is yet another reason why I am a part of the bestest knitting group ever.

Because these guys?

Awesome.

One of our members, Bristol, happens to be an all-around fiber pro and locally dyes yarn and fiber for the Fiber Gallery and even made a nifty hand-dyed fiber/yarn calendar for 2011.

As part of one of her bazillion jobs, Bristol also works as Creative Designer and Instructor for SuriPaco farms and she needed a few guinea pigs to test out SuriPaco’s facilities for upcoming dye classes. The Portland Knitters on the Town (PKOTT) were nice enough to oblige.

Aside from the usual group we were joined by Aimee’s husband and the young Maggie (which was a good thing since our regular Maggie was out of town) and the adorable Sadie.

We measured out the base dyes from powder (and safety first- wearing dust masks!)

Prepped the yarn for dying by tying it (loosely) and soaking it.

We kettle-dyed

And hand-painted

(If only you could see how zombie-like my hands were in color here!)

And we pulled out skein after skein of lovely yarn:

And braids of roving:

And admired our hand-iwork.

Here’s my three pieces:

So it’s a few days late for Lent, but I finally have that simple neutral skirt I needed for my wardrobe and it only took two days start to finish. So maybe I’m not the slowest seamstress ever.

Of course it helps when you have company for one of those days (though a second ironing board would have been helpful).

The pattern is Burda(style?) 7437 view B, which was the only pattern I could find that had the styling I wanted – specifically having the fly closure. The fly was a first for me – my tip: baste the zipper first – it took a couple of tries to get everything lined up, but was otherwise simpler than I thought it’d be.

I made a few minor mods – namely skipping the pleat in the back and taking in the back waist band/center seam. It wasn’t clear if the skirt was designed to sit at the waist or not, but mine does, which may be why the skirt ended up a teeny-tiny bit shorter than I expected (which I honestly didn’t notice until I looked at these photos). If I sewed it again, I’d probably add an inch to the hem (and not over-trim the button underlap), but overall I’m very happy with the way this one turned out.

I did flat-felled seams on all the piece to piece joins and top-stitching on the pockets and waistband. I hammered in a jean button for the closure.  All told – I think it turned out very professional-looking, like if I didn’t tell you, you wouldn’t know I made it.

My next sewing project will be a Sunni-inspired sleeveless bow blouse. I feel like I’m on a sewing roll right now, so I’d love to keep the good mojo going!

It was a beautiful sunny Saturday, perfect for a day in the yard, starting my garden.

I started off the day at the wonderful Broadway Gardens and after pestering the staff with a few questions, came home with a decent haul.

I transferred my purchases from the car to the potting setup in the garage and got to work.

I put together a pair of hanging baskets for the back porch,

planted some pansies and morning glory seeds around the base of the lamppost out front,

planted a strawberry plant in the backyard barrel,

and spent a ton of time prepping the soil to plant a pair of mint plants next to the back porch. (I don’t know what had grown there before, but it left behind quite the root system!).

It was one of those work days where the fruit of the labor aren’t readily apparent, but it’s a good start and it was nice to finally get something in the ground!! (Next up – picking a spot for the black and raspberries, and tilling the soil for the veggie plot).