Tour de Fleece

Every year in the fiber community there's a little competition/challenge called "Tour de Fleece," the basic gist of which is to spin every day of the Tour de France.

I hadn't given it much (read, any) thought, until about a week ago, when Bristol and Maggie snookered me into playing along. I started 3 days late (so 'll go for a few extra days at the end of the Tour), but I've been going strong with my little spindle, diligently spinning each day.

My starting point (July 3):

Earlier this evening (July 14) :

It's a little hard to tell, but the spindle is much fuller -- I promise!!

Birthdays (of the Spousal and National Persuasion)

What a wonderfully busy weekend! Between Mr. Cleaver and the country - we spent our whole weekend in celebration. Not that I'm complaining :)

After a leisurely morning on the 3rd, involving the farmer's market and the bakery and a new fishing pole for Mr. Cleaver, we lazed away the afternoon ( I finished my dress) and headed out to eat around 4. We grabbed a meal and some bird watching at The Good Table (our favorite) and then drove down Highway 77 to Prout's Neck for a trek around the Cliff Walk.

The cliff walk is one of those hidden gems that I'm sure everyone knows about, but I didn't until about two weeks ago and Mr. Cleaver didn't know about it until I took him there this weekend, so maybe it is secret. In any case, to take the cliff walk find the house above, right next to the Black Point Inn,  and find the small stone path that cuts across the grass. This will take you out to the Cliff Walk.

The Cliff Walk is stunning.  There are rocky crags, pink sand beaches, and a beach entirely of smooth round rocks that rattle when the waves recede.

The walk takes between 45 minutes to an hour. Afterward we stopped at the Black Point Inn for cocktails. The bar was busy so they sent us down to the Adirondack chairs on the front lawn (too bad, right? :) ), where we sat and sipped and watched the sun set.

Mr. Cleaver declared the birthday a success. On the way back to town we stopped by the side of the road to snap a few more shots of the sunset.

For the Fourth, I spent the morning baking a belated birthday cake for the Mister, which we had delayed because we knew it would take a while to make this much cake! Though it did mean I had our tiny oven running for a few hours on the hottest day of year thus far!

After all the baking I finally got to put on my new dress!

[Dress: Vogue 8184; Modifications: made band from contrasting color, skipped boning, added in-seam pockets, added horsehair band to hem]

All snazzed up, we headed our to my Mother-In-Law's for a cookout with the family. Mr. Cleaver's older brother offered some hints and tackle for the new pole.

Once we were stuffed to the gills, Mr. Cleaver and I joined half of Portland for the Portland Symphony Orchestra pops concert/fireworks show. The addition of PSO to the festivities was a great touch!

I hope every one else had an enjoyable weekend too!

String and Strawberries

String I:

I finished this dish towel at the beginning of the month, but for one reason or another it's sat in my photos for about three weeks. It's not as though I have a backlog of a bazillion projects to post, but as cute as this piece of embroidery is (it's an ironing scotty dog!), I didn't think it warranted a whole post to itself, so I'm lumping it together with a few other bits and pieces.

The Scotty Dog Pattern is from the Hoop Love Vintage Transfers Group on Flickr, which has a treasure trove of patterns you can print out an stitch. They have an especially large collection of mostly complete days of the week patterns like the Scotty above.  I'm alos planning on doing Wednesday (mending) and Friday (baking).

I worked on this mainly while my bum wrist kept me from knitting and in the after period  when I struggled to get my knitting mojo back (which happily it has, thanks to Kate Davie's Manu and some Malabrigo Silky Merino). I haven't yet done the pattern transfer for the second towel, but if our current levels of humidity hang around for much longer I will, since they're only so much wool I can handle in humidity :)

Strawberries:

On Saturday, Mr. Cleaver and I picked four pints of strawberries at Maxwell's, two of which went to his mother and the other two which ended up on my cereal and this strawberry shortcake I made last night.

The recipe is from Posie Gets Cozy and the only changed I made/would recommend is to make 6 or 8 dough "blobs" instead of the listed 4. mine were doughy in the middle until I cut them in half and baked them some more, and the smaller biscuits (it's a very biscuity shortbread) were about all I could handle to eat at once.

String II:

I have plans for a fantastic Fourth of July dress from Vogue 8184. It's a fairly simple dress (especially since I'm skipping the boning- since my version has straps), so I 'm taking the time to do my first go at tissue fitting, especially since I fell in between two of the multi-size envelopes.  I'm somewhat obsessed with fit these days - what with the pattern drafting I've been dabbling in and all (and I'm close with another sundress I drafted). Since the Fourth is only ten days away, we'll hopefully have results soon!

Tale of Two Skirts

It's a very rare experience for me to make a pattern twice - I made the same shirt from the Built By Wendy Sew U book twice, but that's about it. I'm changing my perspective on this though as I get more into pattern drafting and perfecting fit on commercial patterns. If I'm going through all that effort, it seems silly not to use the pattern again. And so, I give you two takes on McCall's 5591, both done, strangely enough, in fabric that reminds me of old wallpaper patterns.

In many ways, the turquoise skirt on the left is my highly-wearable muslin. Having matched the pattern envelope measurements exactly, I cut out the pieces exactly to the pattern size suggested, with the exception that I added about 2 inches to the main body length.

After putting it together I found the waist to have way way way too much ease in the waist, so I took it apart, then took the waist band in a few inches. (Of course, the time between taking it apart and putting it back together was about a month - I was a bit bummed). After which the waist band fit great.  I love the skirt - especially the secretly rabbitty fabric (sew below) - though I did think it hung a bit squarely from the hips down.

I love the skirt - especially the secretly rabbitty fabric and the look of the pocket facings- though I did think it hung a bit squarely from the hips down (see the top photo).

So on version 2.0 I did some skimming on the waistband pieces and did some slash & spreading on the skirt - adding a total of about 6 inches to the lower hem circumference- for a more flared look. Also, being short on contrasting fabric, I did a single layer on bottom hem, as opposed to the folded hem on the original (though I think the folded hem looks/hangs better)

In the end, I prefer the fit of the yellow skirt, but love them both.

What about you? Do you have favorite version? Are you a once-only pattern sewer or do you find patterns you love and make them over and over?

At Least Its Not Carpal Tunnel

I feel like I haven't blogged in forever, but it looks like it's only been a week. I think it's because I generally feel behind the ball because of this:

For about three to four weeks now, I've been suffering from limited mobility and mild pain in my right wrist. I've had it checked out by a doctor and it seems to be work-related, but thank goodness it is mild muscle strain and not carpal tunnel. That said, it's basically kept me from too much typing as well as severely limiting my knitting, embroidery, and sewing abilities. I can do all them, but not for long without making my wrist tired. Not being able to knit has been especially hard.

So in lieu of actual crafting, I organized my fabric stash by size (and yes, that is all of it, aside from some gallon bags of scraps).

I also put together this little box bag this weekend, to hold my toiletries for my relatively new foray into twice-weekly lap swimming (the tutorial was from drago[knit]fly - though I'm going to admit, I wish it was a bit clearer). This was maybe pushing it a bit to do all the sewing in one day.

For someone who rarely doesn't have some project in her hands, its been difficult to have to slow down like this. Still, I'm lucky that I had my wrist checked out early and we're modifying my work station (an ergonomic keyboard is on the way), but in the meantime I'm struggling to be patient and let myself heal and not make things worse.

In any case, if things are a little quieter around here than usual, the wrist is why.

Introducing: Winterberry

I hope no one minds seeing a very woolly pattern with winter in the name in the midst of spring (at least in this hemisphere), but I'm so excited to finally get this pattern out in the world that I couldn't wait for more appropriate weather.

This hat and glove set is one of those "necessity is the mother of creation" projects. In back in late 2008(!), my dear friend Kasey requested some knitted elbow-length gloves to go with a 3/4 sleeve coat she had purchased. I was happy to oblige and even though I'd only made a pair of Nordic mittens and no gloves at all, I decided that I needed to design the gloves myself.

At the time I was heavily inspired by the winter berries that were adding splashes of color to the otherwise gray trees in my neighborhood and having just finished Stephanie Japel's Forecast Cardigan I was well acquainted with bobbles - all of which led up to these gloves:

The structure didn't change all that much from these originals, with the exception of the thumb, which was improved in the final version.  The red gloves were knit in Ultra Alpaca, which was soft and lovely, but was lacking in the stitch definition I thought the cable panel needed and the sturdiness which gloves require.

For the final version, then I chose to knit with Peace Fleece Worsted in Antarctica White, which I found to be a very flattering shade.

With both the Peace Fleece and the Ultra Alpaca, the gloves used a skein and just a teeny bit of a second skein - usually just to finish the fingers on the second hand, so I decide to work up a beret with a complimentary cable pattern. Aside from the cable, the beret is a simple knit, but is just the right size for pulling down over the ears for true warmth.

The patterns requires some cabling without a cable needle, which is fully explained in the pattern notes and the gloves utilize a 8-row cable repeat, with row counts at the end of each section to keep on track.  The gloves are fitted from elbow to wrist and the hat ribbing is knit on smaller needles to remain cozy for a multitude of head sizes.

If you're interested in making a your own Winterberry set, you can purchase the pattern in PDF form for $7.00 USD  via my Ravelry store or the PayPal link below:

Roadtrip: American Textile History Museum

On Sunday my knitting group took a field trip out to the American Textile History Museum in Lowell, Massachusetts. Tucked in the back of a former mill along with the Lowell Sun Newspaper and some loft condos, this jewelbox of a museum winds through  textile production, fashion, history, and innovation.

Some exhibits made more sense than others (I guess bicycle frames are a textile...), but it was a fun afternoon and I learned  how baseballs are tested and how linen goes from plant to fabric (Winnowing! Retting! Scutching! Heckling!).

The loom room.

Measuring warps.

A circular knitting machine.

Bloomers and bustles.

We went to the museum specifically to catch the last day of a special exhibit "Aprons: Fifties Functional Fashion." We all wore aprons in honor of the event (and got a surprise $2 off admission!)

The exhibit consitsted of about 50 or so aprons and I was glad to see the majority of pieces in the exhibit were homesewn, and some were quite dashing,

kitschy,

nostalgic,

or busty!

Little Things

Some things I've been making lately:

Maple Walnut Granola:

• 3 cups rolled oats (not quick cooking)
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (or nut of your choice)
• 1 cup dried cranberries (or dried fruit of your choosing)
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 Tbl warm water
• 1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 250°F.

In a large bowl, mix together syrup, sugar, oil, water and salt until throughly combined. Add in oats and nuts and and mix until coated.  Pour oat mixture unto a  lightly oiled rimmed baking sheet or pan.

Bake from 1½ to 2 hours or until oats are dry and brown. Remove from oven and cool. Stir in fruit and place in a sealed container.

Sketchbook: Designing the Carmel Clutch

As I hinted at a few posts back, I have pattern in 2010 Spring/Summer issue of Twist Collective.

It's my first professionally published pattern and I'm thrilled to be in such a great magazine in the company of designers I really admire.  I'm super excited about the whole thing, so I thought I'd talk a bit today about the Carmel Clutch came to be.

It started with a hat.

This hat.

Which I bought on out-of-season clearance at LL Bean a year or so ago. After I bought the hat I spent some time looking at it and realized that it was crocheted. This got me thinking, surely if you can crochet with raffia, you can knit with raffia. So I went out to a craft store on my lunch break and bought a cheap bag of raffia to give it a try.

I wanted it to have a woven looks, so I flipped through a stitch dictionary or two and came up with a swatch of herringbone stitch.

My original swatch had a half dozen knots on the back, since the raffia from the craft store came in pieces of about 3 feet long, but it was enough to know that the concept worked.  So I worked up a sketch, named the pattern after the beach community in California that I visited a handful of times in my teenage years, sent it off to Twist, and crossed my fingers.

I got the okay from the Twist folks and we decided to work up two samples, one in raffia and one in a more standard yarn, which I was more than happy to do. While I waited for the Elann Coto Canapone to come in I ordered a few spools of raffia from Raffit Ribbons and got to work.

Here's where you may ask, what's it like knitting with raffia? And the answer is not too bad. It's about equivalent to working with any other plant fiber yarn I've worked with (cotton, hemp, linen).

It's stiff off the spool and there's not a lot of give when dry and I'll admit that the purl stitches in the garter stitch sections of the bag were kinda pokey, but believe me - I've never had so much fun blocking a piece of knitting. the texture changes dramatically after it's wet and softens into something lovely!

I had finished version 1.0 of the bag, but wasn't happy with the front flap, which was done with decreases. It was too pointy and bumpy - so I set it aside for a day to decide how to fix it. I picked up some personal knitting, and while working on a version of Laura Chau's Just Enough Ruffles Scarf, the solution presented itself to me - short rows! So I pulled out the front flap and reworked it in short rows with the addition of the garter stitch border seen in the final photos.

Around this time the Elann yarn arrived and it was Christmas and I went to California for a week and did no knitting at all so by the time I was knitting the Coto Canapone version I completely forgot to take pictures. Oops! But suffice it to say, I reworked some numbers for gauge.  We also made the second sample shorter to combat potential flopiness (which if you find is an issue with your yarn I'd suggest lining it with fabric backed with interfacing or putting a book in the bag - both work :) )

A big thanks to Twist for including me in this issue and to Caro Benna Sheridan for the lovely photos! If you have any more questions on the Carmel Clutch - let me know!

Pssssttt...

Pssst! Check out page 8 of the new Spring/Summer issue of Twist Collective, you might see a name you recognize!