Me-Made May Week 4th and Final Thoughts

So 31 Days and 28 selfies later - I've come to the end of my first Me-Made May. While I won't miss the selfies (there are only so many ways to take a quick photo of yourself and show what you're wearing), it was a fun experiment. 

I did manage to wear handmade items everyday, though the 30th was close, because I was in my jammies most of the day and only threw on a pair of jeans to take LMC to the park.

This morning I thought, "I can wear anything I want!" and grabbed a favorite RTW shirt and a me-made skirt, so I think it's safe to say that wearing handmade is just a part of what I do. 

And I have more garment pieces than I thought. Because I'm kind of a data/spreadsheet geek, I decided to make some charts, and then turn them into an info-graphic (like you do...). 

All told, I wore 51 handmade items, of which 35 were distinct items and 16 were repeats.

The items I wore were created over a span of eight years, with a notable drop in items made in 2013, when LMC was born, and 2014, when I was mostly sewing baby clothes. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I wore handmade sweaters more than any other garment type and my own designs made up 12% of the total items I wore (helped along by my brand-new Ocaso cardigan, which I can't stop wearing and will talk about more tomorrow). 

Other than that, my Me-made trophy goes to Colette Patterns, which supplied six separate garments from four different patterns. You can see some of the other figures in the charts below.

The process also confirmed my wardrobe planning needs, namely bottoms (shorts/pants) and basic tees. Good thing I have some fabric and patterns ready to go!

While I don't know that I would do the month of selfies part again, I definitely enjoyed scrolling through the hashtags on Instagram and seeing what everyone else was making and getting ideas for new patterns I want to try (Datura Blouse and Fancy Tiger Sailor Top, I'm looking at you!).

Did you participate or follow along? What did you think of the experience? Would you do it again?

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Me-Made May Weeks 2 & 3

We're in the home stretch now, with only a week left to go! I'm officially in the land of repeats now, but still going strong. The changeable spring weather in Maine means I can still wear sweaters and some of my summer tanks. :) 

As before, outfit details are on my Instagram account. And you look, you can see a sneak peak of my next knitwear design, (which should be out next week) as well as another look at the Fireside Shawl!

How are you doing, if you're participating? Ready to wear something different? Energized to keep carrying on?

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Introducing the Fireside Shawl

As a reader, wanna-be author, and daughter of a librarian, I have always loved books. So I'm beyond thrilled to actually be in one myself!

Weekend Wraps is the third collaboration between Cecily Glowik MacDonald and Melissa LeBarre (following Weekend Hats and New England Knits) and features 18 quick-knit shawls, cowls, scarves and shrugs from 15 designers. The book is due out in August, but is now available for pre-order from Amazon or your local bookstore or yarn shop. 

The book focuses on accessories knit in worsted weight or heavier yarn, that result in beautiful knits that take only a little time but are big on style. My contribution to the collection is the Fireside Shawl.

The Fireside Shawl is generously-sized and features triangles upon triangles upon triangles. Garter stitch borders and a knit-stitch heavy pattern means that purling is limited. A easily memorizable repeat and worsted weight yarn (shown here in Spud & Chloe Sweater) make for a quick and cozy knit.

The book also includes designs by Amy Christoffers, Angela Tong, Bristol Ivy, Carrie Bostick Hoge, Cecily Glowik MacDonald, Emma Welford, Jocelyn Tunney, Kate Gagnon Osborn, Kristen TenDyke, Leila Raabe, Melissa LeBarre, Rachel Stecker, Tanis Gray and Thea Coleman.

You can check out all the designs and queue up your favorites on Ravelry. 

All photos courtesy of Interweave
 

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Me-Made May: Week One

Me-Made May has been around for several years now, since 2010, and I had always intended to participate, but never really got around to it. So this year, I finally got my act together and went in whole hog. 

For those unfamiliar with Me-Made May, the link above gives a good overview, but in short, the idea is to wear your handmade garments/accessories everyday for the month of May. Some people chose to wear one handmade item, others to only wear handmade. 

I knit my first sweater in November 2007 and started regularly sewing a few months before that. In the nine years since then, my wardrobe has gotten to a point where about 75% of it is handmade. When I told Mr. Cleaver about participating in this challenge, his response was "Well, that won't be hard for you."

And in truth it's not really. If you start from the basics all my underpinnings (bra, underwear, socks) are handmade, so I check that box on a daily basis. So my goal for Me-Made May has been to have the majority of each day's visible outfit be handmade. 

You can see the outfits thus far above. I have been doing the daily selfie thing (which isn't a requirement), but if you're interested in details of each outfit, I've been posting them on my Instagram account. I'll also be doing a more detailed roundup (with charts!) at the end of the month. 

Are you participating in Me-Made May? I so so, shout out (or link) below!

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Selfish Stitching

I have, to a certain extent, turned my hobby into a job. It's certainly not my full-time job, but it does have responsibilities and deadlines, etc. that knitting for oneself just doesn't has.

The danger of turning one's hobby into a job is losing the joy you had in that activity in the first place. Burn out for artists is nothing new, and it's nothing new to me. I watched myself go through it with theatre and it wasn't something I wanted to go through again with knitting. 

In the past six months, I have been working more intensely on my knit design work than I have since I started doing it back in 2010. It's been exciting and challenging, and at times frustrating. But the thing that has kept me grounded is selfish-stitching. Doing something just because I want to, with no deadline at the end of it, no need to sell anything, has been imperative. It doesn't even have to be something for me (for example, I knit Mr. Cleaver a pair of socks), it just has to be something I want (not need) to do. 

When I started selfish-stitching, I had thought to limit it to Sundays, but my methodology has shifted somewhat. It's now more about when I need it, or there's a found moment, rather than anything scheduled. Little moments of joy sprinkled throughout my week.

You can see the joyful fruit of my labors above. A beautiful embroidery of encouraging words stitched, in part, with my daughter; simple socks for a grateful recipient; less simple socks for me; a project bag in a fabric that always makes me smile; and a teeny tiny skein of yarn, spun just to feel fiber between my fingers. Things both useful and purely decorative.

I'm proud of all the other things I'm working on, the things I can't show you yet. They've expanded my skills as a knitter and a designer. They are beautiful and I can't wait to share them. Each one of my designs holds a special place in my heart, but each one of these little "just because" projects does too. 

MAINE Knits

Maine is one of the most beautiful places in the country, it also happens to be home to a disproportionate number of amazing hand-knitting designers (I credit those long winters!)

Bea from Thread And Ladle is working to bring them both together in a new book, MAINE Knits and just launched a Kickstarter to get it off the ground and I'm honored to be one of the designers contributing to the book:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1463979335/maine-knits

Some words from Beatrice about the project:

MAINE Knits is a tribute to extraordinary craftsmanship and design. A celebration of nature, growth, creativity and beauty. A print book of hand knitting patterns that you will enjoy from where ever you knit. Designs inspired by three important and beautiful elements of Maine; sea, farm and wild. The places that bring us peace, feed our bellies and soul, help us breath deeply and surround us with beauty. Including patterns for 7 garments and 7 accessories, photographs and essays from the folk who hail from here.

MAINE Knits includes knitting designs by Carrie Bostick Hoge, Alicia Plummer, Bristol Ivy, Cecily Glowik Mcdonald, Mary Jane Mucklestone, Elizabeth Smith, Leah B. Thibault, Kristen TenDyke, Leila Raabe and Beatrice Perron Dahlen.  And a foreward written by Pam Allen of Quince & Co.

My goal is to raise $18,000 by April 8th.  65% of the funds from this Kickstarter will pay for quality printing of a 96 page book. The remaining funds will pay for editing and layout costs. Financially, this project will not happen without a group effort. 

Here are two ways you can help:

1. Become a backer! There are a lot of great gifts, including preorder of the book itself.

2. Spread the word! We need to get the word out to as many knitters as possible. If you are able to share our project through social media it would help tremendously.

As of this writing, the Kickstarter is about 47% of the way to its goal, but it won't be funded unless it reaches the full amount by the April 8th deadline! So if this project sounds like something you're interested in, please consider using the Kickstarter to pre-order the book (print or e-book versions available). There are also other great donor gifts, including a pack of kid-centric patterns from me, available.

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The Art of Being a Goldfish - or sewing from my stash

2011

2015

The Stash. Every crafter has one, it may be big or small, but chances are, if you make stuff, you probably have a healthy collection of material/yarn/wood/whatever waiting to be made into something.

It was a point of pride for me in my early knitting days that my entire yarn stash fit into one medium-sized basket.  Similarly, my fabric collection was in a few boxes. I was living in an apartment with one closet and sewing in my bedroom. Then we bought a house, and I got every crafter's dream. A whole room, just for making stuff. 

And I goldfished it. I grew to size of my bowl. And I goldfished bad. 

Now, I have legitimate reasons for some of it. The basket that used to hold my entire yarn stash is now dedicated to skeins of sample yarn and leftovers from a single company. My design work makes that basket of yarn necessary. 

But most of it? Most of it (fabric and yarn) is something I bought or saved either with a specific project in mind (most often), or because it was pretty and I was at a festival/on vacation/in a new shop (fairly often), or because it was really cheap and/or gifted to me (sometimes).

I have a big bag of old t-shirts waiting to be cut up and crocheted into rugs. I have two bags of scraps waiting to be stuffed into a footstool. I have the fabric for that footstool. I've got bins and boxes of half-skeins of yarn and scraps of fabric with no discernible purpose. Then I've got the sweater quantities waiting to be a sweater, and enough uncut fabric for a dress.

And... you get it. It's a lot. 

Now don't get me wrong, there's nothing specifically wrong with a stash. Mine is often very useful to me. I've been able to make last minute projects and gifts because I had that fat quarter and zipper on hand, or could swatch something for a submission deadline I nearly missed because I had some suitable yarn in a bin. We needed some new potholders (because after a decade, they stop working quite as well) and I made some up out of the leftovers of two coats and an apron and didn't need to buy a thing. 

But I've been reading The Craft Sessions Stash Less series, and it got me thinking.

So I poked through my bins and boxes over the last few weeks, trying to find a place to put leftover fabric from the coat I just finished, and I was astonished at the amount of stuff I forgot I had. And it was really good stuff (thanks Past Me, for having good taste) and it was perfect for patterns I already owned and wanted to make (right amount of yardage and linings and everything!). 

At the same time, I wanted to sew some leggings for LMC and had nothing suitable on hand. It was either too small a piece or not the right color (so much plain blue, when I have a pink/purple/print loving girl) So I stenciled up some stars in the hopes it might be of interest and no dice. Meanwhile, I had bought tons of cute cotton prints to make into dresses for her, and I've learned that she just doesn't really like wearing wovens (or dresses). 

So in some ways, my stash is serving me very well. And in other ways, it's a big dud. 

In any case, it's taking up too much space in my room and my brain. 

So I'm going to work on it.  My first goal is to get it to a place where it fits in the containers I currently own (with the lids actually closing). I actually like the vast majority of what I've got, so the plan is to use it. My second step is to take a long hard look at the leftovers I've been saving for "someday" projects and try to be realistic with myself (gulp!).  

I'm not planning on any of kind fabric/yarn "diet" and, in fact, just ordered some new fabric in the mail for a birthday present I'm working on for LMC. But at a minimum, I'm going to check to see if I've got anything suitable to use first.

So, what about you? Anyone else guilty of being a goldfish? 

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Sharing the Love - Heartrose Flash Sale!

No code needed, purchase via the shop or Ravelry

Big Projects, Little Projects, WIPs, and FOs

I've gotten really bad at sharing my projects here. I've been posting WIP photos on Instagram pretty regularly, but then I forget I haven't put them here, and months go by and here we are.

As LMC nears closer and closer to her third birthday, I've learned that a toddler's fashion choices have very little to do with my own preferences, and that a great interest in an item one day, may translate to no interest whatsoever for next several months. For example, LMC was super interested in this dress as I was sewing it, but has never worn it aside from those photos. In general she has no interest in dresses at all. So all those lovely detailed Oliver+S patterns I had purchased, have gone into a box.

What she will happily wear almost every day of the week and most nights to bed are tutus (or ballet skirts as they're called in the Cleaver household). So I got smart, bought some tulle and knocked out a few in her favorite colors over the holidays. They even managed to supplant the previous tutu, which was worn every other day for months and has now been relegated to the back of the drawer. As Mr. Cleaver said "You could make her one in every color and she's wear them all the time, light pink, dark pink, light purple, dark purple..." (LMC has some specific color preferences).

I haven't been quite as successfully in supplanting the "doggie hat" (see every photo of my child this winter, indoors or out) with a hand knit one, but I did give myself the greatest chance of success. It's purpley-pink, has earflaps, pompom, and an animal on it. She's worn it a handful of times, which I consider a great success.

But the nice thing about both the tutus and the owl hat is they were low-commitment projects. I made a second tutu before the first one had finished it's round in the wash, and the hat took two knitting sessions, tops.  So even if she didn't like them, ripped them, lost them, etc. It's no harm done. And THAT, I've found is the key to making handmades for this child.

The bonus of only making super-quick simple projects for LMC is that I can do the complex projects I crave for myself. And when it comes to myself, it seems, there are no simple projects. 

After number of deadline-driven knits, I was feeling a bit burned-out on knitting and instituted selfish-stitching Sundays for myself, where I could work on anything I wanted. For my first selfish-stitching project, I chose the Shersock's pattern from Lattes and Llamas. I'm a fan of the show, so I wanted something to commemorate that, but also something that was nice-enough looking that they'd still look neat even if you didn't catch the show reference, and these fit the bill perfectly. They were also the perfect selfish-stitching project, because I don't do a ton of colorwork and it gave me a chance to work on my skills.

My second selfish-stitching project was a pair of very useful  fingerless mitts knit up in some yarn I had dyed in 2011 and spun in 2012. I don't have a selfish project on the needles right now, but I just saw a new design Bristol Ivy has in progress that is absolutely stunning, so I'm pretty sure I know what its going to be.

As for sewing, my motto seems to be no small projects! As I leapt from sewing my first pair of jeans to sewing a winter coat. The jeans are the stovepipe leg version (View A) of the Ginger Jeans. With the inclusion of the sew-along, I found making jeans very do-able if time consuming. I made the lower-waisted version, which I raised a bit by making the waistband twice as wide (hence the two buttons). She's since released a tutorial on doing a mid-rise variation, which I'd probably do the next go around. I'd also make them a size down, because I didn't account for how much the denim would stretch throughout the day. But even with those caveats, I'm super proud of my jeans making. Seriously, making your own jeans makes you feel like a sewing BOSS.

As for WIPs, I'm currently working on my plaid Cascade Duffle Coat. I've been itching for a new winter coat for years, and this pattern was just the thing I was looking for. As with the jeans, it's not hard to sew per-say, there's just a ton of pieces/steps, but it's coming along. I doubt it'll be done by the end of the month as I hoped, but I live in Maine and the winter in long, so I'll still get plenty of use methinks.

Introducing the Leading Bird Shawl

Music has always been a big part of my life - singing in church as a child; piano, then harp lessons; choir and marching band in high school. It's been years since I've picked up a pair of cymbals, my harp is currently living in a closet with a half-dozen strings missing, and most of my singing occurs (quite loudly) in the car. Music is still a big part of my life, I just mostly sit on the appreciative side of the stage these days.

When I find a musician I like, I tend to be loyal for the long-haul. Like many people, I feel in love with the Marketa Irglova and Glen Hansard's music in the film Once. I was lucky enough to see them perform live as the Swell Season back when I lived in Chicago, I bought the second album on release day, and was saddened when the band broke up.

For some reason, I didn't pick up on their solo work right away, but when I caught wind of Marketa's second solo release Muna, I listened to a live stream online and was immediately hooked. The album was both lush and airy, and almost felt like sacred music (quoting the entirety of the Lord's Prayer in one of the songs helps). Even more, the album just felt like winter to me.

Long time followers of my design work know that Marketa has provided inspiration before, being the catalyst behind the Marketa Mitts I did as part of my Knitscene collection back in 2012. Once again, upon hearing the song "The Leading Bird", and more particularly, seeing the accompanying video, I was inspired.

With the Leading BIrd Shawl, I wanted to capture the mood of the video, which, to me, was both rustic and graceful. Quince & Co.'s alpaca/wool blend Owl, was perfect yarn match. The shawl itself is simple to knit. A half-circle with pi shaping means there's long stretches of simple knitting - making this a perfect on-the-go project. The lace details are worked as elongated stitches in the body and dropped stitches in the border, the with extra space created by dropped stitches giving the border a gentle ruffle-like quality.

A special shout out goes to Bristol Ivy, who provided some invaluable feedback when I was coming up with the border. Sometimes, simple is best.

The sample used ALL of 5 skeins (600 yds - worsted weight), so pick up an extra to be on the safe side.

The pattern is available for $6.00 USD from the following online shops:

Quince & Co.    ||    Ms. Cleaver Creations    ||    Ravelry

If you knit it and participate in social media, use #quinceleadingbird to share! I'd love to see your version!

Curious if I captured the feel of the song? Check out the video below and let me know if you think I got it!

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