Lady Grey Progress (Details)

November 11, 2010 Ms Cleaver

After all my weekend travel in October, I finally had a chance this past weekend to get back to work on my Lady Grey Coat.

Some things I accomplished since Friday:

Cut out shell fabric
Sewed sleeves, belt and belt loops.
Made two practice bound buttonholes and two real ones and one self-covered button (had to use my teeth to get the back on!)
Seamed back pieces
Pad-stitched the under-collar and one lapel (working on the other tonight).

As one might guess from this list, I'm kinda going at this a little scattershot.

I sewed the sleeves and belt because I wanted to see instant progress, and I wanted to get all the pad stitching set up so I could do the actual hand-sewing watching TV during the week. My hope is to have all the hand stitching done by the end of Friday and get the majority of the shell sewn this weekend and the lining fabric cut out. The goal is to have a finished coat by Thanksgiving. Wish me luck!!

Here are some progress photos of my favorite details:

Top stitching on the seams. It makes the coat look particularly "coaty" to me.

Pad stitching on the lapel. It's hard to tell in the photo, but it makes a huge difference in the way the lapel lays. It's a time consuming process, but totally worth it I think. The finished lapel took me some Jeopardy!, an hour of the Ken Burn's Mark Twain documentary and two hours of Circus on PBS. (Which, have you seen Circus? It's really really well done. I'm enjoying it lot.)

Pad-stitching on the roll line of the under-collar.

Small Knits (and Crochets!)

November 8, 2010 Ms Cleaver

I finally got around to photographing a few items I'd made a while back, so I figured I'd do a brief FO Roundup (In chronological order, from first completed to most recent):

My first full crochet project: Medium Stash Basket in Lily's Sugar and Cream (leftovers from another project)

Finished it in a day back in August.

My second crochet project: Filigree Bowl.

It's essentially a doily that you stiffen over a bowl shape. I have to say that I found doily making quite fun. Finished in two days in August.

Easy Peasy Newborn Hat.

For a co-worker's baby shower last week, made from leftovers from a pair of socks. Took an evening to complete.

Saartje's Booties. These kill me, they are so tiny and cute. It has a fun construction as well (Although a surprisingly large amount of seaming). Also for my co-worker.

French Press Slippers. I need to find a way to felt them, but they're all knitted up.

Which is lucky. Because I made this of out leftover's from Mr. Cleaver's sweater from last Christmas (sensing a leftover-theme?) and I had two balls of it, but by the time I ran out of ball one, I had lost the second ball. So to finish the straps I had to spit-splice a LOT of ends to make it work, and even then I had to use the purple to make it double thick like the rest of the slipper.

Spin-o-ween

November 2, 2010 Ms Cleaver

Mr. Cleaver and I had a pretty low-key Halloween evening, which largely consisted of eating Chinese take-out and handing out candy.

I spent most of Sunday afternoon at Maggie's celebrating what I shall now dub "Spin-o-ween." At Rhinebeck, a number of our group picked up spindles and Maggie needed to get started on making the yarn for her 2010 knitolution (yep - I'm making up new words left and right here). So we gathered together with our roving and our pie - a treat indeed!

Introducing: krona

October 31, 2010 Ms Cleaver

Back in July, when Amy & I met-up at Knit Wit to check out the Quince & Co. Yarns, we both decided that we wanted to design something new with it. In making this project, Quince & Co.'s Chickadee has quickly become one of my new favorite yarns - and it's seemingly endless color range has pushed me into a bit of a colorwork phase.

As soon as I had my colors in my hands I knew I wanted to do some kind of diminishing colorwork pattern with the yellow fading into blue. The color combination also had me thinking of the Swedish flag, so I did some internet searching for inspiration and came up with the concepts that became krona. Krona means crown in Swedish and a Swedish crown is both the literal Swedish royal crown as well as a braided hairstyle, both of which I tried to reflect in this pattern.

The braided band on both the tam and mittens is knit flat and seamed, and then the main pattern stitches are picked up from the band edges and knit in the round. The mittens are identical on the front and back and can be worn on either hand.

Because Chickadee is a sport-weight yarn, I lined the mittens from the braided band up for extra warmth.

The tam sports the same colorwork pattern as the mittens, adapted to the hat shape. The tam is designed for head 20-22 inches in circumference and sits shallowly on the head.

I received a good deal of good-natured ribbing from my knitting friends while working on this pattern, because I tended to unconsciously match my outfit to my knitting (does anyone else do this?), so my outfit in the photos is a tribute to the Portland Knitters on the Town.

You can queue up the tam and mittens on Ravelry.

You can buy the patterns individually Mittens - $5.00 USD; Tam - $4.00 USD; or together for a $2.00 discount

Chicago - My Favorite Places

October 25, 2010 Ms Cleaver

As long-time readers of this blog know, before my most recent move to Maine I lived in Chicago for a little over two years. I recently had the chance to return to my old stomping grounds for a work conference, and leapt at the chance and added a couple days onto my trip to revisit my favorite places and hang out my my dear friend Kasey (who graciously let me crash at her place).

So below, some of my favorite spots (including a couple of new finds).

(A quick explanation on this photo: on the way to pizza, Kasey & I found a lost purse. We found an ID card, but when we called the person on it, we only got a very confused young woman in Philadelphia. So we looked a bit further into the purse and found that the ID was fake, and that the purse owner liked to return one-shoulder leopard print dresses to the store after wearing them to Ne-Yo concerts at local lounges. One classy lady.)

I ate my way across the city stopping at The Billy Goat Tavern of SNL sketch fame (get a minimum of a double cheezborger), Giordanos for stuffed pizza (like deep dish, but even better), Thai food at Yes, and two stops at A Taste of Heaven for lunch and breakfast (Katie Cakes!!!).

I took advantage of all the free entertainment the city had to offer - old favorites like Free Thursday evenings at the Art Institute, where I stumbled upon a promo performance by Hubbard Street Dance Company, and the Lincoln Park Zoo; along with new finds at like the Lurie Garden in Millenium Park and the Lincoln Park Conservatory. Urbs in Horto indeed! I did some shopping and picked up another sock's worth of yarn at Loopy Yarns, after visiting a co-worker in the South Loop. I also got to experience some turtle racing at Big Joe's bar.

Best of all, I got some valuable "just hanging out" time with Kasey, which included watching both the Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel miniseries. (Which means I now really want to watch the Avonlea series, which my mom recorded every episode of off the Disney Channel back in the day.)

All in all, Chicago was familiar and wonderful and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to return.

On a completely unrelated note, I just wanted to make mention of two things:

Barbara Billingsley, the original Mrs. Cleaver, passed away while I was in Rhinebeck and I just wanted to acknowledge the pop culture debt I owe to her.
In all the Hub-bub, my 3-year blogaversary happened (on Oct 18th), without me even realizing it. So thanks to all the readers out there who keep me motivated to keep putting my words and pictures out there. I truly appreciate you all.

Roadtrip: Rhinebeck!!

October 19, 2010 Ms Cleaver

I'm leaving for a business/fun trip to Chicago today, but before I left I wanted to jot down a few words on my trip to Rhinebeck.

As group of seven of us left bright and early Friday morning, divided into, as the running gag was all weekend - an old people and a young people car - henceforth referred to as OPs and YPs.

The YPs car before:

We left early so we could make a detour to Northhampton, MA to visit WEBS: "America's Yarn Store." Yes, we stopped to buy yarn, before we spent a weekend at a sheep & wool festival, buying yarn.

WEBS is huge.

We even spotted a Great American Afghan (Karen's nemesis) live and in the wool.

And if the main store wasn't big enough, there's a warehouse.

We, as a group, found a thing or two... I ended up with a sweater's worth of Williamstown for my 2010 knitalution (to design and knit a full-sized sweater).

That night we landed at our hotel, ordered in some Chinese food (that came with a complimentary bottle of Grapette Soda), and read aloud from the Amish romance Novel, The Parting.

Saturday morning, we made sure we were at the gate at opening:

Our first stop was the Evergreen Farms booth for an angora. Maggie had recently lost her bunny Cocoa Bean and was debating whether she was ready for a new one. Petunia convinced her she was.

After a quick stop at She Shoots Sheep Rhinebeck Style photoshoot (I think Maggie, Bristol and myself were models #9, #8, and #7, respectively. I'll post a link when the slideshow is up), we headed out for the vendors.

After the first two barns I had checked off my three must-haves from my shopping list: 1750 yards fingering weight yarn in a natural grey for a Pas de Valse sweater from Snowshoe Farm Alpacas, semi-solid sock yarn from Persimmon Tree Farm, and an eye-catching spinning fiber from Gnomespun Yarn Fiber Arts. Fortunately for my wallet I slowed my pace and bit and my final two pruchases of the day, buttons for my knitalution sweater from Jennie the Potter and a BFL/Silk braid of roving from Gale's Art waited until after lunch.

After lunch, we headed to the Ravelry lunch meet up and got to meet Sarah, Casey and Mary Heather.

We also made dead center behind the banner in the official meet-up photo, which hasn't been posted yet.

We spent a bunch of time with some folks who raised Soay sheep, an primitive sheep breed . I didn't note the farm unfortunately.

By 3ish - we were tuckered out and stopped for a apple cider doughtnut break, before leaping back into the fray.

We left the fairgrounds at 4:45. We left the parking lot an hour and a half later. (Noting for future trips, leave early!!)

After a break back at the hotel, the OPs went out to dinner and the YPs went to the Ravelry party in RedHook. We arrived too late for the goodie bags and cupcakes, but did get a chance to hop in the photobooth and chat with some lovely folks.

On Sunday, we packed up the cars (don't worry, we didn't really store the bunny in the back), had breakfast at a local diner and headed back for a few last hours at the fair.

We caught a sheep shearing (the sheep's not a fan)

and picked up a few more items. I snagged another sock yarn, this time from Sliver Moon Farm, and fought off Maggie for some into the whirled roving. I have received much mocking from my knitting group for my color pallette/phases and how my knitting often matches my outfit. I have been firmly ensconced in a blue and yellow phase (my Manu and a pattern I'm releasing at month's end is a good example), but it seems pretty clear that my next phase is definitely leaning green.

All in all, the trip was fantastic and totally worth the drive and slightly sketchy hotel. We're aiming for a return trip in 2012. If you're planning a Rhinebeck trip, I'd make the following suggestions:

Book your hotel early. We did it about 3 months in advance and everything good had been booked by then.
Break up your days and catch some events. We wish we had seen some more of the events or taken a class. It all gets a bit over whelming, just doing vendor after vendor.
If you're doing both days, leave early on the first day. The traffic out of the parking lot was awful day one.
Talk to as many strangers as you can. Every person I talked to (usually started by one of us complimenting the other's knit-wear) was super nice and friendly and you have an automatic topic of conversation. I wish I had takend the time to chat more.

Now off to Chicago! Be back Sunday.

Lady Grey Sew-Along: the Muslin

October 11, 2010 Ms Cleaver

As I mentioned before, I'm participating in the The Lady Grey Sew-Along.

I'm a teensy bit behind now, and since I'll be out of town for the next two weekends, I'll soon be really far behind. All that aside, I finished my final muslin yesterday.

With the exception of the two front flaps, muslin 1 and muslin 1.5 are exactly the same. My fit turned out pretty well, largely because I took a lot of time grading the coat for my varying bust, waist, and hip measurements. The one change to the front was to shorten the lapels to get rid of some gaping there.

But if anyone has any fit feedback, I've posted some photos below.

Front:

Back:

Back with arms raised:

Side:

Introducing: Knoll Rib Cowl

October 10, 2010 Ms Cleaver

As anyone who knows me knows, when it comes to yarn, I have one of the world's smallest stashes. So it is perhaps surprising that this pattern came from the need to knit a yarn that sat in my stash for exactly two years.

Back before I did any spinning myself, I picked up a skein of handpsun from the booth for Enchanted Knoll Farms at the 2008 Common Ground Fair, weeks after I moved back to Maine.

I was in love with this yarn and called it my Rumpelstiltskin yarn, since it looked like straw spun into gold. (It's true name is Gold Dust Woman). I admired the yarn and petted the yarn and could come up with nothing worthy of this yarn.

Fast forward to September 2010. Faced with the need for a simple knit and feeling as if I had neglected this prize yarn for too long. I picked up my needles and tried to find a good stitch pattern for a scarf. My first attempt resulted in something that looked overwhelming 1980s in style, so I frogged, did a garter stitch sample, thought that was too boring and went back to the books.

I flipped through my stitch dictionaries and came across a squishy-looking rib stitch, which I promptly memorized incorrectly, and thus, came up with my own stitch pattern. I'm sure that this was not the first time something like that had happened.

As I neared the end of my then-scarf, I decided that the short length (about four feet long) would work better as a cowl, so I seamed it up, blocked it out, and there you have it.

I think this worked out as a perfect way to display a limited amount of a lovely handspun yarn. I used pretty much every inch of the 200 yards in my skein, but the cowl stretched a lot both ways when blocking, so it could take less if need be.

In case anyone else finds themselves in my predicament (lovely handspun, limited amount, no clue what to do.) I whipped up the pattern last night. You can grab it as a free download, using the link below.

download now

Roadtrip: Fryeburg Fair

October 7, 2010 Ms Cleaver

Since we weren't able to make the Common Ground or Cumberland County Fairs this year, Mr.Cleaver and I headed up to the Fryeburg Fair to get our fall fair fix. The Fryeburg Fair is HUGE. There are tons of people who come in RVs and stay for the whole week. We went on Sunday, which was opening day, and there were people everywhere.

Firemen,

Barbershop Quartets,