Spring Things!

Parent who have kids with birthdays near Christmas, you have my sympathy.

This year, LMC's birthday and Easter were four days apart and that meant a week full of activity, and stuff, and more sugar than Momma would normally allow. Pair that with a bad cold and her cousin's birthday the weekend before,  it means I'm just getting my feet back under me right now.

That said, it was full of joy. LMC is at the age now (3!) where she gets that these are special days and is super excited to meet the Easter Bunny or find eggs, blow out candles, or get to wear her birthday crown. She is cultivating a deep appreciation for Peanuts and Bass/Rankin holiday specials. She also doesn't have huge expectations about it though. When asked what she wanted for her birthday, she merely asked for a pink cake with pink frosting and pink candles. I wanted the cake to be pink tasting and not just pink-colored, so I made cake flavored/colored with raspberry jam (and a few drops of food coloring). It was a little over-sweet with the jam. but was still a big hit with the birthday girl (especially the frosting). 

She got a number of neat gifts from family and friends for her birthday, but the one I'm most proud of is her quilt I made to be just like Curious George's (her favorite character/tv show). I managed to find a Michael Miller fabric that was really close to the print on George's bed and used a tutorial for a Self-Binding Blanket (scaled up and modified to include batting) and then tied it with some multi-colored cotton yarn. I had no idea how tiring the tying process would be for my hands, and the cotton yarn plies separated more than I would like, but for my first completed quilt, the whole thing turned out rather well and is very cozy. I can see how this quilt thing could get addictive. 

We just moved her to the big-girl bed a few weeks ago and while she had chosen to lie on top of, rather than under it, I think she appreciates the quilt (as much as a three-year-old will appreciate a blanket). I also finished my Good Night Sleep Tight embroidery I started forever ago in time to hang it over her new bed. I'm kinda in love with my little french knot sheep and am planning to turn it into a pattern/kit. LMC must like it too, because when I started working on my new embroidery project from cozyblue, she asked if that was for her room too.  

Despite the fact that Winter has seemed to hold off doing all it's wintering until Mach, it was actually warm enough to do our egg hunt outside, which was great fun. That tiny patch of snow is all gone now, my bulbs are starting to bloom and my seeds are sprouting indoors. It's all starting to feel very much like spring, even if we still have to wear our winter coats for a little while longer. 

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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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FO: Cascade Duffle Coat

It's been a weirdly warm, low-snow winter in Maine. So it's probably fitting that after wanting a new winter coat for several years, I finally got around to making myself one in the year I've needed it the least. (For example, it was 51 degrees when I took the majority of these photos)

But I don't mind. I live in Maine, it's gonna get cold again at some point. 

In truth, I love sewing coats. Yes, the materials are more costly. Yes, they usually have a ton of pieces and take a long time to sew (about a month in this case). But I know that I'm going to wear it everyday for months, so it's totally worth it. My Minoru Jacket gets a ton of wear, and this one will too.

When I first saw the Cascade Duffle Coat pattern, I knew it was just the thing I was looking for. I wanted it to look like something a 1950s co-ed would wear on campus and came across this great green plaid at the Dorr Mill Store. Though my plaid matching skills were pretty on point for this project, I wanted to break it up a bit, so I took inspiration from sample on Grainline's website and did a contrasting black yoke and put my pockets and zipper covers on the bias.

I used the contrast fabric for my zipper bands, which was the one thing I wouldn't recommend. The six layers of thick wool fabric was almost (but not quite!) too much for my machine to handle. It was touch and go there for a while, but we pulled through. :)

I also did my first leather sewing on this project, as I made my own toggles, which was super easy and I would recommend over buying some.

In another, "don't make my mistakes" moment, I was a little lax on finishing the seams of my lining since there weren't visible, which meant after about a week of wearing, I had to turn the whole thing wrong side out again and re-finish them, because the more delicate fibers stuck to the wool like velcro and started to shred. I think I fixed everything all right (time will tell), but it would have been easier to do it right the first time.

All in all, it's super cozy and will definitely stand up to a more normal Maine Winter.

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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

6th Annual National Pie Day

This is the sixth year I've hosted a "pie-luck" for National Pie Day and I don't have much new to say. Pie is awesome. You can do so many different things with it: sweet pies, savory pies; tarts and quiches; empanadas and shepherd's pies; fruit and ganache and meringue. There's a reason I call Pie Day the most delicious day of the year. I love that my knitting friends bring such an amazing variety of pie and that we get to sit and eat and knit. I love that Ms. Maggie surprised us all by coming down from Orono. I love that I get to try something new and complex (in this year's case, a brown-butter lemon zest and cranberry tart) that puts all that Great British Bake-Off watching to good use. But mostly I love that there's no happier combination than good food and good friends.

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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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December

If I had to describe December in a word, it'd be full.

Full calendar, full bellies, full hearts. 

Some highlights for me were decorating cookies for Santa and taking LMC to see Portland Ballet's Nutcracker, where she was totally engrossed in Act I and conked out and slept her way through Act II (though not for lack of interest).

In the midst of a hectic baking schedule (2 types of cookies, gingerbread cake and peanut brittle), I managed to make several gifts too, including my bi-annual cross-stitch family portrait (inspired by this year's Halloween costumes), a knit hat for LMC in the hopes of seeing something other than the doggie hat on her head, an ornament for my knitting group's annual swap and  two tutus, because you can never have too much tutu. But the gift that I'm most proud of making is my little Children's book, which I wrote and illustrated for LMC.

As I said, it was a full month, and while I wouldn't call January "empty" I am looking forward to getting back into a quieter rhythm. 

Indie Design Gift Along 2015

Knitters!

This year I'm participating in the Indie Design Gift-Along.

What is that you ask?

It's a massive pattern sale + knit-along featuring the work of 335 designer from 30 countries, with over 5,500 knitters from around the world participating! It's all hosted over on Ravelry, and here's the official description.:

What is Gift-A-Long? It’s a multi-designer promotion to help you kick your holiday gift-making into high gear!

The Indie Design Gift-A-Long is a 6 week long KAL/CAL of holiday gifts made from patterns designed by a rather extensive list of independent designers. From Thursday, November 19th at 8:00 pm US EST - Friday, November 27, 2015 at 11:59 pm US EST tons of indie designers will be discounting between 5 - 20 of their patterns 25% for this event. Use coupon code: giftalong2015. 

Once you’ve got your Gift-A-Long patterns, we encourage you to join a relevant KAL/CAL! (For instance, if it is a cowl, please join the cowl KAL/CAL.) To join, simply write a post in the KAL/CAL thread you want to join, including the pattern name you will be knitting and a link to your project page. KAL/CAL participants are eligible for lots of lovely prizes but you gotta post to win!

KAL/CALs will run from Thursday, November 19th at 8pm (US-EST) through our New Years Eve party, Thursday, December 31 at midnight (US-EST), plenty of time to knock out all your holiday knitting and crocheting. We have games, tons of prizes, great conversation, and a lot of fun, so pull up a chair and join us! Please use #giftalong2015 to tag your social media-ing!

On your mark…get set…. GIFT!!

I've got 13 patterns for sale as part of the Gift-A-Long, all specially selected as quicker knits, perfect for gift giving. You can get them for 25% off in my Ravelry shop from Thursday, November 19th at 8:00 pm US EST - Friday, November 27, 2015 at 11:59 pm US EST - just use the code giftalong2015

The Gift-A-Long is a great way to kick your holiday knitting into high gear (and you can win tons of awesome prizes) so head on over to Ravelry and sign up!

(Stats infographic courtesy of 80skeins)