Full of Fail

This week was full of sewing fails, file disasters that nearly made huge trouble at work, and that time I got stranded at a fiber festival. I'm not sure I ever really believed in the whole Mercury in retrograde thing before....but I might now!

I typically work 4 days a week - I chose Mondays as my usual day off, and I really love that schedule. When the weekend is over, I still have that ONE extra day to get stuff done. The only real bummer is that there are a surprising amount of businesses which are closed that day, but that's not terrible because I frequently don't get out of pajamas when I'm home! I work enough hours though that I still get paid for holidays. When they fall on a Monday, I get to choose another day to stay home, which varies depending on what's happening at work that week.

So, all that to say that I took Thursday as my day off this week since we were off Monday for Labor Day. I planned to go for a long run, do a whole bunch of sewing, maybe record a podcast, all on deliciously on my own time before the daycare pickup around 5. HA. HAHAHAHA

Where oh where to begin? First off, I didn't want to run at all, because while the temperature was a comfortable 75 or so, the humidity was nuts. I'm not a very experienced or good runner, so the thought of running in soup? No thanks. I ended up doing a DVD at home, but even that wasn't very satisfying. Maybe I just didn't pick a good one for me that day, or didn't push myself hard enough, but it sort of felt like a waste of time. (The one thing that did kind of work out was that I washed my hair with a "no 'poo" recipe that called for first scrubbing with baking soda and then with apple cider vinegar. It really helped my hair feel quite clean, as lately I've felt like I've had a lot of shampoo build up or something. Anyway.)

By that time it was about 10:30, and I was feeling quite stressed that I was wasting my day. I went down to my sewing room, and cleaned up a whole bunch of past project debris that was holding me back from doing anything else down there. It took me SO long after that, but I finally finished the bra I started a couple of weekends ago. I am pretty sure I put the back part of the band on upside down, but it turns out that makes no difference at all because the fit was BEYOND horrible. It was just....so bad. So, so bad. I was essentially swimming in this thing, in all of the ways that a bra can just NOT fit. I don't know where I went wrong. I even made a muslin! Just....the front didn't fit, and there were seriously extra INCHES around my ribcage. It was not a, well, let's tweak it here and there and see if it works. It's a full on chuck it in the corner and be mad at it for awhile kind of fail. My friend said that hers really didn't turn out either. Perhaps not as full of fail as mine, but still not good. She said that maybe for the next go round, if we can bring ourselves to go there, we should try doing the fitting with the foam for the cups, rather than just fabric. That's a pretty good idea, but I don't know when I'm going to feel like going for it again. Ugh, such a bummer. (I was using this pattern, which I feel bad even saying because I was so unsuccessful!)

After all of that, it was about 3:30. I thought ok, let's change gears. I got out a pattern that I've wanted to make for years, the Lola dress by Victory patterns. I have the fabric too, a navy sweatshirt material. I thought a cute sweatshirt dress might be the perfect palette cleanser to a horribly ill fitting bra. I got the pattern pieces all traced and cut out before I had to leave to get the kidlets, so I was feeling like maybe I turned this thing around and salvaged some of the day after all!

And do you think that was true? No. After dinner and baths, I headed back down because I wanted SOMETHING cute to show for my precious solo day. The pattern directions were really easy to follow, and by 11 pm, I had a totally assembled dress except for the neck, wrist and bottom bands. Before going through the effort of putting those on, I decided to try the dress on for fit. I'm sure you see where this is going....

I could get it ON...but I was totally uncomfortable, and couldn't really move my arms without feeling like I was going to hulk the thing apart. Before completely throwing in the towel, I let out the seam allowance on one of the arms (which, ugh, was only 3/8" instead of 5/8" like many clothing patterns! Now is one of the only times I wished I had that extra 1/4"!!), and it was a great improvement. I can probably go through and let out some of the other seams and it should fit ok in the end, but ugh! I cut the same size in the bra and the dress, and ended up with a tight sweatshirt dress and a bra so loose I could have put it on over said dress.

The following day at at work, I'd left just a couple of things to finish off when I left Wednesday night. I thought, surely I'll have enough time to do these things before my 2:30 call to sign off on these plans!

 Yeah. There was some kind of ridiculous file problem which made it so that I couldn't get into the file until 1 pm!! I had an email window open on my other screen about to cancel the meeting, which would have been sort of a disaster to the project timeline, which obviously would have been very bad. Let's just say that when I finally got in there, I was drawing like the wind and there might have been smoke coming from my mouse. In the end, I got everything done that needed to get done and I got the sign off, but MAN was I stressed out!

So that's Friday. Friday night, I made a last minute decision (in hindsight, OHMYGOD stop making last minute decisions!) to head about an hour away to the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival. I dragged my family along last year, and when I brought it up to my husband he seemed pretty enthusiastic about it....ha, wait, nope! So I decided to go on my own, and rather than drive, I caught a bus from one of our local yarn shops with a friend from knit group. She had told me that it left at 7:45 and would leave the fairgrounds at about 5:30, and I thought that sounded fun. A whole day of shopping, watching the sheep shearing, maybe petting some baby lambs, and I could knit the whole way there and back!

And it was a really great day! It was fun to hang out, I spent way too much money buying pretty things that I don't need, and just had a really relaxing day. We headed over to where the bus had dropped us off around 5:15, and saw zero other people waiting.

And that's when I got nervous. You see....I didn't reserve my spot on the bus ahead of time due to aforementioned last minute decision. One of our other friends decided not to go, so I just took her spot. This meant I had no official confirmation, and no contact info in either direction. The friend I was with is one of those rare birds who does not have a smartphone, and also doesn't know her email password and only checks it at home. The shop website mentioned the bus, but again, no times. I tried calling the shop to see if they could hook us up with a cell phone of the owners, but it had closed at 4, so no answer. The woman standing near the entrance said that yes, there WAS a bus, but it had just left at 5. It was scheduled to leave at 4:30, but hung around until just after 5 when they finally left....just minutes before we showed up at 5:15.

In the end, we got home ok because luckily another friend was vending the event, and luckily not staying overnight between the Saturday and Sunday shows, and we were able to catch a ride with her back to the city. Even if that hadn't happened, I'm sure my husband could have come to rescue us, but that would have been about as exciting as coming along in the first place.

All this ramble to say that in the end, really, no harm, no foul on all of it.....but I am definitely staying in bed Sunday. (She says while typing this during a bout of insomnia in the wee hours Sunday morning....)

Podcast episode 3 show notes

Podcast episode 3 is up! You can either listen below or subscribe in iTunes. You can search for Cozy Cape Cottage, or click this link. 

Thank you to Eva from the charm of it for the shout out!

 I talk about Wild Haven Fiber Company and the upcoming classes - see the full schedule and details for how to sign up here.

Almost done with podster mittens (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/chilly-podsters). Put thumb in backward. Playing yarn chicken with last of the Ella Rae classic wool. Working my way up the flap before I decide if I need to carefully uneven the thumb or just snip it off and re knit with fresh yarn 

Also working on some class samples for crochet 101. Using cotton fleece by brown sheep company. 80 cotton 20 merino in Terra cotta. Should look nice in the shop as a sample. Doing a couple samples, rectangular dish cloth with single, half double, double crochet, a round cloth to teach about typical increases in round, and a big granny square. 

Got my first 3 ply off the wheel! 

woolmakers bliss double treadle wheel
Little Bobbins

Ready to spin something more colorful and traditionally handspun looking yarn

In sewing, I started working on bras

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What I crafted on my summer vacation

A summer break from the blog wasn't something I'd planned to do, but I did and there you have it. Early summer had me feeling tired and uncomfortable and just not really in the mood to chat or share. Mid summer saw some incredibly high highs, and some very confusing and unexpected lows. The good news is that we've all survived and daresay are even thriving. We still have some fallout to deal with, but I'm hopeful that it will be resolved in short order and someday we can look back on that particular chapter as a funny NOT FUNNY moment in an otherwise good story. Finally, late summer and the beginning of fall have been full of adjustments, with a few more upcoming. I've been wanting to get a post up for a little while, just to catalog the projects I've finished recently. (And not so recently!)

The rest of these are in no particular order, and most will probably not have much detail, but I'm starting with the big one. Also, glamour shots of finished objects have really not been high on my priority list.

The quilt. The hand pieced twin sized quilt is FINISHED! I was so thrilled to finish it in time for an August birthday gift, and more thrilled that the birthday girl loved it. You can't really expect much of a reaction when giving anything to a three year old, and you should really lower those expectations that much more when you're giving something both handmade and utilitarian, so it was really nice to see her face light up for her "pink blanket." I'll not take offense that the favorite and most notable feature is the plain ol backing fabric! In honor of that, I've filed all of those quilt posts under "pink blanket," and that little exercise showed me that I first posted about that project on August 26, 2014, which is actually kind of cool as I gifted it on August 19, 2015. And that's why I do this. :)

All ready to make the quilt sandwich:

The surgery and patchworking required when discovering that no, in fact your backing fabric was NOT cut to the lengths you requested:

Pinning, and happily discovering that your table is the same width as the quilt. I still ended up with a ton of puckering despite my best efforts. Perhaps next time I'll try spray basting as well as pinning.

I embroidered a little message on one corner, which turned out ok. I just traced over my handwriting in disappearing ink. It's not perfect, but I think will be nice to remember in years to come.

Pretty much the best reaction one could hope for:

 Where the quilt lives now:

A collection of friends I found in the bed before I made it. I love how you can see some of the same fabrics in their clothes used in the blanket as well!

Back in May, I had three projects on the go, and they are all done now!

Finished toddler tube socks:

The ribbing makes them look so skinny just laid out, but they do actually fit feet. I think that they could stand to be maybe 4 stitches bigger around. If they actually see some wear, I'll do that next time.

 Here are the textured gray socks from Lara Neal's Sock Architecture: (affiliate link)

I was concerned that they were extremely tight the first time I put them on back when I finished them this summer. However I've washed and worn them since (yay fall weather!) and they were great. I think it was a combination of swollen ankles and humidity, so note to self, don't try on wool socks in the summer!

I also finished my Brooklyn Bridge cardigan. Everyone said I was crazy for knitting a black sweater, but it turned out ok in the end. One thing I didn't foresee was exactly how terribly my skeins matched. (This is softball merino wool (I think) purchased from Newton's Yarn Country at Stitches in 2014) I tried alternating skeins, but honestly that just left me with stripes. I can see how that technique works when there is variation in the yarn, but it just wasn't a go with a solid color. So I just kept knitting and planned to dye the entire cardigan black in the end.

I stupidly didn't get a clear full shot of the sweater (I tried, they were blurry and I didn't notice until I downloaded and I'm too lazy to set it up again). I won't say my efforts were 100% successful. I can still see the lines, but you can sort of see that the sleeve matches the rest of the sweater a little better in the shot above. I still have half a bottle of the Rit dye I used, so maybe I'll try it again someday. We actually had some photos taken yesterday and I wore this sweater because it was way colder out than I'd originally planned, so maybe there will be a better full shot in those that I will try to put up. Looks notwithstanding, this sweater was WARM! It's just fingering weight, but it's a wool angora blend, and I was so comfortable. The only alteration I made to the pattern was to omit the hood. I wish I'd decreased the tops of the side panels a bit more gradually to meet up with the back, but overall I'm pretty happy with my adjustment!

While on a fingering weight yarn phase, I knit up Baby and Kiddy Vertebrae sweaters. The idea is that by basically just knitting sleeves and a back, kids who tend to overheat may be more comfortable, and it may be the right amount of warmth for a baby when you wear them in the carrier as their fronts are facing your skin and already pretty warm. I will say that I think these are cute on the kids, but I'm not sure how I feel about making more non-closing cardigans in the future. (This is foreshadowing) The yarns I used are Araucania Huasco / Botany Lace for the blue and Manos del Uruguay Alegría for the pink. The Manos was a pleasure to knit and SO soft to wear. The Araucania....well it bled all over my hands as I knit, and despite washing many times AND trying the citric acid soak that the Knitmore Girls have had good luck using, the water still runs blue. Sigh.

I had a request for a kitty Halloween costume, so I worked up a pretty little hat in an effort to use up some of my Knitpicks Chroma. I also crocheted an owl hat a few years ago that is much loved and way too small now, so I knitted Hootie Hat the second. I enjoyed the top down earflap pattern from Jane Richmond, though I wish I'd used a looser castoff on the brim. I also wish I'd placed the eyes while the hat was worn - knitting stretches a lot more than crochet, so the final product is a bit more wide-eyed than planned while on the head!

Continuing my Chroma stash busting, I decided to whip up a kindergartener cowl. I just don't love the idea of scarves for kids, which is why I wrote my Howard Hoodie pattern with the attached neckwarmer last year. I just feel like it's a recipe for the loose ends getting pulled and choking the wearer! The Howard will still be in our rotation for sure, but I thought I'd give a cowl a shot. It's nothing fancy, just a simple stockinette tube.

 
I couldn't decide whether to use the blue green ball (which matches the hootie hat) or the pink purple ball (definitely the more favorite colors) so I used both! I just striped them and switched colors sort of randomly. I carried the yarns up, but almost wish I'd cut them and woven in ends as you can see the carried yarns due to the rolling stockinette if the "seam" isn't in the back. As for length....I just kept going! I know it will roll, so I wanted it to be long enough to cover the neck when all scrunched up.

 If you're still with me (I know this is long!), I've got one last project to share. I've been wanting to make the Rocky Coast Cardigan by Hannah Fettig for several years, and late this summer I just got a yen to cast it on and knit knit knit. Seriously, I knit it in less than a month.

The yarn (discontinued Mirasol Qina) was really nice to work with, and will be really warm in an 80/20 alpaca bamboo blend. But it won't be in this sweater. Yep, this baby is getting frogged. (Unraveled, for those non-knitters.) You see, while I like a long cardigan, the loose gauge of this knit just stretched way too far for my liking. And this other point isn't really the fault of the pattern, but more a combination of my not reading or realizing that it's not just an open front cardigan....but that there actually isn't enough fabric for it to ever close. I don't tend to button my cardigans, but I DO like to be able to at least pull the front panels together. This doesn't come close across the bust, and comes way less close across the bum, and I will never wear it. So it hasn't happened yet, but this will be pulled apart and grow up to be something else. I don't consider it time wasted though. It was a learning experience, both for what I like in a sweater, and with all those cables, I learned to cable without a cable needle so that's good. And it passed the time, which is a lot of what I was asking from it. You win some, you lose some!

All is not lost

The metal forked piece in the top image that was slowly scraping away parts of my sewing machine has been replaced by the actual plastic forked piece that is made to work with my model of machine (what a concept!). I am happy to report that the machine still sews with this custom made foot, and I may actually end up finishing this quilt before the end of summer. Hooray!

Brand matters

Why?

Well, because your walking foot probably shouldn't wear a groove into the metal parts of your sewing machine like this.

Ohhhh, so many curse words.

You see, I bought this foot several years ago (maybe 5?) when I made my first and only other quilt. Like you do, I just went to a local Joann's, bought the walking foot they had on the rack, and hooked it up to my machine. It screwed right in, and I thought nothing of it.

Fast forward to recently, and I ran into a situation that should have been a sign...but I totally missed it. I wanted to buy some more empty bobbins, and again, I just went to the local Joann's, picked up a multipack, wound one up, and immediately got frustrated when it just didn't seem to fit quite right. I compared it to one of my other bobbins, and noticed it was quite a bit taller. Huh, I thought. Ok. So I exchanged it for the other size bobbin pack at Joann's, wound THAT up, and while it fit better, it still wasn't an exact fit, and the bobbin jammed up and made a mess. I untangled it, and went back to return the second pack. This time I asked the lady working the sewing machine corner what was up. She informed me that they only sell accessories for Simplicity and Husqvarna sewing machines. I have a Brother. Still, no lightbulb moment for me.

I am finally to the quilting it all together point on my hand pieced quilt, and I was swimming along just fine with sort of straight line quilting, sort of an inch apart....when all of a sudden my walking foot just stopped walking. I was confused. The bobbin hadn't run out, the needle was threaded...what gives. I remained confused for a while, re-threaded the whole works, got through another couple inches, and again, it just stopped! This time the little arm thing fell off the screw thing it was (apparently) eating away...but I still didn't see that. I removed and reinstalled the foot, tried again, and again, the arm thing immediately fell off the screw thing.

That's when I noticed the groove that probably shouldn't be there. That's when I flashed back to the bobbin situation....and THAT'S when I figured out that, huh, that walking foot probably isn't a universal accessory.

Sure enough, they sell a specific walking foot to attach to my specific brand and model of sewing machine, and I am a moron.

I have since ordered that specific foot, and am avoiding actually trying it out because I'm afraid that I wore the screw thing away too far and that it won't work and I'll have to buy a new machine if I want to continue using a walking foot. This bums me out because first, the rest of the machine still works just fine. Regular presser feet don't rely on that screw thing, and the screw thing still holds the needle in as it's supposed to. Second, I have absolutely no idea what machine I'd want or need, and there are so many options out there that I feel overwhelmed by the variety and potential cost of replacing my otherwise functional machine.

So stupid. Use parts made for your machine. In this case....brand matters. Or at least MATCHING brands matters!

A baby shower extra

As I mentioned in this post, I went to a baby shower for a dear friend a few weekends ago. She asked me to make her some pillowcases for her nursery with some fabric she'd picked out, and I was happy to do that.

As I laid out the fabric I needed for the pillowcases, I was excited to see that I had some fabric left over. I know that she isn't much for sewing, so she wouldn't have any need for the extra fabric. I knew I'd pinned a bunch of cute baby clothes on Pinterest, and was pretty excited to actually DO one of the many things I've pinned! (I used this pattern)

I put the picture above in a previous post - I was a little afraid she would catch on to my subterfuge.

She pulled out the pillow and the extra case, and was all, oh yes, I knew about this....and then she noticed the little dress and was so surprised! I paired it up with some sweet bumblebee sheets from the registry, because I'm a big believer in getting at least one thing that the new mother or bride to be picked out.

Works in Progress

Ah spring. Tis the season for spring cleaning, yes? However, since I don't feel like PHYSICALLY tidying anything, I've focused on getting my lists cleaned up. Let's pretend that's a thing. I've updated my goodreads page and my ravelry projects, as well as the projects page here on my website. Funny, how even though it's just cataloging things I've already done (and even the list of things I just INTEND to do), it makes me feel so much more accomplished.

With that, here's a little status update of what I've got going on currently.

I'm working on some stretchy ribbed tube socks, brightly colored in hopes they will actually be worn. If not....I might be done making kid socks. I'm using the toddler tube sock recipe by the Knitmore Girls, with the change of working them toe up. I think I'll run through the color sequence one more time so that bubble gum pink lands on top. The yarn is Knitpicks Felici, snapped up the last time it was available.

Not to be outshone by a toddler, I'm also working on socks for me. As I'm starting to amass a bit of a stockpile of sock yarn, I decided that self striping yarns would be a simple stockinette pattern, while solid colors should be knit into a pattern for a little interest. This tweedy sock yarn, also from Knitpicks, may have caused me to stumble a bit though. I'm working the Uncommon Dragon chart from Lara Neel's Sock Architecture (affiliate link), again, modified to work toe up. (I think I'll just do a different kind of heel than written. This is one of the few patterns from this book written ONLY for top down, due to the pattern flowing right into the heel. I don't know if I have the brainpower to make that work upside down - working the chart upside down is enough of a head trip, especially since charts are new territory for me!) In the end, the socks will still be wonderful to have, and learning to read charts is great for developing my skills, but the pattern gets a bit lost with the texture of the yarn. I think it stands out a bit more in person, but honestly not that much. Oh well - I'm still enjoying it!

 

Speaking of being new to charts, well of course I would go ahead and cast on not one, but TWO charted projects! I did eventually cast on the sweater that I couldn't quite face a few months back. What, you can't tell that's a sweater? If you need a better visual, it's the Brooklyn Bridge Cardigan by Melissa Wehrle from her fantastic book Metropolitan Knits. (affiliate link) This one is definitely going to take a while. I've been tending to knit on it only at knitting group once a week, so it's only growing about 4 rows at a time thanks to my decision to knit it all in one piece. It's also black, in fingering weight yarn, which seems to horrify everyone....but it's something that I KNOW will get a lot of use in my wardrobe. That's the kind of knitter I am. I like to knit for the process, but I also like having the finished object and knowing it's something that will fit into my lifestyle. I try not to be seduced by pretty yarns in the skein if I can't honestly see them being something I would love to wear as much as look at. The sweater so far is pretty basic, mostly stockinette with a lace panel up the fronts. That rolled edge at the bottom (this is worked bottom up) will eventually be sewn down as a nice tidy hem, and the front has an i-cord edging that is worked as you go. Ideally it's worked starting right above the hem, but some knitters forget to read the directions fully when trying to mash together the chart, the i-cord, the two fronts and the back and may or may not have started it a few rows late, and decided that it definitely wasn't worth the trouble to rip it back after having cast the darn thing on three times. I'm not naming names, but I think you can guess who I'm talking about.

Last I've been meaning to pick away at giving the studio both some organization and some actual decorating. Way back in September, I saw a burlap covered pinboard and knew I must have one.

Another thing I apparently also must have is a stronger pair of shears. 

I feel like I've heard of a million different people using homosote for an economical way to DIY huge pinboards. Can I tell you what a pain it was to find this stuff? I looked it up on Home Depot's website, and since it autocompleted and showed me a picture of something that looked right, I assumed they had it. Yes? NO. What actually popped up in the search was MDF, but I wasn't reading carefully. There is no way I'm going to push a pushpin through MDF, so that was definitely not going to work. I was on limited shopping time and was feeling too impatient to go somewhere else, so I punted. I thought, well I could use some insulation board as the substrate, and put some of that cork roll on it to better hold the pins, and then I can just wrap the whole thing in burlap and no one will be the wiser. Who knows, this may have actually worked, but the guy at Home Depot that day.....wow. I grabbed a 4'x8' sheet of insulation, and asked if he could cut it into 2' strips so that I could get it into my car. So he whips out a blade and just starts slicing! I asked, well....are you going to measure that? He said, no, there are marks here that are 2'. He hands me a terribly crookedly sliced piece of foam that is definitely NOT 2' wide, which I pointed out to him with actual measuring. He shrugged and kept cutting. I said, look, I am ACTUALLY looking for 2x4 pieces, so can we just start with a new piece? He grumbled but did actually go to get a new piece, which he measured and cut....I could see that it was still a bit crooked but I tried to convince myself that it would be ok. I paid and went to put it in the car....and these pieces. They were just. Wow, so bad. I sat down and sighed and thought....do I feel like dealing with this later? The answer was no, so I just grabbed the foam and the cork and walked back inside to return them. Later on, I searched out other home improvement stores and found exactly what I was originally looking for at Menards. I'd like to say I've learned a lesson about not being impatient and just making do, but I can't be certain that is not a lie.

Speaking of being impatient, I did straighten out that fabric on the right so it's not quite as crooked. It's still a little crooked, but it's better. I need another pair of hands to help me out hanging these, so they are just leaning on the still unfinished bench for now. I think I might paint and mount a strip of pegboard between them for things like rulers and such. It's a quick turn around from the cutting table, so I think that will be handy.

Last but not least for now, I'm still chipping at that quilt. I'm getting closer! I laid out the batting again, and need about one more row of blocks on one of the short sides and one of the long sides. I've also started figuring out how I'm going to square off the edges. Not pictured yet, but I think it will work. Now my trick is to lay out the last of the flowers without getting similar patterns too close together! I think I'll have to cut a little more fabric to make that happen. I'll probably use some of the already cut scraps to piece a little bit of the backing. Next quilt.....will DEFINITELY be machine pieced!