Kindred Spirits

It's so great when you happen upon someone just as wacky as you are. Stacey Rebecca of finger puppet fame over on etsy so needs to be an honorary sister. I know my real sister will back me up on this.
A new puppet arrived in the mail today and there was a little message on the back of the envelope.


Ohh secret message! Hee hee hee fun..


Oh my god can't stop laughing!


It's the Devil and it's Fun!!

Thanks Stacey, you too are super awesome.....so would you be interested in pictures of stuffed frogs?

We have no sweaters today

Poor sweaters, they haven't even been touched in days. They are a bit to big for train knitting unless I'm feeling really serious. But there is a new sock...

Retro Rib Socks in some long stashed yarn Sunshine yarn's soft sock. Nice color, nice hand, but soooo thin that it takes ages for someone like me to knit up. I'll probably like wearing them though.

And we have brownies, yum....


And a pretty new purse via my favorite site Etsy..

It totally fits my loopy ewe zipper pouch, love it!

January so Far

(Calendar from Modern Printed Matter)

The first Sunday is for Sewing didn’t go all that well. Do you ever have that sense that all your precious free time is running through your fingers like sand and there is nothing to show for it? That’s how last Sunday felt. First the large roll of trace paper went AWOL and after trashing most of the apartment it turned out to be in the location I first checked. Argh! Next, thinking to save time I browsed through all my Burda Style magazines looking for a pre-made pencil skirt pattern. Only after tracing off all the pieces to the pattern did I notice the instructions said “for stretch fabric only.” Oh lack of reading, why do you repeatedly bite me in the ass? Hmmmm don’t answer that. So knowing trying to make a stretch pattern in woven fabric wasn’t going to end well, I put it away and retreated back to my knitting.


It turns out that retreating to knitting that day was the right decision. On Tuesday a little trip to the book store produced this month’s Burda Style. Inside were not one but two pencil skirt patterns, both worked in a woven fabric and shaped with princess seams. Basically the stars aligned and gave me exactly what I was looking for. I’d show you the modeled shot but the girl’s jacket completely obscures any skirt details.

Thank god for technical drawings which show you the cute little button detail on the waistband. Next step sewing up a muslin to check for fit because Burda Style’s 42 inch hip size doesn’t always cover a 42 inch hip.

Over on the less stressful knitting side, pieces of the CPH are getting finished at a semi-decent rate. I was a bit worried that the fronts were looking too narrow so they were blocked early this week. Fortunately the blocked dimensions did end up matching the pattern with a little light stretching. This totally reinforces my impression that wool is the best fiber to knit or sew with. It forgives me when I use flexible math.

A couple of delightful things found me this week. Things that are not new, just new to me.
First was the Creative Mom podcast – Check out her latest podcast episode titled Awakening. It’s extremely moving and inspirational in some way that I can not put my finger on.
Second is the Iloveobento shop gallery. Scroll down to see some fantastic and funny bento box food. My personal favorite is sliced tomato that looks like a lobster. If you like that you might enjoy a site that is an old favorite Vegan lunchbox. Little Smoo often gets school lunches that make me giggle and then want to eat.

Plans for 2009

1. Knit more sweaters
Knitting sweaters is the most rewarding type of project for me. So much so I'd like to devote most of my knitting time in 2009 to fill up my sweater drawer. Joining the NaKniSewMoDo over on Ravelry seemed like a great way to have a pseudo goal of knitting 12 sweaters and doing it with a bit of company. Part of the plan is to use some of the really nice stashed yarn to knit some of those sweaters. To "put my money where my mouth is" I cast on a CPH with the Mountain Mohair purchased at last years Maryland sheep and wool. It's going well.


2. Take a card from spinners and set a day aside for sewing
I'm going to make Sundays for Sewing for a bit to see if some of the stashed material can be converted into clothing. The thought that it would be super cool to have half of my wardrobe made by hand has been rattling around in my brain for awhile. It seems though that knitting always trumps sewing because no tables need to cleared or machine carried around and set up. Maybe scheduling some time will help me get my ass in gear. Here is some wool from the grandmother stash that might make a nice pencil skirt..... if there's enough yardage.


3. Knit some more socks for my husband
Now that Christmas is over my husband is in possession of his hand knit socks and deemed them excellent. Then he said, "I might want some more." Woolgirl then had an end of the year sale so I picked up some Hazel knits in Weekend Warrior and two manly sock patterns from Knitspot Pave Sock and Spectator Sock. Pave is the one catching my eye right now, so the spectators might get saved for another yarn.