something to blog about

A Christmas gift I can blog about. I ripped out the seam binding on Miss Jaime's little bag last night (very sharp embroidery scissors are a godsend) and re-sewed. Hubby thought it was cute. We're doing our shopping Saturday (Billy has ADVENTure at church and will go to the in-laws afterwards), so I'll pick up the toiletries and giftcard for it this weekend.

Then there are dad's socks. I am past the heel on sock two (well, I will have to go back and knit the heel). I figure about 40% done? I'd like to have these done tomorrow because I need to whip out some fingerless mitts for the woman who got this last year. We're having lunch on Wednesday. I have to knit her something because she wore the scarf yesterday.

finished jacket

The twerp wouldn't put it on until Friday. He liked it, just didn't want to wear it. He thought it made a great tunnel for his train. Now, that we're home, he can't wear it. Oh well, Spring and next Fall, hopefully.

This is his smart ass look.

Asking me how much knitting I got done. One project is complete. And I keep thinking of more people to knit for...

super-secret update

Remind me to not do this super-secret knitting thing again. I know only one recipient reads this blog, and she seems to think she wants to know RIGHT NOW what her gift is, but I want them all to be a secret. It's a real PITA, though, to not share my progress. I think I'm about 30% through the biggest one. I need to get everything set-up to take the whole shebang with us to SC next week. I'm looking forward to the time away from work, but not so much the 10+ hours in the car each way. The family I married into talks way more than the one I grew up in. I think my mom, dad, sisters (at least one of them) and I could happily go 10 hours without saying more than 10 words. Not my beloved in-laws. Someone's got to be talking pretty much the whole time.

(I just started thinking about what some of the conversations are going to be like in SC. Hubby's grandmother is a big FOX news watcher. Change the subject, please.)

I'm definitely going to wash fabric tonight so I can start sewing up that jacket for Billy. I might need a different zipper, so I'm toying with the idea of picking up some batting and making it heavier. I should poke through my stash to see if there's anything else to wash, maybe to make something for me.

thursday is for sewing?

I have to take Thursday off from work. Our dryer is still not working properly. I did try to convince Hubby we could hang dry our clothes inside forever, but he'll have none of that. Our upstairs toilet seems to be leaking around the base again (I don't understand since it's not wobbling like it was before we had it fixed the last time).

I'm thinking I could spend the day at home sewing. (Or knitting.)

You may not know this, but I have a sizeable fabric stash. Over the last two years, I have stashed (bought and not cut into) 180 yards of fabric from fabric.com alone. It's nearly a month of Billy's tuition. Ohfa. In my defense, this is the bulk of my fabric stash. I have some things that I've picked up elsewhere, but not nearly in the volume that I've stashed from Fabric.com.

Why am I telling you this?

Because I think I should spend Thursday sewing this out of this and this for Billy. He won't be able to wear it around home much this fall, but it might be good in SC next week.

sewing tonight

I am itching to do some sewing. I haven't touched my machine in about 3 months. Wait, not true. I moved it back on the table last week to set up my swift.

I bought this fabulous fabric a couple of weeks ago and I must, must sew up a tote bag tonight! I'm tired of the freebie I've been using. The only problem is, I wish I had a different purse, too.

Monkeys on the outside, stripes on the inside with purchased black straps. I may do pockets, I may not. Depends on how big I want to go.



It will mean ditching the tunic I started in August, but haven't yet completed. Oh well.

Can you guess where I and my knitting were last night? Hubby was there, too. We were at the same place Sunday night and will be there again on Thursday. Why, yes we are apparently crazy. And I am getting too old for this.

As you can see, sleeve 2 for Ariann grows not a whit. I've been playing too many games on the Nano and not knitting at all during my commute. I bought a new audiobook (The Lovely Bones) last week to try and help. I did manage to get a few rounds done last Friday, so we'll see. (I didn't take the train last night and there's no room on the bus to that place to knit.)

Evenings last week were taken up by sewing. This top's nearly done, but it doesn't fit. The neckline is huge. I think I can fix it by taking it in a bit in the back. The fact that it's a bit narrow through the hips/lower abdomen can be fixed by finishing the belt and blousing (I hope). I really love this shirting and I'd hate to not be able to wear this top!

the last one

I swear, this is the last BSJ I'm going to knit. It's the stockinette version. I'm about six rows to go. Unfortunately, I ran out of yellow, so this is going to have green garter edging (I'll add some to the sleeves and neckline to counteract roll and balance the look). I'm so over this pattern now. I guess knitting 5 of anything will do that. (It's more than 5 since the light green one was more than half done when I found another ball of green which meant it didn't have to be green and cream.) A seaming party is needed to get these all finished up.

Then what do I knit? I've pretty much decided on Ariann for M-i-L's birthday, but I haven't gotten around to digging out the yarn and swatching. I am planning to cast on a pair of socks as soon as I get my yarn from Ruth. I'm hoping it comes by Saturday. That way I'll have portable knitting for a work trip Sunday/Monday.

Yeah, I'm taking another short work trip. This one's for an hour-long presentation. Normally, my boss goes to these things, but he's going to be at a different meeting. I'm a little bummed because I'm going to Toronto, the city of our Harlot, but won't even be leaving the airport (meeting and sleeping at an airport hotel).

Tonight or tomorrow (most likely tomorrow since LOST's season finale is tonight), I'm going to sew up a sleeve for my laptop using the leftover Michael Miller laminated cotton from my lunch bag. It's too much of a pain to have a laptop bag along with a purse and an overnight bag. This way, I can put the laptop in the overnight bag. (I can also use it with a tote for carrying to and from the office.)

We had a good Memorial Day weekend. Saturday B and I went to the park in the morning and that night we had dinner with the in-laws and M-i-L's mom and dad who are visiting. Sunday, we went to church and then to a BBQ at M-i-L's cousin's house. B had tons of fun there playing with little cousins (including going into the wading pool with his shoes on). Monday, we went to the town parade and then to the pool and then dinner at M-i-L and F-i-L's. Whew we were busy. Didn't help that I overindulged in sun and champagne at the BBQ and went to bed right after B.

The great-grands head out to OH tomorrow, so we're all going out to dinner tonight. B's going to be sad to see them go. He's really attached to his great-grandpa.

BYO

Here in NJ (although, I'm not in NJ this exact minute), we have a lot of restaurants that are BYO. NJ limits the number of establishments that can have liquor licenses (certain # of licenses per a certain # of people which I could probably google, but I'm sure you care less than I do). The licenses can be very difficult to obtain and very expensive. A lot of smaller restaurants simply forgo a liquor license, but NJ allows you to BYO (we usually bring wine or beer, but people also bring spirits). Bringing beer to the fish and chips place is easy. We have four different coolers (we love to tailgate, and apparently I love parens). I've been embarrassed recently when we bring a bottle of wine. Something about hubby lugging our favorite vinos around in a plastic bag has a low class hint to it. Well, we are low class no more. I sewed up a little solution to our problem.

I got the fabric at fabric.com back in March for $3.49 a yard. I only bought the one yard because that's usually enough for a couple of totes. The tote on the left is a little big. It was supposed to neatly handle two 750 mL bottles for those evenings when we go out with others. But the bottles swim in this thing. I didn't have any on hand to test with, but I might be able to put two 1.5 L bottles in it, party time! At the very least, I can put some sort of ice pack in when we're drinking white. The smaller one snugly fits a 750 mL bottle, for when it's just the two of us. (Well, sometimes we bring wine when B is with us, but he still prefers unfermented juices.)

The totes are pretty basic, just lined rectangles. The handles are more of the lightweight webbing I had (silly me, bags are lined in black with brown handles). I was really lazy with these. Last summer I made a wine bottle gift bag for M-i-L and put a round bottom on it, giving a much nicer shape. I may need to improve my design and do a smaller, two bottle tote. I do have a bit of fabric left.

brown bagging it

I try to bring a lunch to work most days. My office is in SoHo and every deli and restaurant around us has become so expensive in the 12 years I've worked here. Seriously, the cheapest lunch I get is $8. Usually, I bring a frozen entree, a can of soda, and two pieces of fruit. Usually, I just use a plastic shopping bag and stuff it into my work bag. However, since I got a big orange purse for Christmas, that holds my necessaries including a small knitting project and my camera, I've not been carrying a larger tote to work and have had to carry my lunch separately. Nothing's so classy as carrying a plastic grocery store bag with your purse! I did use some plain gift bags, but they fall apart quickly. I had thought of buying some vinyl but nothing struck my fancy; then I saw that some stores carry laminated cottons in cool prints. Sign me up for that. A Michael Miller Daisy print came to live with me in March. Last night, it became this.

It's a little big for most days, but I could carry my knitting project in it if I wanted to carry a smaller purse. Hubby thought the fabric looked like wallpaper, because it's laminated. He thought the finished project looked really cute.

I had planned to do handles from the same fabric, but screwed up the first attempt and then realized that some lightweight webbing I had matched really well. (The webbing was used to tie up a comforter I bought at Target a while ago, no plastic bag there.)

I have some left, maybe enough to do a more tradional sized lunch bag, to carry in a larger tote if I ever go back to that.

I've got the sewing bug! I really, really want to make a double-bottle wine bag tonight. I'm a little conflicted though. I think Hubby feels lonely when I'm crafting in the office and he's in the tv room all alone. But, he does get me to himself all weekend, since we're going dow the shore for our anniversary.

buttons galore

I brought in my button purchases to share with you. I know, I'm tres exciting.


From L to R: stars for the green and yellow BSJ I posted recently (BSJ #1), I have 8; plain white for BSJ #2, which I haven't posted but which is cream, yellow and green; and little sailboats for BSJ #4 which exists only in my mind (will be mostly cream with minimal amounts of white), I only found 4 of these.


I was thinking of using the teddy bears for a BSJ, but we'll see. I might just save them for something else (I have 8). The red ones are for a future me project; I have 6.

I finished this last night. It was over half done from Christmas-time. It's going to my little sister. She bought the fabric two years ago. I hated the fabric. It's a loose weave and the fibers shed like no one's business. It's really hard to cut, too. I have some in burgundies to make myself a bag. I think I'm going to go with a more simple tote.

Tonight, since I have 12 1/2 yds of fabric showing up at my house, I complete that skirt. Fortunately, I don't have to install a zipper. Unfortunately, I can't just slap on the binding tape like I thought. It's too narrow to be an elastic waistband.

user error

Well, I figured out what was wrong with my sewing machine.

Me!

Sewing machines do not work well when one does not them properly!

BSJ, buttons, and stash

BSJ #3 is moving along nicely. I should be binding off for the collar tonight. The green's a bit off in this pic. It's more sour apple than the cool mint shown here. Knitpicks shows it very accurately (according to my monitor and under these fluorescent lights).

I went to Joann's this weekend and bought a lot of buttons. I was good, I only bought buttons and some binding tape for a skirt that needs a waistband, a zipper and a hem. Usually when I got to Joann's or any other craft store, I buy at least $40 more than what I went in for. I was going to sit here and list what buttons I bought, but that's no fun. I'll take some pics tonight.

Just remembered, I have the buttons for this one with me! Too cute. I wish I could have found more than four, but that's all I saw.

The place was a madhouse. They were having some sort of fabric sale.

Speaking of fabric. I'm going to be in trouble tomorrow if I don't get home before Hubby. I bought 12 1/2 yds of fabric to make myself two dresses. Since my sewing machince still doesn't work, I'm going to be in trouble.

I've been so good about not stashing yarn for the last three months, but I've bought 32 yds of fabric since mid-March. Granted, 7 yds was ordered to re-cover our dining room chairs, a couple of yards are for totes (1/2 yd of laminated cotton for a lunch bag and 1 yd for a wine bottle tote), the rest is supposed to be clothing for me. I haven't finished sewing a piece of clothing in almost a year.

If my sewing machine is not up and running an churning out clothes by Labor Day, I'm going to start selling off my fabric stash.

fabric

I just placed my first fabric order in over five months (I've bought remnants at Joann since October, but no yardage). I promised I would cut back until I got my sewing machine back up and running. It crapped out on me just before Christmas as I was sewing a messenger bag for my sister. I haven't touched it since.; with all the deadline knitting the last few months, I've not taken the time to get it up and running. But, I was browsing a sale yesterday I saw some fabric I thought would look good on my dining room chairs. I love my dining room set. It's mission style, cherry finish over oak, with tall chairs and a rectangular table, but the fabric is not great. I've lived with it for over seven years and it's time for a change. Now, it's not just a fabric I don't like, it's a fabric that's lived with a toddler. Today, they're running a different sale and I found this for $4.39 a yard. Our walls are cream with sage trim and the floors are hardwood with a sage area rug under the table. I think this would look outstanding. I e-mailed hubby and he said we should go for it. I think next weekend might be dining room fresh-up time.

I also got some fabric for fun totes. This for when we go to BYO restaurants (or maybe even to make a gift bag for giving wine) and this one because I just had to.

I've had a thing for dragonflies for a long time. Mom and Dad live in a very swampy area and there are always lots around. One time, I was sitting on the back deck writing and I took a rest and five landed on my notebook. They took on a little more significance when my grandmother died. At the funeral, her pastor compared my grandmother to a dragonfly, not flashy but always busy and doing a lot of work that benefits others. It was a lot more poetic the way she said it, but that's the gist. I only bought a yard of the orange one. I'll make a tote or something (maybe a sleeve for my work laptop).

happy little picots

Here's my trekking sock, looking a bit brown. I tried to adjust the color to be less yellow. My camera does not capture the ORANGE glory that is this yarn. This is the third cast-on and I'm loving it. The first one was way too big at too big a gauge and the second was also too big at two different gauges (switching needles will do that). I cast on Monday night and hope to hit the heel tonight (depending on how much I knit at the Devils game).

The workout happened last night. The housework happened this morning (m-i-l's babysitting tonight) and I completed one side of the front neckline on Hubby's sweater as well. No sewing can start, as much as I am obsessed with skirts, until I get a yardstick. I've already decided my first skirt's going to be an A-line in Cranberry microwale corduroy. Now, if only I had shoes that would work. Oh, and I need tights!

So want to sew

I got this book in the mail last night. Forget working out. Forget housework. Forget nearly being to the neckline on the front of Hubby's sweater. Forget my new orange sock. Forget my square for the Oliver raffle blanket. I want to sew skirts now!

We had a very nice thanksgiving. Once again, Hubby did the culinary heavy lifting and did a great job. B was an awesome traveller. Only once on the way home was there much fussing. He then promptly took a two hour nap (falling asleep with his hand in a bag of cheetos).

I'm totally not looking forward to Christmas. Well, I'm looking forward to watching other people celebrate and enjoying their decorating and what not. I'm not looking forward to my having to shop and wrap and decorate and all that hoo-ha. I am very much looking forward to singing in choir on Christmas Eve. I had a good first performance on Sunday (when we passed the peace many people told me they were happy to see I'd joined, I think they were happy to see the body count increase). Our director complimented my voice and how quickly I learned my part, but I didn't see her after we performed so I don't know if I lived up to rehearsal.

How about you all? Excited, ambivalent, dreading the holidays?

My in-laws have officially been married 40 years. We had cake for them after church, in the church where they were married, on the exact date of their marriage. Now, we need to take them out to dinner.

I did some sewing last night

I think I mentioned that I wanted to sew up some gift bags this week. Well, I sat down last night and did it. Two square-ish based on a lunchbag pattern I found online and one wine bottle that I winged. The square one on the bottom has M-i-l's CeCe in it and will be gifted tomorrow (as will the winebag). The other sqaure one will hold my sister's socks and will be gifted Saturday. I'm planning to make many more of these kinds of things. I hate the waste of wrapping gifts in paper and it's one way to use up my fabric stash that just keeps growing. I need to figure out different shapes and sizes for the square ones. CeCe is a small sweater, Mom's Freya won't be!

I did knit on the knee socks yesterday. I'm over half-way to the toe. I hope to finish it tonight.

How many nights in a row should B be dry before we try taking him out of the pull-ups again? He's still doing great on the potty when he's awake and has been dry the last four or so mornings.

Well Hello Barry

This Barry, that is. Hubby says the front lawn needed the watering and the cars need the rinse off (the Ion's looking more green than silver lately). I said I needed the pollen washed out of the air. Hopefully, tomorrow's morning commute won't be a washout.

Potty training this weekend was a washout. He just isn't ready. Twice this morning, I had him on the potty with no action and 5-10 minutes later, he'd peed through his clothes. (I'm kind of glad he hasn't had a bm since Friday.) So, he's back in pull-ups for the forseeable future. He's pretty bummed about it. He really liked his big boy underwear. Me, I'm kind of relieved. The last 36 hours have been way too stressful and I'll admit I was not handling it well. We've got another attempt planned for a couple of weeks from now. I'll be following the potty party plan as outlined in this book. Hopefully, he'll be more amenable. He did ask to sit on the potty after peeing in his pullup a few minutes ago.

I spent nap time today starting a new tote bag. I'm tyring to copy a gucci knockoff a friend at work had. So far, it's going okay. I've got the outside sewn together. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to do the handles, but I still need to put the lining together and attach the interfacing to the lining. Pictures will come when I've made more progress.

Since it's the second to last Sopranos tonight, I'm not sure if much sewing or knitting will be accomplished after B goes to bed. Maybe, I'll finish up mom's dishclothes (that reminds me, I really need to update the side bar; no 2007 FOs are listed and the WIPs are out of date).

I feel the need...

The need for stash.

Seriously, I'm sitting here thinking "I need new yarn." I think it's just symptomatic of having stuff to do today that I don't want to do.

I have a ton of yarn, and projects lined up out my wazoo. I was swatching a bit last night for Hubby's St Andrew's Cross sweater (aka Scottish flag sweater) and Mi-i-L's birthday CeCe. I didn't want anything to detract from the last two hours of LOST for the next nine months, so I stuck with small stockinette.

I'm partway through the skirt I cut out the other night. The front and back are each 3 pieces and their all sewn together and I added the front waistband. I quit early Tuesday night because I couldn't find the elastic for the back half of the waist. Of course, it was sitting right on top of my basket of notions. I haven't touched the skirt since. I'm kind of worried it's not going to fit.

I won't have time to sew tonight. We need to pack for our weekend down the shore. We're not sure if we're driving down tomorrow after work or first thing Saturday morning. Depends on how late Hubby has to work. I really hate not knowing.

For the weekend, I'm packing the Spring Things Shawl, Mom's Ballband Dishclothes, and the Dragon koigu socks. I want to get some of these lingering WIPs finished. Then, I can start something new.

Socks in yesterday's pic were the indigo gold socks. I need to knit him a new pair. These just don't fit right. They keep sliding down his foot.

Things I love about myself

Dora at Spin me i pulsate tagged me the other day. I'm not clear on the rules, but here's my list.

1. my underappreciated sense of humor
2. my sense of direction
3. my reading comprehension skills
4. ability to problem solve (yes, there is use for a liberal arts education)
5. mad knitting skills
6. being Phi Beta Kappa without taking math or science in college
7. that I don’t look as white bread as I am
8. not being as timid or shy as I used to be

I wish I could put something in here about mothering, but I'm not feeling so great about it right now. Let's just say B and I are butting heads (why does a kid who wants to wear shorts also insist on a parka?).

I'm tired. Not much to report. Drab is warm, I cut the fabric for the next skirt, still knitting serrano.

She's a DRAB house

You know, they say the camera adds 10 pounds, and the bathroom mirror at work, another 20. Seriously, I'm totally ditching my plan to make out with Ben and Jerry while Hubby's at the Yankee game tonight.
I wore Drab to work today. She's pretty warm. I put the buttons on during lunch. After the above photo shoot (snort), I decided to ditch the top one. Obviously, either my button placement or button sewing skills need work. So, the deets: rowan polar in combat on US 10s. Top down raglan of generic design. Next time, I knit at a looser gauge, add stitches for my prodigious hips, make a deeper v-neck (abetted here by the deletion of that dorky top button), and adjust the raglans better. And I'm not really sure the LARGE gold buttons down my middle are doing me any favors.

In more exciting news, although I'm sure I'll hate posting pics of me in it as well, here is where I am on Serrano. First waist shaping row completed. I'm about 1/2 way through the second element of the chart.

As for my weekend plans this past weekend, no sewing was accomplished. I do plan on doing some tonight (cancelling the make out session will help that) assuming the dog cooperates.