Chattering on.

The last time I looked seriously at sewing time, for myself that is, I was pretty sure that I had everything I needed or wanted for my fall and winter sewing.  

I do kind of.  I have about ten metres of this fantastic Bullet Knit fabric that is textured and has just made the most versatile and comfortable slim fitting pants that could be leggings.  I wanted losts of that because its is just a great fabric.

I have a navy gabardine for a toile fabric for my some Winslow culottes/pants.

I have a really nice green cotton twill for overalls.

I have a great piece of denim but that is for a dress, so I am not using it for pants.  

I have a couple other dressier fabrics for Birchgrove pants, a more fitted leg pant than any of their previous versions, including a really really nice tencel.

What I did not have was for more warm winter pants.  I have one pair made from some good old fashioned heavy jogging fleece and I really do think these will get a lot of wear this winter.  Lots. I want one more pair in my arsenal.  

I ordered that and some more Ima-Gine Cotton Spandex for long sleeved shirts for under sweaters and other shirts and possibly a camisole or two.  It is a good heavy weight cotton and seems too endure almost anything.  It washes really well and always just looks good.  

I was buying pretty carefully.  The Ima-Gine Knit and the fleece were both over twenty five dollars a metre.  Not cheap by any means.  If I could buy pants as that fit decently, I would end up paying pretty much the same things as what making them for myself would cost.   Then I made a beginner mistake.  

I thought I could control it.  I thought I had it in hand.  But I ended up finding a really nice checked fabric, big white and black checks in a nice warm flannel and I needed it.  It was in the buy one, get two free sale so again, twenty bucks for a great shirt.  And there was another, a blue and yellow traditional plaid on the same page, that honestly, for the price, how could I leave it behind.  Under 6 dollars a metre?  I am never allowed to go to the buy one, get two free sale again.  Never, or until I find something that is a good accident.

Then I went over to Muna and Broad.  I have occasionally looked at their Huon shirt.  I keep wondering if that neckline could be adapted to a kind of tiny pleats in place of the gathers.  Maybe for the blue plaid as a test muslin?

Wouldn't you know it.  They have a new shirt design out with a fitted sleeve that still keeps their overall design sensibility of comfortable serviceable, wearable garments.  Check it out.  It is the Tarawi Shirt  .  And, lo and behold if Jess isn't modeling a boldly checked black and white shirt.  Ha. Any feelings of guilt that may have been creeping at the edges about my shirt fabrics are just gone.  This was meant to be.  So Tarawi and Huon came home with me.

Today is my last day with the kids.  By suppertime, they will be home with mom and dad and they will be bouncing all ready for going back to school.  They are so looking forward to seeing friends and their chatting between themselves shows that they love who their teachers are and can't wait to wave at Mrs.  Seacrest who taught both of them grade one.  

September means back to the usual, back to routine, for me too.  Still I am really going to miss my wee folk.  I am going to miss them a lot.  But not going to miss the goo and the mess.  Not at all.  Looking forward to the simple comfort of my own messes for a change.  And soup.  Looking forward to good warm soup.    

Desultory knitting but the results are good.  I had hoped to get this into the done pile before Stash Dash's end on the 28th but no go.  I just could not.  

Cassis loves it and it looks fantastic.

And yup, mid length sleeves.  It won't be long before it is done, once I get there.

The kids are with me for one last sleepover before school.  They go home for good tomorrow and I am going to miss their sweet little hearts and putting them to bed and having serious conversations about stuffies and good friends and all the things that little boys need to talk  about, and about hair and style and all the things girls just starting to get into such things think about.  My wee sweet thing is becoming an idependant young woman and it is happening so very fast.

The kids and I are doing a major take apart and put session before they go home tomorrow.  They have left bits of clothes and sweaters and it is time to gather them all up along with the yoyo, the hat, the extra stuffies living in the cracks by the walls and every mask we can find.  The beds need to come apart and be taken down and washed.  

And when everyone is gone back to their usual routines again, grandma has a few things like a big stash dig, to make sure our friendly little moths have not made any incursions.  I am a little late on that this summer, but kids.  A  good clean is due for the whole house too so I don't expect a lot of knitting content this week.  

But after that, look out.  Marcus has asked for fingerless gloves and he wants them in red yarn.  I know I have many reds, but for kids things I really prefer a superwash.  Do I have a red sock yarn that I do not already have a use for?   Cassies sweater is due to be finished early as is their momma's cowl and wrist warmers so this little request just gets added to the pile.  These are all rushes as well as the sewing Cassie wanted done.  

So lots to keep me going to the end of September if I push hard.  I have my own few things to start too, warm winter pants to sew and cozy sweaters in homey camfortable warm yarns.  I love fall and all the knitting that just naturally seems to happen. 

I have a cold.  Nasty head thing with a sore throat.  Comes from visiting babies and kissing kiddies with noses that drip and such things.  Oh well..

Ginger Tea please and pass the Honey and lemon.

A Mish Mash and Busy With It.

This is the most used handmade thing in my house right now.  The last few days it has been chillier and Marcus wraps himself in it day and night, unless he is playing outside.  

He is the ghost voice from under the blanket.

I also put my wool blanket back on my bed.  And for at least a few open window nights, I have thought about putting my wool filled comforter into use too.  

When summer started I had a ton of things I was going to do, and with the advent of the kids coming, everything changed.  Back to school means back to routines and routines for school don't include grandma. I am tired and ready for it to be over and yet, man am I going to miss them.  I think they feel the same.  It was not in their list of interesting things to do being ferried from grandmas house back and forth for the whole summer.  They miss their beds and the cats and mom and dad something fierce.  We have done what we could to make it easier for them, but they are both so little and so big at the same time.

Back to school also means back to my list of things to do.  I have to deal with raising the kitchen chair so that I can sit in it and enjoy the sun in the big window.  It is too low to get out of at the moment. Another kitchen project is to repot the plants I have in the kitchen.  The spider plants are just a wee bit agressive. I have my footstool project to finish.  My wip bins are getting new tops with heavy stuffing so they make more comfortable footrests.  Part of that process is to recover the base of the Bosnas stool with a dark navy fabric as well.  Two are covered already and have been waiting for a better cushion for quite a while now.

F1 is finally done the summer break.  The Begian Grand Prix is Sunday and I am so very much looking forward to it and to the races that follow.  

Knitting today is going to be Cassie's sweater.  I have decided what sort of finishing I will do and i am just going to cross my fingers that she likes it. She vetoed standard button bands so grandma had to think on that a while, but we are good now.  I cord to the rescue.  All pullover all the time.  That ought to keep me busy through the weekend and after that, definitely the Agate Cove pullover for me.  Might be another sweater started at the same time.   You just never know.  Always a plan.  Always lots to keep busy with. No time to feel too alone.

And so it goes.

Darn it all.  I had Cassie try this on this morning and I forgot to take a picutre.  She said no go to a second time.  Sigh.  She has this really great haircut too.  I always wanted really curly hair like my friend Adel or really really fine straight hair like Cassie and her mom have, the kind that shows off really great haircuts and where angles of the hair lines work.  I have niether.  Sigh.  She looks really great though.  

But she did put the sweater on and it fits nicley.  

We talked today about how else she wants it.  Pullover she said.  It's a wee bit late for that so I am going to keep going with what I have and will then do buttons atop a sewn closed button band.  she has also asked for short sleeves, not real short but elbow length.  I am really good with that part.  And she also wants the back a bit longer than the front.  So, cool in her sizes too.

I'm just going to keep pushing on this garment for now.  I got fabric for the farmer shirt she asked for.  

She has good taste, my granddaughter.  She does.  Hers is the classic red and just in case Marcus asks for something, he can have blue.  If not, the blue will be a great addition to my own slowly growing wardrobe.  

My sewing pretty much came to a stop over the summer.  Oh well.  I have summer fabric for next year and if I just keep picking away at it all, I will have most of the things I wanted sewn before next summer.  

The sewing for this fall and winter has to start shortly, once the kids are back in school but it's okay.  There isn't nearly so much of that.  I have a couple pieces for warm shirts, both very pretty plaids and I want a few more warm pants.  I will have to purchase a bit of jogging fleece for them, but there really isn't much other fabric I need. I may cave and get some more t shirt type fabric to make a few more long sleeved undershirts like the one I already made using the Torrens pattern.  I do have a couple turtlenecks that are pretty new but my gosh I love that shirt, but I have a few shirts that do that job and till they die, it will have to do.

I made that first as a test muslin but it has become one of my favourite things.  I didn't want to start cutting pretty fabrics without knowing what the pattern fit like or how I needed to cut it for myself.  I cut to top to fit my top closley and the bottom to fit my hips.  It's a stretchy fabric so I figured it would at least be wearable no matter how I like it.  But it really worked well, and that was a real bonus for me.  It did show me that it was not how I wanted it to be for woven fabrics and the woven fabircs have been cut quite differently.

Fabric for more legging style pants for cozy under layers?  Check.

Fabric for dressy pants to wear with my pretty sweater? Check.

While I do hope to sew some in the fall, I remain as ever all about the knitting.  Sweaters are my winter clothing.  I have these few small things to finish and then I want to get to some good warm sturdy winter things.  I have the pretty Quoddy Blue Agate Cove to knit and I have some B & L Heritage too that really deserves to be knit.  I have some sturdy green Cascade Eco and a red too that will be just what I need for warm sturdy wear this fall.  

After Christmas there will be time for lighter weight yarns and pretty things from delicate silks and linens, but fall and early winter?  It is all about the heavy warm garments.  

Apparently mitts too. Marcus has asked me for gloves with the finger tips off them.  Such wee hands.  Probably, because he asked.  We shall see.  I was kind of thinking mom needs a par to go with her cowl.  I have the yarn and it would look stupendous in a simple fingerless glove.

Pooped.

We played with babies and toddlers yesterday to my heartx content , Cassie shopped with the girls and she loved it and Marcus and Carter laughed and ran and Isaac and I talked and we all had a great time.  Two of us fell asleep 5 minutes from my house and one of us was so out of it that she had to be carried in.  

There was too much to do to even think about taking out my knitting.  Is that what balance looks like?  If so, it's cute!

I am really hoping that some fabric came for Cassies 'farmer' shirt.  She saw that gorgeous pice of yellow and black plaid I have and she told me about something she wanted for school. I hope to be able to sew it up before school starts.  We are doing a mail run today, with our fingers crossed.  

Otherwise the only thing the day holds is dreaming of more things I can't wait to knit and a little bit of knitting before the kids go home for the weekend.  

Our summer together is fast winding down.  Next week is the last full week.  Possibly a day or two the next but school starts September 1.  I am looking forward to it being done but at the same time, getting used to so much quiet again has its problems.  I miss all my little ones.  I could hardly bear to leave Scott and Amy's yesterday, if I'd had more of my meds with me, I would have told my munchkin Emmett that I was staying.  

I will miss the people but not the noise and bustle.  

Centered but...

Feeling a bit more centered this morning, a bit more like I know what they day will be.  

The day ought to have been visiting with Amy and all my other grandkids, but tomorrow will be better for her to get what she wants out of the day so tonight the kids go home and then in the morning when they get picked up, we go straight to their house.  All is good.  Girly shopping for Cassie with Auntie Amy and others will commence.  Grandma kissing chubby toddler cheeks and sweet babies will begin and all my little boys will run and generally get in trouble just as they ought.  

I settled yesterday to starting Cassie's sweater.  I thought I had written about the purple problem for this wee sweater, but apparently not.  

I had one full ball of the deep almost black purple from her original sweater as well as a small partial ball.  When I stash dived last, I pulled out all the other purples that would work for this sweater.  

I have a really gorgeous cashmere and wool single that was absolutely perfect with the Fluro Loco Alegria, and there was enough to do the whole sweater but that yarn was not a superwash and I really feel that a kids sweater ought to be superwash if you want it to be worn in a  working parents houshold.

I have enough Elsbeth Lavold Silky Wool in a lovely deep purple too, but again, the superwash part is missing.  I do have a ton of deep purple bamboo tape sort of yarn but it will not work well with the Alegria.  

So these were what was left.

 

You can see the purple Black Smooshy in the bottom left corner.  Bottom right is a skein of a Colinette sock yarn that matches quite well, but is not a reliable superwash.  And up top, a slighly different tone of purple, a more red purple from Sweet Georgia's Tough Love Sock line.  

Odd as it is, I went with the Tough Love sock.  The colour is a wee bit different but the ease of care and the wearability of the yarn is so important.  I am using the alernate purple in the striping section, two rows out of four to trick your eye into only seeing a harmonious whole purple and so far, I think it is working. 

I didn't use it for the neck section at the top of the sweater and am hoping that I won't have to use too much in the finishing of it. Button bands, cuffs and hems will, I hope all be the dark purple original.  

I'm knitting at a fairly loose gauge.  Cassie is one of those perennially warm people.  I want the sweater to be really draping and to be light enough that she can wear it to school and not find it too warm.  Otherwise, it is a basic v neck with raglan sleeves knit as long as I can using the yarns I have on hand.  

I feel more centered but looking at my glass cabinet full of pretty things, I know I could start a hundred more and not be ready to stop. Centered but not yet settled.  

I Dunno

This morning, I dunno.  I really don't.  I don't feel like knitting on the pretty softness of Olga's cowl, though it can use the time.  I really don't feel like working on finishing the Threipmuir.  I'm not sure it is where I want it to be and it needs more thinking before I know for sure.

What I really want is to start 18 new things, and get them all done today.  The done part isn't actually that important.  It really is just that I want to be working on something, anything new and fresh and sweet.  

I have the yarns all pulled and prepped to knit the Agate Cove pullover with it's pretty colourwork but there are so many other things I want to knit now.  

I could start Cassie's purple sweater, a reknit of one she had when she was tiny.

Everything is there and waiting.  

I could start Olga's sweater from yarn purchased some eight years ago, a stress buy when the world was falling apart, but a purchase I have never not for an instant, ever regretted.  

Oh Madtosh, how I love you and dream of working with you.

I could start the sweater/top I saw in this pile of yarns.  The idea runs strong plus no pattern so it would be fun to trust the gauge, the tape measure and understanding of what needs to come next (not so certain a thing as I would wish) is really all I'd need.

I could start a something from this pretty red wool, 

or this delicate laceweight

I could go on and on and that is before I even glance at the closet and the boxes of yarn there.  Glancing at the yarn in the closet is imminent.  Time for a big dig as soon as school is back in.

Time to get the need to start something new out of my system before I dig.  If I go in there wanting something but not knowing what, is far too dangerous a thing to bear.  Also my display cabinet out here is not big enough for more yarn yet and I hate the idea of putting any of it away.   

I need to be strong.  Start only one thing new, work out this urge, put the project in a WIP bin and move on.  That is what I need to do.  

But I dunno.  Maybe I need more? 

I could start another embroidery...

A Zig Zag

I zig zagged and I am pretty thrilled with it.

I originally bought this Bird of Paradise colurway of RCY's Adam & Eve and a dyed to match mohair that I really wanted for another project I plan to knit, in the matching colourway from Handmaiden,  to make a Love Note sweater, but shortly after I got the yarn, my daughter in law asked me to make her a cowl.  She wanted something she could wear while she drives to work or shopping but that would be fuss free to take off and to wear as she was in stores.  The obvious thing to me was this yarn.  Everything about it is her.  The bright clear, strong colours suit her completely and she approved.

  

And after some consultation, I am making a simple huge tube, longer than my own, because I have the yarn.  

It is just a marvelous mash of pinks and golds and blues and greens and having the mohair carried with it, it blends and smoothes and softens without muting or softening.  It just becomes a more cohesive gorgeous colour than alone. It is really gorgeous.  

To say nothing of the yarn.  I love my rustics for myself.  I love the feel of them and the warmth and the way they look.  They suit me.  But I love this fine stuff too.  

I love it all and that is a wonderful thing.

Brave

Yesterday was one of those days.  The kids were squabbly and irritable and I felt that way too shortly after picking them up.  It couldn't get worsre though for the most part it did, until the wasps.

We had to change our scenery yesterday to change the general mood so we went to our nearby town for lunch.  We decided to have a picnic at the giant egg park and so that is what we did.  

We found a table that was not too far off so even grandma could get there.  The kids carried lunch stuff and we all sat down.  And the wasps decided to join us for lunch.  I didn't really see much of a problem in this.  You sit still, they leave you alone.  However, Cassie and Marcus are very afraid of bugs, any bugs, and wasps are a bug.

They cried, they ranted they screamed.  There was even a fair moment of full on panic when the wasp went inside out bottled drink for a bit.  Certain small people went to the car to eat and closed the doors and refused to open the windows no matter what.  It was hot out but they did not care.  They saw safety in the closed up car.

I packed up everything that I thought was left and joined them in the car.  We were about to head out till we noticed one bottle of pop sitting on the seat of the picnic table, not quite empty.We couldn't leave it, so Cassie ventured carefully out to get it to put in the garbage bin.   She was petrified.  Truly petrified.  She stepped out of the car and then froze for just a moment and then took a breath and just went for it.   It was the bravest thing I have ever seen.  She didn't conquer her fear but she went anyway, in spite of her fear.  

Marcus was in the back seat, very very worried for Cassie.

I told her to go close and to stand real still till the wasps were gone, and then to put her hand over the top of the bottle and walk slowly to the bin.  And she did.  I don't think she breathed at all.  And then it was over.  

She could have refused to go.  She could have just said no and let it at that.  I'd have let it go if she had succumbed to her fear but her own sense of how to leave the world sent her out to deal with a problem.  And I did not have to insist or beg.  She made the choice and took her stand and I am so gosh darn proud.

The day improved.  Marcus treated her like a hero for the rest of the afternoon.  No fights till close to bedtime.  It was a pretty good day when all was said and done.

Whoddathunkit?

I finished off the ribbng last night and bound it off.  this generally means that it is as long as it will get.  Honestly though, we shall see.

When I was trying it on last night, I was feeling that I may need to do the short rows over.  I had hoped for a wee bit more  extra length than I have on the back of the sweater and, if I am 100 percent honest, I wish I had started the short rows a wee bit farther to the front.

I started the short rows at the underarm side purl rows.  It's okay but in order to get more rows,  I would have had narrow the back dropped part.  That wasn't the look I was wanting at all.  This is okay and it is a good two inches  longer than the front..  It will be fine and yet I have that niggling stupid voice in my head going, it's not good enough.  I won't really know till after it is washed at the end of the whole knit.

I worked last night till it was bound off, but it was still kind of early and the kids were at home over night, so it was quiet.  I picked up stitches for sleeve one and as I was doing so, I started thinking about where this sweater seemed to be going and what it was wanting to be, if I am going in the right direction, that is.  

I was going to just do an ordinary sweater but I do love the cropped look so I changed that to be more like the the Soldotna or the Sipila sweaters.  But what about sleeves?  I had not considered sleeves before.  Both of these sweaters show short sleeves and both look good with longer sleeves too.  But what do I want?  How will I want to wear it?  

Well I know that it will be worn mostly with wide legged pants, such as the Glebe Pants from Muna and Broad or my soon to be sewn Winslow Culottes from Helen's Closet.  I like that look.   I also know that this is wool but it is a sport weight so when I wear it in winter, I will be wearing it with a shirt underneath, either a t neck or other high cut neckline, always with long sleeves.  I know this because those are the shirts I wear in winter as a base layer and when I wore my Myrtle Sweater (Harrisville Shetland, also a sport weight) last winter, I needed to wear a good warm base with it to keep me feeling cozy.  From that same experience I also know that I don't really want the sleeves for this sweater to be full length.   My poor Myrtle's sleeves were always getting wet.

Armed with this information, I took the decision to go with a short sleeve.  Not quite a short sleeve as the Soldotna shows. That appears to be only a couple rows and the ribbing.  I'm going with my usual couple inches before the ribbing. 

That means that I will have this sweater done in very short order,  well before Stash Dash is done.  Whoddathunkit? This is going to be my highest finishing total to date!  Pretty good for a year that three weeks ago, I felt even my median goal of three thousand metres was way out of reach.  Whoddathunkit?

A Grand Sort of Day

It is really interesting to me that some days, my little bit here and there knitting seems to produce nothing and then whammo.  All of a sudden a thing is getting pretty darn close to completion.

As evidence of this truth, after knitting forever and a week or two, this sweater was magically at the point where I had to decide what I wanted it to be.  

I love tunic length tops.  With slim fitted pants such as I now have in my wardrobe, they look marvelous.  They look pretty good with wide legged pants that seem to be coming into style, or at least it seems to be happening in my wardrobe.  (I hope that it becomes like skirt length finally has: anything is available and it is all ok. That is very different than the way it used to be)  I have been wearing my wide legged pants all summer and they are so much cooler to wear than my closely fitting pants.  While a tunic top looks good with both, a more cropped top looks seriously fine with wide legs but on my body shape, really bad with fitted pants.  But that doesn't mean that I shouldn't consider wearing cropped things, only that in my style adventures (still blown away that I am having style adventures!), I will probably feel more comfortable wearing a more cropped top with wide legged pants.

In the end, that really is what the conversation is about:  What are you comfortable in?  All summer I have been thingking of giving a more cropped sweater a try.  I have been looking at Soldotna and Sipila and those gorgeous designs by Jacqueline Cieslak, Rift and Ursa.  In truth, I come fairly close to cosidering Cieslak my guru in a way of my all style adventures, but I digress.  As I was sitting here knitting, I realized that this sweater, is so close to the point where it was ready for the choice of cropped version of not to be made that I took a good long look at it.

I did some measuring and some comparing with other patterns, and to the Rift pattern and Ursa, I was at the optimal length for a nice cropped top. Or I would be once the bottom ribbing was knit.  But I still have my problem of a chilly back.  I wanted to go longer at the back so that when I sit, I still have a nice bit of sweater preventing a chill on my lower back while I wear my sweater and lovely wide legged pants.  I used short rows to make a nice slow slope for that back and made the back a good bit longer.  And then magically, it was time to start this:

It really is magic.  I knit a couple inches on the body of the sweater yesterday, then knit the short rows to make the back longer plus about 5 rows of ribbing in a single day, and the kids are here.

My house of course is a disaster.  The kitchen was the drink station for the herd of kids (the regualr kids next door and the new little girl who just moved to the other side of us)  that were playing and there are juice makings on the table and glasses everywhere. Cassie and Marcus understand the word stranger very well and know that it doesn't apply when a little girl is looking longingly at your chaisng around on the sidewalk in front of your house.  They went right over, introduced themselves and the kids from next door and pretty soon a good time was being had by all (As interepid local reporter on our local newspaper used to say) We had a surprise supper from Uncle Keith last night so I didn't have to look at the table and could avoid the mess for the evening, but today...today we meaning me, must do the adulting required and clean up the icky sticky mess.  But the kids had fun and I had a chance to really get in some good knitting time when I needed it most.  

A grand day was had by all. It really truly was.  I wasn't sure I would ever say that about this certain August day again, and yet here we are.  It really was grand.

The stuff of days

Keith, aka the landlord spent a whole week of holdiays sorting out weird fix it chores in the hoouse and getting his one big job done.  He fixed his shower drain issue downstairs.  He Fixed the one kitchen sink drain and put in a new faucet while he was under there.  And he cleaned out the garage of much of the old crap from when I moved here and when he was doing his own renovating downstairs before he moved here. 

Cleaning the garage was really cathartic for him.  He found all kinds of interesting stuff and suddenly he is looking at a garage that he will be able to park in this winter.  He asked me if I could go through a couple boxes that were mine so I did.  One of them was my camping box.  I want to keep the stove.  you never know when the power goes out and you need a cup of coffee.  That is emergency stuff.  But I did free up utensils to go back to the kitchen and that freed up this nifty little bag.

It's a great little bag perfect for a small shawl project or socks.  Kids sweaters or indeed even a sweater knit in parts.  It's really nice to have it back in my knitting things.

The other thing I revived last week was my little old laptop.  I have charged it occasionally to check that it worked but a couple weeks ago it fell from it's storage space and landed hard on the floor.  I hate to lose it.  It's all backed up but still, it was my first computer all my own.  There are memories.

The kids first question was does it have games.  Not really.  It was before all the little appy games they know.  But they found my two veersions of solitaire and they are discovering those games.  They do have limited time on devices, but honestly, this laptop is so old, I am not sure you could call it an electronic device.  Plus, the game they are playing requires math of a sort so surely it is allowable after they used their time for the day?

And there is pretty good progress on the sweater.  You can see the effect of y less than perfect colour choice, the teal against the seafoam Sport but you can also see the glory of the teal and seafoam in combination with the gold.  I love this sweater and am going to try to push it and get it done by the end of the month.  

I am doing the Stash Dash with the Knit Girllls again.  I needed the extra motivation to make me finish the shawl.  However, I did declare in the in the three thousand meter category and the shawl alone ended up with 3200 metres, plus I already had a thousand metres from the green Cotton Jeans sweater, so I am well past target.  If I finish this sweater by the end of the month, I will be over the five thousand mark so that is my new goal.  With such success so far, maybe I can manage a wee bit more.

And it is also that day again.  My heart is utterly broken and yet, I am alive and feel good and content with the life I have.  

My greatest sorrow is that he did not get to know all our little people.  He would have loved them so.  To see their faces light up when you walk in the room.  He would have loved that.  But life goes on no matter how much I miss him and slowly, ever so slowly I am making my peace with that reality.

  “I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

What to do with the time that is given to us. That is the thing. I am glad some of my kiddies are with me today. 

Over/Under/Round and Round

I spend a lot of time doing not a whole lot, or so it always seems to me.  Reality and sense says that I overestimate what can reasonably be accomplished by me in a day and  underestimate just how long a thing takes.  In between this over under nothingness, I knit.  And because it looks great, I will talk about the knitting first.

With fall coming on, I felt it was a good time to switch from the little green top to my Threipmuir.  Threipmuir will be needed come September.  Sport and fingering weight garments are perfect for the cool mornings coming.

It's easy knitting too.  The body is just my usual shaping and then as long as I can get from the yarn or something like that.  The yarn is Briggs and Little Sport and I am only the second ball of Seafoam, maybe a third of the way into the ball.  It is six inches from the underarm so I feel pretty confident that I have lots of yarn to get what I want out of this sweater.  Many people have added some extra colourwork at the bottom and if I needed to, I could do that if I find the seafoam is running low, but like I said, I feel pretty good about where I am on this.

I'm getting pretty good mileage each day too, even though I have only been knitting inbetween other bigger tasks.  See the progress keeper?

Yesterdays work.   That surprised me a bit bit round and round, mostly without thinking makes the knitting go fast.

Most of my day was spent with jam.  Finding a good recipe, pitting enough cherries, getting jars out and ready.  It is many many years since I made any jam at all.  It was a lot of fun.  I have six jars of lovely cherry jam and a mountain of pots and pans.  

I don't remember it taking so many pots and pans before.  

I didn't get everything done that I wanted this week, but I did a lot and much of it was different and not in my usual routine.   Mostly though it was that old nemesis, over under estimating.  I need to work on that.  Still and always needing to work on that.  It is a fulltime occupation.

Cherry Red

The pants are wonderful...but

You knew that was going to happen, right?  The fa bric is everything I hoped they would be.  They are hammed, they drape and look wonderful but for one thing.  They do not stay up properly.  the weight of the fabric pulls them down.  It needs a heavier, wider elastic which I have on hand and it is probably going to need a slightly modified waist band.  

First go, I made a simple casing band and ran the elastic through.  Would have been fine, but for the weight of the fabric.  This time, I am going to pull out the fabric I used for the facings on the top and make a proper decently wide interlined waist band and will use a much sturdier elastic. 

I am not sure if it will be visible as in the whole thing will be this alternate material, a solid black, or if it will be just the inside.  I am kind of leaning to doing the whole band and then finishing it off with a kind of tie look decoration.  I know.  It is an odd thing to think of when you have dressed so plain for so long but this is a peppy fabric and I am inspired.  

I might also shorten the pants.  They are great at the length they are but it almost looks skirtlike  so I think I could do mid calf and still have it look great.  

That will be the job for a bit later.  I want to get the cherry red polka dot dress going first.  There are facings and sleeve bands to sew.  Then to attach them together and before you blink, the top of the dress is done.   Once that is complete, only the skirt remains.  I have a feeling that the skirt will be shorter than the other dress, perhaps even down to tunic length.  I would wear that year round where a dress is really more about being fresh and cool.  

Any way somehwere in the day, I do hope to get to cut out some tops, but before all of this, I have some jam to make.  The cherries were good this year.  Keith waterd them with the water from the spring under the house and with no rain in blooming time and lots of sun since, we have a bumper crop.  

Mmmm cherry pie. Mmmm Cherry red dress. The weird thing is I don't even have to look hard to find yarn that colour either. Just a quick glance to the side will do. Mmmm cherry red yarn.   Pretty good no matter which way I go today.

Golden

I sewed a bit yesterday.  I didn't get there till the afternoon, but I did sew.

And...it was stressful.  

The stuff I am sewing right now, a pair of lovely wide legged Glebe pants, is a very very light knit.  It is stuff that is more suitable to a skirt or undergarments or something.  It is almost see through and I think would be more likely to be like tights that are not pants if it wasn't that I was lining them with an equally light weight knit.  

It has to be pinned within an inch of its life.  It has to be sewn with absolutely no pulling on it, just let the machine do the work.  It is slippery and slidey and is driving me mad, except for one thing.  I think I am going to love these more than any other pair of pants I ever make.  I think that after wearing the top around the house a little bit the day I sewed it.  It's a wonderful fabric against my skin. 

 And it is going to make me love working with rayon.  Rayon will be a cakewalk by comparison.  This is a good thing because the pretty red and white polka dot dress that is up next is all rayon.

This afternoon when I have sewn enough, I am going to cut out some of that great cotton that I picked up the last time I ordered from my favourite fabric supplier.  I am looking forward to this too, because each of the fabrics is three metres.  Top one will be a Torrens Box Top and hacks thereof and the second from each piece is going to be a Nullabor Cami.  I love the Box Top pattern.  Those will be easy sewing even with the kids around, but the Nullabor is not one I have tried before.  

I wasn't even sure I was going to bother with it if I am honest. I bought the pattern but then when push came to shove, I really wasn't in love with the idea of  the separate shoulder strap construction.  I thought it was going to be one of those things that got buried at the bottom of the pattern pile, never to be sewn.   I thought I would end up replaceing it with a bevy of tops from an really old basic tank pattern I have. 

And then during a search for Muna and Broad on Instagram, I realized that there were a lot of really great tops from this pattern and a couple really cute dress hacks.  The more I looked, the more I liked.  And then somebody talked about it being something you could get from a yard and a bit and I was sold.  By having the strap separate, you lose the need for yardage.  And, if like me, you have a stash of things you can use for a coordinating facingor if you are so inclined, a dramatically clashing facing, you are golden. 

That's me.  I am golden.  But I still have to sew the knits.  That can only mean one thing.  More coffee and then get down to it.       

Quoddy Blue or Pesto?

I have a big decision coming shortly:  what to knit next.  There are so many things but there are a few that I really want to have ready before it gets too deep into winter.  

I'd like some very pretty things but I would also like some good work around the house sweaters out of sturdy yarns.  Do I go for a simple v neck raglan out of something from in my stash, some Cascade Eco perhaps, or possibly even Mission Falls 1824 Wool, with a pouch for my hands like this sweater

or do I knit something that really feeds my soul, colourwork or some twisted stitch knitting?  Feeds my soul seems to have won.  

I have two choices, to knit the Sun Dogs sweater from Laura Aylor in this gorgeous Pesto speckle from MidKnit Cravings.    

 

This one would feed my soul plus I have decided what to do with the neckline to make the sweater not be just another round neck I knit.   That is where the green comes in.  The solution?  A dicky like insert.  Maybe collar to be sewn in is a better way to think about it.  I really want something on the back of my neck.  

Or do I knit the Agate Cove Pullover by Knitwise Designs from the Quoddy Blue I brought home from my Epic Journey.  

Okay, this would also feed my soul.  It is such a pretty blue and it has some really nice colour work to go along with it.  See, here we are.  Yet another round neck.  For this one, I am just going to make the neck fit be closer with the same roll and higher in the back neck than would ordinarily be, really just a few more rows and short rows than usual.

They both appeal.  They both have strong points.  One is a sturdier yarn, one is shmaltzier.  Both are interesting knits.  Both round neck with a bit of a something different than the pattern says.  

At this point, the choice would be easy.  The blue would win because it is wound, but since I do not intend to start till the end of the week, and there will be time to wind my pretty Pesto, Sun Dogs is looking pretty good too.

It can't be before the end of the week because I am determined to sew this week and to sew a lot.  I have the things I have spoken of previously, but I also have some tops and a couple camisole like tops to get me through the rest of summer.  And if I can squeak it in, a pair of pants.  

 

Glorious in the Morning

And that is how we do that.  My big Shetland Shawl is finished.

Keith is 6 3 plus a smidgen and as you see, his arms are up.  He couldn't hold both corners on top at the same time.  So something in the range of six feet square.  Unblocked.

The unblocking will probably remain that way but for the lace border and the edging where the border blocking demands it and then only by steam blocking.  I am just not too worried about it.  This is mine to wear at home, alone when I need comfy.

I love everything about it.  Here you can see the delicate gradient of soft, soft colours.  You can see the waves the lace makes clearly and the lace is starting to stand out, though its glory would be better blocked.

I love everything about it including the fact that it is square. 

Many years ago, I knit a Shetland Shawl following The Fir Cone Square pattern from Cheryl Oberle's Folk Shawls.

Then a few years ago,  I knit a square Hansel for Olga's grandmother.

but both were given away.  I wanted one for myself.  There is something that happens when you fold that square to wear that is pure magic.  It is like going from woods fine warmth to the all around snug warmth of coal. That layer of fabric traps air between and the light yarn you have used becomes magnified because you are wearing it in two layers.  

This one is mine, just mine.  I might share it a bit here and there if a grandchild needs to snug up wight beside me, but otherwise it is mine.

I woke up feeling pretty glorious this morning and wrapped it around my shoulders and sat for a bit with my eyes closed, feeling as if there was a hug around my shoulders.