Failures and making it right.

Instead of having a nap yesterday, I decided to bake.  Shoulda had the nap.  Utter failure on my baking for the week. Complete and utter disaster and I didn't even burn it.  How can a thing be too sweet and not sweet enough at the very same time?  Seriously awful and no way to make that right at all.

The only thing that worked 100% yesterday was my supper.  The potatoes were really quite heavenly, perfectly cooked outside and the inside when you bit each piece, it just melted in your mouth.  I am pretty sure this had a bit to do with my cooking but was mostly because I started with a potato that was suited to how I cooked it.  

Muna and Broad just released a bike short pattern and I bought it.  Yesterday was my first go at making some.  I went through the fabrics I had and felt pretty sincerely that the fabric I used had the stretch required.  But no.  No it did not.  I should have checked in a different way and more thoroughly. I have found some of the right stuff online but here is the problem.

I have a lot of fabric on hand.  All of what I have will work for pants, from wide legs to my weird looking but wonderfully fitting pencil pants.  The vast majority has good stretch and washes and wears like a dream. It will work for this pattern with only one modification to the pattern.  So not really a big deal.  Bottom line, do I go with what I have or do I purchase what this pattern requires?

I have thought about it, and I am going to think about buying more fabric after I make a few adapted pairs.  I will buy more fabric when the stuff I have on hand has been used.  I will watch for that fabric to go on sale too.  That is always a great way to broaden your fabric scope at little cost.  I have a feeling that this fabric doesn't go on a great sale very often.    

It was fun buying fabric but it has been a lot of fun watching that flat piece of fabric turn into something to wear, and it is even more fun watching the bins holding the fabric get emptier and emptier.  I am going to stick with that fun in my sewing room for now.  Adapting the pattern begins today.

Having a nap today.  Big one.  Naps are kind of fun too.

A Tale of Two Eltons

I love Joji Locatelli designs.  I really do.  There is just something about that that always seems to work for me.  Her Lipstick sweater is still one of the nicest sweaters I have.  

I loved Elton the minute it came out.  I wanted to make one badly and couldn't decided what yarns.  I couldn't figure it from my stash and eventually, when I decoded to treat myself to some really nice yarn, I thought Elton would be perfect for it.  So I started knitting it in April of 2020.  I only have two WIPs older than that and one of them will be a decade old this November.  I consider that a pretty good finishing rate in the grand scheme of things.  

But this Elton, lovely thing that it is, is still on the upper back, so still on part one. 

And it isn't that I do not love the yarns.  I do.  River City Yarns Adam and Eve in their River colourway and an absolutely gorgeous custom coloured mohair from Fleece Artist to match.  It is stunning stuff and I adore it.  It deserves to be knit on a lot more.

So, when the urge to start something new came over me the other day, when the need to knit lovely BFL 2/8 from Fleece Artist came over me, and when I decided to go with the Elton pattern rather than reconstructing the Tempest design for myself, it wasn't that this lovely River Elton didn't deserve it, it is much more that both yarns deserve a gorgeous design like the Elton Sweater.

The fact that the back yoke is done and that one front yoke is now also done only means that mohair, much as I have come to love what it can do for a garment, is harder to knit than BFL 2/8.

My current plan is to knit the Blue for Ludmila and the green tones for me.  And I think I would like to have them done fairly close together.  

So, I think, that even though I wasn't planning it, I am going to participate in the Stash Dash the Knit Girllls people do, this year.  And my goal is simply going to be to get these two Eltons done by summers end.

Calling my name.

Shirt finishing was the order of the day yesterday.  That came first.  The buttons were on, I hemmed all around and did the handy little hand sewn of facings at the neckline and we are done.  It needs a good ironing though before I call it complete.

It is exactly the kind of shirt I love.  It drapes and flows and is a really great match of fabric and pattern.

I did get a shirt cut out using the new Tarawi shirt.  I am going to keep my fingers crossed for this one.  According to my measurements, it should be right in all respects for a less casual, more fitted sort of shirt.  It does have a few pattern pieces that are unusual but I do get why they did it that way and one piece I am not sure about needing but...

The other thing I did is that I am using the collar pieces to cut out the interfacings.  They generously include a properly sized interfacing pattern piece but I tend to end up with better work if I am matching all hte pieces for size and trimming the interfacing a bit more deeply.  

I have one more thing to cut this morning and then I am going to simply sit and knit.  Because that is important too.  Plus stripes are calling my name and now that the knitting of this version of Elton is well underway, it is very hard to ignore. 

In spain

Good Luck

Sewing was great yesterday.  I only have hems to do and I am uncertain if I will do them as the pattern suggests, a deep hem with mitred corners, or if I will just do a quick and dirty usual, a narrow hem machine sewn.  I think it will be the latter.  Still you never know.  I may yet get a hankering for hand work.

Today I am cutting out a different shirt pattern, the Tarawi pattern from Muna and Broad.  This is a more classically constructed shirt pattern with set in sleeves and a two piece collar and two pockets on the shirt front. Because of the set in sleeve, it is a whole new learning curve in sizing.  There will be measuring.  There will be adaptation.  There will also be no pockets on the fronts because that isn't something I need and I would rather save the time for something much more fun.

I have a test fabric picked out, a nice yellow linen cotton that is close to my favourite bright yellow colour but not quite.  If it fails it is okay.  I will still get my right yellow some time soon and if it works out well, It's a nice enough colour that I would wear it.  Plus it does coordinate with some other fabric I have in the stash, a home decor fabric but why not?  

Plus today, I will also cut out some bike shorts.  I had mangled a thing from my close fitting pencil pants pattern, but I really hesitated about sewing them.  I need the product but I really don't want rolling up or bunching in places where I bunch.  You know how it is when you avoid something long enough.  Muna and Broad put out the Dulcie Boxer Brief pattern.  How is it they know that I needed saving?  

The best part?  I have fabric on hand that will work wonderfully well for them and elastic too.  So, while I am putting in my paces and muslin test of the Tarawi pattern, I am also going to do one for the boxer briefs.  It's a big day.

Add that to the errands I need to do today and it's going to be busy as all get out.  Wish me well, wish me luck.     

I Shall Knit

That was a rather marvelous weekend.  The weather was steady and generally warm and bright.  I kept the two new screen doors open most of the afternoons and listened to the neighbourhood kids play and run and fight.  Keith planted the garden and his new trees for the year.  

And I just knit.  Best kind of weekend ever.

I enjoy all the sewing but I cannot wait till I have all the tings I need complete and can get back to mostly knitting.  I can see myself sewing occasionally or seasonally for a few new things, but right now the sheer number of things I needed have made it an epic quest and like all epic quests, there is a point where you just want normal.  I am there.  Having a weekend like this, where i just unabashedly knit to my hearts content, was just great.

The Agate Cove sweater was finished in the blink of an eye and I went through the Wips to see what I would work on next.  Only none of them captured me.  I did knit on the blanket during the race events but that left a lot of knitting time where I wanted to find some joy.  

And I did.  I was thinking about the Tempest sweater and my long, long planned knit of one for myself.  It's a Knitty pattern from way back in 2008 but I still love it.  Long ago, I started assembling yarn for it, first with the deep cedar green BFL 2/8 from Fleece Artist.  I cannot tell you how many times I cruised the internet looking for a colour to use with it for the coordinating stripes.  I would play games at an online vendor called Colorsong, now reborn as Twitchy Hands and make my sweater up in different colours.  Over the years, I spent a lot of time, a lot, doing this and eventually, I bought a variegated to go with the cedar that I had already.  I ended up using the multi for a gift and so the search began again.  A few years ago, I found another multi colour that worked and it waited for me to knit it.   

The cedar here is very washed out and grim looking but up close, it is wonderful.  It looks like a forest floor for greens on my needles.  

I started knitting a variation of the Tempest sweater, but as I worked, it came to me, that I really did not like the shaping of the pattern.  The ultra close fit just is not me.  But I knew exactly what pattern I could use to get the best out of this yarn combination and get the best fit for me:  Elton by Joji Locatelli .  Joji's designs always seem to work for me.  Her way of doing neck and shoulder slope just fits and the dropped shoulder  sleeve fits perfectly plus, there is something about her designs that make them ideal if you need to adapt for hips from another land like me.   And the four row stripes will make the whole thing feel like a speedy knit.

It's womderful.  Sigh.  Really great.  The back yoke is two inches from being done .  

There is a small pile of other yarns that are beside me, and have to go back to the yarn closet.  |They were in the running for things I want to knit right now.  That is the whole problem with my stash.  It all wants to be knit right now as much as I want to knit it.

So yes.  The sewing is good. Sewing will be today and I will apprciate the wearing of sewn goods, but the very best thing of all is that when the sewing is done, I shall knit.  I shall just knit.    

Put Away

This morning when I woke at 6, there was light in the hall.  I thought Keith was up and was getting ready for the first of the F1 Grand Prix broadcasts.  But no.  It was just the early morning sunlight reflecting down the hall.  It is a bright sunny morning and I am kind of looking forward to spending time in the kitchen to do some weekend baking.  It's always nice to start a race weekend with Saturday morning pastry. This weekend, spinach and cheese and a cherry cheese pastry.  There even may be sausage rolls.  No not from my own pastry dough, but Keith, in desperation, bought some phyllo pastry so I guess I have to do something with it.  

In some pretty splendid knitting news, the blue sweater is complete...almost.

It has all the requisite parts:  bottom ribbing, two sleeves, complete torso.  What it is missing is the neck finishing.  There is a welt at the neckline that matches the finish at the bottom of the elaborate looking yoke.  I have a problem.  I put the yarn away.

Putting the yarn away might not be a scary thing for some of you but not me.  It's a bit scary because it is entirely possible that the single skein I need is now residing in the bottom of the most hard to get to bottom container of yarn.  The last time I dug in the stash I did some reordering and putting and I have no idea where it went to.  

I looked in one container that used to house yarns to put away.  I looked in the cabinet of pretty yarns and yarns to knit next.  No go, but I will look again in case I missed them in yesterdays late in the day panic as I realized I had put them away.  I going to look in the box with leftover yarns too.  I may have thought that these yarns would make great mittens or a cowl which indeed they would.  I am alos going to look in the places beside the loom where things may have fallen off the loom stand side tables, where I can see me setting the skeins of yarn for later.  

And then, after checking the bookcases in one final mad realization that no, I put the yarn away, then, and only then, will I go digging in the stash.  

Updated:

I found it!  All I can say is thank heavens I am a terrible putter away-er of things.  In the bag of mitten and hat yarns on the tables at the side of loom stand under the blanket which needs washing and airing before it goes away for season.

Knitting

Today is going to be a knitting day.  I have determined that already.  It's chilly and gray and spitting rain occasionally.  It just feels like a day to knit.  I also really want to finish the blue sweater too.  

But mostly I feel a bit glum today.  I think I will make soup and biscuits for supper and if Keith has his act together, we can have some good sweet jam with the biscuits too.  In a perfect world he could find some clotted cream and we would feast on just the biscuits.  But it is a soup day.  

And a knitting day.  And so it begins.

Completed

Completed:  one pair delicious linen wide legged ultra comfortable Glebe pants.

                     one Torrens boxy top in flowing linen rayon, cuff sleeve.

Completed:  one sleeve of two on sweater.

Need I say more?

#MeMadeMay2022

No knitting yesterday.  Zip.  Not even in the evening.  I opted for a second sitting at the sewing machine and let me tell you, I am really pleased with how it is going.  

I messed up the neckline placket but I have decided not to care.  It doesn't affect the wearability at all and maybe it is a design feature?  This is why I will never be a great sewer, only a basic one.  I am not all that fussy and good sewing demands being detail oriented and really putting a lot of care into it.  I care, only when the going is good in sewing.  Otherwise good enough works.

This is of course, the top that is fast becoming my favourite wearable ever, the Torrens Top from Muna and Broad. I have made four of them, plus my original muslin tester.   

And then the pants.  They don't look like it from here but they are almost done.

There is just one side of the inner leg seams to do plus the waistline casing and elastic and then hemming.  That won't take long at all.  

The fabric for these was a special treat for me a good long while ago. It was one of the first fabrics I bought when I knew that I needed some clothes so 4 years ago at the very least.  It's a lovely heavy weight linen and sewing it is an utter and complete delight.

If you ever really want good linen, go to Maiwa.  Seriously.  If I could afford it, all my fabric would be from them.  Now that I have found how I like to dress again that is.  I lost that for such a long time.  In my perfect world...

If I could really afford it and if I could get my size, (many pieces are, but I still can't afford it) I would buy my clothes from their vendors!  Just looking at the lines of ready made things they have is such an inspiration.  

One last bit of what my day is and I must say, this round of laundry is very rewarding.  Three of the shirts I sewed last week were in the wash for the first time (other than the prewash I give all fabrics) and I can happily say no ironing for these.  A careful fold is all they need to stay ready to wear.  The plain rayons?

They are going to need some ironing.  Or at the very least immediate hanging. Sigh.  Keeping my fingers crossed for the rayon linens blends.  I have another striped rayon linen striped blend cut out for today's big sewing job after the pants are done.

Well that is it.  The coffee in my cup is cold, the first two loads of laundry are done, with the second of them only needing to be put away and it is time to get cozy with my sewing machine.  

 

Sleeves

All that knitting gave me time to think...that I really want to finish this sweater.

I am making good speed on it though not spectacular speed.  Protosleeve.

It's about seven inches long and I am pretty much knitting till I have all the decreases done so it fits my arm.  It's not a technical process or even remotely mathy like many knitters do.  The really good knitters do the math and work it out, but I find I just keep knitting till the sleeve fits somewhere down my arm.  Since I am most often hoping for a 3/4 sleeve,  I have some leeway.  I do hope to be close to completion of sleeve one by the end of the day.  Or at the very least, close to the ribbing.

This morning is sewing though.  I cut a lovely piece of linen for pants and two different shirts late last week, and I mean to do a significant amount of sewing today.  Pants and one shirt is what I am hoping for.

I could keep chatting along but rather than chatting, its time to prop my tablet and turn on the audiobook (Busman's Holiday by Dorothy Sayers) and get right to work.

In spain

Time to Think

I had a plan to cut and sew yesterday but when I got in there, the last thing I felt like was sewing, or cutting or anything to do with fabric.  I wanted to just go and sit and knit or sit and read or do dishes.   

I was a little concerned.  I have still quite a bit of sewing to do and there are still things I need and things I would like.  I don't want to run out of steam now.  I made myself cut out one shirt and then I could stop if I felt like not sewing.  

I stopped at one and went off to knit.  Before I went I took a quick look through my boxes of fabric to see what other top fabric I had.  It gets a little fuzzy, you know.  But I went off to knit.

Ribbing.  Yes.  I made it to the ribbing.  It's very exciting.  I feel relaxed and I had a good time and even better, I had time for a good think.  

I needed that, just to really have a good think about the sewing and what clothes I want to make next and about fabrics.  

Today the plan is to cut out some plain comfortable pants in this marvelous piece of linen that I have and a coordinating Torrens with a hacked neckline and cut to be just a bit longer than is called for.  And to finish the ribbing on my sweater. 

Glad

I'm glad.  Glad, glad, glad.   That come straight out of Pollyanna in case you do not instantly get my reference.  No matter what happened, she was glad.  And so am I.

About buttonholes.

This sewing machine is new to me and while it is a pretty standard buttonhole process, there are quirks and adjustments and adaptations.  It took much more fiddling to get it right than I thought it would.  But when I got it right, it made very nice buttonholes.  

And I finished a couple really nice shirts.  Really nice.  

The plan for today is to cut out two more shirts with this pattern, the Waikere pattern from Muna and Broad, this morning, and then move on to the Tarawi pattern next week. Tarawi has a more fitted sleeve construction than this nifty sleeve band on Waikere.  

There was knitting too.  Maybe, just maybe this will get done!   

I am looking forward to the sewing being more or less complete, so I can move on with my knitting plans.  I am burning to knit more,  but right now the need is still here for sewn garments.  Soon.  Soon.  

For now, I'm just going to be glad, glad, glad, glad, that I have the chance to do this for myself.  It's empowering and a very special kind of joy.

One Trick Pony

It seems I am a one trick pony.  I can only really do one thing a day and the day I thought I might have found balance?  That was probably me just really settling into sewing.  Sigh.  Oh well.  Things are getting done and I have clothing.

I sorted out and put away fabric today.  The piles were getting a bit out of control.  There is a box with left over pieces that needed to be ordered, added to and put away.  There was the box of old patterns that needed sorting and recycling.  There was a pile of pants fabric that could be put away till a wee bit later in the year.  Then there was fabric to pull out to make the two crinkle cotton tops I was thinking of this morning, plus I kept out the very pretty almost vintage fabric too.  

I have had this fabric since the mid nineties, when I was sewing for office garments.  It is a pretty polyester with a lovely little embroidered motif all over it.  I am not sure that it would take a lot of wear and tear, but I just feel I should have one dressier thing.  This top will work under a shirt style jacket (it will be made with a sueded fabric I already have on hand) to be as dressy as I will ever need to be.  Time to wear it and not just admire it.

Do you know what the really cool part is?  There is enough of this fabric left to make a short sleeve blouse, so you may see it again when I am working with the regular sleeved Tarawi shirt pattern. I must have been planning for several blouses in my original purpose.  It is a wide fabric and there is a lot there.

I cut out the three tops and sewed them in batches. I did all the interfacing parts for all the tops and did the pressing so they were ready to be added to the fronts and backs.  Once that is done for these tops, there really isn't much left to do.  Two of the tops are completely finished but for hemming

and the third one, a black crinkly gauze, is ready for facings and sleeve cuffs.  From there, it is about a thirty minute job to completion.  The hemming on all of them will be done tomorrow.  By machine.

If I get up at a half decent hour tomorrow, I will get this all done and will face the buttonholes.  Which I have once again successfully avoided.

Yup.  

If you are good at something keep it handy in your arsenal.  Even if your super power is avoiding stuff.

Next Steps

On Friday, I was busy off and on.  It was a race weekend so knitting was the Sock Monkey Cabin Blanket.  Again.  But make no mistake, I love this foolish blanket.  The lady who got the bug from me has knitted more than a few too.

There was sewing too and a weird bit of a revelation.  

 I pulled out the rest of the fabric that matches this top.  

I have always loved it. It was sewn for my epic adventure and worn frequently used since.  I had enough fabric left to make a skirt.  I hoped.  I knew it would be a close thing and because of that, I just never tried.  As my sewing ramped up, I felt maybe I could manage culottes from it.  You know how it goes.  Things get larger in memory.  They might have been a go if I wanted shorts but that was a no go, so skirt it is.  I took enough fabric off the length to make an adjustment I needed on top.  Originally, the top had a bit of too little ease across my bustline.  In order for it to feel good, I needed to add a little something.  

I added a four inch panel and made an inverted box pleat which I hope to add buttons to.  I had seen this on a store online and felt it might be a good way to work this added fabric, without emphasizing the seam of adding it.  It worked.  

So, here I am, with a complete new 'outfit' to wear.  Or apart.  Both pieces will work wonderfully with a plain piece worn bottom or top.  And here I am with a skirt!  

That kind of caught me off guard.  That I had a first skirt.  I wasn't thinking skirts at all.  Now that I do, I realized I had two pieces of fabric that would coordinate with the skirt and make it fit in with the rest of my things.  

I have two pieces of crinkly gauze type fabric that I have.  One is a taupeish tan and the other, a plain black.  I originally hoped to use it for a peasant style top  but there is not enough of it for that.  So I will make these fine fabrics into Torrens Box Tops.  The colours and textures will look wonderful worn with this skirt and with a pair of Glebe Pants I made from a lightweight patterned knit.  Both pieces are black and taupe/tan.  

And that revelation I talked about?  I'm starting to think about my clothes as a cohesive whole, a wardrobe of garments that work together.  This is a way of thinking I have not used since I did office work.  In this adventure I have focussed so hard on just adding patterns and colour and pants that I never thought farther than that.  I mean everything goes with black pants, right?  I have thought of shirts and little sweaters to wear together, but not coordinating several bottoms and tops.  

Except for once.  One time.  One time I fell for vibrant and dreamed that I might not have to wear black always, that I might have more outfits.   Maybe it is time to pull that out and  sew it because if I can start to see things in this new way, maybe it is time to try a next step.  

Back to the Machine

I gave myself an whole day off of sewing yesterday.  It was really quite grand.  Do you have any idea how much knitting happens when you are knitting all day instead of doing other things?  It's amazing.

I spent the day working on my Agate Cove Pullover.  I know it is winter and common sense says I ought to be knitting on my summer tops, but this is what my hands kept going to in the scattered hours I have been knitting between my sewing so this is what I kept working on for my day off. 

 

I am now at 13 inches so not too far and the body will be done.  I have just started working from the fourth ball of yarn.  The last two, or almost the last two are in reserve for sleeves.  

I had debated doing the pattern again around the hem.  It's just such a nice thing to knit but I think it would take away focus from the punch of just having it at the neckline.  Too much of a good thing can really water down the impact.  If I do full sleeves, I will add it for a cuff, but I am leaning strongly towards three quarter sleeves.  They are just so much more practical around the house.

It is back to sewing though for today.  My mail did bring the interfacing package so back to sewing with a vengeance.  In a perfect world, I will complete at least one top, shirt or something today.  As I get settled into the sewing again, each garment should get faster to finish, right? It does seem to, though it is a slow, slow process for me.  

I am getting so close to having enough clothing again, that I am no longer feeling the hyper focus of my pre dress state.  Having the dresses made such a huge difference to how long my wardrobe works till I need to do laundry. With having a variety of things to wear, comes the luxury of thinking about how I will wear something, and time to really ask myself the question how much do I need.  Too much clothing would be as bad as too little. 

For now, there are a few more blouses and tops that are still needed, and two whole classes of garments that I have talked about, thought about, purchased supplies for, and still need to sew, undergarments and biker shorts to wear under the dresses.  I'd like to get those done in the not too far off future.  But first shirts and tops.  And maybe a skirt or two. 

     

  

I find myself debating button holes this morning.  Do I really need buttonholes on my blouses?  

This is a silly debate because yes, they are going to be made, but my acquaintance with this sewing machine is such that buttonholes so far have been a real hot mess.  After reading the manual, it seems that there is an adjustment screw so I am going to give that a try to see if buttonholes can be better.   

Wish me luck.  I am slightly intimidated and I dearly want to get over it.  

Beyond that, I am in limbo in the sewing rom.  I know I have one thing in the mail, and I hope that my other package, the one with the interfacing will magically appear too.  I thought about cutting out some things today, but I just hate to do that and not have the interfacing to put it all together right away so no new sewing today. 

So knitting today, and possibly some volcanology (of the embroidered kind).  Always time for that.

I have spent nearly two says only sewing.  No knitting.  Nothing.

I worked on the pattern from the black top. It worked out fairly well, I think.  I do need to narrow the neckline next time but otherwise I think it will work well.  I made this top with the same longer in the back look that the black top has, but it will also make a very nice top with an even hem. 

The green of this rayon linen is one of only three misfires of colour made since I have been purchasing fabric online.  I thought it would be a little more kakhi and less kelly.  As it is, it's a rather washed out sandy green that sallows my complection.  Still, it was not expensive material, not so cheap as muslin, but a decent replacement and not too bad for a practice pattern.  It is wearable and this is that.  

I did something on the two shirts and this test top that I haven't done in years.  I hemmed by hand.  I could have done the shirts on the machine but I cheat a bit.  I only sew with black or white thread.  Occasionally that creates a problem such as on the green top where over stitching in white would have looked weird.  I had to do that hem by hand so  it wasn't much more work to do the others as well.  

Or so I thought.

And that is kind of how I spent such a chunk of time sewing.  It took an hour and a half for the first one and the green one was close to yhe same.  The pink and brown plaid went faster for some reason but I won't be doing that amount of hand work again when I don't have to.  

Adventure is out there

There is a thing called MeMadeMay, in which all the sewers and knitters are out there showing off their makes and rejoicing that they can.  It's a great idea.  I think of doing it but I don't really need the pressure. I will appreciate their efforts, enjoy their work and will just toodle on quietly  here in my little corner of the world.

I finished two blouses.  Substantial finished at least.  They need to be hemmed and buttons and buttonholes are still needed.  They are things of beauty even noe before they are wearable.  I can see it as they hang.  I might take them to finished today because the general plan of attack is to copy a pattern off of a top I made when I went on my epic adventure across Canada and make some more of those.  

It's not a difficult top, just a tank style top, scooped neck wide shoulder thing but I got the longer back hem exactly right and I got the drape of it just so.  It remains one of the nicest things I have ever made.  If you looked at the Canadian store for large women, it is the most basic shape for tunics and t shirts and tops in nicely draping fabrics (I'm looking at you rayon).  

I am going to be daring and play around with it and see if I can come up with a sleeve for it.  I have several ideas about how to sort out a sleeve.  One of them involves stealing the sleeve and armscye from the Tarawi Shirt  from Muna and Broad and morphing it to fit the scoop neck tank.  Honestly at this point in my sewing life, its really just something I want to look at and finally understand how they get that thing to go in that hole. If I can understand a thing, maybe I can recreate it?  

I am going to cut out one top today too.  That is just back up in case my ego gets a bit bruised in the general plan of the day.  I am going to cut out my very first, non experimental Torrens Box Top that will be a top and nothing else.  I know.  I have made so many of these and talked about it for so long but the truth of the matter is that I made one as a muslin and then went into dress production.  I have one dress that I further hacked into a blouse rather than a dress.  The dresses are all a variation on a Torrens Hack.  So I have sewed it a bunch of times now and yet not at all.

Adventures abound.  

Balanced?

When I can't sleep at night, when I can't go to sleep for thoughts that will not stop, I watch movies and shows like my old friends Poirot and Miss Marple(noted as Miss because it is proper), there are certain kinds of movies like Ethel and Earnest, a sweet graphic novel of the life of a British couple brought to life by their illustrator son, that are perfect for quietly ending a day.  This is a terrible habit to get into, I know that, but it helped keep me sane.  For the most part, the habit has been supplanted by reading in bed but on the days when my brain won't stop, I still find myself running back to it.  

Tonight I watched 84 Charing Cross Road. I love this movie. I love her search for things to read for inspiration, for learning, for the sheer joy of words being put together.  I love the way she handles books.  She turns them over and gently runs her fingers down the spine.  There is such reverence in her touch. 

The movie is so beautifully made.  Each time I watch this movie, I find some small things that pleases me ever more in the way it is made.  I bought a copy of the book a while ago, and the book itself is a wonder in exactly the same way.  

My mind doesn't want to slow still.  It was one of those days, but in a good way. 

I finally sat down and sewed up a shirt.  By 8:30 I had the dreaded burrito roll procedure done successfully, dreaded procedure only because it is like grafting something.  It takes a while till you can do it with assurance and confidence.  I am still in the need to watch video stage and wait for the aha moment each time I do it stage.  I took a break and knit with the ladies till brunch was ready. I had a nap and still had lots of time to do the collar and front interfacings and sleeve trims.  The shirt is complete but for a try on and buttons and buttonholes.  The button holes will wait as will buttons till shirt two of this pair is sewn on Monday.  Even without these details, I can tell the shirt is a complete success.

I read a while.  Lord Peter Wimsey  ardently trying to save Harriet Vane from imminent danger in Strong Poison.

Pictures later.  The middle of the night is not for photos.

It was such a marvelously balanced sort of day.  I caught myself wondering if in my personal struggle to find a more balanced life, I have been ignoring the days which do have balance and where I am not buried in a storm of hyper focus. Maybe I have more of these days than I think.  Maybe I just need to focus on them a bit more.  

These are the meanderings of the middle of the night and should be paid attention to in about the same way you do with ordinary dreams.  I might go and read to see just how far along Lord Peter has come in his quest to save Miss Vane.  Last I read, he was just consulting with his brother in law on what to do and how long they had to do it.