Month: July 2019

WIP Update

mildlygranola, , , 11 Comments

I missed my normal WIP Wednesday post yesterday. My in-laws babysat so John and I walked to sushi and then to our neighborhood downtown to get a drink. We ended up on a rooftop patio of a restaurant and enjoyed how great how neighborhood is. Please note that the bar serves vodka tonics with huge straws, so it was weird to drink vodka through a smoothie straw. Also, my husband is not Amish, he just shaved his beard like that as a joke and keeps forgetting to shave. I’ve started calling him Mose in the hopes that he will shave.

I have not made much progress on my knitting this week, mostly because I can’t motivate myself to do much other than sew. My playground socks are creeping along, as I keep forgetting to throw them in my purse.

My TDF socks are moving along. We are several stages behind, so these should see some progress again soon. I should have gone up a needle size for these socks, the fabric is very dense. They will be comfortable, but may be too thick to wear in shoes.

I pulled my shawl out to get started on it again. It is slow going, but it feels good to be working on it again.

I am currently sewing a dress for Audrey. There are a lot of steps to this, and I’m not sure I’m up for the challenge, but I’m giving it a try.

I had to run to JoAnn because I forgot to buy bias tape or buy enough fabric to make my own. I ended up buying fabric for four more projects. I have a problem. Meanwhile, the kids love picking out fabric for shorts.

What are you working on this week?

Emerson Sewing

mildlygranola, , , 13 Comments

I’ve been busy sewing lately. Not only have I made things for the kids, I’ve made a few things for myself. I’ve made two pairs of shorts and a pair of cropped pants.

I used the Emerson Pant & Short pattern from True Bias for all three items. I made the chambray pants first and I love them. I wear them constantly. Yesterday I finished the green shorts and today I made the gray shorts. The only change I made to the pattern was increasing the length of the shots by three inches on the gray pair.

I did not love the waistband construction on these pants, and I could not have made these without a walking foot. I’m not entirely sure why I didn’t just do a simple waistband and ignore the directions, I’m never ever ever going to wear a shirt tucked in with these pants, so I wasted a lot of effort on something that will never be seen.

I am not loving my knitting projects at the moment, so I’m going to either cast on a new project or cut out a dress for Audrey tonight. I suppose I could clean my room, but there is always tomorrow for that.

Do you have any patterns you want to make for yourself? Do you also want to copy Alissa and make a Farrow Dress? Should I give up sewing and get back to knitting? It’s too hot to make any decisions.

Sunny Day Shorts

mildlygranola, , 12 Comments

I was at the fabric store with the kids this weekend, and to reward them for being good I let them each pick out fabric for an item of clothing of their choice. Audrey picked fabric for a Minnie Mouse dress. Elliot picked up some knit fabric for construction shorts.

I used the Sunny Day Shorts pattern by Oliver & S. It is a free pattern and is very basic. That was just perfect for the level of effort I was interested in.

I have a few projects ahead of Audrey’s dress, so I was feeling bad about that. Then I remembered the shirt I made in the spring that fits me funny and I was never going to wear. Sometimes it pays to be a large woman with small children.

I did change the pattern a little bit. The waistband seemed fiddly, so I just folded the band in half, sewed it mostly on to the pants, put elastic in it, and then sewed it up the rest of the way. That change allowed me to use 1 inch elastic instead of the 3/4 inch elastic called for in the pattern (yet sadly missing from my stash). Once the waistband was sewn up I pulled the elastic taught and did a zig zag stitch through the middle of the elastic around the shorts to keep the elastic from rolling. I think this will work fine, but if there is some reason I shouldn’t do this in the future please let me know.

I really liked how fast this project was. I can see letting the kids pick out fabric as a reward for good behavior again. I might try making shorts with pockets next time.

Do you have any pattern recommendations for kids?

Camel Hat

mildlygranola, , , 5 Comments

I finished Elliot’s camel hat last night. It is a hit. I decided to go with textured camels, and I don’t love how they turned out. He doesn’t mind them.

He wore it to the zoo this morning. It was 85 degrees (about 30 degrees C) when he finally took it off. It is so rewarding to make something that is loved.

It is very difficult to photograph the camels, but just trust me when you see this picture. They are there. Kind of.

Now the big question: Will I cast on another hat or actually pick up the shawl I want to finish? We shall see.

The 100 Day Project Recap

mildlygranola5 Comments

I mentioned 101 days ago that I was going to do the 100 Day Project again this year. Last year I blogged every day for 100 days. This year I took it easy – I wrote down 3 things I was proud of every day.

It was nice on hard days to remember that I did things that were worth being proud of. It was nice on busy fun days to remember that I was doing things that I should be proud of. It wasn’t easy. Several days I wrote down that I ate vegetables, because there wasn’t much I could think of to be proud of that day.

In the end, writing down three things has made me feel better about myself, and more confident in the life I choose to lead. I am going to continue the practice of writing down three things I’m proud of every night. It has become a nice way to reflect at the end of the day.

In totally unrelated news: the kids both got haircuts today and now they look like big kids. Audrey no longer has hair long enough for a ponytail. Elliot has the hair of a high school boy. Their haircuts suit our outdoorsy lifestyle in the summer, but it is still hard to see them looking so grown up.

Now I’m off to quickly knit a camel hat to cover Elliot’s big kid hair….

WIP Wednesday

mildlygranola, , 15 Comments

I said I needed a break from socks. I didn’t listen to myself.

Last weekend I caught up with my friend Jess. We decided during our Green Bay sock knitting adventures that we were going to start doing a small striped sock club of sorts. We take turns buying the yarn for the other person. When I met her for a walk she gave me the yarn she picked out. She picked it up in Berkeley when she was in California for work. The yarn is not superwash and it’s 100% wool. It’s wooly and I love it. I couldn’t wait to get started, so I cast on a vanilla sock to use as my park knitting project.

Last month when I went crazy at the Iowa Sheep and Wool Festival I bought a project bag, even though I have about 19,000 project bags around my house. I decided that I should justify buying the bag by continually having a project that uses yarn I purchased at the festival on the needles. I won’t rush through these projects, but they will be at the ready. As an added bonus, if I finish knitting all of the yarn I bought this year by the time the festival starts next year I can totally justify getting even more beautiful yarn.

Because I can be a little obsessive about things, I have decided that my current project will be knit only when watching the Tour de France. John and I spend hours and hours watching the Tour each July. I thought it would be fun to see how that watching correlates to knitting productivity. I’m making another pair of Rose City Rollers, as I’m using a 65 g skein. I wanted a project that I could knit even when there is an exciting mountain stage to pull all of my focus.

The yarn I’m using is a farm yarn from the festival. It’s a 65% Cormo/20% mohair/15% Tencel blend. I love the bright pink. Sadly John has to work tonight deploying code, so I won’t get to work on these until tomorrow night.

I was planning on picking up my shawl again this week, but instead I decided to make Elliot a hat. It is the middle of summer, so obviously I need to make a new winter hat for the three-year-old with so many hand me downs I don’t have the space to store them all. Last December John and I spent the day in Winterset, and while there I picked up some camel yarn for Elliot. Elliot loves camels. He sleeps with two camels every night. I felt a camel hat was in order. The yarn is Viking of Norway Camel (78% camel/22% nylon). The yarn is soft and looks very much like camel fur (skin? hide? I’m not sure what the right term is here. If you are a camelid expert please help me out in the comments).

I’m using the Tyson hat pattern in the child size. I’m contemplating adding camels to the hat using the chart from Bedouin using purls instead of a contrasting yarn. It all depends on how motivated I am this evening. Feel free to weigh in with your opinion.

I am only interested in knitting small projects at the moment. I would like to knit another sweater, but I don’t want to deal with a big project in the heat. Do you knit large projects all year long?