bits and pieces

in which our plucky heroine reflects on progress accomplished and needed...


The details of shading and whitework on the tiny heart shaped leaves, along the top edge of the fourth charter painting of the year.


The charter as a whole... This was a new style for me to paint, and I am rather charmed with the design, which feels very lighthearted somehow. My friend Marya created the master design, and did a good job of interpreting it for scroll painting, and unlike the last one, was fairly quick to complete.

Am rather pleased with the improvements in my shading and highlighting, and my first attempt to paint acanthus leaves. One of my future goals is to look at a number of manuscripts and figure out ways that they used to shade and color acanthus, and do some samples, so as to have several possible ways to use, for variety and depending on the particular historical style

It may be time to start a sort of Scribal Notebook, with a record of various things like diapering patterns for fillers, line end art possibilities, and ways of using gouache paint to create dimensional effects appropriate to the world of the Middle Ages....

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I've been working on finding kaizen changes I can make in what and how I eat, with the intention of shifting the ever gradually rising number on the scale, which is reflected in the ever increasing pain and difficulty in moving the meatsuit in time and space. Since I began this project, I have moved that number down fifteen pounds.

First by deciding to not drink milk as my beverage of choice on a constant basis. I realise that this sounds odd, but for me, milk has been, along with water, (and formerly but no longer fruit juice), the only beverage I like to drink. Changing from that to water has made a small but noticeable difference.

My next change was to have at least half my breakfasts consist of cottage cheese with cooked veg, instead of fruit and chopped nuts and a double spoonful of rolled oats, topped with milk. My ongoing goal is to find more ways to shift the balance of what I eat to have more vegetable content, since I am never going to stop being an omnivore. (I was vegetarian for a number of years back in my thirties, and I was sick All The Time... it works for some people but not for others) That breakfast change shifted the numbers a little more.

No one would ever think to look at me that I had lost even an ounce, I don't know how much it would take for me to look any different at all. But if my legs hurt just a little bit less, that will make it worth all the efforts. These sorts of changes will take months, maybe years, to make a difference, and I have no intention of turning this into a slimming blog, but I figure that if I remember to write down things from time to time, it will help me notice how I am doing.

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SWAP 2018 sewing progress report: I still have a LOT of sewing left to do in the next two months, if I intend to actually complete SWAP in the allotted time. While taking all the time to make the Alabama Chanin style cardigan may not have been the most sensible use of the first two months of the years sewing time, it makes me Very Happy. I do have two of the remaining seven items already cut out and ready to sew, which will help.

1. black randomwale corduroy pinafore
2. black DWR rain poncho
3. black top or leggings
4. indigo dark denim pinafore (already made, from SWAP 2017)
5. indigo pinstripe top
6. indigo rayon popover (cut out and ready to sew)
7. brown knit top (can use RTW Uniqlo turtleneck)
8. brown/indigo plaid pinafore (cut out and ready to sew)
9. floral print cotton blouse
10. brown/black flannel top
11. Alabama Chanin style cotton jersey cardigan

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February SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Slavic scroll blank	deck broken down	cracked water barrel
2	another A/C sleeve	dwarf pine planted	bag to Goodwill
3	grapefruit marmalade	bathrobe patched	landscape cloth
4	Seville marmalade	croquis revamp	yard waste bin
5	new garden bed	7 jars applesauce	recycle glass
6	blood orange marmalade	x	x
7	17 dishcloths	x	x
8	finished A/C cardigan	x	x
9	red deer enamel	x	x
10	Romanesque charter	x	x
11	AoA charter	x	x
12	blue wool mitts	x	x
13	acanthus charter	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

wardrobe Wednesday

in which our plucky heroine does a bit more wardrobe planning...

After finishing my floral cardigan, it is time to start thinking about the rest of my 2018 SWAP sewing, as there are another 2½ months in which to finish seven or eight garments. I am feeling a bit of a disconnnect between my actual wardrobe needs, the SWAP requirements, and my desire to sew from stash. What my wardrobe is in real need of are four more popover summer dresses, 4 more pairs of cropped leggings, a few tops or blouses, a fleece jacket, a handknit cardigan, and some other random things like a new nightgown, bedroom slippers, some fingerless mitts, and a sunhat.

My current difficulty is that the pieces of knit fabrics I have, suitable for cropped leggings, do not coordinate with my SWAP, as I have it set up currently. The rayon fabrics I have for making popover dresses are mostly not solid colors. I am debating acquiring some indigo fabric dye and using that to solve the dilemma. It also occurred to me this morning, on the way out through the snow to the hen yard, that I could use some of the chunk of black velour to make a pair of black leggings, with the pile on the inside they would feel delightfully cozy!

I also did some croquis revision, since sketching out my ideas is easier with a template... I have a croquis I made and printed out back in 2009, but somehow in decluttering and reconfiguring my computer/office zone, I misplaced it. A bit of time with Photoshop, and I have a new page for wardrobe sketching. I took the original image, resized it, and set six of them on an 8½ x 11 page. After printing that out, I realised that it would work better if the croquis outlines were barely there, so I went back into Photoshop and reduced the contrast and increased the brightness, which gave me a page with pale grey outlines. Exactly what is needed, and will work better for my purposes than any storebought option. As I wrote nine years ago: "While it doesn't look much like what you see on a pattern envelope or in an advertisement, it looks a whole lot like what I see in the mirror..."

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With great effort, I am gradually getting through the emotional logjam that has been making my actual work really difficult. This week I started on the Goutte de Crystal/Red Hart pendant, as that is one of the two studio projects that have been "on backorder" for some time now. I think that scheduled specific workshop time every day will help getting back on track.

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February SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Slavic scroll blank	deck broken down	cracked water barrel
2	another A/C sleeve	dwarf pine planted	bag to Goodwill
3	grapefruit marmalade	bathrobe patched	landscape cloth
4	Seville marmalade	croquis revamp	yard waste bin
5	new garden bed	-	-
6	blood orange marmalade	x	x
7	17 dishcloths	x	x
8	finished A/C cardigan	x	x
9	red deer enamel	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

what I do with interstitial time...

in which our plucky heroine does some approximating...

I've been working on this cardigan for quite a while.

This is a loose-fitting outer layer, here worn with four underlayers as we have had a sudden cold snap, complete with snow! It will be comfy/casual in normal wear, but is large enough to fit over my current outfit (turtleneck, dress, wool pinafore and handknit wool vest) I am quite pleased with how this turned out.

For current and future reference, here are a few of the finishing details, and some close-up photos of the front snap closures:

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The edges are bound, with the front, cuff, and hemline edge binding extended to form a kind of facing. I made the hemline facing deeper, to add a bit more stability and weight to the bottom edge. All the edges except the neckline have all their stitching done in brown rather than grey, as I wanted that part of the construction to be less obtrusive. I found these lovely HUGE snaps for the closure, and modified the instructions from Alabama Chanin from a four hole to a six hole snap.

I added small additional pieces of the jersey knit on the interior of the cardigan to reinforce the snap stitchery, and then after stitching, trimmed most of the excess away neatly. I thought this would be preferable to using interfacing, which I have never had success with on knit fabric, as more in keeping with the A/C construction style. Having at least three layers of fabric backing each snap will add greater strength in use, and support the somewhat heavy snaps...

Sunday snippets

in which our plucky heroine attempts to remember to count her blessings...

When I was in primary school, we hid under our desks because the Russian might send nuclear bombs, and I carefully memorised all the locations of "air raid shelters" in case the alarms sounded while I was out riding my bike. When I was in high school, we wore black armbands, and walked out of school to protest people being drafted to go kill people in Viet Nam, which we saw every night on the 6PM news... Nowadays the killing is local, and personally impersonal. I get off the bus when I see a younger man with an instrument case or a big duffel, because it might not be a guitar. The children in high school now are walking out in protest against being murdered where they live and learn. This is not the world I intended to grow up to live in...

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My friend E posted this song, from 1969, on FB today; I had forgotten it for a long time, but the message seems still sweetly and sadly relevant...

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And, in an entirely different mode, am still waiting for the pattern for the Haiku jacket to show up, but I figured that pre-shrinking the intended fabric would be a good start. This color-and-weave fabric is actually indigo/black and not just dark indigo, but since it visually reads as dark indigo, I am putting it in that neutral category for SWAP 2018. The fabric has two very different sides:

I sort of expected that after it came out of the dryer that it would have turned into a kind of waffle weave, but while it did tighten up a bit, it is still pretty flat, and still nicely drapey. If anything, I like it even more!

I finished the hand stitched cardigan today, but photos will have to wait until daylight. It was crazy weather today, with sunshine, rain, wind, hail, and giant snow feathers... still really cold again too!

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February SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Slavic scroll blank	deck broken down	cracked water barrel
2	another A/C sleeve	dwarf pine planted	bag to Goodwill
3	grapefruit marmalade	bathrobe patched	landscape cloth
4	Seville marmalade	-	yard waste bin
5	new garden bed	-	-
6	blood orange marmalade	x	x
7	17 dishcloths	x	x
8	finished A/C cardigan	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

Today I am grateful for the nice clerk in the water bureau last week, who, when I went to renew my discount, very kindly pointed out that I could, at my age, be switched over to the permanent discount program, which will not require me to keep coming in to renew over and over again... I didn't even know that was an option, and felt most heartwarmed to have someone in a bureaucratic office offer me a random act of kindness.

it's awesome...

in which our plucky heroine gets a little bit spicy...

The very last of the tomatoes in the freezer are about to be turned into Awesome Sauce. My plan to gradually shift the freezer contents onto the newly cleared pantry shelves, by transmogrifying them into shelf stable condiments and preserves, is proceeding well. As well, my lovely next door neighbors are also fond of Awesome Sauce, which means I can gift them with some as thanks for all the times that they watch my hens on the rare occasions that I am not home.

So simple, and so tasty if it is made from homegrown tomatoes. The times I have been gifted with tomatoes, I simply chuck the ones I do not immediately eat into the chest freezer in a bag. They need no preparation, and the process of freezing means that as they thaw, there will be a span of time when it is easy to slip off the tomato skins, which otherwise would entail faffing about with dipping the fresh tomatoes into boiling water, and then into ice water in order to skin them. I prefer the texture and taste of condiments made after removing the tomato skins. The almost defrosted tomatoes, either halved or whole, are easily chopped up in preparation for the low slow cooking down of the future Awesome Sauce (aka British Chili Jam)

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It has been a treat to ride about on my bike now that Farbjorn refurbished the chain with the dry lubricant... no more grindy-squeaky sounds, and it runs smoothly once again. I sped off to the local grocery store today for a few necessities, after my return from the Asian grocery earlier where I purchased gyoza (pot sticker) wrappers and ginger. I plan on making these dumplings for my crafternoon/stitch-n-bitch shindig on Saturday, as a nod to the start of Chinese Year of the Dog. It will be a noble experiment, as I have never made pot stickers from scratch before, but my sister in law made them for Superb Owl snacks, and if she can do it, I can too!

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Making slow progress on my SWAP sewing, but am now in the last stages of my Alabama Chanin style cardigan assembly (adding edge bindings to finish it) and then will be adding snaps for a front closure. I suppose then I shall need to decide what to sew next... probably the plaid wool pinafore, as it makes sense to get that put together while it is still early in the year and cold out! I am still amazed that fabric acquired at least ten years ago is such a perfect match.

I also am considering trying out a new to me pattern, the Sewing Workshop "Haiku Two" jacket. After reading Martha's blog post about the one she just completed, it occurred to me that it might be a good option for a loose fitting overlayer. The reviews on Patternreview all make note of how oversized it is, which means that it will likely fit without my needing to do serious pattern alterations, and the half raglan sleeves mean that my eternal bugaboo, my ridiculously narrow shoulders, shouldn't be an issue. Plus, gigantic pockets!! I have some textured indigo linen, which will hopefully have enough drape to work with the pattern.

Friday fragments

in which our plucky heroine changes her plans...

Progress is happening on the handstitched cardigan... the basic assembly is done, and I am planning on stitching reinforcement strips along the center front, and body and sleeve hemlines next (I do this to help keep the edges from curling, which jersey knit is prone to doing), binding the neckline edge, and finally sewing on the snaps! In addition, Marya pointed out that the plaid wool in my Fabric Resource Center coordinated perfectly with the cardigan I have been working on!

I might have to will change up my SWAP plans yet again, and make a plaid pinafore instead of a brown one... The real difficulty I am having is finding fabric that works for what I need to add to my wardrobe, and that also works with the SWAP guidelines, but I think that this revised plan pencils out...

Choose two neutral colours: black and indigo, 3 garments from each colorway

1. black randomwale corduroy pinafore
2. black DWR rain poncho
3. black knit top

4. indigo dark denim pinafore (already made, from SWAP 2017)
5. indigo pinstripe top
6. indigo rayon popover top

Choose 1 accent color: brown, 2 prints: a brown/indigo plaid, and a floral print; one garment in each of these -

7. brown knit top (can use RTW Uniqlo turtleneck)
8. brown/indigo plaid pinafore
9. floral print cotton blouse

2 more additional garments in colors already chosen

10. brown/black flannel top
11. Alabama Chanin style cotton jersey cardigan

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adding a "candy" thermometer to the kitchen tools was long on my list. While I am not a confectioner, it will make judging when jam and marmalade are fully cooked a lot easier. I found one at my local New Seasons, instead of having to order from Amazon, and tested it as soon as I got home. Boiling water at sea level is 212 F. I did have to adjust the dial just a few degrees, which was very simple, as the storage case the thermometer fits into has a hexnut wrench built into the case!

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While out running errands today, I saw a flyer that our neighborhood association will be giving away 25 free fruit trees at the beginning of March. Not sure if I will be lucky in the lottery, but I did fill out the form, because who knows? I am asking for a Smyra Quince, out of the list of trees available, in the hope that not that many people will want a quince, whereas one has been on my list for years now, and I have the perfect spot picked out...

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February SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Slavic scroll blank	-	cracked water barrel
2	another A/C sleeve	-	bag to Goodwill
3	grapefruit marmalade	-	-
4	Seville marmalade	-	-
5	x	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

grateful for: my excellent neighbors to the south

wistful Wednesday and some Thursday thoughts

in which our plucky heroine struggles for dynamic equilibrium...

Springtime seems to come earlier each year, and while I love the new growth, and the sweet scent of daphne from my neighbor Carla's yard, springtime is always a difficult time of year as well. Being alone when all the adverts are about love and connection always feels a bit like salt in a wound, though I remind self that being single is better than being in a bad or abusive relationship, I look around and see so many of my friends with the kind of ongoing kindhearted daily connections that I do not have and at this point will never have. I try my best to focus instead on what is positive, and to find things to be grateful for every day.

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Am finally feeling better after whatever viral beasties attacked last week.  I managed to get over to Marya's house again for some more scribal shenanigans. I've been doing some custom "blanks", decorated original border designs that will be used when something more individual than a charter is needed. Since these have not been handed out yet, I can't show the whole thing, but here are a few tidbits from the Slavic style one I was working on last week

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There were a few organic Seville oranges at New Seasons this week, and as these rarely ever only occasionally show up, and not every year, I made certain to bring home a few pounds to make up a final batch of marmalade for the year. Seville oranges are closer to the ancestral citrus, and are much more bitter and full of seeds than our more common choices, and are used to make the lovely bitter-ish British style marmalade. I now have another eleven little jars for the pantry.

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I'm beginning to stitch together the A/C cardigan, and had better think about the rest of the SWAP pieces. Methinks that what I really need are either tops or dresses, possibly another cardigan or jacket, or another pair of cropped pants for cold weather layering. My closet is pretty abundant in the pinafore category. Time to go poke around in the Fabric Resource center and see what is appealing...

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Along with SWAP garments, we have the option of an additional "accessory". I am torn between my need for a new hat, and the idea of making a focal necklace from large fabric beads... A while back, I made these red beads for a friend, from some vintage Guatemalan ikat, and it occurred to me that something similar made from some of my other precious ikat pieces would be quite fun to wear.

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February SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Slavic scroll blank	-	cracked water barrel
2	another A/C sleeve	-	bag to Goodwill
3	grapefruit marmalade	-	-
4	Seville marmalade	-	-
5	x	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

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grateful for - the tender relentless approach of spring, which continually shifts the colors that I see every day. Tree buds and snowdrops, garlic sprouting and hellebore blooming...

SWAP 2018 cardigan progress

in which our plucky heroine is pleased...

My idea, to reverse the colorway to add contrast to the sleeves, is looking mostly the way I had hoped. It would have been even better had I used a chocolate brown fabric paint to stencil the sleeves, but hindsight is 20/20... One sleeve has all the decorative stitching completed, and now I've begun working on the final sleeve. It took me about a week to do the one sleeve, but that included the several long car trips to and from Olympia, as well as quite a bit of downtime used for stitching whilst I was visiting up there...

I am eager to start assembling the actual garment! Looking at the pieces together, I am feeling that the edge binding would be best as indigo blue, once I get to that part of the project. Actually, the sketch I did of the cardigan sort of shows a darker binding around the neckline and edges, now that I think of it...

Different lighting totally changes the appearance of the pieces, the upper photo is pretty accurate, this one not so much. Still, there was some question on SG about why I basted the edges around my pattern pieces. Actually I baste around the edge, and also around the various motifs, prior to all the permanent hand stitching.

When I begin each pattern piece, I cut out the upper layer of jersey and do whatever painted stenciling is needed, let that dry and be heat set, and then carefully smooth that layer onto the underlayer of jersey fabric, doing my very best to match the grainline of the knit. Then I baste all around the upper piece carefully, before I cut out around the edge to get two matching layered pattern pieces. Once the layers are cut free of the underlayer fabric, I also baste around each of the motifs, so that the underlayer does not shift while I am doing the permanent stitching. When I am finished with all the permanent hand stitching, and have cut out the centers of the reverse applique motifs, I remove all the internal basting, but leave the outer edge still basted until I am ready to assemble the garment. This keeps the edges nice and smooth, and only a little bit curled up.

Jersey fabric has a terrible desire to curl into rolls as tight as rolls of cinnamon bark. I have learned a few ways to deal with that, but it is always a concern. For hemlines, I can add a several inch wide band of jersey fabric to the inside, with the "curl factor" in the opposite direction. For adding folded over narrow binding, it is necessary to heavily starch the strips and iron them into whatever folded configuration is needed, otherwise you just end up with rolled up strips of spaghetti

Saturday snippets

in which our plucky heroine strives for a bit of balance

There have been a few journeys, some in-town and others longer and further afield... the shortest, to Costco with Wanda and Lainie, helped to restock my pantry with sugar and paper goods; said sugar will enable more transfer of stored produce from the freezer to jars on the pantry shelves.

Currently underway is a batch of strawberry-rhubarb sauce, aided by a sale this week of organic frozen fruits, which augmented my meager strawberry stash. My intent is to use the rest of the frozen tomato for more Awesome Sauce, which condiment was received with delight by my hen-minding neighbors. And, after that, will be several batches of plum sauce, as the freezer has a surfeit of homegrown plums which can become both sweet jam, and a savory sauce similar to hoisin sauce

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Before leaving town last Tuesday, I took the time to pattern, cut out, and stencil the sleeves for my Alabama Chanin cardigan. I am trying out both a new type of fabric paint, Jacquard Textile Color, instead of Jacquard Neopaque. The texture of the paint is much thinner, and that, combined with my finding my long lost stencil brush, meant that applying the paint went a LOT faster this time. Truly, an actual stencil brush is eversomuch nicer than using a piece of sponge, I didn't get paint all over my fingertips and have to keep stopping to wash them, and it was a LOT easier to get an even application of paint.

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Spent three days up in Olympia at the Mud Bay House. Always so wonderful to see my friends there, and their baby Kestrel has grown immensely in the months since my last visit in November - the hat I made, which was so big then is almost too small for baby noggin, and I shall have to search my supplies for suitable wool and fur to rebuild it. They now can both hold up their own head, and follow along things with their eyes, as well as grab and fling items to the floor! Most definitely, a child whose natural expression is a delighted and charming smile, and I am quite smitten.

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No long life goes on forever, and we were all nonetheless surprised and filled with grief to hear of the death of Ursula LeGuin. There were tears. I was grateful to be with friends; hugs and knowing that others also grieved made the pain more bearable. I rarely feel it personally when people of renown must leave the bright world, but LeGuin was, to me as well as to many others, a lumianary personage in so many ways, not just as a writer, but as an example of humanity. We will not see her like again... Her words have been a light on many paths forwards to a multiplicity of ways of being, her tales shone on ways of thought and action, and by reading, helped me and others to grow more thoughtful and ethical...

listen to a few of her words in this radio clip
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In the previous week I also went to a CMAG meeting on Jan 16th, where my friend B gave a presentation of tips on how to photograph metalwork and jewelry. It was good that there was someone I knew, as going to a group where I know no one there would be difficult, even for a topic in which I have great interest. That weekend, Marya and I went down to Adiantum for Midwinters Feast. Just a quick overnight, we stayed with Yseult in her lovely home, and much discussion of archaeology took place. The feast itself was very tasty, the new feast steward did an excellent job, and I learned from Yseult how to do the 12 strand braid from the Skjoldehamn belt find

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grateful: for friends who include me, and help me travel from place to place

Friday fragments

Finished the reverse applique on the two cardigan fronts, and pretty pleased with the results... Next step is to cut out and stencil the sleeves. Because the hand stitching around the motifs is basically pretty simple work, I have been doing it not only while on transit, but also when socialising, and as a late night winding down project. This makes the progress a LOT faster than I expected, at this rate I may be done with the preparations by early February. The next step will to cut out and print the contrasting sleeve panels. I think some quick sketches first, since while I like the idea of reversed colorway sleeves in theory, I am not sure how it will look...

my quick sketch looks pretty good to me, and I imagine it will look pretty good with a combination of solid color garments, as well as with some if not all patterned fabrics. Maybe I need to make more than one cardigan, a mostly solid one would also be Really Useful.

Am thinking that it may be worthwhile to cut out this pattern in some stashed fleece, to double check that the sleeves actually function properly before I commit to the handwork on the sleeve pieces. After all, I am tracing off my handknit wool sweater to get the size and shapes of the pattern pieces, and some confirmation prior to additional progress would be good. (And, if the fleece toile fits and functions, I will have a good start on an additional round-the-house cardigan, even if not actually part of SWAP)

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January SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	A/C cardigan back	worm bin bedding	bad corduroy
2	12 jars canned pears	restring amber Laurel	paper recycling
3	A/C cardigan fronts	Dad slipper fix	-
4	-	hang envelope holder	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

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Monday musings

in which our plucky heroine observes that the weather beads are coming along nicely:

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A vintage "Lily Pom and Tuft Maker" multiple pom pom maker (like this one) showed up for for sale online... I'd been eyeing the design, trying to suss out how to DIY my own version. My intention is to create a version of this designer scarf, but as a cowl, similar to my black linen gauze pom pom cowl. Since I cannot find pom pom trim in interesting subtle multicolors, I thought that DIY yarn pom poms would be a good alternative, but the idea of making that many individual ones one at a time seemed rather insane unappealing. The wooden gizmo should arrive sometime around the beginning of February, and I can give it a try then...

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Today I braved the pool for first time this year, rode my bike through the misty morning, and was gratified to find that the water temperature was not a cold as before the pool closed for their winter break and yearly cleaning. No more blue fingers, and while it was not delightfully warm, I will be content with tepid, as resuming my water exercises will do me nothing but good!

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It is really fun to chat with my pal Marya about SWAP ideas, both for modern clothing and for SCA clothes. I wish I had thought to take a photo of the new skirt she showed up in on Sunday, as it was similar to Shams "tablecloth skirt" and looked spectacular on her. We were cogitating on a particular SCA project, that involved some lovely plaid wool, in brown and blue and black, that I previously decided looked too "Catholic schoolgirl uniform" to become a modern pinafore. Marya exclaimed at how well it coordinated with my current Alabama Chanin project, which was also sitting on the table, and encouraged me to think about adding it to my SWAP fabrics.

I know I keep switching up my ideas for what to sew, and while initially resistant, upon further thought I realised that if I went ahead and used the tablecloth skirt for the lower half of a pinafore, and my other TNT pinafore top, the empire waist with the spaghetti straps, my resulting pinafore would make good use of the plaid to take advantage of the fun structure of the skirt, and would, in fact, look nothing at all like a school uniform. Adding in a plaid fabric, and as a pinafore, means that I need to now restructure and rebalance my SWAP, lest I end up with far too many pinafores, and not enough tops or dresses to wear with them!

The rules call for two neutral colours, 3 garments from each colorway...
BROWN
1. corduroy pinafore - I have enough of the extra-fine-wale corduroy in a medium brown to make another brown pinafore, since I love and enjoy the brushed twill one, and the black/brown shot linen one I already have. Adding brown into my wardrobe has turned out to work really well for the colder season, it coordinates flawlessly with my beloved indigo and black, and looks just fine with grey
2. linen top -
3. knit top - Teagarden T
INDIGO
4. dark denim pinafore - (already made, from SWAP 2017)
5. popover dress - This easy pattern works both as a layer underneath a pinafore, and as a dress on its own. I am thinking about embellishing the medium indigo rayonfabric with a bit of block-printed decoration...
6. linen top -

... 2 accent colors and one print, one garment in each of these: black, plaid and a print -
7. black corduroy pinafore - this is already cut out, the fabric is a strange irregular ribbed corduroy, so will be unlike the other black pinafores I already have.
8. blue/brown/black plaid wool pinafore -
9. print cotton blouse - might use the midcentury blue floral fabric. or might use the Heather Ross horses print in brown multicolor on light blue... either or both would be very useful and make me very happy

...and finally 2 more additional garments in any or all of the colors already chosen
10. black DWR rain poncho - time to finish this project: bind the edges and add a neckline cowl. I have been running around for too long with a piece of fabric with a hole cut in the middle! True, assorted people have complimented me on how it looks, but I think that finished edges would be more my style!
11. Alabama Chanin style cotton jersey cardigan - I have wanted to make this for a long time, and have already cut the stencils earlier this year. My design is based on this Gudrun Sjoden cardigan, but mine will be more cropped, so as to look well worn over a pinafore dress. I have enough cotton jersey in both brown and indigo/navy, so my thought is: brown top layer, blue bottom layer, black stenciling, grey stitching... that will be a bridge garment and will look well with pretty much all of my cool and cold weather clothing

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January SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	A/C cardigan back	worm bin bedding	bad corduroy
2	12 jars canned pears	restring amber Laurel	-
3	-	-	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

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Today I am grateful for my local city pool, which is close enough for me to ride my bike there, is in a covered building which means that it is usable all year long, and which has scholarships for low income city residents which mean that I can afford to go there and use the facility.

how to sew on snaps...

in which our plucky heroine proves an aphorism correct...

My father has a habit of saying "if you don't ask, you don't get", and lately I have been doing better at remembering that sometimes the easiest way to find something out is to ask someone who knows. The neat and tidy way that Alabama Chanin garments stitch on snaps has been baffling me ever since I took a close look at the photos. Even after I posted my questions to my cohorts over at Stitchers Guild, there was no consensus, and no clear path forward. Although it will be a while before my cardigan is at the point of needing the front fasteners attached, it seemed a suddenly brilliant idea when I thought to actually contact them and ask!! Surprisingly quickly, a helpful email came back to me, with just the directions I was hoping for, very clear and specific:

• Tie an anchor knot in the thread (just a simple knot that you will later cut off)
• On the inside of the garment (side that will have the snap and not the square of thread), run needle between fabric layers, starting 1" away from where the snap will be sewn and coming out at the spot where the snap will be. Tie a double knot here.
• Run the needle between the layers again, coming out (still on the inside of the garment) where you want one of the four corners of the snap's stitched square to be.
• From the under side of the snap, sew through one of the holes of the snap. So that you are wrapping the thread around the outside of the snap, stitch all the way through the garment at the same spot where your thread has come out of the fabric. Your needle and thread should now be on the "right side" of the garment.
• Make a horizontal or vertical stitch (whichever direction around the snap you're going) the distance from snap hole to snap hole; make sure the needle is going through the next snap hole without the fabric becoming too tight or bunched on the "right side" before pulling all the way through.
• Once you've stitched through the next snap hole, wrap the thread around the outside of the snap by putting the needle back through the same spot in the garment; look at the "right side" of the garment to make sure the needle is going through at the same spot before pulling it all the way through.
• Continue these steps until you've gone all the way around the snap twice. The key is to look at both sides of the garment before pulling the needle and thread all the way through to make sure you're in the right spot to create a square.
• Tie a double knot on the inside of the garment close to the snap and hide your thread by running it between the garment's layers.
• Cut off the initial anchor knot to hide the first double knot's tail.
  
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  January SMART goals (x=extra)

  #	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
  1	A/C cardigan back	worm bin bedding	bad corduroy
  2	-	restring amber Laurel	-
  3	-	-	-
  4	-	-	-
  5	-	-	-
  6	x	x	x
  7	x	x	x
  8	x	x	x
  9	x	x	x
  10	x	x	x
  11	x	x	x
  12	x	x	x
  13	x	x	x
  14	x	x	x
  15	x	x	x

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  Today I am grateful for Tri-Met... however less than pleasant riding public transit, it is far better than not having such a comparatively robust local system, that allows me to access much of what I moved to an urban area to have the use of. Given enough time, I can manage to visit most of my local friends, get to needed health appointments in various surrounding locations, and whatever shopping needs to happen other than in my immediate neighborhood. Many people I know lack such a resource. In addition, I use my time spent on transit to do various kinds of handwork, either stitchery or knitting, so that the often several hours is actually moving me forward on some of my personal goals.
  

not exactly pets and other Friday fragments

in which our plucky heroine is grateful to not live in Boston any more...

As it was warm enough to brave the front porch sans wooly layers, I made another attempt to photograph the black pinafore... Maybe I should have not been so quick to send the naughty fabric away to Goodwill, as it makes such a matte background that it may have been a good candidate for photographing my enamels! Anyhow, I'd been wearing one of my SCA underdresses around the house this morning, and had the idea to just toss the pinafore over the top, in the hope that the contrast between black and almost-white/grey plaid would show the pinafore better than my usual dark on dark choices. Still had to lighten up the photo a lot to get an image of anything other than a black silhouette.

This did give me an idea though, of making some loose blouses (not as long as the underdress in the photo, more like high hip than mid calf!) based on rectangular construction. It wouldn't solve my "getting the armsceye seam in the right place" issue with modern patterns, but it would give me some wearable inner layers. There will be some experimentation soon.

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The first three fabric spheres for the year long temperature "graph" art/handcraft project. Each one takes me approximately 5 minutes to make, so it will be a negligible daily addition to my morning routine to check what the high was for the previous day and add another sphere.  Each one is about 1/2" diameter. After doing the arithmetic, at the end of the year, I will have a strand that is over 15 feet long. Maybe that is a bit long for a necklace! I shall have to see how that looks doubled up into a length that is wearable... My other idea is to weave the spheres into a grid, week by week, to make a piece of wall artwork, so either way, it will be interesting.

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next time I decide to rehab the worm bin, I think I will do it in the summer... just saying that it is easier to give everything a good cleaning out and refurbishment when it isn't quite so brisk outside.

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January SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	A/C cardigan back	worm bin bedding	bad corduroy
2	-	-	-
3	-	-	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

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Today I am grateful for my "pet" worms... they live in their little habitat in my kitchen, and turn my food scraps into excellent fertiliser for the special plants here... I am hoping that adding some worm castings to the soil around the rhubarb will encourage it to be more vigorous and productive and have large enough stalks that I can do something with this year

reverse applique flowers

in which our plucky heroine undertakes a long project...

Friday I stitched out the first of many floral motifs, and couldn't wait to trim away the excess inner fabric to see how it would look. I am pretty chuffed that it looks so much like what I imagined/intended. And for some reason this gave me a new idea about what to do for the sleeves of the cardigan...

My initial inspiration was this Gudrun Sjoden cardigan, with a floral motif body and striped sleeves. But I have been struggling to suss out how to create striped sleeves with the Alabama Chanin layered applique. This morning, it occurred to me that instead of stripes, I could reverse the layers for the sleeves, and do them with brown as the backing, and indigo as the outer layer. This would give a contrast but still coordinated between the sleeves and the body, solve my technical problem, and give my own self-designed twist to the interpretation...

Each flower takes about an hour - so allowing for the dots as well I estimate somewhere between 40 to 50 hours of hand stitching on the surface design aspect of this project. This does not include the preparatory stenciling, or the assembly of the pieces into an actual garment. For those who are astounded at the prices of the actual Alabama Chanin garments, this is why... Compared to many of those, this is a fairly simple piece. And all of those are the labor of subcontractors in her home town, who are paid a living wage for their labor, and that becomes part of the wholesale cost, which is then multiplied by whatever factor they use to create the retail cost which covers the rest of their business expense and profit. While I could never afford one of their creations, the generous actions of Natalie Chanin to open source her techniques means that I can use that inspiration to create my own "designer" garment, which will hopefully be one of the anchor pieces of my 2018 SWAP sewing

two steps forward one step back

in which our plucky heroine makes SWAP progress of a sort...

The skirt seams on the black pinafore looked even worse after I ran it through the washer and dryer. None of the other corduroy fabrics I have ever turned so puffy and strange after being stitched into garments and pressed, so I can only blame the theoretical lycra content. I had thought to use the remaining yardage for another garment, but I also suspect it will not wear well, as the pile on the fabric is rather thin. Still, it will do for as long as it lasts. I am going to go ahead and edgestitch the gore seams, because otherwise it will annoy me whenever I wear it!

The other SWAP related progress today was that I finished the stenciling on the cardigan bodice... the back was fairly simple, being all one piece, but for the fronts, I wanted to have the motifs be continuous ie pattern matched, and it turned out to be fairly simple to do.

I first printed one side of the front, and once it was all printed, and basted together, I was able to lay it down in place overlapping the not-yet-printed side, and align the stencil with the central floral motif.

Then I carefully folded away the already printed fabric without moving the stencil, and sponged on the textile paint.

The end result is nicely matched fabric across the front of the cardigan.

Once the paint has set for 24 hours, it gets heat set with an iron. I recently realised that the timer function on my phone can be set for 30 second intervals, which is how long it needs to be pressed with a hot iron. It is tedious to do this for lengths of fabric, and much less so if a timer is set, and one can listen to podcasts while doing the pressing.

The next step is to stitch along the edge of the painted areas one at a time, prior to cutting away their centers to expose the indigo blue jersey underneath. The stitching is probably the most time consuming part of this style of garment construction/embellishment, as each part of each motif needs to be stitched separately, and tied off separately, in order to maintain as much flexibility as possible.

Boxing Day... or the start of SWAP

in which our plucky heroine dives into SWAP 2018...

It is rather a bit too cold, still not above freezing, so taking photos outside is not going to happen, and despite traipsing from one spot to another inside my wee house, there is no real good indoor place with a blank background to do so. So this is rather a not-very-good picture of my new black corduroy pinafore for SWAP 2018. Of course black is always hard to photograph even at best. The only thing I did differently on this pinafore was to change the neckline to a squared off one (as opposed to the usual rounded vee).

After sitting overnight, my nice flat-looking skirt gore seams have developed a bit of an odd ripple. I never use corduroy or denim that has any lycra content, due to an unfortunate incident years ago, but I suspect that this fabric does have a bit, even though it wasn't sold as such, as the only time previously I had this problem was with lycra/denim. (knit fabric with lycra content usually behaves quite nicely) I wouldn't have thought that stitching warpwise would have been a problem, but apparently the slight angle of the gores was enough for it to become one. Ah well, no one but me will ever notice, I suspect (well save all of you!). I am wondering if topstitching all the skirt seams will smooth them out, or if I should just let it go?

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Since I am not entirely sure of all the components in my 2018 SWAP, but I am certain that I want to include an Alabama Chanin style cardigan, it seemed like the best use of my sewing time today was to make a start on that... This will take quite a while to do, with all the hand stitching for the reverse applique. (I have confirmed that I much prefer block printing to stenciling for surface design, but for this application, stenciling is the best technique) I am sure that it goes a lot faster with an airbrush; applying painted motifs to the back of the cardigan took me about an hour and a half. Once I get the dark blue layer basted to the brown stenciled with black layer, I can mark and lay out the two front panels, maybe tomorrow...

The plan is for the stitching to be in pale grey, the backing to be dark blue, and the centers of all the motif parts will be cut away to show the blue, so that I get both my neutrals and the black accent color all in one garment. This should work for the category: "Remaining two garments may be made from any one or combination of your neutrals, accent(s) and/or print(s)"

white Christmas

in which our plucky heroine has an indoor day...

It was snowing yesterday, and while the weather has warmed some, the snow is now covered with a layer of ice everywhere. When I went to open the chicken house and bring the hens fresh food and liquid water, they were quite dubious about the conditions in the chicken yard. And later, when I looked out the window, I saw that they indeed had no desire to slip slide down the ramp to eat their food off the icy ground, and instead, an nasty squirrel was having a field day with the organic layer pellets...

Perhaps I am soft-hearted, at least a little, so I filled a ceramic bowl with henfood, and brought it out to them inside the little chicken house. And later on today, I will swap that for a half full bowl of warm water so they can have a drink...

Nanny Og and Boneclaw Mother, not thrilled at a white Christmas

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My actual goal for the day is to fill at least two bags with declutter... trying to meet my year goal means 8 more bags by the end of the year, which is rather a challenge indeed, since all the low hanging fruit have already been picked. I am going to takd a spin through my sewing patterns, the bottom drawers in the dresser, and my collected magazines not yet recycled...

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Last week I made corn tortillas here at home, for the first time. When I was up in OlyWa last month, it was one of the things I learned, and it is dirt simple if one has a tortilla press. And earlier this month, I had found one at Goodwill... I also realised this morning, that I could make a small batch, just a few rather than a dozen or so, and so todays lunch was quesadillas, with fresh tortillas and the last of the homemade salsa verde from 2016.

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December SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Kestrel hat	backdoor latch	paper recycling
2	sekrit needlebook	blackhorse earrings	box of magazines
3	turquoise heart pendant	framed old photo	-
4	much cranberry ketchup	x	-
5	second original scroll	x	-
6	otter face needlebook	x	-
7	black corduroy pinafore	x	-
8	x	x	-
9	x	x	-
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

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