february all over again

Who doesn't love big roomy pants?!

Thanks, guys. :) If you want comfort, go make yourselves some. Seriously.

Since I've been knitting more I've been spending more time over on The Rav. There is much pattern fabulousness floating around over there, and one that has jumped to the top of my knitting list is the February Lady Sweater (Rav link / site link). Y'all know I loves me some February Baby Sweater, and to have one for myself, oh what a beautiful mornin'.

Here's my yarn, my trusty sidekick, Cascade 220.

I'll be starting it after finishing another baby sweater. Those things are so tiny and delicious. They're pretty irresistible for a sweet, satisfying knit. Here's the beginning of the one I'm working on. Check the gorgeous stitch markers Natalie made me for my birthday. I'm always sad when it's time to remove them.

That ain't no acrylic you're spyin' there. It's my near and dear Artyarns Supermerino. This colorway makes me long for strawberry swirl ice cream.

what's wrong with this picture? nothing! ha ha! (finally)

It's a pants pants revolution, people!

I've got a mad list of stuff to sew for other people, which is all good, but, y'know, when you find yourself coming last on your sewing list, a little r-e-s-e-n-tment can build. So, on Friday I put aside my list, pulled out my trusty copy of Sew Everything Workshop, unearthed the linen/cotton fabric I'd bought to make myself some pants, and got crackin'.

The pants are called the Wear Anywhere Yoga Pants, and, being new to pants, they appealed to me because the construction seemed easy to understand, and heck, they're cute. Nice lounge-y pants like these don't come easy around my way. Not in good fabric for a good price.

What I'm seriously adoring about sewing is how skills transfer. Making the baby bib for Frank's baby called for my first use of bias tape. I got the hang of it on that small project, so when I got to the apron, I knew what I was doing, sewingwise. In this case, having made the pajama pants for my dad came in handy in ways I can't even tell you. Diana (Rupp, author of SEW) never let me down on the wrap skirt, but her pants construction didn't yield the best results. While I was working on them, I kept thinking, This isn't how the PJ pattern (New Look 6764) went. If I hadn't had the information I gained from sewing the PJs, I probably would've abandoned these pants in frustration.

The issue came when it was time to sew the center seam. Diana's way calls for sewing the inner and outer/side seams, turning one leg outside and stuffing it down inside the other leg, then sewing the center seam from that configuration. It's problematic because the center seams from the back and front pieces don't match up (and the notches cut are useless), which is why this happened. Here's the diagram, only it's not truthful, because it makes everything look even and the notches appear matched. In truth, for the center seams to match, the back pieces have to rise way higher than the front pieces.

Now, an experienced sewer could likely work this on out. But SEW is a beginner's book, and I am a beginner, so I appreciate more foolproof methods. The PJ pattern calls for stitching the fronts to the backs of the pants only at the inner leg seams, then, with right sides together, stitching the center seam as a U. See?

This leads to crotch seam perfection.

Then you stitch the outer/side seams, et voila! To use the PJ construction, not only did I have to take apart all seams except the inner legs, but I also had to recreate my original "mistake" and have both legs facing in the same direction (because one needed to be turned inside out).

Considering all this, I almost stuck with the crooked crotch. Almost. But my crotch has seen enough trauma without a jacked-up, out of balance seam poking fun at it.

I tell you, sisters, these pants are the bee's knees. So comfortable and easy to wear. And this linen/cotton blend is sturdy but not stiff, soft, and machine washable. It wears more gracefully than straight linen. (Sorry for the crotch wrinkles, though. I'd been parading around in my pants all day.)

I intend to sew a drawstring out of the same fabric. For now, I'm going with black twill tape. There's something about plain, off-white twill tape in pants that says, Forget it, babe, I give up.

One more thing I did with this pattern was to move the buttonholes for the drawstring down.

What else? I road tested the comfort level by eating at Astroburger with my friend Carol.

I can expertly say, these jokers work!

Once I got past the construction issue Diana's directions were great as usual. I'm happy to have made a wearable pair of pants.

Check out my ass.

Oh hey, I joined a one-garment-a-month sew along on Pattern Review, so I'll be posting more pieces made for me.

and what's wrong with this picture?

These "easy" pants are keeeeling me!

what's wrong with this picture?

for lilia

you win some...

you lose...

Well, I can't exactly count this as a loss. It's finished. It's cute. Hopefully Carol and the cousins she's gifting it to will like it. For me, it's one of those "nobody will know but you" moments. Sure, but you will know. It's not about the seaming, I'm over that. I went to re-do it last night and found I was accidentally undoing the bottom band. I quickly stitched the sucker back up and moved on.

Natalie sold me on the buttons and she couldn't have been more right. I'd gotten lazy about the whole affair and was thinking red. When she picked these out, I thought Get on outta here, crazy gal. But the more I looked at them, the more I saw the genius.

As far as the pattern goes, it's great, if a little fussy. I was just so happy I could use the worsted yarn I had on hand that I didn't brace for the seaming, or how much eyeballing I'd have to do to make the sides, sleeves, and buttons even. Probably they're still off. I think if you're going to knit this, you should definitely knit an extra front panel or two. That's the fun of it, and why it's called Presto Chango. I just made Presto. I thought I might do the Chango, but no way.

Last night while sewing on the buttons, I wondered where my intense dislike of this sweater was coming from, and you know what? It's mostly the yarn. I used Dark Horse Fantasy, an acrylic with a smooth, soft feel, very nice to knit. But, alas, I must now own my true feelings about acrylic yarn (Fantasy is actually 50% nylon, but all the same). Me no likey. I like Plymouth Encore, but it's got the good sense to have 25% wool in its content. Smart move, Plymouth people. My heart bleeds for people who can't wear wool at all. I have some sensitivity to it myself, but bump that, I love the stuff. We should bow to sheep.

You can't block acrylic; I don't care what anybody says. It's mushy but not squishy. Sadly, I have the other sweater on hand for comparison, and there is none. Even superwash wool blocks well, has spring to it, and is very forgiving. I want to pet that sweater all day long; it feels that good to touch. Because acrylic has no memory or elasticity, it sings out nah-nah na nah-nah to every mistake you make. It was all I could do not to take the iron to Presto Chango to get it shaped and smoothed like I wanted it (people do iron acrylic, but I could see the sweater melting before my eyes). All that said -- Who knew there was an anti-acrylic crusade burning inside of me? -- Dark Horse Fantasy remains a good choice if you like or have to use acrylic. (But c'mon, must you?)

All the little pains, including the yarn and seaming, have combined to make this my least favorite of the sweaters I've knit. That's not so bad. I don't hate it, and you can't love them all.

Let's toss this one on the done pile and get on with more making.

Project Notes
Presto Chango
Size: Hmm. I'm not really sure, but it's pretty big, so I'm guessing 9-12 months.
Dark Horse Fantasy, #20, Cherry
Size 8 Denise Interchangeables
Buttons from Michael Levine's Fabrics, Downtown LA (Thanks, cool mama Nat.)
Thrill factor: Eh

when suddenly they had me surrounded

Just another day around my way. Not working on any particular project. In fact, supposedly busy with work and other matters.

The yarn, the fabric, the buttons, the patterns -- they creep up. Before I know it, they're on the desk...

on the floor...

on the stool...

on the desk again (Adrienne, is that you?)...

on the chair...
on the printer...
everywhere I am.

a pop of red

Good people of the Internets, we have a winner.

The Easy Baby Cardigan is officially my go-to baby pattern. I'm all about it. I'll never stop loving the February Sweater, but for easy knitting you cannot beat this one. I've found it challenging to find classic baby sweater patterns for worsted weight yarn; most call for DK or sport. Others call for bulkier stuff that I don't usually have. But I'm always stocked up on worsted, and it's fun to be able to work it into something this adorable.

I went through a lot of buttons to get to this one. Nothing I had on hand excited me, so when I went to Michael Levine's on Sunday, Natalie and I searched there. Originally I wanted red, or a toggle, but when the red buttons I had didn't work, and I didn't have a toggle, I thought maybe something sparkly would be nice. When we finally found this red toggle (could it be?!), me, Natalie, and Rosie the counter lady all knew it was The One. It is a tad weighty, so I fused a scrap of fabric to the button band to support it. Ellen has been ready to teach me how to crochet a button loop, but I couldn't wait for SnB this Thursday. Using my google-fu, I found the perfect tutorial on how to sew one.

Clearly, clearly, I love this little sweater. I love it so much that my heart overflows and I want to spread the warm fuzzies. I will send some pretty yarn to the first person who can guess the fabric I used to stabilize the button. How's that? (Um, if I've given you something made from it, you can't play, har har.) I'll give you a hint, I've used it before, and it's about a woman. (Even with the hint, if you can identify this teeny swatch, you're a fabric freak!)

Project Notes
Easy (oh yeah!) Baby Sweater
Size 12 months
Artyarns Supermerino #107
Size 7 Denise Interchangeables
Button from Michael Levine's Fabrics, Downtown LA
Elation factor: Through the roof

any which way i could

It's typical among knitters to say seaming sucks. From time to time, I make declarations about practicing seaming and getting good at it. Instead, I usually just avoid any pattern that involves more than a couple inches of it.

But baby patterns sucker you into doing things you may not like, because you never have to endure for long.

I have yet to finish the front lace panel for Presto Chango, but I knew if I didn't seam the left side today I never would. Something went haywire and I couldn't remember how I'd done the right side, so the left doesn't match, and in fact it looks like Clyde did it. Next time I'll seam all at once, so that even if it is a hot mess, it'll be the same hot mess all over.

See? Left side, chaos. Right side, bulky harmony.

For the sleeves, I went a different route altogether, basically doing a backstitch like I was embroidering. The good news is that I did it on both sides, so the sleeves do match each other.

I know, I know. It's all about the mattress stitch, but the mattress stitch ain't no friend of mine either.

Someone is after me, and I was forced to go down to Michael Levine's yesterday to pick up some fabric. (Well, not the plaid piece, that was on the sale table and called my name as I walked by. ) Soon, very soon so I can stop the harassment, the solid linen/cotton fabric will be turned into some wearable things.

midnight special

I be slow sometimes.

Last night I'm on one of those knitting tears when I start thinking it'd be nice to watch some music videos or old TV clips or something while working (you might see where this is going). Hmm. I wonder. Where can I find stuff like this? Hmm. La la la.... Hmm. I dunno... wait... maybe -- YouTube?

I'd been listening to Susan Tedeschi sing "Angel from Montgomery," so I looked up the songwriter, John Prine, and YouTubed him. From there, Bonnie Raitt's version came up (quite lovely), and then Linda Ronstadt was connected, so I watched some of her early performances, then some with the other Trio ladies. Somehow I went from there to watching Creedence Clearwater Revival perform "Midnight Special" (I do enjoy me some CCR), which set me to thinking about how cool it would be to see clips from the "Midnight Special" TV show. Before I could get entangled in that search, I noticed that there's a version of "Midnight Special" by Odetta. I thought, She's South African, I wonder what that will sound like. (Ellen, you maybe shouldn't be reading this.)

Where, oh where, did I get that Odetta is South African? My entire life I've been sure of this. Even the fact that Mr. Stevens met Odetta and processed her papers for the Schomburg and told me all about it had no effect on my misguided thinking. Her Los Angeles upbringing and Alabama birth were news.

When I played the video, I wondered where her Zulu accent went. I felt oddly connected to her, in that way that one does when one shares a cultural background and a country with someone, and finally this morning I decided to get on some Wikipedia and find out what was going on. It was the way she ends "Midnight Special," with a song I've sung a thousand-plus times in church, that had shaken the foundation of my South African theory.

Anyhow. Here's Odetta, singing "Midnight Special." It's just under 4 minutes long, and worth every second and then some. Oh, and if the singing doesn't get you, this is also a craft blog, so maybe the feather and fan sweater will.

Alright. I'm going back to YouTube to watch this Congolese singer named Nina Simone.

jump

While out walking today I made up my mind to begin risking looking like a nut in favor of doing things that amuse me, because we don't know what this life will bring, and it's really something when you think about the fact that you've got a finite number of times to see the moon, or a dog, or to hear a friend laugh. All our days are numbered. It may seem unfair, but think about this: even the sun is dying; the earth cannot rotate forever.

With this tinkling around inside me, I walked through a field next to a busy street barefoot. The end of the field loomed much too soon, so I made circles for a while. Big circles and little circles, to stretch the moment and drown the discomfort of imaginary judgment.

When I was a child, I loved going barefoot in the summertime. Cool dirt, hot concrete, damp asphalt -- it all belonged to me. I even loved the part where I had to put my shoes back on, because that meant it was time to go inside the carryout for pop and candy, after which would come bare feet again.

Funny the things we give up because we think it's time. We do this even as time spreads plots of grass before us.

yowza

I gotta go. The dentist drilled a hole in my head for a tooth implant and boy oh boy am I in pain. I'll come back and try to be interesting tomorrow.

aw, shucks

Thanks, everyone, for the apron kudos! Warm fluffy buttery biscuits for all! (As long as I don't have to bake them, ha ha.)

ETA:

Since I'm imageless tonight, check out this great one posted by Ellen. It's from our Stitch 'n Bitch Wig Night last year. It's one for the ages.

today's homemaker

Annika invited me to join a Flickr group she started called Today's Homemaker, which I think is a perfect title for a post about an apron.

Here it is, all done.

When I signed up for the swap, before I was assigned the person I would be sewing for, I bought some fabric that I thought was cute and hilarious. Once I got my recipient, I read her blog and didn't think the fabric would suit her taste at all. I went on a mad scramble and ordered this, because she likes green, and I think it's a tough color to beat. I chose the pattern because of my own deep abiding love for old-fashioned aprons.

I like this shot because I'm all leaning on the counter looking like I'm about to say, Umph, chiiile, you don't know the day I've had:

A couple mas:

My favorite thing is that a flower is blooming from the pocket (through no planning on my part):

I did finish all the major sewing yesterday, but when I looked at the apron this morning, the pocket called out for a button. I added a vintage red one.

Oh how I tried to part with a button from the adorable jarful Natalie gave me for my b-day, but I couldn't! I need to enjoy all of them a bit longer.

What's a summer apron without a glass of mint iced tea? I'll send a box of Trader Joe's Mint Melange along with my apron. My swap buddy lives in the Canadian countryside, so hopefully old Trader's tea will be a treat.

Project Notes
Pattern: McCall's 3979
Size: Large
Fabric: Heather Bailey's Fresh Cut, bought from The Tin Thimble
Bliss factor: Soaring, now that I've gotten past The Bias Tape Surprise of 2008. I still don't know why they call it "continuous" bias tape and not just bias tape. Isn't all bias tape continuous? When you buy it in the store, it doesn't come in pieces. Harumph.

Like a true homemaker of today, I'm off to stick something in the microwave.

and it's done

I finished the apron, but the day's gone its way, plus I can't turn away from Grey Gardens. I'll come back tomorrow with project pics.

There's nothing worse than a staunch woman. S-t-a-u-n-c-h. They don't weaken. No matter what. -- Little Edie

hard head, soft behind

I employ the jump in and start going to town method of making things. Somewhere in the recesses of my mind is the notion that reading directions is for suckers. The brave rush in and go to work. This is probably why the brave die young.

I'm working on my apron for the swap. I'm using a pattern I had on hand (details in the finished project post, hopefully tomorrow). I'm making a half apron, I guess it's called, one that would have come together pretty easily, had I looked over the directions. My co-defendant in this case is the pattern maker, McCalls, because in the picture on the pattern envelope it's impossible to see that the apron is encased in continuous bias tape. And when I read the layout instructions (after having skipped the pattern piece list), it didn't have the piece for the bias tape, so I continued on in ignorance of what continuous bias tape even was. I didn't realize I'd have need for such a thing until I'd already shot through most of my 1/2 yard of contrast fabric. (I knew I should've ordered a full yard. Buying a 1/2 yard is like sticking out your tongue at the sewing gods.) After some serious maneuveration and cussin', I eeked out enough bias tape to go around the apron.

Either I'll finish sewing the apron tonight, or I'll spend all my time with David. Stay tuned.

two turtle loves

I didn't bit more see Sex and the City last night than a man in the moon. Movietickets.com sold me tickets to a show that had been sold out for days. The theater refunded my ticket money, sans the service charge, which they said Movietickets.com would have to pay. The website, of course, says the theater is supposed to refund it.

Anyway, my friend and I had a great night just hanging around the Farmer's Market, wandering around The Grove, and chillaxing at Barnes and Noble. I love going out with women because we love us some talking and we worship some eating. We had dinner, talked our heads off, had Pinkberry, yakkity-yakked some more, then had coffee and tea at B&N, where we blabbed about the books and magazines we were reading.

Today I got in some time at the pond.

The turtles were getting in a little PDA.