In which I try to sew a skirt the day before I leave on vacation...

Yesterday, actually, the night before yesterday...oh my I don't know when. I'll start from the beginning. What better way to do that, then to start from right now & work backwards.

Today is Saturday. I leave early in the morning on Sunday, which means I pretend I leave tonight so that I am ready to walk out the door in the morning and don't have to pack in the wee hours. I am going on a wonderful trip to the east coast, which in my mind is like entering a different world. I am very Alaskan. I can wear floor length black to the symphony and know that there might be a man next to me in Carharts. And I roll with it. That man might even be my husband (heaven forbid I let him escort me in such an outfit, but I can't always control the man.) But I have this sense that the East Coast is not so forgiving. For 1/5th of my trip I will be staying at a lovely place with a wee bit of a dress code. The dress code did not scare me too much until I read what was NOT allowed. All of my wardrobe. No denim, shorts, casual sandals, athletic clothes...you get the picture. Now, this is not a bad thing. This is a chance for me to elevate my wardrobe. It needs to be elevated--I lost 25lbs and look like a waif in most of my clothes. (mind you, this is the ONLY time I look waif-like.) But in my initial panic I decided I needed new clothes BEFORE I left so I would be ready. This sudden energetic idea got me out of bed at 6:30 am on Thursday.

3 days and counting.

I went online to my favorite clothing store--Anthropologie. I usually just try to knock off their knitted sweaters, but this time I needed to research style & skirts. I found this lovely skirt and decided I needed something like it.

I happen to have lots of eyelet cotton in my fabric stash from an eyelet phase I went through some time ago. I think it was intended as curtains for yet another crappy apartment.
Psychoanalysis Moment: This is why my house that I love has no curtains. Every crappy apartment we lived in I sewed new curtains and now putting up curtains makes me feel like I don't like where I live. Go Figure.

I whip out the fabric, find some lovely white silk to line it with. Yes, also in my stash. Maybe I should sew more? Looked at my paltry collection of patterns. Decided, yes, I need a pattern. No I do not own one that will work. Hemline? No idea. Make emergency call to friends who are required to be ready at a moment's notice to analyze, opionionate and decide on any wardrobe glitch a friend might have. I then race off to town. Meet with friends & try on every potential piece of my traveling wardrobe and pick the ideal hem length. Buy a zipper & pattern. Return home. Get distracted until late at night after the kids are in bed.

Now, just because I don't sew many clothes now, doesn't mean I haven't sewn a lot of clothes in the past. The problem arises in that I was sewing clothes for the stage and the nearest audience member is rarely closer than 20 feet or so & there was a LOT of fudging in my sewing. Dress making is VERY different.

I lay out the fabric, the pattern, the skirt to match length...and realize a problem. The pattern I picked has a curved hem. Eyelet is straight with a finished edge. The two do not mesh. At all.
I stare at it for a long time. I know what I would do if it was a costume, but it isn't & I don't want any funkiness. I chose the "call a friend" lifeline. While well meaning & probably good advice if I had an iota of sense in me. It didn't really help. Clearly, I was going to have to call in the big guns.

I called my mom.

"Please, mom, could you come out & show me how to sew this eyelet skirt?"

2 days & counting...

SAVED!! She not only sewed the skirt & the lining. She modified 2 patterns, combined them, adjusted things not even present on the pattern, fitted it perfectly & finished in less than a day!!

I now have a new skirt. Almost, just like the one in Anthropologie. For the price of a zipper, pattern & forever indebtedness to my mother.

1 day & counting...

On the left is the Anthro skirt. Below right is my new skirt.
Far below is a closeup of the eyelet cotton of the skirt. Please forgive the unpressed state of the skirt. I unpacked it to take the picture. I realize now there are a few more pleats in the Anthro skirt making it a bit more full, but I don't need fullness around my body, so I like mine how it is.



And yes, since you asked, that is a bear in the background. He is a foam archery target that we use to terrorize our visitors.

Manly Man Durrow Sweater

Drum Roll Please......

This is my manly, man in all his glory. And new carharts! I finally finished the Durrow Sweater & this was the first day cold enough for him to wear it. I really like how it turned out. I threw out the pattern almost when I began. I followed the cable charts religiously. I knitted the body in the round up to the armpits. Then I knit the sleeves 2 at a time on a long circular needle, also in the round. Then I followed The Sweater Workship by Jacqueline Fee (sp?) and finished with raglan shaping in the round. I added many shortrows in the sleeves to fit over his extra wide, muscular shoulders. Apparently, only being bone & massive muscles makes them a bit squarer than normal. Then I paniced just before starting the collar and thought the back of the neck would be too low so I tossed in a couple more shortrows across the back. In retrospect, I don't think I needed them, but they didn't hurt. Below is a shot of the sweater back. If you can see the shortrows you are a better knitter than I!


Continuing the cables up and over the shoulders emphasized the raglan shaping, but he can pull that off with his shoulders. Overall, a lovely knit & I am ready to start my own sweater! But first to finish the lace neck warmer and the little girl's dress...

isn't he cute!

The latest in Needle Case Fashion

I have finally taken pictures of my roll-up needle cases!
That took a while. (embarrassed sigh) I am not going to post these on Etsy until I get back from vacation. I need to whip out several more. There are only 2 left at the Tangled Skein which makes me sooo pleased.


To the right is a purple flowered case in the closed position.
The case is closed by a loop of elastic which hooks around a lovely button. In this case a big silver filigree button.
One of my favorite parts of the cases are the buttons. It is delightful to pick out just the right button for the fabric.



















Next we have a close-up of the pocket construction. Each case has 19 pockets ranging from 1" to 3" wide. Each row of pockets has a labeling strip that the owner can label what size needles go into each pocket. Seams are sewn with a double needle for additional reinforcement.












Each case also has a hanging tab with 2 eyelets for hanging your roll-up case on the wall when you are not traveling with it. You can easily unhook it from the wall, flip the top flap down over your needle points, roll up and go.









Here is a brown, flowered batik needle case.


Both of the cases shown here are going on sale at The Tangled Skein this week, so if you want them call me quick or stop by the shop after Wednesday. They will be $35 at either location.

Off to Wonderland!

I am going on vacation!!! East Coast here I come! Hopefully I will return with fibery goodness. I am lusting after a set of 4 pitch combs. Not likely, but more likely than Alaska to find a good deal. I am also hoping to come back with some Alpaca. Never worked with it before. And a bunch of dyes. They are a pain to get shipped up here. Let's just admit it, I hate paying for shipping. I would rather buy an airplane ticket and go pick-up stuff. I have been feeling stagnant in my dyeing life. Now I am off to sew some more needle cases.

5 days till lift-off!

Fiber Whiz Kid!

The Fiber Whiz Kid Strikes Again!!

Lil' Pea is a wonder. She has wanted to spin for some time. Like a good mother, I said No. But, I have finally relented. Just days before her 5th birthday we sat down and had a little spinning lesson.Here she is learning to treadle. She is really quite good at it. She can treadle all day. The hard part comes when she has to have her hands even with the orifice & her feet on the treadles.

Here she is sitting on a small chair with a phone book on top so she can reach the treadles & the orifice. She is spinning, I am helping a lot. There were lots of breaks & I would fix them & she would go on. Here are the results of our spinning. I can't quite say this was all spun by a 4 yr old, but a whole lot of it was. Pretty cool, eh?

She also has a Groovy Girl scarf she knitted for sale to raise money for her ballet recital costume. Nothing like motivated children.

My Bathroom Smells Like a Barnyard!

Oh my, have I got myself into something!

I got an offer of some free fleeces. Any offer of "free" things should be taken with a large pause and deep thought. It could be a great thing or it could be the first steps down the road to insanity. I immediately said yes to the free fleeces. Then I (almost as quickly) said, "I have to see them first". Make sure the barn isn't coming home inside the fleeces and all. I didn't know where they were coming from so I had NO idea of the cleanliness. On the spur of the moment Lil' Pea & I drove up to Wasilla to get the fleeces. After many things going wrong--we got there, only an hour late. My friend hopped into the car & we drove to her neighbor's house. The fleeces looked fine to my very virgin eye. I had only seen fleeces once before, a year ago. I do not hang with "sheep" people. I buy very nice clean roving. Not fleeces removed from the animal less than 24 hrs before. I was rather surprised at how clean the fleeces looked. After some reading (once I got the fleeces home, heaven forbid I read up on this BEFORE diving in.) I learned that "meat sheep" can have less than desirable fleeces. I think these are pretty decent for free fleeces. Here is a picture of the brown fleece as it fell out of the garbage bag.
There is also a white fleece, but we will visit it another day. It is still in the bag. The brown fleece looked pretty cool. Here is a shot of the underside of the fleece, very tight, lots of lanolin...all in all, I think it came from a happy, healthy sheep.

Then I unrolled it.

It is a HIPPY SHEEP!! Talk about a bleach job! The roots are a rich dark brown & the wool is long, shaggy & blonde at the tips. It is SO cool looking. Sorry for the faded pictures. I think the big window I was standing by wreaked havoc on the photos. I have opted for posting them instead of wasting all my time trying to tweek the color balance.

ah, the pretty curls...

The short pieces are 3"-4" and the longest part in the middle of the back is up to 8" long. Wow! I have no idea if this is good or bad, but it really looks cool.

So I started washing the fleeces today. Below is the first batch of soapy water after a 15min soak.

WOW! There is a lot of dirt in there. Each batch has gotten progressively cleaner. I am making classic newbie blunders and hopefully I will not have a ball of felted wool at the end. My first blunder came while staring at the manure filled water in front of me and REALLY not wanting it to touch my bathtub. I had the brilliant thought, "This would make great fertilizer for my soil outside!" Some of you might catch on to the fallacy of that statement right away. It took me quite a bit of time. Enough time to take the tub outside, pour it onto my hillside full of plants waiting to come up, refill it for the next soak and start adding the dish soap again. Again? Yes, that last batch of water that I poured all over my hibernating plants was full of dish soap. I hope I didn't kill an entire hillside of summer joy. The next mistake came when I carried the next full tub of water out to dump it AWAY from my plants and dropped the tub full of water. It busted. It was a really nice tub. Arg. Now my fleece (or rather a small portion of it) is sitting in a clean water soak to get the soap out. Next will be a vinegar soak to get the remaining barnyard smell out and then I should be done. Just have to wait for it to dry...I hate waiting.

Yes, I am still alive.

I am almost embarrassed to post. It has been so long. I realized that I had been avoiding my blog because I was embarrassed that I had totally slacked off. I have retreated from my online life. The real one has been getting in the way. Go figure.

Here is a quick review of my life...

In my fiber life I have been knitting wildly on My Man's Durrow sweater. I have ditched the pattern and am following the ideas of The Sweater Workshop by Jacqueline Fee to finish the yoke & collar. I am also continuing the cables up & over the shoulders. Why stop a good thing early?

In my spinning life I have tons of natural camel 3ply ready to dye or skein up & post on Etsy. But, sadly, there it sits. I did have a friend over to spin and that was way cool to spin with someone. I actually didn't spin, I taught my 4yr old fiber wiz-kid to spin. She did a fabulous job seeming how she couldn't treadle & keep the fiber at the right angle to enter the orifice smoothly. My majacraft is set up pretty high and her little body is just too short. I will post pictures when the cows come home. I am thinking about getting another really short band that goes around the wheel so I can adjust the wheel to fit her. She really liked spinning. As her mother it is really fun to watch her balance (or really try hard to) all the different parts of spinning.

My dying life is comatose. Talk to the camel about that.

My sewing life is all about Needle Cases. I just finished my first 5 roll up cases for single & double point needles. They have graduated pocket sizes, labeling strip on the pockets, roll up, hang up & come in lovely colors. You can find them at my LYS The Tangled Skein! Now I have to make more of the hanging ones because all but 2 have sold! I am changing the pocket sizes on the hanging ones to make them more user friendly for the larger needle types. I think I might keep some in the old style for all the sock & other fine knitters out there.

My real life is quite exciting! I went back to school this semester to start learning how to be a computer drafter and actually make a decent wage when my children are all in school. I really like it. It has slowed the fiber life, sadly. That is part of the reason for the lack of posting. The REALLY exciting part is that I had applied for a grant way back in December. I found out about it on the internet. About 5% of applicants are chosen. I thought I had about a snowball's chance in hell.

I am not a Heller for no reason.
(note to readers: Heller is my maiden name.)
I AM THAT SNOWBALL IN HELL!!!
They picked me!!
They are going to give me lots of money to learn how to be the best lil' Computer Drafter out there!!!

yes, I realize that the use of exclamation points has gone a bit over the top. I am REALLY excited though!!!!

I think I will end on that exciting note. Ya know, someone has to get all that money out on the internet! Today, it happens to be me.