Remnants

I don't seem to be able to put together a post these days, but I have not been entirely unproductive. I've knitted the toes and insteps of DH's Christmas 2011 socks:


I accompanied a group of law students for a weekend in New York City and wore newly-made pajama pants in my gloomy room with an airshaft view at the Empire Hotel:



While in NYC, I met a friend in Brooklyn at the Brooklyn Flea Market!



And I made another cycling dress, made of $2 mystery knit from Michael Levine's sale table (but not the by-the-pound loft) and Simplicity 2580, bad pictures of which would follow, but all they really do is set all my body dysmorphia alarm bells ringing so I'm omitting the pictures.

Somehow the me in my head is much fatter but also much thinner than the me who shows up in the mirror (and worse, in photos). It is very hard to sew for myself when I don't know (or want to know) what I look like. Even my familiar seems a bit disapproving.



Maybe I'll make a dress for my tiny little DD.

I'm Just Not Smart Enough For This

I would really like to make more garments (or any) traced from European pattern magazines. I actually like the process of tracing, I enjoy the challenge of picking my line out of the Burda rats' nest. So far, however, the only project I've finished is a skirt--a rok--from the April 2011 KnipMode, which, however, turned out to be enormous. Even so, it was well-designed and the whole enterprise was fun. I'm thinking of growing into it.

So I subscribed to Burda Plus through Amazon a while ago. A few weeks ago my second and last issue, Spring/Summer 2012, landed in the mailbox.



Without thinking about it too hard, I decided to run up a blouse, #425, out of some light drapey black stuff in my stash. (I really shouldn't have forgotten what the stuff in my stash is--I haven't been at this that long!) It's a weird blouse, with one long sleeve and one short and a back twice as wide as the front.



Incidentally, I found this picture at the Russian Burda site, where I also found Cidell of Miss Celie's Pants prominently displayed in her Puffy Sleeve Dress!



Anyway, tracing is even more fun when the pattern parts are oddly shaped and too wide to fit on the paper in one piece but I managed to figure it out. Then, the hard part behind me, I proceeded to cut the whole thing in fashion fabric without remembering to add the !@#$% seam allowances!

Another Month Gone ...

… and nothing much to show for it. Well, there's this beauty in my front yard:

My ceanothus, blooming all over for the first time this year. They call these "California Lilacs" but they shouldn't.

I retired the improbable orange socks after rounding one heel, deciding I'd had enough practice and could begin on the real things, a.k.a. DH's 2011 Christmas socks.

I knit while riding the subway to and from work. I also ride my bicycle to the subway station and take it with me on the train. (I don't ride at rush hour.) The other day, I was knitting and sitting peacefully not bothering anybody or talking to myself very much. We came to my stop and I grabbed everything (knitting, helmet, gloves, bicycle, etc.) to hop off the train when I discovered that I had somehow tied my knitting around the pole beside me (the one my bike is leaning on). Kamikaze knit bombing, anyone? Yes, I am that crazy lady you hope won't talk to your children or offer them candy.