27 November 2011

Picking Up The Pace!

Yesterday I finished two! projects! TWO! Well, except for one needs buttons. Here is the finished (but for the buttons) and amateurishly blocked scarfette for DD who is facing her first winter outside California:

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Now, she's only facing what passes for winter in Washington, DC, so this little scarfy thing should cover it.

Also finished is another rendition of Vogue Options 8575, this one with long set-in sleeves in some mystery jersey from Michael Levine's $1.99 table. I still haven't decided if the print is pretty or really ugly--it is certainly synthetic.

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Its mission in life is to be another cycling dress. I'm getting better at this pattern--the princess seams almost meet properly at the shoulders now.

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And I have the neckline almost where I want it now. However, as a result, the bodice is almost too short.

To restore balance in the universe, atilt due to my excess of FOs, I started unraveling my first knitted FO of this milennium to utilize my somewhat improved knitting skillz on this nice silk yarn.

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On my monitor, the color of the ball on the seat is closer to the actual yarn than the disappearing scarf on the back of the chair.

So, go me! Of course, all this productivity is the result of procrastinating on what I'm supposed to be doing, but whatever.

24 November 2011

Happy Thanksgiving and Oops!

I've always wondered why sometimes a new post will turn up on my blogroll and then when I go to look at it it's not there. Well, now I understand because I did it! I clicked "share" on a youtube video to post it to my other, (even) less active and far more political blog, and it turned up here. Oops. I don't think my politics are any secret--my objection to both Hilary and Barack in the last election was that they are way too conservative--but I don't mean to bother sewists and crafters with them.

So to avoid another content-free post here, I offer a current WIP pic:
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I managed to get this shot without my familiar, but you can see that the cat has been busy in the background distributing a ball of yarn around the rug. The WIP is a Sulka Scarfette pattern designed by Maya that I found through Ravelry when I was looking for something to do with the 2 skeins of merino, alpaca and silk Sulka by Mirasol that fell into my basket at the yarn shop. It's a Christmas present for DD, but it's safe to post it here because no matter how many blogs I have she doesn't read them.

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving in the US and happy day everywhere else!

19 November 2011

How can it be November already?

I confess, I've been caught in a procrastinator's vicious circle: months ago Tors of Girl Meets Wolf won my blogiversary giveaway, a set of vintage Singer Sewing Machine feet, and it took me forever to get around to mailing them to her. Bad me. And whenever I thought about posting to my blog I thought, "But first, you have to send those feet!" And so it goes. But now I've finally sent them off across the continent and then the Pond, along with a selection of goodies to assuage my guilt, so (in my weird little moral economy) I can post again! Lucky you.

Here's what I finished today.
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It is Vogue 8525, made from some shiny, shreddy, see-through synthetic knit which is real pretty to look at but a bear to sew on. I bought the pattern a long time ago and probably wouldn't buy it if I were just seeing it now, having finally learned that shapeless clothing on a shapeless body does not produce a shapely silhouette. But look at those slash pockets! I've never made non-patch pockets, so go me! And although the FO looks like a sack, I am proud to say that it looks just like the photo on the pattern envelope, which also looks like a sack. Which of course raises (but, if you please, does not beg) the question of why I bought it.
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