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.

Happy Imbolc!

Happy Imbolc (which I just learned about yesterday). Or, more familiarly, Happy Groundhog Day! Candlemas Day?

Progress on the improbable, two-at-a-time toe-up magic-loop socks, which now have their own Ravelry Page.

Welcome, Year of the Dragon!

Today (it is still January 23 here) is the lunar New Year and, under the Chinese Zodiac, the Year of the Dragon.


I was born in a Year of the Dragon. (I leave you to guess whether I will turn 48, 60 or 72 this year.)

Happy New Year!

I have also been sewing.

By January 3 I had already resurrected one garment and sewn another from scratch! If only I could continue at that pace I could give Carolyn a run for the money! Well, perhaps not.

First, I made this dress last year but never wore it because the delicious slinkiness of the silk jersey clings to every bump, bulge and baloney sandwich underneath it. So shortened it to a top and cut sleeves (from Vogue 8575, my go-to pattern because I never get round to putting it away) from the excess, turning it into this.



Then, when it came time to pack for a weekend in DC to visit DD and attend a law professors' conference I discovered I had nothing warm (or clean) to wear so I made another, better iteration of Vogue 8525. This one looks exactly like the photo on the pattern envelope, since I made it out of a nice charcoal grey double knit. I wore it every day in Washington because I like it and I could wear as many layers underneath as the temperature required. I pressed DD (who was surprised to learn I had made the top! Oh, joy supreme!) into service to take a picture, but I see she doesn't really grasp the outfit photo concept, which is probably just as well.



Meanwhile the overly ambitious two-at-a-time-toe-up-magic-loop socks are proceeding apace. I'm somewhere around the instep preparing to learn how to do a heel. I didn't bother with a gauge because, well, I just didn't, and I figure the socks, if they ever materialize, will fit someone. Even if they have to be worn over shoes--they are looking pretty large.

And, finally (for now), I sat down for some serious "what happens if I do this?" time with my Brother 1034D serger, generating sample stitches, on muslin and stretch knit, carefully labeled with Differential Feed Setting, Stitch Length, Stitch Width and Needle and Looper Tension Settings, which I then tossed in a heap.



A good day.

The New Year So Far

The downside--the ONLY downside--of being a law professor is that the holiday season brings a heavier workload. Exams to grade, syllabi to polish, exams to grade, annual meeting of law professors to attend, exams to grade, the list is endless. Plus I had exams to grade. So while the rest of the stitching-and-blogging world is relaxing, partying, taking stock of the year gone by and making lists for the year to come, I'm grading exams.

Or, rather, doing other stuff to avoid grading exams. I've actually been rather productive so far this year, but whenever I've sat down to blog about it I've felt so guilty about those not-yet-damned exams festering next to my keyboard that I've had to go knit something.

My snooding with chunky yarn and big needles went so well that I decided I'm a knitting natural and should make all the men in my household hand-knitted socks for Christmas. The original plan, of course, was to have the socks actually knitted by Christmas, ha ha I mean ho ho. Instead, each lucky recipient got yarn and a promise. But isn't the yarn pretty?


So to make up for lost time I've decided to try knitting these socks toe-up, two at a time by the magic loop method. I've watched this wonderful youtube video a hundred times at least,



and I am proud to announce that I have created this:



If you look closely you can see a toe-ish sort of shape there. In fact, there are two. And they are still there on the needles and cable this morning, despite my beloved kitty's best efforts to destroy them while I slept.



He chewed three holes in my ziploc knitting bag and pulled a skein through the largest of them! My cat is now in the doghouse.

OK, not really.

Merry Christmas or the Holiday of Your Choice!

DD, ensnooded but faceless and unshod, by the Christmas tree.