Warped

Ha!  Got you.  I'm not actually talking about my mental state, but about my loom.   Hey, I thought this was about sewing and knitting and stuff?  Oh, it is.  This is the stuff.  I started warping my loom many months ago and today it's done.  That is definitely finishing the unfinished.  So the next step is to go on and weave those lovely spring green dishtowels.

This  is the pattern.  I liked the photo so much I got the same colors. Once again I will apologize for the  picture quality. I used the 'close-up' setting, but it's still hard to see any detail.










Here is a photo just after I sleyed the reed.  That's putting the warp threads through the spaces on the reed.

Now I am here.

I will finish this today.  My only goal for this lovely Friday in green and beautiful El Dorado County California USA.  Toot toot. ( My Horn)

Here are some photos of my sewing project.  So far.

 This is as much as I had done whenever it was I started this.

 I didn't match the stripes at all.

I have ironed on the batting to the other fabric.

There is the other fabric sewn into a bag.   ( I messed up the color on the photo. The real color is in photo above.)




I should be back Sunday with the warping and the black and white bag finished.  Yay!     Things are looking up for the challenge.

Below see a wonderful creation I spotted at the California State Fair last year.  I don't know what it does or what it is, but I love it.

Ciao for now.

Baby dress

I did finish it.  The baby dress.  It didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped and I don't know who's going to wear it, but I'm glad I've finished an unfinished item.

I wish I had more of the yellow fabric.  I would have done 2 pockets on the skirt.  Or maybe even have done a yellow daisy-type flower.  Oh, well.  It's okay.  I think it would fit a two year old, but being far removed from youngsters, I'm not sure.











Here is my next project.  I think.

Another Amber Creation, but I've not made one of these before.  So let's see if i can pick up where I left off and don't mess it up.

Or maybe this one.

I like the Provincial fabric, but I guess I didn't include the pattern in the photo. It was a tote bag. Here goes.







Confession time.  I'm longing to make something I haven't already started.  A blouse or pair of pants for spring, or a great pattern I found on Craftsy. It's another bag.  See it here. Knotty Girl Boho Bag

The striped socks for my sister are nearly done and when they are, I have another pair I'm working on which you have seen in my sock post. Yellow-green.  After that I must finish my turquoise pull-over.

 

So that's it for this time.  Thanks for hanging in with me.

       Take a tip from my cat, Eddie.  Lie down, stretch out and relax.

Where have I been?

To tell the complete truth, I've been idling.  However that seems to have passed.  I returned from Tennessee on Feb. 10 very late.  Then starting Tuesday and for a week I was idle.  This is a public confession. Frankly I thought it might be just a couple of days for idleness.  Oh, no, a full week.

The challenge?  First I finished a bag for my daughter-in-law which I finished after my infamous idling week. Here are some photos of it.

                                  These are the bits to start the bag.

The pattern called for one long pocket, but I did two using the same print in different colors.   I sewed them on correctly, but then when I went to sew the bottom of the lining in order to square the corners, I sewed the top edges together instead of the bottoms.

So then I sewed the corners and cut one of them before I realized what I had done.  Consequently I  found my error and the pockets were then upside down.  After cursing, I unsewed one of the pockets and resewed it the opposite only to find I hadn't taken care to catch the elastic at the top.  That's when after cursing and cursing I decided to stop until after I returned from TN.

The lining inside the bag, both pockets turned as in photo above.

I think it came out all right.  DDIL will get it later.  When I was visiting, I bought her gift at the local yarn shop, The Knaughty Knitter.  Meredith is the owner and a very nice person.

Next I dug out a blouse I started years ago for my daughter. Here's the photo I took when I was counting all my unfinished projects.

Well,  it had been sooooooooooo long I had to study the pattern and the pattern pieces and study them again.  I love the fabric, but this was what I discovered.  I had failed to cut out an important piece at the time and I had no more of that fabric that I could find.  What did I do?   I put the fabric into my box of batiks and chose another project.

Okay, deep breath.  I picked this one up next.  It was all cut out and all there, but I hadn't actually started sewing.  This one is a go.  Woohoo!

I'm doing this view minus the applique and lace.

Pinned bodice lining to bodice, don't we love pinning?

Bodice almost done with cute ruffles on the sleeves.   Want more?  Oops, that's all I've got for today.  I promise it won't be so long next time.  I'm hoping for Sunday.  Don't be too surprised if it's later, but not 3 weeks.


In Tennessee I visited the Stones River Civil War National Battlefield.  Here are a couple of photos I took.  It was very cold about 38 degrees.

Looking out from the museum towards the site of one of the battles. So lovely and peaceful.

This is the oldest Civil War memorial still standing. 1863.

                To end on a cheerier note, here is a photo of my cat, Zeke, who loves to get in my face.

Bye bye.

                                                                

                                                     

I'm Off

Oh besides off my rocker, I am leaving for Tennessee in about 12 hours.  Tennessee you say?  Yes, to visit with my son and his wife.  Remember I mentioned making her  something for her birthday in my post before last?  Well, it didn't happen.  I was sewing along and then I made a humongous mistake.  I tried to correct but kept getting more and more frustrated.  Her birthday isn't until the 17th so I'll have time to finish it and mail when I get home.  There will be some major ripping out and resewing.

This is my granddog, Lady D.  I will be very happy to see her.

 The world's largest cedar bucket at home in Murfreesboro, TN

This is a very large rocking horse carved from wood and using the curve of the  wood for the head and mane.  This was at the art and craft museum store I visited last time.

 So many front porches have one or more of these great rockers.  Here they are for sale at Cracker Barrel.  They're very comfortable and less that  $100.00.

This is Ruby Falls.(Near Chattanooga)  It's an underground waterfall.  About a thousand feet below ground. Amazing.











These are some of the things I saw when I was visiting in the past.  I look forward to seeing some new things this time. However I mostly want to hug my family and then hug them some more.

                 Look for me next week, when I return to  The Challenge.

A SOCK STORY

Hi, it's me unabashed sock lover.  My children will tell you that socks are, perhaps, an obsession with me.  However, I have no idea when this began. It wasn't always like it is now.
  It may have started in 1994 when I got my first job as a nurse.  We graduates had longed for the chance to get out of our student uniforms and into the cute scrubs we had seen at the hospitals where we obtained our clinical experience.  For me, this was not to be,  I was hired at a Catholic hospital where all nurses wore white.  (Oh, Hallelujah, we did not have to wear our caps.  Mine looked unlike any nurse cap I had ever seen.)  Consequently, I tried to accessorize my whiteness with color. I got a turquoise stethoscope and little belt pack to carry my tools and bandages and tape.  When not wearing a skirt, I wore the most colorful socks I could find.  It made me happy to see them whenever I got a moment to sit.

Today, I have many socks. 
I have a section for ankle socks, one for knee socks, one for handknit, and a large drawer for the crew style socks.  Most of them are in good shape, but some may have holes.  I have a hard time throwing them away, and I have learned to darn.

Did she say 'darn'?  What is that?

It's a way to repair holes by making a little woven section in the hole using a similar thread or yarn.
 
The following photos are from my collection.

 Ankle socks

Knee socks

Crew socks, all mine.

Handknit.








Several years back I took a sock knitting class at Lofty Lou's yarn shop in Placerville, Ca.  My teacher, Pam, taught me and also became my good friend.  What a deal I got that day!!

These are the socks I made. My first ones!  Note the difference in the toes.  The left was easier, but the right looks nicer and I've done it that way ever since.







As you may know, socks are a very portable project.  I took them occasionally to the theater to be productive during off stage times.

See the beginnings of a yellow/green sock there on the pillow?  I recently started finishing it.  Much to do yet.

               

Doing the gussets and it is tedious.  I'm using size one needles and I have the feeling I'm using toothpicks.

See these?

I fell in love with them HERE.  Knitted by Stephanie Pearl-McFee.

Here are mine,  I didn't take time to make them line up as Stephanie did with hers.

                                    It's okay,  I love them anyway.

Only one more,  I've one sock done in this striped yarn color Red Lips and Smoky Eyes and started on the second. For my sister, Pat.

The colors are bright.  I think it may have been foggy in my house when I took these photos.

Come back soon, maybe next week, for more of something.

Don't you just hate it

When you finish something and it's just not right?  Yes, I finally finished the red blouse with help from my trusty or not so trusty assistant.

Zeke who  recently returned from a walk about insisted on helping me while I was hemming.  Poor lamb, he didn't realize how inadequate a couturier he is.

He just couldn't make his tail do anything productive.  It just lay there.

So it only took a couple of hours to finish the blouse and I eagerly looked forward to trying it on.  This is what happened.  I couldn't wait so I tried it on before I put on the sleeves.  This was a BIG mistake.  After I did, I didn't want to finish.  It's true.  I suddenly hated the red blouse.

Twenty-four hours later, I did put the sleeves on, but I refused to hem them or do the buttons.  Here are photos.

Starting to hem, before Zeke arrived to help.

The front sans buttons.  The color in the photo above is more true in color.

This is the back but the color is really off.  I'm not sure why there's such a difference same camera same time same place.  Ah well, a photographer I'm not.







Can you guess why I hate the red blouse?  No, it's not the weird color changes. No, Zeke didn't harm it in anyway.  It doesn't fit.  There.  I said it.  I'm keeping it because there is a possibility than it might someday.

Lest you think I took all this time with nothing more than a nearly finished red blouse, here is something else that turned out better.

 Sleep-over Satchel for Pam
 (see post here )  That one is the story of The Monkey on the branch.

 Supplies

 Forgot to photograph until I put the lining in.

 Close-up of pocket

The finished bag.  Again, however, the color isn't true.  I think it maybe that my sewing room is yellow.

Yesterday I also finished some knitting so tune in tomorrow for a look at that.

What's next you might well ask?  I'm making another Sleep-over Satchel, this time for my daughter-in-law. Sh-h-h, her birthday is next month.  I'll be sharing pictures then.

Thank you for hanging in with me.  I hope to be posting more often as the challenge is taking off.

 Ciao! (Did I mention I also study Italian?)

And I thought I was done

When the show closed on December 30th, a sold-out performance, I knew there was one more day.  On January 4th, we had to strike the set.  That means putting the theatre back to it's former self.  Everyone involved with the production was supposed to participate.  I joined in, but being unfamiliar with tools such as hammers, drills, etc. I helped with organizing the costumes for storage and return to costumes rental places.

Aack! Is she still talking about that show?  Where's the challenge?

I heard that.  I know, I promised and it will happen. Believe me.  So, at the strike I volunteered to take home some of the costumes for wash and repair. Thankfully there were only a few minor repairs, but oh, the washing.

These are the clean factory aprons. Twenty-one draped ;on my loom.

This is my car loaded with some of the bags of costumes I brought home. I'd already done the aprons.

 Clean costumes on the loom. Shirts, aprons and bloomers.

On the loveseat.
Lots of burgundy and gold gloves from the wedding scene.

Is there a loom there? And what's that on the chair?  Cindy's huge nightdress. It is so big she couldn't find her way out.


And ta-dah! My whole living room full of clean stuff.  Except the dog.  See the video tour.

 

And the loom has completely disappeared.

Next time, the red blouse returns for it's final performance.