The Seasonal Sweater

The box is one of my sort of but not always bad habits. When life gets too paper filled, I scoop everything off the counter and into the box, stick a lid on it, and sort it out every few months. Typically, I know if there's something time sensitive in the box and I get to it before it's too late but occasionally I'm surprised. Yesterday, there was a twenty dollar cheque, not out dated, and this was good and a juror summons for Tuesday... opened on Wednesday... which reads in contempt of court. Gulp. It was for Howard. When he phoned and explained that he'd been on holidays and had only opened the envelope today - which was true - the Deputy Sheriff said that he could have a pass this time considering the circumstances and in light of the fact that the case had been called. Sigh of relief. Really - I would have visited him in jail - I'm a good wife.

Most of the morning was spent sorting and tidying the studio and most of the afternoon was spent getting these nine packages ready to mail. It took WAY longer than anticipated. These are the bags from The Handbag Project that I completed last fall. I wanted to wait until after Christmas before sending them so that they wouldn't get confused with gifts. Each package contains the bag, a disk of images of all the projects, a card, and a note all wrapped pretty in color co-ordinated tissue. Done. To the post office.

I finished the seasonal sweater - the over the holidays project. It has the typical fitting issues of a block shaped garment. There's too much fabric behind the armhole and not enough across the front and the center back length is way too long especially on me since I'm short waisted. I expected these issues so I'm not disappointed. It was an easy knit that accomplished its goal and the fit is not too bad. It's wearable.

There are two lessons learned. One is more of an ah ha. Knitting patterns are for knit garments which means that a) I could sew muslins from knit fabric using the schematic in the pattern and have a better idea whether this garment suits me before I start knitting and b) I could use some knitting patterns as sewing patterns. Duh. Why hadn't I thought of that before? Bonus thought - I could use some stretch sewing patterns as knitting patterns. Hmm...

AND... the ribbed edge is especially flattering over the back hips. It's formed by picking up stitches, knitting a row, increasing stitches while changing to a 2 x 2 rib, knitting, increasing in the group of purl stitches, knitting, increasing in the group of knit stitches, knitting, and casting off. A sweater with this rib around the bottom from waist to hem could be quite attractive and equally well fitted using my center back length from sewing. I could place the increases in the back only where I need the extra room and leave them off in the front where I don't. My mind is suddenly hopping with ideas to draft and try.

A tip for the yarn ends is to use Fray Check. A dot on each end before you cut close to the knitting will prevent the ends from showing up on the front. Because seed stitch is identical front to back, I left a pink tag at shoulder blade level on the inside back so I'd know which was the wrong side since I can't tell now that I've trimmed all the ends.

In his posting yesterday, Peter talked about practical sewing versus fantasy sewing and asked... If most of the sewing you do is of the practical variety, is this how you want it to be, or would you like to sew more in the fantasy realm but don't feel you should, or aren't sure how you'd explain it to DH or the kids? How about those of you who sew costumes on a regular basis, for the theater, say -- do you secretly dream you could just settle down in front of the sewing machine and whip up a pair of practical panties -- or eight?

THAT is a hugely valuable question. For me, it's about having fun. Am I? Everything - even activities you really enjoy - have their boring stages that are just part of the process BUT... overall... am I having fun. I sewed a dozen panties all at once about a year ago and it was somewhat boring and yet I felt a huge sense of accomplishment and love the results and wear them every day. At the time it might not have been but thinking back, it was fun although next time I'll add lace inserts or - something - to make it even more amusing.

I've sewn garments just to see how they would work or just to try out an idea or just to see if a fabric could do what I hope it can do. I've sewn special occasion dresses that took forever to fit, were worn once, and looked fabulous. I've sewn bras and jeans and a Chanel jacket just to see how they are done and - jacket aside - enjoyed the results enough to go on to sew more jeans and more bras and no more jackets. What I learned is that I'm a sweater and not a jacket kind of girl and that's something I absolutely adore - LEARNING - and...

... one thing I've learned is that I have the most fun when I have no idea how the finished project will turn out. The Handbag Project was like that. I started with each pair of hands and the idea of creating a bag and worked from start to finish one step at a time. Refashioning is like that. I start with a garment that doesn't work and hope for one that does. Apparently, the unknown is my favourite kind of project.

Above on Millicent, you can just see the green paisley skirt. Refashioning it is my next project. As is, it's not working for me and I'm curious to see if I can morph it into something that I find more interesting. It's the process that intrigues me and it doesn't matter if the end result works or not although when it does, that's a wonderful bonus. I wasn't always like this. I became a process over project person less than ten years ago which makes the concept still somewhat fresh because during that time I've also had a lot of practical things to accomplish BUT... over the next year... I want to keep in mind that sewing "blind" is how I have the most fun in my studio and make sure that I have more fun, more often, in-between those practical panties.

Once the skirt is done, I'm finished all the finishing up and ready for a new project. YES YES! What I really need is some more t-shirts and you can't get much more practical than that but... I'll try to shake it up a little.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - my first day home alone since the holidays and a return to the "regular" schedule

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Personal Growth - Destiny is a name often given in retrospect to choices that had dramatic consequences. - J.K. Rowling

A reminder to breathe in, breathe out, be calm. Hindsight almost always makes things clear and what is frustrating me now will seem like the perfect - of course - answer in the future.