KCW Wrap Up

I ended up with 2 dresses and a skirt for Ellie this week in about 8 hours of sewing. I know my newbie-ness is showing since I know a lot of people participating in KCW finished much more this week, but that's okay. We all start somewhere, right? I'm happy with my progress and Ellie has a few more things to wear in the coming months. The light colored polka dot dress above is Simplicity 5695, View A. I shortened the last ruffle since Ellie is on the more petite side, and even so this dress won't fit her for a bit- but it's a great spring dress, so that works out.

I shared this dress last week. I used this tutorial with some slight changes for the top. I've made 4 of these tops now and if they still fit through spring I'll probably cut the sleeves shorter.

I finally got the girl to let me get a picture! I promise she wears everything I make, she's just not doing well with the camera lately. I didn't plan to make this skirt before KCW but I had seen the tutorial for it and planned to make it when she was older. But then I saw this navy fabric and the little polka dots seemed to call out for a circle skirt. I know, I know- it's just furthering the polka dot issue I have.


I think part of leveling up to be "intermediate" level at something has to do with knowing how to fix many of your mistakes in the easiest way possible, and I'm definitely not there yet with my sewing. I had to go back and fix on a few things and that ate up some of that time. In fact on Wednesday I ended up setting one project aside because I just couldn't deal with the problem at hand that late at night. I have learned not to work on knitting problems too late in the evening because it often makes it worse- and I figure the same probably goes for sewing since I still have to think pretty hard (and often google) how to fix or change something.


What next? Well, honestly the sewing machine is probably going to be put away for a bit. I need to get fall hats and mittens knit up since fall weather is truly here, and I really need to get to work on organizing the area that I use for sewing. I'm really supposed to be sewing in the spare bedroom, but the closet doesn't really work for storage as it is currently set up (not really sure how it possibly stored anything, to be honest) so I need to take some time to pull that out and get organized toward future endeavors. I did start pinning a few things to sew for myself, but for now it's back to knitting.

Blocked

{Knitting Along with Ginny, unless she has her sweet baby today- 
and then I'm just sharing my latest knitting and reading. Will you join?}

I knit all of these pieces last year, but they were tucked away waiting for these days when I need a little something around my neck to keep the chill away. I pulled everything out over the weekend to re-block.


Ignore the scattered debris in the background, would ya? I let the toddler run free during this particular blocking session- as long as she wasn't eating crayons or destroying property I was okay with whatever she wanted to do for the 20 minutes I spent blocking. Sometimes a mama *really* needs to block a shawl so that a sort of sour weekend doesn't devolve into despair. Yes. I said it. Blocking a shawl totally restores your perspective on life.

I sort of forget the magic that blocking works on lace until I block (or re-block) a finished piece. One minute it's a blob of yarn that looks fine if you sort of stretch it out with your hands and look at it with your head tilted, and the next minute it's wet and growing and you can really see the pattern that you put all your time and energy and muttered curses into. And love too, of course. It's really just like raising children.

This red was really hard to capture. The background fabric is jet black so you have an idea of how difficult it was to be accurate. It's actually a very rich variegated red sock weight that I really really love.

Blocking with an 18-month-old around is an adventure. She finds t-pins to be a delight. And shockingly, she doesn't poke herself. I never would have let the boys hold a pin at this age, but she's the third child and I might have finally relaxed a bit. What a blessing- to me and to my kids.



I'm reading Emma (Jane Austen!) and the boys and I finished up Farmer Boy yesterday. We have had so many great discussions over this book- I'm a little sad to see it go, though tomorrow we will start Jungle Book. I listened to a wonderful audio recording called Nurturing Competent Communicators from Andrew Pudewa (recommended by the wonderful Sarah at Amongst Lovely Things) and goodness- it certainly put my brain back on track about reading out loud to our boys! It's so easy to think that they don't need us to read to them anymore because they can read to themselves now, and that is simply not the case. We need to keep reading aloud, listening to books on CD, discussing and writing. I especially appreciated the connection he made to the method behind Suzuki violin study, as I am a Suzuki violin teacher myself (and a student since the age of 4). I'm looking forward to listening to more of his recordings.


For those of you waiting for my KCW results, I will get them posted tomorrow. My husband hurt his back over the weekend (he will be fine, but back to physical therapy) and working through that and the accompanying appointments changed everything around. Back to regular posts today, and KCW post tomorrow.

KCW Days 1 - 3

I've been able to get in a total of 5 hours so far this week- I worried about finding time on Tuesday and Wednesday, but one late night and an unexpected change in my work schedule gave me the time I would have missed. 

I have 1 little dress and a pair of sleeves to share with you today:

I've made 4 of these little tunic tops now and the fact that they've been so easy is what has gotten me to sew so much more lately. My last few sewing adventures had been a big bust and I had a hard time getting motivated to get back to my machine. But after these and some pajama pants for my boys, I'm back to sewing with a bit of confidence.

These are the beginnings of Simplicity 5695, view A. I'm making these in the 2T size, so they may be a little big on Ellie this fall, but should fit her a few months from now in late winter/early spring. I'm planning to also make view C in a coordinating fabric to this one depending on how it turns out.

I finished another little tunic dress like the one above last night, but haven't had time for photos yet. I'll add that in 

Yarn Along

{Yarn Along with Ginny. Will You join us?}

After an overflowing week, it's been hard to remember when exactly I knit. But I know I did- I have the inches on my Exploding Socks to prove it. I'm done with the foot of #1 and a few rows into the patterning on sock #2. And I know for sure that I did the toe of sock #2 incorrectly and had to rip it back and do it again so those hours have to be somewhere...

Most of my creative time has been going into sewing this week for KCW. I've finished 2 little dresses and started the sleeves on another, but now I need to get pictures of Ellie in them, which is proving quite tricky these days as she is faster and knows what the camera is for. 

In my reading, I finished Wuthering Heights and moved on to Emma by Jane Austen, reading on the kindle. I'm not reading a ton these days unfortunately- by the time I get to bed these days I'm going right to sleep. Allergies have been doing such a number on me this season. Much of my reading lately is with the boys- we picked up a recording of The Jungle Book at the library (read by Jim Weiss!) and as soon as we finish the last CD of Farmer Boy we'll be moving on to Jungle Book.

Ready Go!

Are you participating? 

I made my list last week and spent some time over the weekend getting ready for all the sewing in the next 7 days. Tuesday and Wednesday are going to be a bit of a challenge to find the time to sew around kids and work, but hopefully I'll find a solution. I'm hoping for 4-6 finished items by this time next week, and then a bit of a hiatus from sewing so that I can really dig into fall knitting (which is begun, but not making very quick progress).

I fear a polka dot problem has sprung up. I didn't realize that I was buying so many polka dots until they were all stacked together, and I know the three pictured here don't seem to constitute a problem, but there are at least three more polka dot prints not pictured here. The fabric on the left is for another long sleeve dress, the grey with white polka dots for a skirt, and the lighter prints are for short sleeve dresses that we can layer and carry into spring. 

I have some unpictured cartoon prints for boy pajama pants and some linen for some pants with a flat front for the boys. They have enough jeans now after a quick weekend shopping trip, but still lacking on the "nice" but comfortable pants front.