A Little Yarn On The Side

And it WASN'T a bottle of wine!  Which, frankly, seemed the logical contender after wrestling with the tubular bind off again.  But it was an honest-to-goodness normal knitting project: A finished project!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Now on to the next 10,000........ Speaking of which, I have no excuses.  My resolve to not buy any new fabric doesn't even slow me down when faced with the right thing.  Tuesday I'd been to the gym and was meeting a friend for lunch, but popped into Craft Warehouse to see if I could find a small doily to use on some extra placemats for us, and was gobsmacked by some great fat quarter bundles with EIGHT fabrics in them-- and they were on sale!!!!  Know how many fabrics I need for a Spicy Spiral table runner?  Eight!  Why can't I use fabrics I already have........?  Well, if I had that kind of self-control, I wouldn't be Cold Sheeping or making up mad challenges for myself.  Anyway, the one t...

For almost an entire week now, I've kept thinking, "Oh, I'll just finish this before posting...." and I am really, really, REALLY close on several things, but nothing is quite done.  Especially not this: Friday night our New Recipe Dinner Club is having an 1950s Hollywood night (complete with costumes) and I thought it would be fun to have a fake-fur stole.  Because it's only 95 degrees still, so, you know, chilly..... Which required a trip to the fabric store, as not even I have fake fur just waiting around in my stash.  I'll admit, I was sort of disappointed in the choice.  I ended up with a black fake rabbit fur because all the others that looked sort of real also sort of looked like roadkill.  I guess maybe there are a lot more costumes involving bad dog fur than faux mink, but I had actually wanted something with longer fur/hair/whatever.  Oh well........  Following the directions I found on Pinterest, I dug out some black crepe-backed satin...

One of my goals this year was to make 3 colorwork ornaments, and the third one is finally done: so I have now completed another goal!!!!!!!!!!!  Which brings me up to TWO.  Out of eight .  Ahem...... The big one, of course, is the 115 projects, and I'm falling behind a bit.  The fall jacket is getting close to being done, in spite of my assistant: with the sleeves ready for top-stitching and buttonholes before being attached: I love how this fabric looks, but in all honesty the fabric is a little thinner than it should be for this jacket.  It didn't feel like it when I bought it, or even when I cut it out, but I've had to be very, very careful to not stretch the fabric while sewing it together.  Like so much women's clothing, it will be completely useless for anything practical, like staying warm, but I still love it.  This is my fourth jacket from this pattern (5th if you count the one I lost and had to replace), and aside from having ...

If I wasn't trying to reach 115 finished projects by the end of the year, this    would not exist.  I simply do not know enough foul language to describe what it was like to work with this fabric.  It's a very good thing that Andy didn't like this fabric after all--there's no WAY a collared shirt would EVER have been made from this stuff, and I don't think I would have been a better person for the experience. Still, it's finished and eventually I will even wear it.  I have probably forgiven worse projects.  In the meantime, I'm working on the jacket.  It's home decorating fabric, but it is a little on the light side for this perhaps.  I think it will be fine, and the fabric is a dream to work with after the purple mess.  It will definitely be a completing-the-outfit sort of jacket rather than a keeping-me-warm one.  As it's back to scary-hot here right now, it's difficult to even remember the "needing warmth" thing.  I am ...

One problem I've never had: too many matching placemats.  When I first took up sewing again (after loathing it in 4-H), I made the same placemat pattern over and over--both because I liked it and because it was a good way to learn.  However, because my dining table sat 6 and I had 6 chairs, I never made more than 6 placemats and 6 matching napkins.  Which was fine at my old house, but now that we've been here 9 years and things have had a chance to end up behind the washing machine or in back of the cabinet, it's a real challenge to find 6 matching placemats when we have company.  So, I have 12 placemats made: which almost used up all 5 yards.  And THINKING AHEAD, I have actually written this information on the pattern I drafted for future reference.  I am not even sure how to wrap my mind around this new level of organization. The batting I used for them is a poly/cotton blend that says it should be quilted every 4 inches.  I don't know how that ...

So obviously the shirt wasn't done in time for Andy's birthday, but it was at least finished before July ended: except that I managed to miscount buttonholes and needed NINE instead of eight.  I'm running to the fabric store in a few minutes to get the extra button.  I just bought them a few weeks ago, so I'm sure they'll still be in stock.  Or pretty sure.  Or hopeful.  Maybe praying, really. Aside from minus one button, I am SO pleased with how this shirt turned out.  Besides how great the fabric looks and that the shirt looks nice on Andy, I am positively thrilled to have used up some of my oldest fabric.  I was so excited that I dug out more old fabric to make another jacket, but decided a break from collars might be in order, so this morning I am cutting out placemats for my mother-in-law for Christmas.  When we were down there, she said she would love oval placemats, because she has this lovely old table and a large group of friends,...