Tag: 2017

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Agent Carter

We’re in a crazy time right now, and while I’ve regained the time of my commute I’m making the most of it, trying to get my blog up to date, as well as make more stuff! According to my drafts folder, I’ve got 12 posts in the works, and that’s not counting anything I’ve made so far in 2020… Which is a fair bit.

So you’ll likely hear a lot from me in the next month or two, and maybe that’ll kickstart my old blogging energy!

And back to the regularly scheduled- Wait. This dress was made in 2017. That’s three years ago! That’s a whole blog changeover ago. While I go hang my head in shame, enjoy my post about this Peggy dress.

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A loooooooong time ago, I made a dress based off of Peggy Carter’s purple dress in Agent Carter’s episode, “A View in the Dark.”

I remember very little of making it, or the muslin that is shown here in green, but I do remember a few things.

The material that I chose for the green muslin was a relatively medium weight linen/poly blend that had some nice drape, but could hold it’s shape rather well. The purple was instead a very heavy polyester corduroy, and shed like crazy. It’s almost no wonder that the dresses didn’t fit the same.

I modified the dress from the Deer and Doe Belladone, which I had used for a binge of dresses earlier that year, by changing so much that it’s almost not the same garment. This is why I made the not-common for Jess move of making a muslin (I know, I know. Muslins are useful, but sometimes I just want to jump into the real thing and just try it!). And I love the muslin, and one day I will actually line the bodice of the muslin, so that I can wear it again.

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The belt was made out of some gorgeous lace that I inherited from one of my mom’s friends. I painstakingly cut flowers from the lace, handstitched them to a silver painted sew in interfacing in black, then attached the interfaced flowers to a fleece backing and stitched on ribbons and hooks and eyes for the closures. It’s still my go to belt for dressing up relatively plain things that need waist definition, like my Future Dress.

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I wore the costume to DragonCon in 2017, but only on Monday, when only super obvious costumes get recognized (because nearly everyone is hungover from excitement and non-stop parties and new friends), and it was too hot for Atlanta on Labor Day. Remember heavy polyester corduroy?

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Later that year, I tried to wear it to a swing dance, and it… Well, I kind of hulked out of it. It was near the end of my Master’s degree, or perhaps right after, and I had gained a bit more… numerically…  in the tummy region. I managed to slither into the dress, and then when I got into the car and drove down the block (picture reversing and the automatic twists of the torso to make sure you’re not hitting the neighbor’s car when coming out of the driveway) before the side seam split, and the waist seam gave way. Not my proudest moment. But the material lives on in my ottoman-pouf, and the green dress lives on, and is definitely more my normal style anyway… Polyester corduroy is decidedly not.

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Defense Dress

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As I mentioned in my 2017 wrap up post, I defended my master’s and now I’m a free woman! Otherwise known as a member of the semi-normal work force.

But because I can’t help myself, even in the stress of preparing for my defense, I made a special dress to wear for the defense. It ended up being a small amount of stress relief and a chance to slow my brain down between turning in my manuscript and giving the oral defense.

To make my degree a bit full circle, I used the same pattern as when I had my very first grad school presentation… This is the Dandelion Dress pattern from Seamster Patterns, which is unfortunately no longer available. It’s essentially a very uniquely seamed shift dress/shirt, and I’ve made it a couple times now. I still wear my first version a lot, and I was hoping to recreate that magic.

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Because I can’t stop myself, I had to make it more complicated… The fabric I bought from Fabric.com was not what I was expecting. I bought this printed boucle which I thought would be printed so that the boucle direction matched what looked like the print direction… That wasn’t true. The print was also much bigger than I expected and it was blaringly large in the original colors of navy and white. So I dyed it with some emerald procion green dye, and it turned out to be in my perfect color scheme! My accent fabric is a brushed navy twill that is sooooooo soft. A bit lighter weight than expected, but I’m not used to figuring out what 6oz feels like. I know for now though!

I used the twill on the front and back center and the sleeves, and the boucle for the large side pieces. The fit is okay. I don’t know whether it shrunk after the first wearing, or whether my first feels larger due to the slight stretch in the fabric. Neither of the fabrics for this version have any more than mechanical stretch, and I can feel it. About a year later now, and I’ve lost some of the “bad choices preceding defense” weight, it feels less tight, but now that I see how the back looks at least in pictures it’ll be relegated to job interviews and sweater days, since it doesn’t (easily) fit into my daily life until it gets cooler outside (it’s fall, but the weather isn’t complying).

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For the pattern choices, I went with the rounded neckline, and I omitted the zipper again. This one is harder to wiggle into, but I still can… I do have to wear it over a slip or tights and slip shorts, because the boucle is just wiggly enough that you can tell whether there’s anything under it, and I really didn’t want to line it.

I love this dress, and it made me feel great wearing it on the day. I passed (with some flying colors if I do say so myself)! And I’ve worn it a few times since. The sleeves are a little tight when I bring my arms forward, but not cut off circulation, just uncomfortable and unflattering… So with sweater, yes! Without sweater, maybe. Also there aren’t pockets, so a sweater with pockets is ideal.

When editing the pictures I saw how crummy the back looks, but I can say that at least 25% of the wrinkles are from wearing it all day, and I’d guess that 50% is that the swayback doesn’t match my body curve (but without a zipper I can’t do better) and that the final 25% is that I tend to underestimate the amount of backfat/bulk that my back carries. I’m no football lineman, but I definitely have to make back adjustments on tight patterns,  and I never did on this one.

I’m no longer working in an office environment, so this will end up relegated to the job interview/special event part of my wardrobe, but the memories that I have with this dress are something I’ll never stop believing in…

Too cheesy?

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Also, I found this picture and now I’m super curious what caused this expression…

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Flint shorts

So these grey ones are over a year old… Oops? (Don’t tell me otherwise…)

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There are many things in life that I forget about until it’s pretty much too late to fix it. Like buying toilet paper, laundry detergent, and apparently shorts?

I was surviving with only 2.5 pairs of shorts for last summer. (One pair is waaaaaay too small. Hence the 0.5). I live in a location much closer to the equator than I like, and you would think that shorts would be favorite, but I don’t gravitate to them. I did to gravitate my beloved cargo shorts, but I had to retire them last year…

It doesn’t help that I did my research in an off campus office building with what seems to be a Friday business casual dresscode, so shorts aren’t allowed unless you’re a boss. So I spend my weekday summer days in dresses and skirts to deal with that.

But on weekends I needed shorts. And now I’m in a job that I could wear shorts if I’d like (though I’ll still prefer jeans).

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Let us get down to business then.

I was on vacation when I got the email that Megan Nielsen was releasing the Flint trousers/shorts pattern. When I looked at the samples and the line drawings, I was sold! In fact I had spent the previous couple days explaining to a friend that I really should cut my craft spending, and then had to deal with a judgement stare as I sat there ordering the pattern.

Because I’m in need of shorts right now, I decided to try them first, and it was probably for the best, as I needed to alter the pattern a bit. My muslin was out of some stiff green denim, actually the same from this pair of almost jeans from awhile back. It really emphasizes how wide these are in relation to the thigh. So you don’t get a picture of those.

In terms of alterations, I had to lower the rise (I think… It brings the crotch up higher when I do that, right?) so that the crotch wasn’t 3 inches down my thighs, right in the thigh rub area. I also had to take in the waistband a good deal with some darts on the more recent make, so I should alter the waistband to be much more curved. Both of these are issues I had to address with the Tania culottes too, so I think the fit model for Megan Nielsen patterns is just so different than me, that these will be typical for me with her patterns. I’m thinking that perhaps going down a size might help, but I don’t think it would fix enough problems to be worth it to make my standard alterations again.DSC_6932

The fabric for this first pair is some old cotton chambray that I found in my stash. I had maybe a yard of it, and that was the perfect amount for this project. There were some sections of the fabric that were stained due to someone leaving some ancient tape on the fabric, which I tried to keep to the crotch area, where no one should see it anyway.

Can I just say the pockets are glorious? So the opening for the bottoms is the left pocket, and every review I read as I was waiting for a good time to make the pattern said that the left pocket would not be really useable. When I sewed it up, I did end up sewing more of the pocket closed than was directed on the pattern, so at the end of construction when I went to try them on, I seam ripped the pocket part until I could comfortably wriggle into them, which left me more than directed, but less than I wanted. I can definitely use the pocket, but more for big ticket items like cell phones and sunglasses, than for change and USB sticks and student id cards.

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From these pictures I can see that the back crotch area is a little off, but I so rarely wear this with tucked in shirts that it probably isn’t too noticeable in real life…

I’m working on a second pair, but now that summer is (hopefully) over I am going to put that one on the back burner.

All in all this is an excellent pattern that I look forward to making again. The shorts are not what I would normally consider my style, but they’re so comfy in the “extreme heat,” meaning I hate it but its still not often 95*F, since they’re so breezy.

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Next pair of shorts, I’d like to try out the flat front, since there’s a tutorial for that and that’s more my style, but we’ll see when I get the hankering for shorts again…

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The Moment, Mark 2

I was at DragonCon over Labor Day weekend, and what I realized when I wore my costume Saturday was that I hadn’t actually updated you on my newest (meaning 1 year old) Moment box, and the costume that goes with it! I’m going to give you the super short synopsis version here, and then link here to the page that goes in depth.

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Also, I apparently never posted specifically about last year’s costumes… Finishing my Master’s hit me hard. I’ll be changing that soon!

Some awesome creators complimented me on this version and gave me suggestions and new ideas for a future version, so at the end of this post I’m going to write down some of them before I forget… Because I can be terribly forgetful. Shout out to Circus Jack (?), the Joker and Harley that tracked me halfway across the Marriott, and to Daniel at BlueBoxDezigns who also has made a Moment box! All of you made my day when we talked about the details!

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Let’s start with the costume…

Shirt: Onyx Top by Paprika Patterns out of white rayon lawn, tea dyed to a tan. Netting was cut into rectangles and sewed to the end of the existing sleeves

Vest: Some variant on the Archer Shirt by Grainline Studios, drastically changed out of shape though. I don’t even remember what I did, it was done so quickly and haphazardly. Rayon spandex twill

Skirt: Syrah Skirt from Baste and Gather out of a lovely, buttery, rayon jersey. So comfy! Too light colored for me to wear in real life! Basically I made it exactly the same, just sewed up only part to my knees so I could knot up one side.

Accessories: The “vortex manipulator” I made in 2013, boots that I painted a different shade of brown, various bracelets I’ve picked up over time.

DSC_7189And the box:

All the sides are laser cut, mainly out of 1/4″ sanded plywood.

DSC_7193The outer frame was constructed by splitting 2×4’s lengthwise and then cutting the pieces to size.

DSC_7196The corners were then modeled in the online 3D modeling page Tinkercad, and then I 3D printed them.

cropped-DSC_7199.jpgA lot of the gears and such move. It also opens!

Anything more you want to know, check out the breakdown on the costume page, and email me if you want to know more than that!

P.S. I won a costume contest at my university with this costume, so the last shot is from that day!

Suggestions:

Make the acrylic part articulated so that the individual circles can move

Make everything on one side articulated together: Moving one piece moves them all

(Even better if moving one side moved something on another…)

Keeping the opening from falling open by using velcro or making it in a lighter-weight material and keeping the magnets.

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Long Tania Culottes

Why hello there!

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You were lured in by my first couple posts in a while (plausible), or perhaps by the lovely pics of the culottes in the pictures (perhaps less plausible), or because you did a double take when you realized that I wasn’t in fact going to be talking about my Ariel costume, but about a piece of clothing… Don’t worry. I’ll talk about the rest of the costume at the end!

My 2016 Ariel costume involved a floor length deep blue skirt that was maybe a quarter circle skirt out of some lovely but incredibly flimsy rayon. So I made an Onyx shirt out of it a couple months afterward.

So when I decided to attend DragonCon again in 2017 I wanted to update my Ariel costume, and that meant making a new skirt.

But Ariel is all about getting legs! Why does she get legs, and then suddenly start wearing a tube that she could’ve worn with a tail anyway!

So my theory is that she would be much happier wearing culottes. Still loose and flowy without being a single tube. Two tubes for the win!

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Okay, that’s enough now…

I had recently downloaded the update to Megan Nielsen’s Tania Culotte pattern, and had pieces together the knee length version (I think) of the full circle culotte pattern, as opposed to the tapered version.

So I took some of the rayon lawn that I used with my 2017 Birthday Dress and cut pieces a little larger than the pattern pieces would require, and then I dyed them using either Procion Royal Blue or Moody Blue (Moody Blue was a specialty color that doesn’t look like its still available), which came out the perfect sky blue (perhaps because I didn’t use enough dye, as I’m looking at the instructions). I think I used glauber’s salt in the mixture, which is suggested for evening out the color. And urea, now that I think about it. I was dyeing a couple things that night, so I’m not sure..

The fabric dyeing went well, but then I laid the pieces over the rungs of my drying rack, and that left lines in the fabric… Oh well!

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Then I took the fabric pieces, ironed them heavily and cut out the Tania culottes pattern for real this time. Sewing together was pretty simple, as I’ve made it many a time before (I mean, at least twice). I did have to make really big darts in the waistband, and I put in pockets… They were messy. The waistband was something I over-interfaced, because I knew it had to hold up (literally) when the rest of the garment was so flowy.

This is the time to remind/let you know that this rayon lawn is not meant for real garments. I was just silly to have tried it. I seem to have a habit of trying to force thin rayon into skirt like jobs… Hmm…

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Once finished, I wore them to work… Which worked okay. The problem arose that they are so flowy that they got caught in my bike wheels. As in grind me to a halt stuck between the brakes and the wheel.

Every time I got in a car I was at risk of tearing the fabric. Especially around the back seam area. Not the seam itself, but the area next to the seam. I had already repaired that area once before DragonCon, and by the time I got to the Marriott apparently the hole had reappeared… Oops? Thanks lady on the escalator for letting me know so carefully!

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So this was retired about a month after DragonCon, though it was my ultimate favorite swishy swishy make. Fabric eater, I think this had over 3.5 yards in it. But I will be looking into making this again soon, out of a more durable fabric. Maybe I’ll make the tapered version, but I really like the deceptive nature of the circle skirt variation. I had to prove to a number of people (not at the con but in life) that it was in fact “pants”).

So details on the rest of the Ariel costume… Same corset as 2016, but I made a new shirt. I altered the Onyx top pattern to lengthen and widen the sleeves and I embroidered these adorable waves along the neckline. I also made a Flounder plushie who is my new favorite (don’t tell my fox-squirrel), especially because he looks so terrified. I carried him around in a basket, and when one young boy was nervous to come up and touch him, I told him that Flounder was scared being out of the ocean… I’m not good at coming up with things on the spot, so my new and improved quick thinking came in handy. Hopefully it sticks around…

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This year I plan to also make a Sebastian plushie. I had all the fabrics ready with the Flounder stuff, but I just didn’t have the time to make it!

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Birthday Dress 2017

Birthday Dress 2017

Okay, this dress is only about a year and a month old… That’s not too bad, right?

Starting in 2016 I decided I’d make myself a special dress around my birthday, and it’s never been quite a standard dress. Meaning, I don’t plan on just taking a straightforward pattern and making it…

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In 2016, I was still working out some pattern-hacking, and I made a sleeveless Nettie dress, with a handkerchief hem, out of a lovely slinky knit that looks like black lace on a green background.

Last year (2017) I went a different route, and decided to try my hand at dyeing fabrics. I read up on fabric-dyeing and decided to buy a 10 yard cut of this lovely rayon lawn. Now… I didn’t really read the description, so I didn’t quite process that it wasn’t really meant for garments. Word to the wise, its very thin, shows nearly every line underneath, and tears fairly easily. I’m sure for its intended purpose (linings and undergarments and draperies and such) it works well… I haven’t quite gotten to use it for those yet.

No, I wanted to use it to make a dress.

Specifically the dress outlined in a post on DaughterFish’s website called the Future Dress. (Unfortunately it looks like the DaughterFish website is down, so I can’t link it.)

If I remember correctly, this future dress is originally the creation of a designer in the earlier 20th century, and is so simple in its ingenuity. Basically, *you take three shapes (two trapezoids and a triangle), to make a huge triangle and then repeat from * until you’ve got four huuuuuge triangles, which make up the neckline and armscyes. The dress is loose and flowy until you belt it, and then there’s a cute amount of volume emanating from the belted area.

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I chose to keep the shape of the four triangles post bias hanging, rather than cutting it off around my knees. Last spring I was trying to think over life choices, and I didn’t want to spend extra brainpower figuring out how best to hem it, so I left it raw and uncut.

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My memories are telling me that I waited until after I made the dress to dye the fabric, which is not always recommended. I chose to use Emerald Green Procion dye, without the add ons used to keep the emerald super vibrant. It worked, overall, and I ended up with a very pastel spring-y dress. Not what I wanted, but pleasant enough for a birthday.

The favorite comment I got on my birthday (since I foolishly forgot to tell my employers I wanted to take off), was that I looked like a fairy. Which I will always take as a compliment.

A couple months later I ended up dyeing another project a lovely Royal Blue, and decided to over-dye a bit, and ombre dye a bit as well, to give it the darker look I craved. And that’s how you see it today!

I like this dress, and I’m curious how it’d look with a bit more opacity to the fabric and with perhaps a weightier fabric, since this fabric floats like a very heavy feather. But it takes soooo much fabric, that it’d have to be a sale fabric and kismet… But maybe one day!

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Reflecting on 2017

2017 was a big year for me.

So big that its nearly 1/3 of the way into the first month of 2018, and I’m still not quite ready to type this post.

I didn’t blog much, in fact I think only 12 times, two of which definitely pertained to last year’s stuff that just bled over. This is for many reasons.

But mostly, because I was finishing up my Master’s.

That’s right, I’m now a Master of Science. Isn’t that fun.

This last year wasn’t fun. It was stressful. And painful sometimes.

I also had a relationship over the summer that I enjoyed, but at the same time ate up more time than I liked. It didn’t help that it ended right as my stress levels picked up the month before my master’s defense.

I still made a lot of things. Some of them you’ve seen, because I’ve posted them. But everything that was posted this year was finished before June. So there have been many things that haven’t been posted, but probably won’t.

A big change actually happened in January last year, which I may have told you about (but I’m not going to read back through all twelve posts to find out)… I was hired on as staff at a makerspace on my grad school’s campus. So I have been working part time helping others make whatever they want using sewing machines (my favorite!), laser cutters, 3D printers, etc. In fact, this past fall I was in charge of a team of ten students, as a support structure. This also eats into my blogging time, but more into my picture taking time. Sunlight is an important time/tool.

Working there also means I’m getting better at using different materials and making things other than fabric and yarn based. I’ve always been crafty in many ways, but fabric and yarn have dominated in the past couple of years. These are things I can share with you, but likely will keep that for future projects. And its good that I’m working with different materials, because my closet is about 90% me made, and I don’t really need/have room for loads of new clothes. This does not mean I don’t have plans or projects cut out, but they’re not strictly necessary.

Also, I’ve never been a big pictures person, but now that I’m living with some roommates, I’m not sure where/when I can take pictures without someone walking by.

The main thing that happened this year was growth. I grew as a person so much this year. Knowing what I want out of life, out of friendships, out of relationships (mostly… WIP), and out of my future. I have truly enjoyed the past three and a half years of my life in grad school, but I know now that I don’t want to follow the scientific research path long term. I like it, but I don’t love it.  The next couple months will be finishing up my project and then we’ll see from there. I do love working at the makerspace, and I feel like that would be my favorite next career move, so I’m trying to soak up everything I can.

(I also grew as a presenter… I still get stage fright and social anxiety out the wazoo, but at least I didn’t cry at either of my last two presentations. Well, until the end of the first one. But I didn’t start crying before the presentation started! Trust me that’s a win. Not that you really needed to know…)

This is not an apology for being sporadic in posting, because if you’re a long time follower you’ll know that sporadic should probably be my middle name, but it does serve as a heads up that I’ll be popping in and out, but on even less of a schedule.

Deal?

Awesome.

Let’s have an amazing 2018 everyone!

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TnT (n TnT n TnT n TnT)

I count four TnT’s in my arsenal. And my trusty circle skirt. Though that’s more of a formula than a pattern.

I count a TnT as a pattern that I’ve played with and probably altered to fit me better, and that I’ve made over and over with no intention of stopping.

So first a quick overview, and then I’ll do some more explaining.

The Nettie bodysuit pattern is my go to t-shirt pattern, though I do like the bodysuits too. I just wear them less. I’ve been playing with it for about 3 and a half years now.

The Onyx woven shirt pattern is much newer to me, but I made just a couple of alterations to it, and I’ve made so many since! I think I’ve been playing with it for about a year.

The Ginger jeans pattern has given me four pairs of great jeans, and I’ve now got an idea on what I like in jeans fit, and I have an idea of what options I like best for what type of denim.  I’ve had the pattern for about three years.

The Belladone dress pattern is so chic and comfortable for me, and I’ve made about 5 variations, with others planned out. I’ve been using it for about 10 months.

So starting at the beginning…

A small selection of the Nettie’s I’ve made

When I was a newbie sewist at the end of college/beginning of grad school, I spent a summer unemployed in an unfamiliar new city/town and basically learned how to live with myself. And living with myself means I made a fair amount of clothes. But because I was unemployed, I treated myself to one pattern, and otherwise drafted my own. And that one pattern was the Nettie bodysuit from Closet Case Patterns.

I made two bodysuits, then a t-shirt or two (after I saw someone else hack it into a shirt and fell in love). And then another bodysuit, and then some more shirts. Most of them didn’t even make it to the blog. Then there were the hacks. I hacked it to be colorblocked, like the Little Mermaid corset outfit (twice!). I hacked it into a cross-back, semi cut out dress. I hacked it into a sleeveless dress with a handkerchief hem circle skirt. I hacked it into a tunic for my Nausicaa outfit with a high mandarin collar neck. I then hacked that last hack into a sleeveless mandarin neck shirt for my TARDIS costume (2016 DragonCon MVPattern).  Last summer I hacked it into a Kiki’s Delivery Service dress for a friend, and recently I hacked it into basically the same dress for me, though I don’t have pictures yet. I do have another hacked dress cut out, though.

Basically the Nettie has been such a powerhouse pattern for me that my friend (with a keen eye for detail) realized that most of the things I wore to my first DragonCon were made with the Nettie pattern in some part.

After spending time making so many knit tees, I knew I wanted to try out a woven pattern, so I compared every boxy woven tee pattern that I found on the internet, and chose the Onyx one. I had made the tutorial Jade skirt from Paprika right before she made the company, and loved it. Though I loved the act of making it more than wearing it, since I had forgotten that I don’t wear tight skirts, especially out of knit. I made one out of lace last fall, but I had sized up since I was worried and it didn’t fit nicely. Lace ones will be revisited in the future.

The first real one was made out of the skirt I used for Ariel at my first DragonCon, once I realized that was not the proper material for a skirt. I altered the pattern to take in the shoulders, and then I made another. (And then there was the fail). And then I cut two identical black Onyx’s and embroidered them both (pictures of the second to come when I really finish the embroidery).  I also hacked it to have longer and slightly fuller sleeves for my update to my Ariel costume, with embroidery. For my updated TARDIS costume this year, I also used a hacked Onyx for a more boatneck front with a  deeper back, and long sleeves with ruffles. And when I made a costume for the Moment from Doctor Who, I used the Onyx pattern. So I guess this year’s DragonCon MVPattern was Onyx.

Then the Ginger Jeans pattern. I’ve always struggled with jeans, going straight from kids to misses, because I’m petite and curvy. So making mine seemed to be logical. I’ve learned which type of denim will work best for me for the super skinny (thinner) versus my favored bootcut look (thicker).

My first pair was terrible, due entirely to the lack of stretch in the denim. RIP. The second, third, and fourth pairs still serve me well, and I have plans to make jean shorts with it too!

Belladone is a pattern I received from Deer and Doe as a prize for a Monthly Stitch contest, which I was excited about because at the time it was only available printed. I had been wanting to make it, and being unable to afford the cost plus shipping, for almost four years.

It is the newest of my TnT’s to me, but I’ve made two versions with the cut out back and a skirt version out of my favorite (and only up till now) wax print. Then I hacked the solid back version into my Peggy Carter dress (though I only have a post of my muslin). I already have the fabric and plans to make the skirt version in one or two fabrics, and really, I could wear this pattern nearly every day.

Much like every pattern talked about thus far.

Circle skirts, though not a real pattern, make up the other segment of what you might call my “daily uniform.” If not wearing jeans and a shirt, then I tend to be wearing a skirt and a shirt, and that skirt is either a circle skirt or a Belladone skirt. So mostly 3/4 to full circle skirts. I think I have about 4 of them, and they’re my favorite thing to add to bodices for dresses as well. Because swingy skirts are my jam.

I’m never going to say that again.

That’s a lie. I’ll probably say that again, but each time I’ll regret it immediately. Unlike making any of these TnT’s probably ever.

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NOLA Shawl

A while ago I told you about my fabric I bought in Seattle, and how that was going to be a thing when I traveled.

I’ve not yet done anything with the Seattle yarn, but I was lucky enough to go on a road trip with some friends last March and bought some lovely tencel yarn in a gorgeous colorway.

We visited four cities on this epic road trip, but New Orleans was the one that hooked me on the trip. I study hurricanes in my real life, so I am fascinated in part because of the geological conditions, but the fact that I hear a lot about it from my favorite food blogger who moved there, and see pieces of it (even if they might be fake) in shows like NCIS NOLA, I was pretty interested. So even though this colorway is not quite indicative of the NOLA people know, it is definitely more my style and wearable in my life. Though I did waffle over some Mardi Gras colorways.

This is not the first time I fell in love with these particular colors together. A few years ago when I was beading as much as I breathed I bought a bunch of beads in that colorway with the intention of making a necklace for myself, which has still not come to pass. Maybe soon? But I consider this colorway Van Gogh colors, since they really remind me of Van Gogh’s sunflower painting.

Officially this is yarn from the brand Prism, and its called Delicato, 100% Tencel, and this is the colorway named Sierra.

Back to the shawl.

The yarn was so soft and I was looking for a low key distraction at the time, so I decided to use it right away. I looked at a bunch of patterns, and ultimately decided on the Good Day Sunshine shawlette pattern from Knitty by Amanda Bjørge.

I really liked the pattern. I didn’t take notes as I went (story of my life), but I seem to remember having to fudge some parts of rows to get it lined up, but I don’t know if that was a careless mistake on my part or if it was the pattern (probably the former). Overall, easy to knit up and the lace kept things interesting!

And then I knit for a month or two. I finished the shawl just before a wedding I attended in early March, but because I had made an outfit with sleeves for that I didn’t need a shawl that night. Until a week or two ago, I haven’t really worn it, but that is not without precedent.

A few years ago I made the Knitty Wavedeck shawl from Kate Atherly which gets worn occasionally, but not enough to be called often. It doesn’t help that with the DK yarn weight it feels more like winter, but we haven’t gotten much winter weather, and that it ended up being more of a shawlette. And shawls are less conducive as scarfs when biking when they need to be attached to something to prevent them from falling off. I’m debating keeping safety pins with the Wavedeck shawl so I can pin it to my clothes before I start bike riding.

With this fingering weight one it’ll get more fall and spring wear, and has already proven so! I wore it three times this week, which was great. I wish the weather agreed with me wearing it though…

Shawls are so pretty, but I need to get more in the practice of wearing them. Especially since I love knitting them!

This was finished in very early summer, and other than a project I started knitting and abandoned for time, I haven’t really been knitting. I got a little bit of a start when I saw Blade Runner 2049 (so pretty) with these socks that I’ve been knitting since I saw Deadpool in theaters. I think I’m calling them my movie socks, since they’ve seen me through about 6 movies, both ugh and awesome!

What are you all knitting up right now?

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Backpack with some Awesome Whales!

Once upon a time, a girl traveled to Seattle for a work conference, and made the bad decision to enter a fabric store. Specifically this one.

You see, she had decided a year or two before that instead of knick knacks to memorialize a trip, she’d choose fabric or yarn.

Let us note, dear reader, the word “or” in that sentence. It is not the word “and.”

So what is this girl to do, but buy both fabric and yarn. Not on the same day, of course, as she has some amount of restraint, but both were purchased during that fateful January trip.

The whales you see before you are the direct result of walking into the fabric store without a hint of a plan. But aren’t they adorable, dear reader?

The whales festered in that fall hole of a place commonly referred to as “stash” for three months, set which point the girl realized that she had too much variety in her daily life to keep everything in her daily purse, and she very much hated carrying anything bigger. She used her backpack from high school a few times, but missed having easy pockets and containers for those items that are not quite junk solely because they’re regularly necessary.

So she designed her perfect backpack. When she began looking through her stash to find the perfect material for her perfect backpack, she saw the whales, and rescued them from the dank hole of stash.

But alas, this material was too flimsy for such purposes! How would she move forward?

Then she made the decision to make bags for her bike, and not knowing the quantity required, she accidentally ordered extra, which turned out to be exactly what she needed!
(Seriously, she has maybe 6 tiny scrap pieces now.)

So she constructed this perfect backpack with a lower zipper pocket for sundries, pocket sized for her laptop help keep the structure nice and sturdy, and a section that nicely fits sketchbooks and journals and lunches and maybe even dinners. Dependent on the amount stuff packed in there.

She was so happy that she managed to construct the monster that she didn’t add real closures the first day, and made a simple not quite drawstring closure later.

A couple weeks and a rainstorm later reminded her that further closures would be ideal, so she dug into her button stash until she came out with two sets of three matching buttons that matched brilliantly. So she attached some thin elastic and the buttons and they’ve held fantastically so far.

Right before taking pictures for this post she changed the cord on the “drawstring” so one can actually leverage the thing closed.

And she sewed on that handle… And seconds later pictures were taken.

Tada!

She still has over a yard left, which had been sent back the stash until the next perfect project arises!

That’s enough third person for now…