Saturday, May 27, 2017

It's Sunny

Well, hello there! I seem to be slipping a little on my usual posting non-schedule, haven't I? Blame it on the fabulous weather we are currently having. Warm sunshine is to be savoured and not squandered indoors typing. Amirite? And I can't work on it outdoors because I can't see what I'm doing thanks to the glare on the screen. Oh well. I already spent 4 hours in the garden today so I can surely justify sitting around inside now.

We're nearly finished the main work of cleaning up and planting. And we're already having to do some watering on the new seedlings so they don't all go limp. It's really a lot of tedious work but if you don't do it, you might as well not have a garden. It's pretty discouraging sometimes though. Somebody (likely one of the Evil Squirrels) has been chomping heavily on my cabbage so I had to cover it with netting in hopes of discouraging the beast. We looked into natural repellants but they are expensive and not recommended for vegetable gardens. Anybody have a good recipe? We've tried bottled hot sauce but that didn't really deter them for long. I feel like Elmer Fudd only my nemesis is a squirrel, not a rabbit. Grrrr...

Meanwhile the housekeeping is way behind and only a little sewing has been happening in the studio. So far I've only managed to repair 4 pairs of pants and tights and nearly finished a couple of pinafores. It's been hot up here in the afternoons and I've been quite tired when I manage to get some time to work on the waiting piles. Hanging over a hot steam iron is not the greatest but if I don't suck it up I'm not going to get all my plans finished. Time to get out the big cooling fan! It works fine unless I've got pattern tissue pieces floating about. Here in Vancouver we don't usually need AC and my old house is cool enough on the lower floors so it's just up here under the eaves that's a problem. But hey, I'm not really complaining after the icy/snowy winter and super-rainy spring we had! I just need a few weeks to acclimate to the nice weather. At least I hope we get a few weeks.

I haven't actually started sewing it yet, but my Snow-Dyed Dress needed some buttons so we walked downtown on Wednesday. Just to make the walk worthwhile we also went to see Guardians of the Galaxy #2. (Hilarious. Loved it!) At Dressew I went a little nuts in the bargain basement and bought some more knits for T-shirts and leggings:

That's the brown version of the nylon/lycra wicking rib that I already have in black and gray. I don't like it as much as pants but it's fine as leggings and bicycle shorts. At $2 per metre it's not a big deal if it wears out fairly quickly. I recently priced good quality leggings at $60! I can certainly make quite a few pairs for that and they fit better too. The other two fabrics are cotton baby rib in a lighter weight. No lycra content so they are better for T-shirts because they don't have good enough recovery for pants. If there's any left over the larger scraps could be some nice undies though. I got 4 metres each at $4 per metre. And last but definitely not least, we headed up to Dressew's main floor and saw this:

That gorgeous stuff is 100% organic hemp muslin! Yum. Thom wants a long-sleeved shirt and I want something too - depending on how much is left. We got 4 metres at (gasp!) $29.99 per metre. Yeah, there went all the cash I saved downstairs. But we both adore hemp! And linen. And ramie (which you sadly don't see around anymore). Bast fibres all. Neither of us worries about wrinkles. I don't put them in the dryer (after the very first wash) but hang to dry so they last longer. And I don't mind ironing. It's really a pleasure to iron a nice bast fibre fabric.

Oh and I couldn't find a button match for the moss green fabric. I know - all the gazillion buttons at Dressew and none matched? Not in the right size anyway. So I got 2 alternative colours to choose from instead. I plan to use the second set for a top from the leftover snow-dye fabric. More on the sewing projects soon. I almost have one or two FOs for you.

But right now I have one knitted FO! This is my Sunny Jim Sweater:

If you'll recall the pattern is James by Amy Miller, the yarn is Cloudborne Highland Fingering in Oatmeal Heather and I overdyed it in rhubarb root. I changed the pattern a little by knitting an I-cord bind-off at the neck, shortening the arms so they would be 3/4 length on my T-Rex arms and lengthening the hem with short-row curves. I quite like this sweater even if it is slightly more snug than I'd hoped. My excuse is I'm still carrying some extra winter blubber that hasn't gotten worked off in the garden yet. The neckline is a tiny bit wide so my original plan of using an even smaller needle for the bind-off was probably a good one. Unfortunately I was afraid it would be too tight so I went only one size down from my main needle. It's a great top-down pullover pattern though. I loved the short-row shaping to raise the back neck and lower the front neck for a more U-shape than top-downs usually have. I just might use this one again but with even more modifications next time. Since that was the last project on my needles I've already cast-on my next sweater. Yes, I'm still on a personal sweater kick. Best to go with it while I'm feeling the desire, no? More on that one soon.

Off to sew on some pockets before I have to figure out what we're having for supper.

2 comments:

Heather said...

Oh, that hemp muslin is great!! Good score, even at the price. And your sweater is bright and sunny and looks good on you. Don't see enough yellow in clothing these days it seems.

Louisa said...

Thank you, sweetie! I've actually seen quite a few yellow sweaters recently. The knitters are into it even if the fashion world is ignoring that colour. A lot of people think that it isn't flattering. Pish.