When I wake up my first thoughts are what will I blog about today? and/or what am I going to make today? Sometimes the order is reversed, but pretty much those are my first two startling brain waves.Once again it is mud season here, with half sunny and half rainy days, and so off comes the quilt and on comes the washable and bleachable comforter. No point in ruining my nice quilts when you have Chester the Digger at work.
He knows he is being bad, but that doesn't stop him. This time I am catching him in the act. I can yell and yell and he is deaf to my calls. What a rascal.
I have five nice quilts for my bed, which are safely tucked away in the quilt chest of drawers. You can see why it isn't imperative that I immediately finish my latest one on the design wall. 
I have recently finished this silk/cotton cardigan. It looks short and boxy on the table, until I pull it on, and then it grows to hip length quickly. It is the perfect summer garment for those aggressive air conditioned rooms. I am thinking about new clothes, since I am going down in size again. (yay!) I bought this pattern maybe two years ago and never made it, but now I am ready.
I enjoy clothes sewing alot, and now that my serger is always set up, I can dive into a project with little prep time. And I already have the fabric, prewashed and ready to go. These are all a linen-rayon blend, so relaxed and Springy. Lime green, pink and white.
Planning ahead, I have yarn to coordinate. This is Malabrigo Rios Merino and Rowan Merino DK. Matchy matchy, but I'll do a contrasting yoke with the Rios.
Then I have white merino and silk yarn to dress up the eventual white shirt and I am almost finished with my Amazing Cardi that works just great with the pink. I have a few other summery plans to use this yarn that I dyed a while back. I am really into pastels lately, no?
Chumley wanted his picture included today, and yet kept tilting his head and going out of focus. This is the best one of the bunch, but I kept trying until he lost interest.
So my question of what will I blog and what will I make is answered and I can look forward to a fun couple of hours in the all cleaned up studio. Now that warm days have arrived I work only in the mornings and bask in the sun on the deck for the rest of the afternoon. It's great to be retired.
Enjoy the sunshine and the mud.
ReplyDeleteMy morning routine at work is to turn on the computer, check your blog, and THEN start my work day. You give me a boost of color and inspiration (and plenty to dream about for when I'm in my studio over the weekend!). Thank you for making such a productive use of your "retirement."
ReplyDeleteChester peeking over the pillow is priceless! Love the cardagin too!
ReplyDelete~RBC
I love your Amazing cardigan. It is a great idea to follow ;).
ReplyDeleteMelody, you are restless speaking of knitting or quilting. In fact, I find you restless "per all"...and that's another good idea to follow ;)
I don't know where you find the time to do all you do! Hurrah for you! Hopefully, I can get that industrious one of these days!
ReplyDeleteDo you have a pattern for your amazing cardi? It looks like it would be fun to knit!
ReplyDeleteI sorta was made this up but I can tell you how and what I did.
ReplyDeleteI used size 11 needles as the yarn is bulky.
I like a lowered front-neck to my sweaters so when I cast on, I don’t add the neckline stitches until the back and shoulders are knit for a few rows. So let’s say I cast on 30 stitches for the back neck and then 15 for each of the tops of the raglan shoulders, and one stitch on each side of the two fronts. If you have knit raglans before you will know about increasing in the four quandrants. I sorta use this pattern: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/comfy-raglan-sweater
but of course I changed it. To make the front neckline scooped, I added stitches to the front edge every other row and then when I thought it was low enough I counted the amount of stitch increases on the back and then counted what the two fronts added up to and from there cast on the necessary stitches to each side to make it the same as the back. Following me?
I kept knitting and increasing for the raglan, until the sleeve stitches reached the necessary width. I like a 15” armhole, so my gauge being 3 sts per inch, 45 stitches are the limit for the armhole width. I used a length of scrap yarn to slip through the work at this point and tried it on. It was just right and I left the scrap yarn on the sleeves and then joined the body with maybe four stitches under each armhole. So then I knit the body until I had two skeins of yarn left (for the sleeves). I knew I was going to run out of yarn before the sleeves got much longer. As it was I used every bit of the ten skeins I had. As the sleeves were knit, I switched to size 10 needles so I wouldn’t have wings instead of sleeves. That worked, and keeps the rolled up sleeves from unrolling.
Melody
I read your blog daily and enjoy it very much. I am a dog lover and had to laugh at the one peeking out from behind the pillow. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI have two mud paws dogs and took unbleached muslin 90" (permanent press) wide and made covers for the bed. I serged the edge and added a bit of lace. It is easy to wash and dry. This covers all the beds in this house.
ReplyDeleteDid you get those storms that are hitting East TN? We were lucky, and only got the rains and some wind.
ReplyDeleteI like this all different color of threads.It use to make some different type of cloths.Pink color bed sheets look so beautiful.
ReplyDeleteBoy You are full of inspiration. I used to sew clothes some 20 years or so ago but now I don't seem to have the patience. Of course I tend to jump right in without being smart and using a trial fabric and then it doesn't fit. I bought fabric for a top a couple of summers ago and I haven't touched it.
ReplyDeleteI doesn't help being over weight in all the wrong places!