MOVING

I have decided that it's time for a change and moved my blog. This also comes with a new name, new design and a new focus.

I can now be found at http://dietcouture.wordpress.com/.

two more weeks...

That's how long I have to wait until life calms down enough that I'll be able to get some sewing and knitting done!!! I have two finished knitting projects and one underway that I need to photograph and post.

I have a short list of sewing and knitting projects, plus some machine embroidery projects that I need to complete. My sewing room is almost completely re-organized, but definitely usable in it's current state.

Here is my to-do list:
- Finish a UFO from last winter (my husband's back problems prevented me from finishing it)
- Set up the knitting machine and actually learn how to use it. I have a couple of sewing patterns that I have been looking for a particular type of sweater knit to make, so I think I'm going to make some panels of sweater knit on the knitting machine and see how that works. I may just find a regular knitting pattern, but I think this will be good practice for the machine.
- Embroider three aprons for my father-in-law. This must be done before the July 4th weekend.
- Make a Hawaiian-style shirt for my father-in-law. This is something I promised him last Christmas, but was never able to get to due to my husband's back problems and subsequent surgery.
- Finish re-organizing my sewing room. This may not happen until after the July 4th weekend. Right now I'm taking double credits for my degree, so when I'm not studying, doing housework or spending time with my family, I only have the energy to sit in my chair and knit.

After I finish the items on my to-do list I will be able to get back in the sewing room full time and work on various projects. I have a few preliminary projects that I would like to accomplish:
- I need a lightweight short-sleeved black shrug for summer. Something that I can wear to dress up camisoles and tank tops during the 100 degree days. I have white, coral and purple shrugs (the purple one I made, the rest are RTW), but I'm missing a basic black.
- I have a rather long queue on Ravelry of items I would like to make. After I make the shrug, my next project will probably be a fall transitional piece and a sweater vest.
- I am making a fall/winter cardigan for my son. Details on that will come soon. I am also going to make him a lightweight cotton sweater for late summer/early fall and winter layering.
- Perfect my slacks pattern and muslin and make the Jalie jeans pattern. Come fall I will need these items.

That's about it for now, my focus is going to be primarily on knitting and perfecting a couple of pants patterns. I will probably make a few summer items here and there, but most of my sewing planning will revolve around fall/winter since that's what I have the most need for at the moment and the next few months will go by so quickly.

As with all of my plans, I really REALLY hope that I'll have time to work on them. It's a matter of finding free time at home with a toddler, full time job and full time school (one more year and I'm free!!!).

happy Mother's Day!

So I know it's not until Sunday, but I doubt I'm going to be online much this weekend. In addition to festivities celebrating my 2nd Mother's Day (brunch at my house with my mom, almost step-father and grandparents), I have some preparation for our vacation to do, three school assignments to complete, a computer re-build to finish for my husband and a knitting project to complete (hopefully). There will definitely be no sewing taking place.

I just wanted to wish everyone out there a happy Mother's Day! I hope it turns out to be a special day for each of you!

green gable - I got my yarn!

I still haven't blocked the lace for my purple tofu jacket yet, I had school until 10pm last night and just didn't feel like messing with it. I'll do it tonight and then I'm going to get started on Green Gable!

Today at lunch, I went to Jimmy Beans and bought the yarn. The pattern calls for Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece and they have such a great color selection and it feels like it will be perfect for summer that I went ahead and decided to use that rather than make a substitution. I fell IN LOVE with the Robin Egg Blue color, it's the same color as a Tiffany's box!! My local store only carries it in 9 colors, but they had Robin Egg Blue!


So I bought enough to make the XL, although I've read a ton of reviews that indicate that making the next smaller size is sometimes better. The color is much more vibrant in person - the photo makes it look a little dusty.

I'm going to play around with gauge tonight and hopefully cast on. We'll see how far I get.

lace is done

I finished up the lace band last night at about 10:30pm. I thought about blocking it then, but changed my mind because I was sort of brain-dead for the last few inches of lace. There are a few mistakes where the pattern doesn't line up properly and while I tend to be somewhat of a perfectionist, I decided to call it good. It won't be noticeable with my dress and I'll just wear dark colors underneath it when I wear it after. Overall, I am very impressed with my first foray into non-scarf knitting.

My next project is Green Gable. I loved Adrienne's version and wanted something suitable for both the Reno summer and an air conditioned office. I think this should work well. I am going to cast on while I'm blocking the lace.

On the sewing front, I have my sewing room almost put back together with my new tables and will get started both on the dress for my mom's wedding and a couple of UFOs that have been sitting around waiting for me to finish them. I have a couple of tops and some skirts that just need things like hems!

progress

I've made a lot of progress on my purple tofu jacket. I'm almost done (I have about 6" left) of the lace portion. The lace portion gets blocked and then I can start on the rest of the body. I'm hoping I'll be done with the lace portion today so that I can block and then start the rest of the body next week. In the meantime, here are a couple of pictures:

And a closeup of the lace:

purple tofu

I've been doing some reading about this Soy Silk yarn and the process that is used to make it. Basically, it's made from the byproducts of making tofu. Interesting really...you can read more about it here.

So in the spirit of the process used to make the yarn, I've dubbed my jacket the "Purple Tofu Jacket".

I had some pictures of my progress so far, and the yarn with the fabric, but I'm having issues figuring out how to make the flash work properly on my new point-and-shoot. I think I figured out what I was doing wrong, so I'm going to try it again tonight. If it still doesn't work, I'll take the pics with my Nikon.

my next project - Mom's wedding outfit

Actually, there will be multiple posts about this as I get through the process. The title is a little misleading - I'm not making my mother's outfit, I'm making my own to wear to her wedding. My mother is finally getting re-married after being divorced for the past 15 years. The wedding is in mid-June and will be outdoors at my aunt and uncle's (Mom's sister and BIL) house. It's up in the mountains of Northern California, so the weather won't be as hot as it is down in the valleys, but will still be warm. The top of the mountain where they live tends to be breezy and cool at times. Mom wants her two sisters and me to wear purple. Obviously, I will be making the dress - if I have time I'll also make shirts for hubby and Drew.

I have the fabric picked out - it's a really pretty purple and lavender floral chiffon burnout I picked up at Joanns. It will be underlined with a lavender matte satin. I haven't quite picked out the dress yet, but I want something that's pretty and a little festive and although there are some BWOF dresses that I could absolutely see this fabric in, I'm thinking something a little more simple will be better - don't want to outdress the bride after all! I'm thinking this New Look:

I'll make the view in orange in the lower right corner of the envelope. The fabric speaks for itself, so I don't need too many additional details. I'll try and take a photo of the fabric with the pattern and my immediate next project this weekend so you can see how it all goes together.

That brings me to my upcoming project. Because the weather tends to be breezy at my aunt's house and I get chilly easily, I wanted to make a shrug to go with it. I couldn't find any fabric that I liked, so I decided I would take advantage of all of the time I've put into practicing my knitting skills - I'm going to knit it! I found the pattern and a perfectly-matching dark purple yarn at my local shop and after working out the gauge, I cast on last night.

The pattern is the Little Lacy Jacket from Blue Sky Alpacas:


The yarn is Pure from Southwest Trading Company - 100% soy silk. The color is #073 - Vivid Viola.

It's the only appropriate purple I could find, but it's really soft and light and with the gauge I finally decided on should make for a great light summer sweater.

I should have more this weekend!

I really need to post some pictures

There is so much going on and hopefully I'll soon have time to share some of it with the world! Over the past week, while I have been slaving away at work and school, my husband has been revamping the front yard. Our house is now 4 years old and we still had the original "dry" or "natural" landscaping. Because Reno is considered high desert, most of the landscaping consists of sagebrush and other native types of plants. The problem is that the landscapers hired by the builder were not paid to make it pretty, just to plant the plants. Half of them died the first year and half of the remainder have died over the past 3 years. There are three houses in our cul-de-sac and the other two have fabulous yards. We decided this year we would join their ranks. Here are some pictures of what he accomplished in just a few short days.

Here is the front porch - that's honeysuckle on the lattice and tulips in the planter boxes


A couple views of the strange triangle-shaped planter in the front of the yard. Our front yard is long and skinny since we are on the edge of a small cul-de-sac. He put a little brick wall up along the edge and we'll probably plant some shrubs in the little area behind it



In fiber-related news...I am now the proud owner of a Speed-O-Knit knitting machine by PASSAP. I don't have a picture of it yet, as it is still sitting in pieces on my dining room table, but as soon as I get it set up in the sewing room I'll post a picture of the actual machine. For now, if you click on this link, it will take you to an eBay auction of the exact same machine (although because mine was purchased by my pack-rat grandmother in the 1950s, I still have the book and the original receipt!).

I have also been practicing my knitting and doing some planning. My mom is getting re-married in mid-June and she wants her sisters and me to wear purple. I found this really pretty purple floral chiffon burnout at Joann's over the weekend and I'm going to underline it with a lavender matte satin. I still haven't figured out what dress I'm going to make, but it's going to be sleeveless or strapless and I plan on knitting a lightweight shrug to cover my shoulders. I have a few ideas, but I need the dress plan finalized before I decide. In the meantime, I have decided to practice my knitting skills. I'm halfway done with a cable scarf and then I want to do some swatches of some different lace motifs that I found on the internet to practice more intricate work. It's been more than 10 years since I last attempted to knit, and this time I think I finally got it down...we'll see if I'm being overly-confident. I'll post pictures of the fabric as soon as I figure out what dress I'm going to make.

I also realized that I never did post a picture of me in my Galaxy dress. I will try to post those pictures soon too.

holy toledo!

It's been a while since I've posted anything. And sadly, I have nothing new to share sewing-wise, but there has been a whole lot going on life-wise.

Baby Andrew turned 1 on February 11th. The next day at 4:30am I had to call an ambulance because my husband collapsed on the floor trying to take himself to the ER.

Now for the backstory:
He's been dealing with a lot of lower back and leg pain since before Thanksgiving. He had been seeing a doctor who insisted it was muscular and not skeletal and had been drugging him up with pain killers, muscle relaxants, steroids and diuretics. Nothing helped. A few days before the ambulance incident, he was FINALLY sent in for an MRI which came back negative. The doctor said the only other option was pain management. I had made him an appointment with my chiropractor since they take extensive xrays before starting any adjustments. I figured that would be the best second opinion we could get since the doctor wouldn't authorize it (damn HMOs!).

Anyway, fast forward to February 12th and the paramedics and fire department are in my living room trying to get my husband (who can't walk and is in so much pain he can barely breathe) onto the gurney. Once in the ER, they proceed to try and figure out what's wrong with him. After a little bit of conversation, they got his MRIs from the diagnostic center and then came the shock of the day: The stupid doctor requested an MRI of HIS LEG!!!!! No tests on his back, just his leg. Because the pain was radiating down his leg (even though it started in his lower back), the doctor assumed the issue was in his leg. We know he had ruled out blood clots and some other vascular and muscular issues, but we figured after a few weeks of nothing in that arena he would start looking at his back! Nope, just the leg. The ER ordered an MRI of his back and found he had a severely herniated disk between his L5 and Sacrum. So bad, that they couldn't actually let him leave the hospital for liability reasons since they were afraid it was about to rupture.

A few hours later they got him into surgery and now he's almost back to 100%. But since he is currently a stay-at-home dad and was unable to do any sort of lifting, bending, pulling or anything else that could cause post-surgery complications, my in-laws came to help out. They happened to be in southern Nevada (they live in southern California), so they were several hours closer than they would typically be; however, they were also on a vacation on a lake in their boat. So they cut their vacation short and towed the boat to Reno and here they have been since mid-February. They went home today.

It was great that they were able to come and help out, and it really helped Nate to get better, but it is stressful when there are other people in your space for an extended period of time. What made things more difficult was that I have a very long list of things I wanted to accomplish sewing-wise and the mojo to begin it...but no space since the sewing room doubles as a guest room in the infrequent occasion that someone stays with us - and because the situation surrounding their staying with us was unexpected, there was no time to plan. So no extracting sewing machines, fabric, patterns and notions to another part of the house so I could work on projects while they were here. I just didn't have the time to plan for that.

Now that I have my workspace back, I really hope that my mojo will remain in full swing and I'll be able to get some new garments done. Now, more than ever, I need to really ramp up my wardrobe to be more business professional and less casual or business casual. Wish me luck! I always seem to be needing it!

knitty knitty

A post all about knitting?? Who would've thunk it, especially since I can barely knit. I crochet like a madwoman and understand the basics of knitting, but I just haven't spent enough time practicing knitting to be good at it. I was remarking to my mom this past weekend (who is a great knitter) that I really need to learn how to knit. I see so many wonderful garments being knitted by other fiber artists that I really want to be able to "join the club" so to speak. She then asked me if I would like her knitting machine. Oh.My.GOODNESS!! I couldn't believe she still had it!!! It's bulky, heavy and you have to do everything manually, but it can knit ANYTHING and it's older than me (which means no cheap plastic construction - everything is sturdy metal). She still has the original bill of sale when my grandparents bought it back in the 60s for $50. I've always wanted to learn how to use it and now I get my chance!!!

I definitely still need/want to learn how to knit by hand with more skill, but this knitting machine is going to be FUN!!! The only downside is I get stuck with her entire stash of yarn...most of which is in ugly colors and scratchy acrylic. Oh well, it'll be good yarn to practice with!

2009 wardrobe makeover

This is my biggest goal for 2009 - to begin the process of making over my wardrobe. Last summer, when I went through my closet and donated 3 10-gallon totes of clothes, I determined some major holes in my wardrobe. I have enough clothes to get me through a couple of weeks, but most of them are casual.

These holes include slacks, woven tops, work dresses and skirts, some dressy knit tops, blazers, a winter coat and spring/fall jacket. Since my other big goal for 2009 is to dress for the job I want, not the job I have, I need to fill in the gaps with some dressy basics that I can use to build a professional wardrobe. My professional-dress goal comes with some inherent problems, though:
1) My workplace is extremely casual. While it's not unheard of for people to dress up, most of the time coworkers assume you have a job interview. This is definitely problematic if your boss thinks you are seeking employment elsewhere.
2) I don't have the time or money to immediately create this ultra-professional wardrobe.

Because of these two "issues" (and I use the term loosely, since I can easily overcome the first one), I have decided to approach this in phases. The initial plan is to phase out my casual items by incorporating versatile pieces that can be dressed up or down. By starting with versatile transition pieces, I can eliminate some of the job interview talk that floats around the office. I can also continue to wear some of my casual items with dressier items until I have made a bigger dent in my list of "needs".

My first mini-wardrobe will consist of two pairs of slacks (I need to try out some muslins to find a pair that work for my figure) and two woven tops. I should have a plan fleshed out by this weekend and hopefully my first pants muslin cut out.

year in review??

So it's several days into 2009 and I've been thinking about some of what I had hoped to accomplish in the past year versus what I actually accomplished. I determined I got in a little over my head with planning for garments that have yet to see the light of day. Having a baby in mid-February has made it difficult to get as much accomplished as I had hoped and by the time I started having spare time and sewing mojo, it was time to work on Christmas gifts.

What did I accomplish in 2008?
*I made 2 baby quilts (one for Andrew and one for a friend's baby)
*I did several machine embroidery projects (lipstick cases, photo frames, Christmas cards, quilts and the beginnings of three advent calendars)
*I made a machine embroidered and quilted wall hanging for my sister-in-law
*I made a machine embroidered and quilted sewing tote for my mother-in-law
*I made three tops, three skirts and a dress over the summer
*I made a Galaxy-inspired dress for my company holiday party
*I also completed two large-scale cross-stitch designs (one for my son and one for a friend)

Not as much as I had hoped, but quite good considering life constraints - and the fact that I did absolutely no sewing in 2007 and the first half of 2008. I also started several projects that are not yet finished. These include coats for my husband and myself, a shirt for my husband, a shirt for my father-in-law and a skirt that I started over the summer and have yet to finish.

During my pregnancy, I expressed a dire need for business-appropriate attire. Even though I work in a fairly casual office, I have decided to start dressing for the job I want rather than the job I currently have. So for 2009, in addition to finishing outstanding projects and some more craft and machine-embroidery projects, I would like to make another coat (perhaps two), a blazer and dress skirts and slacks to wear to work. I would also like to make a pair of trouser jeans that are styled after the best pair of jeans I have ever owned (they just happen to be maternity jeans and since I have no plans of having another baby I won't be able to wear them again). I hope that this short list is not all that I accomplish in 2009, but I have to start somewhere and I've found my previous years' goals were too lofty given other responsibilities I have in my life.

Aside from sewing-related goals for 2009, my other primary resolution is to work on my time management. I work a standard 40-hour work week and have weekends off. I am approaching my 5-year anniversary at my company and will then double my vacation time (I already get 2 weeks of vacation and 2 weeks of sick each year). I attend school one night a week and have reading and writing assignments for class. My son is nearing his first birthday and although he is becoming more independent, he needs more supervision than ever before (he's almost walking). My intention is to find 30 minutes each day to spend on sewing and craft-related projects and spread school work out to one hour each day instead of an entire weekend day as I do now. If I can accomplish this, I will have more time during the weekends to spend with my family and on sewing projects without compromising my other responsibilities.

Wish me luck!