Life happens Be Positive

Sugarbunny

I'm still here, just crazy busy and it doesn't look good for the rest of January. Anyway, this is a photo of my sweater, peasy and NL 6071 (which I highly recommend).

 

New in the Queue

Happy NY2012!

The new dresses are coming, I just have to take photos, do the video, yada yada.

But in the meantime....what is new in my queue to do

I got a couple of comments pertaining to how I learnt to knit.

My friend Stephanie showed me how to cast on the first stitches and she showed me how to make the knit stitch. Everything else, I thought myself by watching you tube videos.

I got a basic pattern and everything they said I needed to do I would look it up on You tube and that was it. Its been over 5 years since I've started and just last night I was looking up how to cast on using the cable cast on method.

Just like sewing, its a never ending learning process however, its portable so its a great hobby if you like to keep your hands busy when you don't have the time to be confined to your sewing area.

Back to the queue.

I have a huge crush on the Stanmore Cardigan which is in the Winter issue of knitscene magazine.

This is an advanced lace pattern but I haven't seen anything like it RTW and I love the curved edge detail and lace yoke.

I need this.

This is the yarn I'm going to use. Its a cotton/modal. It has a gorgeous silky sheen on it, very rich appearance which I love.

Yes blue, because after you knit with cream for a month you need a pop of color :)

As for New Look 6067, I loved that Cennetta took the time to do a muslin for hers and it worked out so well, I am inspired, so I will be doing the same for mine.

Grandma gifted me some fabric for Christmas and I'm going to do a muslin in the up coming weeks for the bodice.

You know this was one of my picks in my NL video, I also got the Skirt pattern in that video last Friday with my 10% off coupon, you know new look never goes on sale at joanns so this was the best bargain I could get.

As for Peasy

Nope, not in my strainer, its on my dress form ready to take photos. This was Friday afternoon after it was soaked in Lavender and sandalwood softener. I blocked it out this weekend, it is dried, it is blushingly beautiful. I can't wait to show you guys, I am so proud of myself, so proud.

Okay, enough chatter.

Back to the sweat shop I go.

Happiness is...

Being officially on vacation until after the new year begins and spending all those days just sewing.

Tomorrow, I'm spending the morning at Joanns and it will be on from that point until I'm finished with all my garments I planned to make.

Speaking of making garments, I forgot to show you all my finished Vitamin D I had post way back in September. It exceeded my expectation, I love this cardigan.

I'll leave you all with the photos and my wish that everyone reading this post as a great great Christmas or otherwise, wonderful holiday of your choice.

 

A delightful concoction

I consume chocolate in direct proportion to the amount of stress I'm exposed to, needless to say, its been a crazy freakin week.

I CAN NOT WAIT FOR CHRISTMAS.

I will be off of work that whole week and yes, I have grand, calculated, high production plans for my sewing & knitting projects.

Hence this photo:

This was earlier this morning.

After drinking a cup of hazelnut latte and pulled out this sweater I got from NY & Co last year. I wanted to get the sleeve and back measurements to apply to Peasy.

By the way, this is where I am at when it comes to Peasy:

awwwwww... love it, okay back to the story.

So, there I was taking measurements and a thought occured to me. I haven't actually decided on what I was going to do with my days off.

I figured some sewing would be the best use of the time and what do I sew?

I don't intend to spend those days working on something time consuming, I want everything to be easy, straight-forward so I can get more done in the amount of time, you know.

Goodness knows what will happen within the first few weeks of the new year, I have to make good use of the spare time I know I will have now so I won't regret not getting anything worthwhile done, later.

When in doubt, pull the knits out.

So this week, I'm going to gather the supplies to work on B5672, B5676 and NL 6071.

Today, I'm going to finish up cutting out the patterns and the fabric and next week while I'm on the road, I will get the notions. You won't believe, as much thread as I have in stash, I still need to get more.

I am determined.

I feel so much better now, I think I'll have another slice of cake.

On a another note:

Thanks for the comments about my knitting story in the last post, I am still thinking about it because it makes me so happy.

I will leave you all with another vision board for spring.

I am still looking at Banana Republic SS2012

as always, we pay very close attention to the styling of the garment, no fabric sashes here, a structured belt and check out the bag. You know, I used to have one of those, years ago.

Just something to think about while I'm gone.

Your thesis, my creation

Yesterday, I found myself sitting in the waiting area of the dentist office next to a "little old Italian lady".

Little as in very petite and old as in, she must have been in her late 70s, early 80s IMO.

Its the most unlikely place for a lesson in loving your creative works but there we were.

When she spotted me, with the creamy goodness that is my work in progress, peasy cardigan, she reached out her arms like

she was greeting a grandchild she hadn't seen in years.

You would think I would be shocked. I'm never shocked in these situations.

If you knit and you are knitting, nine times out of ten, any knitter in the near vicinity can't help but ask you, "So what are you working on?"

Her daughter, who looked perplex in how to handle this situation, smiled at me, as if to say, "please be kind".

Silly Rabbit!

I'm a professional, I know how to handle people that enjoy my creations - lots of humility and gratitude.

A few minutes later, my knitting was in the little old Italian lady's hand and she was performing a full diagnosis.

"Oh, a raglan, very nice"

"Soft, definitely a wool, with something else, something silky, ah, a wool/silk or wool/nylon, maybe, its so shiny"

"The lacework is beautiful, I can tell that you slowed down here, look how even your stitches are, very nice, very nice"

It was the most interesting thing, I've never seen someone look at a garment like they can write a thesis on it.

She shook her head a few times in an agreement gesture, as to confirm all her findings one after the other.

Then, she placed the cardigan back into my hands, carefully, and told me in her very thick accent.

"you will never stop doing this, you will do this all your life, you will teach someone else, you will, this is very nice"

And then it was complete.

She smiled, her daughter smiled and whispered, "It is very pretty, I love the details."

Yeah.... this was kinda weird, kinda wondrous, very inspiring and very thought provoking, but all in all, this was nice, very nice.

Silly girl, carrots are for rabbits

I just love pasting a glop of frosting on a cake, fresh out of the oven and cool. A good cake recipe baked just right requires no fancy finishing.

Its the same reason why I love making knit dresses.

I'm also working on the cardigan for this dress:

Eventually it will look like this

Maybe in a few weeks :)

So I better get back to it, I'm still contemplating on what I will sew next. I didn't prep any of my fabric I just pulled out that fabric for the dress because I just wanted to sew something easy, so we will see.

the carrot cake hit the spot, I think I am going to try the eggnog one next.

Its a great day for a pot of chilli

Therefore I am making some.

I'm also working on my new dress, V1250. You know, the one everyone made, but its a good place to start after a long time of not doing any sewing at all. I'm basing the sleeves, then the hem, run the stitch and call it a day, not bad seeing that I planned to make two of them.

While I'm sewing today, I'm thinking, what comes next?

Because in my mind, I've already made up everything I've planned in my head and I need something fresh to thing about.

Peplum

I am so happy to see this trend for spring 2012 because its something I've always found to be very lady-like and it has always looked great in a simple straight forward garment. No Floof just good fabric and good fitting.

So, when I'm not on the sewing machine, I will be spending some quality time finding patterns with peplum options.

Brown Sugar over Buttermilk

Well, that is what comes to mind when I look at this yummy heap of silky goodness

I know a lot of you don't knit but I'm sure you enjoy the pleasure of having a luxurious feeling fabric close to your skin especially if its around your face or neck.

However, if you do KNIT, these are the patterns:

Cambrian Cowl & Rustling leaves Beret

I will not rave about how obsessed I am with the pattern book, but just for the record, I AM!

All I will say is that, silk is wonderful and I'm a lush for it, don't get me started.

And the best part of knitting the cowl is that I got to use these great buttons I got from MJ Trim. As I've mentioned before its my version of Dylan's Candy Shop, I can spend the whole day in there.

This is becoming somewhat like a uniform for me. So comfy and warm.

and if you are wondering what I'm doing at 1:58 on a Saturday afternoon

I'm literally sitting right next to what you see here typing up this post.

Better get back to work.....

 

How garment planning saved my shopping trip

In a nutshell, it has been rough but I'm doing a lot better. I will spare you the details. Its back to doing what I love to do best- writing about what inspiring me right now.

So, lets get to it.

The day before Thanksgiving, when every other sane person in America was shopping for their turkey, cleaning up their homes, greeting family members etc. I was in Manhattan, NY shopping for fabric.

It was not as fabulous as you may think either.

It was a little chilly, drizzled most of the morning and I was sick like a dog - no exaggeration.

I looked like Death on the prowl but I had to go fabric shopping, it was now or next year, on one of the busiest days of the year, in one of the busiest cities in the world and I only just thought about that-WOW!

So, how planning saved my trip?

I knew this would be the last opportunity for me to be go to the city for 2011 but when I tell you, I was so out of it, high on meds with a fever, I'm sure you can only imagine.

You know when you are shopping, its a whole experience, you want to look at everything, feel everything and be fully involved when interacting with the sales clerks, this was not what was going on.

Thank goodness I took Mom and my vision boards I made for my blog posts on my ipod touch.

I could just show the store clerk what I am going to use the fabric for and the inspiration and they would just bring me the fabric or take me to the fabric.

I would say if I liked it, mom would inspect it, ask the questions that you usually ask when you are on full bars, like, what fabric is this, yada yada.

I had the yardage of my fabrics on there too, so I handed that over to the store clerks and that was how it went.

Ironically, it was the most efficient, most productive, most rewarding and fastest shopping trip I've ever had.

I love everything I got.

Remember this

Well, I was super lucky to find the exact fabric I wanted for this dress, a heathered Taupe, a mix of cream and brown thread. This jersey knit feels like a double knit and you can use either side.

I smiled when I scored this.

For this look

I got a beautiful, beautiful teal and orange crepe de chine for the blouse

Its fall 2011 with the teal and spring 2012 with the tangerine.

For the skirt, I was brought this cotton, the photos doesn't do it justice, it looks like its a suede but its not. Its 100% cotton in a taupe-ish grey, Driftwood maybe, lol, I'll go with that, love it.

 

For this dress, I didn't see anything that had the color and the quality all in one, it was either, get the right color but the fabric was to light or get the right weight of fabric but the color was more orange. So I was shown this and the color was so fantastic. Cabaret is one of the colors for spring 2012 according to Pantone and this reminded me of it. The color is a little off in the photo.

Its gorgoeous, I can't stop looking at it.

After I saw the Holiday 2011 Vogue collection, I added V8772 to my line up and I got this amazing chiffon for it.

Its packed full of those Spring 2012 Pantone Colors such as Sodalite blue, Driftwood, Starfish, Tangerine Tango and Solar power. I just had to grab it.

For this dress, I happily accepted this teal wool. Its amazing, feels like silk wool but it not, the back is black and those threads intertwined to make a beautiful suiting that was my vision when I saw this look months ago.

and a wild card. I am going to make V1250 with this because its going to really showcase this fabric which is just beautiful to me.

I think I'm going to make this for my Christmas lucheon at work in a couple of weeks.

So there it is. A preview of what I'm going to be working on in the upcoming months.

I hope you are well, your thanksgiving was wonderful and next time we link up, I will show you my new silky knits, I've been knitting up while I was gone.

 

 

Blog Hiatus

First, I want to thanks all the ladies that participated in my accessory hop, please see this post to link back to the blogs, I loved that everyone made it their own and I got some really good ideas. I am so happy everyone put so much time and effort into getting their ideas and accessories together.

Second, I want to thank the social media team over at New look patterns FB page, they linked to my New Look fall picks video last week and contacted me about it.

I haven't been feeling well lately and my mom is here from Trinidad so I'm taking some time off to recuperate and get better.

I hope you all stay subscribed because I will be back, eventually...