Life happens Be Positive

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.....