My lovely Jameson is finally done. I have nerve to have taken so long to complete this sweater. It really should have been done much faster. It is a lovely knit flat, seamed together sweater. It is knit from the bottom up- not my favorite, but a good “out of my comfort zone” project. I enjoyed the knitting and found the pattern fairly straight forward. It was easy to get into a flow with it and to read the knitting to know where you were, and what was coming. I knit it using Lion Brand LB Collection Merino, Yak, Alpaca yarn in Navy.

Of course I modified it. The sweater calls for 3/4 length sleeves and a cowl. I didn’t want that length of sleeve, so knit mine full length. I also omitted the cowl. I think cowls are gorgeous, especially on this, but I know myself and I know that I won’t wear it. Why put in all that work for something I won’t reach for very often? The neckband seems a little loose and wonky, but it was 1,000 degrees the day I finished it and I was NOT putting an alpaca sweater on my body for more than 10 seconds. When we have a less hellish day, I will put it back on and see how the fit actually is. I think the body length is a touch longer than I expected, too. I can’t tell yet if that is a good thing or not.

I knit the two body pieces at the same time on long cabled needle. I like doing this with pairs, i.e. sleeves, sock feet, etc. I like for my tension and mistakes to be uniform. I messed up on cable cross over, but I did it on both front and back so it is a feature instead of a mistake. I knit the two together until after the underarm shaping was completed and it was time to start working on neck decreases.

Loves,

M

So, how is your health?  By health I mean physical, mental, spiritual, craftual, and all the other health’s.  Over the last year, I have made a bigger commitment to my health.  The two Covid years were fraught with lockdowns, fear fatigue, anxiety, and fractured relationships.  I found that I needed to make a lot of changes in my life and body in order to live a more healthful life.

Physically I made some large changes.  I have always lived a very sedentary life between my desk job and my sit-down type hobbies.  I have never been one to get up and move for movement’s sake.  If I did, it was sporadic and goal oriented.  Once I met my goal, I would let it go.  It has been a little over a year now, and I am planning to continue my exercise routine as a new part of my daily life.  That is really my goal, creating my new normal and sticking with it.  I started walking 3 nights a week, last February.  I would walk a mile or two.  I slowly bumped it up to 4-5 days a week, walking 4-5 miles.  Once the weather started to change and the days got shorter, I didn’t feel as comfortable walking alone in the dark.  The darling Husband did some research and found an amazing gadget that transformed my regular road bicycle into a stationary bike.  This has allowed me to do my workouts at any time, in our garage.  It is also a very portable stand that doesn’t take up a huge amount of space.  Once I am done with my workout, my bike gets hung up and the stand folds up and is put on a shelf.  We then have our garage back and don’t need a designated workout area.  I am currently riding 4-5 days per week, and I ride 35 minutes or 7 miles, whichever comes first.  I have also incorporated standard push ups and sit-ups or supine bicycles into my workout.  I started with 1 standard pushup, and 10 sit-ups (Feebs loved this because she would stand on my feet while I did them).  Each week I would increase 1 pushup.  I am now up to 20 standard pushups.  That was my goal and now I am just maintaining it.  I do a rep of 10 standard pushups, 15 supine bicycles, 10 standard pushups, 15 supine bicycles.  In total, I would say that my total workout equipment investment was less than $130.  I also own a yoga ball and mat and am a subscriber of SarahBeth Yoga on YouTube.  She is amazing and has such an all-inclusive channel that covers so many goals, challenges, abilities, and accommodations.

I have also made some mental changes over the last year.  I am a very put your head down and push through issues kind of person.  I don’t ask for help because I always figure that I will find a way to work through it.  Anxiety has always been a part of my life, as has insomnia.  They are things that I just dealt with.  Last June I was averaging 2 hours of sleep per night, and I had to sleep alone in another room.  I finally decided to ask for help.  I saw my doctor and she decided to put me on medication that not only helps with my sleep, but also alleviates some of my anxiety.  For the first time in my life, I am getting regular sleep.  I also started talk therapy, to help unpackage the anxiety itself.  Currently, I am working on the relationships that I have in my life and “cleaning house” on some of them.  I want to really nurture and grow the healthy relationships in my life.  I want to be a better friend and be more accessible to the people that I love.  At the same time, I am giving to relationships that give back.  I am putting less of myself into the relationships that are one sided.  I am getting better at both putting up and taking down barriers.  I am working on opening communication and verbalizing my needs to the people around me and trying to better at meeting needs.  I am changing the dialogue so that we all feel like we are getting something positive from our interactions. 

I have also been pushing myself to suck it up more with some things that I don’t enjoy doing.  For example, I am not a fan of camping.  It simply isn’t my jam.  I loved it as a kid but having “camped” in the Army kind of killed my love of sleeping outside.  Once you routinely share a tent shelter with herds of tarantulas, the shine of camping dulls (and I am not even afraid of/ dislike spiders).  The Husband loves camping.  He loves it!  Feebs wants to camp.  She thinks it sounds like an amazing adventure.  So, we went camping.  We went to the coast and camped at Dillon Beach.  It was chilly, sandy, rainy, and our air mattress died on us, and we had to sleep on the ground one night.  I am too old to sleep on the ground.  I flat out refuse to sleep on the ground.  The Husband was sure that I was going to pull the plug and demand that we go home a day early.  He was mentally preparing himself for me having a shit-hemorrhage and turn the trip into a whine-fest.  This was a valid concern.  Historically, I would have done that.  Or I would have suffered very un-silently and made the situation tense.  Instead, I decided to suck it up and make it work.  We had to take an hour out of our day, but we drove into town and found a Big 5.  I went in, purchased cots, and all was well in the sleeping world.  We stayed out the rest of our trip, the packed up our campsite in the pouring rain.  All in all, it was a fun trip.  Feebs lived her best beach life with her little BFF and came home with her first batch of camping memories.  She is ready to go again!  By making myself be a little uncomfortable I was able to give my family an enjoyable trip with fun memories that we will always have.  And I ended up being less uncomfortable than I thought I would be.  Note to self- the world does in fact NOT revolve around you.  (Bonus: we saved a beached starfish!)

From a making and lifestyle point of view, I have been making changes too.  I have started eliminating unreachable goals.  I am not going to be a size 4 by summer, but I am going to start eliminating some of the crap I eat and get more movement through my day.  I am not going to save $20,000 by the end of the year, but we are going to cut back on eating out and start putting more money away each month.  I am not going to sew every single piece of fabric in my stash by then end of summer, but I am going to finish the skirt that I have cut out so that I can wear it while the weather is warm.  I am also going to stop setting repetitive and unreachable goals.  I am going to approach the things that I want to accomplish in a healthy and sustainable way.  Compassionate deadlines and “bringing joy” are a big part of that.  I am a goal setter, to the extreme.  I like to make grand plans and gather all the supplies and figure out the logistics of accomplishing it.  I love the plotting and planning of a project.  Once I have collected all the necessary information/ supplies I often lose interest or hit a snag that I don’t have the courage to work through (I am looking at you, white denim skirt).  Honestly, I love getting organized, but suck at staying organized.  #MeMadeMay just ended, and me Did Not make much.  I completed 3 makes.  For. The. Whole. Month.  That’s all!  That is very un-me of me.  I didn’t complete 3 hats for charity.  I didn’t complete a single sewn garment.  I didn’t even fix some of the stuff that is on my “fix it” list.  Life was busy in May, but life is busy every month.  When I sat down to write my All the Makes for May, I started to get very discouraged at my lack of finished objects.  I didn’t even have a significant number of new starts or WIPs.  I just didn’t do much making last month.  When I started to give myself crap for this, I decided to take a step back and acknowledge that 1. I know that I generally have to take a minute after completing a large and complex project (Betty Cardigan) before I really dive into something new.  2.  I generally shift away from thick heavy knitting once the weather starts to warm up.  3. I haven’t had a dedicated sewing space for a long time.  Taking stock of this, I have lightened up on myself.  I do think that goals are good and necessary for me.  One of the three FOs from May was a baby sweater, for a baby that is going to make their arrival very soon.  I knew I had to get this done so that I could get it to the mother-to- be before she left for maternity leave.  I set the goal and met it.  I delivered the sweater today.  The charity knitting will get done in spurts.  One month I knit 9, another I knit 1.  Big deal.  At the end of the year, I will have a big bin of knitted garments to donate.  I will keep my eye on the prize and try not to be so rigid about the bottom line.  And…  If something isn’t “bringing me joy”, I am giving myself permission to either set it to the side or let it go.  This may mean ripping out a 99% finished sweater or packing a certain white denim skirt into a basket and putting it in time out.  It’s okay to do this.  It will not affect the rotation of the earth, and sometimes taking a break or a new approach will yield a better result.  Somehow this even has worked its way into my possessions.  I have started going through my closet and making myself wear everything in it.  I am getting rid of the things that I don’t like, that don’t fit, or that I am not comfortable in.  Why have a closet full of clothes when I only wear the same 7 outfits?  Same thing with my fabrics and yarns.  Will I ever make something with it?  No?  Okay, then send it to someone that will love it.  I have even done this recently with knitting projects.  I loved working on the Shik’is cowl, but I knew even before I started it that it wasn’t something that I would wear.  So, I went ahead and made it with the plan to put it in the gift bin.  As it turns out, the Female O needed something around her neck while were camping, so I literally bound it off, wove in the ends and handed it over to her.  It worked out great!

So, this is where I stand right now.  I will continue to make goals and plot and plan out my life, because #TypeA4Life.  Some goals I will reach, some I will not.  I commit to being kinder to myself.  I hope to keep doing touch-bases like this, as time progresses.  I want to check in and make sure that I am still in a healthy place.  Health matters, and we all need to take ownership of our healthfulness.

Loves,

M

How much #MeMadeMay ass did I kick, you ask?  None.  I kicked absolutely no making ass in May.  This should be an incredibly short post.  I am feeling like a bit of a slacker, but it is what it is.

• Finished Objects:

Flax Sweater, by Tin Can Knits.  This was made for the administrator’s new baby, using stash Swish DK.

Vanilla socks for me.  I used Patons Kroy.  This is only the 2^nd pair of socks that I have knit for me this year…

1 Charity headband.  I used Headband with a Twist, by Mirella Moments

Father’s Day tie-dye.  We made the shirts for The Father and The Father-In-Law.  We also did another Trader Joe’s bag.  I tried using Rit Color Fixative after the dye process was completed to avoid fading.  I followed the directions to the letter, but the shirts still completely faded in the wash.  It also seemed to soften the fabric, which I am not sure is a good thing. 

• New Cast ons

2470 Women’s Lace Border Tank Top

• Works in Progress

Shik’is Cowl

Jameson Sweater

Knitting my memories blanket

Lawley skirt

White denim skirt

• Goals for next month

Finish the Lawely skirt

Finish Shik’is cowl

Sew matching jammie shorts set

Make Feebs’s 8th birthday charm

Work on mending projects:

1. Feebs’s pants with holes into shorts
2. D&B handbag repair
3. Re-melt the tunneled candles into another, bigger vessel

Yep, that’s all folks.  I finished 3 things in May.  I didn’t sew until the last weekend in the month, then had technical difficulties and had to stop before I could finish Lawley.  I found myself frantically knitting on the night of the 31^st, trying to finish the Shik’is cowl, so that I could list that as an FO.  I’d slept like hot garbage the night before and I just wanted to go to sleep but felt this ridiculous need to finish the cowl.  It took me a minute, but I did snap out of it and went to bed early.  This blog is for me, and all in all it is a really great thing.  The one downside that I have started to notice is that I was aggressively pushing myself to get more done.  Why is that?  I have no idea.  Whether I have one reader or one million, this blog is MY happy space. I will still set goals and plans, but not be aggressive about them.  Making is my joy, even when I am mad at it, and I want to keep it as my joy.  There is going to be a separate post about where I am health wise.  It will touch on things like unrealistic expectations and compassionate deadlines.  It’s something that I have thought about for a while and want to get those thoughts on paper. 

I think June will have more making, and more diversity in activity.  I have a bench that I am going to refinish.  We were out in Oakland one day and decided to curb-gnome a Free bench.  I think it will be really nice when it is done.  I also want to work on pile of mending-ish stuff.  The weather is warming up and I want to turn all of Feebs’s pants with holes into shorts for the summer.  We give her hand-me-downs to a family member.  I don’t think that child has ever received a pair of long pants from us.  They all end up as shorts once Feebs wears the knees out.  I need to start watching YouTube videos about how to sew leather with cord.  I got a good match of yellow cord for the D&B handbag, now I need to know how to match the stitching.  Luckily, it is a small area that needs mending.  Our houseguest has ended her stay with us, which will now allow me to have a more permanent sewing space.  This will hopefully allow me to work on sewing a little at a time, and get more done.  I also purchased a really cool cross-stitch pattern.  I need to go this weekend and buy the cloth and floss.  I think it is going to take me a hot minute to complete, but I should get it started.

May was busy and full of a lot of really great things.  Sister #2 and I finally got together, just the two us.  This hasn’t happened in at least 4 years.  There is no good reason for this, other than “life happens”.  We met for lunch and did a tiny bit of thrift shopping at a new Savers.  I was unpleasantly surprised by the prices.  They were very high.  I will stick with my Salvation Army and Eco-Thrift.  We had the best visit and have vowed to do it again in a couple of months.  Mother’s Day happened, and that was a nice weekend.  It was very mellow and relaxing.  This isn’t something that I will generally say about Mother’s Day, so I was really happy with how it turned out.  The following weekend, Feebs and I went to see Ms. H’s new house.  We went cherry picking and had a fantastic sleep over with two of our favorite ladies.  The weekend after that was the Celebration of Life for my Grammy.  We had a barbeque at Sister #1’s house.  It was a really nice day, and I think Grammy would have been thrilled that we gathered to celebrate her.  There isn’t much that makes me as happy as seeing Feebs play with her cousins.  It brings back such good memories of my childhood with my sibs and cousins.  The following week was both The Husband’s dreaded test and the last week of Ms. H staying with us.  The week had a lot of potential for change in it.  Thank goodness we had a three-day weekend at the end of it.  Poor Feebs was sick starting on Wednesday and had to stay home all week.  She still wasn’t 100% through the weekend, so we keep it really low key.  I think we all needed that down time.  The Husband was really wrung out from his test.  And guess what…  He PASSED!!!!  We found out this morning that he passed that bastard of a test!  After 11 years, we are done talking about this test.  He can stop worrying about it.  He can start unwinding from 15+ years of stressing about it and questioning if he will ever pass it.  I am so INCREDIBLY PROUD of him!  I know technically that is a sneak-peak into June, but Oh Well!  Feebs and I have continued on with her Yummy Crate adventures.  Some of the recipes have been hits, some misses.  I think we can skip the tie-dye noodles and the blueberry muffins.  The bibimbap, Naan pizzas, and salmon skewers are keepers.  We are saving the meatloaf cake recipe (ick) for Father’s Day weekend.  I hope The Husband either loves it or can fake it well. 

I think that wraps up this month.  I have high hopes for June.  I think there is potential for a lot of making to happen, but no pressure!

Loves,

M

Two things happened in April- my beloved Grammy passed away, and I finished the Switchback Sweater. When I got the news that she had passed, I decided that 1.) the sweater needed to be completed in April and 2.) that a rebranding was definitely in order. So the Betty Cardigan was born. Betty was a fierce and sassy woman with a quick wit and clever hands. She was giving and warm and suffered no fools. This sweater is like her, and is a great tribute to her. The finished cardigan is warm and inviting and makes you feel accomplished when you are wearing her. The shawl collar was a bit fussy until I got the buttons on. Once that happened, it began to behave. The pattern was very easy to follow, even when I decided that I knew better than the designer (spoiler alert- I didn’t) and had to get myself back on track. I was incredibly leery to knit an all-over colorwork sweater with only one Ravelry project. Let me repeat that, there was only One Completed Project on Ravelry. Generally, I will read all of the project notes (unless there are a bajillion completed projects) and make decisions on whether it is a well written pattern or not, before I purchase it. I will also only purchase it if there are a good amount of completed projects that vouch for the pattern. For some reason, I just jumped into this one headfirst. I am incredibly happy that the sleeves are knit first. That gave me time to adjust to the main pattern, and it is generally my least favorite thing to do. If you knit the sleeves first, once you are done with the body, you are done with the sweater. I got to steek. I mean what more is there to say. Steeking is so terrifying and efficient, I simply love it. I need to incorporate more steeking into my knitting. I followed Suzanne Bryan’s tutorials on figuring out the button band, and hot damn that woman knows her stuff! This is the very best button band/ collar I have ever knit. I don’t even mind the shawl collar. Note to self- always add a knit stitch to the bottom hem of button bands. So if the pattern calls for a k1, p1 rib, do k2, p1 for the first 3 and last 3 stitches. It helps the bottom hem not to roll under as much. I am so happy with this sweater that I have decided to leave well enough alone and not try to cut in pockets. Even though they are my most favorite thing, I don’t think they would add anything to the look of the cardigan. They may even take something away from it. The sweater is huge on me, and the sleeves are too long. This will be a great feature when I am freezing my ass off at the dreaded camping trip. There is so much amazing and wonderful about this cardigan.

I would love to lie and say that the sweater is flawless and everything went 100% to plan, but this is me we are talking about. Of course there were mistakes. I messed up the body pattern and didn’t realize it until about 3 inches up. There was no way on God’s green earth that I was going to rip back and pray that I wouldn’t loose stitches. I only did it over about 20 stitches, so I dropped them down and fixed the color pattern. This would have been an amazing fix if I hadn’t royally screwed up and twisted some stitches, had a super long leftover float, and maybe had more of the correct color yarn to work with so that the stitches weren’t so tight. I thought that it may block out, but nope, it’s front and center, right across the middle of my shoulders. I notice it 100%. Ms. H says only I notice it, so I am going with that, and will try not to fixate on it. The sleeves are too long because I decided to modify the pattern. The pattern instructs you to knit 6″ cuffs, so that you can turn them back. I didn’t wanted doubled up cuffs, so I only knit 3″ and I forgot to deduct the excess 3″ from the over all sleeve length. I also had a bit of a challenge knowing how to follow the pattern at the neck decrease. I was always supposed to begin and end with the main color, but I would forget or it would leave too big of a gap between the Moss and the Cloud. I don’t think it is noticeable at all, so I am going to ignore it. My final blunder was that I ordered really nice buttons. I found them on Etsy and ordered them right away. I waited days for them, and was so delighted when they finally showed up. I snatched them up and ran them to the cardigan to see if the color worked. The color was great! I started placing them on the button band, and had them all laid out, ready to sew on. I wanted to give them a little test with the button hole. They didn’t fit… They would in no way go through the buttonhole. Not even with a bit of force. I had ordered the wrong size buttons. This was incredibly annoying. The very nice buttons were sent to my stash for a future project, and I was sent to Joann’s. The buttons aren’t the most vintage glam, like the others, but they compliment the contrast color and they do the job. Note to self: You are not in control of the world. A 1 1/4″ button will NEVER fit into a 3/4″ buttonhole, no matter how much you want it to.

I would absolutely recommend this sweater pattern. If you are comfortable with colorwork, garment making, or you are ambitious to give them a try, this is a fantastic place to start. It looks super complicated, but the pattern is full of spoon-feeding. One of the greatest things of all time is that I only have one ball of Moss left. What started this whole journey was wanting to use up a large quantity of Wool of the Andes yarn in the color Moss, that had been in my stash for-ev-er. Now, I only have one ball left!!!! That will totally be thrown into a charity hat or something of the like. I am so excited that I accomplished my stash-down goal! Using it for color work did exactly what I had hoped it would. While I love a good green, Moss wasn’t the color for me. Pairing it with the Cloud gave it softness and depth. The Midnight Heather gives it a rich pop of color. I am glad that I didn’t go with something more feminine. The color combo gives it an old school richness. A lady of the manor library look, that I love. I showed it to the Father and he asked if it was for him. I had to kill his dream immediately. I reminded him that I offered to knit him a sweater last year and he declined. He said he wouldn’t wear a wool sweater, that it would be too hot. Well, sorry love, but you can’t have this one! I mean, I know he is directly responsible for my existence, but come on… So she is done, and she is beautiful and I love her. She brought great happiness in a time of sorrow. I am proud of myself for completing this complex project and for tackling something that I was intimidated by. Way to go, me! Thank you, Betty. You brought out the best in me, in so many ways.

Loves,

M

Hello, April!  Good-bye, April!  Dang, that went fast.  I got a bunch of stuff made- some successes, some failures.  I did a lot of making but most of my time was spent on baby knits and my one big project. 

• Finished Makes:

Flax sweater by Tin Can Knits.  I knit this for the Accountant’s baby in size 0-6 months

Mignon Sweater by Loop London.  I knit this for the gift basket, it is one size fits 0-6 months

Headband with a twist by Mirella Moments.  I knit this as my only charity knitting for April.  I am ashamed, and will now make up for it in May.

The Betty Cardigan (formerly the Switchback Sweater) by Rachel Brockman.  This is 99.5% completed, but I am listing it as an FO.  My buttons are ordered and have been shipped.  They will be sewn on the day they arrive.

All the tie-dyes!

Beeswax Candle(s)

• New cast-ons:

Vanilla socks for me

Shik’is Cowl

• Works in progress

Jameson sweater

Knitting my memories (may be re-vamped, stay tuned)

White denim skirt

Lawley skirt

Dooney & Burke handbag repair

• Goals for next month:

Work on sewing the Lawley skirt

Sew a Luna Tank out of the pink bedsheet.  Use only a sewing machine with zig-zag stitch this time, instead of the overlocker.

Try making more candles

Another round of tie-dye for Father’s Day gifts

Finish the Jameson sweater

Make the March and April Yummy crate recipes (which arrived incredibly late due to production issues)

I didn’t sew in the month of April.  The entire month of April.  I didn’t even pull out my sewing machine.  I want to remedy that in May.  I want to keep practicing and making mistakes and fixing them.  I want to open up my wardrobe, both in me-made and in style.  I also want to try making more candles.  While candles are easy enough to purchase already made, I can’t do scents, and don’t particularly like the smell of unscented candles burning.  Buying beeswax candles is rather expensive, so I figure I need to figure out my life and get better at making them myself.  The tie-dye was very fun, and we will definitely be doing it again in May for all of the Dads.  I love seeing my girl be creative!  While I worked on a lot of projects, and different crafts, the main thing that took my time and attention was the Betty Cardigan.  There is a whole separate post being written about the renaming and the whole knitting process.  It is just waiting for my buttons to arrive, then I will hit publish.  That cardigan was a lot of work and I am so proud of it!  I am also on a tightening deadline for baby knits.  I got one soon-to-be here baby knit done, now I need to get another one going.  The Mignon cardigan came out cute, but not really what I wanted.  So instead of it going to the intended recipient, it will go into the gift basket, for now.  I was completely pitiful about my charity knitting, and again, that needs to be remedied in May.  I am now in love with the Headband with a Twist pattern.  Super easy and very usable.  This will be a great pattern for when I don’t have enough yarn for a full hat.  I would really like to finish my Jameson sweater this month, since it has been in the WIP bucket for many moons, but I won’t hard-stop myself.  I also want to start looking for a new big project.  I am thinking that it may now be time to start on the Paris Toujours shawl.

April was an interesting month that had high highs and low lows.  The beginning started out great with Spring break and all of the fun that I Feebs and I had.  I very much enjoyed my time with my girl and our special crafty time.  I got to do a fun virtual Crafter-noon with the HBs.  We had Easter with egg dying and a mini egg hunt in the house.  I also got to have my night away with the female O.  I had the best time!  We did go shopping…  Boo…  But I bought a bunch of clothes necessary for adulting.  I have stepped up my work attire and have been putting more effort into my work appearance.  Aside from shopping woes, the weekend was fantastic.  I am absolutely determined that we do this again.  (I hope she does too…)  Last weekend, The Husband and I went to a lovely wedding in Bodega Bay.  The vibe of the wedding was gorgeous, very welcoming and happy.  The weather left something to be desired being that it was on the coast, outside, at night.  It was cold A-F, but totally worth it.  The bride and groom were radiant and so happy.  On our way home from the coast, we stopped in Petaluma for breakfast and found a hidden gem.  We stopped at Della Frattoria.  OMG Becky, the bread.  All of the bread!  It was heavenly and we will certainly be going back!  Feebs and I have slacked on our Yummy Crate cooking, but that was mostly due to the delay in receiving them.  We will work on it more in May.  The low point of the month came with the passing of my beloved Grammy.  She was the one that taught me to knit and the love of making things with my hands.  She was also my last remaining grandparent, which I realize that I am so lucky to say at my age.  She lived a long, full life and I loved her very much.  She leaves a very big hole in my family.  In May we will celebrate her life and remember all of the good about her.  She was a woman worthy of one hell of a celebration! 

So that was April. All in all it was a positive month, if painful too. I am so excited to tackle Me-Made-May! I may have to sit down and ponder another pattern/ crafting pairing post. I know I still have the Lawley skirt and the overalls to go, but it never hurts to dream or reprioritize. See you in the next post.

Loves,

M 

Well, I gave it my best and failed spectacularly. I had saved a couple of food jars and removed the labels. I purchased new yellow bees wax. I dusted off my candle making stuff (wicks, holders, measuring cups, etc.) I watched YouTube tutorials on making jar candles. Everything was good to go. Except it wasn’t, and they turned out really bad.

Things that went wrong:

1. I think the wick was too big for the small mouthed jars- they cracked as they set and then when I burned them they tunneled down very fast.

1. I poured the wax at too high of a temperature for all 3 jars. The one that came out the best still sunk in the middle causing uneven burn (you can see it is sunk in the picture on the right.)

Ideas for next time:

• YouTube: Bramble Berry- How to make bees wax candles, tips and tricks from a professional candlemaker

• Use jars with a larger mouth

• Let the wax cool more before pouring into the jars

• Buy a variety of sizes of wicks

• Use glue dots to secure the wicks in place prior to pouring the wax

• Use two clothes pins hold wick in place while it sets

I think I will try to melt down the two tunneled candles and try re-pouring the wax into a larger jar. We will try this again, another day. We will not be defeated!

Loves,

M

Spring break was here a couple of weeks ago. Since I have a J-O-B (which is necessary but quite inconvenient), I was not able to take the whole week off. Feebs and I did decide to take that Thursday and Friday off, though, and have a special girls only couple of days. We did all manner of fun crafting things like painting rocks for the garden, going to a paint your own ceramics place (that was a rather expensive endeavor!), and tie-dye t-shirts. I had never done tie-dye before. Feebs did a shirt earlier that week at her camp, and had a lot of fun doing it. We decided to head to Joann’s and pick up a kit. We bought 3 shirts, one for each of us, and one for The Mother, for Mother’s Day. We got home, and thank all that’s holy, I had a spare shower curtain. (Note to self: Ikea has plastic shower curtains for like $2 a piece. You cannot put a value on having your counters/ tables/ deck/ etc. protected. It is priceless and worth every penny. Stock up on them while you have young, creative kids!) We put it down and mixed the dyes. Since I had never done this before, I watched a YouTube video on the process. I really wish I had heeded his warning about wearing rubber gloves through the whole process. The picture was taking 3 days later, after several attempts to remove the color from my skin (dish soap, nail polish remover, and Mr. Clean magic eraser).

Things to remember for next time:

• Squeeze as much water out as possible after soaking
• A little dye goes a long way- squirt some onto the desired area, and work through with your fingers
• Do Not over-saturate the section with dye- it will puddle in the bag
• Learn how to make the desired patterns with the rubber bands
• Do not set out in the sun to set- colorful condensation will result and it will puddle under the cloth
• Even if the kit says it’s not necessary, use a color fixative, or at least vinegar, to set the dye
• Do not wash the garment right away
• Wear gloves!

The end results were fairly good, considering we’d never done it before. Once we got started we realized that we had A LOT of dye left. We decided to go all out. Feebs and I both gathered up all of our old white-ish dingy pajama and work out shirts and dyed them. We even did a bonus shirt and a canvas Trader Joe’s bag. In total we dyed 5 shirts for Feebs, 5 for me, 1 for The Mother, 1 bonus shirt, and the canvas bag. There was some definite color bleed, since we didn’t realize the excess color would puddle, but they still came out pretty cute. We will do better next time.

Loves,

M

We have a completed body!  It has been completely knit, underarms seamed, ends woven in, and it has been steeked.  Last night I reinforced the steeks and cut it straight up the front.  I don’t know why steeking is so satisfying, but it really is.  I love the practicality of it.  Tonight, I will wash and block the whole thing.  I am hoping it will be fully dry by Friday.  I watched fabulous tutorials from Suzanne Bryan on YouTube.  I watched both the button band and the buttonhole tutorials.  I think that if I actually sit down and do the math, my button band will look really nice.  I am determined to rip it out and start over if I don’t think it looks good.  I really liked her vertical buttonhole and will use that on this sweater.  I still need to buy ribbon to sew over the raw edges.  I am also still pondering if I want to cut in pockets.  The jury is still out.  I feel confident that it will be completed well before the dreaded camping trip deadline.  I am almost done with this sweater!

Loves,

M