Weekend Away

The upcoming months are going to be crazy.  November and December are usually extra busy in any year, with the holidays and birthdays for Trisha and Blake.  But this year it's going to be extra busy for a variety of reasons. Next week my husband is having shoulder replacement surgery.  I started my new job this week.  Trisha and Craig's postponed wedding celebration is in December.  Kristin bought a house and will be moving in the next month or so.

So, before we dove into all of those events, Ed and I decided to get away for a quick weekend trip to Florida.  Normally when we go to Orlando we stay at a Sheraton resort east of the Disney property.  This time Ed wanted to check out another resort, a Hilton resort in Kissimmee.

We flew down on Friday morning, getting a direct flight on Allegiant.  What we didn't realize, though, is that Allegiant didn't fly into the main Orlando airport, but Orlando Sanford airport.  It was an hour drive from the airport to the resort.

We got to the resort early afternoon.  After we ate lunch we changed into are bathing suits and relaxed by the pool for the rest of the day.

Saturday we drove onto the Disney property and went to what used to be called Downtown Disney.  Now it is called Disney Springs and is at least 3 times larger than what it was last time we were there.  It was an extremely hot, humid afternoon and I didn't enjoy walking around in the crowds.  So we headed back to the hotel and the pool.

Overnight a cold front blew through so Sunday was much more pleasant.  Another afternoon by the pool was in order.

Monday we woke in the middle of the night, drove back to the airport and caught a 6:00 am flight back home.  The above picture was taken halfway through the flight somewhere probably over Georgia or South Carolina.

After we got home Ed logged into work and I crawled into bed.  I napped for a couple hours with Squeaks next to my feet.  She really missed me us.  Shortly after I woke up I got a phone call from my vendor telling me that the contract that I've been waiting 7 months for had been signed and I could start work on Tuesday.

Now that I'm working, my knitting productivity is going to drop.  I finished the Cozy Cardigan this week while finishing binge-watching Shameless.  It's upstairs blocking on Blake's bed.  I still need to find buttons for the front.  I have a couple shawls on the needles.  One is a good mindless knit, but the other has sections that require some attention.  I want to cast on another sweater, but need to decide which one to grab from the stash.  Pictures of all discussed here will follow.

Intense Kitty Stare

This is the look of a cat intensely watching a stink bug crawl along the top of the wall.  Since the weather has cooled off we have been invaded by stink bugs.  I found one burrowed in a stack of fabric I had in the sewing room.  Yuck!  I don't let Squeaks catch them if I can help it.  I'm worried that if she were to eat one she'd get sick.  She has a sensitive stomach as it is.  Don't need those nasty things to aggravate her.

A little over a month ago I sent out a text to my husband and children asking them what they wanted me to make them for Christmas.  No one responded so I decided for myself.  I already have a quilt top done for Blake.  I'll finish that for him.   I'll post a picture once I get it finished.

 I found a pattern that I thought Kristin would like.  It's called Dusky Mountains from Connecting Threads.  I'm hoping since it is a modern quilt design that she'll like it.   I finished the top.  Now I need to buy the batting, backing and binding fabric.  I can't decide if I want to quilt this myself at home or rent some time on a long-arm machine at a local fabric store.

Trisha and Craig aren't getting a quilt.  That is because Trisha is making one herself.  Actually, she has sewn the squares of one and has asked me to put them together into the top.

But I am making them an afghan.  It's a corner to corner crochet pattern called Stacked Triangle by Living the Craft Life.  I'm using Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in worsted weight.  I added one extra column to each triangle to make it just a wee bit bigger.  I'm hoping it will be big enough that both of them can snuggle under it while watching television.

Squeaks approves of my choice of yarn.  She was upstairs when I spread the afghan out on the living room floor.  As soon as I did, she came running down and pounced on it.  My friend has been telling me that I need to make her a cat couch. If I do I'll probably use Wool of the Andes since she seems to like it so much.

In the meantime I'll make her a little blanket out of the leftovers from a cardigan I'm working one.  She really loves this yarn.  It is a wool-mohair mix.  

The pattern is Cozy Cardigan by Lis Barsuglia-Madsen of Heirlooms.  I'm using Bulky - 2 Ply from Yarn Hygge in colorway Cache Lake.  It is knitting up very fast and I should have a finished sweater in a week or two.  Just need to find some buttons.  

Because of the variegation of the yarn, I was getting some bad pooling on the sleeves.  The one of the right was the first sleeve that I knit.  I decided to do helical knitting on the second, starting at the point where the pooling started.  As you can see in the top photo, it yielded a one-row stripe, but I liked that much better than the pooling.  I am already imagining how I will style this with a my skinny jeans and a black long-sleeve t-shirt.

 

I Think I Broke My Cat

The other day I was sitting at the dining room table working on some paperwork when I glanced over at the front door.

Squeaks was laying on the floor in the sunshine looking like she was drunk and passed out.  I couldn't help but laugh.  She stayed that way long enough for me to get this picture but when I called Ed she moved.  Cats don't usually sleep very deeply.

Since I finished up a couple sweaters, I cast on a new batch of projects.  I don't have any pictures yet.

Last weekend Ed and I took a little trip up to Michigan.  We went up to the Traverse City area.

We stayed in a little cabin that was out in the middle of nowhere.  It was a cute place but a bit too far from Traverse City.  I made the mistake when I booked it, thinking it was closer.

We drove up to Traverse City for the day on Friday.

We visited the Old Mission Lighthouse.  While there we met a group of women who work for Ironman.  They noticed Ed's shirt as we walked by.  We chatted with them for a few minutes before making our way further down the beach.

From there we went to the Chateau Grand Traverse winery.  After trying a few wines in the tasting room, we sat on the patio and enjoyed a glass and charcuterie plate.  I am now obsessed with brie and fig jam.  It was like a dessert.  The almonds were pretty special too.  They weren't the normal type of almonds you find in the grocery store.

After the winery we went back into Traverse City and walked around the shops

There was a candy store that sold all kinds of sodas.  Can't say any of these flavors sound appealing to me.

When I was planning this trip I thought about making it a yarn hop.  There are plenty of shops between my house and Traverse City, but we ended up only stopping at one.  I'm trying to be more mindful of my yarn purchases.  Buying random skeins that languish in my stash just doesn't bring me joy anymore.  Now I'm only buying yarn for a specific project.  When I get home with the yarn, I put it in a Ziploc bag with a tag saying what pattern it is intended for.  That way when I do get around to knitting the project, I won't waste time trying to remember why I bought the yarn in the first place.

A good goal, I guess.

Word of the Day - Drapey

It is now September and I'm still not working full-time.  The project continues to be delayed.  Thankfully, the part-time project also is experiencing delays so I'm not totally without an income.  I'm not making much, but it does give me some spending money.

To fill all my free time, I'm sewing and knitting. A lot.

I made a top out of the indigo I dyed last month.  I used the Collins Top pattern by In The Folds.  What drew me to this pattern was the interesting construction.  Instead of just a front, back and sleeves, this pattern has multiple pieces for each element.  I thought it would be a good top to feature the different dye techniques I did.

Here is the front.  The center front is one panel with side panels.  The sleeves have 3 pieces each.  Two of the 3 are visible in this shot.

The back has a upper center panel and a lower center panel, along with side panels.   The back can be constructed with either a opening and button or seamed all the way up like I did.  The neck opening is large enough for either way.  If I had planned it better, I could have put the back center seam on a fold of the fabric and eliminated one seam.

I'm very pleased with the pattern and how it worked up with the fabric.  The only thing I'm not pleased about is the fabric itself.  As mentioned in my last blog, I used cotton muslin.  It is not as drapey as I would like.  As I wash and wear this top it should soften, but right now it sticks out like a tent on me.  Not a very flattering look.

The next top I sewed is the Scout Tee by Grainline Studio.  I used the Japanese batik I bought last month at Silk Road Textiles in Cincinnati.

I am completely thrilled with this top.  The construction was easy and it fits like a dream.  The fabric is also 100%  cotton, but isn't as stiff as the muslin I used for the indigo dyeing.  I definitely will be making more of these tops.

My next sewing project was an adaptation.  I used the Concord T-Shirt from Cashmerette to make a dress for myself.

I have a J Jill dress that I absolutely love.  It uses panel print fabric and fits like a dream.  I've been thinking about replicating the dress and went so far as tracing it onto interfacing for a hacked pattern.

While shopping at JoAnn's a couple months ago, I found a jersey panel print.  I bought 3 yards, thinking I'll use that for my hacked dress.

While digging through my craft room looking for some things else, I stumbled upon the Concord T-Shirt pattern that I bought a couple years ago.  I hadn't used it yet and decided I'd try making a dress using the panel jersey.  My thought was that if it didn't work out, I wasn't out much money because I bought the fabric on sale.

The pattern is only for shirts, but I used the J Jill dress to extend the hemline down to dress-length.  It took a little experimenting with my machine to get it to sew nicely with the jersey.  It was a definite learning process.

I am quite pleased with the final result.  The dress fits nicely and is soft and drapey, like I was hoping it would be.  I do need to practice sewing necklines a bit more.  It is puckering slightly.  I think I should have cut the neckline just a bit long so it won't draw in the bodice as much.

I am definitely going to use this pattern again.  Cashmerette specializes in patterns for curvy figures.  This T-Shirt pattern is sized for women with C through H cup sizes.

In and around all this sewing I managed to finish two sweaters.

Relax is finally finished, blocked, dried and in my closet waiting for cooler weather to be worn.  I was able to block it out enough that it has a nice drape.  As I was knitting this I was worried that the fabric would be itchy.  But the yarn bloomed nicely and seems to be soft and not scratchy.

I also finished the Pajama Cardigan.  Since it is made out of a cotton silk blend, it is getting used now.  This sweater is getting a lot of use in the evenings as Ed and I watch television.  The chair I normally sit in is near the back windows, which let in a cool breeze now that the weather has shifted to more autumn-like temperatures. 

My brother Joe has been visiting this weekend.  I promised him a train ride for his birthday.  On Saturday we drove over to Perry County to visit the Zanesville and Western Scenic Railway.

The railway is owned and operated by a couple of guys.  They lease the track from the state of Ohio and as a result are responsible for maintaining it.  Because of limited funds, they only have a couple miles operational at this time.  They are seeking funds so that they can repair the several trestles along the line.  

Joe and I were the only ones on the 2:00 ride, so they let us explore the entire train.  Joe was excited to see a caboose.  Here we are looking out the back of the train.  The rest of the train consists of a gondola car, an open-air car and a diesel engine.  We weren't able to see the engine.  Joe had his choice of where to sit.  He chose to sit inside and look out a window as we passed through the trees

On Sunday we went to a baseball game.

The Columbus Clippers didn't win, but Joe loved being at the ballpark.  We were 10 rows up from the dugout, close enough to see and hear all the action.

I'm starting to plan my Christmas projects.  When I stumbled on the Concord T-Shirt pattern in my craft room, I was actually looking for an unfinished quilt I am making for Blake.  I have the front and the back done, so now I have to get it quilted.  This will be his Mom-made Christmas gift.  I am going to make a quilt for Kristin also.  The blocks are large which should be easy enough to put together.  Trisha and Craig are going to get a crocheted afghan.  That afghan is my current television-watching project.

As mentioned, the weather is getting cooler, which makes me very happy.  My windows are open and I'm going to take a walk outside to enjoy more fresh air.