Patience

Gardening

I spend an awful lot of time outside looking at my little garden and cheering on the plants. Despite a spell of good weather a week ago, it took longer than I expected for the peas, spinach, and lettuce to sprout. But lo, a pea shoot:

The plants from Sky Nursery are generally doing pretty well. I'm a little concerned by the yellowing of the Chinese Cabbage (background), but the broccoli (foreground) looks good.


There's still no signs of potato sprouts. I think I may have planted them too soon, or too deep, or too something. We've had a good bit of rain, and it's supposed to warm up this weekend. If they don't start sprouting, I'll do a little excavation to see if they rotted.

Excercise

I've started another long-term project...again. I've once again embarked on the couch potato to 5K plan. I tried it last year, then I tried jogging again last fall, in a less structured way. Starting didn't hurt nearly so much this time around. Either I have a tiny bit of lingering fitness from the last bout of running, or I've finally learned to jog slow enough to not kill myself.

Finished things

My friend Kristin is having a baby girl, which gave me an excuse to do some really girly knitting and sewing. I made a sweater

and a matching outfit.

And a quilt covered in ribbons.


Unfinished things
Remember how I said I was going to finish all those unfinished sweaters this year? I worked very diligently on Trent's fisherman sweater for awhile, almost finishing one sleeve. Then he tried it on, and the sleeve is too big. Not too long - too big around. So I'm going to have to rip the whole thing out and reknit it, starting with fewer stitches (I have a plan for that) and decreasing more rapidly. I could cry. Consequently, I've been knitting other things. Hopefully I'll make it back to the unfinished sweaters at some point.

Sewing, and the terror of the runway

As I mentioned in my last post, I participated in a garment sewing contest that culminated in a fashion show at Sew Expo last weekend. I didn't win :(. But here are pictures from backstage before the show.



Eventually, there are going to be clips and pics from the runway show itself on the Bernina website. I'll let you know.

I thought I was going to be cool on the runway, but I kind of freaked out. I think I forgot to breathe, and I felt like I made funny faces the whole time. The show was well attended (maybe 100 some odd people), and the runway was very long and very tall. I could have given a speech in front of that crowd with no problem, but just walking back and forth while they looked at me gave me hives.

In other sewing news, at Christmas 07 I promised my mom a queen sized quilt for her bed. Because I lack common sense, self-preservation, and good judgment, I picked a kind of crazy complicated quilt block to use, and a size that required 90 of the blocks. Then I made my life worse by deciding to do complicated sashing. I'm chipping away at it. The blocks are all assembled into horizontal rows, and the sashing strips that go between are also assembled. I've got 4 out of 10 rows put together. My photography efforts were somewhat hampered by my little helpers.



Life has otherwise been pets, work, and cursing the weather. The usual, you know?

Ketchup

Look, I finished a knitting project!



These are Scrunchie Handwarmers from 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders, out of Jojoland Melody Superwash in the color "Magic Moment." (Do you have that song stuck in your head now? You're welcome.) They were the January project for the Pacific Fabrics and Crafts Knit Along.

Here's what else has been going on. Trent and I have decided to create a raised bed for vegetables in our courtyard, so we've started excavating, and I've spent inordinate amounts of time reading seed catalogs. Unfortunately, right after we started clearing for it, Trent got the Shitty Virus (our name - some sort of respiratory crud that lingers like the shameful memory of that time at the junior high dance when you made an ass out of yourself asking the cute popular guy/girl to dance with you). He was dog sick for a week and a half, then I got it, then I got a sinus infection. I think the grand total of time we spent moaning and groaning was over 3 weeks. It sucked. So, that was pretty much January.

Meanwhile, I've been sewing an outfit for a fashion sewing competition. If any of y'all are going to be at Sew Expo the last weekend of February, please try to make it to the fashion show on Saturday at 12:30 (the Bernina and the Sewing Workshop "Runway to Everyday" challenge). I'll be the one with the really uncomfortable smile and the stylin' chocolate brown jacket. So, my outfit for the competition is about done, but my sewing room looks like it exploded and then was ravaged by wolves.

Shawls and capes

I finally blocked two shawls that I finished knitting a long time ago, thanks to Peggy and Rebecca and their basement.


The melon shawl from Victorian Lace Today with a different border (I was running low on yarn). The yarn is handspun cormo/alpaca. I dyed it as roving and 2-plied. The color is washed out in these pictures - it's really a variety of soft greens.

Another spring lace scarf, from my own pattern. I started this one as an example when I was teaching a lace knitting class. The yarn is linen that I bought years ago at Stitches West. I have no idea who dyed it, but it sure is pretty. Now I just have to figure out how to soften it up without losing all the work we did blocking it.

Here's my first yarn from my new wheel. This is 4 oz of Reflections Farms roving, 3 plied. It's about 390 yards.

I also sewed a fairy cape for a friend's 3-year old daughter. I pressed the dogs into service modeling. Chloe was hiding at the time, perhaps wisely.



And finally, in the shameless self-promotion category: we're doing a series of "nifty gifty" classes at Bernina Northwest. If you sew at all, these are fun projects that make good gifts. You don't have to have a Bernina or even a sewing machine . Check out the details here.

Increasingly headlong

Trent leaves for the Netherlands Sunday. I leave for Switzerland Tuesday. It seemed very far away, but tonight I started seriously thinking about what needs to get done before we head out, and I completely freaked out. It was productive, at least. I now have a packing list and know what I need to shop for. (New black leather walking shoes, and a raincoat.) I also started the housecleaning. We've been putting it off because we only want to do it once, and we create mess at such a prodigious rate that cleaning at the last possible moments makes sense.

The last possible moments are rapidly arriving.

So, there are copies of the keys to be made and distributed, pet and house sitters to contact and make final arrangements with, and giant dust buffalo to round up. There's also yet more shopping for the above-mentioned items, and some work stuff I have to finalize. Trent's even more crazed than me, since he's trying to prepare a class as well as a month away from home (I'll only be gone two weeks).

It doesn't help at all that I'm obsessed with the Olympics. I really like things like rowing, that they broadcast overnight on the USA network. Sadly, obsession doesn't make up for lack of sleep.

Free sewing projects
Remember the martini apron? I wrote up the instructions for it and an apron with more of a utility-belt heritage.


You can download instructions Bernina Northwest's website - the link is currently on the front page in the midst of the Needle Expedition instructions.

New couch
I'm such a bad blogger. We finally got a real couch, and I didn't manage to take a picture in its pristine state. It promptly became covered with the usual riff-raff: books, knitting, dogs.

My job is cooler than your job

I can't stop giggling. For various reasons which are difficult to recreate, I set out to make a very silly apron as a work project. Here's the result modeled by my lamp:

It's reversible!

Check out that amazing rolled hem (which I did with a sewing machine, not a serger):

I even created the martini embroidery design from scratch. If you embigify, you'll see that the pink fabric has tiny martinis. This, friends, is the joy of working at a sewing store.

Tour de Fleece
I've been hard at work spinning. I plied. Here's 3 3/8 oz, about 700 yards:

I tried to take a close up, but my photography skillz are lacking. It now has a baby brother skein (I had too much singles [too many singles?] to ply onto one bobbin) now, so I think I've spun and plied just over 4 oz. I forgot to weigh the baby skein before I washed it, and it's still wet. Please note that I already had a bobbin and a half spun when I started this challenge. But given that it took me months to do that, I'm not really sure how I'm going to produce a comparable amount during the remainder of the tour to meet my 8 oz goal. Ah, well.

I should have more clever titles

But I don't.

I've been knitting, sewing, working, and dog walking, not necessarily in that order.

In knitting news, I finished knitting the Melon Patterned shawl from Victorian Lace Today. I was really sweating yarn quantities as I knit the border on. The yarn is hand-dyed and hand spun, and this was ALL of it. But in the end, the borders are finished.

And I had 5 grams of yarn left. Whyever was I so worried?

I've also been churning along on my Wensleydale sweater and a second sock for Trent. I'm trying to finish some things. Besides the melon shawl, I recently finished the pink shawl (still not blocked). Then I finished a scarf for a lace knitting class I'm teaching at Pacific Fabrics in June.

(Knit from Vickie Howell collection Craft yarn, which I love. The pattern will soon be available for purchase from Vickie, or you can come take the class with me.)

So, in this spate of finishing activity, I've made a deal with myself that I have to finish 2 more knitting projects (any size, provided it's already in progress) before I can start something new. It's killing me. I keep adding things to my Ravelry queue. I could knock off a couple of really old WIPs that are very close to done, or I could buckle down and finish the Wensleydale sweater. Project #2 is going to be those socks, or a nearly completed hat that's roaming around in my knitting bags.

Meanwhile, I've also been sewing up a storm. I've made 3 really cute skirts, flirty little cotton spring skirts. You know, for that gorgeous spring weather we're having.

I can't show you any of the skirts, because they're all off at Bernina or the Quilting Loft being shop samples, as is the newest blouse, lovingly titled Pintuck Madness. When I get it back I'll take pictures and you can see why.

I did, however, get a picture of myself modelling the dotty blouse from several posts back.


Anyway, in the midst of all this productive crafty activity, some of which is actually work, I'm having a great time. That seems to really surprise some folks. I was at my college teaching job (now only one day a week), and one of the faculty cornered me. He had just learned that I cut back to very-part-time, and wanted to know what I'm doing now. I told him I was working at a sewing machine dealer, selling sewing machines, and teaching sewing and sometimes knitting classes. He said, "You're kidding!" in a tone of incredulity that implied I had just told him I'd taking up the stroll on Aurora Avenue. I've perfected a really blissful smile for moments like that, when the person I'm talking to just isn't going to get it.

(That reminds me of my favorite student evaluation story. At Clemson, there's was a write-in question on "What were the teacher's strengths?" One of my survey of contemporary lit students wrote in: "Teacher is very enthusiastic about literature. I don't know why, but she is." I kind of think that's the reaction of my former faculty colleagues to my new career path.)

Finally, for those of you who might have wondered, there's still nowhere to sit at my house.

Quilt FO

I've confirmed that this quilt arrived at its destination, so I can post it in public now. It was a gift to my friend Miss Print for the arrival of her new baby, Penelope. It's based on Karla Alexander's pattern "Catch a Falling Star" in New Cuts for New Quilts. I took a few liberties with the color scheme and the borders. The border quilting was all improvised using my Bernina Stitch Regulator. The center was done with a walking foot.

I survived

But it was a close call. The schedule for Sew Expo sucked exactly as much as I thought it would. On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday the carpool left at 6:30 (instead of 6) so I got a whopping 1/2 hour of extra sleep, but we also got home later on all of those nights. I did reasonably well for myself there, and spread the Bernina love to new people. Sunday night, we had to tear down the booth and load up all the stuff. I got home sometime around 8:30 or 8:45, then I graded until 11:30, fell into bed, got back up at 6, and finished grading at 11, an hour late. Overcooked pasta looks lively in comparison to me at this point.

For your entertainment, I started taking a series of self-portraits on Friday morning. I present: Melinda at 6:00 AM. (I think the Sunday hair looks pretty good, but dude, check out those dark circles.)




Meanwhile, back at the dog ranch
Kidd isn't going anywhere. He's sweet, he's a calming influence on Stella, and he and Trent are in loooooove.


So now we have 3 dogs, and nowhere to sit.

Drive by update

Not only is this the last week of the term for my college writing class, this weekend is also Sew Expo. I'm working in the Bernina booth selling (hopefully) sewing machines all four days. Here's a sample:

5:00 a.m.: alarm goes off
6:00 meet at Bernina to carpool
7:00 arrive at Sew Expo. Gates not yet open.
8:30 sales meeting
9:00 - 6 dizzying whirl of people and noise and sewing machines, with occasional very short breaks of standing behind booth curtain snarfing down sandwich and tea.
7:10 p.m. arrive home
7:45 return home with Thai take out
9:00 a time, now past, by which I needed to go to bed in order to get 8 hours of sleep before repeating all of the above (except, possibly, the Thai takeout).

I'm doing this all weekend. Sunday we finish an hour earlier, but since grades for the writing class are due Monday morning at 10, I don't really foresee sleeping much that night, either.

If any of y'all are at Sew Expo, stop by the Bernina machine booth (it's big and red - you can't miss it) and say hi. My hair is now shorter, but I'm wearing a convenient name tag so you can recognize me.

Seeing spots

Look! Shiny pictures!

Here's a shirt I've been working on. (I haven't bought buttons yet). The pattern is made with Bernina's MyLabel software. It looks like a couple of my measurements are a bit off, because it bunches up at the back of my head. However, the bust and sleeves fit really well. Here's why:

It's 3-D. It allows for my mighty blessedness. Yay! I'll try for a modeling picture after I get buttons. Also, I'm supposed to put some ruffles on this, since nominally it's a sample for a demo I'm doing next month at the Quilting Loft. Hmm. Maybe around the collar and cuffs? I don't know if I can face ruffles running down my chest or around my butt.

Meanwhile, I'm slowly inching along on the Carolina Crossroads quilt. Here are a couple of my stars for Part 6. I've been insanely working a ton lately, plus I've turned my attention back to garment sewing, so this has been languishing. I've got to get back to it while I still know where everything is.


Awww.
It's a notable anniversary for Trent and I. Today is the 10th anniversary of our first date.

A plea for a good cause


Bernie is currently in 2nd place, and stands a really good chance of winning the big prize and building a shelter. However, some of the other groups (all worthy causes, I know) are picking up steam. The contest runs through Jan. 31. It's the number of donors that counts. If you can spare $10, please please donate to Bernie's cause to help animals who otherwise wouldn't have a prayer. I'm lucky (and my sweet Chloe and Stella are, too) to live in a part of the country rich in well-funded animal rescue groups. Bernie's not, and the animals in her neck of the woods really need her.

And finally, leave a comment
My pal and reader Linda K informs me that she's been unable to leave comments. If you can leave a comment, please do so. If you can't, shoot me an email at mkmorrow (at symbol) yahoo dot com.

Another bag, and a news flash from Obvious Man

Bag
I finished another messenger bag (I've lost count - #8? #9?), this time a rather late Christmas gift for Avril.

I had some help when I was cutting out the lining.

Running is hard.
Okay, this is probably Obvious Man territory, but wow, running is much harder than walking. In a spell of ambition combined with a little self-loathing, I decided I'd like to start running, and I decided to use the famous Couch Potato to 5K program, facilitated by the spiffy podcasts from Robert Ullrey. (Thanks to Rachel at Yarn-A-G0-Go for mentioning the podcasts.)

I don't exactly consider myself a couch potato. Yes, there's definitely a spuddish shape to me, but I do walk, sometimes for miles up and down hills. I can walk long enough to wear out Stella, so that seems reasonably fit to me. The first week of the program has you do 8 repeats of 60 seconds running/90 seconds walking. That didn't sound at all unreasonable.

Wow. I picked the flattest route available in my neighborhood. Maybe I just need to learn to jog slower, or maybe I'm more potatoey than I realized. Ouch. At the 6th jogging interval, Robert's podcast says something like "You should be feeling your work out, but you shouldn't be out of breath." Umm, okay, sure thing. I can breathe. This gasping is just like breathing.

It may take me more than the program's 9 weeks to get up to 5K. If you see a slow moving, gasping potato in your neighborhood, that's me.

ETA: I checked with the gmap pedometer, and I did manage to cover 2.2 miles in my 30 gasping minutes of walking and jogging (that includes the warm up and cool down), so I guess that's not too shameful.

More fun than it should be

My friend Nancy has a nephew who hunts, and who proudly announced to the family at the last gathering that he had cooked and eaten the squirrel he bagged. Nancy decided to commemorate his skills in his Christmas present, a manly apron. Our twisted senses of humor + embroidery capabilities on my Bernina = probably sick, but really funny.

In progress:

Completed (the colors are a bit washed out here):


That's about the most fun I've had lately. I'm trying to wrap up grading for the term, which is slow going (mostly because I avoid it as much as possible). All my other sewing projects are presents for people who may read this blog, and hence can't be discussed. (Hi, y'all!)

Thanksgiving report, and a little craftiness

Yes, I'm still alive. Yes, I'm a terrible blogger. Yes, I know no one is reading this. I enjoy talking to the voices in my head.

Thanksgiving
Here's what having a really good friend means: you can invite her over for Thanksgiving, then realize you've invited too many people, ask her to host instead, ask to invite a few more people while you're at it, and she's totally cool with that and ends up hosting a giant, wonderful, celebratory dinner. Nancy, you're my hero.

Thanksgiving is really the sacred holiday for Trent and I. We believe in food, drink, and friends, and we forged into it with our usual enthusiasm this year. We cooked turkey (17 lbs of organic free range), dressing, gravy, and sweet potatoes, and transported them to Nancy's. She made a ton more food, and then the 11 other people who came over also brought food. It was carb-o-riffic. A forthcoming blog entry will feature favorite easy recipes.

Nancy provided art supplies for decorative turkeys, but someone made a slug, too.

We got to see our foster dog Briscoe (now Nancy's dog).

I've got more pictures, but I'm a tad reluctant to post non-family members on the blog without their agreement. But here's Jenine (Perkster of the comments) sniffing Trent's wine. She's practically family, as are Dan, Avril and Roger in the background, so I'm willing to post silly pictures of her.


Craftiness
I've been doing a lot of sewing lately, but some of it is for gifts, and some of it I just don't have pictures of. I did make another in the ongoing series of messenger bags:

I've also been knitting intermittently. The long term projects are hard to photograph (lace in progress is ugly, y'all, especially when it's 700 or so stitches jammed on a 29" circular needle). But here's some socks, just to prove I still knit.

The red (kind of pink on my monitor) is Panda Wool, and is a class model for a sock class I'm teaching at the Northgate Pacific Fabric and Crafts in February. I just finished it. The black tweedy one is for Trent. I temporarily lost the second ball of yarn, but I've now found it and can carry on with sock 2. The burgundy pair are from my birthday sock yarn from last year. Sock 2, as you can see, is almost done, but therefore I don't carry it around to work on it very much because I constantly need to check it against sock 1.

I'll try to make the next post sooner, and with recipes.