I have the next four days off work and things to do...
On my mind: there was a second knitter on the bus yesterday. We ended up giving two other people a pep talk about how, like everything else, knitting mostly takes practice. And that sometimes it doesn't matter what techniques you use but rather that when you are done it looks the way you want it to and that you are happy with the results.
Blueberries and raspberries for breakfast...once I untangled them from the bindweed. The bindweed seems especially abundant this year.
I'm also untangling a skein of yarn. It's a mess. I'm not sure if I did it while trying to salvage what was good after discovering moths or if the cat did it. In and out, over and through. Just like life...
I found a pair of jeans that I just loved at the thrift shop but they were a bit on the large size for me. A possible jeans skirt?
Yes indeed! (Uh-oh, need to wash the mirror.)
I used my straight skirt pattern as a guideline for side seams and gave it a go.
A couple considerations:
The fabric is a cotton lycra blend which allows for the skirt to be longer without having to add an insert where the inseam was (sometimes seen in altered jean skirts). It's easy to walk in but I won't be climbing over gates or fences in this skirt.
A dart was needed in the back to make the fabric lay right. It's right along the original inseam (which now disappears into the new seam) so it's not really apparent. I never wear shirts tucked in so it really won't matter.
I also made another sundress this morning. I think if I were asked for my top suggestion for sewing clothes it would be to find a pattern that you think would be a staple in your wardrobe and make it many times. I've lost count of how many tank tops I've made. I know without a doubt that my sewing skills improved dramatically as a result of the repetition. It also allows for more creative use of patterns.
Part two of this suggestion is that once you have the fit of the pattern just right, transfer your pattern pieces to poster board. This isn't my original idea and I don't remember where I found it, but it is so much easier to cut pattern pieces this way.
Patterns are like recipes. Once there is an understanding of the basics, all kids of modifications are possible.
Tank top (Unique patterns)+ skirt pattern (self-drafted following directions from Sew What Skirts) combined to make sundress. I needed to even out the hem a bit but other than that it comes together like a dream...
Another suggestion: always go for a walk around the block in a new skirt or dress pattern. Preferably early in the morning before the neighbors are awake to see you tugging at things. Just like a car they need a test drive.
And if that isn't enough, warm bread from the oven for breakfast:
I tried knitting this morning but the cat kept head-butting me and I kept dropping stitches.
I ended up in the garden and realized it was a perfect day for field notes.
Currently harvesting: strawberries, raspberries, herbs, and peas.
Lots of blossoms on the tomatoes and the zucchini is looking very promising.
Unseasonably warm weather expected for the weekend.
Spent an enchanted 5 minutes watching a flicker preening while sitting on a power line just before dawn one morning this week. Mostly seeing chickadees but the male humming bird and a nuthatch have been around too.
This morning found me out in the garden chopping back overgrown raspberries and bindweed. I hope I discovered it before the gas meter was due to be read. I suppose I'll find out if mail arrives telling me to clear the path...
For Hazel in all its wrinkled glory. The pattern is a combination of my favorite tank top and a skirt pattern that I matched up.
What to do when you have an abundance of eggs? Make beignets with the brioche (8 eggs!) made the day before. Served with strawberries from the garden. In honor of summer. And yes I burned them just a bit. I've found brioche dough freezes well so it's nice to stock up. Or maybe just make more beignets for breakfast?
It's what I tend to do when I'm tired, overwhelmed, or not feeling good. I've been all three recently.
I have a coworker who is struggling through the third health issue in a row. She wanted to know what the universe was trying to tell her. My response was that I didn't know about the universe but what I did know is that once we catch virus #1 our immune system seems to get down and then we are open to more things that come along.
It occurred to me that our mental health can be the same way. So to shake myself loose I signed up for an art class (Faces with Lynn Whipple/Carla Sonheim)....
Last Sunday I spent 2 hours with crayons, paints, pens and I played. And it was fun.
Another conversation I have been considering: a coworker and I were talking about singing with children. About how they don't care whether you are good or not, they just love it. My running joke when I try to encourage other adults to sing with children is that I sing with more enthusiasm then talent and that they can too. And the funny thing is, the more you sing the better you get.
It's so easy to get caught up in being good at something. Good enough to share with others, good enough to sell. So easy to compare. To look for validation. It shuts us down, keeps us from doing things that I think that humans are intrinsically drawn to: drawing, singing, creating, telling stories or playing for example.
As I periodically do, I've been caught in the why am I blogging? What I am I doing here? This week I've remembered that I started because I wanted to participate. There is something in the act of making, writing, capturing a thought or idea that brings me joy. That adds magic to my world. Not everything is good but that's not really the point. It's the process, the participation...
Just putting that out in the universe.
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This morning I went looking for something to consider and found an interview with Enrique Martinez Celaya (On Being):
"There’s an intelligence at play in the work itself and a sense of something I can only describe as a consciousness in that work that engages me, forces me to be a witness, forces me to be a conversation partner, places me in a very unstable place. And there’s an instability in that exchange that is more, simply, than just looking at a bunch of marks and thinking of how Vincent might have made them or something like that. And this is a rare thing, I think. But I will suggest that somewhere around that, one could construct the definition of what art is, as opposed to an art activity. It’s when something has the capacity to embody consciousness in a way that it can be unfolded."