bee creative

from the garden

Food:

From the garden: potatoes, zucchini, garlic scape.

Local:  Cheese

From California: Olive oil

Color:

Confession:  I don't sort laundry well.  Something red bled just a little bit on to my white shirt.  So I dyed the shirt in onion skins. First time I wore it to work one co-worker said, "What happened, did you spill coffee on your shirt?"  Another co-worker  said, "Love your shirt! What did you dye it with?" 

To make it look less like spilled coffee I decided to add a bit more color.  I've been transplanting indigo.  A few of the plants were a bit spindly so I pinched them back and used the leaves to make a few prints. 

It will probably be next week before I wear it to work again (giving it time to cure and might do a bit of stitching). I wonder what reaction I'll get...?

One pair of pants + one skirt =

Won't be wearing this to work, it's wool (the skirt wool gauze) and I would cry if bleach got on it.  Well, maybe...it could always be mended and/or over-dyed.

Cost, about 15 dollars. I live close to a really fabulous thrift store which is a great resource for work jeans.  Sometimes other things can't be resisted!

The top part was cut using the facing pattern for my favorite tank top. For the skirt, I cut out the lining and the zipper, cut it in to 2 pieces and then put it all together.

Another photo with bad lighting that needed a little help.  Lola is very happy when I am home.  Especially if there are leftovers...

About 2 cups of risotto + 1 egg + 1/4 cup cheese + about 1/3 cup zucchini butter.

I keep forgetting things like this stay together better when the mix is chilled before baking/frying. 

Oh well, still tasty.

play a little, or a lot

Mama and baby were there right by the bus stop one day this week. I couldn't quite get the lighting right and didn't want to stay and make them too uncomfortable.  Made it a good photo to play with.

I have a long weekend and am doing a lot of sorting. One plan is to make lots of shirts like this one with any appropriate fabric I gather.

This is a blend of inspirations from Jude (Boro class; not available right now I think, but lots of ideas in the category) and India Flint (School of Nomad Arts). The sleeves and top of the bodice are rectangles. It was too short so a "skirt" was added.  I left a slit on one side which is perfect for being able to reach into a pants pocket easily.  The fabric is raw silk that was dyed in home-grown indigo.

So comfortable to wear. One issue is that the sleeves bunch up under a sweater. This might work better for a jacket (trying that soon) or when a sweater isn't needed. If it was looser a t-shirt might work under it for another layer.

Must play more!

 

Another Jude inspired idea. Found while sorting. I think I will make it into a bag.

I am planning on posting the next couple days as I spend some time sorting and making. A little bit of accountability...

 

take it outside

"I thought about lines-the lines we draw, the lines we write, the lines we cross, the lines we cross out.  An actor's lines, deadlines, headlines, borderlines-lines drawn in the sand; lines we never forget, the lines we leave behind. A circle is a line touching."  Terry Tempest Williams, The Hour of Land

The take it outside basket.

Knitting, sewing, reading. 

I am reading Mary Oliver's Upstream, and listening to Terry Tempest Williams. It's a kind of conversation to move back and forth between the two. A pairing.

After spending about a hour stitching the sleeves on to a shirt by hand, I spent less than 5 minutes cutting them off. 

(I loved the way the pink seam showed through though.)

That's how it goes sometimes.

 

assignment #4

Question: If you aim high is more accomplished? I suppose it depends on how you feel when the due date comes around...

 

Assignment #4 is ambitious and maybe slightly out of reach.

I want to start and finish 4 sweaters. 

Mostly this is an effort to clean up the stash.  The green yarn above is from sweater number three that I made. It was too small so I unraveled it.  The pattern I am using is a yoked cardigan from Amy Herzog's Ultimate Sweater Book.  I am loving this book.  There are several patterns in this book I want to make plus advice on making patterns your own/making your own pattern.

The second sweater I want to make is with the intent of learning to steek and using stranded knitting for a sweater.  I've only tried stranded knitting with socks.  I bought yarn for this but the recommended yarn still falls in a price range for something that would be wearable without being too precious. Another goal is to make a collection of sweaters that I will wear to work and not consider too "precious." This is the sweater. It is knit on large needles so it should be a relatively fast project.

The third sweater will be knit on large needles as well. The yarn was gifted to me by a friend who found it at Goodwill. It's mostly wool so my intent is to knit and then dye. Not sure about pattern yet. I just might design my own....

Sweater number four will probably be the same pattern as the green one if I like how it fits.  This is partly so that my assignment can be more easily accomplished as well cardigans are what work best with my wardrobe. The primary yarn for this sweater was found at a local thrift store and is almost enough for a sweater by itself (for less than $15.00!). I had a skein of yarn that will go along nicely and bought a couple more skeins to round out the difference. 

The other sweater I am in love with is Kate Davies two-shade Strathendrick but will have to wait until next year...it's probably a year long project all by itself! 

assignment #2 plus another sewing/dye project under construction

A few posts back in the comments I mentioned the idea of gathering a collection from the garden and processing it in a jar (India Flint style, Stuff, Steep +Store)  once a month for a year. Starting next January 2020, I'll open one jar a month.  Maybe I'll even make it continuous...open one jar and then process another. 

Another form of field note....

Here it goes:

January's collection:  a fern, some yarrow, fennel, sorrel, black berry, a few lingering rose leaves, dandelion, vinca, the last of the loganberry leaves, sage, st. john's wort and two different types of ivy. 

A few of these things aren't usually around this time of year.  We've had a few hard frosts but not enough to have them die down.

The water in the jar is a soft tea color so something certainly has color. 

..........

Another project under construction:

As part of one of India's classes I was able to take part in a challenge offered by Beautiful Silks. For the cost of postage we were sent about 5 yards of silk to play with. 

This includes some of all the silks that were sent except one.  The last one I don't want to dye as I like it just the way it is. I'll be making a cowl that could be worn with this to "dress it up." 

Something I've been considering a lot is how to make a wardrobe that is everyday but that something small could be added to a few items that would make it "special occasion." Part of my goal to have a sustainable wardrobe.

A little closer look at the bottom.  The bright green is dye from the top piece of fabric that ran, the rest eucalyptus and onion skins.  The two light fabrics were first dyed in my fresh indigo vat. A little bit of that turquoise remains.

I love the random flow of colors in this, a collage of color.

practical sewing: the sweatshirt + a little something less practical

I've now made two sweatshirts using 100 Acts of Sewing's Dress No.2.

I have fabric for a third and would love to get some cotton velveteen to make another dressier "winter" version.

Sweatshirt number two. 

I didn't bind the neckline on this one, just folded over and stitched down.

I also shortened the length. 

One important considering for using this pattern with a knit is to change the neckline so that it is much shallower.  I used the back neckline from my favorite tank top (altered enough at this point to be pretty much a self drafted pattern).

I lined up the shoulder seams on the two patterns so that they were even, cut the  neckline and then removed the tank top pattern so that I could cut the dress arm hole. 

My favorite patterns are on tag board now which makes using them much easier. 

On the little less practical side.  This is the tank top pattern cut out of silk and dyed with eucalyptus...

This is the first time that I've managed to get such good results with eucalyptus.  Something that India Flint said in the conscious clothing class clicked for me and I realized what I needed to do!

I learned a lot in the conscious clothing class and have plans to do a lot of experimenting this next year with dyeing and altering/drafting patterns. 

Here's a few more:

These having me thinking about the possibilities of mirrored images...

practical sewing

Sweatshirts aren't something I wear a lot but a friend of mine was wearing one that looked so cozy.

I looked at patterns but ended up using Dress No. 2 from 100 Acts of Sewing.

Not quite happy with the binding on the neckline yet but I know what I'm going to do next....

Overall very happy using this pattern with fleece (an organic cotton/hemp blend that is so soft!).

 

silence

I fell into silence again.

Maybe it's the darkness. The days are definitely shorter.  I am very aware this time round that we are in the dark of the moon. 

There is a small garbage can full of walnuts fermenting away on the back deck.  Lid tightly closed to keep the squirrels out. 

Silk shirt (purchased at thrift store for 5 dollars) dyed in sumac. 

I also found a pair of white jeans that promptly went into a not working so well indigo vat, followed by a dip in the walnuts, and then after drying out a bit; is now back in the walnut vat. 

On the left is a tank top that I made, dyed in the indigo vat (with better results but splotchy) that also took a dip in the walnuts.  It's still drying on the line and will be washed soon. 

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Several years ago I bought a copy of A Book of Silence by Sara Maitland.  I've dived in and out of it but haven't read the whole thing yet.  I think it's time to start.  A part that caught my attention...

"But the horizon line of the hills abided...  Whenever I sat to meditate, there was the clear, clean line that divides earth and sky and also unites them.  That line was constant.  It emerged out of the dark in the first dawn light and was swallowed back into the dark at nightfall.  Above the line, infinity, below the line, mortality.  But the line itself was both and held them both, and the wind blew along it, fresh and free like the passage of the spirit." 

This wasn't the quote that I went looking for this morning, but after seeing Jude's post today, seemed most appropriate. 

 

mending by making cloth

Today I sorted all my white fabric scraps by type and weight. 

There is enough linen to piece together a skirt. I'm sewing all the seams down with cotton thread one of my great-grandmothers crocheted lace with once upon a time.  It's old but certainly strong.

It's heading for a dye vat along with the tank top. 

I signed up for India Flint's class "Conscious Clothing." 

So many ideas....