What I'm working on Wednesday

I had the chance to visit a fabric/craft store when I went out of town over the weekend and I picked up some new yarn. I was able to whip out this scarf for myself using this pattern. I think it turned out really great, especially for how easy it is. I'm thinking about making a wider shawl out of it using some lighter weight yarn.

I'm also still plugging along on my Kansas cross stitch. I've got a lot of backstitch ahead of me on the cabin.

Redemption!

After figuring out how the pattern worked, I took some measurements from one of Ellen's shirts and made her a blouse out of some fabric she picked out. She loved it! And it fit!

So then I proceeded to make the blouse out of the velvet that had inspired it all...

I loved it! And it fit!

What I'm Working on Wednesday

The ripple blanket continues to grow in spite of my haphazard approach. I began with the plan to crochet it with interlocking color strips as Attic24 did. However, my tiny little stash of 9 or so balls of yarn was not going to go far. Especially when a couple of them are really too dull for the mix. I get about 3 stripes from each ball, and the interlocking stripes call for 4 rows for each repeat. FAIL.

So now I'm back to approaching this as I did my other crochet blanket and almost every quilt I've made. Hmmm... almost out of this color, let me go get another smidge of it. Oh look, I'm out again.... let's see if I can get something that kinda matches..... and on and on. It's admittedly a pain, but keeps up the suspense I guess.

I've also made quite a bit of progress on my Kansas sampler. I've found if I devote too much time to either project, my wrist will really start to ache. But if I alternate cross stitching and crochet, I seem to be fine. So I cross stitch in the morning as my son and I have our 20 minutes of watching-the-morning-news time, and then I crochet in the evenings in front of the TV when my brain is tired and I don't have enough concentration to follow a cross stitch pattern.

I'm linking to the Wednesday link party at:

Aye Matey!

So last weekend I found myself with most of the weekend to myself - an unbelievable treat. I decided that I would spend the weekend making a blouse.

 

I had fallen in love with this from the Sundance catalog:

 

 

And since it looked fairly simple and I'd love to have it in a million fabrics, I scoured the internet for a pattern. I finally found one called "Easy Peasant Shirt/Chemise Pattern." It looked simple enough and it was through Amazon.com so I felt good about ordering it online even though I didn't know the actual vendor.

 

You know that thing on Amazon when you order something and afterward you get that page that says "People who ordered 'Easy Peasant Shirt/Chemise Pattern' also ordered: ...."  So people who ordered my pattern also ordered: A pirate hat. An eye patch. A pirate lady corset. Huh.... Well, I did order it October 20th, so it's probably just people ordering all kinds of Halloween stuff, right?

 

Then the pattern comes in and hey, look at that. This is the illustration I saw online:

 

 

 

But now on the cover of the pattern the man and women in the "Easy Peasant Shirt/Chemise" are standing in front of a ship's mast. Huh.

 

 

 

Ok, maybe it's a little piratey, but it won't be with the fabric I ordered. Instead of starting with a heavy and slippery velvet, I ordered a really pretty aqua and purple paisley sheer silk chiffon to practice. I was super careful to line up the paisley pattern so it would be centered down the middle of both the front and the back. I folded it nicely so the sleeves would have a pretty part of the pattern showing. I had ordered 4 yards of fabric, and it sure was eating it up as I cut it out, but I figured it was because I had so much waste from centering the fabric.

 

So I try it on. It's huge.

 

And I text my daughter: I think I just accidentally made a pirate maternity top.

Ellen's reply: What?

Me: Never mind

 

Well. There is a continuous seam up the side and down the sleeve, so I put the shirt on inside out and pin it. I take it in FIVE INCHES from both sides.

 

Wow. Still huge. But hey, I can take the strips I cut off and gather them and make a ruffle around the bottom. No harm. No Foul.

 

I know. I'll put in some ribbon and elastic just under the bust to make a trendy empire waist. Still big.

 

How about a matching elastic/ribbon in the back? Big, but better?

 

Some cute trim on around the neck.... 3 yards of it. Ummmm, not so cute. Tear out 3 yards being soooo careful not to rip the fragile silk. Sew on some more demure trim. Cute.

 

When Ellen came home I tried it on for her. She said, "It's cute. Except I don't really like the sheer fabric. And it's really big. And it's too long. And it looks kind of like a maternity top. And I'm not sure if I like the ruffle on the bottom." What was it that she liked about it?

 

<sigh>

 

I'm letting it sit for a bit before I revisit it. 

 

What I'm Working On Wednesday

I bought this pattern a while ago because it's designed right in the town I grew up in, Topeka, Kansas, It reminds me of the Little House on the Prarie books I would read over and over and over.

I can RIPPLE!

Attic24 has lured me in again. I could not resist the colorful ripple blanket she is making. And since I've sort of forgotton what I bought 9 different colors of yarn for:

I started it late last night when I was too mentally tired to keep up with cross stitching, but wasn't ready to nod off yet. I "measured" how wide I wanted it by throwing the chain across us on the bed to make sure it would cover two people comfortably. Then I started the long, long journey back down that chain to make the first row.

When I got up in the morning, I wondered what I was thinking. Thank goodness I didn't finish that first row (I probably still wouldn't be finished) as it draped way over the sides of the bed and would have taken 14,000 skeins of yarn to complete. I figured out how to un-crochet from the end at which I began and took out several inches. It's still really, really wide, but now I do have a chance of finishing it in this lifetime.

I'm planning to use the same interlocking stripes Attic24 is using. Looking forward to the color changes seems to make it go faster. I am only on color #2 and I am loving watching it grow.

Dog-O-Rama

Ellen and Patrick went to the city's Dog-O-Rama over the weekend and Lola was a huge hit. She got second place in the kissing contest, although Patrick and Ellen said she was definitely the crowd favorite.

Ellen did a wonderful job on the costume. The book doesn't have any patterns to trace or cut around, just some diagrams.

The final product:

Finnegan is not amused.