Need More Yarn

Finished Dress and pre-felted clogs and even a bit of spinning

So yesterday I finished up Vogue 1254. I feel like I was "going to finish it today" for about 3 days in a row. The lining, the sewing the lining in, etc, all took much longer than I thought they would. Not that it was difficult. It just is time consuming. I guess that's sewing.

I'm pretty happy with it. It fits nicely. I used so wool suiting that I had been meaning to make into slack for like, forever. I delayed because its a bizarre fabric. In the photo and from a distance it looks a bit olive green. But it is really made up of deep aqua blue and golden brown threads in what appears to be twill weave. So it would have been a pain to pair up with blouses. I almost want a bronze throw/shawl to wear with it, if I could make one that is simple and not super frilly.

I love the mad men look to it. I feel rather boobilicious in it. And not necessarily in a good way. And I want nude pumps to wear with it rather than black or brown. Any excuse for new shoes!

I finished reading Murder Spins a Tale by Veryl Ann Grace last night. It's a cozy mystery which takes place in the pacific northwest and the main character has a small farm with animals for fiber and has a shop for knitting, spinning and weaving. It's a quick read. And I enjoyed it. But it really made me want to spin.

So I oiled up the Ashford because, let's face it, I haven't touched the wheel in ages! I'm spinning for Hand dyed Blue Faced Leicester Top from Frabjous Fibers in #116 Jewel. I picked this up at the Fiber Festival in Greencastle in 2010. I completely forgot about it until it was over this year and was rather annoyed with myself.

I am hoping to make socks out of this. I'm debating between a 2 ply and 3 ply. But I love love love this colorway.

It's a homemade Christmas at the Ruuska house again this year. And I have decided to make all the kids felted clogs. All in all, I will need to make 10 pairs. And looking around on ravelry, some people are doing so very awesome needlefelted decorations on the clogs. This has really inspired me and I have so ideas for them.

I currently have 4 1/2 pairs knit. But none are felted. I post finished pictures here. But anyone cares,  you can see the unfelted versions on my project page on Ravelry. I kind of have my fingers crossed. I am mixing yarns like crazy. And some of them are not made of worsted or heavy worsted yarn, but thinner yarns with additional stands held in. Man I hope this does not become epic failure because I don't think I can bring myself to knit for them 10 pairs! ACK!

More Me Made June and Another Donna Karan

I'm continuing to wear at least one item made by me everyday--usually two. However, the photos are boring. Sunday I wore a top that I consider a failure. But I wear it at home on principle. Which is stupid. I ought to bag it up and send it to good will. What kind of a principle says, "I will wear ugly clothes that look hideous on me?" Okay. Just typing this out has gotten to my little pea brain. Off to good will it goes.

That is something that is hard for me since I quit working. If I am just staying home, I still need to look decent--for my family AND for myself.

I'm working on a capsule waredrobe. I don't know that it's really actually capsule-y. But I am really working toward not having orphans. If the only thing a top goes with is jeans or 1 skirt or something, it's not really a good item for the wardrobe.

But I'm getting enough pieces done that I am seeing this work for me. Monday I wore:

The pants are Vogue 1051. The fabric is Joann's Sew Classics cotton twill. Jury is out of the fabric. I got it in the clearance section.

The top is Simplicity 2614. It's now out of print. I got it on ebay after seeing others'  tops on blogs and such. Also a JoAnn's fabric.

And the jacket is Hot Patterns Riviera. I am getting smarter. With purple buttons instead of black or silver or whatever, I've finally figured out I can pair it with brown, black, white, whatever.

The top also goes with this skirt that is shown with the matching top.

Then Tuesday I wore a tee from $2/yard fabric from WalMart. I just needed to test a Burda Magazine pattern for sizing and didn't want to spend a ton of money. And I wore it with jeans I made. But the outfit was boring and blah. I guess that tells me what I ought to do with that outfit too!

And wednesday I wore a skirt from Sew Serendiptiy but forgot to photograph it.

Today, I'm wearing my skirt from vintage barkcloth for the first time. I don't remember where or when I go the fabric. But it's only 36 inches wide so it's gotta be vintage.

Yesterday I finished up another Donna Karan dress V1220. This is also a cotton lycra blend but wrinkles much more than the black print fabric does in the previous dress. So I don't know how pleased I'm going to be with that.

I think this fabric is just slightly lighter weight than the black print.That is the disadvantage of buying on line. One of the first tricks my mother taught me was to ball up a portion of fabric in you fist and hold for a minute and then see how badly it wrinkles. Or not. This is the advantage of knits. But I also realized that almost every single thing in my closet is a knit.

On a totally unrelated note:

I'm listening to the audiobook "Dark Lover" by J. R. Ward. It was recommended to me ages ago and I picked it up for like $5 at a sale at audible.com. Arg. It's like pulling teeth to finish this thing! First of all, I really don't like the narrator. Usually, I can stick out the first half hour and I get used to the narrator and it's fine.

But I don't know if it's Jim Frangione's delivery, or if the dialogue in this book is truly the most trite dialogue ever! I'm plucking my eyeballs out listening to this stuff!  But it's kind of the principle of the thing. I've listened to half of it and think I ought to finish it because I don't want to waste those $5. Yeah, I know I just talked myself out of principles a little earlier in this post. I ought to lose this one too. Needless to say, I won't be going on with this series.

Next on the list is the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins. Hopefully that will be better!

Me Made June 2 &3

The second and third days of Me Made June are more me-madier than the first.

June 2:

This is Buttercup knit from Elsebeth Lavold Hempathy. This top is very comfortable and very cool. Now that it is summer again, I am reminded that I really want more hempathy.

The pants are denim sewn from Vogue 8131. These are very full cut trousers and the fabric needs to be drapey. The denim is from JoAnn's. I like the fluidity of the fabric and the dark color. But I am not sure that it is wearing well. I have (ahem) friction issue on the inner thigh. The fabric is very thin there. And I haven't had the pants all that long even though I have worn them a lot. So I'm not real encouraged to buy more JoAnn's denim. I'm pretty sure this is in the sew classics line.

June 3:

Again the pants are Vogue 8131. The fabric is again from JoAnn's it is a linen blend that I am happy with.  And the top is Hot Patterns Weekender Sunshine Top.

These three pieces, the brown linen pants, the sweater and top, are part of my wardrobe capsule. The colors are chocolate brown, grey, black and lavender. I'm woefully short on bottoms. But I should have the new foot pedal by the end of next week and can forge ahead.

I had been thinking that in July I ought to switch to sewing ahead for winter. It will practically be July when I am sewing again and I still need summer clothing!

On a different note, I am reading A Vintage Affair by Isabel Wolff. The main character opens a vintage clothing shop and many items of apparel and designers are referenced and described. I am enjoing this so much! I highly recommend it!

Gone Reading

We are now 10 hours (central time) away from the release of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

I want to announce that the Need More Yarn blog is temporarily closed until I finish the book.

You have to have priorities!

I'll be back as soon as I am done!