babies dancing dress

see the clever use of stripes!

She doesn't like having her picture taken, and she didn't really want to wear the dress, so I'm glad I at least got these pictures.  I hope she warms up to the dress - I think it fits her perfectly.

The fabric is a super-soft cotton, it looks like a twill weave.  We think it came from China many years ago - after I send these pictures to Grandma she may be able to confirm that.  Inspired by the bold stripes, I decided to use them to highlight a surplice top, and went to work drafting from measurements.  When that failed miserably, I took a vest pattern, stuck the shoulder seam together, and traced off what I thought would work.  Much better results!!  The skirt is a simple rectangle, gathered to fit, and there are 2-foot-long ties that wrap all the way around to the front so she can have it tied in the front. 

Next up, a skirt for me.

keeping track of the garden

like a piece of paper I can't lose

Last week I planted 3 dahlias - Onesta, Jean Marie and Ice Cube
10 dormant strawberry roots - Albion
1 strawberry plant - Ozark beauty.

In the vegetable garden we have tomatoes - Yellow Pear, Sun Gold, Golden Jubilee, Black Cherry, Brandywine Red and Rutgers select
peppers - Gypsy, Yellow Bell, Lemon Drop, Corno di Torro Rosso and one that I think is Orange bell
eggplants - Gretel and Black Beauty
one pie pumpkin from a saved seed
snow peas, stringless beans, cucumbers, beets (golden and red) and carrots.

are they mom jeans?

McCalls 5894 'perfect jeans'

They look a little high-waisted in this picture.  They feel just right though.  Bonus; the fabric is fuzzy on the inside, soft and cuddly!  At some point I'll have to take them off to finish the waistband and hems.  I also need to decide - do I avoid stretch fabrics for pants, or do I try different underwear?

le smoking

Happy Birthday Branden!

This was fun - and took only a week or so.  Mostly because every morning after Froglet was in school, I would let Miss Frog watch Mickey Mouse for as long as she wanted while I worked on this.  I still didn't quite make it in time for the birthday, I had to take it back home and hem it, and put the pockets and the belt loops on.  Turned out just as I had hoped it would.

alsmost finished - and holding

things tend to slow down at the finishing stage - almost like I'd rather have this potentially perfect project sitting there than whatever the final product really is.  As long as it's not done, I can imagine that it will be the most wonderful thing ever made.
Here's a coat that's been waiting at 'almost finished' for some time now.  It needs buttonholes, buttons, the lining attached, and the hems done - that's it.

 The buttonholes would have been easier if I'd put them in before sewing up the seams. Or if I had a bigger sewing table.

2 years?!?

I was recently reminded of the existence of this blog, and was surprised to find that my last post was from almost 2 years ago.  I haven't spun much more of the alpaca since then, but have practiced with some wool.  I've also started oodles of knitting projects, and finished a couple..
And a few sewing projects too - I'll need to go look for pictures of any of the successful ones.

pulling yarn like taffy

Part of the excitement of this lovely bundle of alpaca is how it's encouraging me to learn about spinning. Right now I'm working on longdraw drafting, still working through the hairier stuff that I pulled out for practice pieces. I dyed it green - some came out blue from the tailings in the dyepot. I spun up the blue without any particular aim, and navajo plied it into 38 yards of somewhat lumpy yarn. Then I took my time carding the really green stuff into smooth rolags - smaller is better it seems, or at least easier. I've spun a bobbin and a half of that, learning along the way. First lesson (learned from the blue stuff, actually): the smoother your fiber prep, the smoother you can make the yarn. Spinning won't magically make those lumps go away. Second lesson: don't try to spin alpaca when it's hot and humid - sticky hands make more lumps.
Londraw in particular has been challenging (maybe I should give it more than 2 days?) but still more fun than frustrating. The basic idea is to build up twist in a few inches of yarn, then let that twist into the fiber mass, getting just the right amount of twist per inch to let the fibers slip past each otherinto a nice even yarn. This is the part that feels like pulling taffy when you get it right, which I have once or twice. I think there's also something going on with thick spots taking up less twist, so they keep slipping while the thinner parts stay as they are. This doesn't always work the way I think it should - I've had a lot more breaks and thin spots in this yarn than when I was doing short-draw. When it cools off a bit I'll finish the second bobbin and ply them onto a CD spindle. Then I get to start on the really soft stuff!! or work on making wool combs - we got the welding rods for them today, much puzzling the fellows behind the counter. "good luck with your yarning" they said as we left.