Updated Plan for March

This was my original post (with yellow remarks on where I stand 3 weeks into March)

Plan for March

I am awesome at compiling lists and I suck at following them. So I am challenging myself to actually follow through with my plans...
Anyhoo, I will make a monthly list divided into 4 (at the moment) categories.
This months list:
1. Sewing:
- march jacket (McCalls 5759): lining is constructed, buttons bought and fashion fabric cut out. Will continue as soon as I finish my Mini-Wardrobe entry (hopefully this weekend)
- silk slip (no pattern yet): um yeah,  not so much! Possibly in April
- fix some things lingering in my alterations pile (skirts, dress): Alterations? Who said that? Hopefully in April!
the list will have more things added as I go along

- Mini Wardrobe Contest at PR: 1 item completed, 1 needing hem, 1 needing zipper and hem, 1 completely untouched (at least I finally decided on a pattern)

- black doubleknit skirt for girls night out: need it this coming friday and probably won´t use a pattern.

2. Knitting:
- finish Clapotis: done!!! Love it! Sooooo soft!
- finish Hope Cardigan (yummy cashmere): it just needs buttons: buttons bought, sewed on. Then tried on FO and hated it! Way too much ease through torso. Don´t know what happened there. Thankfully this is knit top down so I will just have to rip to the start of the waist shaping and make it smaller! Need to get cracking on this or it will be too warm to wear it.
- finish teal throw for my bed: it just needs the fringe attached and a good
blocking: not touched yet, I already have it lying on the bed and the fringe on my nightstand... might be a good project when insomnia hits again!
- my Wisteria needs to be fixed in one armpit: have I mentioned I hate mending? It´s actually just a loose end that hastbecome dangerously loose!
- find new project to cast on: nope. I grabbed a cotton shell (I don´t like knitting with cotton and neither do my wrists! But this seems fine so far) I have had languishing in my WIP basket for too long. Front is finished, back is halfway there.

3. Quilting:
- I am only a beginning quilter and have decided to sew a king size (I know, what
was I thinking???) quilt for my bed, crazy nine patch blocks in batiks (color
scheme: blues, greens, purples) alternated with simple black silk taffeta blocks
and I want to get a little bit done each month: haven´t done a stitch this month except buying the silk taffeta, washing and ironing it. Want to make another stack of crazy nine patch blocks this month. ( 1 stack down, 3 to go) 
more on this later: this project deserves it´s own post, which it will get as soon as do another stack of blocks

4. Redecorating:
- reupholster that cocktail chair from this post: Yeah, finished
- build cd shelf (the plan is in my head): I´ve got all the supplies save for a really big sheet of plywood which I can´t fit into my car, so I will have to ask a buddy to help me out here.

Little progress

I am away on business so there is not much to talk about...
Although I did manage to get the front of the Luna Shell completed last night. It took just over three skeins of the Elann Luna in chocolate fudge (I think I have 8 skeins, so I´ll be good to go for the shell). I am hoping to get the back done in just under 3 skeins for a total of 6, so that I have two whole skeins of the brown left to add to the 8 skeins of the same yarn in liquid teal for a cardi. That is going to be a tight squeeze and the cardi may end up with 3/4 sleeves (hopefully at least that long!).
So far (knock on wood) my wrists are fine and I will continue on as long as that is the case...

In sewing news, I had planned to take the HP 3 Graces shirt pattern with me to trace off in my hotel room but I managed to forget that at home... which means no progress on the mini-wardrobe. Ugh!!!!
Status:
Skirt - pattern traced
3 Graces top - nothing done
BWOF blouse - still on the fence if I like the pattern for the fabric
2nd BWOF top - ditto!

If I remember correctly, there is a cute top pattern in one of my older Easy Fashion magazines. I´ll look for that tonight and hopefully substitute one or both of the previously picked patterns.
I really need to get cracking on this because I have my March Jacket as well. Here, I´ve got the lining sewn and the fashion fabric cut out save for the collar (fabric decision pending).

My dad is coming for dinner next friday and I really want to get some more stuff done in the apartment and I REALLY need to clean the place so that is what I will be doing this weekend. Have I mentioned I hate cleaning??? I would rather install lighting or paint stuff than clean my apartment and that is exactly why it is in such a sorry state...
No, I am not going to show you a picture of my grimy place instead I will leave you with a picture from my trip to Australia in November 2009:

Sydney harbour

WIP: Luna Shell

This is the random WIP I pulled from my lovely pink WIP basket (I will do a show and tell in an upcoming post!):



Luna shell

 According to Ravelry I started this in May 2010 with high hopes of making a cute little twinset with the shell in brown with turquoise trim and the cardigan in turquoise with brown trim. It languished in the WIP basket after my old problem (pain in the wrists when knitting with cotton) reared it´s ugly head, again!
Because I wasn´t in the mood for something new, I pulled this out after finishing my Clapotis. As long as I don´t knit on it excessively, I hope I will be fine!
As always I use a knitting pattern as a loose guideline only and change lots of things. Since I tend to need more room in a top for the girls than most patterns provide, I decided to try something new for this shell: I split the number of stitches into thirds and increased one stitch at each of the two marked points. 4 rows after that I increased one to the left and one to the right of that mark and every 4 rows after that, I increased one stitch before the first and one stitch after the second and repeat for the second marked point. This forms a subtle upside down triangle below each "girl"! :-)

I am ready to decrease for the armholes next.

On a different note: I love the way my pictures with the white background look. Like the knitting is floating in the air. Instead it´s just my white coffee table... lol

Slow Saturday

No sewing today, no knitting either, although I might pull a random WIP from my WIP basket after I finish writing this. I have no idea what to cast on.

I spent half the day trying to get the lighting in my vintage cabinet to work... After blowing the fuse three times my little brother came down and helped me. Now, one spotlight works and the other needs to be exchanged because apparently it´s broken.
After that I went to Zumba class with my friend, grocery shopping and cooked a lovely dinner (lamb filet with a green salad). Now I´m sitting on the couch with a nice glass of red wine.

I managed to get the lining on my March jacket sewn up last night and the fit seems good. I seem to have a problem with sewing the buttons and buttonholes on the correct sides... On my February jacket I managed to get my sides mixed up and here (the buttonholes are made by leaving holes in the seam between the right front and the right front band) I managed to do the same! I forgot that the lining gets worn "inside out"...

For tomorrow I have great plans:
cut the houndstooth fabric for the March jacket
sew the muslin chair cover
sew a costume for carnival (I´m thinking rocker girl with Doc Maartens, fishnets, a short plaid skirt and some
    sort of top); the only I would need to sew is that skirt and I think I´ve got a suitable pattern in my BWOF
    collection; for the matching jewelry, I think I will raid the hardware store :-)

And because I have no new pictures here is a squirrel in Battery Park:

FO: Clapotis

Wow, I finally finished something! Years after the Clapotis craze I finally knit one for myself...



Yarn: Madeline Tosh, ToshDK in baltic
4 skeins
Needles: Knitpicks Harmony circular in 6mm
Details and more pictures here.

I am leaving it unblocked, because I really like the way it curls. The yarn is awesome and I will definitely buy more, after I get some of my stash knit up!

I knit the increases and decreases as written and guesstimated the number of repeats of the straight section to use as much of the yarn as possible. Here you see the small amount left (with a bobbin from my sewing machine for size reference).



I doubt I would have gotten another repeat out it!

Conclusion: I love the pattern and will surely make it again. The slight variegation of the yarn I used is awesome in this pattern. I am thinking of Christmas presents (more as a scarf though, with fewer increases)... Of course it is still waaaay too early to start knitting pressies, right? I have at least another 8 months... hahaha

Plan for March

I am awesome at compiling lists and I suck at following them. So I am challenging myself to actually follow through with my plans...
Anyhoo, I will make a monthly list divided into 4 (at the moment) categories.
This months list:
1. Sewing:
- march jacket (McCalls 5759)
- silk slip (no pattern yet)
- fix some things lingering in my alterations pile (skirts, dress)
the list will have more things added as I go along

2. Knitting:
- finish Clapotis
- finish Hope Cardigan (yummy cashmere): it just needs buttons
- finish teal throw for my bed: it just needs the fringe attached and a good
blocking
- my Wisteria needs to be fixed in one armpit
- find new project to cast on

3. Quilting:
- I am only a beginning quilter and have decided to sew a king size (I know, what
was I thinking???) quilt for my bed, crazy nine patch blocks in batiks (color
scheme: blues, greens, purples) alternated with simple black silk taffeta blocks
and I want to get a little bit done each month
more on this later

4. Redecorating:
- reupholster that cocktail chair from this post
- build cd shelf (the plan is in my head)

This post will probably be updated throughout the month, especially on the sewing and knitting topics so look for updates!

Random picture (this one is of the church tower in my hometown taken in fall 2009)

WIP: Clapotis

Here you see my current WIP. A Clapotis (my first, and yes it has taken me eons to join the craze!) in madelinetosh tosh DK in the colorway "Baltic".



I bought 4 skeins quite a while ago for some sort of scarf/shrug. And there it sat in my stash for months, forgotten and neglected (poor baby...) until I watched the first SATC movie and fell in love with that huge red scarf Carrie wears in the scene where she moves back to her old apartment after the disastrous wedding. I wanted to make a similar scarf and dug into my stash, because the yarn budget is tight at the moment. So I stumbled upon the gorgeous blue and obscenely soft merino and cast on:
first: 1x1 rib about 8 in. wide with plans to put fringe on the finished scarf. I didn´t feel the love and ripped...
second: 2x2 rib with same thoughts on fringe... again not feeling the love... rip the second
third: Clapotis!!!! And I love it! I am knitting the scarf with the same number of increases and decreases but added a couple repeats to the straight sections.
The straight sections are finished now and tonight, once I plant myself on the couch in front of the TV, I will begin the decreases, hoping to finish before the weather becomes too warm for a merino scarf...

New Beginnings

Hi, have I seen you here before? I don´t think so, since this is my new blog. The title “Today´s the first day of the rest of my life” is pretty self explanatory, I think. I had a different blog, but I wasn´t good at keeping it up to date. My life was different back then and I have changed very much and am still going through many changes. Almost exactly 6 months ago, I broke up with my boyfriend of 6 ½ years and I haven´t regretted that decision at all. It took me almost a year to decide whether I wanted to go through with this, but in the end I did. I´m sure, I will tell you more about this part of my life, but not now. There are more important matters at hand: sewing and knitting and redecorating!!!
I have been sewing regularly for about 3 years, but have just lately really tried to go about it in a more organized way… My fabric stash is organized, I am making a dedicated sewing space in my office, I have started a sewing journal with notes about every pattern I sew and have started a fabric catalogue (still needs work though!). My goal this week will be to write up pattern reviews for PR (I really want to start contributing there regularly) of everything I sewed since starting the journal: that will be about 8 reviews…
Another thing I want to do is inofficially participate in the jacket-a-month sew-along. January is already over, obviously and I didn´t finish that jacket, but I will eventually. The February Jacket is coming along nicely. It is unlined, not that complicated, which is great because it will be my first finished jacket (tempting the sewing gods with that, or what?). I have countless WIPs (including about 4 or 5 jackets/coats) and as soon as I get my sewing room cleaned up and organized, I will finally put all my WIPs in one place, take inventory and work on that pile.
Knitting is another thing I love doing (ravelry name: ribbit) and I always have something on the needles (multiple things actually). Since I travel a lot for work, it´s great to have something productive to do in the evening in the various hotel rooms I stay in. I don´t have quite as many knitting WIPs as I do sewing WIPS and most of those aren´t abandoned mid-project, instead just needing the ends woven in. Look out for some modeled shots of (hopefully) finished objects over the next couple of weeks.
Due to a certain breakup, I felt the urge (and also need, since I hardly had any furniture left) to redecorate my apartment, which I have been doing on weekends. I will post pictures of what I have done so far and of the things to come.
This shall be it for now…
More later!