Part of the funny thing about sharing your crafts online is the focus on the finished object being created, rather than the process of creating it. On some level, this makes sense - would we create if we weren’t excited about what was coming at the end of our making? But it is fun to get peeks into people’s process, too. This is where the magic is so often found. I thought it would be fun to share a brief round-up of the things I like to watch and listen to when I’m in the zone of creating something new.
A lot of my knitting is done on our sofa, at the end of the workday when B and I unwind. Our go-to shows are The Office, Parks and Rec, old re-runs of Jeopardy on Netflix, Saturday Night Live, and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. If B is doing something else or I’m by myself in the evenings, I LOVE The Crown, Law & Order: SVU, the Bachelor/Bachelorette franchise (definitely a “guilty” pleasure), Gilmore Girls, or pretty much any food documentary. And, I love knitting podcasts. Recently I was introduced to Fruity Knitting which is so great, and I’ve watched Melody Hoffman, the Woolly Mammoth Fibre podcast, Drunk Knitter, Kammebornia, and the Gentle Knitter podcast for a long time. I have a local group of friends who like together and knit, but during the week and in times such as this, it’s really fun to hear from other crafters about what they’re working on.
When I sew, if I’m winding yarn for a big project, or otherwise working in my office, I really enjoy listening to podcasts to keep me entertained while My iPad is being used to display a digital sewing pattern. I really enjoy the new A Beautiful Mess podcast, Crime Junkie, Fair Folk, and any good personal finance podcasts! I also love listening to old episodes of the Woolful podcast from several years ago, although she’s not making them any more, as well as the old Knit.FM podcast. My two current favorite knitting related podcasts are the Proverbial podcast from A Verb for Keeping Warm, and the Local Wool podcast.
Sometimes, I really just need music to get in the zone, and when that’s the case I bop around between a lot of different things. My recent favorites are the Soft Focus playlist on Spotify, Chance the Rapper, Father John Misty, Sylvan Esso, and a couple of indie playlists on my own Spotify account. I have a record player in my office, and when I’m in the mood it’s really fun to listen to Illinois and Michigan by Sufjan Stevens, and a couple of Copeland albums from when I was in high school.
I always love hearing from others about how they craft and what keeps them company while they make, and I’d love to hear from you as well.
My mom is one of my favorite people in the entire world. She is kind, she is infinitely patient, she is goal-oriented, she is fiercely loving. She never missed an opportunity to make a day special for her four kids, and I still remember so vividly every minor holiday that we would wake up and she would have the table set with fun goodies and a celebration of the day (including the obvious minor holidays, and also like, Groundhogs Day and Veteran’s Day). She really made every moment so special.
My mom taught me to sew when I was in elementary school and we’d make all sorts of clothes together for my American Girl Dolls. She loved to match me and to match my sister and I together with both store-bought and homemade creations. She is always SO excited about the various things I have knitted, crocheted, or made for her over the years and is my number one fan in the projects I take on. She is only getting better and better with each year and I am so grateful for all that she has done as my mom. Happy Mother’s Day, mama!
This week was the first full week of Me Made May, and I think I managed to wear something handmade almost every day this week. The weather here has been unexpectedly cool, so I even got to put a few sweaters into the rotation before they get packed away for the summer, tucked into their bins and awaiting the fall and its golden days.
This week:
We switched up our eating habits a little bit and it felt pretty great not to eat sandwiches every day.
I took a chance on an old website and managed to find an embroidery kit out of stock most places in my hands by Friday and ready to be stitched into something amazing.
I committed to sewing some masks for students that I work with and braved the curbside pick up at two craft stores.
I slept really well.
I started a new project that’s been on my heart and mind for, oh, years! I can’t wait to share more.
I discovered a vine growing on my window made it to the inside and I’m temporarily counting it as a new plant baby.
I started sewing a dress.
We went on a walk near our neighborhood and picked some wildflowers.
I watched my cats continue to snooze their lives away.
I remembered the amazing excitement of stash diving.
We drank pour-over coffee almost every day.
I caught up with a dear friend.
All things considered, not a bad week at all. I hope you are doing well and have lots of wonderful things on deck. And happy Mother’s Day to all of the amazing moms out there (especially mine)!
Since it’s already May 7, I figured it was high time to share my knitting works in progress for the month of May! I am trying to keep a good variety of different knitting projects going right now to keep things different and interesting. The summer time is always a fun time for me to cast on many small projects to pick up or put down for all of the different ways that I want to knit, whether that be outside, or while hanging out with friends, or in the evenings, or at the movie theatre (speaking from past, not current experience, obviously. But I am hopeful!).
Still in progress from April is my Terrace Wrap, above. I’ve only knit a few rows on this in the past month but as the weather warms I believe I’ll continue to make progress and I do really look forward to wearing it. Every time I look at the finished photos of this wrap I get so inspired.
New to my needles is my next V-Neck Boxy sweater by Joji Locatelli. I knit my first one of these sweaters in 2018 and I LOVE wearing it. It’s super cozy and easy to wear. The construction is really interesting to start, casting on for the whole back of the sweater, and then picking up each side of the “v” and knitting down until you join the two fronts together with the back in the round. Because you cast on so many stitches, it has a drop-sleeve effect and so the sleeves are really quick to knit, and then the whole rest of the body is just mindless stockinette. Swoon. I so wish that I could go to the movie theatre with this knit, it would be perfect to work on while seeing the newest Marvel movies with B. Maybe someday. I’ve just gotten through the v-neck portion and joined for the round, so it’s just stockinette for miles and miles here on out. I’m knitting this sweater with Linen Quill by Purl Soho, which is a blend of wool, alpaca, and linen and is really light and has this beautiful texture that I love seeing form before my eyes. I love that slubby, neppy, texture in wool and think this will be an instant favorite, even if it is completely impossible to photograph.
Watchers of my recent Instagram stories will know that last week I pulled this sock yarn out of my stash and was chatting about how I was reallly excited to cast on a pair of socks with this yarn, Mondim by Rosa Pomar. I purchased it last October when I was in the Seattle area and am really excited to work with more natural sock yarns this year (this one is next on my list to start a pair of socks!). I went back and forth on several pattern ideas but in the end I just cast on a vanilla sock in my preferred measurements: US 0 needles and 56 stitches. The marled and speckled texture of the yarn made it difficult to make out any definite patterns but I plan to knit other pairs with this in the future in one fo the solid colors offered by Rosa. These are already maximum cozy and make me want to drink a giant pot of hot cinnamon spice tea.
Beyond these three projects, I have SO many ideas and things that I am excited to cast on, but I’m trying to pace myself just a little bit. I figured out this week that I have the yarn in my stash to knit several projects that were on my wishlist, but that I didn’t think I had the right yarn to complete, including the Grandma shawl, and a short-sleeved version of the Ranunculus sweater. These, of course, in addition to the short-sleeved sweater I have some gorgeous Echoview yarn set aside for, and my Icelandic wool sweater, and some other Rose City Roller socks...it’s going to be a very woolly summer and I can’t wait. :)
So saddened to hear about the closing of Elizabeth Suzann. So inspired by their work in the world of fashion and sending hope to them for what the next chapter will hold.
I am continuously inspired by the artwork of Phoebe Wahl.
I haven’t crocheted in ages, but this pattern makes me want to get back into it.
I seriously cannot believe that we are already four days into May. Time in quarantine is so very strange but I am excited for all that May is going to offer us. In honor of Me Made May and wearing handmade, I am focusing this month on mostly completing some garments I have had in my queue for a while, with a few home projects thrown in. This round up also does not include the fabric that I just ordered from Blackbird Fabrics a few days ago since I am not sure what the processing and shipping time will look like for their company right now, particularly since they are based in Canada and I’m here in the US. If that fabric arrives in time, I am excited to add a few more projects to this list for May and probably June.
Garments
AH! I am so stoked to cut into this fabric. I have plans for three garments to complete this month. I basically live in breezy dresses over the summer, and all three of these will fit the bill perfectly. From left to right in the fabric above, I’m planning another Wren dress, a Roscoe dress, and a Hinterland dress.
I sewed my first Wren dress last month (see my goals post and that fabric here) but I have shamefully yet to blog about that piece. It went pretty well, but as I am learning more and more with each project, the fabric matters so much as to whether I will love and wear the finished piece. This is, of course, such a “duh” moment, but it’s really sinking in the more that I invest in beautiful, quality fabrics rather than just picking out what’s on sale and hoping for the best. The floral fabric I sewed the first Wren out of is a really soft double brushed poly I purchased at JoAnn’s. It’s nice, but I had some issues with the fabric in the skirt being way too heavy and probably need to go back and fix it to be really happy with it. For the blue floral above, (purchased a few months ago from Freeman’s Creative), I am going to sew version 2 and lengthen the sleeves by a few inches like I did in my first, but I’ll keep the skirt around knee-length this time. This should also help with the drape of the skirt and prevent pulling on the bodice.
The Roscoe dress will be a new pattern for me but the instructions are incredibly clear and I have no doubt I will love this pattern. This is a berry-colored Robert Kauffman linen blend fabric that I have used for both versions of my Gypsum skirt and I know it will drape wonderfully. I have been really enjoying other sewists’ Wilder gown creations this year, and I think this long dress will be a good test to see whether I’m really into that shape or just like it on others. I’ll be sewing the View C.
The final garment I’ll be tackling is the Hinterland dress by Sew Liberated. I actually bought this fabric, a linen blend from JoAnn’s, a year ago to make this pattern but ended up running out of time over the summer and decided to save it to sew this spring instead. It’s such a great transitional piece for where I live (and Meg is also a NC resident!) and I definitely plan on sewing a version with sleeves later, but for now I think I will do the sleeveless version. I’m also toying seriously with the idea of making this dress with snaps rather than buttons. Something about this fabric just makes me think snaps would look really cool and I’d love to have that as an easy button-alternative for the future. Either way, I will be sewing it with a half-placket of buttons, not full, and will likely remove the bust darts as well.
The fabric I ordered from Blackbird will be destined for a few more exciting summer makes! I plan on sewing the Union St. tee, another Orchid Midi dress, and another pair of Winslow culottes (see my first pair here!) with what is headed my way. Will share more when it arrives.
Home projects
Even though this month’s focus will be primarily on garments, I have a few home projects I want to complete as well.
The first is to finish the second set of curtains I have picked out for my office using that tan and white gingham. I had an incredibly specific vision for what I wanted these curtains to be, and so of course I ended up ordering the fabric to make them myself. It’ll be simple to do, I just need to sit down and complete them! This fabric is from the adorable and appropriately dubbed Kitchen Window Wovens collection by Elizabeth Hartman.
The blueberries fabric from Rifle Paper Co is going to become a few face masks. I’m using the pattern by Ellie Fun Day which is really similar to the State the Label pattern I’ve seen a lot of folks making. To be honest, I am doing this as an act of love towards a few family members and coworkers, but I have had a real mental block with sewing masks. It makes me really sad to sew them and I can’t seem to get much energy behind making them. I think it has to do with using my creativity as a coping mechanism for this time, so I don’t think I will be making that many unless they are needed.
And finally, I am going to stop procrastinating and finally re-cover my sister’s backpack (which she legitimately gave me a year ago to fix, sorry Carrie!). The plan is to cover and/or remove the brown, stained portion of the backpack with this fun vintage upholstery fabric we purchased together while thrifting last year. Mostly I have procrastinated because I’m really intimidated to figure out the best way to approach this, so if you have any tips or tricks please leave a comment.
That is a LOT but I am very excited to have a clean sewing room floor and lots of time ahead to dive into these makes. Here’s to handmade!
This photo is unrelated to this blog post, Nash is just really cute
27 days ago I started the 100 Day Project and I set out to blog every day for 100 days. And naturally, this week as I was planning out my post for making it over a quarter of the way through this challenge, I missed two days of blogging. Naturally.
Ultimately though, I don’t really care. This week was a challenging one on several fronts and ultimately, blogging 25 of the past 27 days is still an incredible achievement over my prior rate of maintaining this blog with regular content before April 7. Here are some other great things I’ve learned and noticed so far with this project:
I’m taking a lot more photos! I was really hoping that this would happen as a by-product of blogging daily, and happily it has been true. Daily photography has always been a passion project of mine and a huge hobby for many years, but the past year or so I noticed that some days, the only photos I had on my phone were meme screenshots from Instagram. This made me sad. Now I am thinking through how best to catalogue and use all of these new photos beyond my blog. Rotating inspiration board? Seasonal gallery wall? TBD, but it’s a great change.
I’m developing more goals beyond this blog, and seeing even more success. Some of these goals are directly related to my day job, some are exercise or food related goals, some are purely for fun and personal. The point is, for me, making progress on this goal has inspired me to make progress in other areas of my life.
I am feeling more creative. I’m using different creative skills planning, writing, shooting photos for, and sharing my blog, which is inspiring more creativity in other crafts that I have a regular habit to do already. It’s really fun to see new energy around all of the things I already love to do.
I am already so grateful for this project and am learning a lot about myself, this blog, and my future goals from this experience. If you have a goal you want to accomplish between now and July 7, it’s not too late! The best day to start is today.
Demotivation and a crazy week do not a happy person make. But we made it!
This week I made some fun progress on my Things of Spring counted cross stitch. Still only about halfway done and trying to set some goals around this project so I’m done before summer arrives :)
This week I walked over 8 miles all thanks to the reminders of my trusty FitBit.
This week I made plans to celebrate a friend in a socially distant and responsible way.
This week we made progress on some personal financial goals which in the midst of all of this craziness felt really good.
This week is also the start of Me Made May! This is the first year that I think I’ve had enough wearable handmade garments to actually realistically participate in showcasing my handmade wardrobe and I’m excited to finish two other garments that have been on my list for a long time as well. More details on that this week with my sewing goals for May.
Happy weekend friends, and may it be a restful one.
