Spinning is Like Coffee

I don't remember her name but she is a perennial beauty

Creativity has been on the back burner for a week. We are having a bathroom remodeled, and I agreed to do the painting. That has slurped up every bit of my free time of late.

Today's Project: Spinning and Sewing

I knew I had to get up this morning to craft something. Time alone, just puttering with whatever, seems essential to my mental health.

However, I am not a morning person. I know that. The coffee pot is my only friend at that hour. So I have found that I either need to prep what I am going to work on the night before, or, I can spin myself awake. There isn't much thought required for the spinning process, at least once you have the hang of it. There's very little movement even. In fact, I might've been asleep the whole time...

I finished that silk/merino bobbin last week and had the second one all laid out with the fiber. Easy peasy. I fell into a half hour of spinning. It was good to get the second bobbin started because now it feels like I'm on the downhill side of the project, and that always seems to go faster.

After a bit of spinning, I felt like doing something else. But what? No prepping last night. The tri-loom is staring at me, but half an hour isn't enough.

I spied a little pair of pants on top of my sewing books. Hemming? Meh. But it did need doing, and was about the right size project for my remaining time.  I took these little school uniform pants away from my daughter this winter. They fit her great around the waist but are too short to be considered pants and too long to be capris. Nerdy high-waters, yes indeed.

I started by guessing how much to trim off, leaving enough so the hem wouldn't go right up against that decorative stitching.  I pressed and pinned, then laid the two legs side-by-side, repinned where the lengths weren't the same. It's very scientific.  Then I hunted high and low for my brown thread.

Not in the thread bin, of course. I looked at every spool at least twice, willing it to turn brown. I settled on a nice dark maroon, and sat down to sew. I uncovered the machine and found...my brown thread! All bobbined up with brown and ready to go.

I decided to do a double line of stitching to match the rest of the pants. I think they came out nicely and are ready to wear to school this week.

Re-runs and Leftovers

My 25 cent petunias from the bargain bin at Lowe's last week:

Petunias after the rain

Today's Project: Sewing

Sewing is gratifying, compared to most of my hobbies. Spend an hour cross-stitching and you aren't even sure you did anything. An hour knitting, you might see and inch or so progress on your sock. An hour sewing? Half a blanket done! Another hour? Blanket! Bam!

So I decided to continue on with the cashmere blanket until it is done, hence you will have reruns for a few days. This morning I got all of the squares and rectangles assembled and it is as big as it is going to be. It's still a little too long, or not wide enough, but that's what you get when you don't plan ahead.

One more day on this, and I will have a finished object. I have to add a little edging and sew up a few holes that didn't get caught in the serger.  Also, I'm left with this much cashmere:

The Leftovers

I'll need to decide if i want to stitch these up for doll blankets or just let them go. Either way, it is time for my love affair with cashmere sweater recycling to be over.

Do you know what a serger is? I am a totally self-taught sewer, and I never even heard of one until I was in my late 20s. This fabulous machine sews the layers of fabric together, trims off the raw edge, and binds it all neatly up so there is no fraying. GENIUS.

Mine is an el cheapo from Hancock Fabrics, I think. I've had it for several years. If I ever get serious about sewing I might buy a better one, but this one suffices.

Podcast du Jour

• Once again, reruns: it's Caithness Craft Collective. I'd fallen a little behind on these; one more episode and I'll be all caught up.

Knitting Corner

I've pulled out an old project that needs finished up soon. I told you yesterday about my re-enacting group. I volunteered to make uniform bonnets for all the guys. This is a long-term project, as I'm doing it out of the goodness of my heart. I finish one or two a year. The guys all have bonnets, but these are upgrades as they are "properly" made, as in knitted large then felted down to size. The one on my needles is nearly done with the knitting, huzzah! I hope to make great strides today and tomorrow on this one.

Finished bonnet

Who Doesn't Need a Cashmere Blanket?

Today's gratuitous flower shot:

The last of my daffodils

Wednesday is my usual day off. I'll admit, I slept in just a bit past the craft alarm, but I still had plenty of creative time today. I got my hour in this morning, then another this afternoon.

Today's Project: Sewing

I have a big bag of cashmere scraps. Doesn't everyone? These came from a project I began, ashamedly, three years ago. (I just looked that up; I honestly thought it was about one year.)  As you may have gathered from my recycled silk stockings project, I used to haunt Goodwills for sweaters to use for their yarn. In learning about recycling sweaters, I read about cutting cashmere into squares to make blankets. I had to have one!

To make one, gather as many sweaters as you think you need. Wash and dry them. Yes, that's right. In your washer and dryer. This helps tighten up, or full, the fabric, then also makes your finished blanket machine washable and dryable.  Cut your sweaters into squares and rectangles. My largest ones were 12" x 12", down to maybe 4" x 6".

I sew mine together on my serger using black thread. The serger finishes off the edges nicely, and the black gives it a stained glass look.  I made one out of 12" x 12" squares for myself, but never put a border on it. Then I made a smaller one for my mom in her bedroom colors about 2 years ago. I still had a bag full of squares and a few sweaters sitting by my sewing area this morning, so off I went.

And that doesn't even show all of them!

I picked out all the blues and grays and set to work making long strips. This afternoon I serged the strips together and got this:

Long skinny blanket

Now, I've run out of a few colors so I can't continue in this pattern. I'm going to use the grays to make a fat strip on each edge I think. But that will be for my next sewing day.

It feels good to be making things again. But even better is seeing the progress on things that have been languishing for so long. These things become invisible (to me anyway) after sitting for so long, but now that I'm using it, I am aware of the space it has taken up, unused, and usuable in its current condition. Soon I'll have a soft throw for the couch, more floor space in my sewing room, and an empty project bag. Not to mention the feeling I'll get when I can tell people I made it, and yes, it's cashmere.

Podcasts du Jour

An eclectic mix today.

• Curious Handmade--knitting podcast out of Britain
• Still Untitled: The Adam Savage Project--Adam of Mythbusters fame and two of his friends jabber on about whatever catches their interest. I just found this one and I'm catching up on old episodes; very enjoyable.
• Genealogy Gems Podcast--a great free podcast concerning one of my favorite pastimes

Knitting Corner

I didn't get much knitting time yesterday; darn work got in the way. I did manage a little on my silk stockings that I showed you previously. I thought I might share more about my re-enacting hobby.

I belong to a Revolutionary War group, the 71st Regiment of Foot. You can read about the original Fraser's Highlanders on Wikipedia.   My particular unit has a very inactive Facebook presence here. We mainly do two events, Spirit of Vincennes Rendezvous and the Market Faire at Locust Grove. We fight for King George against the bloody colonists though we are from Scotland. 

The girl and me two seasons ago at Locust Grove