Just call me Afro Thunder

I finished a bag! Not a holiday gift tote bag, but a cotton bag that has been awaiting handles for about a month. Since setting the Great Tote Bag challenge I have managed to produce two sewn items that do not qualify for the challenge at all. Funny how that works!


Here it is stuffed full of books and other misc. purse items:

In knitting... DROPS bag in progress, on my lunch break:

A cabley close up:
In other exciting knitting news, I got a knitting magazine in the mail that I did not order! No idea where it came from, but its the premier issue of Verena magazine, and they must have sent out promo copies to IK subscribers or something.

It is by Burda, whose open source sewing website I browse occasionally.
The bulk of the patterns are nautical themed (some very cute ones too!)
This one below, whilst not nautical, caught my eye as especially cute. Doesn't look like a good choice a sweater novice, but it sure is pretty. Also, is anyone but me jealous of the afro? If I could pull it off, I would soooo rock the afro. And make everyone call me afro thunder.

Happy Friday and Happy Halloween!

Pink Pillow

I grabbed the first packet of fabric of the top of my Great Tote Bag Challenge pile, and found it was cut and pinned for a 3 paneled pillow. So, I give you the Great Tote Bag/Pillow Challenge product number one: The Pink Pillow. I do not think this is going to be a holiday gift (thus defeating the purpose of the challenge), but I figured it couldn't hurt to finish it, since I cut and pinned it months ago.

All three panels of The Pink Pillow were fat quarters purchased at the Quilted Angel. I over stuffed the pillow as much as I could while allowing enough give to stitch up the last bit by hand. I discovered I HATE hand stitching! I did such a sloppy, rushed, hurried job last night I pulled it back out and forced myself to re-stitch the last 1.5 inches with some semblance of neatness.

I love the little pink and brown berries as the bottom of the above picture. They remind me of the holidays, festive and warm. Sorry about the dark pictures, there is no more evening light for photographing the crafts!
Random Picture of the Day: Inside a cave at Kirby Cove

Where has my knitting gone?

First and foremost--knitting news (this is a knitting blog, isn't it?!?) I frogged my third Turn A Square hat because I did not have enough grey yarn to go on, and the Noro was turning a gorgeous shade of pink and magenta, but the recipient is a man who does not love pink and has a firey red beard... not sure hot magenta would look so awesome.


Good bye first Noro project (in its third iteration)..... I loved you so. I will move on to some more grey stash yarn, and throw in some Rowan natural silk aran (same as my cowl) for the stripes. I am visiting this mountainous recipient this weekend, so hopefully I can get most of the hat done on the car ride there.











In sewing news...


My bag plan seems to be working. I wanted to make a small reversible tote, with a bottom panel that I can use as a fun purse. My plan was to make two bags sans handle, of the same measurements, then put there wrong sides together, and sew the top.



This is completely fly by the seat of my pants, and it seems to be working. I labored over how to sew the bottom panel in last night, and after an hour we had this:








I love the sewing. It has such a different process that knitting, but is still as just as intensely process oriented. In sewing it seems to be in the prep, the geometry, the pressing, the pinning, the cutting. The actual time using the machine has comprised a surprisingly small amount of my sewing time--its mostly prep.



Did you know Chinatown is colorful and vibrant on a dark morning at 6am? Please forgive crappy ISO...it was early...



PS. Dearest Swallotwail, I have not forgotten or forsaken you. I have come to the conclusion that lace knitting might not be my favorite kind of knitting. Perhaps I will like knitting lace in a chunkier sock type weight. I will finish you, I will. --rosa

Purse in Progress

I have made the possibly unwise decision to jump directly from basic tote to reversible tote with a bottom panel... and I am not giving up! Here are my chosen fabrics, cut, pressed and pinned.














I love the fabrics, and have decided that rather than continue to carry professional black purses (read borrrrrrring), I want a handcrafted set of bags made from gorgeous and colorful fabrics. Everyone could use a little more color and beauty!

Goodbye Old Smoker Lady

Hooray for new curtains! These replace the vile old smoker lady curtains we used to have. They were disgusting. Dirty, lacy, and smoky. ewwwww. The fabric is a linen cotton type deal, part of my super cheap haul from Fabrix. I love fabric and am finding that its easy to build a fabric stash similar to a yarn stash. I find there is one key difference in the two stashes-- emotional attachment. I get all attached to colorways and blends and brands when it comes to yarn (for example, an unhealthy tendency to covet my Dream in Color Smooshy in Happy Forest.) With fabric, its pretty, but there are no designers or anything to get overly attached to. Maybe there is, and I am just a fabric-obsessing novice.


I was suddenly spurred to make these by a convo last weekend with Kristina and Sara in which they decided this fabric would be good for curtains. I measured, and the fabric was the perfect size for the window. Adieu to the last old smoker lady curtains!



These curtains are much more opaque than the vile old smoker lady curtains. This means I will not have to make accidental eye contact with the old smoker lady in the next building, who smokes out her window while seeming to look into ours. Despite the profusion of old smoker ladies, we do not indeed live in some smoker filled retirement community.


Basically all I did to make these was hem the edges, and make a two inch casing at the top in which the curtain rod goes. All in all, it was about 30 minutes of cutting, pinning, ironing, sewing, and ironing again.



My dyed yarn from Kristina's Birthday dyeing adventure:

I think I might use this lighter skein to make a shawl or scarf... and the brighter ones can be sockies.





Happy friday!

Project Runway, Here I Come

The fruits of my sewing labor!!! An especial thanks to ms. sara for talking me through my bobbin winding crisis a couple weeks ago. Very helpful...I have now even troubleshot a terrible clogged bobbin fabric rumple back tracking crisis.



Sewing FO: My first project (since that delightful one pice jumsuit skort I made when I was ten. No, that is not a joke. I wore it on the first day of fifth grade.)
Scrap Tote
Pattern: Simple Tote
Designer: Lotta Jansdotter (Simple Sewing)



This scrap fabric tote bag (see the paisley in its original context in my Drops Cable Bag) is about 16.5 inches tall. It can easily accommodate a small amount of groceries (the bottom is reinforced with 2 layers of fabric), books or magazines, or knitting projects! It will likely become my new living room project bag that I use to hide the projects I am ignoring at the moment (swallowtail and a sock, at the moment).



The paisley fabric comes from a great shop in Petaluma, the Quilted Angel, a quilter's version of the coveted LYS. All the fabrics they stock are cottons (my preference in fabric) and they have a wonderful array of patterns and prints. The stripey fabric at the bottom is from Fabrix, on Clement Street here in SF.



In the below picture you can see some unevenness in my seaming...its the homey touch.

Overall, I love this bag, despite its quirks (aka mistakes!) I think its a handy size, and will be very useful for car trips and such.



Here is a strap, with a close up of the fancy stitch I used for the strap seaming on my sewing machine.

Picture of the day: Buttons!

This is my haul from the huge bin 'o' buttons at Fabrix. I don't think I bought a single practical button. I can't decide if I have grandma or little kid taste in buttons.



Have a happy weekend! I know I will, eating my way through the city with Kristina, Sara and co. :)

A beautiful day in my neighborhood

Last night I stayed up way too late finishing my wee Brûlée scarf and watching Weeds and the Office. It was a good night...FO pics tomorrow once I can take some pictures in daylight!

This weekend was quite beautiful in SF on Saturday, and quite gloomy on Sunday.



This was our first weekend in SF in 6 weeks and it was a reminder that I truly love this city! The landscape, the museums...

I caught up on my museuming; seeing two wonderful exhibitions of female artists. Both exhibits were amazing, and featured paintings of women crafting! First, I saw Frida Kahlo at the MoMa. Amongst the amazing self portraits and deprecating depictions of US cities was a commissioned portrait of a knitter. I think the snarling cactus background is an unusual and fascinating choice for a portrait background.


On Sunday afternoon I went up to the Legion of Honor to see the Women Impressionists Exhibit. Featuring Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt, Eva Gonzalès, Marie Bracquemond, the exhibit was incredible. I want to go back. And perhaps move in. Lots of paintings of women sewing and knitting. While these 4 women were accepted by their Impressionist peers as intellectual equals, they were still subject to the restrictions placed on upper class women at the time. A great part of their subject matter is inside the "female realm" and features numerous depictions of women knitting and sewing. Not allowed to work, these women no doubt derived creative and intellectual satisfaction from their craft. Like then, women today do not need to knit and sew, but choose to do so for individual reasons. Personally, I love the satisfaction of using things that I make in a largely prefab world, and need a creative outlet to feel satisfied. It was interesting to see two exhibits covering five strong women breaking ground for female artists, and the aspects of a women's life they chose to portray.

Also at the Legion was this AWESOME Chihuly piece:







It is phenomenal.














And the ever elegant Thinker.

Very delightful, artsy fartsy weekend.