Backstage pass (ish)

So a commenter has asked me to share how I store all my crafting supplies in a NYC apartment. I think I've posted this picture before, but here's my storage solution:


I have a whole armoire dedicated to yarn and fabric storage. I also have been making a concerted effort lately to keep my stash small and knit only from stash. So far it's worked. It is necessary in a small space not to waste too much of it on storing things you never use. But, I mean, there's a whole piece of storage furniture in my apartment just for craft supplies, so I'm certainly not a model of space-efficiency.

But I think the real reason I can do it is because I'm single. I have space for an armoire full of yarn because I don't need two dressers in my bedroom. That's also why I have been able to sew so much this summer. Normally, when my apartment is clean, my dining area looks like this:


But for much of the summer, that whole table was covered with piles of fabric, a sewing machine, a cutting station, and a blocking/ironing board. I could never do that if there were someone else living here -- let alone kids around.

Lemons, lemonade. Frankly I'd rather be married with kids, but in the meantime, I can knit and sew a lot.

Fall FO's!

My glorious, super-bright picnic blanket is done!


It's about 5' x 7', uses lots and lots of scraps, and is pleasingly puckered just like a well-loved heirloom. It has snaps to roll it up for toting to picnic locations and rock pockets to weight it down:


I've already used it once and am mightily pleased with myself. And what's this little lump sitting atop my picnic blanket?


Ah, yes, knitting. I've missed you, old friend.

Oh, and in other news, here's a lovely photo of the recipient of the "Sock Yarn Stranded" prototype, looking all cute and cuddly in her sweater:


I see lots of pills on those elbows. Hope that's from hard use!

a string quilt and and a nerd-out

It's late August, and I'm still on a knitting-hiatus quilting jag. I think it's the novelty, the fact that it's not a lapful of hot wool, and the fact that I'm not inspired by any particular knitting projects that have combined to make this the summer of quilting. I'm working on a string quilt right now. It's a really cool technique that involves paper piecing and lots of scraps. In a typical move for me, I am fanatically working on a project that will be finished just as the season for using it has passed: in this case, a picnic blanket. But I don't care -- the colors are just so beautiful together! I love how improvisational it is, too -- the color combinations and the width of the stripes are all pretty much random. I had a lot of scraps of Heather Ross Mendocino and Lightning Bugs fabric left over from various projects, plus quite a bit of Amy Butler fabric left over from sewing my sister a bunch of scrub caps and a little bit of Joel Dewberry Deer Valley left over from that recent wedding present project, but I did have to supplement with some fat quarters I bought, so it's not totally comprised of scraps. But I'd say it's about 60% scraps -- so not exactly free, but significantly cheaper than a quilt you bought all the materials for new.

My other obsession of late has been watching "The Pillars of the Earth," the miniseries of a Ken Follett book about the Middle Ages. I had to watch this one -- not only is it about the period I study (well, actually I'm a late medievalist, but let's not split hairs), but it also stars Mr. Darcy (Matthew Macfadyen)!

(Starz publicity photo)

It's really more of a "Medieval Times"-ish soap opera treatment than a historical movie, but it's pretty fun to watch. But it reminded me of a beef I have with "historical" movies: why do these movies always include someone inventing something modern? In this miniseries so far, they have invented Gothic ribbed vaults and the concept of buying on credit. In the recent "Robin Hood" movie, Robin invented the Magna Carta, for pete's sake!

Another thing that irritates me about "medieval" fictions: why does everything set in medieval England have to include some sort of goddess-worshipping witch woman?

(Starz publicity photo)

The one in this movie actually has dreadlocks, and in one memorable bit of dialogue, when the prior asks her why she doesn't worship god, she says, "I just worship her a different way." Ugh.*

Anyway, if you're a nerd like me, you should watch it! It's all on Netflix, if you subscribe.

The next time I post, perhaps there will be some actual knitting to talk about!

*by which I mean, not, "ugh, she thinks god is a woman," but, "ugh, why does every empowered woman have to be a witch?"

lest you think that I've been abducted by aliens,

I haven't. I've been lazy. It's summer, and I can't seem to motivate to do anything. Except sew. I've become obsessed. I decided to try quilting, and it's totally addictive. Not needing or wanting any quilts for my own apartment has not stopped me from making them. I've finished a baby quilt and then started my current project, which is a set of placemats, towels, potholders, and napkins for a friend of mine who's getting married.


Unlike knitting, where you can basically do whatever you need to do with a starter kit and the equipment is not particularly varied, quilting really can't be done perfectly without an investment in some special stuff -- namely, a rotary cutter, a quarter-inch foot, and a walking foot (I haven't gotten brave enough to try freehand quilting with an embroidery/darning foot). I've been tediously machine-quilting these placemats with parallel lines about 1/4 inch apart. It is pretty boring, but it looks great! And it's less boring than hand-quilting probably would be.


I have discovered that really beautiful fabric is expensive. This Joel Dewberry fabric for the placemats, for example. And rotary cutter blades are expensive. In fact, the crazy cost of quilting supplies has made me feel a little less guilty about knitting supplies: a quilt is much more expensive than a sweater to make (unless you're making a tiny quilt or you're using only quiviut yarn or something).

Oh, and quilting is much messier than knitting. My apartment is a gigantic mess right now. There are little scraps of thread and fabric everywhere. It's nice that even when you're knitting a big afghan or something you can still pack it up and put it neatly away if you need to.

Okay, off to sew some more!

It's hip to be square!

Here's how I made my zipper pouch corners much squarer.


I ironed a hem on a little tiny piece of scrap fabric, then sewed this to both ends of my zipper. I used an iron-set glue stick to get the placement exactly right.


Here's a close-up, to show the seam and how close it is to the zipper stop. I used the zipper foot for this. I did a double seam for reinforcement -- just ran it in reverse along the same seam.

Here's what it looks like on the back side.


Now trim the zipper ends way back. This is about 1/8" away from the seam. Get them back to beyond where you know your seam will be when you're sewing the sides of the pouch.


Now you are only dealing with a piece of fabric when you turn your bag inside out and poke out the corners. A piece of fabric is, of course, much less stiff and much more flexible than the end of a zipper.


An added benefit: It sort of disguises slightly misaligned sides, because the little metal end pieces of the zipper are not right next to the corner to get pulled out of alignment, and because the added piece of fabric kind of blends out the colors of the two side panel pieces.


I am sure I'm not the first one to have thought of this. But it is cool!

Square corners!

It totally worked!


The trick was to sew a little piece of fabric to the zipper, running perpendicular to it, then to trim the zipper back to at least the middle of this piece of fabric, so that when sewing the seams of the bag the thread didn't actually run across zipper material at all. That meant that it was much easier to turn the corner, without that stiff plasticky zipper material in it.


I'll take some more process pictures tomorrow. It's way easy, but I mucked it up a little this time around. But the NEXT pouches...!

Yes, Jennifer K., you are a goddess among women.

I made an awesome laptop sleeve.


Ok, it probably doesn't look any different from the other things I've been making recently with this Heather Ross Mendocino fabric, but it is, my friends.


For one thing, I made it with super-heavyweight interfacing, so I had to figure out how to cut my fabric 3/8" larger and do all the seams with the zipper foot so I could sew right up next to the edge of the interfacing.


For another thing, I cut the zipper to be exactly the right length to fit my laptop, and no bigger. Actually, I wish I had made it just a touch bigger, because it's a pretty tight squeeze!


But the thing is exactly, exactly the right size. Not a fraction of an inch too big! Just look at that zipper closing. Uh, but don't look too close, because you'll notice that things aren't totally aligned there.


Yes, Jennifer K., you are becoming the mistress of your sewing machine.


(oh, also, I had a good idea about how to fix the problem of the not-quite-square zipper corners. More on that when I have a chance to try it out.)

Adorability

Progress on the new baby sweater continues. I'm quite pleased both with how nice it looks (with the ends all tucked in on the front) and with how little yarn it seems to be taking up -- I had planned for three balls of Knitpicks Essential Kettle-dyed (the old 50g balls), but I think it will squeak in with just two. Sweet! And the yoke is all done with scraps, so for the price of a pair of socks, I get a baby sweater!

Meanwhile, I have discovered the joys and dangers of Etsy. It's an awesome, awesome site. The problem for me is not that I go on Etsy and order tons of handmade things, but that I go on Etsy and look at beautiful handmade things, and think, "I could make that!" Hence, the huge pile of designer fabric scraps and lots of zippers:


None of which I really need. But I did make some cute things today! Here are two little coin pouches.



I learned how to make a fully lined zippered pouch. I have not yet learned how to make it perfectly straight, but I'm getting better. I made the orange one first, and then the pink one, and I think the pink one is straighter. I also don't know how to make square top corners, and though I don't dislike these sort of "mitered" ones, I'd love to know if there is indeed a trick to squaring them.


Do I need these things? No. But they are cute. Did I spend $25 on zippers alone? Yes.

Then there's this little buttoned metrocard holder. This one I actually kind of do need, because I am constantly losing metrocards with like $40 on them. The plan is that a slightly bigger holder (that's super cute) will keep me from dropping the card in my pocket where it will slide out again. It's adorably reversible (and also definitely not square):


Also adorably reversible is this little purse for the two-year-old older sister of the baby who's getting the sock yarn sweater:




I'm a little disappointed with the strap -- it just looks kind of clunky. I also didn't really measure the buttonhole tab, and it's a little too long. But the combination of fabrics is really sweet. And the best part is this:



She loves playing with wallets and taking credit cards out of them, so I made her her own little wallet, with a few old cards of mine. So sweet!

Yes, I may have lost my mind. Adorable fish-print-induced mania!

Not knitting, but neato!

I made a dress!


This is my very first sewn outfit, and it came out pretty well, if I do say so myself. It was quite an ordeal: there was a lot of ripping and resewing as I figured stuff out. I am particularly proud of the invisible zipper, which looks quite professional. The top is not fitted quite as nicely as I'd like, but with only two darts I think it's the best I can expect. I'd like to get better at sewing and know how to alter patterns to fit me better. It's pretty fun, and definitely quicker than knitting, if messier and less easy to control.