A week's worth of progress...

Follow-up to the bra fitting post ...

crdott & fabricfan asked where I got the new bras. Yes, fabricfan it was at Change. I didn't realize how few stores there are (only 3 in Quebec, I think). They were fabulous and I went back with a friend the next weekend for a couple more, since I needed at least one light colored one (but, of course, bought 2 LOL). My friend also got fitted and was very happy with her new purchase as well.

And, just for the record, I certainly didn't feel bad about the new sizing - my top half looks GOOD !

Now, what have I been doing ?

Just before the Olympics started, I found a group on Ravelry that was going to cast on a project during the opening ceremonies, with the goal of casting off by the end of the closing ceremonies. Well, there was no way I'd get a whole project done in 16 days so I decided I'd try to get my socks completed by then. At that point, I think I still had the gusset, heel and cuff to do. The bind off was done on the bus home Monday, 1 day late, but I count that as a success.


Next up... These are on my radar but are definitely NOT an easy bus ride project - so, I've cast on the next pattern in the SFTTU book - Diagonal Lace in the orange Opal I bought in New Brunswick a few weeks ago.



A bit of sewing has been done.

I'm working on my pants again. The inseam, outseam and crotch seams are all done. The waistband is next. 04-2009-119

My 4th version of M3341 (Basic A-Line Skirt) - Started way back in November - finished last Sunday. Need I repeat how slow I am LOL ? It was a straight 14 with a 3/4in. swayback adjustment. Invisible zip, rather than a centered application. I also added a lining.

Here's the back:

These were the first 3 I made from this pattern.



I'd like to put some more time into the pants this weekend...we'll see...

Bra Fitting

Extremely busy at work this week so again I didn't get any sewing done in the evenings. I'd planned to do some this weekend but what seems to be a bout of sciatica has hit and the discomfort is enough to keep me mostly on the couch - nothing quite like sitting on an ice pack huh ? LOL

If I can stand long enough tomorrow to hem my skirt, there will be a pic to post. Let's hope.

Today's post is not about sewing but it IS sewing related.

I HATE wearing a bra ! & I'm sure I'm not alone. I have never owned a comfortable bra that I could put on and not fuss with all day. Back rides up, straps fall down, you know, you spend all day fidgeting trying to get everything back in place. Aggravation to the 'nth' degree. Yuck.

A few months ago, DH & I were in our local mall and noticed a small lin gerie boutique. I took a peek in and the sales lady said they do fittings. Since then I intended to go but never went in. Now, I need a couple of new bras.

Last weekend I went into Walmart and picked up a $7 special. It's my usual size but really not more comfortable than any others I've owned. Yesterday afternoon, I went to the mall looking for another bra and ended up back in this little shop. When the sales girl asked me if she could help me, I said 'yes' rather than my standard 'no thanks, just looking'. She asked if I'd been fitted there before and I figured 'oh, well, might as well' - I'll admit, I was feeling a bit embarrassed about it. :-)

Her 1st question - what size are you wearing - 36C and I figured it was too big

Um, no. Out comes the tape measure and she says ... 32 and probably at least DD - say what ??? I don't think so !!! My mom only passed out the boob genes to my eldest sister - the other 3 of us got left behind, waaayy behind - or so I thought. LOL

Anyway, back she comes with a 32DD - nope. I figure we're going back up to a 34 at least. NO ! next one - 32E - I'm now pretty much freaking out. It didn't fit either ! Now she explains where the underwire is supposed to sit in order to cup everything. We're still not there yet. Next up ? 32F - O.M.G. it's snug, well, tight, but it's sooooo comfortable. She assured me that it is supposed to be this snug and it WILL loosen up over time.

After all that (I must've tried on a dozen bras) I narrowed my choices down to three. The ones at home were never going to be worn again, so I needed a couple - got talked into the matching underwear - and left with a new bag of goodies, feeling pretty amazed. I guess mom passed me a few more of those genes than I thought :-).

The goodies ?...


Yes, there's a bra missing, I'm wearing it and the Internet is NOT getting a picture of that !
I also just realized I'm not stocked up yet - I can't wear black and red under my light colored tops. Gonna have to go get a white one. More shopping, what a shame.

And the sewing part of the post - I'm going to have to learn how to do an FBA ... LOL

It's been 2 weeks...

and so, there's a long ramble to follow...............



I haven't done any more sewing since the invisible zip drama production in the last post ! LOL
I got the zip in, the lining attached and the sides sewn up. And stopped.

Last weekend I went to New Brunswick for the weekend. One of my brothers is moving to England (long story) this Sunday and last weekend was the get-together. I wasn't home for Christmas and so hadn't seen DB since LAST Christmas !

It was a great couple of days - 6 of the 8 siblings were there & I got to spend time with all of them, a couple nieces & nephews and my BFF (we met in grade 1 and are now trying to ignore the fact that that was 40 years ago)

Friday afternoon, I made a point of spending a few hours with my Mom. So, do you want to know ? It's tougher each time. She is now in the physical care unit as she can't do for herself at all anymore. I know this, I know she must be fed, I know she can't move herself, I know she doesn't know me. What I didn't picture is that while they do have her sitting up in a chair, it is a geriatric chair that she is seatbelted into. You know, the mental picture you have of residents in a nursing home restrained in chairs to keep them sitting upright because they can't hold themselves up - sitting in groups but no real mental activity happening ? That's where Mom is at now. She still has some response but not a lot. My sister & I were able to make her smile a couple of times. That's it, that's all I can type about it.

The visit with everyone on Saturday was wonderful, although bittersweet. There are so many of us and we live in different cities and live our own lives, but we would all say we are close. It's hard to imagine DB moving so far away. Up to now, my eldest brother & I lived the furthest and we're only in Montreal.

Sunday, I got a 2nd visit with my BFF. We met for coffee but it turned out neither of us had any plans for the afternoon (other than me needing to be at the airport on time LOL). We went to visit her parents, who I haven't seen in about 4 years.

It turns out that Mom (BFF's mom) quilts. I can't believe I didn't know that, considering I spent as much time at their house as at my own when we were growing up.
Anyway, during our visit, it came up somehow and Mom asked if I wanted to see her quilts. Well, yeah !!! 1 on her bed, 1 on the bed in the spare room and 11 - yes, 11 ! in her cupboard !

I almost cried - I didn't have my camera.

Here's a sample though. Every bit of this is hand-quilted.

The top is machine-pieced though...



See this bed ? It's MY spare room bed - Mom GIFTED this amazing quilt to me ! While oohing and aahing over all of her quilts, I mentioned that this one was my favorite and she GAVE it to me.
I'm stunned ...

Since I make stuff, I'm not usually the recipient of such wonderful gifts. BFF though, was very happy. Some time down the road, she's going to have to find loving, appreciative homes for all of these quilts. Well, it will be well loved and I can truly appreciate all of the work that went into this quilt.

I've been home now 3 times with socks on the needles and this visit I only packed my own socks. I have just 4 pairs made and that was enough for a weekend trip.


Today's update - Being on a short workweek, I'm generally off on Fridays, but we were really busy this week and I offered to go in today (not a freebie, the time will be added to my banked time)
Afterwards, I walked to a "NEW LYS" !

Ariadne Knits - I recently found out that a coworker also knits and she mentioned this shop last week when I was hyperventilating (LOL) over the possibility of my metal Addi's with my 1/2 done socks being confiscated at the airport. FYI - they were fine, both ways, thank goodness. Since I finished at about noon today and I was bundled up, I decided to walk down and check it out. I should know better, right ? Yeah, bought a ball of sock yarn. The burgandy-ish ball on the left - "Trekking XXL"

The pattern and the Opal 'Orange' are my purchases from Cricket Cove in Saint John last weekend.

I must say, so far this is my favorite yarn store in Montreal. VERY friendly and helpful. A while back I posted about another one close to work. On my first visit they were also very friendly, but I've been back 3 or 4 times since and although I buy something every time, I've not encountered any welcoming personality at all - I admit to being somewhat disappointed.

Anyway, I'll give Ariadne Knits a few more tries and see if it keeps up the welcome. For some reason, I think they will. And in the meantime, I need to keep knitting or I'll soon have a stash to measure against my fabric stash !
Anyone want to take bets on whether the skirt actually gets finished this weekend ? If you paid attention to the first paragraph, you know the only thing left is the hem. Can anyone tell me why it takes so long to psyche myself up to do a hem ?

AAARGH !

Oh, I am SO not impressed !!!

I haven't sewn a stitch since November and have a skirt and a pair of pants underway and waiting patiently.

This morning the mojo showed up out of the blue and before I went out for the afternoon, I got the skirt backs prepped for the invisible zipper. Interfaced the seam allowances and pinned the zip on so that when I came home this evening I would be able to sit right down and sew it in.


I CAN'T FIND THE LITTLE BAG OF FEET AND GOODIES THAT GOES WITH MY SINGER !

You know, the little bag that has the invisible zipper foot in it !!!

Now, the room is not that big, there are only so many place the d**m bag can be and on top of that I've spent the last 1/2 hour searching frantically for it. You can all understand this, I'm sure - the bag is in the room and I can guarantee I've looked straight at it at least once during the search and can't see it...

I am SOOOOOO not impressed :-(



Edit 10 minutes later - Aha, apparently I had to stop searching frantically and search 'Systematically' :-)
How it ended up in the middle of a stack of fabric that I haven't moved in months is beyond me...Bah

Weekend Progress - The 3-month socks

Yes, they're finished. The socks I started way back in October are finally done ! The time frame of course, had nothing to do with the difficulty of the pattern. They were actually quite easy. But, instead of being a main on-the-go project, they became a filler project. No sooner did I get them started than I put them down to do the afghan for my colleague, then I was in the midst of Christmas baking and then December was practically over. Since we were away over Christmas, I got quite a bit done but it took 3 weeks of picking up and putting down to get them off the needles :-)

On the plus side, I finished them Friday and wore them yesterday. They are the favorite pair so far ! They fit perfectly !

I must learn to keep an eye out when DH is wandering around with the camera, pictures of me are not improved by virtue of them being 'candid shots' - I was talking to him but not looking at him LOL ...

And that is how I knit, one furry creature (Skippy) flaked out beside me with his head hanging off the couch and the other (Alex) curled up in the afghan. They just need to be next to Mommy, I guess. Looking at them, you'd think they'd had an exhausting day wouldn't you - they certainly have a hard life !

And...the finished socks. Not on me though, this was a quick pic the minute I finished weaving in the ends. It was late, I went right to bed and the next morning when I put them on, I FORGOT to take another one. Must've been still sleeping.

Once the socks were done, I moved on to the Bristow Cardigan. I needed to split the fronts from the back, add a ball of yarn for each section and it's been waiting since Christmas.

All split now (still on one circular needle) and the armhole decreases are almost done. It's no longer a portable project. With 3 balls on the go, I don't want to deal with tangles so it sits on the coffee table and when I work on it, I turn from front to back VERY carefully. This was the best pic I could get. It wasn't laid out 'just so' so it's looking pretty wonky at the moment.

What else did I do ? I have yarn to make a winter hat. It is January after all and our -30C weather is coming. I even have a pattern picked out and it was scheduled in the queue (sp?) right after the socks were done. Here is the cast on....

Yup - 'nuther pair of socks - I'll get to the hat ... one of these days LOL :-)

My Knitting History

Warning - this turned into quite a long trip down memory lane for me. I enjoyed it, but I won't take offense if you get bored and give up LOL :-)


Since I haven't made much progress on anything, I really didn't have a reason to post.

Thanks, Marjie, for the compliment on my knitting and an idea for something to ramble on about.

While I do consider myself a beginner sewist, I've been knitting for quite some time now. My maternal grandmother was a seamstress and my Mom sewed. She also did a lot of needlework and taught me how to knit, crochet & embroider when I was very young.

As the story was told to me, my absolute favorite present from Santa the year I was 5 was a small, red, plastic basket filled with a couple balls of yarn and those plastic tube thingies with 4 tabs at the top. You know, you wrap the yarn around the tube, loop the wraps over the tabs and a tube of knitted fabric magically appears from the center of the tube.

Apparently, Mom picked the basket off of a sale table for next to nothing at the local five & dime on Christmas Eve - on the chance that I might like it. I have very few childhood memories but I do remember that basket and running in to wake up Mom to show her what Santa brought :-)

When I was 6, Mom showed me how to knit with regular needles & embroidery & crochet came soon after. During the learning process, cast on, bind off, increase, decrease, reading patterns, reading charts, using straights, dpn's and circulars. I guess it covered all the basics. I don't much like embroidery, but knowing how came in handy when I started cross-stitching. All my baby afghans are crochet - much faster than knitting.

In the early 80's the Lopi sweaters were very popular. The schoolkids wore them under puffy vests instead of wearing winter jackets. This link shows a pic of the types we all wore. My first finished project was a Lopi sweater. I was maybe 15 and up to then had not ever finished a project. I really wanted to finish this sweater and show it to Mom all done. Nope, I got stuck when it came time to join the body and the arms. You knit the body in the round to the underarm, put it aside, do each sleeve on dpn's, join them all together and continue the yoke pattern in the round right up to the neck. The only sewing is to graft the underarms when you're done. I just couldn't figure out how to join the sleeves and the body all on one circular needle. Mom showed me how and I finished the project ! I wore that sweater out ! Hmm, wonder if I can find a pic ???

After that, some of my Mom's friends asked if she would make some for their kids but she was busy making them for all the family so she passed them onto me. I think I made over 20 in those 3 years of high school. After the first couple, the parents came directly to me. $20 plus the yarn - good lord, they got them for practically nothing :-)

DH has a couple of sweaters (v-neck cardigans, w/cables, colorwork, etc) I made and he likes and wears them - maybe I should take pics. I've done mitts - but not gloves, scarves - but not hats, afghans - big and small.

This past year I learned quite a few new techniques (Ravelry is pretty awesome !) and made my first tentative attempt at socks. Top down, on dpn's, one at a time - they fit, I love them and wear them all the time. For the second pair (and every pair since) I used Toe-up, 2 at a time on one long circular using magic loop.

I'm still learning, but it's mostly about fitting rather than the actual knitting (for anything new or confusing, you can probably find a demonstration on You Tube). Lopi's are bulky, not much fitting involved. Socks, on the other hand, need to fit the foot and my 'bristow' cardigan has a fitted waist and set in sleeves so I have to pay attention to the fitting on that, too.

My biggest accomplishment lately ? Having enough nerve/confidence to knit on the bus - in public and not worry if someone 'looks' at me !

Now, for those of you who made it this far ... the socks - the leg has about 3" done. there's probably enough yarn to do another 3" of pattern and a 1" cuff.

2010

Last post of 2009

It's been another busy week...

This year DH & I packed up the furbabies and headed to Toronto to spend the holidays with friends. We arrived Christmas Eve and will make our way home on Saturday after we recuperate from tonights' New Years Eve party. :-)

As is usual when we visit here, it has been all about the food (with a bit of shopping !) and the company. We've even managed some exercise - so to speak ! The new toy in this house is a Wii and it has been put to good use by all of us. Bowling & golf. It's amazing how much you actually do move ;-) *I think I want one*

Of course, my knitting projects came along with me.

My 'bristow' cardigan was started on Dec 2 using the brown Cascade 220 wool I bought this summer. The body was done on a circular needle and it is ready to be split for the armholes. I brought an extra ball to be ready for this but I decided, rather than doing the back and each front separately, I would do them all at once. Since I have to work on 3 parts of the sweater, only have 2 balls of yarn and don't want to use both ends of one ball, I need another ball to continue. It will wait til I get home, but here it is as it looks now...the shaping looks quite good if I do say so myself (first sweater I ever made with waist shaping)


My socks, though, have moved along quite nicely. These are the 'Lacy Rib Socks' from Socks from the Toe Up book. I've finished the foot, done the gusset, the slip-stitch heel and this morning, started up the legs.

It should go quickly enough now, that they could be finished before the end of next week.


Shopping this week - only 3 balls of yarn...

Arequipa - 65% superwash wool, 20% alpaca, 15% nylon, 100gm, the color below would be accurate if it weren't shiny.


2 -50gm balls of Patons Kroy, Cobalt Jacquard, 75% wool, 25% nylon



As 2009 comes to a close, I would like to say thanks for reading everyone. I appreciate all of your comments and encouragement.

I wish you all a safe, enjoyable New Years Eve !

Merry Christmas

I wish you all the merriest of holidays and a healthy, happy New Year !

New Friends :-)

L to R - Mahler, KayY, Rhonda & Margaret


I should have (and meant to) had this post done up on Sunday, but, well, you know.....here I am finally and the week's almost done. (Ha ! I started this Thursday afternoon and it is now officially, Sunday 1 am)

On my last post, I mentioned that I was going to spend Saturday with some PR members who are brainstorming the PR Weekend coming up in Montreal next June.

WELL, it was a fabulous day !!!

I got myself up to St Hubert Street in plenty of time to meet the ladies, to find that Rhonda was already there waiting.

As an aside, I'm not sure that I've mentioned this or not, but Canada has a route all the way across Canada with a branch to the northern territories called the Trans Canada Trail. It is basically a non-motorized (walking, biking, horseback riding, skiing, etc) trail that is still in the process of being built - the plan is to have this trail connecting right across the country. I have been lucky enough to have walked some of the trail in real life. BUT, on the website www.tctrail.ca (I just cannot get the link to work !) there is an interactive map where you can log in, use a pedometer to track your daily steps and post them. The map starts in British Columbia and as you post your steps/mileage the line turns green and you walk across the country.

Rhonda and 2 other ladies on PR and I are attempting to walk this trail - It's 21,500km long - we figure it should take about 7 years ! LOL

Having said all that, Rhonda & I had no problem jumping right in to chat as it seemed like we already knew each other from the PR thread - Walk across Canada. In about 1/2 hour the other ladies had arrived.

We met in a great little fabric shop and spent a couple hours browsing - well, Rhonda & I browsed. The others all bought some amazing pieces of fabric and I can't wait to see their finished projects !





After that, we had a bite to eat and walked the street taking notes of eating spots & fabric stores.

And me ? Well, I was good, very good actually. One of the stores specialized in zippers, elastic, trim, etc and I found invisible zips 8" for 75 cents each. I bought about a dozen - and that was my entire purchase for the day.