I Sewed A Thing

I sewed a thing this week.

Unlike the rest of the sewing community (or at least one assumes the rest of the sewing community judging by my social media feed), I have not suddenly become a prolific pandemic crafter.

I've felt such a complex lot of feelings about what I have and have not got done, and the projects I choose or don't choose to make.  First I went through a period of time where I felt almost guilty that I wasn't taking the opportunity to learn a new skill, or sew up every piece of fabric in my stash, or knit every yard of yarn in the house because every where I turned that seemed to be the message I was being told I should be doing.   Some days though, I felt it was all I could do to go to work, come home, make supper, care for and teach the kids, try to stay on top of housework and just be a semi- functional human being. Other days, I felt I was doing pretty ok if I hadn't sat staring at the wall doing absolutely nothing for an hour straight.  As an asthmatic in a higher risk category this virus has had me pretty stressed out and scared many a day.

Don't even get me started on the telling me to do my part and stay home bit that came with its own level of guilt.  I can't stay home.  Nor can my husband.  We both have jobs that require us to be there.  For him, full time still and for me, now, part time in the school keeping the office open and the rest of the time working from home.  It's taken a while to stop feeling like I was selfishly and systematically putting the world at risk every time I left the house to go for work. I would love for us to stay home and not ever leave until all danger has passed, but this is not our reality.

Then came the whole sew/don't sew masks thing.  I have not, nor will I become, a one woman mask/scrub cap/isolation gown/whatever else factory.  I admire those that have done this, but that is not where I'm at right now. If this is an issue for you,  perhaps now is time to stop reading.

I realized eventually that I was giving far, far too much power to the suggestions of social media and that this is my own journey and I need to travel it in whichever way I need too. (Of course still following all the actually important stuff like going out only when I have too, social distancing, taking care of my health etc.)  Not only is my physical health important, but my mental health is too and to that end, I decided that I will sew/knit/craft  whenever and whatever it is that makes my mind and heart happy because that is something I do have control over.

When the DIBY Club pattern company sent an email letting customers know that they had put all their patterns on sale 60% off, I decided to grab one that caught my eye.  I certainly don't need any new patterns - goodness knows I have a pattern collection that would probably take more than one lifetime to sew through.  But patterns often are my guilty pleasure impulse buy.

So I bought the Adrienne pattern and printed it out one afternoon last week while I was waiting for a video to upload for the school website. (Good gravy my ancient home computer is sooooo slow!!!) That night while supper cooked I put the pages together. The next night I dug through a bin of fabric and found a remnant of sweater knit I'd bought at some point thinking I'd make a Blackwood with it, but then found it had a huge hole in the middle of the of it, so it got shoved further down in the bin.  I wasn't sure if it would be enough, but it turned out I was able to work around the hole and get the whole Adrienne sweater cut out.  I have no idea what the fabric content is, but its soft and snuggly and drapey and turns out it was the perfect fabric for my new sweater.

The pattern has three options of necklines - cowl, bateau and crew.  There's also four sleeve options - long, 3/4, elbow and short.  It features a wide, curved hem band that overlaps where it joins high up on the sides.  Its construction is fairly simple and the instructions include a link to a video tutorial on how to do the bottom bands which makes them a breeze to sew up.

I sewed it up in three days.  It could have been sewn up in a few hours probably, but I chose to do it in small chunks of time as I have found that method seems to work best for me now.  For my version I chose the faced bateau neckline and 3/4 sleeves.  The only change I made to the pattern was to add a bit of length. But the instructions do offer in-depth instructions on how to fit the pattern - everything from simple blending of sizes, to the more complex FBA/SBA.

I decided to use a pair of vintage buttons for added interest.  I bought the buttons a few summers ago when the Costume Museum of Canada had a fundraiser button sale that I went to with a friend.  Buttons are also a guilty pleasure for me... and I can't resist a vintage button!  I was very careful how I sewed my buttons on my Adrienne being mindful of the button tragedy of last summer when I accidentally sewed through a vintage button with my machine on the last button of my blouse and had to settle for one boring old modern button.

I'm really happy with my new sweater, and actually when I tried it on straight off the machine I liked it so much that I wore it the rest of the afternoon yesterday.  (thus the wrinkles in the photos! LOL)

Thanks for sticking around to read all this way!  Until next time stay well, and stay healthy!

Gnomes are Magical

I have a new obsession.  Well, not exactly new.  I've always been overly fond of the common garden gnome. The new part of it is the fact that I have started knitting gnomes.  I'm calling them my Indoor Garden Gnomes and I've got a healthy little collection started.

It all began back in February when, after months, maybe years, of seeing my friend knitting gnomes, I decided to take the plunge and do the Imagined Landscapes Mystery Gnome Knitalong.  I told you about that one in a previous post; how it actually brought a real joy of knitting back into my life.  I was actually excited to pick up the needles and it came naturally instead of feeling forced.

So Gnome Is Where You Hang Your Hat was my first gnome.  I love him and his sweet little pullover.  But once I finished I found that I'd enjoyed knitting him so much that I was a little sad it was over.   What's the best way to combat that?  Why, knit another gnome of course!  You just can't ignore the call of the gnome after all...

So I set to work on Here We Gnome Again, which I think is the cutest little cable-y gnome ever!  He knit up pretty quickly even with the cabled pattern.  He's a lovely little fella with a fancy beard and a bobble nose and I adore him!  Once finished he and his companion sat happily guarding my house plants.

But then every thing hit the fan in the world, and I was having trouble focusing on anything.  Impending school closures had been announced the Friday before, so work was absolute chaos on the Monday, then on Tuesday, both boys woke up in the morning sick with sore throats and colds. We had just had T at his ortho specialist appointment at the big hospital in the city two weeks earlier, so although I knew rationally that it was most likely just a run of the mill cold, I was incredibly stressed out.  It wasn't my finest moment of calm, rational thought, I can tell you that much!  I was in the end reassured by the fact that T spend countless times on the treadmill downstairs running for half an hour at a time as fast as he could because he set himself a goal that he "would become the fastest kid around" and within a day D's mild cold was gone and within three days there was no trace of sniffles, sore throat or cough from T either.

But on that Tuesday evening when I was slowly coming unglued over worry about the boys, stress about work that I wasn't at because I was home with the boys, but was trying to do as much from home as possible still and feeling guilty that I'd basically abandoned ship when things were so insane at the school, along with general anxiety about the pandemic, my husband had told me, "Go knit a gnome.  It'll help.  Gnomes fix all."

So I took his advice and cast on another.  While a gnome can't really fix all, they do offer a sense of order and calm to the mind and soul with their simple little patterns that can be done easily in small chunks of time.  This time I cast on Oh Gnome, You Didn't.

He's a fun little gnome that normally has a jester hat and a scarf, but the boys and I decided he need a beard instead of scarf.  And when I found the fiery yellow and orange ball of fun fur deep in my stash from sometime around 2003, I knew it was the perfect beard yarn for my St. Patrick's Day green gnome.  He might actually be my favourite... (Shhh.  Don't tell the others!) But would you look at how he has his little hands in his little pockets?  Love it.

My gnome collection was a good size, but I felt I still needed to knit another. Gnomes are also a bit like potato chips.  Once you start, you just don't want to stop,  once a Gnomemaker, always a Gnomemaker perhaps. So I cast on a fourth gnome in the span of a little over a month.  This time the chosen gnome was Gnome de Plume.

Funny thing with this one, is that I just assumed she would be the same size roughly as the others.  So as I was knitting her hat, I kept thinking it was one epically large hat for a little gnome.  Finally, I checked the finished measurements and realized she was not a little gnome at all.  She was so much bigger than I was anticipating.  So much so, that when I was in between stuffing and finishing her I had to find my tallest mug to rest her in because she was just a little too unwieldy to just set down in my lap.

Even though she's not a little gnome like the rest of the collection, she is perfect in my opinion with her leafy hat and leaf shaped beard. (Do all lady gnomes have beards?  I wasn't sure but her's is a delicate leaf shaped one, so I thought that it would be as feminine a beard as one could ask for...) I have decided she is to be crowned queen of the gnomes and she has joined her much smaller loyal subjects in guarding the plants!

I'm taking a break from gnomes for the moment and working on a different project right now, but the important thing is, thanks to these magical little gnomes, I have found the love of knitting again, and it has come at a time I need it the most.

If you're looking for something that doesn't take much yarn, doesn't take a whole lot of focus and doesn't take much time I suggest taking a look at Imagined Landscapes collection of patterns.  There's several gnomes to choose from (although there's not just gnomes!  There's plenty of other beautiful items to knit if gnomes aren't your thing of course).  The patterns I've done have all been very well written, and lovely to knit! If you're not up to knitting right now, you could always check out their podcast!  I've really enjoyed listening to the two sisters chatting. (plus they are fellow Manitobans and I'm always excited to support someone local to me!)

Until next time, I wish you all good health and a hope that you are still finding joy and happiness in the small, simple pleasures in life.