I'm reupholstering a chair.

I've got this chair. It's been around quite a while and the cats (Jack, mostly) have really done a number on it over the years. The back panel has been hammered back on more than once, and the fabric at the corners looks like the silks on corn. It ended up being one of the pieces of furniture that came with me up to Sacramento on the condition that I would redo it to fit in with whatever decor I ended up with, because yellow and brown certainly wasn't going to be it. I found some classy looking brown and gray tweedy upholstery fabric at Joann's on the clearance table (for like 4 bucks a yard…. serious bargain) and it's been sitting in the corner with the chair ever since I moved up here.

So, last weekend I bit the bullet and started. By 'I' I mean 'we' and by 'we' I mean Dave and me. Neither Dave nor I have ever really done this before, but we figured oh what the heck how bad can it be. Let's have fun with it this weekend! Well…… I could definitely see how folks less stubborn than us would have stopped midway and just bought a new chair. We actually did end up having quite a bit of fun together, but we both agree that we would think long and hard before doing it again.

Dave took copious amounts of photos as we deconstructed so we could remember how to put everything back together. I think taking them forced us to actually stop and think about how everything was put on so we didn't really refer to them later, but I'd say even if you don't end up using them, having them is a good back up.

The other important thing to keep in mind is to be nice to the fabric. I made sure to label all of the fabric pieces as we took them off and we resisted the urge to just rip things off before looking at how it was attached. Even then, there was no ripping because I wanted to use the old pieces as patterns for the new ones.

The number of staples in this chair holding everything on was astonishing. And we pulled out every. single. one. By the end of just the bottom of the chair both Dave and I were pretty sore in our hands and shoulders from wrestling with the tiny pieces of steel. We soldiered through, though, and were rewarded by a stripped down chair by the early evening (we started at 11 am). After which we took an Advil/dinner break. More on stage 2 in the next post...

laughable.

I just went back and reread my post in November about my crafting goals moving forward… and I quote: 'a serious goal will be to stick to the yarn stash and current queue.' I'm laughing. 

To be fair, my queue has changed around a bit to accommodate my goal of sticking with the stash, and I have actually finished one project that was in the works when I wrote that. But what I'm laughing at is the fact that I have not one, not two, but three cowls that have popped up out of thin air that I am working on with more focus than any of the projects (yarny or otherwise) that I have had planned since last year. Cowl #1 I finished and wrote about already. 

Cowls #2 and 3 are really what make me chuckle the most. Two of my coworkers cajoled me into making them (really, they had to twist my arm sooooo hard). They even went out and bought yarn and gave it to me so I could. How can you say no to that?? But still, new yarn, new projects. The anti-goal. 

The one I started first is taking quite a long time because the whole thing is seed stitch. The pattern is the GAP-tastic cowl by Jen Geigley. I've tried going back to knitting continental like I discovered I could do last fall but I'm having trouble with it for some reason. My current theory is that I'm better at doing it with less bulky yarn and smaller needles. 

Current status is just about 1/3 done -- I just finished one of three skeins of yarn. I really want to cast on and start the next one, too, to give myself a seed stitch break, but I think the gauge will require the same needles I'm using here. Bummer. Back to seeds!

back to bees

Playing a bit of catch up with bees… this little block is for December's Get Your Hex on queen bee. It was really fun to work on because the pieces are so small! Each hexagon is a little bit bigger than my thumb. It went pretty quick, and I love the vintage feel of the fabrics she sent.

I still owe November's queen her block -- I need to get a chance to actually touch my fabrics for that, though. It hasn't been possible in the brief times I've been in the same city with my stash, but I have high hopes for this weekend. Thankfully she has been very understanding about it. 

On bees:

Last year I joined two more bees in addition to one I was already in to give myself some more social contact with folks and also because I was enjoying the small potato-chip-like project of making a block or two for someone else. Part of the drawback was that a lot of my sewing time was taken up with just bee commitments and I didn't get to work much on some big projects of my own that I had planned. However I got to try a lot of new block designs and meet new people so I'd say it was totally worth it. I'd highly recommend it. That said….

Given the new job/living situation it is a bit much to continue to keep up with. I can't just pop into the sewing room anymore. It was a tough decision, but I left the Love circle of do.Good Stitches, my first bee and the group that inspired me to get even more involved. Given that we stitch from our stash and my stash is … well… 120 miles away, it seemed like a logistical stressor to make sure I got a block done every month. I wasn't gonna like it, and they weren't gonna like me if I was sporadically late. I shall miss them so. The Bee Sew Modern bee ended in September so that's off my plate, and the Get Your Hex On bee has just a couple months left. It's tempting to stick with a hand stitching bee where folks send out fabric because it fits better with my available time and resources. I'll have to see what opportunities come up once GYHO is over, but I'm trying to be responsible here :)

belated birthday

One of the great things about being a crafty person is finding other crafty people in unexpected places. As it is I've found it to be the exception rather than the rule that anyone my own age that I've met in person is all that into sewing or yarn. Even more rare is the scientist my age that I've met who likes these things. Imagine my surprise, then, when one of the other nine science fellows fits in all of these buckets. And also lives a couple blocks away from me. Serendipity.

We've made a habit of walking to work together in the mornings (and home most evenings, too) which makes for a great start to the day. We even sometimes talk about FABRIC. What! My fellow fellow had a birthday recently, and I decided to make something in celebration. Of course, as the post title might indicate, it wasn't done ON her birthday. In fact I just finished it on the plane back from holidays in Chicago at the end of December and steam blocked it in my kitchen last night. 

It's been a bit nippy in Sac-town lately, so I decided to make her a cowl. This is an example of a project that came together at the right place and time. I had a skein of yarn left over from a shawl I made early in 2013 in a yarn and color I love. I'd been trying to turn it into fingerless mitts, but was underwhelmed with the results after finishing one. (This seems to be a pattern with me and mitts… maybe I should give that genre a break.) I perused Ravelry for a while to find an interesting pattern and came up with the Milanese Loop cowl. 

This pattern is relatively simple to do if you can keep careful track of stitch counts. It looks like fans or leaves to me, but either way it's pretty. It took me a while to memorize it but eventually I did, and it made for great plane knitting. I've decided to name it EQ, in homage to the Environmental Quality committee she works for helping to keep us 'green'. 

Details on my Ravelry page here. Summary: 1 skein Malabrigo Silky Merino in 'Dill' knit on size 4 needles.

Fawkes knitted

While this year was quite light on holiday gift-making, the one thing I did end up making for the holidays was Fawkes.

I started this Wingspan shawl for Mom on a trip to Kentucky in September and have been working on it between other projects since then. I got it to the point where I finished the last rows, but ended up short on yarn to bind off! Tinking back long rows of stitches is not my favorite thing in the world, so it sat for a bit. It managed to make it into the small stash of projects I've brought with me to Sacramento, which means I had no choice but to fix it in the evenings when my fingers were itching for some yarn. I'm surprised at how well I was able to outsmart myself there. 

At any rate it got finished and traveled with me to Chicago for the holidays. I literally blocked it in the wee late hours of Christmas Eve. I steamed it to block, so it dried pretty quickly and was ready to wrap up in time for gifting in the morning.

It turned out looking quite lovely, if I do say so myself. The slow color changes in the Mochi yarn range from light pink and bright fuchsia to brick red and ashy gray. It makes for quite a stunning effect that really could be phoenix feathers. Though Mom looks somewhat pensive in the photo, she was pleased. 

Details on my Ravelry page here, but the brief summary is: 2 skeins of Crystal Palace Mini Mochi in 'Fandango' knit on size 4 needles. The yardage was just enough to squeak by. 

Get your hex on January

Happy New Year! January is my month in the Get Your Hex On bee, so I've written up a little post to outline the details for my fellow stitchers. We are going to be indulging ourselves in 'girly' and 'bright' this month. 

Each of the stacks above contains 12 hexagons and 4 squares (with the exception of two which have all squares). I've had this pack of pre-cut hexagons for a while now and I decided to augment them with fabrics from my stash to get started on what I hope will turn out to be large enough to be a twin sized quilt when I'm finished. 

We will be stitching these into concentric diamonds, with 4 hexies of one color in the middle outlined with 12 of the second color. When I get all of the blocks back, I'll add another round of 20 hexies to each block and see what I have and how much bigger I'll need to get. The blocks will end up looking rather similar to these I found on Flickr. Thank you, ladies, for helping me get started on what would otherwise be quite an intimidating hand stitched project! That's a lot of hexies.... 

Each of you will receive a set of fabric and 16 hexagon paper pieces 1.25" on a side. These should allow plenty of wiggle room on the 1.875" pre-cut hexagons for seam allowance. Please leave the pieces in when sending them back since I'll be adding to them. It will make things so much easier.

I enjoy the colors and patterns in these fabrics, I hope you do as well! I figured it would be a good way to brighten up the winter days. Happy stitching!

Fresh Sewing Day November

October was a pretty good month! I finished that biggest to-do, Kelly's baby quilt, got done with bee blocks on time, whipped up some birthday gifts, and even got to do a few things for my 'weekday' apartment. I'd say that my approach last month of not setting goals served me quite well.

1. Grandmother's garden bee block    2, 3. Snowflake bee blocks

4. Tron cowl    5. Lavender sachets    6. Improv curves bee blocks

7. Little Whimsy baby quilt    8. Pillowcases

9, 10, 11. Ombre wall art

Today also marks the first day of being back to work for me since turning in my thesis. I'll be soaking up science policy know-how in Sacramento for the next year. A new job, a new town, and a new little nest -- changes are a-comin'!

I would say my goals for this next month are to finish a few handmade touches for the new place to make it feel like home. I also want to get back to hand quilting my medallion quilt and finish it soon. By the new year? Maybe that's ambitious. Other than that, a serious goal will be to stick to the yarn stash and current queue! That will be a tough one. 

Linking up at Lily's quilts for: