Of Mice and Men

***this unmailed letter has been floating around my desk for years now.  this morning i determined to post it here then consign it to the recycling bin. ***

Weds 11.25.2009 - just before 6pm
It's the weds night before Thanksgiving.  I am holed up @ Silver Lake Coffee trying to wait out the stupid stupid rush hour/holiday traffic.
I got off work early (woo!) and was full of intent & motivation.  I had 2 goals: 1: visit Sew-LA for some sewing goods, and 2) hit the Glendale Galleria for my twice yearly cosmetics & sock purchasing rip.  (this is the last possible mall visiting day of the year for me.  Thanksgiving -> January are black out dates.)  Stop 1:  I spent some quality time @ the fabric store choosing buttons to put on a dress I'm making (went with 9 small, square purple buttons.  Pretty damn cute. :) ), got a few yards of muslin to use in practicing making a fitted skirt, a hip curve for...drawing hip curves in patterns, and a jaw-droppingly adorable pattern for a bunny toy. (really good.)
As I left the shop, all mall plans were off.  My sewing mojo was cooking.  shifted plans to stop at The Rad Beer Store & bank instead.  Commute traffic along Silver Lake Blvd is notoriously slow:  1 lane each way, lights, etc.  I took an untried residential detour in an effort to circumvent it.  At a crucial crossroads I opted to go back down to SL Blvd just past the traffic.  Well.  Here the title of a Steinbeck novel comes to mind... Tonight there is no point "past traffic."  To get from point A to point B, a distance that one might cover in 3 min by car, it took me 15 min.  or maybe 45.  I don't know.  It was just slooooowww.  When I got to the light @ Glendale Ave (a left turn to take me home) I saw the traffic socked in - 2 lanes wide.  I uttered an expletive, kept straight, I worked my way to this cafe.  I had no cash, no knitting, no writing paper.  I went thru my glovebox & scrounged up some stuff to write on.  (Hence, this brochure :) ).  I'm hopeful that one hour here will be enough time for the residential streets to clear.  Perhaps everyone will be on the highway by that time.  The bummer is that i'd really like to be @ home sewing.  We'll see where my mojo level is when i get home.  (I might just go grab that bunny pattern out of the car to read...


***the letter ends there without the close-parens.  nothing like the frustration of not being able to ride the wave of motivation.
yesterday morning i was going through a stack of postcards and come across one that i'd written to my friend md in oregon last may.  i put it in the mail without any note about the delay.  the card was about getting my new car and having a new basket put on my bike.  the car is still fabulous.  the bike basket is too heavy, though and has shifted the balance of the bike.  i had a bit of a accident, not a crash but i still ended up bleeding and have some cool scars that will forever end my career as a foot model.  still trying to work things out with my bike.  i don't want it to gather dust this spring.***

finished!

in brief: after much languishing, i've finished the 50's dress in fish fabric! this is a pic from the inaugral wearing. taken used photobooth in my dark office, so not the most flattering.
but you can see there are pockets. (!)

the keen-eyed office supply aficionado will spot the heavy duty 3-hole punch on the table.
bonus points if you can pick out the pic of Pee-Wee Herman & Cowboy Curtis sitting on Chairey.

choice of self expression

finished! over the summer break i'll find a frame for this. i plan to put it up in my next office.

in between working days i've been working steadily on the Endless Stripey. i am now knitting the Last Ball of Yarn on this blanket. it's been cooking since january 3, 2003. cannot wait to get it out of the "in progress" stack and onto my bed.

also: last weekend i FINISHED the 50's style shirt dress! i had to do some damage control where the front pleats and facing meet, but am happy with the result. i laundered it. it needs pressing. the ironing is the true test. once it's pressed i'll post a pic.

i could use an iced coffee. anyone?

knit 2, purl 2, cable 2 forward...

since no one in my family reads this i can safely post pix of the gloves that i knit them for xmas.
i used the cabled handwarmer pattern from julie at little knittery in los angeles. i knit a pair of these for myself a couple years ago and love them, so i wanted to share the love.

i knit 5 pairs of these: 2 for my nieces, 1 each for my brother and sister and 1 pair for my pal, eli.
here are a slew of pix: please pardon the "hand modeling" hilarity and lack of backdrop variety















fun facts: the white mug i am holding was a wrap gift i rec'd when i worked on the show, "Cane." they were gifts to the crew from jimmy smits.
the orange and yellow gloves were knit in brown sheep worsted weight yarn.



these variagated mitts were knit using Di.Vé autunno merino wool. ooooh, sooo soft and warm.
this pair was knit in cascade alpaca. again with the fantastic:
i also knit a pair in black for my brother, but forgot to take a pic before putting them in the mail.

in the midst of knitting all these gloves i lost one of my own. looks like it's time for a new pair for me. :)

continuing with the craft stuff:

i've been working on a couple 50's style shirt dresses. the first dress is in this great michael miller colorful fish fabric. (all that remains to be done on this one are putting in the button holes, buttons, and hemming. so close!) my plan for this dress pattern was to make a few of them using the MANY fabrics in my closet of which i have at least 4 yards of each... (that was a fucking awful sentence, but you get the idea.)

anywhoo. dress 1: fish fabric
dress 2: tractor fabric! i combined the tractors with some dark sage green that i bought at a yard sale some time ago. here are some "work in progress" shots of the fabric combo:
this is part of the skirt. it will be pleated at the waist. the green will end up being a 3" band around the bottom once the hem is finished.






here i've pinned the collar to the bodice. still need to baste it then attach the facing. this bit requires some concentration and focus, so the bodice has been sitting in this state for at least two weeks.
am hoping to log in some serious long days/nights sewing over the winter break. (note to self: no wine during the complex construction)


here are some pix of the fish dress. the details are really nice. i have since re-shaped the collar and it looks MUCH better. i'd pressed it too wide.

this pattern is one modified by Shaeri at Sew-LA. she usually teaches this dress as a 6 week class, but i could never commit to anything for 6 weeks in a row and i didn't need that much detailed instruction. she and i booked 3 private classes to cover fitting and pattern modification. the pleated skirt is her pattern. the way the last pleat lines up with the bottom bodice dart is a good example of her attention to detail.






ok. all this typing about sewing while i am sitting at my desk at work (when i could be heading home) is a bit thick. i'm gonna head home and do some pinning on the patchwork quilt i've got cooking. this quilt was meant to be a good "pick up for 15 min at a time while working a nutty schedule" project and it's turning out to be just the thing.

eventful: while i was typing up this entry i got a call from my pal eli, the recipient of the orange mitts. she called to tell me she loves them and has been wearing them all day! hooray!! one often wonders what becomes of the handmade items they give away. i think of all the much-love slippers, and un-worn hats my grandma crocheted for me when i was a kid.

still to come: the story of amelita! this is really good. perhaps i can cover it while OFF FOR THE HOLIDAYS!! HELL. YES.

**note: while i am typing this up the formatting looks COMPLETELY different. how is one to achieve a nice presentation when the formatting is unpredictable. how? i ask.