But I’ve been cheating on it with thread and fabric. I’ve always thought (and still kind of do) that I suck at sewing. I can follow a pattern, even wing it if I need to, but I have this inability to do anything (cut, sew, draw, walk, etc…) in a straight line. So my secret desire to quilt should probably be forgotten. I thought about art quilting, but I have this thing where if I don’t understand and do the basics of something well, I can’t allow myself to mess around because all that happens is a mess (see all my attempts to abstract paint ever).

If you know me, you know I LOVE Tula Pink fabrics. They are fun and colour and awesome. I had bought some of her stuff before, when I thought about sewing, but I decided now was the time to really do it. The most important thing to sewing well was good thread and needles as they took away all of the technical issues. I bought lots of Gutterman and some Schmetz needles which were recommended by the lady working at the fabric store. And zippers and interfacing and scissors and an ergonomic stitch ripper because I knew I’d be using that thing like it was air. And I bought the pattern for the Amy Butler Weekender Bag, along with Some Tula Pink fabric, Birds and Bees Meteor Shower and Night Shade Storm Clouds which might just be my most favorite fabric ever. And pre-made bias tape because I knew if one thing was going to do some crazy making and make me give up it was bias tape. I’ve wanted to make the Weekender FOREVER. I love Amy Butler bag patterns. Sure, they have a trillion layers of interfacing, but when you finish, it’s worth it as it gives your project a polish and sturdiness I’ve seen in to other.

So in a couple of evenings, I had a bag that I loved! Those meteors! And I was hooked. I went on to make a bag with some leftover Parisville Cameo (those hair animals & ships!!) and some Birds and Bees Swallow Skies. I used the Abby Tote pattern from V and Co. because I love a big bow. It’s a great tote bag and just a touch more interesting than a typical one. This pattern was super quick and easy compared to the Weekender, which probably wasn’t the most logical place to start, but I am not one to do things the easy way.

Then, the Wolseley Wool annual knitting retreat was coming up and I needed a big bag for all my packing. I had looked at the Duffel Bag pattern from Studio Cherie and decided to dive in. I had just gotten a Birds and Bees Jelly Roll (2 1/2 inch strips of all the fabrics in a collection) and decided to sew those together into a piece of cloth since the bag called for some quilting anyways. That took forever. Once that was done, the bag itself took just a few hours. It’s HUGE and I like the end pocket lots. It fit all my knitting camp junk. I did manage to sew in the zipper backwards (it was an invisible zipper and I did not realize that in my defence, so I sewed it the right way if it were not an invisible zipper) and did not realize until too late, but I left it since it’s my bag. I did a quick google which recommended using a knitting needle to undo the zipper if you are having problems, and I always have one of those around.

The most recent one is probably my favorite. It’s an endless bag black hole, which is good because I carry too much junk. I used the Beach Bag pattern from V and Co. and totally plan to make more. I used more Tula Pink Meteor Shower but in a different colour, lined it with yet another colour and accented it with Lazy Stripe from the same collection. This was probably the easiest one yet! I’ve been using it like crazy. I need to sew some pouches to put in it though.

So now I basically have a whole travel set of Tula Pink bags. Now I need to go on vacation! Next up will be the bag on the cover of Japanese Quilting Piece by Piece in some Echino fabric. OMG Japanese fabric! Cotton linen blends are amazing! I can’t wait to start this one. People always say they are scared to sew, but I say just find something you really want to make and it will happen.

It’s been a while since I’ve updated this thing, and I have been busy! Between yarn store duities, my crazy bananas kids, my renewed love of sewing and the fact that a lot of the things I’ve been knitting are secret book projects, I haven’t had too much to write.
So I released 3 new patterns today. 3 hats. I love wearing hats. It’s cold here already, and I am lazy when it comes to my hair. When I was in high school I used to buy dorky ancient touques at Value Village, which totally influenced my first two patterns, Triple and Branchy. Which could also be called the “I love dirty neutral yarn mini collection” for the choice in neutrals and it’s truthiness.

Triple has rows of triangles that change direction somewhere in the middle. I used Malabrigo Worsted in Simply Taupe, a light taupe with tonal variations that I LOVE, paired with Manos Maxima in Shocking. I love that such a soft natural yarn is pushed to such a colour extreme. I also love super neutrals (greys, taupes, beiges) with super neon brights. The colourwork in the hat is super easy and great for beginners.

Waggle is the one I’ve been wearing around the most – it’s the hat equivalent of an old sweatshirt. It’s knit up in Malabrigo Rios which is so soft and has amazing drape after it’s blocked. I used another dirty neutral, Sand Bank which along with the contrasting colour, Lavinda are new for the fall. Can you tell I love wide brimmed hats? It has a wide brim and a cute and simple chevron and diamond pattern and is gathered at the top for a bit of slouch. I need to knit another one of these with a subtle light grey/medium grey combination.

Finally there is Branchy, the one of these things is not like the others hat. It’s a chunky cable knit hat with ribbing in the body to hug your head. It has a big single cable running up it and a wide brim. It’s knit up in squishy Malabrigo Chunky in my favorite colour Frank Ochre. I love big cables!

I’ve been watching through Spinning Dyed Fibers with Felicia from SweetGeorgia lately (if you’re interested in the class, heres a link to take it at a discount). SweetGeorgia fiber is amazing. The colours are so pure and unashamed and the fiber itself is such a pleasure to spin up. Last night while out running I remembered a partial braid hiding in the storage closet which I promptly spun up when I got home, but more on that in a bit.

When I saw that this class was on Craftsy, I knew I had to watch through it. I love color and spinning, they are probably two of my favorite things. It does not disappoint. I know Felicia as an amazing yarn dyer. We carry some of her stuff at the store and it’s just gorgeous and never fails to make us ooh when we open the box. What I did not know is that she is really knowledgeable about spinning. I didn’t expect to have as many spinning epiphanies watching, but there were for sure a few. Like the way she ties her leader for n-plying, and pretty much the entire Mix & Match lesson. I usually approach dyed fibre as-is, maybe splitting it into two to ply it, but I don’t generally get much more involved than that. Now it’s all I want to do, split and spin and combine and all that. And honestly, I had never thought much about combining different colorways of fiber together, but that lesson makes it look like the bees knees. Surprisingly, I am not a major fiber stasher, so I need to wait for some to really experiment. But when I remembered that I had some SweetGeorgia Merino & Silk (in Maple) hiding away, I knew I had to tackle the fractal spinning lesson.

See, I’d thought about fractal spinning before. Started reading a few articles even. But they all started off with too much math theory and made it seem a lot more than it was. So I was prepared for a doozy of a lesson. While I was really great at math when I was younger, going to art school let that part of me slide. Instead I was surprised at how simple it was to create such a fun effect. So I split up the 70g of Maple I had into all the parts and made the pretty nests and spun and plied it up into this fun very barber pole-y (which is an effect I for one, love) yarn. Which still needs to be set. And there is enough for mittens!

The setup of the class is pretty nice too, you can submit questions to be answered. There are printouts with all sorts of related class info. The videos themselves start by focusing on general spinning knowledge, such as the difference between woollen and worsted spin, different fiber preparations and some really great stuff on color theory. But seriously, the Mix & Match class is worth the price alone. Felicia focuses on not making mud and getting the most out of your hand dyed fiber and not getting mud. But the focus isn’t just on preserving bright colors, she does some amazing work taking a super bright colorway and subduing it while maintaining the richness of the individual colors. And the part on combining differently dyed fibers, it’s some pretty awesome stuff.

This class really made me want to focus on the craft of spinning. I generally spin really crazy yarns with all sorts of junk and stuff all over the place, but watching the colors combine and the yarns that were made brought me to realize that I need to focus on my technique. I put the abstract before the realism and don’t have a good enough foundation to truly abstract reality if that makes any sense. And if it doesn’t, its like painting a Picasso before you can draw a good figure. Which you might think you can do, but you can’t, and if you think you can your’re a jerk who probably says it whenever you get the chance. Anyways.

I asked Felicia a couple of questions. At the yarn store, I am often asked advice. And being behind the counter of a yarn store, the askee expects that I am an expert of sorts and have a skill level greater than their own. There’s been a bit of a resurgance in spinning lately, and I get asked what advice I have for beginner spinners. Which comes down to “just do it” because I am a jumping in sort of person. Then I realize that the kind of person who would ask me this is not a just do it kind of person and I have to figure out how to answer them better. So I asked Felicia what advice she would give to new spinners.

To beginner spinners, I would say two things: 1) be patient with yourself… it’s a new skill that requires the sensitivity of your hands to judge twist and tension and it takes time to develop. Spend 10 or 15 minutes a day, every day, sitting at your wheel and getting that feel. Give yourself a goal of spinning every day for 30 days and you will improve by leaps and bounds. 2) try everything! Try different fibres — everything from coarse wools to silks to man-made fibers and everything in between. Try working with colours you don’t like and working them in with things you do like. Try wheel spinning and spindle spinning (drop, supported, or other) and see what you like best. You won’t know until you try it!

Which is way better than the answer I usually give, and I should probably have on an index card somewhere.

I also asked her what she tended to spin, more solid or more varigated colors.

When I spin, I tend to spin to relax and for fun, so I lean towards the variegated colours. It gives me the opportunity to watch colours migrate and shift between my hands and it keeps my attention. I usually spin just a couple ounces here and there of a particular colour, so I have lots of random skeins of handspun. Not usually enough to make a full garment. I think if I was more project-oriented, I would look at spinning more subtle colourways or blend my variegated colours more to make something I would enjoy wearing, but personally I just don’t have the attention span to spin enough for a sweater. Maybe that should be my personal goal for the Tour de Fleece next year.

It’s a pretty awesome class. Especially if you buy gorgeous hand dyed fibers and don’t quite know how to get the desired yarn you want out of them. I know I am going to have to do a lot of experimenting now.

I recently decided to start running. Which is a big undertaking, let me tell you. I am using one of those couch to 5k apps that has a really nice sounding British lady who tells me you’ve only got 2 more runs today (ONLY? Shut up. Ha.) over top whatever music I am listening to. Which is always the Alkaline Trio discography (emoxforxlife) on shuffle because it’s one of 4 things I have on my soviet-era iPhone (3G, no S thanks to the littlest one dropping my phone a few months ago). It’s going well. I just finished week 3. Sure it’s only week 3, but that is 3 more weeks of running in a row than I’ve done in a long time. I am starting to feel like I can actually maybe run. I started using the app a bit before that, but was too busy to really be consistent, so once the hustle and bustle broke a little I committed. Of course, it’s been +30c almost every day since then, but I go later in the evening. While the heat has not been bugging me too much, the unwavering smell of cow dung almost had me throw in the towel last night.

When I finish the 9 weeks (Sept 5th hopefully!) I am going to reward myself by getting the yarn to knit Orkney from Rowan 52. It’s so pretty and I love colorwork. Then I am going to start from the first week again, but pushing myself to go faster. See, I was thinking it would be good to sign up for some sort of race-type thing to motivate me, but honestly, the idea of doing all that running with all those sweaty people wasn’t working for me. Then I was reading a crappy lady magazine in the car the other day and there it was. A triathlon! I am going to train for a mini triathlon next summer. 300m swimming, 2.5k running & 10k biking. I am all about mixing it up and I know I can actually do the swimming part (not the fastest yet, but that will come) and probably the biking part (but I need to get a bike first!). But for now I am going to focus on running and strength training so I can get to a point where I can start the other two well. And getting to Sept 5th so I can knit that sweater. What good is working hard without reward?

Here are all of my Tour yarns in one picture. Crazy! I set a goal of 4 art yarns and 1 sock yarn and totally met and surpassed that. And did a bunch of worsted/aran cable plying which as you can see in the picture is already on its way to being a Clapotis.I put my new Joy to good use. And the Freedom Flyer is the best thing ever. I had a lot of fun with this and really want to do a lot more with art yarn. It’s an area with a lot more to push and explore and bring some real art into my yarn & fiber practice which I still feel is lacking. I think it might be the use of raw materials to make something pretty but not quite practical.