D284: Cutting Pants!

I'm still into cutting everything out at the moment, dreaming of sitting down and just zip zipping everything together.  Foolish girl... As if it'll be that quick!! Any hoo...

These are the pieces for the City Mouse Pants from Ottobre 4/2011.  Yes that is a rather crazy lining, but it wont be seen.  It has a similar stretch to the fleecy outer and I wanted a bit of a wind breaker in these.  Murphy's Cousin strikes again.

D129: Sleeve done!

I finished the first sleeve today, with only one error. (I did the 4.5mm section two rows too long, but that's easily repeated on the other sleeve for symmetry.)

The shoulder castoff using a double-rib,
and the knit-wise castoff on the arm

In the name of Murphy's Cousin, I cast off the shoulders rib-wise, planning to manage some give in the seam and have it relax a little.  I thought, too, a ribbed cast-off might have less bulk than knitted cast-offs seem to have.  Why they should be any more, or less, bulky than a ribbed cast-off is beyond me and I'm probably wrong.  

However, I cast-off knit-wise for the arm thinking it would stretch it out and help with easing the difference.  Now I'm thinking I should've just cast-off knit-wise back at the shoulder so that I'm not dealing with a bouncy length or introducing droop in the seam - maybe it'll be harder to match with all that stretch...  Then again, maybe some bounce will allow the garment to size up in the future... 

Over thinking in much? Shyah.

I also realised today that Silly Me gave away the colour of this gift in a previous post, so thought some pics to help explain couldn't hurt.  One day I will remember all the things!

D115: Today I learned...

Today I learned that you really do need room-temperature eggs when making madeleines. Beating the eggs could take 3mins, apparently*, but if the eggs are cold you have to beat them until they warm up. That's when they start to thicken and 'ribbon' off the beaters. I kinda knew this before but now I think it'll stick. I think next time I'll even think to take the eggs out well before I start baking.

Today I learned that my continental style knit stitches aren't as slow as I thought.

I also learned that as gorgeous as this yarn is, it's not my favourite ever.  The best thing about it would be the range of colours, especially for a baby yarn. Shepherd does a lovely range of 4ply baby yarns too, but for a lightly thicker range these are delightful. It is, however, easy to spear this yarn as you go. I wonder how it will wear in the long run.

Right, off to tray-up this batter! I'm soon to learn if Maple Syrup Madeleines are a good idea!

*Suppose it depends on the room.

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Ed's note:

Oh yes indeedy-doody Sharon, maple syrup is a very subtle yet very pleasing flavour.

D66: Sneaky bits

I ran out of brown thread is morning so work was suspended until we could nick out to the shops, our second outing for the day.

I also bought some white fabric to use with those fat quarters. While I was out of action, so to speak, I thought I'd trawl Pinterest for some simple quilting ideas and decided on doing something like this Sweet Divinity Diamond Quilt found at The Quilted Fish. The white fabric is for sashing. I think I can figure out a version of this using 6 fat quarters and then use the 7th striped fat quarter as binding. I've also decided that this will be the project where I learning to free-stitch with my machine. That is, to use it with the directionless feed and, like, quilt with it! Eek! Coz, like I said, it's going to be quick, easy and simple. AAAA HA HA HA HA HAVE YOU MET ME?! AS IF!!!

Working on the 1:3 bag, I made the 'handle' tube and pressed the tips ready for connecting. I'm still deciding if helping my friend fix her knitting via FaceTime counts... yeah, probably!

Murphy's Cousin

There are a number of 'laws' that affect us, both real and perceived. The most famous 'law' I think is Murphy's Law: the idea that anything that can go wrong will go wrong. My favourite is the Murphy's Law of Assignments: the speed and severity of your computer crash is inversely proportionate the the urgency and importance if your assignment. So true, so true.

My skills are at that middle stage where I can generally thwart Murphy in most projects. But I am also good enough to think I can experiment without mishap. The size of a variation is directly proportionate to what I don't know about what I'm doing.

For instance, in a recent project I sewed on the soles of some baby shoes separately, instead of with the side seam as instructed. It added an hour to the project, and was tricky.

So, in the interests of creating a short hand for future kerfuffles, I propose a new law...

Murphy's Cousin: if I can make a project longer, or compromise the final product, by attempting a variation on the instructions for whatever reason, I most certainly will.

Coz I'm foolish that way, good intentions and all.