FO: Two quick repairs

What better way to wrap up the Month of Mending and to begin February is for Finishing than with a couple of things that had been sitting on my mending pile for too long.

The first is a t-shirt that, by a mistake of manufacture, had a hole in the shoulder.

 Here's the inside, repaired with a blanket stitch and double running stitch to mimic the stitches of a serger.

And here's the outside. There's a slight puckering at either end of the repair, but it will be hardly noticeable when worn.

 The second repair is a pair of dress pants that Husband wears to work. There's a blown out seam at the corner of the pocket...

...and another blown-out seam in a rather more delicate place.

 The pocket was sewn up on the inside using a back stitch.

And the seam of great delicacy was sewn up using invisible stitching (blind stitch), first on the up-and-down seam and then the side-to-side seam.

Dignity now restored, these pants can return to work.

Year in Review

 This year has been wild ride and I'm really rather pleased with the amount of making that's happened in a mere 365 days.

I got some big projects done from start to finish. The Sheep of Unknown Provenance was one of my biggest spinning projects to date and I learned a lot about how to process fleece, dye wool, and spin with color.

 Some projects were abandoned entirely and I'm not a hundred percent sure why. It could be that they were too fiddly or that I was distracted by something shiny or that it just wasn't what I wanted to be doing.

 Simple, but well-made seems to make me happy. I loved the challenge of learning new things like matching plaids and incorporating that knowledge into something I could share.

I knit or crocheted over 7,600 yards this year, which is the most I've done since I started keeping track. I couldn't tell you how much I've spun, but I'd wager it's more than I've spun in the past. I feel productive... and warm.

My baby has gone from a toddler...

...to a little girl. (Cue sentimental Mama sobbing).

And my big one...

A beautiful young woman. (Cue more sentimental Mama sobbing).

I've learned a lot, made a lot, been lots of places, worked hard, hung out with friends, and generally have had a lovely time of it. Parts of this year were difficult, but I'm surrounded by a lot of love. 

I've changed my mind and moved toward more compassion and more love. Just when you think there couldn't possibly be more room for that, more room is just there. 

Thank you for making me better.  

In 2016, I look forward to more challenges, more beauty, more making, more love, more focus. I look forward to the new shape of Project Make and to learning more about what I can do and what I can be: Faster, higher, more betterer. 

It's gonna be great. See you in 2016.

P.S. The Etsy shop is open now, if you want to take a look. 

P.P.S. Just a reminder that January will be the Month of Mending for the new and improved Project Make: a year long -along of -alongs.

So. Awesome.

I am hanging out in the Windy City this week, visiting with Husband's family. It is a festive season of festivity and I have been kicking back with some festive knitting.  And it's been a busy week, but a fun one.

I've organized my stash and made sure everything is updated in Ravelry. It's now put away by color in the stash, which is how I often like to look at it in Ravelry, too. This here is my whole stash.

After some careful calculations, I figured that I had about 8 years, 3 months' worth of yarn. That's a respectable amoun of yarn for me and all of it is stuff I want to work with. I don't feel the burninating need to buy more yarn and I do feel the need to knit with the lovely yarns I have. That's a good place to be with your stash. I'd say it was a successful stash fluff.

And this happened:

I had the great pleasure this last weekend to have seen The Movie at a private showing with some serious cosplaying fellows from the 501st Legion. It was awesome. It was really, really, awesome. That's all I can say for now. So. Awesome.

I also made a lot of progress on some grinchy socks (I have a sock and a half, minus heels now) and finished a couple pair of jammies for a little Bu, which I will show you in a separate post. Blogging on the iPad is weird, I gotta say.

This week in pictures

It's been a busy week 

As you can see

But I did start some socks

And I got some mending done

I even got to see the show after helping out backstage.

They were pretty great

We lit some candles (and had some chocolate)

We spent a little time together at the holiday party

And we got to see Santa 

It's been a good week.

Slow Fashion

So, I haven't fallen off the face of the Earth, I just got distracted. I'll give you a quick recap:

The sashiko patch I've been working on is done, but I have a little bit of embroidery yet to go before this pair of jeans is wearable. Without even meaning to, I'm participating in the Slow Fashion movement and have been since high school. The idea is that clothes should last because it's more sustainable and ethical, so that includes thrifting, mending, and saving for more expensive, quality items. It's also cheaper to mend than to buy new, especially when you're hard to fit. The #visiblemending tag on Instagram makes it feel more like hipster activist art, which is kinda nice. If you're on Instagram, I suggest perusing that one.

Finished sashiko patch

One hole has been darned and then couched and bordered in chain stitch. I did a blanket stitch on the hem, over which I'm laying down some chain stitch.

Darn it!

In case that didn't make any sense, here's a diagram or three:

These are my actual jeans

I must admit that drawing those was kinda fun. In reality, the stitches are much, much smaller, but if I'd drawn them actual size, you couldn't see how to do them. 

Other shenanigans have been happening, some of which include spinning while listening to Cubs games. Bu helped the other day with her very own fiber and my drop spindle.

And Iris is muddling through High School okay. She's hit a bump in the road, but she's got good support both at home and at school, so things should be smoothing out soon.

I promised some costumes, but Iris didn't need my help and Bu wanted to be Spider-Man, so I may do something for myself in the next week or so. I have a couple ideas tumbling around, but I haven't bought fabric yet, so we'll see. I'm thinking some sort of superhero costume may be in order. 

And here's Husband's birthday cake (now entirely devoured). This year is spice cake with basic cream cheese icing.

Stay on target... (We're too close!) Stay on target!