RIP iron

Oh, old iron, we've had some good times.
Remember that time when it occurred to me that I might have left you on when I was about halfway through my 50-minute commute? How we laughed together when I got home and realized it was just my slightly obsessive-compulsive nature that made me think that. I wouldn't leave you on. Not you. Never you. Well, now you're gone. Off to the landfill, I guess.

Maybe I shouldn't be telling you this, but you've been replaced. Yes I'm sorry, replaced.
Now I have this fancy-schmancy digital thing that beeps at seemingly arbitrary moments—on, off, ready, shutting down—it all sounds the same to me. It's not all bad, though. It does turn itself off... I guess... there's a glowing red light that stays on and unnerves me enough that I unplug it anyway. And the steaming function actually works...

Well, old iron. It's been nice knowing you. I will never forget that you helped me make many, many things, including a quilt long enough for my brother (a little excess height runs in my family) and my wedding dress and I know that you would have stopped me before I left the house with my skirt looking like this.



The fancy new iron certainly didn't.

PS. The iron would want me to tell you that the blouse was made from this pattern, with a few alterations. The new iron may have pressed the bow, but the old iron made all the rest of the shirt right.

Mr. Pink

This humble pink fellow is over in the Softies Central "2nd Annual Softie Award" flickr pool. He's waiting patiently along with a bunch of other cuties for the first round of judging to be completed. He also has an elephant friend and a "cutest face" friend*.

The judges are currently picking the top 5 for each category and you should be able to vote on those by the end of the week (or weekend.)

There are a lot of really cool critters/creatures over there.
Check it out!

*My fingers are now requesting that I take a break from hand-sewing...or at least use a thimble. Ouch.

Refreshing the Old Wardrobe

These came from across the pond after I read about this particular ebay seller here (which, incidently, is the only blog that I read regularly that is capable of giving me withdrawal symptoms). Spendy me!


Hmmm... I wonder why I fell for this one?

This is my first foray into Liberty fabric. It is indeed quite soft and nice to-the-touch. I have every intention of making a couple of springy vintage blouses out of these. If I keep this up then I will have to start thinking in meters instead of yards.

Fake Spring

Spring doesn't quite seem to want to show it's face in New York, so here's my little contribution. I hope it helps to hurry things along.
I just don't want to think about just how much time it's taken to get this far.

Their Time to Shine

This is Shiner.
He was doing part of his nightly exercise routine—gearing up for his big delivery day on Sunday. You have to keep those reflexes tight!

He's been our resident Easter Bun ever since this guy


handed over the torch and retired from active duty a few years ago. Now Gilligan lounges around like Easter is just another day. Though he still hides little tiny round eggs for us. They never get tired of that.

I wanted to post these to show off my little guys while belatedly climbing onto my furry soapbox to say that rabbits make wonderful pets but aren't really good pets for kids and real rabbits make terrible Easter gifts. You really should know what you're getting into before you get one. They're prey animal who are hardwired to chew—which means that they don't necessarily want to be picked up and carried about and will undoubtable find some pair of your shoes (my favorite fluevogs!), an article of your clothing (my favorite black sweater), your rug (yes, the purple rug he's up there dancing on), or a piece of furniture (my blue vintage couch) to chew. And that doesn't even cover the dangerous (i.e. electrical wires) chewing potential.
Bunny-proofing is important!

They are all different and are all just full of personality as long as you have the patience to sit back and let them be who they are. Our two are as different as night and day, but we love them both!

It is impossible for me to not relax when I look at this.

And, yes, it's an ad, but could bunnies and the House Rabbit Society have a better spokeswoman?

Happy Belated Easter!

The First Sign of Spring?

Perhaps.

Though it was more spring-like here earlier this week. Now it is drizzly and dreary outside.

sigh.

Don't tell me the groundhog lied to us?

I guess I'll have to make due with my very slowly growing fabric garden.

Did I Mention That I Finished Something?

Because I did.
I actually finished it a few months ago, but besides being my first "real" intarsia, it was also my first project with steeks, so it sat around while I screwed up the courage to actually cut through stitches that had taken me days (weeks) to make. Then there's the blocking process which, along with sewing the pieces together, is my least favorite part of knitting.
But it has to be done. I mean, if you want to be able to wear it.

On the other hand, the knitting part of this vest was so much fun. Every time I work on a different type of knitting I think, "this is the technique for me!" I like cables, sock knitting, lace, chunky-yarn knitting, fingerling-weight knitting, etc. etc. etc. However, I really think that intarsia may really be for me. I love being able to do straight, simple knitting with quick little color changes to break-up any potential monotony. Plus, it's very easy to see if you've made a mistake (I never seem to catch my cable mistakes until I've run through the whole pattern), and pretty easy to fix a mistake since the color you need is just hanging back there behind all the action on the front lines. So I guess I'm saying "yay" intarsia!





The pattern is from See Eunny Knit and I highly recommend it. Though do believe her when she says the vest is meant to fit snugly. I like the vest a lot, but I do have to do a little shimmying dance to get it off! I showed my true midwest colors and used Brown Sheep yarn—I guess the Nature Sport? (Sorry, I bought it 2 years ago...)


Here's another photo from the back...
And if you've checked in here before, you may remember this, but that was really the second intarsia project—I just managed to get the photo up first.

Bernard is Lonely

Poor Bernard.
He looks sad, right?
He had some views on Etsy and then something went awry over there and my view counts were zeroed out.
Now he only has a sad little 1 next to his name.
Won't anybody even give Bernard the time of day?

Ack! Is Quilting Month Over Already!?!

Because I barely got anything cut out, let alone pieced.



Well, O.K., I did do a little piecing.



I guess I misunderstood. I thought "Quilting Month" meant start 5 new quilt projects in 29 days. (Though I did start one in January, and I already had most of the fabric involved in all of these.)
This red & white West fabric has been lying around forever (well, since it was on sale at Reprodepot, anyway)



It is a humbling experience to lay just one of these squares on top of your bed (and ours is only a full-size). and imagine how many other 1 1/2" squares you'll need to cover that sucker up!



Lucky for me, only one of these projects has a real deadline.



And fortunately, it is not this one... yes, this will be hand-pieced. whew.


For me, February was also "sit on the couch while hacking your lungs out and going through multiple boxes of Kleenexes" month, which made tracing templates for hours and hours seem appealingly simple-minded.

Check out these cute and lovely quilts, too! (Check out her flickr set, too!) You know I like this one, too!

If I Were a Wee One

I'd want to wear overalls covered in cute little elephants.
These are for the newish little son of friends of mine. I think these are just cute enough to be worthy of his cuteness.

I believe the elephant fabric was from superbuzzy, and the dots were from Cia's Palette. Kid's clothes are just the best thing to make. They're quick, relatively inexpensive due to their small size, and usually almost unbearably cute because of that same small-size thing.

He really is going to look smashing in them.

Hats Off!

This was supposed to be a Christmas present, but my timing was bad.
Nonetheless, we apparently have 6 more weeks of winter, so it was appreciated anyway.



It can be hard to knit for other people. I am so not a "brown" person when it comes to color (with a few exceptions) but I have definitely married one. He probably wouldn't have been happy with the seafoam blue-and-red or green-and-purple color-combos I would have knit for myself. When I bought the yarn I had to close my eyes and just hit the "buy" button, hoping it would end up OK.
He's happy. I'm happy.

The pattern is from Hello Yarn and it just has the best name ever.
Maybe I will make the mittens in crazy colors for myself...?
Arrrrrrr!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Kansas!

Ad Astra per Aspera
(To the stars through difficulties)

Re-Purposed For My Own Purposes

Here's an example of something I made from one of the vintage patterns in my collection.

I tend to be too much of a fabric junkie to resist buying new fabric when I get my hands on a new pattern. In this instance I believe that I acquired the pattern and fabric at the same place—an unusually fruitful stoop sale. Most of the time these involve lots of toys and uninspiring clothing, but I came across one a few years ago that had a whiff of professional estate-sales type to it. I purchased a couple of cool patterns, including this one (and one from the 20s, which I have yet to even unwrap for fear of it disintegrating in my sweaty little hands). I also bought an old flowered tablecloth from her. It had a few stains, but I was just starting to buy vintage cottons fabrics and it seemed so delightfully cheap. I can't say for sure that I had the idea of making the shirt from the tablecloth at that moment, but it all came together pretty quickly. The fabric wasn't quite big enough, so I pulled some heavy white linen out of my stash and covered the seams with ribbon that mostly matched—see my forearms). I avoided the biggest stains when I was laying it out, but some still made it onto the pieces. My solution to that was to pull out my embroidery thread and do a little wacky, girlie, florally, freehand embroidery wherever the shirt looked a little icky.

Here's another angle (where I seem to be arching my back in an uncomfortable way!)



And, a nice little detail shot.
Eat your heart out, Anthropologie.*



This was a super easy blouse. I like the look of button-down shirts, but I can't say no to one that tosses that aside and says "Just use a side zipper on me." The woman in the pattern obviously agrees with me. She looks so casual and free! I also ended up making the pants from this pattern. They were an exercise in patience and alterations. I am no fan of low-rise jeans, but I am also not a huge proponent of pants that are so modest that they practically billow out and rise up to meet your ribcage, if not quite your armpits. I am on the thin side, yes, but I swear I had to take in at least 3-4 inches on every seam anywhere near my waist and hips. And I made it in a dark, ahem, stretch denim. Occasionally I will try something on "in progress" and end up in laughter.
This was definitely one of those times. Those pants probably wouldn't have seen the light of day except that I trimmed the cuffs with some cute vintage bunny ribbon.
Bunnies solve nearly all of my problems.


*Okay, okay, I'm sorry, anthro. Will you still let me come in and at least peruse your sale racks?

Trying to Get Organized

I didn't technically make any New Year's resolutions (and I usually don't anyway) but I definitely feel the urge to straighten up and organize things.
To that end, I have been trying to scan my vintage patterns so that A) I can keep track of what I own, and B) I don't totally destroy them by dragging them out every couple of weeks to paw over them. In theory I can check out the yardage requirements if I'm scooting out to fabric-shop over my lunch hour, too. (Although I do already have fabric for Ms. McCall's 9666 up there.)
Then, when I've gotten really organized I can start posting them to this and posting pictures of garments I've actually made from them. Someday.



When I started collecting them I was heavily into the 50's patterns. I still am, but am also finding myself thoroughly charmed by the super-simple mod patterns such as this lovely lady.

I've even found myself eyeing a 70s-era pattern(!). I'm going to have to draw the line somewhere—nothing past 1979 for me...the 80's were not a good thing, fashion-wise as far as I'm concerned.

Bernard

Bernard has joined his old (we think) flame over on Etsy.
Check him out!

Babette

This tarty little parsnip lady marks the beginning of my journey into the ever-more-popular esty-land.
She'll go home with you for only 30 smackers.
You won't wake up with any regrets, I promise.


Look at those lips—those cheeks—those lashes!
The little tart.

That's Just Not Fair

Just how am I supposed to resist this?
Curse you, Reprodepot!

Maybe I'll think of it as an additional reward for this?

The Hare-Brained Scheme That Actually Worked*

Often, when I am about to go away, I feel the overwhelming desire to pick up a brand new project and fully expect to finish it in the 2-7 days (evenings) I have unrealistically set aside for it. This really never works. I usually get half-way through before I am frustrated at my own unrealistic expectations which causes me to abandon the project entirely or else to stay up way too late to finish it. Therefore, I begin my trip sleep-deprived and am often wearing/carting around something that can be only be called "finished with compromises" (safety pins are my friends).

For once I timed it right. I was overwhelmed with the "need" for a new traveling hat exactly one week prior to departure. I stopped at purlsoho on the way home, agonized briefly over which koigu colorway—for me this is hard, I love wildly colorful patterns in fabric but generally do not like them in my yarn— and was on my merry way. Clutching a printout of sock pixie's beret, I set to casting on and knitting madly. Despite a short period of retreat from some mistakes during a movie that Saturday night (but can I really be blamed for concentrating more on yet another viewing of The Third Man than on my knitting?) I was able to make enough progress that weekend to warrant tucking all other projects away so as to not let them tempt me.

I managed to finish it Friday night, just before heading to the airport. There is a tiny compromise in it...it has a little un-woven-in tail of yarn, but I'm still charmed by it and was happy to wear it.
Oddly enough, (to me, anyway) chevrons proved to be a quite common decorative element in many of the towns that we saw.

Here's the hat in action—though this photo is really all about the background.



*No offense to any hares or relatives of hares. = : x

4 Years Later

After standing gracefully for a few hours atop a smooth white-tiered cake one October Saturday afternoon a few years ago, these guys have been lying haphazardly on a hutch (no not the rabbit-kind), collecting dust in our living room. Since they aren't really in the same catagory as the rest of our toy collection (none of the other toys were invited to this particular event), I thought that they needed a special little home.

The photo credit goes to the cute little guy in the top hat. ;)

Cupcake-a-touille

I like to bake.
It's the most instant-gratification-giving of all of my projects (as opposed to, say, quilting!), plus it doesn't inherently take up space. I also enjoy the decorating process as you can see here, here, and here. I have been looking at Cupcake Bakeshop for the past year or two. I've admired her photographs and tried a few recipes—though I've never been ambitious enough to actually fill a cup cake. (I did do this though, which did take a certain level of ambitiousness.)

So, when she posted about a cupcake round-up, co-hosted with Vanilla Garlic I thought I'd give it a shot.
May I introduce my Cupcake-a-touille cupcake—inspired by ratatouille. We all know zucchini bread, some of us may have seen tomato-cake, and apparently I was not the first person to think up candied eggplant, but all together? Well...OK, then.
I started with a zucchini bread recipe from my copy of the Betty Crocker cookbook. I substituted some apple/tomato sauce for some of the oil and added some butter because I wanted it to be richer. I also added a little cocoa powder because I liked the idea of the cocoa-tomato combo.

My thoughts on the outcome?
Overall I'm pleased, though I don't know if it immediately says ratatouille to me. The smell of the cupcakes right out of the oven was tomato-y and delicious. The lemon flavoring was really strong in the batter, but not as apparent in the final cake itself. Overall the rosemary was good, but a little overwhelming. I would definitely subtract rosemary and add more cayenne to the frosting, but that's a personal taste thing—I like the whole spicy chocolate thing.

Wet ingredients:
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup apple/tomato sauce*
• 1/2 cup veg oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp lemon extract

Dry ingredients:
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 Tbsp cocoa
• pinch of dried thyme

Extras:
• 1 cup shredded zucchini
• 1/2 cup candied eggplant**
• Parsley, rosemary, basil—2 sprigs each—finely chopped




Cream butter, sugar, eggs, oil, and tomato sauce.
Mix dry ingredients together and add to wet, stirring until just combined. Stir in 1 heaping cup of shredded zucchini, 1/2 cup candied eggplant and chopped herbs.

Scoop batter into cupcake wrappers and bake for 22 minutes at 350 degrees.




* Apple/Tomato Sauce.
4 medium plum tomatoes (skinned and seeded) simmered over medium for approx. 20 minutes with 1 small apple (cored, peeled, and chopped).



** Candied Eggplant
1 small eggplant (4 oz) peeled and diced.
Mix 1/2 cup sugar with 1 cup water and simmer eggplant in simple syrup for about 15 minutes. Spread on baking sheet, sprinkle with sugar and and toast lightly.

Frost cupcakes with:
Chocolate Rosemary Frosting
2 squares of unsweetened baking chocolate
1/3 cup butter
2 cups powdered sugar
2 Tbsp chopped rosemary leaves
1/4 milk

Melt chocolate and stir in 1 Tbsp rosemary. Mix chocolate and softened butter. Beat in powdered sugar. Stir remaining Tbsp. rosemary into the milk and microwave for 30-40 seconds. Add warm rosemary-milk as necessary to achieve a spreadable frosting.

Garnish with a tiny sprig of rosemary.