I may have a ton of sweaters and scarves in my drawers, but I'm severely lacking clothes. a while ago I cleaned out my closet of things that didn't fit, were worn out, or I just didn't wear. it felt great to make some space in my room, but I never replaced anything I gave away! I pretty much have about 4 shirts on heavy rotation. I think it's time to remedy that.

I don't' have much of a "plan" for my summer sewing or new wardrobe (what you would call a swap). I'm just going for patterns and fabrics that excite me and hoping that everything will come together in the end. if it doesn't, then at least I have a bunch of cute pieces and ACTUAL clothes to wear! a plan would be too limiting for me right now; I don't want to lose the excitement of sewing because of rigid rules.

I've basically lost my knitting mojo the last few months. I haven't seen a pattern that makes my heart pitter-patter (really, all I've seen is more of the same in the knitting mags the last few seasons) and my yarn stash feels like more of a burden than a pile of fun these days (look for a destash soon). I've been carrying a ball of yarn and some needles for the last two weeks, waiting for inspiration to strike. nothing yet. I almost don't want to bother, which is a really weird feeling. you know it's bad when you go on a 20+ hour car ride (twice) and you don't even think about casting something on.

I'm stocked up on sewing patterns though, so I see a lot of skirts, tops, and some dresses in my future. there's almost more patterns than time really. I need to figure out a way to make the washing and cutting of fabrics more efficient. I don't have a dedicated sewing space, I basically take over the kitchen table with my machine and cutting mat. I'm looking for a table though, so cross your fingers I can find something soon (I'm sort of looking for a table and ottoman that's in weekend sewing if you have any tips).

before I get to more clothes though, I've declared this weekend my bag crafting weekend. there are so many cute patterns out there and I want to make them all. I figure even if I don't keep every bag, I know some friends of mine will appreciate them (ie I've been getting some very strong hints lately).

what are your crafting weekend plans? and what have you been obsessed with lately?

Posted by bitter purl at 10:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)

stef happened to be in philly on my birthday weekend a couple of months ago, so of course we got together for a couple of dinners.

she put together a little gift for me, enabling my new obsession!

so I quickly started matching it up with some of the fat quarters I picked up at my local quilt shop. the theme quickly turned into orange.

tom wanted a big quilt. so I had a lot of cutting and piecing to do.

it slowly turned into, what I'm calling, my summer quilt. the colors are a little retro but fresh.

126 strips, 54 blocks, 9 towers later I have a queen size top (that is dobby approved)

the back was pieced as well, with one tower.

and secret little snippets.

now to sandwich it all together, quilt, and bind.

Posted by bitter purl at 07:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (20)

thank you so much for the comments (keep them coming) and the lovely emails! you sure know how to make a girl feel better about herself. after a little more self-analyzing I realize that my little conundrum isn't just about blogging but maybe life in general. things seem to change either very fast, when it seems you have no control, or very slowly, when your patience is tested and you start questioning letting things be or shaking things up. my mind has been both all over the place and stuck simultaneously. I would say that I'm in a rut, but I'm also excited about new possibilities. It's setting them into place and waiting that's killing me. and worrying that in the end nothing will happen (yikes!). I guess all of this is spilling over onto my crafting/blogging world. all this rambling is really just a warning for you, I may go crazy soon :P

so on to crafting. I finally got the nerve to bind that little doll quilt I started months ago. it basically became a swatch for me as I moved on to a bigger quilt. I practiced quilting on it, which I haven't done on my "real" quilt yet, and the binding. if I got anything from it, it was to learn how to let go of my perfectionist leanings. the quilting is all over the place, the tension is off, I don't even think the border fabric is even, and the binding was cut too short (I followed the wrong instructions for that one) so it doesn't cover all spots like it should (doh!)

BUT I still love it. knowing that I made it with my two little hands and struggled to figure things out on my own makes me happy. the colors aren't too bad either.

ps I'm trying out a new comment plugin that hopefully will make it easier to have conversations within the comment section! if it gets annoying I'll remove it, so please let me know! nevermind, that was a complete fail

Posted by bitter purl at 02:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I sorta told a half lie yesterday. It isn't just busyness that's keeping me from here, but, let's call it, blog-identity confusion. I'm just not sure where I want to take this blog. I'm not worried about knitting vs sewing, but rather how much more of me I want to share on here. I don't want to start writing about every day minutiae, but at the same time there is more to me than knitting. I also don't want to be one of those blogs that thinks they are a trend report and just posts photos from fashion shows or the latest anthropologie sweater. I do sometimes find things I would love to share (like this gorgeous handmade glass jewelry on etsy!) but maybe that's more for twitter? I'm not sure where I'm going with this little train of thought so don't mind me. I know some of you have closed down your blogs or are approaching them differently, what was your thought process? what helped make your final decision? (don't worry! I'm not going to stop blogging!) I would love to hear about it in the comments. in the mean time let's talk scarves, which I didn't think I would need in the middle of june!

pattern: baktus
yarn: koigu kppm, 2 hanks, p154
needles: 4mm addi circs
date started: 04.23.09
date finished: 05.10.09

was else is there to say about this? the yarn is gorgeous! the pattern easy peasy! I put it away mid may because I thought I wouldn't need it again, but this scarf must really want to be worn because I have to keep taking it out. what is up june?! yesterday was in the 60's and today it's pouring. my little wool scarf and I get to bond at least. want to know something? this was the last knitting I've done. I haven't cast on for anything else nor am I working on any lingering projects. I might have wound some yarn this weekend. maybe. but that's all that happened so far.

ok so you want a really easy scarf? like one you can make in ten minutes? get yourself some shot cotton and just mix and match some colors. sew it up and you're done.

when stef was in philly a couple of months ago I met her a spool sewing before dinner. the wall of shot cotton called to me. I quickly remembered this quick tutorial they posted on their blog and that's all the nudging I need. I ended up making three of them (one for stef, my friend zoe, and me) and I still have a half yard left of turquoise. I'm looking for the perfect orange and then I can make one more for me!

Posted by bitter purl at 09:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)

sorry for the silence, but it just seems like it's been so so busy over here lately. we've been out of town, taking classes, visiting friends, or just crafting. that and there's so much action over on twitter, I just haven't had a chance to log on here. I still owe some of you emails, so I'll try to get on that today! I'll also get some posts together this week since I have so many things I've been working on.

in the meantime, check out this petite purls! that lobster kills me! looks like we have an awesome resource for baby knits, it'll be interesting to watch the site grow.

Posted by bitter purl at 02:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

it started simple enough. just chatting with a friend about fabrics and sewing.then it turned into a little obsession between us.

I kept dreaming about fabrics and quilts. nevermind that I've never made a quilt and haven't sewn in years. nevermind that I didn't even have a sewing machine in my possesion. I needed to quilt.

constantly being teased on flickr didn't help matters.

of course all I've been doing this week has been looking at fabrics online, ordering fabrics online, buying fabric locally, and asking for a sewing machine as a present. answering emails? yeah umm no.

I found a pattern that I figured would be easy enough to practice and small enough for instant gratification. we'll see about that!

there's still knitting around here though! I started a baktus scarf this week after so many enablers commented about it on a previous post. koigu + garter stitch = heaven.

Posted by bitter purl at 04:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (31)

since I have nothing on the needles right now (let's blame wrist pain, in-laws, and indecision), I thought it would be a good time to backtrack and talk about one of my sweater fails.

pattern: minimalist cardigan
yarn: louet riverstone worsted, charcoal, 7 hanks
needles: 4.5mm
date started: 12.03.08
date finished: 12.08 and 02.09

where do we even start with this one? this is yet another yarn that didn't work for the ram's horn jacket and you've already seen it as the hap blanket. I saw Isel started the minimalist cardi with the same yarn, so instead of letting the yarn languish in the stash I blindly jumped in to this massive bandwagon. can we blame Isel?

it all started pretty smoothly - got gauge, knit the mind numbing moss stitch, and complained all about it on twitter. the knitting went by quickly, enough for me to think I would wear this by christmas. I did notice that the sweater pieces grew, by a lot, when I blocked them, but then I imagined them shrinking back. you can guess where this is going right? after I finally seamed the pieces and tried it on, I realized I had knit this thing with about five inches of ease too much. I quickly ripped the sleeves out (which looked awful) and let the sweater sit, ignored, for months.

it doesn't matter that I reknit the sleeves from another size. this sweater was pretty much dead to me since the first time I finished it. I finished it to finish it. To get it off my desk and off my to do list. if I would have cared, I would have reknit the body as well or just knit something else entirely.

lessons learned here? don't knit something just to use up the yarn, pick a design you love, check and recheck your gauge, make sure it matches the one in the pattern!, and if you don't love the end result rip it. a plus side to this is that at least I now have an oversized sweater to offer guests when they're cold.

Posted by bitter purl at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (22)