latest projects...

burda pattern #7866:

...and the betsy ross "one bag for all" tote, which i made for a craftster swap:

with a label! ...
i loved the burda pattern--straightforward, simple, and it turned out really well. the betsy ross pattern was OK--the pattern piece for the bag was annoyingly slightly asymmetrical (i don't think it was a deliberate design element)...but i like the result!

100 degrees, 100 pillows

it's been about 100 degrees here the last few days, so i've been staying inside, knitting, and sewing. i went to a carrboro knitting group last night at open eye and met a whole crowd of amazing and like-minded knitters. most are on ravelry--one is a moderator of the new destash--and, unlike other knit groups i've attended in the area, all of them are totally online-knit savvy and no one was knitting with acrylic. i even met a super-fun knitter who shares my current fancy for getting pygmy goats. our landlord would love that.

as for sewing, i'm the official museum seamstress: the preparators hired me to make pillow inserts for 25 pillowcases that will be included in their next exhibition. i'll post a photo of the mountain of pillows and my makeshift sewing area next time...

for the moment, a few projects. here's jarrett, a rather sweltering piece to knit in this heat, for mr. boot.
and a quick string bag, crocheted from a pattern in erika knight's simple crochet with leftover recycled cotton yarn. i began this one after attempting the magknits saturday market bag and failing miserably at even this simple lace stitch, in size 15 needles. but i like this bag better, anyway. yeah.

the bag is filled with cucumbers: there are currently 11 in the fridge. i must make pickles soon and find people to take them off my hands. any takers?

and finally, a parting shot of this week's CSA box:

NYC bag

tomorrow we leave for New York--i'll be interviewing an artist for my dissertation, mr. boot will be putting up fences and birthing lambs at his best friend's farm in new jersey. i'll be in the city for a day on each end of my trip to and from upstate, so of course I faced the problem of the bag--i need a bag big enough to carry my things for the week but not so big that it won't fit in the teeny space that is purl soho or be to heavy to carry around all day.

Enter this amy butler bag--with the rather embarrassingly domestic name of "betty shopper." it's the perfect size, thin but deep, and it's quite sturdy. it was a quick project, surprisingly quick given the many layers of canvas and interfacing that make it so sturdy. feeding the handles through the grommits was the only challenge, and that was just time-consuming.

here's the lining: a fun sky-blue with red and orange flowers.
one more image before we fly off to the big apple: an interesting shadow from earlier this week.

summer skirt #2

and a detail of the front ties: i'm finding that bread is kind of hard to mess up. i accidently made this batch of cinnamon bread with double the yeast and then ran out of flour. so i added raisins, turned them into buns, and they're lovely! perfect for tea this afternoon:

notice the buffalo china? we finally finished off the set during last month's great wedding gift trade-in.

big bird, the cochin chicken, has lost her tail feathers again. every time we move the coop, the chickens dig a new dust bath--this time a little too close to the underbrush at the back of the yard. we think that a cat snuck up on them, grabbed at them through the fence, and got big bird's tail, since she's fatter and slower than the others--and has longer tail feathers. there are feathers everywhere and the other two chickens are hiding in the coop, but nobody got eaten--the only casualty is tail feathers. whew.

summer skirt #1

i finished one of my summer skirts last night: the pattern is quite easy to make, quick (i clocked in at just over two hours), and with elegant results, i think. It fits well, although the side-slit construction is rather bizarre. i was determined to wear it today and just squeaked by...after finishing the hem last night, i had this much thread left:

new skirt fabric

ready to be washed, cut out, and sewn! i'm planning to use this mccall's pattern, with a hem using bais tape after becka's tutorial.

summer skirt

yesterday i decided to make a twirly summer skirt, and since then i've been deliberating between these two fabrics: amy butler's seagreen coriander and denyse schmidt's flea market fancy. i just ordered both of them. next week will be a sewing week!

the garter stitch bolero has been frogged and reknit several times in the past few evenings-- picking up stitches on this one has been a bear. at the moment the front and back are stitched together, one arm is fully knit, and i'm knitting the garter stitch border around the bottom, neck, and front edges. the second arm is picked-up and knit halfway down, but i'm waiting to see how much yardage the border uses. i love the full sleeves in the pattern, but i may need to make them three-quarter length: the yarn comes from a sweater that my mom no longer wanted, so there's a limited amount of yarn...