Oh hey, this thing has an ap!

Now I see that I have no excuse not to post more often... Even if it isn't the best photos or in depth descriptions, and even if swype makes what I type cryptic and confusing, I'll post more. Starting today, going to show some of what I've been working on over the last year.
Currently, since I have a badly sprained hand and finger, I'm only spinning. Mill end wool, I think Norwegian but could be Corriedale, in pastel candy colors. will be two ply (I don't dare try more), about a light worsted equivalent.
I also dyed a lot of black and white mill end Norwegian into rich jewel toned roving, which I will spin next. It may be a bit bulkier.

My finger looks less like a sausage now but more colorful. Still in a splint, though I do try to move it a bit daily. It doesn't want to work. Considering how weird the injury was I have no idea the degree of damage and may end up going to an orthopedic doc for it.

Months go by...

I know it's been a couple of months since I last posted. I've made several more dresses
very nearly finished my brother's hat, and done some quickie projects just to stay busy. Here's one, my 'ugly purse'.
Edit: updating to include brother's finished hat!

Hoppin' to it!

I was in a productive mood. I keep weird hours - okay I am a TOTAL night owl. I stay up past 2am and sleep till noon or later. I get things done, but I just do them at different times of the day than normal folks. I get my morning coffee at lunch time. I eat lunch when the kids get home from school. I have a midday snack when they're eating supper. And after they go to bed I get some down time to just create. Today though, I started my creating early in the day.

The first thing I did was grab the green fabric I bought to match a bit of ribbon I got 20 years ago. There was a ribbon outlet down south of us at an outlet mall, and their big 'deal' was to stuff a zipper bag full for a flat rate. Well you can imagine I packed in as much ribbon as I could - some was remnant, some was tangled ribbon off-the-spool, and quite a bit of the massive mound of ribbon was damaged bits that the manufacturers still wanted to get a buck or two off of. I have a tight roll of 3" wide white satin ribbon begging for a project - probably five or more yards, at least. But the ribbon I have been most eager to use has been the 2" wide green satin ribbon. A great deal of it has a fold and discoloration, but enough of this ribbon was in good shape that I was able to use it for this dress. The rest just fell into place.

Matching pacifier, how cool is that!

I had the yellow fabric for the lining from a $1/yard sale at a craft and fabric store in Cali, back when I did a lot of Ren Faire. The frogs and turtles was a recent purchase, it sort of jumped into my cart off the shelves at Wal-Mart (I hear all you sewing mavens gasping and groaning - but my options are limited, as is my budget).



The buttons were from my stash of new buttons, not intended for this fabric. I had a pair of lime green buttons, because when I bought this I intended to make another reversible A-line dress and put another fun fabric on the back side - so I only needed the two green buttons. But I needed four buttons for this dress, so I had to go with what I had. I don't think they look too bad, they pull some of the blue accents out of the dress. it works.
 I made a basic bodice - actually used the pattern I drew up for the A-line dress, but changed the sides of the bodice so they were straighter, more fitted, and then split the back and added an inch to each center mark so there would be an overlap for the buttons. So there are three bodice pieces (six if you count the lining.) The skirt is in three panels, each double the width of each bodice panel, basted and gathered (draw up the bobbin thread to 'scrunch') to the right width.

The bodice's bottom edge sandwiches the top of the skirt, holding all those gathers in place. Then, because I think that edge looks kinda drab, the ribbon is added as a sash. I left the front of the ribbon sash wide, but gave the sides (just under arms) a little pinch and hand-stitched them into place. Then the ribbon just ties into a great big bow in back. The hem is simply blind-stitched, by hand.

When I make another little dress like this I may photograph along the way and try to make some sort of rudimentary tutorial, because as a NON-sewing person, tutorials have been a great help for me. I don't know all the terminology or all the tricks of the trade, but I have had fun coming up with things for Miss Maeven to wear.

1. 
   

I think she enjoys her new dresses too.

Hot Pixies

Er, I mean hot pixels. As in, my 7 year old camera is really in need of replacement. Apparently I have a lot more hot pixels than I used to, as evidenced by my recent long-exposure photos of a storm (yesterday evening we had QUITE the lightning show to the east.) I went through and touched up the photo to the right, but it took some doing. It was cropped, too, so I didn't have to touch up every hot pixel. I like having a camera that I can just turn on and shoot with, and know that every shot is print-ready without having to digitally edit. And though it still takes awesome photos, I feel like it's about time to upgrade. So now I'm sort of (passively) camera-shopping (dreaming) for the next big thing. Even though I am still learning to use this one. Yesterday, for instance, I finally figured out how to manually set the exposure time. Imagine that! This one was a 15 second exposure, on a wobbly compact tripod, with the wind gusting to 15mph at the least. One of a hundred shots I took last night. I'm stoked. Quite a few had impressive lightning strikes. All had really cool clouds. I love how, in this shot, you can see the glow from the right where the street lamp was really messing with my shots. I couldn't get quite the best part of the storms in frame because of that damn lamp. It really screws up our front yard stargazing, too. Didn't we move out to the boonies to get away from street lamps and light pollution? Well, didn't we? ;)

Calmer Weather

Well since the twister, I've been a little on edge, but thankfully still productive. I've been knitting on my brother's hat, bit by bit, and I will unveil it when I am done - it has hints of Fair Isle, hints of South American style, and will hopefully fit him when I am done.
I've also been crocheting on a special project, no big complex deal just something for a good, dear friend who deserves a little something. I'm slow going because I've had other things to do, and my arthritis kind of hampers intense crochet sessions.
Today however, I decided I'd make good use of my time and whipped out a dress for Miss Maeven that I've been planning and brainstorming for weeks. I took my 'standard' A-line style, and added a sash. That's pretty much it. The skirt is a little wider than my prior dresses, and longer too. I wanted to make sure that when Maeven bends over to pick up Easter Eggs, her little bum stays covered.
So now, I present, Maeven's Spring Flutterby dress:

She was not happy about posing, or swapping dresses, or anything other than snuggling at this point.

The little flutterby gems were randomly placed over the edges of the sash, to tack it in place more securely. I applied it with a strip of stitch-witchery tape, but my experience is the stuff eventually loosens up. This was just to get it placed properly, so the stitching would be easier, and so I wouldn't mar the satin ribbon with pins.

Spring Fling... A Twisted Tale

Last night about 11pm, I looked at our local radar and saw a line of storms that made my innards do a somersault. Very calmly, I put our fire department pagers back on the charger bases, made sure one was turned to county dispatch, and the other was turned to our city's public works. My husband installed and set up the civil alert alarms some time back for our 'city' (it's really a small town, the sign says 700 people but it's really more... that's just in "city limits", though our 'town' is considered more than that.) He's had the capability to test and set them off since then, but it isn't his responsibility - that falls to our mayor/city council and/or police department (quite a few of our officers don't even live here, and oft times they are not staffing a late late shift like that on Sunday nights.) To set off the civil alert sirens, you have to be somewhat near them and punch in a code to the radio while keyed up. We live right smack next to one of them, and my mother in law is very near to the other. So it's just very easy for hubby to test them and keep them operational for our little town... but it has never been his responsibility - not even when he was the fire chief. When he *was* the fire chief, I would set them off in his absence once a month to check them... but we've grown a little distant from the department lately. We are both still members of our volunteer department... just very busy with work and family, so haven't been up on our training or meetings or run many calls in the past year.
Anyway, disclaimer stated... About 11pm, the radar indicated we had a strong line of storms headed straight for us, with potential for tornadoes and hail. I don't know the particulars of how to set off sirens for a town, so I'm not sure how early or late or anything - I just knew I had to get my kids prepared, secure some precious treasures (family photos, digital photo archive, legal documents) find a good place in this old house to bunker down, and then deal with my next priority - alerting town.
I woke the boys and told them, "There's a line of storms coming, could be about an hour or two before they get here, I'll be watching the radar and keeping tabs on what it does... but if I do come wake you back up again I will need you to move quickly and don't question anything I say, just do exactly what I tell you and trust me." They all three went back to sleep.
About an hour later, still watching radar online and weather radio on tv (I do not own a battery operated radio... just never had time or money to deal with it) I start getting text alerts pertinent to my town - severe thunderstorm WATCH. Our county set off tones for all fire departments - an 'all call' for storm watchers and personnel to be at the ready. (At this point, the storm had just produced one weak EF1 tornado to our north-east within the county.) The air outside was still, quiet, only slightly moist - no indication we had anything more than lightning and rain coming. But given the 'all call', I roused the kids and directed them to hole up in the safest part of the house. I went to get my daughter's infant carrier car seat, and as we were all assembling ourselves and donning blankets and coats, the lights went down. No more radar (except on my mobile phone web browser).  The watch was upgraded to a warning only shortly before the power died.
After the power died, maybe just a brief moment, I heard a loud crack - but it wasn't thunder. My oldest son strapped his little sister into her car seat while I started trying to set off the civil alert sirens. But with the power being down, they could not operate. Mind you I have no formal training regarding weather emergencies (just 37 years of Texan upbringing) so I was just doing the best I could. I tried again and again, and stopped short of running across the road in the driving rain and wind to get closer to the siren - because to go outside would leave my kids alone in a high anxiety, frightening moment.
I already had one child having an anxiety attack. He was pulling it together the best he could. But my boys were raised in California for the first 8-8-4 years of their lives. (they are 13-13-9 now). So storms are not as deeply ingrained in their psyche as they are into mine. I wanted to be a storm chaser as a child. This storm was exhilarating, if anything. There was no way I was leaving the building for anything.
A fellow fire fighter, my BFF K - her wee treasure 'Lilah is my goddaughter - phoned me in our worst moment of the storm, "SET OFF THE SIRENS." I told her they were dead. She lives in a trailer. I could hear over the howl on my end that the howl on her end was getting louder, and my heart sank. The storm was indeed a tornado - confirmed later by the national weather service as a very strong EF1, stronger than the one to our north) - and it was going straight toward them. My mother lives to the north east of us, the typical route for such storms - but she has been staying with her mom and wasn't home - my concern there was for her house and property, which I could (and did) check on in the morning. My husband also has family in the area, scattered all over the county. I checked in with my sister in law and mother in law just after the worst passed us. I also texted my BFF back to make sure she and her hubby and family were ok. Called my mom, IM-ed my brother in the Seattle area. Posted our status to facebook. By now my phone was really low on battery - thankfully I have a spare phone that remains charged (swap that sim card) and a spare battery for my phone, and the twins' phones. So we were 'connected' still. Just in the dark.
After the worst blew over, I opened a window for ventilation - power was still out - and we all camped out in the living room. Sleeping bags on the floor, candles on the dining table (secure in containers - I'm a good Girl Scout) and Miss Mae's 'Violet' leapfrog dog to play music (Glow Worm also helped) to distract the kids. My youngest son, Monkey-Li (Liam) wanted all his stuffed animals around him, so I sent his biggest brother with him and one flash light, and they collected the menagerie for safe keeping.

It was at least another two hours before they could calm down and sleep. I managed to crash out sometime around 5am. About 6am, power was restored, waking me up. The sun wasn't long after and I could go out and survey damage. The loud crack right after power died was a tree in our back yard, a previously damaged hackberry tree that was ugly and in a bad spot, so no heartbreak there. It split and came down on our goat-wire fence, easy fix. No other damage, but the storm moved our lawnmower (it *had* been right where the tree fell, but was moved across the yard and set down gently) and tossed our burn barrel way out into the road causing damage to other things - someone clearing debris removed the burn barrel before I got out to check things. Our other, lighter trash bin was left in the ditch, almost where it had been before. Certain things that stayed put, and others that got moved, just didn't seem like straight line winds, it was quirky and unusual- I knew for sure now it was a tornado. And that we had been right in the middle, and survived. Maybe it was those ruby red slippers I bought for Miss Mae a few weeks ago, or maybe it was just a whole mess of good karma, but we were spared damage. My mother's place, and hubby's uncles place also spared damage, save some trees and limbs. Our family is all very fortunate. Our whole county is very fortunate. No injuries, well none due to storm directly. I hear one person stepped on a piece of glass.

radar loop during the storm, we are south of Fort Worth

A barn to our northeast about a mile, flattened.

A barn on the left, house on the right, with significant roof damage - also about a mile to our northeast.

I haven't been back to sleep since the power came back on at 6am and woke me. I am operating on the residual adrenaline from the storm, what little caffeine and sugar I've consumed since morning, and sheer determination. Luckily, hubby's work sent him home early (not due to the storm) and he arrived at the house about the time I got to my mom's to check the property out. We got to spend a quiet, cool, fresh day together just enjoying each others company, both of us up since the witching our and tired. My daughter slept much of the day. The boys went to school - delayed start due to power outage - but then came home early due to another outage. It's just down the street. I was glad to have them back home. I needed extra hugs.

My usual late night hours of operation came in handy. Also my tendency to park on the internet and stay all day helped us avoid danger. Sure we all just stayed put in our beds and slept right through, but what if... what if... at least I had advance notice and was prepared. I'll look at that fabric stash, that yarn stash, that bead stash, and I won't think, when I get more time I'll do such-and-such. No, I won't say that, because I've got more time. And I am thanking my lucky stars that I do.

Something I made last year wearing something I made last year

Last year after doing one successful dress from a published crochet project, I figured I knew enough about crochet to design my own. Well I don't plan things out, I design on the fly. I usually make my teddy-bears stitch by stitch with no chart or graph or cryptic written instructions - I let the yarn and the stitches tell me what's next. I make a bear shape out of yarn, basically, and then there's a bear. Well the same can be said about a lot of my beaded items, and life in general for that matter. I intuit my designs.

So when I finished this little cornflower blue dress out of the cheapest cotton yarn (the stuff intended for dish choths.... super soft, loose ply) I was dismayed that it didn't fit my cherished 5 month old little miss. It didn't even have a good shape for a dress. Sure the skirt was full and frilly, but the flare fell at the wrong place on her and it just was too baggy around the bodice. The colors were nice, at least. And I'd recycled buttons off an old work coverall from some of my ex-husband's old navy uniforms that I'd saved for my fabric stash ages ago (they're too dark, but the right size - they're on the back.)


I even went to the trouble to try and make little slippers to match. They didn't stay on. I'm not sure if I frogged those yet or not, but I know I intend to.









Over the winter I brought the dress out a few times to use as a layering piece. Our house has no central heat and air, and no insulation. It's a 'temp'. We are saving for a new place, and this is a house my hubby 'inherited' so it wasn't really our choice location to live, but we kind of needed to get life moving along. (He took over a relative's loan, and since this is a small town, the house has some history in his family beyond that - his grandparents were renting a room here when his mother was a baby. Of course, it wasn't the heap it is now back then.) Anyway the house gets COLD, despite a big kerosene heater and space heaters, so the cotton dress was a good piece to layer over leggins, long sleeve onesie, and under a sweater.

Fast forward to today.  I've been eyeing the blue yarn, never one to waste. I could frog it to make another little dress, or use it for dish cloths, or make a few little head scarves (I still have ample yarn, I spent $9 on the yarn for the dress and only used $6 worth, actually less since there's so much of the yellow and white left over).

Run!

I figured I'd try it on her just one more time. The weather is warm and lovely. She's been enjoying just a diaper and tee in the house. Easy changes. Breezy legs.

Well... IT FITS! Happy Joy! The slippers may be a loss but the dress is a success! It's not for a 6-9 month, it's for 12-18 month. Consistent with my trend to make things too big, which I started back when I first learned to crochet, the dress just wasn't ready for Mae yet. But now Mae is ready for the dress.

I'm going to have to make some bloomers to match!