Knot Sure About This One

I wish there were a way to make this seasonal transition happen more smoothly. My brain is ready for winter, but I still have some summer tasks to finish up. I cleaned off the apple and pear trees yesterday, then went out to the garden and pulled up all the tomato plants. I had invited people to come and help themselves to tomatoes while I was in Seattle, but there were still some left on the vines. I brought in one last wagon load of tomatoes to ripen. They will get added to the 30 or so gallon zip bags of tomatoes already in the freezer. I need to spend one or two more days out in the garden cleaning up and then I’ll be done.

I finished the knot top except for the cuffs. I am trying to decide how I want them—hemmed or with a band. Raglan tops look funny on my dress form, which has narrow shoulders and no arms.

I may make this again because it is so incredibly comfortable, but the second iteration will have some changes.

  • The size is good—this pattern gave finished garment measurements, so I chose the size that gave me about 1-1/2 inches of ease on either side in the bust. The next size down was the same as my full bust measurement, and I didn’t want to run the risk of it being too tight.

  • I do like the raglan sleeves. I could envision using just the top part of this pattern and redrafting the bottom plain, without a knot, for a very comfy sweatshirt-style top.

  • I think that vertical seam opening I complained about has a purpose, which is to keep the back side of the fabric from wanting to flip over below the knot. In a solid color French terry, that would be a non-issue, but I’m using a print. And the backside of the fabric doesn’t show that much. Taking the seam back an inch would fix the problem, but I maintain that the opening does not need to be as long as it was in the original pattern.

  • I sometimes forget, too, that I have a coverstitch machine, especially when I am trying to make a pattern according to the instructions. I started to make a narrow hem on the back, as instructed, and then remembered that I could do the hem on the coverstitch. That was a huge improvement. I think I could do a coverstitch hem on the front, too.

  • This pattern has a facing for the neck opening. Eh. I would change that to a plain knit neckband and be done with it.

We’ll see. I don’t love this pattern enough to put it in the tried and true pile, but I might make another one with changes.

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In preparation for quilting season, I ordered myself a set of Amanda Murphy’s new Baptist Fan rulers. I also cut the fabric scraps that Robin gave me into long strips. I probably have enough fabric now for two cream-and-white scrap quilts. I didn’t feel like making another Candy Coated quilt with these, so I am doing the log cabin blocks that I did to make the quilt that is on our bed. I made one up last night to see how I liked it:

This is not a quilt that can be done in a weekend. I need 64 of these 12-1/2” blocks for a king-sized quilt. I’ve got these prepped for when I need some mindless sewing time.

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This should arrive tomorrow:

I am attempting to do something about the insane amount of dust and ash in this house. The industrial air scrubber models were about the same price as the home models, so I ordered this one. We’ll see how it does. I plan to put it in the living room. If it works well there, I may get a second one for the upstairs.

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Someone destroyed our mailbox while I was in Seattle. It happened in the couple of hours between when the mail lady brings the mail—usually around 3 pm—and when the husband got home at 5 pm. He came home and found all our mail scattered across the road. I noticed a few other destroyed mailboxes up and down our road, so I wonder if some delinquents with too much time on their hands thought it would be fun to drive down the road with a baseball bat and pretend the mailboxes were piñatas.

The husband has made sure that won’t happen again: