Patterns, Fabric, and a Bomb Cyclone in Washington State

I spent most of yesterday organizing patterns and tracing a few new ones. The Butterick jacket pattern arrived in the mail. I would like to start on that one soon. I like the bomber jacket version, but that requires that I hunt down some ribbing for the collar in an appropriate color—I would have to order it—and I’d really like to be able to wear this jacket before next summer. I may just make the version with the self-fabric collar. 🫤

Sourcing supplies is such a PITA sometimes.

I traced Butterick 6858, which has been in my stash for a while.

I want to make the dress version eventually, but I am going to start with the top. The front of both the top and the dress consists of three pieces seamed together princess-style. I also like that scrunchy collar. This may end up being one of those sleeper patterns, like the Déclic top—unassuming, but such a staple—because the envelope also contains pieces for a skirt and a pair of pants.

The teal-and-black tweed wool fabric I ordered arrived yesterday as well. It is even prettier in person than it was on the screen.

I may work on these new patterns today because my quilting class was canceled. I’m a bit annoyed about that for a variety of reasons. I’ll just leave it at that.

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The new piano tech showed up just after lunch to work on my baby grand. Before tuning it, he took it apart and cleaned it thoroughly, which it desperately needed. I’ll be having him tune it again next time. He did a wonderful job and it sounds just the way I want it to sound. A person can tune a piano without knowing how to play, but I think that having a tuner who plays and understands harmonics beyond just tuning notes to specific frequencies makes a big difference.

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The chains for the Jeep also arrived yesterday—it was a big delivery day—so just before dinner, I went out with the husband to practice putting them on and taking them off. I am unlikely to drive over Snoqualmie Pass in the kind of road conditions that require chains, but the law in Washington state is that a person can drive over the pass in an AWD/4WD vehicle if the vehicle is also carrying chains. The chains don’t have to be on the vehicle, but they have to be inside it. Still, it’s good that I have them and know how to put them on. The husband observed that there are plenty of OTR truck drivers who don’t know how to put chains on their trucks.

Snoqualmie Pass is actually under a blizzard warning right now due to the bomb cyclone that hit the coast last night. “Bomb cyclone” sounds like a lot of hype, but it is a legitimate meteorological term. A storm becomes a bomb cyclone when the pressure drops at least 24 millibars in a 24-hour period, and this storm qualified. I looked at it on radar last night and it looked like a buzz saw heading for the Washington coast. The eastern Seattle suburbs were also getting some wicked easterly winds due to the pressure gradient that set up over the Cascades. That is the same kind of pressure gradient we get with back-door cold fronts that send the wind roaring down the mountains toward us from the east, but that phenomenon is much rarer there than it is here.

DD#2 checked in just after dinner. The area where she lives may have lost power overnight but I think she’ll be okay otherwise.