Zombie Pianist

I tend to forget how much a day of teaching takes out of me. I’m naturally an introvert; I can be an extrovert when the situation calls for it, but that usually has to be followed by several days of avoiding people.

Yesterday’s serger Home Dec class had five students. My limit is six—you’ll understand why in a moment—so I was right up there. One of the students had had a traumatic brain injury years ago. She and I visited before class and I planned to keep a close eye on her to make sure she had what she needed. Hers was the oldest machine, a 90s vintage Bernette serger whose guts are very similar to my Juki.

The other four students had air-threading BabyLock machines. Three of them were repeat students who had taken other classes from me.

Overall, the class went well. The reason I limit the number of students is because not only am I dealing with different personalities, learning styles, and skill levels, I also have to troubleshoot a variety of complicated machines. Knitting needles and yarn are ridiculously simple by comparison. I had one student who was ahead of everyone else (not unusual), and I was working hard to make sure the others were keeping up. The woman with the vintage Bernette serger struggled mostly because of her machine. She knew how to thread it and what she needed to do to get it to work, but we were pushing the limits of its abilities and that frustrated her. When it came time to do rolled hems, she couldn’t get past some tension problems. I looked at her threads and asked her how old they were. She had had them for many years. I suggested we change them and showed her the very obvious difference in quality between older and newer threads. Switching out threads helped, but she still wasn’t happy with her rolled hems. We changed and tested various settings. I was just about out of ideas. Finally, I asked her what needle was in the machine. I should have started there, but she had just had it serviced a few days before. I made the assumption that it was the correct needle. It was, but it was a serger needle. Serger needles seem to be very similar to “universal” needles in that they are a hybrid of a needle meant for wovens and one meant for knits. The tip isn’t quite sharp enough for wovens but it won’t snag knits. Using such a needle gets one around the issue of having to change needles based on the fabric. Like most middle-of-the-road solutions, however, universal needles don’t do either job very well. I will start students with them but I also make sure they understand that there are other, better, choices.

We switched out the serger needle for a sharp Microtex needle and that did the trick. If she wants to keep serging, though, she may need a different machine. By then, class was almost over and I had to scoot off to concert rehearsal. That student was determined to keep working on her project. Thankfully, two of the other students in the class were planning to stay and finish working on their projects, and they said they would help her if she needed it. I gave her my phone number and told her to call me if she had any questions or wanted me to meet her at the store.

Some time in the 20 minutes between leaving class—when I was very much “on”—and getting to concert rehearsal, my brain decided it was done for the day. I’m familiar with that feeling as it used to happen when I taught knitting. I’d get to a point in late afternoon where I literally could not process any inputs. You could ask me to add two plus two and I would just look at you blankly.

I sleepwalked through the concert dress rehearsal. Like most church pianists, I am a decently good sight-reader because people are forever plopping music down in front of me and asking me to play (or sing) it. When I have practiced a piece, though, I become familiar enough with it to anticipate what is coming next. I’ll be aware that a tricky sixteenth-note run is coming up and get my fingers in position to play it. I’ll be able to count six measures of rest without losing my place.

I sat down at rehearsal and looked at that music—music I know well and had played well at Monday’s rehearsal—and it was like I had never seen it before. I was having a lot of trouble keeping myself focused. The gas tank was empty and I played badly as a result. (I have solo sections in three of the pieces.)

I apologized to the music teacher afterward. I do not have anything on the schedule today (besides practicing), and I promised to be well-rested and focused for the concert tonight.

Note to self: Don’t stack the schedule like that next November.

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I did get pics of a couple of the student projects from class. These are simple table runners. We start class with them so that the students can re-familiarize themselves with their machines.

One student did a lovely Christmas version:

Kathy, who works at the store, did hers in Camille Roskelley’s Nantucket Summer fabric line:

After that, I was too busy to snap pics, but the others turned out well, too.

November is almost done.

Birthday Celebrations

DD#2 and I got up last Wednesday morning and headed for the ferry. We’ve started something of a new tradition where we spend Thanksgiving with DD#1’s in-laws. Last year, it was just them, their older son, and DD#2 and me. This year, DD#1 and DSIL came down from Alaska and DSIL’s maternal grandfather was visiting from Wisconsin.

I love DSIL’s parents and am so happy that our families can get together like this. His mom is an exceptional cook and baker and the food is always fantastic. And this year, my birthday fell on Thanksgiving Day.

Unfortunately, while we were sitting in line at the ferry, waiting to see if we could get on the 7:55 am run, the car behind us bumped into the BMW. It was a gentle tap, nothing more—I suspect the kid let his foot slip off the brake momentarily. He hurried up to my car with his name and number scribbled on a napkin and said that if both of us were able to get on the same ferry, he would come back and talk to me.

His car was right behind mine on the ferry after loading, so we took pictures of each car. I couldn’t see any damage, but the husband said that sometimes the clips holding the bumper will snap. As it turned out, this kid was a 2013 Gonzaga grad. (I have a Gonzaga Mom license plate holder.) I told him I would have the car checked out and let him know if there was any damage.

We arrived at DSIL’s parents’ house around 9:30 where we all sat down to a “light” breakfast of eggs, oatmeal, muffins and bagels, and fresh fruit. Oh, and apple crisp to put on top of the oatmeal. No one ever leaves the table hungry. DSIL’s dad went out and looked over the car for me. He said the only damage he could find was the faint imprint of a Phillips-head screw on the bumper, likely from the kid’s license plate.

DSIL’s mom had done much of the prep work for the day ahead of time. My contribution was to make the apple salad, of which I later had two big helpings, because what could be better than apples, grapes, and mini-marshmallows covered in homemade whipped cream? After a dinner of turkey with all the trimmings, we went for a walk around the neighborhood with the dogs. Several other neighbors had the same idea.

We came back for a dessert of apple, pumpkin, and pecan pies along with an ice cream cake for my birthday. The cake had an Oreo crumb base with Tillamook cherry ice cream on top. That was delicious.

Once everyone was stuffed full, we gathered in the living room for the evening movie. The kids chose “Top Gun Maverick.” I’m not a big fan of action movies because they tend to be thin on plot and heavy on blowing things up but I enjoyed this one. I’d watch it again.

DD#2 and I said our good-byes and headed for the hotel. I didn’t want to drive back to Seattle so late so we just got a room for the night.

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We were sitting in the car on the ferry the next morning when the captain came on the loudspeaker and said, “We’re slowing down because there is a pod of Orcas ahead. If you want to see them, they are off the left side of the boat.” DD#2 and I went up to the observation deck. It was cold and windy and raining sideways—and the boat was rocking—but we were able to see the fins of the whales and even got to see a couple of them breach. Apparently, this pod is in Puget Sound for a few weeks every year around this time.

I had already decided, at that point, to head back home early because of the predicted snowstorm over the pass. Neither of us had any desire to battle Black Friday shoppers at the mall, so we did a Costco run and a Trader Joe’s run and got DD#2 all situated with supplies. For dinner, DD#2 had made reservations at Ray’s Boathouse, where she had scallops and I had the most amazing crab cakes.

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This marathon month is almost over and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I had a concert rehearsal yesterday afternoon. Today, I’m teaching an all-day serger class, then going to dress rehearsal. The concert is tomorrow evening.

I am giving myself until Monday to play with clothing patterns and sweater knits. Starting Monday, I need to focus on quilt projects. I have this out, waiting to be finished:

The plan is to to finish this quilt, my college roommate’s Sunbonnet Sue quilt, and a quilt for my sister that is supposed to be a Christmas present but which may be a Happy 2023 present instead. If I time it right, I should have lots of quilt binding to sew down (by hand) while DD#2 is here for Christmas. The Q20 is in my office, which is right off the kitchen, so while I am quilting, I also will be canning beans, salsa, and tomato sauce.

A Sweater Knit Bonanza

I am still trying to puzzle out this Walmart Mystery Remnant Rack phenomenon. Why Walmart and why these remnants? I decided that this trip would be a good opportunity to do some research. Do other Walmart stores have Mystery Remnant Racks?

Yes, they do. I think I visited a total of nine or ten Walmart stores between here and Seattle. All but two had remnant racks. (The small stores don’t have much in the way of craft sections.) The racks are full of remnants—mostly knits—put up as 2-, 3-, and 4-yard bundles. The bundles range in price from $3 to $8.

Walmart does not have a reputation for carrying quality fabric, but I refuse to be a fabric snob. I am somewhat appalled at the fact that quilting is a multibillion dollar industry populated mostly by retired white women with disposable income. We are never going to encourage young people to take up sewing if we expect them to spend $300-500 making a quilt. Ethical dilemmas abound on all sides of these issues.

And some of these Mystery Rack remnants are really nice. I picked up bundles of rayon jersey, rayon French terry, cotton French terry, waffle knits, and textured sweater knits, all in lovely, saturated jewel tones. Here are some of the sweater knits:

That one on top is particularly nice. There are only two yards, but that’s enough for a Harper cardigan with some corresponding black rayon jersey for the bands.

[Just before I left, I made a muslin of my deconstructed LC tunic pattern using a double-brushed poly remnant from our Walmart. I liked it so much I wore it on the trip. That one is a winner.]

I have no other avenue of shopping for these kinds of knits in person, where I can look at and feel the fabric before I purchase it. I also have no way of knowing where these knits are being sourced, so I have no way to get more of ones I particularly like. Oh, well. The Walmart Mystery Remnant Rack is a gift from the universe, and if I can’t go anywhere this winter, I will have plenty to keep me occupied.

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DD#2 had to work last Wednesday morning, so I entertained myself by visiting another Joann Fabrics and another Half-Price Books. I also went to the mall to do some research in the Liz Claiborne department at JC Penney, but two employees were moving and restocking all the racks with new items and they made it clear that they didn’t want to be disturbed. All I can tell you is that royal blue is a popular color right now.

After lunch, DD#2 and I walked around Ballard, one of the Seattle neighborhoods. I wanted to visit Monster. That’s a cute little craft store that carries embroidery and cross-stitch kits. I bought this one of an Aran sweater, which I thought was appropriate:

I also picked up a Robert Mahar anatomical embroidery sampler (I bought the heart). Both samplers are small—about 8” x 8”—and won’t take long to complete. Monster offers classes and Robert Mahar has taught there. I’ll keep an eye on their schedule to see if he comes back.

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Speaking of classes, a promo for a Gail Yellen class popped up in my YouTube feed yesterday. She’s teaching a Zoom class on making a Christmas stocking on the Bernina L860/L890 sergers. The live class is this Saturday from 10 am to 1:30 pm, although the class recording link is good in perpetuity. I signed up. I’ll think I will mirror the laptop feed to the TV in our bedroom and wheel the serger cabinet in there so I can watch and sew at the same time. I’ve been wanting to take a class from her and this project incorporates lots of decorative thread techniques.

Dodging Snowflakes

The husband and I do obsess about the weather. He works outside and I grow plants and travel. It behooves us to know what is on the horizon so we can make contingency plans.

I left last Monday morning for Spokane. I planned to run some errands and spend the night there. One of my stops was Regal Fabric and Gifts, the small quilt store where I taught in August. I popped in and had a lovely chat with Irene, the owner. The store is moving—hopefully some time soon after the holidays—and I am excited about the new location. The store will be located in the old Boyd-Walker sewing machine store downtown. Boyd-Walker was (I think) the oldest Pfaff dealer in the US until the store closed several years ago. I had been there a couple of times. The building is wonderful and that area has been renovated and cleaned up. There will be plenty of classroom space. Irene and I are going to visit again in January and get some classes on the schedule. Yay!

My original plan was to take my time getting to Seattle on Tuesday, but I looked at the forecast and decided that a better plan was to leave early and get over the pass before some predicted rain and snow moved in. I was very glad I did that. I left at 5 am—it was clear in Spokane—and by the time I started heading up the east side of Snoqualmie Pass, I was seeing warnings for freezing rain.

Given the choice, I would take snow over anything else. Snow is a visible form of precipitation that triggers something in people’s heads to tell them to slow down. Rain and fog don’t do that, especially if people aren’t also keeping an eye on the temperature. I saw vehicle after vehicle with Washington plates speeding past me as we climbed and I am sure it’s because those drivers think to themselves that they drive in rain all the time. Eventually, the freezing rain did get thick enough that the speed limit dropped to 45 mph and traffic crawled through it for about 25 miles up over the summit and down into Seattle.

It was 48F and pouring on the west side. I stopped in Issaquah for a quick visit at Gossypium Quilt Shop, Hobby Lobby, and Issaquah Sewing and Vac. That last place is a WonderFil dealer, and even though I have a WonderFil wholesale account, sometimes I just want a spool or two of something. This store carries many of the lines. I picked up a WonderFil Serger Thread pack:

I also bought a book of serger projects. I’m always looking for class ideas.

DD#2 was working on Tuesday and I couldn’t get into the Airbnb until 4 pm, so I continued on into the Seattle metro area and did some shopping at the half-price bookstore and a large Joann Fabrics. I came home with some fabric, but that’s a story for another blog post.

I’ll detail the rest of the trip in upcoming posts, but suffice to say that I had one eye on the forecast the entire time I was in Seattle. On Friday morning, I saw that a winter storm watch had been issued for Snoqualmie Pass from 10 pm Saturday night until 10 am Monday morning. My original plan had been to leave Sunday morning, drive to Spokane, and spend the night. I made a quick revision to those plans and decided to go home early. I have a rehearsal Monday afternoon and didn’t want to risk getting stuck in Seattle. All the snow tires and chains in the world wouldn’t help me if WSDOT closed the pass to travel. I left early yesterday morning and was up and over the pass by 7 am, although I drove in thick fog all the way from the summit to Spokane. The only way I knew my location was by the highway signs; I couldn’t see any of the landscape around me. Conditions cleared up in Spokane and it was sunny much of the way home. I arrived to find dinner and a happy husband waiting for me.

This is shaping up to be one of those winters where I probably won’t be able to travel much. I doubt I’ll get back to Seattle until spring, at least by car. A trip or two to Missoula or Spokane might be possible, but I think I’ll be staying put.

I’m going to skip church today even though it is the first Sunday of Advent. We made plans for the service without me and I hardly ever get a Sunday off. Being a church pianist is a job. I know people think I just come in and sit down and play, but as my friend Catherine used to say, “It’s hard work to make this look easy.” I’ll take the break.

A Gold Star

I had seven students in my jacket class yesterday. I thought it went well. Two ladies came to class with their patterns already cut out. They finished about an hour ahead of everyone else. I prefer that students not cut their patterns out ahead of time because I like to talk about fitting and tracing and grading, but old habits are hard to break. They were happy with their finished jackets, though, and that is what counts.

I really need to do some kind of demo day or presentation on fabric choices. I don’t know that it needs to be a whole class—although I certainly could turn it into a three-hour class—because students don’t always choose the best fabric for their projects. I used to have the same issue when I taught knitting, even when I specified yarn and needle sizes. I had a woman show up one time thinking that she would use navy blue sock yarn on size 2 needles to learn a very intricate cabling technique. Um, no.

And it wasn’t that any of the students had the “wrong” fabric, but I would have steered a few of them in a different direction. I did spend about 20 minutes at the start of class talking about fabric and fitting and some other topics.

The really fun parts of class are the ones that aren’t scripted. One of the ladies, Mary, took the Easton Cowl class a few weeks ago. She brought this with her to yesterday’s class:

She had gone home after class and made herself another one. We ooohed and ahhhed over it. Seeing students take the skills they learn in class and run with them is one of the best parts of teaching. The husband asked me if I had given her a gold star. I should have.

The store owner was also in yesterday’s class. She made her jacket out of fleece and wanted to do the blanket stitch serger edging on it. I helped her pick out thread and showed her the settings on the machine. She was able to make a few test samples to try it out and said she would do the edgings after class.

I want people to be fearless. I want them to think creatively about how they can make their projects unique.

And because it was an all-day class, we had plenty of time to talk over a variety of subjects. Without prompting, several of the ladies complained about our Joann Fabrics and how depressing it is to go in there. They are not happy about the limited store hours, either. And my sense that people want to sew more of their own clothes again is not far off base. Certainly, these women would like to do so. The sticking point seems to be locating quality fabrics. I applaud the quilt store owners for being willing to invest money in garment fabric inventory, because that is a risk for them. I think they’re seeing the demand for those fabrics, though, and that feeds on itself.

I see parallels to what quilters say it was like in the 70s and 80s, when quilting started to enjoy a resurgence in popularity but floral-y calicoes were the only fabrics available. Look where we are now with quilting fabrics.

I’ll do my part and continue to wear my me-mades so that people can see what is possible. (I had on one of my LC knock-offs yesterday.) At the end of class the students were asking what classes we had scheduled for 2023. The interest is there—we just need to keep feeding it.

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I hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving if you’re celebrating this week, and a great week if you’re not. I’ll see you after the fact.

A Fabric By Any Other Name

I wonder if Amazon will regret shutting down Fabric.com. I know they claimed it was losing money, but was that due to a poor business model or poor management? Any money-making proposition can be run into the ground by people who don’t understand customers’ needs and purchasing habits.

Walmart clearly wants to move into Amazon’s territory. I mentioned a few weeks ago that I discovered that Walmart is now doing order fulfillment with suppliers in much that same way that Amazon does. I’ve been able to find and order fabric through the Walmart website from Stylish Fabrics.

[Interestingly, it’s harder to find those same fabrics on Stylish Fabric’s website, although I am sure they are there. The search engine has useful filters; the issue seems to be inconsistencies in the product descriptions.]

Stylish Fabrics has a listing on Walmart’s website for rayon ponte roma fabric. They have an almost identical listing for the same fabric on their own website. I ordered two yards of this and it came yesterday.

This is a perfect example of why it is so hard to shop for fabric without being able to see and feel it in person. This fabric is described as a ponte roma. (Technically, I believe it is ponte de roma, but I suppose I’m asking for too much to have it named properly.) It is exactly the weight and blend I need to replicate that Liz Claiborne top. However, it in no way resembles the ponte from which I make all my Renee pants, and if I bought this intending to make a pair of Renee pants from it, I would be sorely disappointed. I think it would be better described as a rayon interlock knit than a ponte. Who gets to decide how a fabric is labelled and identified? The manufacturer? The supplier?

I did get Whitney’s list of her favorite online fabric stores and places to order specific fabrics as part of her TomKat Stitchery newsletter this week. That has been helpful for identifying good sources of quality fabric. Many online stores also offer swatches, but shopping for fabric that way is a time-consuming process.

I hate reinventing wheels that shouldn’t need to be reinvented, but at least I’ve found a good source for a nice, drapey, lightweight rayon doubleknit.

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I’m going to practice putting on and taking off my tire chains this afternoon. I’ve watched several videos because I always learn better by seeing an example. Hopefully, I will not need the chains. Michael Snyder, who does the Pacific Northwest Weather Watch videos on YouTube, said yesterday that the models are fluctuating too much to give any kind of accurate forecast for this week. He is hoping that they will converge and show some agreement by this afternoon. And the thing about driving over Snoqualmie Pass is that you really don’t know what the weather is like until you get there. That time I drove over in a snowstorm, it was 50 degrees and raining when we left Seattle. An hour later, at the summit, I was driving through four inches of snow.

First, though, I am teaching the A Little Somethin’ Jacket class at the quilt store. Some of the students from the scarf class have also signed up for this one, and I had to promise that I would talk about fitting and fabric in this class. My sense from teaching over the past year and a half is that people are searching for this information and wanting to make their own clothing, but they are coming up short.

Getting Organized for 2023

I met with the class coordinator at the quilt store south of town yesterday. Her name is Janet, too, and it gets a bit confusing sometimes—we were working in the office and the store owner called “Janet?” up the stairs and both of us answered without thinking. She also makes a lot of her own clothes. We got a bit distracted discussing different kinds of ponte for the Renee pants. She’s on her third pair and I’ve made four.

I’m glad we got together because I was missing a class date on my schedule. I have a Serger 101 class slated for December 14. No biggie—I could teach that class in my sleep and it doesn’t require any extra prep.

We scheduled the following classes for January, February, March, and April.

• January 7: Explore Your Serger Feet (Gathering, Cording, and Elasticator)

• January 11: Bernina Serger Mastery

• February 24: Renee Pants

• March 8: Coverstitch Basics

• April 8: New Look 6555 Keyhole Top (that was the dolman in rayon batik that the store owner bought from me when she saw it.)

We may add one or two more, but those are the ones that will go up on the website soon. I really wanted to add that coverstitch class, both because we have people who are interested in knowing more and because that will give me a reason to dig deep into learning all the coverstitch techniques. The owner asked me if I would teach some classes on making buttonholes and inserting zippers. I can teach just about anything that I have mastered myself, first, but I suggested that she ask one of her customers who used to make wedding dresses if she would be interested in teaching those skills. If she does, I’ll be signing up for those classes. The irony is not lost on me that I came to all of this with zero seamstress skills and yet I am teaching garment-making classes. Imposter syndrome, anyone?

I’ve got classes on the schedule for the other Kalispell store, too. And I really want to stop in and visit with the owner of the little quilt store in Spokane next week. I taught there in August and she said she would love to have me back, but it sounds like she’s also planning to move the shop. (I know where she wants to move it and I am just tickled about the possibility.) I’m taking my calendar with me and I’ll see what we can make happen after the move.

Getting the big items on the schedule four months in advance should help me avoid having another November. Theoretically. That does make it easier to say no to other requests, though.

The front that came through Wednesday evening scoured out the inversion and left us with brilliant sunny skies yesterday. The temps were not balmy by any stretch of the imagination, but it was a good day to put up what the husband refers to as “Janet’s Happy Lights.”

I got strings of these lights at Home Depot a few years ago. I take down the wind chimes and put these up after the time change, then reverse the process in the spring. I like that they provide a little extra light during the winter months when it’s as dark as the inside of a cow out there.

I also gave in and deconstructed that Liz Claiborne top. I decided it was too worn for me to keep wearing, so I took the seam ripper to it. I’ll trace the pieces for a formal pattern. The versions I made from the pattern I rubbed off of it are wearable, but they still need some tweaking. This is the best way to get an accurate copy for a top whose style and silhouette I really love.

Speaking of Liz Claiborne, I popped into our JC Penney store yesterday just to see what they had in the Liz section. I was pleasantly surprised to find quite a few tops in bright colors—purple and red is a lovely retina-burning combination—but when I tried some of them on, I was disappointed to see that they were too short. Some Liz styles come in Tall versions, but not all of them, and not the tops I would have bought. I am pretty sure the Liz designers are drafting for an average height of 5’5” and I desperately need two extra inches.

[I have to manufacture sympathy for people who complain that they have to hem everything. At least they can find things to wear. Too long is easier to fix than too short.]

I did however, find a cropped sweater to wear with my Liz wide-leg jeans. I tried it on and liked how it looked, so I bought it.

Ready for Winter With Flannel Scarves

This was the busiest week of November for me and it’s almost over. I feel like I’ve gotten past a big hurdle. I finally got to practice with the kids yesterday afternoon, which was incredibly helpful. I have been going over my music here, by myself, but that told me nothing about what my part sounds like with the rest of the instruments, or how fast the conductor wants to take each piece, or what sections still need work. Two of the arrangements are ones we did last year. I need to polish up the other two.

I came out of practice at 5:00 pm to find that the promised cold front had swept in. It was snowing as I drove down to the quilt store, although thankfully not as windy as predicted. I had time to eat a salad before class while the students were threading their machines and cutting fabric. And then we got started.

The class project is a flannel scarf designed by Sandra Swick, the Bernina educator who taught our Mystery Make class last April. She graciously made the pattern available to Bernina dealers to give away with fabric purchase or to teach as a class. I taught this same class last month.

Dawn and Melissa cutting their squares:

Dawn at her machine.

I’ve had Dawn in several classes and she is a lot of fun. She knows more than she thinks she does and her projects always turn out well.

Barb, one of the store employees, chose this combination for her scarf.

Everyone completed a scarf by the end of class.

I am teaching the A Little Somethin’ Jacket class on Saturday and that will be my last class at this store for 2022. (I have one more class scheduled at the end of the month at the other quilt store.) This afternoon, I’m meeting with the class coordinator for this store so we can start getting classes on the calendar for 2023.

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The lettuce is doing much better in my revamped system using mason jars. The timer I bought last year is not working, however, so I need to get that sorted.

The new snow tires went onto the car Tuesday morning. I had the front end aligned when the BMW was at the dealer in September, and the car is driving very smoothly. I am ready for winter travel. The Pacific storm train looks like it’s ramping up—next week is supposed to be wet, but warmer, with temps up in the 40s here in Montana and lots of rain in Seattle.

A Month Full of Time Confetti

Finding interesting fodder for the blog has been difficult this month. My schedule has been fractured and full of small annoyances. I am so tired of people behaving as though they are the only ones on the planet. Twice in the past couple of weeks, someone (the same someone) barged into the middle of a conversation I was having and redirected it without so much as an “Excuse me.” (If it happens again, my response is going to be less than charitable.) Others act as though they are entitled to my time. I don’t know where manners and consideration went, but I’d love to see them make a comeback. And if they bring rationality and common sense with them, so much the better.

I spent yesterday morning running errands but was home by noon. (Town was blessedly deserted.) The husband was here doing paperwork. I told him to call if he needed me, then went upstairs to cut fabric. Now that I know the difference between heavyweight rayon jersey and doubleknits—as I said, I need to get out of my own way occasionally—I went back through my stash with a fresh eye. I pulled two fabrics from which to make that Liz Claiborne top and got them cut out. I cut two more Burda 6315 tops, one from French terry and one from another length of that rayon fleece from Joanns.

My birthday is next week, on Thanksgiving Day, and my mother always sends me birthday money. I like to treat myself on my Thanksgiving trip because it tends to coincide with good sales. I’ve been watching the transformation of my closet into clothing I actually want to wear and I am trying to be thoughtful about what additional fabrics and pieces I might pick up.

Seamwork had a good article on what to sew and what to buy. I was in Target yesterday morning and picked up a black rayon French terry waterfall cardigan. Yes, I am trying to perfect the drafting of a waterfall cardigan pattern so I can recreate my black rayon jersey one that is worn out. I don’t know when that might get done, though, and in the meantime, I still need a black waterfall cardigan. This one met all my criteria for fit, construction, and quality, so I bought it.

I bought a pair of Liz Claiborne wide-leg jeans in Seattle in September and wore them to church on Sunday. I had to laugh at myself because what I really need to wear with them is a cropped sweater or top of some sort. I don’t have any, because I am too old to wear low-rise jeans with tops that don’t come down past my navel. The LC jeans sit at my natural waist, though, so I’d be willing to revisit the idea of a cropped top to wear with them. (I wouldn’t do a sweater, though, as I am just too warm most of the time.) I paired the jeans with a Burda 6315 tunic. Several people complimented the look, so I must have done okay.

[The Burda 6315 top in its original configuration would work as a cropped top with these jeans. I lengthened it when I made it. I am sure DD#2 will also have some suggestions.]

Okay, enough about clothing. I am trying to work my way back toward quilting, although nothing major will happen until next month when the schedule clears. I’ve been working on that cream-and-white log cabin quilt, which is the perfect project for small blocks of time. I need sixty-four 12-1/2” squares. I’ve finished 11 of them:

Five more are in progress. The scrap bag doesn’t seem to be getting any emptier, however. Weird.

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Seattle is in the midst of a very unusual dry spell that is supposed to end the middle of next week. I don’t think I’ll have any trouble over the passes on my way there. Getting back might be a different story, but we’ll have to wait and see. During the winter, I always break the Seattle run into two days. During the summer, with plenty of daylight and regular tires on my car, it’s possible to put the car in cruise and make that trip in eight hours. I prefer not to drive in the dark, though, and I won’t push the speed with brand new tires on the car. Also, there is a lot of road construction around Snoqualmie Pass right now. The trip from Spokane to Seattle usually takes four hours, but I am giving myself an entire day.

A back-door cold front looks like it might be trying to push its way through here on Thursday and Friday. I am expecting winds from the northeast even though the forecast doesn’t mention them, which it probably won’t until someone from the National Weather Service in Missoula looks out the window and notices that it’s breezy. The guy who does the Pacific Northwest Weather Watch on YouTube just started a series on historic PNW windstorms. I’m curious to see if he includes the November 2015 storm that hit Spokane.

Pies and Babushkas

I took my pies up to the church yesterday morning. Shoppers flooded in as soon as the doors opened, which was wonderful to see as the two previous days had been a bit slow. I oversaw a version of the Mennonite Game in which several of my friends who get mentioned regularly in the blog got to meet each other in person. Sarah was there, so I introduced her to Tera and her husband, because they got a flock of Leicester Longwool sheep last year and I thought the three of them would be able to talk about fleeces and handspinning. As it turns out, Tera also knows Sarah’s daughter-in-law, who is a physician at the hospital where Tera works as a pharmacist.

[It’s a Small World, After All . . . la la la]

Tera’s husband lamented that he has never been on the blog, so maybe I’ll go visit Tera some day and interview him about his flock of sheep.

Here is Susan, who was heading up activities for the kids. Each year, the sale highlights a different country. The focus of the sale this year was on Ukraine:

Susan makes a wonderful babushka.

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I had planned to drop off pies and come home, but I ended up spending an hour at the sale. It was almost lunchtime by the time I got back. The (supposedly) heavier rayon/spandex that I ordered arrived a few days ago and I wanted to see how it sewed up, so I put that together yesterday afternoon.

Eh.

I’ve come to the conclusion that categorizing fabric by weight—either grams per square meter or ounces per yard—is basically useless. The range is too narrow. This was supposed to be a “heavyweight” rayon/spandex. It’s not. It is soft and drapey, just like the other ones I’ve sewn with, and does not resemble the fabric in that Liz Claiborne tunic.

Whitney, at TomKat Stitchery, did a YouTube video the other day where she talked about some of her favorite fabric suppliers. She buys certain kinds of fabrics from certain suppliers, and I remembered that she said one supplier carried different weights of ponte. I am most familiar with the heavier ponte, like the Robert Kauffman ponte that I’ve been using for the Renee pants.

And then I had an epiphany. (It happens.) I’ve been looking for a heavyweight rayon/spandex jersey to recreate that Liz tunic. I need to be looking for a lightweight ponte, instead. I got out the top and looked at it. Yep, it’s a doubleknit fabric, not a jersey. I was going by the fiber content on the tag and forgetting to look at the structure of the fabric. Shame on me.

Seamwork has an excellent article explaining the differences between a jersey fabric—which has a knit side and a purl side—and doubleknits, which have knit stitches on both sides with the purl stitches in between the layers. Interlock and ponte are both versions of doubleknit fabric. Doubleknit got a bit of a bad reputation in the 1970s (those polyester leisure suits!), but the newer fabrics are much nicer.

I revised my search efforts to find a lightweight rayon/spandex doubleknit fabric. Part of the issue is also overlap in terminology. Should I search for ponte or interlock or doubleknit? Searching on lightweight ponte brought up a lot of hits, but most of the fabrics were some combination of polyester and rayon. I don’t like the polyester-containing pontes. They can be too hot. I finally found a lightweight ponte that is 93% rayon and 7% spandex and looks like it might fit the bill. I ordered two yards.

Shopping for fabric online is frustrating. I’d much rather be able to see and handle some of these fabrics in person. I have ordered swatches, but that is a shotgun method.

The TomKat Stitchery newsletter comes out Monday evening and Whitney promised to include her favorite online retailers for specific kinds of fabrics. I think that will be a very helpful reference.

And I need to get myself a copy of this book:

I picked up a copy of the previous edition at a thrift store last year and gave it to DD#2. Fabric information is very useful in her job. I have taken her on a tour of Joann Fabrics to look at different kinds of substrates in person. If I see this book on my travels, I’ll pick it up.

I’ve been watching the Pacific Northwest weather closely. It looks like it will be in the 50s and rainy while I am in Seattle, although I might run into some snow going over the passes. I’m getting my new snow tires put on this Tuesday and I’ll also have the chains if I need them. I did notice that the Snoqualmie Pass Twitter account admitted that snow tires on 4WD/AWD vehicles (the BMW is AWD) are an acceptable substitute for chains. I thought that was the case, which is why I never carried chains. I think that studded snow tires on an AWD vehicle with Montana plates should get me some kind of special dispensation.

Pies, Pies, and More Pies

Today is the last day of our church’s International Gift Festival. We haven’t held one for the past two years because of the pandemic. We knew that we might have fallen off of people’s radar screens as a result, and traffic has been lighter this year. I think a lot of us are tired, too, and not feeling the energy that we’ve had in the past. This event comes just after our pastor’s retirement at the end of October. We have had to parcel out many of the tasks he has done so well for so many years. We’re also still in the middle of processing exactly what his retirement means for us as a congregation. We have hired an interim pastor, but she doesn’t start until December 1.

I tried to remember to get some pictures at the sale. while I was working The pies are always a big hit:

We had a couple of people ask to buy whole pies, and one lady even wanted to know if she could buy rolls to take home. Oh, how I miss Margaret and Ruthie! We were reluctant to sell whole pies and especially rolls because we did not want to run out. I came home last night and made another shoo-fly and another butterscotch pie for the sale today. I also made the husband an apple pie because he did my chicken chores for me while I was baking.

[I have lots of thoughts about the way society is ordered right now, some of which are not popular. One of these days I might let them out of my head and put them in a blog post.]

Ginger, one of the women who does our visuals at church, came up with the idea for the centerpieces. She is such a gifted designer. Between the two of us, we made about 15 of these bowl cozies:

The month of November is almost half done. Next week is a bit lighter. I have two serger classes scheduled, but one I’ve taught before and the other one should be straightforward.

I’ll deliver my pies to the church this morning. I’d like to get a few sewing projects moved along today. I spent about 45 minutes organizing the quilting cotton scrap bin yesterday morning. It is high time for a scrap cutting session with the Accuquilt cutter. I also put a quilt on the table with the Q20. Seeing it there might motivate me to get it done. And I need to prep my second squash block and another chicken block to work on in the evenings.

I need to do a resupply of yarn for prayer shawls. I am on my last four skeins. I’ve been using Lion Brand Homespun, although I’m not wedded to it; they’ve cut back on the color selection and our Joanns hardly has enough of any color for one shawl. I might check Hobby Lobby and Michael’s—I think each of those stores has house labels with yarns similar to Homespun. I’ve been a bit blindsided, too, by the increase in price. I guess it has been a while since I bought yarn.

Who am I kidding. Everything has gotten more expensive.

I’m making up some shopping lists for my trip to Seattle (and not just fabric). Perhaps I will hit some good sales on my travels.

Pies and Lettuce

I came home from town Tuesday afternoon and started to feel kind of punky. I immediately began dosing myself with vitamins, ibuprofen, and hot tea. If I am vigilant, I often can get ahead of whatever might be trying to take me out. I woke up yesterday morning still not feeling 100%, but I wasn’t any worse, either. My naturopath’s office changed my in-person visit to a phone visit so I didn’t have to drive there. (It’s an hour each way.) My doctor is happy with my bloodwork and with my assessment of how I am feeling, winter viruses notwithstanding.

By lunchtime, I felt almost back to normal. I made four pies for the gift festival today—two butterscotch and two chocolate shoo-fly. This is one of the shoo-fly pies:

I am not much of a baker. I don’t enjoy it and it is not where I like to put my creative energies. I am competent enough to provide pies when needed, but that’s it. I am much better at these kinds of pies than fruit pies, too, so I leave the fruit pies to other people.

I also revamped my lettuce-growing operation yesterday. Last winter, I did a system using small plastic totes from the home improvement store. The husband cut holes in the lid into which I dropped 3” net pots. The lettuce grew in rooting plugs inside the net pots. The totes were filled with water and growing medium.

That system worked well except that a) the totes were very heavy when filled with water and b) we could only get six pots in each tote lid. When I bought the grow light shelf after Christmas, I thought I might try 2” net pots in shallower trays. That worked—sort of—and then I switched to growing lettuce in the greenhouse and the garden over the summer.

I tried the indoor system again this month. The lettuce just doesn’t grow well in the shallower trays.

If you Google “Kratky system", you’ll get lots of information on growing lettuce in canning jars. The 3” net pots fit perfectly inside pint canning jars, but I don’t want a big system. (I haven’t eliminated that as a possibility just yet, however.) I messed around with the 2” net pots and a bunch of half-pint jars and discovered that the 2” net pots fit in those jars with the rings on. I have lots of rings, some of which need to be retired from canning.

I moved the currently-filled 2” net pots from the shallow trays to the jars.

We’ll see how this system does. Hopefully, the jars are big enough to allow the lettuce to grow but not so big that the setup gets unwieldy. If this doesn’t work, I’ll switch over to the 3” net pots in pint jars.

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This week’s Craft Industry Alliance newsletter included a summary of the results of the Premier Needle Arts annual quilter’s survey:

According to the data collected, the average quilter is a woman in her 60s who is retired and has a household income of $65k+. 17.5% of average quilters have full-time jobs. (Please do not begin sentences with numerals!) The average quilter today is comfortable with technology, has been quilting for over 10 years, and starts 10-12 quilt projects each year, mostly lap quilts or queen-sized quilts, in a traditional style. The average quilter spends more than six hours per week working on quilting projects.

As far as shopping trends go:

Three main factors determine where the average quilter shops. First is product availability. Then, the convenience of the location. If they’re shopping in person, they prefer to visit a brick-and-mortar shop that is 30 minutes or less drive from their home. The third determining factor when it comes to shopping is fabric choices and, according to the data collected, product availability is more important than price.

Are you listening, Joann Fabrics? Quilters do not want to be forced to buy two-yard minimums online. And I would hardly call a store that is only open six hours a day “convenient.”

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I am scheduled to work a morning shift today at the gift festival, which I will do if they will let me. I’ll take my pies to the church and find out. We also have the annual shareholder’s meeting for the craft co-op this afternoon.

I am not inclined to sew this week, although I did hem a pink French terry pullover and the gray sparkle Renee pants the other day. My schedule this month is such that I thought this might happen. Taking a break isn’t a bad idea.

Sewing My Sweaters

The week started off with a bang. I was driving home from church Sunday afternoon when I noticed that it was a bit breezy. The wind was coming out of the east. That is never a good sign. The forecast said nothing about a back door cold front or easterly winds, although later in the evening, the National Weather Service did issue a Winter Weather Advisory that included sustained winds of 25-35 mph with gusts over 40.

The wind began blowing in earnest—from the east—around 2 am. Branches came down and a few of the husband’s concrete blankets ended up out in the driveway. The temperature, when I woke up, was in the teens, and that was without the wind chill. I was in the middle of reconciling the bank statement after breakfast when the lights started flickering furiously and then poof!—the electricity went out.

A few minutes later, the fire department was paged out for a tree on a power line up the road from us. Flathead Electric got a crew out here right away and we had power back within an hour or so.

The Missoula Police Department declared Emergency Travel Only for the city yesterday afternoon because they got hit with snow that fell on top of ice. I don’t think I can remember that ever happening before.

I have a feeling that I’ll be saying “This is unprecendented” a lot this winter.

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Let us pause for a moment and appreciate the irony of a former knitting designer sewing a sweater instead of knitting it.

Now that that is out of the way, we can talk specifics. This is the Patterns for Pirates Cocoon Cardigan, size Large, tunic length with long sleeves. The fit is close to perfect, although if I were to make this again, I might lengthen it a couple of inches. It would be longer if I had used the deeper band option that makes more of a shawl collar, but I was worried about running out of fabric.

The fabric is another chunk from the Walmart Mystery Fabric Rack. The yarn is a rayon/cotton blend or rayon/poly blend, or rayon/poly/cotton blend—all I am sure of is that it has some rayon in it. It’s knit at a fairly loose gauge of about 11 stitches per inch:

I don’t see a lot of sweater knits where I live—surprisingly—and when I do, they’re in muddy earth tones or sad pastels. This is a lovely grass green. (The color in the bottom photo is more accurate.) I was curious to see what working with a sweater knit was like so I would know whether I should seek out these fabrics or avoid them like the plague.

I read a slew of blog posts and tutorials about sewing with sweater knits. Many of them made it sound like sweater knits were hard to sew. I was prepared to say a lot of bad words while working with it. The hardest part was straightening the grain. That seems to be a common problem with this Walmart Mystery Fabric. I am not sure if that is due to how it is packaged or what. After some tugging and coaxing, I was able to get the fabric to lie straight enough for me to cut the pattern pieces, although I cut each on a single layer.

I did have to apply some hand lotion before I started as the fabric wanted to catch on everything. Beyond that, however, it did not try to fray into oblivion or misbehave. I sewed the first couple of seams with stabilizer, but even that wasn’t necessary. I shortened the stitch length to get good looper coverage on the edge. I also bumped up the differential feed to keep the seams from waving. All of those changes were made as a result of prior testing on scrap fabric.

The shoulder seams are stabilized with 1/4” organza ribbon. I bought it in every available color—including emerald green—when it was on sale a few weeks ago at Hobby Lobby. The whole garment went together easily, although after I finished and put it on the dress form, I noticed that the seams in the band are up near the neck instead of at the bottom. Oops. I think what happened was I laid the band out on the table—it had been sewn into a circle—but when I laid the sweater down inside the band to attach it, I must have turned the sweater around the wrong way.

This is why we make muslins from inexpensive fabric. I’m not going to take that band off and fix it.

Will I sew with sweater knits again? I do have some Hacci knit in the stash, so the answer is “yes,” although I won’t likely make a cocoon again. This is not my favorite cardigan style. The pattern would make a good class, provided we can source some sweater knit fabric for students to buy. And if I do teach it as a class, I have a sample already made.

I enjoy projects that teach me new skills.

Flatbed Serging

We had some wind yesterday, but not the high winds that went through Washington state on Friday. The area north of Seattle took a direct hit, with lots of downed trees and power lines. Our forecast looks mostly dry and cold for this coming week. Snoqualmie Pass was closed again for a couple of hours yesterday. I guess it’s going to take a while to convince all the idiot drivers they can’t get over the pass with all-season tires, driving 70 mph, when it’s snowing.

[I was driving through there once watching a woman ahead of me who would not move out of the left-hand lane despite signs all along the highway saying, “Drive on the right, pass on the left—Washington State law.” And she had Washington plates, too. That question must not have been on her driving test. She didn’t seem to notice all the people passing her on the right because they were annoyed with her. That is how accidents happen.]

The husband assembled my serger cabinet for me in the morning while I did some laundry and cleaning. I am very pleased with it:

Depending on the step in the construction process, a garment can get heavy and pull off the left side of the serger, away from the knife and out of the path of the needles. My Bernina serger came with a good-sized extension table, but even that extension table didn’t provide as much support as I needed. Now I’ve got that whole area to the left of the machine to support whatever I’m working on.

The machine sits a few inches down inside the cabinet. There is a clear acrylic insert that slips in on the left-hand side to make the bed of the machine flush with the top of the cabinet. The one drawback is that I have to remove the insert and raise the machine in order to change threads, because the front of the machine flips down to provide access to the threading paths. The machine sits on a hydraulic lift, though, which makes raising and lowering it relatively easy. When I need to drop the machine back to the flatbed position, the lift automatically stops at the correct spot.

Bernina makes an open-front cabinet for their sergers. I chose this one because it was free with reward points, and the Bernina cabinets run into the thousands of dollars. The Bernina serger cabinet is also much larger. This cabinet fits nicely in the space and closes up to about the size of a large nightstand.

[The husband did offer to cut out that front section of the cabinet for me, but I didn’t think that was a good solution.]

I ran up another Easton cowl top yesterday afternoon to try out this setup. I like it very much. I’ve also got the presser foot knee lift installed. It wouldn’t fit on the machine when I had it sitting on the previous cabinet. Once you get used to using a knee lift, it’s hard to be without it.

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The husband spent the rest of yesterday winterizing the property and putting away equipment. The plow is back on the red truck—it sits in the yard during the summer months—and the snowblower is gassed up and ready to go. I think we are ready for whatever Mother Nature decides to throw at us next.

I have an appointment with my naturopath this week, and our church’s Windows to the World Gift Festival sale starts Thursday. If you’re local, come out to the Mennonite church and get a jump on your holiday shopping. Enjoy a lunch of hot soup and homemade pie while you’re there.

Hello, Winter

It’s a mess out there. Cancelling the trip to Spokane was a good call, much as I hated to do it. It snowed most of yesterday. Everything was beautiful, white, and fluffy. Temps warmed up after dinner, though, and the snow changed to rain. Now it’s all slushy and wet. The winds are kicking up. And tonight it is all going to freeze.

Some people in the valley are still without power, including homes just a ways down the road from us. I think they get power from a different substation.

My winter traveling supplies arrived yesterday.

In addition to the chains, the husband ordered me a padded mat to kneel on—so thoughtful—and some hazard lights to put on top of the car. I have to practice putting the chains on today. They go on the back wheels.

I-90 over Snoqualmie Pass was closed in both directions the other night due to drivers not understanding what mountain travel is like in bad weather. Some people have a very steep learning curve.

My neighbor, Theresa, brought me this beautiful wool scarf from Scotland last spring.

I got it out yesterday to wear with my winter coat. It is exactly the right size and shape and kept my neck nice and warm. I hate it when my neck is cold.

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One of the pieces of advice I give people in my serger classes is to look at clothing tags. To recreate a favorite top, check the fiber content on the tag for guidance on choosing a similar fabric. Not all knit fabrics behave the same way. The right choice can mean the difference between a successful project and one that doesn’t quite hit the mark.

In theory, that works; in practice, I am finding it difficult and frustrating. I have yet to see any 60/40 poly/cotton knit yardage for sale anywhere. That blend is everywhere in ready-to-wear T-shirts. I have a Liz Claiborne top that needs to be replaced. The tag indicates it is made of a beefy 93% rayon/7% spandex knit. Rayon/spandex knits are not hard to find. Rayon/spandex knits in a beefy weight are. The heaviest rayon/spandex I have been able to find is some 200 GSM from Stylish Fabrics. Two yards of that fabric arrived yesterday. I might make up the tunic pattern today to see how close I got. I also found a supplier—Stonemountain & Daughter Fabrics—that carries Eileen Fisher deadstock fabrics. (Eileen Fisher is one of the companies DD#2 knows well from working at Nordstrom.) Mood Fabrics carries deadstock Liz Claiborne suiting fabric but no knits.

I’m baffled, sometimes, by what suppliers think consumers want. They gather all this data on buying habits, but I wonder if anyone ever stops to ask the question, “Are consumers buying these goods because these are what they actually want, or because we aren’t giving them the option they would prefer?”

The husband says I am an outlier when it comes to consumer demographics. I want things that aren’t available, like a diesel station wagon with a manual transmission. Or clothing in colors other than muddy earth tones and sad pastels.

Whatever.

I stopped in at Joanns yesterday. McCalls’ patterns are on sale for $1.99 apiece this weekend, so I picked up the smaller size of the waterfall jacket pattern. When I got home, I traced the pattern, then compared my black one to it. After some consideration, I think I know how I can hack the pattern to make it more like my black one. That will will require making a muslin, however. The next time I am in town, I’ll see if the Walmart Mystery Fabric Rack has some suitable fabric.

I’ve also got the Patterns for Pirates Cocoon Jacket cut out of some sweater knit, also from the Walmart Mystery Fabric Rack. We’ll see how that fabric sews up. In terms of “sweater knit,” it is comparable to a sock yarn knit at a DK weight gauge, making it rather unstable. I suspect I’ll have to serge the seams using some kind of stabilizer and play around with the differential feed setting.

Off Grid

The snowstorm that blew in Wednesday morning was not a surprise. However, it dumped 8” of wet, heavy snow onto trees that hadn’t yet lost their leaves because we’ve had such a warm fall. I was listening to the scanner and hearing calls for tree branches taking power lines down all over the county. Shortly after we woke up, we lost power here. The husband went out and started up the generator. Our generator is wired into the house and shop with transfer switches to move us from the grid to the generator. The generator is big enough to run everything, although we try to minimize our power usage when we have to use it.

The power came on briefly mid-morning, then went out again. The second time, it stayed out. And when the power is out, the internet goes out, even with the generator running. I am not sure why that happens. My phone is a mobile hotspot, but we live where the signal is weak on a good day, and our house has a metal roof. If I stand on one foot next to the window in the upstairs bathroom and hold my phone just so, I sometimes get a strong enough signal to get internet access.

I puttered. I talked to the music teacher, who canceled rehearsal for that afternoon because the church where we planned to meet didn’t have power, either. I cooked. I sat and worked on my embroidery projects.

Late in the afternoon, I texted Robin. She and I were supposed to go to Spokane this weekend. She had power at her house. I said I would see what things were like when we woke up Thursday morning and reassess.

I don’t often change travel plans because of weather. If I did that, I would never go anywhere. I’ve raced storms back here from the west coast. I’ve driven over Snoqualmie Pass in a snowstorm. I’ve been in fog so thick I had no idea where I was. I’ve been caught under microbursts where I couldn’t see the front end of my car. If I can avoid really awful weather, though, I will. We were still without power yesterday morning. The forecast for Spokane includes high winds and snow for this evening. Both of our kids were in school in Spokane the first week of November, 2015, when Spokane got a windstorm so strong that DD#1 was without power at her house for six days. Even if Robin and I could have gotten to Spokane yesterday, I had no desire to be stuck in an Airbnb without electricity or heat. I texted Robin and we agreed to cancel the trip.

[I’m trying not to be bummed about this. I’ve been looking forward to this for weeks. We’ve had such a hard time coordinating our schedules to make a trip like this happen. We’ll reschedule, yes, but it likely will be months out.]

The husband left me instructions for refueling the generator and went to work. I headed upstairs to sew. I had a productive day. I pulled out some sparkly gray Robert Kaufman ponte, purchased specifically to make another pair of Renee pants. I lack party clothes, and even if I only wear these once or twice a year, at least I will have them. I also made another Harper Cardigan, this time out of some deep pink rayon French terry from Girl Charlee Fabrics. This fabric is almost identical to the royal blue rayon French terry I got at Walmart.

We were eating dinner when I happened to notice that the lights on the modem were lit up, which meant the power had been restored. The husband went out to switch us back to the grid and turn off the generator. I appreciate the hard work that the linemen put in, because they had an enormous job. The county dispatchers were also working overtime. Unfortunately, we’re now under a high wind watch for tonight into tomorrow morning. These are supposed to be southwest winds, which means we probably won’t take the brunt of them like we do when they come from the northeast, but they could cause additional power outages.

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I’m trying not to roll my eyes at some of the posts and comments on the local Facebook group. I am failing miserably.

“We just moved here. Does the power go out frequently? Where we used to live, all the power lines were underground.” Please do not make me say what I am thinking. And yes, the power goes out once a week or so.

“Does anyone know what brands of generators aren’t noisy?” All generators are noisy. It’s part of their charm.

“We did not expect it to snow so soon!” OH, FOR PETE’S SAKE, THIS IS MONTANA. There is a reason it’s not a very populated state.

Some people are in for a very rude awakening. That warm fall was exactly the head fake I thought it was going to be. Mother Nature is not messing around. The high on Monday is supposed to be 17 degrees. Welcome to Montana. I hope you brought your long underwear. You’re going to need it.

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I’m personally trying to manage my own expectations—I may not be able to travel as much this winter as I’ve been used to doing. It is what it is. We’ll be tucked up snug and warm here no matter what happens.

And because the blog needs a picture, here is my almost-finished Squash Squad block #1. (I still have to sew some small buttons into the blue circles.)

Where Does Your Fabric Come From?

I was working on the stack of bowl cozies yesterday when this video popped up in my YouTube feed. How timely:

After listening to the first half of it, I was about ready to give up sewing altogether. Am I being irresponsible with my hobby? Am I singlehandedly going to kill the planet by buying fabric from Walmart?

Interestingly, the video I watched before this was Nicole Sauce’s recap of her food forest installation last weekend. She emphasized how important it is not to allow perfect to become the enemy of good. By the end of this video, the Core Fabrics owners said the same thing. They noted that making one’s own clothes—stepping out of the fast fashion system—is already a step in the right direction. Perhaps it is just rationalization, but I’ll take it.

(Wrestling with this question when it comes to quilting cotton is a bit more difficult.)

The Core Fabrics owners also mentioned, at the end of this video, that H&M has a clothing recycling program. I had heard that before and forgotten about it. Apparently, H&M will also take fabric scraps. I am going to stop in at H&M in Spokane and ask. If they will take them, I’ll drop my my unusable garment fabric scraps off when I travel.

I don’t expect to be making clothing forever. I am not a slave to fashion for fashion’s sake. I want clothing that fits me well, doesn’t make me look like death warmed over, in practical pieces that coordinate nicely. I’m making them myself because I haven’t been able to find those items in stores. If anything, I tend to keep clothing long past its expiration date, as evidenced by the decades-old Liz Claiborne T-shirts I cannot bear to give up.

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I knocked out seven bowl cozies yesterday.

Ginger picked out such pretty fall-themed fabrics for these. The bowl cozies will hold the other items she curated for the centerpieces. I’ll try to remember to take a picture next week.

I’m taking the Janome to Spokane with me for a checkup. I don’t think I knocked it out of time when I hit that pin a while back—the machine seems to be sewing fine—but it’s several months overdue for service and I want to keep it running in tip-top shape.

Our first concert practice is this afternoon. Two of the four pieces are ones I played last year and will only need some polishing. The other two will require practice. We’ll see how it goes.

Alterations, Mending, a Visit and Some Pie

My friend Twila, who is a manager at a retail clothing store in downtown Kalispell, brought a sweater from the store to church on Sunday and asked if I could repair it. The side seam had come apart. I brought the sweater home and fixed it Sunday afternoon, and yesterday morning, I dropped it off at the store. She said to me that if I wanted to do alterations, they could keep me plenty busy.

[Everyone could keep me plenty busy, I think, if I let them, LOL.]

I also hemmed two pairs of jeans for Elysian. That’s another job I only do for people I like. She had come over on Saturday so I could mark them. WS brought me the requested Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup as payment for sewing his Halloween costume.

I took the second Harper Cardigan to the quilt store north of town. They have a huge wall in the classroom where they display class samples, and they will hang it there with a sign with the class information on it.

I ran the rest of my errands yesterday morning, came home and put away the groceries, then headed over to my friend Sarah’s for lunch. Rainy, cold, and blustery weather has blown in. I was thinking on the way over how a bowl of hot soup would be so welcome. When I got there, I discovered that Sarah had made tomato soup from tomatoes she grew this year. It was delicious!

She also made pie for dessert. Sarah and Susan did a pie-baking class in August at the Community Center. Sarah makes delicious gluten-free crusts and she likes to experiment with different fruit combos for the filling. Our dessert was Italian plum/tomatillo/candied ginger with fresh whipped cream on top. After lunch, we toured her garden and then compared notes on our favorite YouTube channels. Such nerds.

Sarah thoughtfully sent home a tart-sized version of the pie for the husband, which he hoovered down after dinner.

I did no sewing yesterday. I have to make half a dozen bowl cozies today; we will be using them as table decorations for next week’s gift festival at our church and I offered to help Ginger get them finished. She cut the batting and fabric and I just need to quilt and assemble them.

I’ll be making pies for the gift festival, too—I’m going to do shoo-fly pie and butterscotch pie. Other people who are better pie-bakers than I am will be making fruit pies. Also, it’s nice to have a variety of different kinds.

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It appears that Walmart is trying to give Amazon a run for the money. Walmart is now offering fulfillment services from other, smaller retailers. I noticed this when I did a search for fabric on the Walmart.com website and Girl Charlee and Stylish Fabrics, both of which are online fabric stores, popped up as suppliers. I haven’t made a habit of shopping Walmart for fabric until recently, so perhaps this isn’t a new feature. The search engine leaves much to be desired, however.

And I see that Hobby Lobby has listed a couple of the new Essex Linen colors on its website. They weren’t there last week when I checked.

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Winter is not messing around this year, it appears. The high tomorrow will be 35 degrees with snow. (I do have to go to town for rehearsal, but not until later afternoon. Hopefully everyone who is going to drive stupidly does it in the morning.) I’m going to make one last pass through the garden today and make sure everything that needs to come in is in.

I’ve been watching the forecast models out of Seattle, too, and a couple of them are forecasting a fairly large snow event for the middle of the month for western Washington. (I like the Cliff Mass weather blog.) That’s too far out to be dependable, but the fact that it is even a possibility bears watching. I think I will go ahead and make an appointment to get my new snow tires put on before Thanksgiving so I’ll be ready to drive to Seattle. It’s time to go through the winter car supplies, as well, and restock anything I might have used. ‘Tis the season.

I just want to get through this month, which is looking more and more like a marathon.

Twinkie Sewing

I know some of you are here for the quilting content and I am sorry to disappoint you. I haven’t abandoned those projects. At this point, though, with my schedule and prepping for 2023 classes, I happen to be focusing on serging and clothing projects. I’m rather enjoying the fact that making clothing is such an instant-gratification process. I can knock out a top or a cardigan in just a couple of hours. I’m also loving the transformation that is happening in my closet. After years of black, teal, muddy earth tones, and sad pastels, it’s nice to wear bright colors again, and that’s kind of addictive.

I will get back to quilting. Most of my quilting gets done in the early months of the year, anyway, when I am inside all the time. I also expect that this trip to Spokane with Robin will get me energized for quilting again.

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I had a blood test on Friday in advance of my appointment with my naturopath next week. He checks all of my labs twice a year. I got stuck twice because the phlebotomist had to go searching for a vein. I have a lot of scar tissue in both arms because I had so many blood tests when I was being treated for leukemia—before I had a central line—but I don’t say anything to the techs because I’ve found that it tends to freak them out if they think they are going to have trouble. This phlebotomist missed the vein in my left arm. I asked her to take the needle out when she tried poking around to get into the vein. I can tolerate a lot of discomfort, but not that. She moved to the other arm and was able to get the blood drawn.

[When I was still working in medical transcription, I did a report once for a woman who had finished chemo but refused to let the doctors remove her central line. She kept it for several years afterward because it’s so much easier to get blood draws that way. I totally understood her reasoning.]

I’ll be curious to see the results and hear what my naturopath has to say. I have just about weaned myself off my thyroid medication. According to the medical profession, I shouldn’t have been able to do that—most doctors will tell you that you once you are on it, you can’t stop taking it. This has been a years-long process, with my naturopath’s blessing and oversight, but I am down to a tiny amount once a week. I may not even need that anymore. I seem to have plenty of energy and stamina. I tore apart our bedroom yesterday and did a deep clean with the air scrubber running. The husband helped me move the furniture so I could vacuum underneath and behind everything and get all the dust stirred up. I emptied the Dyson twice. I changed the outside filter on the air scrubber when I was done because it was obviously filthy. The inside filter is a HEPA filter and there is a light on the scrubber that indicates when that one needs to be replaced.

I am making progress, one room at a time.

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I’m about three-fourths of the way through my first Squash Squad block. I work on it in the evenings when the husband is watching YouTube videos.

I am following the directions in the pattern, mostly, although I’m not being slavish about it. For one thing, I don’t have hundreds of dollars’ worth of specialty Sue Spargo threads. I improvise with what I’ve got. And my stitching isn’t perfect but I am learning. I just think it’s funny that I am embroidering vegetables.

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According to the Washington State Department of Transportation, studded snow tires are not an acceptable substitute for chains if chains are required on mountain passes. Huh. I’ve been driving back and forth to Seattle and Tacoma for 12 years now—including once in a snowstorm over Snoqualmie Pass—and that was news to me. The husband says I can get cable chains for the BMW, although I pointed out that if chains were required to get over Snoqualmie, I might rethink my travel plans. I’m not worried about my ability to drive in those conditions. I live in Montana and I’ve driven in all sorts of bad weather. My concern would be the people who think four-wheel drive means they can go 75 mph on ice.

I’m keeping a close eye on the weather forecasts, as usual.

November is Full, December is Empty

Last November, I was asked by a local string teacher to play piano in a Christmas concert put on by her students. She organized a small orchestra and drafted a retired music teacher to be the conductor. The three of us worked well together, so I wasn’t surprised to get the text on Thursday asking me if I am available again this year. I get paid and it’s a nice chunk of money for something that is a lot of fun. I enjoyed playing in band when my kids were in school and I miss it sometimes.

I put the dates into my calendar—rehearsals every Wednesday afternoon and a concert on the last day of November—and decided that November is officially full. I cannot shoehorn anything else into the month. Indeed, there are a couple of days when I may be meeting myself coming and going, like the Wednesday when I have rehearsal from 4-5 pm and then have to dash over to the quilt store to teach a serger class from 5:30 to 8 pm. Our church’s fair trade gift festival is also in November. We haven’t had it for two years, so we’re hoping to get a good turnout this year. I’m signed up to work there two mornings.

I was planning to do my tomato canning some time in November, but I think that might have to get pushed to December. I need three or four completely empty days, schedule-wise, to get it done. December is empty right now except for Sunday choir practice and I am going to do my level best to keep it that way.

This is November:

This is December:

That empty December calendar is not an invitation to people to start filling it with things they’d like me to do, by the way. I have to hit the ground running in January and I need a month to myself before that happens.

November will not be all work and no play. Robin and I are going to Spokane for a few days and I’ll spend the week of Thanksgiving—and my birthday—in Seattle. DD#1 and DSIL are coming down from Alaska. DD#2 and I will join them at his parent’s house for Thanksgiving Day. The husband will enjoy a week by himself vacationing here in his shop. We do it this way every year and I know people think it’s odd, but it works for us.

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I’m still working my way through my garment fabric stash. I made another Harper Cardigan, this time out of some Robert Kaufman Laguna Cotton. The fabric is white with black dots, so I used black ribbing for the contrast bands. I bought the fabric at the quilt store north of town. I’ll take the cardigan in next week and see if they would like to use it as a store sample. They ordered the Laguna Cotton over the summer at my request. Both stores give me a nice teacher discount on fabric and supplies, so I don’t mind making up samples. If they sell more garment fabric, they will order more, and that’s a win-win for everybody.

I found another length of rayon French terry in the stash. This one is a deep carnation pink and is also destined to be a Harper Cardigan.

And I made up one of the dress versions of the Nancy Raglan. It comes in an A-line version—the one I traced—and a flare version. I narrowly averted disaster with that one. The purple cotton French terry had come in two separate pieces of one yard and two yards. I cut the sleeves out of the one-yard piece. The pattern indicated that the body pieces could be cut out of two yards, but I must have oriented the front piece the wrong way when I cut it on the fold, because I didn’t have enough left to cut the back piece on the fold.

When stuff like this happens, I always ask myself, “What are my options?” Going through that flow chart is helpful and sometimes shakes loose a novel solution. The obvious first answer was to cut the front down and make another tunic. I had enough of the fabric to cut a tunic back piece on the fold. I really wanted to try the dress version, though.

It occurred to me that if I were able to cut two separate back pieces together out of the fabric that was left, I could add a seam allowance and seam the back pieces together. I moved the pattern pieces around and discovered that if I were careful with my cutting, I could do exactly that.

The dress is assembled but awaiting contrast fabric for the inner part of the cowl. I don’t have a lot of purple fabric in my stash. Maybe something will show up at Walmart, LOL.

I looked at my black waterfall cardigan again to see if I could trace it, but it’s so worn and the construction is so weird that I decided just to alter the McCall’s pattern to make it look more like my black one. I want to size down to the Medium, though, and the pattern I own only has the L-XL-XXL pattern pieces. I’ll have to wait until McCall’s patterns go on sale again at Joanns and pick up the smaller size.

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I had just finished making dinner last night and was waiting for the husband to get home when I heard little feet running across the porch, followed by a knock on the door. WS was standing outside holding a piece of orange fake fur.

“Our sewing machine won’t sew this—could you do it?”

After a bit of questioning, I figured out that this was supposed to be a fox’s tail for his costume. The elementary school was having their Halloween carnival last night and he wanted to wear it. I pulled out some orange thread and re-threaded the sewing machine; luckily, it still had a ball point needle in it from the waterfall cardigan project. I ran up the seam and turned the tail inside out. WS stuffed it with fiberfil and then I tacked it to the leggings he was planning to wear.

It has been a long time since I worked on Halloween costumes for little kids. I told WS that he could pay me by bringing me a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup from the carnival.