Category Archives: Books

The Handcrafted Wardrobe: BurdaStyle Book Review

Since the start of this project I’ve been hitting up our interlibrary loan system looking for pattern books and inspiration.  This is a fabulously economical way of trying out new patterns.  Within almost any library system you should be able to find a wide assortment of both knitting and crochet books, as well as sewing books, complete with patterns that you can trace and use.

It was in this way that I was recently able to wade through a small stack of BurdaStyle books.


BurdaStyle Modern Sewing: Dresses for Every Occasion

BurdaStyle: Sewing Vintage Modern

Nothing in either of the first two caught my eye, which was somewhat surprising, considering the themes of each.   Of course I can only speak from the perspective of my own sense of style, which may vary wildly from yours.  And I haven’t actually sewn with any of the patterns, so I can’t speak to that at all.

BurdaStyle: Wardrobe Essentials

The third one, however, has a lot of potential. There are a couple of cute dresses that aren’t appropriate for me in this phase of life (read as not nursing friendly) as well as some nice basic skirts.  There are a number of simple, basic tops, with really nice detailing that I would happily sew and wear.  I’m making a note to come back to this one when I start in on my cold weather sewing!

These two are contenders for my autumnal/winter wardrobe….

With maybe a bit of length added to the one above.

I think that with the addition of a modesty panel, this one…

Would make a perfect nursing tunic.  It looks like it would be really comfy made out of a soft sweater knit.

How are things going with you?  Are you working on anything?  The “Summer is a Comin’ In“ challenge is next week and I confess, I haven’t prepared a thing!  We shall see what the coming week brings.

I have a new theme for your consideration for Monday, June 13th: “Aprons” or any other sort of protective clothing that suits your lifestyle.  I’ve decided that if I’m going to take the time to make myself clothing that I love, I better find a way to keep it nice for as long as possible!

Remember the themes are entirely optional!  Please share whatever is inspiring you right now.  I hope you will join us!


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Books, sewing, The Handcrafted Wardrobe
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spring stitching

Whenever I see a pretty vignette on other people’s blogs, I’m always like, “wait, where are the grabbing toddler hands?!?”

Hiding out in bed, finishing up hand sewing the last seam on a tie for Elijah’s birthday.

We’re chick sitting for a few days, while we continue to consider the possibility of starting our own flock.

After my post last week, I spontaneously cast on for a cowl, designing it as I went along.  Rhythmic comfort knitting: around and around and around… I thought I might use one ball for the cowl and the other for a coordinating hat, but once the first ball was used up, I picked up the second and around and around it went.  When that one was used up I picked up an entirely different yarn and continued on with that.  Before I knew it, I essentially had an entire shawl that slips of over the head, cowl-like.  Which wasn’t the plan at all, but there you have it.

It still needs some finishing work and blocking.  I share it once it’s entirely done.

Celebrating Mother’s Day with my mother.  The beautiful linocut card and goodies underneath were made by Kris.

We are already thinking ahead towards colder weather.  This winter’s wood has been delivered and this evening I cast on for a toasty wool sweater in the color of powdered cocoa.

I’m reading Living Language by Donna Simmons of Christopherus, hoping to incorporate it into our studies, if not this year than next.

 

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Books, Gardens, Kids, Life, sewing, Yarn Crafts
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cook, knit, plant, repeat

The woods are misty green.  There are violets everywhere.  Seraphina calls them “Violet Juliette ..(our last name)..”s (her name is Seraphina Violet Juliette).  Dandelions are “Gordie-Dandy lions”, a reference to our friends Gordie and Dandy.

We’re trying to blitz-plant the garden.  The black flies are suddenly terrible.  We come up with a plan, all run out the door and try to put it into action right quick, before the bugs make us so crazy that we are all driven back inside in a buzzing cloud.

Elijah’s vest is done, and with a week to spare! There were 155 ends to work in. He counted. It’s now blocking.

I’ve mostly been getting on with some mending. Which is a good thing, since I tend to neglect it and with 5 active children it’s often much needed. Sometimes I can be so foolish! I found an entire sweater who’s only flaw was snapped yarn on a single stitch! Somehow I never thought to just fix it. And in my head there was a terrible lot that needed fixing about it, which I suppose is what happens when you leave something at the bottom of a work basket for years. Because why else wouldn’t I have just fixed it? Oh no, surely it must be a big project. Oh well, at least I’ve discovered it in time for it to pass through 3 more children! Sometimes having a big family brings with it less obvious blessings….like second, third and fourth chances!

Otherwise my knitting is sort of stalled out. I started playing around with making up a stitch pattern. It’s interesting looking, but I don’t think it’s the type of fabric I want for the project I had in mind. Too stiff. I want something mindless, but not quite as mindless as my blanket. Something quick and satisfying.
I have this little bit of yarn here that I know is not enough to turn into a vest for Galen, but that I still want to turn into a vest for Galen, and therefore keep trying to convince myself that it is indeed possible. Even though it’s really not.  And he doesn’t even really need a vest.  It was just a whim of mine.

I’m still reading and enjoying Spark Joy.

Yesterday I woke up thinking of the great many things I wanted to do with the day, but I ended up spending most of it in the kitchen, cooking, very, very slowly.  Pictured above is the Urban Poser Tomato-less Marinara in progress and this Oxtail Stew, which turned out on the greasy side, but that may have been due to some of my modifications.

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Books, Food, Gardens, Kids, Life, Yarn Crafts
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May Day

I’m so pleased with everyone’s enthusiasm for The Handcrafted Wardrobe project!  I am ridiculously excited about it.

I have no brain for original blog post titles.  I’m worn out today.  It’s been raining constantly.  It’s kind of depressing.  And soggy.

By carrying Elijah’s sweater vest about with me through out the day and knitting a stitch here and there, I think I’m on track to finish on time for his birthday.  fingers crossed.  I’m starting to think about projects beyond.  There are three sweaters I want to make myself.  Alright, there are thousands of sweaters I want to make myself!  But, there are three that I want to make right now.  Which is not in line with my current no-yarn-money status.  I’m making an effort not to resent my doctor for taking my yarn money.  I know he’s just trying to help me.  But if he comes in to my next appointment with a fabulous new hand-knit sweater, we’re going to have words.

May Day was beautiful. Not the weather of course, though it didn’t rain too, too much.  I taught Mairi and Galen how to knit i-cords and they made us garlands like these to wear.  I didn’t bring my camera; which fell somewhere between consciously deciding and outright forgetting.  I wasn’t sure how much I would be up for; my strength waxes and wanes, so I brought a sleeping bag and spread it on the grass beside the maypole and tucked sweet Miss Seraphine up with me.  But when everyone grabbed a ribbon, she jumped up, declaring, “Serasina need to get bow!” and ran off to join in.  She held the tail end of Mairi’s and she danced the entire time.  In the very last 30 seconds or so, when everyone was rushing around trying to tie up the band standing under the maypole, as is our tradition, a friends scooped her up and ran the last lap around with her.   I have requested at least one photo of her epic dance from someone who did take pictures.  I would like a memento of that for posterity’s sake.

I’m currently reading Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up.  Sad but true: I am a hopelessly disorganized and chronically messy person who reads cleaning and organizing books for pleasure.

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baby things, Books, celebrations and festivals, Holidays, Kids, WIP, Yarn Crafts
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flowers and books and wool

I just finished reading To Kill a Mockingbird again, so that it will be fresh in my mind for discussing with the child I’m assigning it to.  That’s one of the nice things about homeschooling, you find yourself actually re-reading the classics instead of just thinking you should.  I am every bit as in love with Atticus Finch as I was twenty-odd years ago.  I’ve moved on to Sensible Physics Teaching (I know how you all envy my crazy, madcap life!).

What a difference a week can make, in terms of both weather and knitting alike!  I don’t want to jinx myself by saying it out loud, but in the back of my mind I’ve kind of been thinking that maybe, just maybe, there is a chance of finishing this vest in time for his birthday?  Of course all of those ends in need of working in must be taken into consideration.

He selected all of the colors.  All except for one are very close to the shades in the original.  He couldn’t find a yellow in the yarn we were using that suited, so went with a dark green instead. I’m not sure it has enough pop.  That star motif seems kind of murky to me.

In other knitterly news, I finally broke down and bought a set of interchangeable circular needles.  Remember Seraphina’s sweet little birthday romper?  The part I didn’t mention was that I managed to break 4 needles on that collar!  The first one was a valid break, just the strain of a great many stitches (almost 400 I think) on a well crafted teeny-tiny wooden needle.  The next three however were complete negligence on the needle manufacturer’s part.  For my birthday, Iain and Elijah plopped down what turned out to be a really cheaply made set of circular needles in front of me and declared that I was never allowed to complain about not having the right needle again!  This was a very sweet an thoughtful idea of course.  But when I couldn’t slide the stitches down the needle at all or the needle slipped right off the cord, dropping most of my stitches off the end, I quickly found other things to complain about!  Thankfully they were in bed at the time, so I was left twitching, muttering to myself, and wishing we kept hard liquor or some sort of sedative in the house, away from their scrutiny.

With a sigh I realized I needed to replace two of those broken needles for Elijah’s vest.  The more I thought about it the more all this buying a needle here and there, as needed, was getting ridiculous.  So with a friend’s encouragement and after assuring my family that chipping in for this would be an early Mother’s Day present that would make me deliriously happy, I took the plunge.  And can I just say, I LLLLLLOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVVE them!  I mean so much.  I can’t believe I didn’t do this sooner.

After a whole lot of deliberation I went with the 4″, small tip set with regular points and I am very happy with them.  Also almost every size needle I ever knit with is all organized in this one tiny packet.  I’m still amazed by that.  It seems like nothing and yet it’s everything.  Brilliant.
KCCO

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Books, Homeschooling, WIP, Yarn Crafts
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You know you must be a homeschooler…

When your 13 year old asks you to knit the sweater vest worn by one of his favorite documentary presenters and keeps pestering you to get on it because he can’t wait to wear it in public…I’m really quite convinced that I’m spending more time untangling the six balls of yarn attached to my work, than actually knitting.  Much more time.  This is supposed to be for his birthday in mid-May (as he keeps reminding me), but it’s not looking promising.

I’ve been reading Every Woman’s Guide to Foot Pain Relief by the brilliant Katy Bowman, not just for myself, but also for the sake of my child with severe growing pains.  Helpful hint on that one, the only thing we’ve found that is really making a difference so far is regular high doses of vitamin D.  At first I found it amazingly challenging to be walking the right way.  Actually I could barely walk at all and slowly inched my way about holding onto furniture.  But it’s starting to become second nature now and I’m feeling strength returning to those under-worked muscles, as well as a general improvement in certain sorts of pain.  I think in the long run it’s going to be a very good thing.  So much so that I am seriously considering assigning reading it as part of an anatomy block for the older boys.  Perhaps it will influence them in their proclivity towards toe pinching, high heeled cowboy boots!

A couple of things for the shop:

A headscarf in nostalgic homespun.  One for me and one for the shop.  This fabric is fairly light weight and really scrunches up nicely.  And of course it can also be worn fully extended as well.  It’s just right for everyday wear.  I have a narrower version cut from the same fabric that I’ll be listing later in the week.

   And a few sets of birch candle holders:

KCCO

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Books, crafts, Kids, Mama Collaborative, sewing, WIP, Yarn Crafts
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Easter Sewing and Celebrating

A few of my necklaces were taken off the market, due to little people that I love being too attached to them.

Elijah finished sewing his shirt.  He consulted with me from time to time, but did all of the work himself.  Button up shirts are hard!  I consider that quite the accomplishment.  He used  Simplicity 1327, which we adjusted to fit him.

Dresses for my girls…there is kind of a funny story behind these.  Last year our friend and neighbor was here helping us with some carpentry work when, because sometimes I forget to just keep these things in my head, I exclaimed, “I really just want to make a baby dress out of your drop cloth!”  And of course somewhat to my embarrassment, she insisted I take the drop cloth.  And because it was a big old sheet, there was enough for two dresses and head scarves as well.  I used Simplicity 1264 which is a reprint of a ’50′s pajama pattern.  I simply lengthened the tops a bit.  I also put them together with total disregard for pattern instructions, just piecing it however seemed quickest and easiest. More on the bonnet in another post.

Let’s see, what else is new?  I’m currently completely lost in this book, working on Mother’s Day gifts for the shop, trying to get the gardens and yard cleaned up in preparation for planting, obsessively spring cleaning and trying to fit some remodeling projects in.  I’m seriously considering just assigning the kids some books to read and math sheets and devoting all of next week to decluttering, deep cleaning and repairing the house and yard.  I have this huge desire to get life in order right now.  I have such trouble finding balance in this season.  There is so much I wish to accomplish.  The pull outside seems at odds with the desire for that big push in the final months of the school year to try to fit in everything I would like.  Do others struggle with this?
KCCO

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baby things, Books, celebrations and festivals, Food, Holidays, Kids, Mama Collaborative, sewing, Yarn Crafts
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In Honor of President’s Day

Apparently we’re getting a whole winter’s worth of weather in this one week.  It’s particularly bitter tonight.  Steve and I are taking shifts feeding the fire so that the pipes won’t freeze.

Photos from last year.  Goodness they’ve changed!  A glimpse at American history at our house.  Are you familiar with George Washington’s Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation?  It’s a handbook of maxims to guide a gentleman in proper conduct, a translation of which was copied by Washington when he was 14.

A sampling:

  • Shake not the head, Feet, or Legs roll not the Eyes lift not one eyebrow higher than the other wry not the mouth, and bedew no mans face with your Spittle, by approaching too near him when you Speak.
  • Put not off your Cloths in the presence of Others, nor go out your Chamber half Dressed.
  • Eat not in the Streets, nor in the House, out of Season.
  • Think before you Speak pronounce not imperfectly nor bring out your Words too hastily but orderly & distinctly.
  • Reprehend not the imperfections of others for that belongs to Parents Masters and Superiors.

My kids would do well to apply that last one to their relations with one another.  At some point we started compiling our own rules of conduct taken from the life experiences of our community and more suited to our lifestyle.  It’s been a long running joke and we add to it from time to time.  Great pearls, such as:

  • Place not the lamb upon the futon, for if you do, she’s sure to pee.
  • Partake not of the scum produced by boiling sap.
  • Heed thy neighbor’s wisdom and urinate not upon electric fences for if you do, more than your companions shall be shocked.
  • Kick not at the mink whilst naked, lest you attract an audience.*

George Washington would be horrified, but I like to think that Teddy a least would have appreciated the stache.

*Let’s just say that there was a situation involving a friend on a rural farm, a violent middle of the night chicken attack and house guests that were forgotten in the heat of the moment.  On the up side, she did mange to pull her boots on as she ran out the door.

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Books, Homeschooling, Kids, Life
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February

I want to be finishing up Galen’s birthday sweater.  His birthday is in three weeks.  I only have the sleeves left to go, which should be easy, except I’m always afraid to take it out and start working.  He keeps popping down at night, for all manner of reasons.  I really think that there is some sort of conspiracy amongst my children to stop me from getting a decent night’s sleep ever.

Beyond Lyme Disease reads rather like a school report, but there is a lot of information in it.  I’m sick of trying to be informed.  Trying to find answers.  Trying to get better.  Bleh.  So much of life wasted on something I would prefer to ignore.  But can’t.  sigh.

Bark is fabulous.  The younger kids and I have been working with it on Woods Day.  The older boys can already identify all the trees in our area, dormant or not.

I’m trying to get back into the habit of daily walks.  We need it.  I need it.

Iain, Elijah and I are working on a large project for Galen’s 10th birthday.  I have no pictures of that.  We work on the one night of the week when he’s at dance.  We run around like crazy people every moment that he’s away.  Just a few minutes before he walks in the door, we rush about packing up saws, sweeping and dusting off sawdust and generally trying to hide every sign of our efforts.  We try not to pant as all causal like we greet him, behaving just as though we spent the evening lounging about, leisurely cooking dinner.

We’re trying to convert a section of our upstairs hallway into a little mini-room, a cosy-creative nook just for him.  It’s supposed to be a surprise.  We’re kind of trying to do a custom pre-fab, sort of thing.  We’re making all of the pieces in chunks so that they can be rapidly installed on the morning of his birthday while he’s on a little outing.  There are so many ways that this can go wrong, but he’s going to be absolutely thrilled if all goes right.

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Books, building, Homeschooling, Kids, Life, The Renovation Journal, WIP, Yarn Crafts
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odds and ends

“The worst thing you can do is to wear a sloppy sweat suit.  I occasionally meet people who dress like this all the time, whether waking or sleeping.  If sweatpants are your everyday attire, you’ll end up looking like you belong in them, which is not very attractive” ~ Maire Kondo, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (read while wearing a pair of sweatpants handed down to me by one of my children and looking every bit as though I belong in them)

Galen knitted a hat for my uncle, which I found totally adorable.  And actually there is a really cute story behind it, but probably a bit long to share in this space.  It made me feel really good about the kids being able to have a heart connection with our extended family, even though they are all far away.

I’m trying to get life back on track now that the holidays have passed, including getting back to regular posting here, and failing miserably.  I’m reading The Life Changing Magic when I’m feeling motivated and inspired and a young adult adventure series when I couldn’t care less and just want to pretend everything away!

I am excited about being in this space in the coming year though.  I have a feeling that this year is going to be a pivotal one in my life.  It will be interesting to see what develops.  I have several fresh ideas and exciting projects to share.

Iain and Elijah spent huge chunks of the holiday break trying to figure out how to solve rubiks cubes.  Now that they’ve mastered the 3×3, they’re moving on to more complicated configurations.I’ve spent the last week banishing Christmas from the house and still I’m finding rogue ornaments in the dress-ups basket or amongst books on shelves.  I think…I think, I may finally have gotten it all.

Winter has finally arrived. I made fire cider with our Christmas horseradish and other garden goodies, to help keep our family warm and well through the winter, along with several jars to share with friends.  It’s really fabulous over roasted cauliflower.

Our house is many things to many people, including a concert hall, as needed.

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Books, Food, Herbs, Kids, Life, snapshots, WIP, Yarn Crafts
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