by Ivete Tecedor on February 21, 2012
in knitting
Are you watching Downton Abbey yet? If not, you really should be! I’m pretty much obsessed with the show at this point and can’t wait for each new episode to come out every Sunday. It’s the only show I watch as it airs instead of much later on DVR!
The series is so well done, it’s really impressive. One of the most amazing parts of the show are the costumes, which are impeccably researched and detailed. It’s awesome to see the evolving fashion as the years pass! The most recent episodes featured the girls wearing lots of flapper-like looks and black fabric, which is in such stark contrast to what they wore in the first season.
Unfortunately, there isn’t that much knitting on the show, so there hasn’t been much to knit directly from the show. That is, until the first episode of season 2, where we see the first cardigan of the series! The picture above is of Sybil, the youngest (and most modern) daughter, wearing that first cardigan. Ever since I saw it, I’ve been planning to knit it for myself. [continue reading …]
My main reason for signing up for a formal quilting class was to be able to learn the basics more quickly. Learning from tutorials and videos online is an awesome choice, but there’s no comparing that to having an expert on hand to ask random questions in real time as they come up!
The first class session was yesterday, and I feel like what I learned during those five hours is already worth the cost of the class. These are basic, almost-silly things that I would never even have thought to ask!
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by Ivete Tecedor on February 10, 2012
in Sewing
Sewing!!
What you see above is a dog crate cover I sewed up today in an effort to brush up on my sewing machine skills. Why? Because I signed up to take a quilting class at City Quilter (that link is to Yelp, cuz their site is so awful I don’t want to subject you to it) and I want to make sure I will be able to handle the homework.
I’ve been thinking about doing some quilting for a few months now, and then recently I read an article about improving yourself by learning new things/pursuing new interests and that just seemed to seal the deal. And then my first visit to City Quilter pushed me right over the edge! I went back yesterday to register for the class, and ended up spending almost an hour looking at and touching fabrics, supplies, patterns, you name it. And then I came home and spent hours reading quilting blogs. I am definitely, definitely smitten.
My plan for the class is to make a quilt similar to Minty’s gray-and-pink quilt and to NOT buy materials for more than one other quilt during the month-long class. I feel like the first part of that statement is doable, but the second part . . . well, we’ll see.
So now you know the background of why I started sewing this crate cover today. I took quick photos documenting the process and wanted to write it up here, in case it helps anyone else out. Enjoy!
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by Ivete Tecedor on February 6, 2012
in knitting
It’s weird that even though I work for myself (and therefore don’t have “weekends” or “weekdays”), Mondays still feel like Mondays. I guess after 30 years of living a Monday to Friday schedule, Mondays are deeply ingrained in the subconscious . . . I wonder how long it would take to unlearn that response? This line of thought makes me think of the episode of Downton Abbey where the Dowager Countess says “what’s a ‘week end’?” . . . I love her character! Such a great question.
Anyway, yesterday I felt like making cookies, but discovered I had no eggs in the house. I ended up Googling and then making up a recipe for eggless chocolate chip cookies, which resulted in these pretty-ugly things:
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Sometimes I wish that designing knitting patterns took more knitting and less, well, everything else.
You see that chart up there? I’m irrationally proud of it because I’ve spent the last three days working on it. Making this chart involved teaching myself a new software program (Inkscape, which if you’re not familiar, is a freeware version of vector programs like Illustrator) and then staring at my monitor while copying each little square, referring back to my hand-drawn chart and the actual knitted mitten the whole time. [continue reading …]
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