On Saturday I shared some of my thoughts on planning a back for my first quilt. After publishing that post, I figured out that I could make four large squares out of each of the three fabrics, and I would be able to use nine of them on the back of the quilt.
I then spent most of the rest of that evening mocking up possible piecing patterns. I'm telling you, being able to snap quick iPhone photos, snip them on the computer and move them around in a presentation program is dangerous. I stopped myself when I had collected more than a dozen different options. I won't share them all with you, but these are the ones that are currently in the top running:
Feeling dizzy yet? Me too. But not so dizzy that I haven't been able to make some progress on the second mitt in the Mittacles pair. It's not going as quickly as the first, which I attribute to a mitt version of second sock syndrome and a lack of sporting events to watch while I knit. I'm aiming to finish the pair, thumbs and all, by the end of the month at least.
Do you have a preference, looking at the quilt back options? Rock the vote! And check out more WIP Wednesday posts at Tami's Amis.
Every once in a while at school, a class would be replaced with a movie. Usually one with at least a modicum of relevance to the subject of the class. Once, in our Government class, while the teacher presumably caught up on grading tests/papers/worksheets, we were treated to Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. I'll never forget how all of the girls sighed over Jimmy Stewart. Filibusters and grafts, all of the political lessons were lost on the dreaminess of this classic film star.
That memory popped into my head as I was watching The Heiress at Paramount last week. Because like my fellow students by Stewart way back when, I was totally and utterly distracted by the beauty of one Montgomery Clift.
Who could possibly blame the naive titular heiress for falling in love with him? For the first half of the film, while he woos her despite her comedic awkwardness and her father's suspicions, I knew it was too good to be true, but I kind of just wanted the movie to end right there and pretend that I could also be ridiculously awkward and win the affections of a Clift-lookalike. Except I don't have the equivalent of millions in inheritance coming to me. Hmm, a small hitch.
Olivia de Havilland won an Oscar for her role in this, presumably because the Academy was enthralled by her dramatic portrayal of the spurned young lady, but my favorite part of her performance was as the slightly comedic and highly awkward girl Clift seduces. She was such a great mix of lovely and endearing but completely hopeless. I love the scene when Clift comes to visit and they are left alone in the drawing room. I might not be as gullible as de Havilland's character, but I might be just as awkward in the same room as him.
So I have another classic Hollywood hunk to add to my list of timeless crushes. Although I'm not sure I'll ever be able to trust him...
I've just finished up the main leg of a Fabric Shop Hop here in Austin, so I have sewing on the brain. I was most uncharacteristically restrained and only bought a few new fabrics for my stash. Tomorrow we're going to visit one last shop, though, so I shouldn't speak too soon.
Of course, I tell myself that I will make lovely things out of all of my stash. Many new project ideas are swirling in my head. But the pragmatist in me is also inspired by finishing the sewing I've already started. That is, I'm thinking about what the back of my Taking the subway to Sewing Town quilt is going to look like.
As a reminder, here's how the front turned out:
I bought some batting the other week, and I also picked up yardage of four of the fabrics I used on the front as fat quarters:
I bought extra extra of the one on the far left, because I think it would make an adorable box pleat skirt. And now I'm thinking that because the other three are so predominantly gray, I should just stick with those three for the quilt back. I have a yard and a quarter of each, which should be more than enough. Now I just have to figure out how to put them together.
So right now I'm dealing with a 'fun' (read: torturous) puzzle. And I'm having flashbacks to old math classes as I work out the measurements. I've done some quick Google searches and Pinterest browsing for quilt back ideas, but I'm open to suggestions. What do you think?
And once again, shoutout to Woolen Diversions, the founder of Inspiration Saturdays!
How do the weeks just keep going by? Somehow I get from Wednesday to Wednesday, and I'm not always sure what's happened in between. I have vague visions of meetings, frozen yogurt, and, of course, knitting. But mostly I'm just working my way to another Friday afternoon for the respite that is the weekend.
Maybe if I had as many hands as an octopus has tentacles I'd be able to get more done. As it is, I've finished the first in the Mittacles pair:
I definitely prefer the high contrast of the red and blue to the turquoise and blue I began with. The strip of pink is for the thumb which I haven't added yet. I decided I would rather get going on the second mitt and tackle both thumbs at the end, so I don't forget what I did between one and the other.
Overall, I'm really liking this colorwork. It's actually easier changing the colors every few stitches than the projects I've done in the past where I needed to carry yarn for much longer stretches, which messed with my tension sometimes. I'm only on the start of the rib on the second mitt, because it's been that kind of week. But soon there will be more tentacles on the horizon.
What animal hybrid would make you more productive? The nocturnal nature of an owl? Or do you just want to be lazy like a koala?
When it comes to recipes that are healthy or accommodate some kind of special dietary requirement, I prefer those with two qualities:
They don't require ingredients whose purpose is solely for that dietary requirement.
They taste good enough that people with no desire to be healthy crave them.
That means that I tend to stay away from gluten-free recipes that use fancy flours. Yes, I would like to one day experiment with them just to see what they are like, but my baking pantry is bursting enough with just all-purpose, cake, self-rising, and whole wheat flours, I don't really have room for others. Things like corn meal, oatmeal, and quinoa I already have on hand, so I tend to seek out recipes that utilize those.
And of course, describing a baked good as primarily 'good for you' is like describing a potential blind date as having a good personality. It may very well be true, but it's not the first impression that's going to inspire a first bite or a first date.
These cupcakes meet both of my requirements perfectly. First of all, it uses leftover cooked quinoa, so it's perfect for dessert after making some stuffed tomatoes. And because you blend the quinoa, you end up with a gorgeously moist cake that reminds you of a decadent flour less chocolate cake, the ultimate example of something that is gluten-free practically as an afterthought.
Plus, being quinoa, it's not just about the lack of gluten. It's also about being a superfood with lots of protein and qualities that allow you to feel completely self-righteous as you lick frosting from your lips.
I know I mentioned a while ago my intentions of rebranding this blog, and I'm still planning on doing that. I'm just still in the consideration and procrastination phase. But I'm already thinking about some of the things I'd like to write about. One of those things is music. I'm not a huge music aficionado, but I think everyone lives their life with their own soundtrack, and every song means something different to each person, depending on when, where, and how they heard it. Exploring all of the ways we identify with music, and the sometimes surprising reactions I have to music, continues to fascinate me.
So perhaps consider this a kind of sneak preview of the things I'd like to write about in the (hopefully near) future...
For many years, I had a morning ritual every school day that included spending a little time watching music videos, flipping between VH1 and MTV to pass the time before I needed to walk out to meet the bus or (for the last few years) drive myself to school. Now, when I'm working from home, I occasionally like to indulge in some melodic nostalgia and do the same channel surfing. That's how I found this music video about halfway through, which caught my eye when I recognized the Yamanote train line. I immediately went to YouTube to watch the whole thing, and I've since replayed it several times over and had the song stuck in my head. And so, I pass it along to you, "Rather Be" by Clean Bandit, featuring Jess Glynne:
Tokyo! And not just Tokyo, but some of the lesser-known but extra-special bits that maybe not everyone will recognize. The fish market, which I've wandered around quite a bit of in search of our favorite conveyor belt sushi restaurant; the Yamanote line train, which my dad loves and even downloaded an album of ringtones from; and the quintessential yakitori on the grill serving straight-faced businessmen (before the burst into song), which just rings so true.
It's enough to bring my always-latent desire to return to Tokyo up to sigh-inducing levels. But since that won't be happening any time soon, I should probably just focus on making something out of the yarn I bought the last time I was there from Avril yarn store in Kichijoji. And maybe drink a cup of Karel Capek tea, which I've been hoarding and drinking only on very special occasions.
Are you also from the TRL generation? Do you have any favorite music videos? Do you ever watch them now? Alicia from Woolen Diversions is having a hopefully great time on her honeymoon right now, but I'm sure she'll have lots of inspiration from Costa Rica when she returns.
Let me just take a moment to say: Hurrah Germany! They weren't my first choice for World Cup champions, but it is the land where at least two great things were born: Wollmeise yarn, and me! I kid, I kid. But did you know, both Wollmeise and I come from the same town? Pfaffenhofen. Of course, the yarn store wasn't there when I was there, and being three years old when we left, I probably wouldn't have had much use for yarn, but still. Just one more reason to want to visit my birthplace again.
So anyway, I was rooting for Germany in Sunday's match. And I enjoyed it all the more because I wasn't having to rush to finish my Twist of Death. Despite losing two days of knitting to lack of yarn, I was able to finish up the sleeves on Friday. The finishing was a team effort, which means that my mother was kind enough to sew the sleeves in for me. What can I say, she's awesome like that. I did complete the weaving in of the ends, the blocking, and the modeling, though. Of course, Mom did take the photos. So, um, still a team effort. We took the photos pre-blocking to make sure that I could post them before the end of the tournament, so there's not as much rolling at the edges now.
I love how many ways there are to wear this:
Style #1: Open front
Style #2: Wrapped front
Style #3: Open back
Speaking of team efforts, I'm going to give a shoutout to one of Mom's FOs this Friday as well, because I played a vital role in it. Behold, from my handspun yarn:
I had totally forgotten that the yarn I spun ended up being fingering weight, so she had plenty of yarn for this shawl. There was a little bit of unevenness between the hanks, but nothing you can really notice. And I love the way the colors worked up:
I'm not doing the Tour de Fleece this year, and I missed out on a recent wheel spinning course at an LYS last week, but this definitely makes me want to spin some more.
In the meantime, though, I have more WIPs that need to turn into FOs.
