Fairy Tales

Let me tell you an intriguing story.

Once upon a time there was a professional woman / mother / blogger / sewist / knitter. This woman loved all of her many pursuits purely, and with conviction.

One winter, she was called to interview for a new job - an interesting one. Given the parameters and conventions of her industry, she worked for many hours to prepare. She studied the role, queried the experts. She attended a panel interview. She answered scary questions. She completed an assignment.

She was not called to shortlist.

While that wasn't a thrilling outcome, soon the spring came along and, like buds on the trees, so did new opportunity arrive. In a creative twist, the woman was offered the chance to compete for a new position, having the same title, meeting with the very same panel, alors, even in the very same room. Naturally, there were key differences between the two experiences but, in the main, there was a sense of deja vu.

The woman was not exactly confident in the process or the outcome. But she tried again because her parents (and folklore) instilled in her the belief that first success is not a requirement. Also, she's nervy.

Delightfully, she was offered the second role, one which entails even more exciting features than she originally imagined, one which she accepted, not without consideration. And everyone is hopeful that she will excel and live happily ever after.

Spoiler Alert: The woman is me.

I tell this tale to alert you to my new circumstances, and to advise you that I really have no idea of how I'm going to be able to manage a (likely intense) new job, parenting a tween, being married to a guy who's frankly fed up with my obsessive crafting, obsessively crafting - and blogging.

There are few things I love more than writing, than communicating with a community of like-minded souls. But it is possible that I'm going to need to prioritize other things over this blog for the next while because there's a razor-fine edge between what makes you what you are and what keeps you from what you need to become.

All this is to say nothing. I am not making a dramatic exit from the blog world. This blog is as much a facet of me as any other part of my identity. Damn straight, I'm not going to chop it off. Alas, I may be brief, or even absent, for a while. (Then again, you know me, it'll probably be business as usual. You know how I love to fuck with expectation and get all creative at the strangest times.)

Please stick around as we have many exciting adventures ahead. And thank you so much for your patience. xo

Silky Goodness

I'm going to call this one a qualified success:





The Good:

• Silk is not that slippery. Really. Unless you're expecting cotton. I mean, rayon jersey and many synthetics have been more challenging.
  
• The serger deals with it remarkably well.
• It feels fantastic.
• My workmanship, with the exception of one glaring error, and a bit of snap misalignment, is surprisingly strong. I figured out, by working it through, how to self-fabric interface the plackets and the neck facing and I think I did it neatly.
  

The Bad:

• The silk drapes very differently than a) a synthetic or b) than I thought it would. It fits, but I do find it strangely snug in weird places during movement. Maybe my pattern edits worked on a stronger, synthetic fabric but, given the delicateness of the silk, I suspect more ease would make it drape more elegantly. I'm going to keep the second set of tucks on the back (a pattern adjustment I came up with) but narrow them on my next go. I will also add the under arm ease back in. I wonder if the other (black and white, slightly sturdier) silk will have more natural ease.

• Errors are very difficult to fix on charmeuse. You have to weigh the benefits of trying again against the potential for destroying the fabric.
  

• Invisible catch stitching is a bit challenging. And the silk doesn't hold the stitches as firmly as a synthetic.

• The snaps are too heavy for such a delicate fabric and they drag it down.

• The neck facing to neckline, which was difficult on both other Senchas, IMO, was really challenging in silk. I will definitely have to work on that technique because I stretched things slightly out of shape. And I still ended up having to topstitch in order to keep the facing in place.
  

The Ugly:

• I did something wrong when I attached the placket interfacing to the facing, at the top where it meets the neck. As a result, I botched the back of the top - not so badly that you'd notice it if I had long hair. Or even that you'd notice it if I didn't point it out (it just looks off, but it's "evenly off"). I deliberately didn't photo it because, quite honestly, I intend to wear this blouse and I don't want to give that error any more credibility that it deserves. Other than this, I did very neat work and the garment feels like a dream.

The Verdict:

Don't be afraid of silk. Not charmeuse, anyway. If you can find some at a reasonable price - I'd say anything under $20.00 a yard, take the chance and use it on a Sencha. Not counting the pattern cost, this top cost me 25 bucks all in. At a store I might have spent 5 times that amount.

Whenever you sew, you either succeed in producing a wearable garment, or you don't. Shouldn't you make that potential success as glorious as it can be? You'll quickly forget the anxiety of sewing with top notch fabric. And every time you wear it you'll remember how much you love what you sew.

Lessons

I'm not going to try to pull the wool over your eyes (ha!): I made the most colossally stupid mistake this weekend. I mistook cm for inches. I know, I know, how on earth I could have imagined that the sweater front from ribbing to underarm should have been 30.5 INCHES is beyond me. My brain is addled by stitches, peeps.

At any rate, I basically knitted the front of my sweater twice before I realized I'd have to rip back 25 cm. Lord, that's a lot of knitting. Like, um, 10 hours - not including time to fix mistakes along the way.

And then there's the matter that my lifelines only go back about 20 rows. So I had to try to figure out how to insert one, 25 cm back, in lacework. What a freakin' nightmare.

It took me an hour to figure out that the lifelines (I did 2) had failed. At which point I was ready to throw myself off a bridge. For real.

So, I tried the only thing left in my arsenal. I went to my LYS (local yarn store) where I was thrilled to find my creative knitting expert of yore (the one who assisted me in getting the goods required for my last sweater. You remember, the one that worked).

She told me that a lifeline after the fact, in lacework, is more or less useless, whereupon she proceeded to rip mine out, just like that. I actually yelped from horror.

Don't worry, all was well as she proceeded to fix it in a veritable jiffy, without a cursory glance at the pattern. It was practically as soul-stirring as the scene in Apollo 13 where they figure out how to get the astronauts home.

Apparently, it was easy, but don't take it from me. My eyes had officially glazed over.

Here's today's lesson: Just cuz you think something is disastrous and irreparable doesn't mean there isn't someone who can fix it in 5 minutes flat.

If you're willing to leave your comfort zone for adventure, be willing to leave it for assistance. Share your problems to find solutions. And to take the edge off.

Sewing with Silk

As you know, I've just embarked on a new sewing experience - the Sencha blouse, made in silk. I'm sewing with charmeuse, that woven drapey silk with beautiful hand, quite a bit of bias stretch and matte on one side / satin on the other. Apparently, it's not the easiest thing to work with.

It's my first time sewing with this fabric (actually, I haven't started the sewing part yet) but, already, I have some thoughts and feelings to share:

• Sometimes, when everyone warns that a fabric is an absolute bitch, you might find it's not quite as horrible as you'd imagine. It's called "experiential tempering" peeps, and in this circumstance, I'm all for it. It's the pleasant metaphoric flip side of the movie everyone raves about that turns out to be totally overrated by the time you get to see it.

• Having said this, I don't want to mislead you; it's a slippery mofo, so proceed with caution. Rotary cutting on a mat, with weights to stabilize the fabric, is the way to go. Pins and scissors can be tricky.

• While I was freaked to try this, Claire Schaeffer, in her awesome tome the Fabric Sewing Guide, advises that one should steam press the silk before cutting (if one intends to dry clean it going forward), to shrink and prepare it. Believe it or not, it works. I first steamed (on the wrong side), then pressed (I didn't even use a pressing cloth for some of it), and the fabric shrank considerably, but didn't mar in any way. I even got some water drops on the silk. My usually flawless iron somehow managed to leak on the most delicate of fabrics?!, but somehow the water didn't stain. Phew. I do intend to use a pressing cloth as I sew. BTW, Scott and I once spent 4 hours going through this sewing guide when totally inebriated and he found it fascinating. A guy who doesn't even sew. If you sew, you are crazy not to own this book.
  

• I suggest that the matte side of the fabric is better for those large of chest. It's less reflective.

• The way I learned the awful truth that FabricLand at Yonge and Bloor (the only central TO location) is closing, is that I had to go there today to purchase sharps. 60s are the best gauge for delicate silk. Special sharp pins are also wise. In truth, it's not rocket science. Just buy the correct materials and you will vastly improve your likelihood of success. I mean, you really don't want unnecessary holes in your charmeuse.

• I still don't know, exactly, how the placket and neck facing, self-fabric interfacing is going to work. I've thought it out in depth but you never know how it goes till it's gone. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

• I'm making view 1 this time (formerly I have made view 3, with the keyhole). I figure, working with such a tricky fabric, it would be best to make the construction as simple as possible. I only hope it looks good.
  

Pool of the Week

I didn't realize that Aukland was so perfectly tropical?! (And, have you ever noticed that the word Aukland looks really weird when you spell it out?)

As always, Desire to Inspire gives the goods:

A reader actually took this (and other photos) on a real estate stalk. You should really view the entire post because it's garden porn par excellence.

Especially from this vantage point, in Toronto, where the summer's been hovering on the wrong side of hit and miss, photos like these sustain and torment me.

I call that chaise on the left.

Coming Along...

For those of you who may be interested to know about how the Jan's going, here's a little preview:

I can't talk too much about it. Firstly, I'm sure you'll all just tune out. But I'm also trying to find my groove with it - something that it slowly starting to occur.

All I can say is that I remain in awe of its beautiful design.

Keep giving me your good knitting vibes pls! xo

Swift Thrift

I'm calling this my "Fly the Friendly Skies" scarf. I found it at a delightful new vintage shop - what's with me these days, I cannot remember the name of anything?! - but it's on the north side of College St. between Euclid and Manning. It was 5 bucks! (It's totally poly, but still the drape is lovely and the design is so me.) I also bought a terrific, granny-chic porcelain cake stand (I've been looking for the right cake stand forevah!). It was $25.00.