Bits and pieces

1. I am obsessed with the idea of making a cape. I don't know where this obsession springs from, because hi, it's like a 2 year old trend here, but CAPE. I WANT ONE. Here's the fabric I'll use if I decide to actually go ahead with it:

It was kind of a mistaken buy from eBay. I decided I wanted a plaid wool bias skirt and saw this for sale. Unfortunately, it was badly described by the seller and when it turned up it's more like a coating than a suiting wool. It was about £4/m and I have just under 3m available. I can't see myself making an actual plaid coat, with sleeves and everything, but a plaid CAPE, for some reason I'm really enthusiastic about it. Sometimes I wonder about my brain.

Right now I am trying to decide whether I want to make one that is more like this Lekala pattern or more like this Liesl & Co pattern. There's a big price differential and I can't see myself making more than one cape, so on that basis something from either Lekala or from my back issues of Burda is winning at the moment, from a purely financial perspective. I do need to pick up a lining as well, but I would need to do that no matter what I make with this wool.

2. My Seam Allowance ruler turned up in the mail today and I am FILLED with enthusiasm for it. I have been holding off on buying one and telling myself that adding seam allowances using a seam gauge is no big deal, mainly because the postage charged for the SA ruler is insane. To be fair, it turned up very well packaged and in one piece, which I do appreciate, but ouch, that was expensive for a ruler. Still, I was so very very over adding seam allowances with a seam gauge after I made the pieced skirt the other week that I finally pulled the trigger and got one. I also got a gadget for measuring seams so you can check them for equal length without walking them, mainly because I fully intend to make a million things with princess seams in the course of my sewing life and it's also very time consuming to walk the seams properly.

3. I haven't had the magazine yet but I looked through the complete collection of patterns for the November issue on the Russian Burda site and just. Yuck. I don't even know whether I can be bothered to review the issue, because there's almost nothing I like more than tepidly.

4. Really intrigued by this new web app for knitting patterns: Custom Fit. It appeals to me because my big complaint as I page through Ravelry tends to be that everything is so FANCY, and really what I tend to want from sweaters and cardigans are much simpler, more basic but well-fitted looks. Most of my favourite sweaters have come from Long Tall Sally, which are perfect in length for me on the body, but too long at the sleeves and not quite right at the bust. I might give the app a try once I am finished with the Purple Sweater Of Doom.

5. The other thing that arrived in the mail today was two issues of Patrones, the first of my subscription. The down side is that they're actually older issues -- August, to be precise -- so now I have to see if the newsagent I am using will put my subscription on hold for a month because I HAVE the next issues, which are the ones bought for me by my friends when they went to Spain. If not, I'll have to off-load them somehow, probably on eBay or PR. Ugh. However, there are several patterns in each of the magazines I got today that I like, especially tops, so that's quite encouraging and is getting me over my previous bout of Buyer's Remorse.