Bits and Pieces

1. Can you believe it's December already? Yikes! Continued illness means I am massively far behind on my gift sewing. In fact, all I've done is reprint & stick together the Swoon cardigan pattern as I need to make a different size for my sister-in-law for her b'day (which is a few days before Christmas) than I used for myself. D: Still, once it is cut out the cardigan is a super quick sew, and I still have time to work on the bags for the kids before Christmas. Three weeks is more than enough time to make one easy knit cardigan and two little bags even though I'm only well enough to sew for like 30 minutes a day, right? Right? :D? D: (Joking aside: If I don't get it done, all potential recipients know I am sick and will understand. It's not really a big deal. I would like to give it a good shot though!)

2. As a consequence of so much illness and related lack of sleep, I have been playing a lot with my fabric stash and my wardrobe spreadsheets and spending a lot of time looking through my patterns and pattern magazines. I feel like I have so many amazing possibilities for sewing in 2015 at my fingertips! I also have SO MANY thoughts about the longevity of the things I've made this year, on how well (or not well) patterns and garments have held out to wear, and how my ongoing wardrobe planning is working out, and so on. I guess I will probably post a bunch of long wordy, probably quite dull blog posts on those topics soon. So, you know, I guess that's a pre-warning for you if you're not here for long and wordy and dull: you will probably just want to skim past several of my posts this month. (Although, if you're not here for long and wordy and dull, IDK why on earth you ARE you here. Long And Wordy And Dull is practically my middle name.)

3. As we're creeping towards the end of 2014, I realized also that I had a little bit left over in my sewing budget for the year. I decided to use it for a tiny (TINY) fabric splurge. This morning, it being Officially December, I therefore pulled the trigger on two fabric purchases. First, rather boringly, a pile of solid coloured knits to make into wardrobe hole plugging items once my gift sewing is done. Second, though, three small purchases of fabrics I just really wanted: (a) a navy gingham cotton, because I saw a navy gingham top in a shop the other day and immediately coveted it and just happened to have a perfect match pattern already in stash; (b) a pima cotton lawn for particularly indulgent pyjamas (although this went wrong as, alas, I mis-read the description and didn't realize I was buying fabric portioned out into half metres rather than metres :( :( :( Back to the drawing board for indulgent Xmas-present-to-self PJs, and this 1m of cotton will wait for spring to be PJ shorts.); and (c) a very expensive wool crepe that I have been eying for MONTHS and really wanted. For now, (c) will also go into stash because I don't need the pencil skirt I am planning to make with it as I am not working.

This is actually my ideal stash/fabric buying experience: a mix of good quality but easily obtainable fabric (e.g. a plain navy cotton lyrca knit) that I need immediately for new projects, and a much smaller amount of amazing fabrics that I need to have in my life, even if I don't need them right now. This encourages me to keep going with my current approach to sewing down my current stash and purchasing as needed for projects plus some high quality, potentially high cost "special" fabrics.

4. I finished knitting a sock today! It is sock 1 of 2, which is always the worst part of knitting socks, and sock 5 of the year (and 5 for my life to date, in fact) and I think it might actually, even pre-blocking, be the best sock I have made so far. It is a bit sad because I cast it on in JULY, believe it or not, and only finished it today after (a) taking my knitting on a train to London in July and RAGE-KNITTING my feelings, and not co-incidentally, a MILLION mistakes into it while some incredibly awful people nearby talked loudly and stupidly, and then being chicken about ripping back from my rage-knitting; and (b) snapping yet another set of bamboo needles in my bag (note to self: just buy metal needles, for god's sake) and having to wait for replacements. Sock 1 having taken almost 6 months, I am hoping Sock 2 takes a week or two at most. I can't decide whether making 3 pairs of socks should or should not count as achieving my silly resolution to make six knitted items this year. Is an item one sock or a PAIR of socks? I have failed in my goal-writing strategy, clearly!

5. Further to this weekend's post about the Patrones Plus I offered: commenter CHIRALCRAFT, please to be e-mailing me (westmoon243 at gmail) and we can talk postage. :D