Tá m'árthach foluaineach lán d'eascanna

For those not fluent in Irish Gaelic, the post title means:
My hovercraft is full of eels.
A truly useful phrase to know, if you ask me.

I think the new elastic placement on the Ivy League dress helps.  Plus it has a lot of green, so perfect for today!

Living around the corner from a bar that is on the Erin Express, a bacchanalia that lasts for the first half of March, makes me grateful to be on the Old Calendar.  It means we observe St. Patrick's Day on March 30 (today), long after the gaudy green beads, drunken spectacles, and green beer have done and gone for the West.

Being part-Irish, I always loved to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with the wearing of green and perhaps some soda bread.  But living here, with the extreme hedonism that has come to characterize the holiday in the city, has kind of driven it out of me.  Marking the day 13 days later has been restorative.

In honor of the day, I dug up a couple of photos from our family trip to Ireland in 2010.  It was a fantastic trip--Ireland is such a family-friendly place to visit, and the people were so lovely.

There was so much there that felt familiar to me.  I'd love to go back some day and explore the western coast (we were primarily on the eastern side of the country).

Holy Father Patrick, pray to God for us!

Pots and Pans

This dress was a multitude of second-guessing, hand-wringing, and worry.

In short, it almost didn't get made.  Every time I pulled it out of the bin, I would get simultaneously inspired and intimidated and put it back in again.  The novelty print fabric is a vintage length I found on etsy some time last year.  It was a short length (less than 2 yards), but enough for a Portrait blouse, which was my original intention.  

In the meantime, I sort of stopped wearing Portrait blouses so much, and I decided it wasn't the best use of the yardage.  The yardage was too scant for a Frankendress, however, so it just sat in my bin until now.  I decided that I could manage a Dottie Angel frock with a contrast bottom, and that it would use the yardage to the best advantage.  I worried that the solid bottom would look a little too Mod, however.  The print is probably from the 1950s (it is rows of pots and pans on a hanger) and not exactly granny-chic-ish.  (I know, I'm making up words left and right lately).

In the end, I figured if it didn't work as a dress, I'd just cut it off for a blouse or tunic.  I suppose I still could, if I get sick of wearing it as a dress.  I did agonize a bit over the pockets, and decided to go with contrast facings in the end.  I didn't quite have enough fabric to make the pockets with the little tuck in the middle, but these narrow pockets are still quite functional.

To get the maximum length out of my novelty print, I cut the fabric length exactly in half, and then laid the pattern over the top, folding up the excess at the bottom.  I then cut the blue broadcloth by adding seam allowance to the amount I had folded up.  I probably could have added an inch or two to the length, but I think it is okay as is.

The print is really fun, in my opinion!  I did have a moment where I had to think about the direction of it, though!  I almost cut the pans upside down.  Thankfully I caught it before I put the scissors in.

Unfortunately, the sweater I had planned to wear with this dress looks terrible with it, but I found a red undershirt on ThredUp that works nicely.  My red merino cardigan looks okay with it as well. (My spring rotation has undergone a few swaps and changes since the beginning of the month.  The first few weeks always seem to go that way). The sleeves on this one are slightly smaller than some of my other dresses and I'm not really sure why.  I don't think I changed the armscye depth.

I don't think this dress photographs particularly well, but there it is.  This was the one of the last dresses I made before I redrafted the pattern to accommodate the many changes I've made since the Flea Market dress.  I was starting to make cutting mistakes because I couldn't keep track of what was what on the tissue pattern, and I thought I just needed to transfer all the changes to a clean copy.  I also wanted to fix the cut-on sleeves once and for all, so I pulled out my Afternoon Blouse pattern and laid it over the top to get the right shape and depth without affecting the side seams.  I've made two dresses for my summer rotation on the new sloper and it is much better!  I have another one cut out that utilizes the interesting neckline of the Afternoon blouse, so we'll see how that one turns out.  

I know at least one reader has mentioned wanting to make a Dottie Angel frock of her own.  At some point I'm going to do a post on approaching the Simplicity 1080 for anyone who wants to give it a whirl.  The directions included with the envelope are a bit confusing, especially if you've never made anything like this before, and I felt that there were some unnecessarily fussy steps involved in the construction.  Plus: Standard Big Four Pattern Company excess ease issues.

Details:

Pots and Pans dress: Simplicity 1080, vintage novelty print cotton, Michael Miller cotton broadcloth in cobalt, bias binding, elastic.

Red knit undershirt: Loft, via ThredUp

Tights: Foot Traffic (in black) via Sock Dreams

Clogs: dansko via ebay

Earrings: Target (old)

Apologies for no Talking Tuesday this week.  I'm in week two of having different kids home for spring break, we've had some stomach flu and head colds, and I'm just not getting the mental time or space I need to write up the Charles Taylor book or the other one.  It's on my list.

That Green Skirt

I guess I might as well show the green skirt.  I dunno.  I guess it is okay.

 I think I just made a poor fabric choice, as I'm pretty sure the skirt fits fine.  I did move the bar closure and snap over a bit to cinch the waistband a bit.  It is still slightly too big in the waist.  The bigger problem is that this twill is just VERY sticky.  It might be better in the summer when I'm not wearing tights, as that seems to make the stickiness worse.  I did put on a slightly longer slip today, which helped a bit.

You can almost see the two decorative buttons I put at the back closure.  I am pretty happy with how it fits in the back, although I think I need to take some fabric off the top, as I always get a small amount of fabric pool right at the base of my spine.  I just retraced this pattern and am going to test it out with some leftover fabric from other skirt projects to test for fit.  I also bought a Craftsy skirt kit because it was on crazy clearance sale ($20 for good denim fabric, a pattern, and some notions!) and will give that one a try, as I'm curious to try a shaped waistband.

Oh well.  I'll probably wear it a bit, but I don't expect it will last more than a season, as I think it will get to be too big before too long anyway.  

Better luck next time.

Lenty-lent.

Yarn Along: Lenty-Lent

Some days just feel like Lent, you know?  I've had a string of them lately.  It's not really that anything has gone particularly wrong, or that I can put my finger on it exactly, except that everything just feels very...Lenty.  (Is that a word?  We'll pretend it is)  I could detail all the little things that have been a bit off, but I think it would belabor the point and you all would be left shaking your heads at me.  

The kids have staggered spring breaks, so I have various kids home for the next two weeks, and it is seriously messing with me.  Plus I had to schedule ALL THE THINGS during these two weeks that are hard to accomplish during regular school days, like dentist appointments.  So everything feels busy. 

I've gotten a fair bit done this week, however.  Just not the things I was planning to get done.  Like Birdie's Pascha sweater.  I've made fair progress on it, but I've been so dead-staring-tired by evening that whatever I get done in the afternoon is what I get done.  And some of my afternoons have been...less than productive.  I've been climbing Mount Washmore a bit more often than I'd like this week.

My reading pile.  I'm trying to be disciplined and read a little bit of War and Peace each evening before I fall asleep.  I realize this is not the most exalted of Lenten reading, but it feels like an endeavor, so I guess that is something.  I'm about a third of the way way through The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.  I also picked up that little pamplet on the teachings of the Fathers on illness, and am finding it good reading, in small bits.

Not bad for a week or so's reading.  It is very enjoyable and readable, as I've said, and the style reminds me a lot of Anna Karenina.

In other fiber news, I added a bit of trim to the Tokyo Train Ride dress.  I was adding trim to Ponchik's gingham dress (because it came out a bit too short, despite careful measurements), and this coral crochet lace showed up in the mail, and I thought, why not?  I think it adds a nice little something.  I wouldn't do it for all my dresses, but it is a nice little addition to this dress.

I'm set to direct the Pre-Sanctified Liturgy at our church the next two Fridays, and I'm a bit nervous.  It has been a few years since I directed this service, and I've got a new cold in my chest and my voice is going.  I guess all I can do is offer it up as a sacrifice and hope it doesn't sound too terrible.  Pray for me, a sinner!

Linking with Ginny for the Yarn Along!

Talking Tuesday: Ken Myers

I was starting to feel a bit better last week, but then a stomach bug bit me on Saturday, and I'm still kind of recovering my energy.  I did make it to church on Sunday, but I am wiped out from the weekend's effort.  

via google images

Forgive me posting this with relatively little commentary.  Today's passage comes from Ken Myers, of the Mars Hill Audio Journal.  Myers is a man who thinks deeply about the extent to which Christians should engage the larger culture, and how much they should build fences in order to preserve the faith for the next generations.  He considers what culture is, and what it should be.

Rod Dreher quotes Myers' first volume of the excellent audio Mars Hill Journal:

"Cultures cultivate. A culture is more like an ecosystem than like a supermarket. And human persons, as encultured creatures, are generally less like independent rationally choosing shoppers than like organisms whose environment predisposes a certain set of attitudes and actions.

Cultures cultivate. Not that our activities are absolutely determined by cultural influences. We are rational beings, not just instinctual beings. We can make choices that go against the conventions sustained around us. We can lean into the prevailing winds, but only if we know how to stand somewhere solid. Only if we are not being carried by the wind. We need to be able to imagine alternative ways of perceiving reality.

Cultures cultivate, so if we want to offset the influence of cultural systems that distort or misrepresent reality, we need more than good arguments that analyze the distortions. We need cultural alternatives that provide opportunities for participating in a different way of telling the story of human experience.

For example, counteracting the materialistic reductionism of our time requires practices that convey to our imaginations the coherent unity of matter and spirit. Challenging the assumptions that human beings are best understood and best treated by social structures as autonomous choosers whose choices provide meaning in an otherwise meaningless universe requires settings in which submission and obedience to some order of things that precedes our willing is known as a delight and a blessing.

Distorted institutions and practices can’t be confronted only by arguments. They require well-ordered practices and institutions. Resisting cultural confusion is more than a matter of thinking outside the box. We need to be able to intuit outside the box. And to encourage well-ordered intuitions to those under our care, especially our children — because cultures cultivate.

I’m surprised by how often this simple fact is ignored by people who talk about cultural engagement. There are people who are honestly concerned about one trend or another in our social life, who regard those problems as the effect of bad arguments or bad intentions, and not, as they often are, as the product of some malformation or other in the shape of lived life. So they end up using malformed tools to repair the damage caused by the same malformed tools, thinking that better ideas, or a more clearly articulated list or priorities, or worst of all, the right political leadership, will fix things. To switch metaphors, they aren’t attending to the ecosystemic causes of those problems. They are applying more fertilizer or more water to plants that are suffering from a fatal amount of shade."

I think Ken Myers gets at what I wanted Jamie Smith to be addressing in How (Not) to Be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor.  My two main complaints about Smith's book are a) it is at times painfully obtuse to a non-philosophy person, and I felt like there was a lot of specialist academic argument going on in the footnotes and some in the body of the work that I didn't really understand; and b) his book is largely diagnostic, rather than prescriptive.  I realize he is summarizing Taylor, and giving us an understanding of how our modern culture got to the place it is, but I would have liked more prescription.  I get how we got here.  I want to know where we go from here in order to preserve the faith for our children.  

I guess the conclusion I keep coming back to is to simply "do" church.  Attend the services, pray in the home as a family, keep the liturgical cycle of feasts and fasts, read the Bible, talk about the Resurrection, talk about Jesus' ministry, talk about the disciples and the early Church, read the lives of the saints, make specific choices as a family to prioritize the Christian life, even if they run counter to the popular culture, limit engagement with secular media, read good books, learn history.  I realize it is little enough, but if enough of us do that, it forms a culture that is intuitive for our children, and hopefully will be intuitive then for their children.  One that they don't have to consider, but simply live.  

Yarn Along: War and Peace and the Pascha Sweaters

Late again to the Yarn Along party.  I've been meaning to write something for several days, but just couldn't quite manage it.  I've been trying to be disciplined about my computer use this week (I'll see how I go for the rest of Lent), and have been trying not to check e-mail or do anything computer related until naptime.  So far, I'm liking the routine of it, and I find that I feel less fractured (surprise, surprise!)  But that also means that I've got less time for writing and so forth, since I'm trying to get Birdie's Pascha sweater done and naptime is my primary knitting time.  So it goes.

During Lent this year, we are doing a Jesus Tree.  I got these discs from the same place as our Jesse Tree.  The idea is that you read a little bit from the Gospels every day until Pascha.  Each disc has a different passage on it.  Every day, we take a disc down and put it into the bag that came with the set.  The yellow disc at the bottom is for Pascha!  The feast of feasts!  It helps the kids to have a visual reminder of the season, and we've found the Jesse Tree so helpful these last few Nativity Fasts, I thought this would be a nice way to mark time during Lent.

In other news, Boo lost both his front teeth in the last couple of weeks!  He was pretty excited to lose both so close together.

And: a stitch fix (not that kind).  A sewing fix.  I decided that the main problem with the Tokyo Train Ride and Ivy League dresses was the lack of shaping in the middle.  The directional print of the Tokyo Train Ride seems to need some breaking up to look right, and I think the Ivy League dress just needs more definition or something.  So I pulled out the front elastics, and added a strip of elastic all the way across the middle, measured from the inner tuck lines, with about 2" negative ease.  

I think that's done it!  I'm much happier with both dresses now, and have been super comfortable all day.  I still wish I'd make them both about an inch longer, but I think the extra shaping fixes most of the problems for me, so I'm definitely going to get good wear out of them.  (And you can see, I found a heavier weight sweater to go with the Tokyo Train Ride dress!  Yay for ebay)

In other sewing news, my focus this week has been on sewing the girls' warm weather clothing.  I went through their bin yesterday and realized that they each have about 3 knit dresses from last year that will still fit and are 100% cotton.  I realized that several of the dresses Birdie wore last year that would fit Ponchik this year have a high polyester content, which I just don't want to put on my girls in the sticky heat + no AC we endure here in the summer.  The yellow dresses are the Pascha dresses, and I was able to work out the caps too!  I still have to make the pink fabric caps, but at least I kind of know what I'm doing now.  The gingham dresses are from the leftovers of my dress, and are my first go at Dottie Angel frocks for the girls.  They both love the kangaroo pocket!  I'll try to photograph the dresses on them when it warms up a bit.

On to knitting.  As you can see, I'm nearly done with the body of Birdie's Pascha sweater.  The sleeves go pretty quickly, so I'm hoping to finish it by mid-week next week.  I'm planning to block both sweaters together to save myself some trouble.  I feel like I should call this one the War and Peace sweater, since I watched the (mostly excellent) BBC version of the same whilst knitting it.  I have a few quibbles about some costuming choices, Russian language choices, and a few Russian Orthodox cultural choices, but overall, I felt the production did a good job of setting the scene, being truthful to the story while keeping it watchable, and the acting and casting were superb.  I especially enjoyed James Norton as Prince Bolkonsky.  I'm excited that Grantchester is to have another season airing here soon!

Thus I decided it was time to crack the mighty tome.  I got the Peaver/Volokhonsky translation, as I know my husband really likes them for his Dostoevsky translations, and I've heard good things about them generally.  I read Richard Peaver's introduction and found it helpful on a lot of levels.  I'm a little way into chapter one, and am finding it surprisingly readable.  It looks like War and Peace has some of the same structure of Anna Karenina, so that helps me to know what to expect.  I'm reminded of what an odd bird Tolstoy really was.  

I find myself in a Russian state of mind these days.  I'm craving Pavlovo-Posad scarves, Russian folk music, Rassolink (pickle soup), and proper Russian pierog with cabbage or apples (the kind made with bread, not the Polish version that passes for the same around here).  I still think in Russian sometimes (which is weird, because I'm far from fluent, but I find that my thoughts are sometimes very fluid in Russian, whereas my mouth can't seem to make the words come out).  I keep meaning to pick up my language books again.  I am considering it as a side-Lenten project, once I get through a few more sewing projects.

Linking with Ginny for Yarn Along!

Wherefore Art Thou, Sewing Mojo?

I've hit a dry spot, creatively speaking.  My last couple of makes have been...not exactly wadders, but not exactly successes either.  The Ivy League Dress and Tokyo Train Ride Redux dresses are both fine, but both are just a little shorter than my preference.  I can't really decide what to do about them (if anything).

I made up the green twill skirt last week some time and wore it today, thinking to take pictures to share.  Well.  I took the photos, and wore the skirt all morning, and then realized a) it is too big in the waist, b) it just doesn't look good on me, and c) it wrinkles like crazy and sticks to my slip and legs.  And I shouldn't be wearing my navy blue undershirt as a stand-alone shirt.  And nothing in my spring rotation goes with it.  Oy.

I pulled out the fabric for my next round of projects to get everything pre-washed and sorted for supplies, and discovered that the red twill I was saving to make up into a summer skirt was severely mis-cut and is missing more than half the yardage.  Which means no skirt.  I contacted fabric.com and they are fixing it (even though my order was last summer--eep!) but it was disconcerting.  Given my issues with the green twill, I'm reevaluating whether I should even be working with twill for skirts.

I made up the first of my summer rotation projects the last few days: a red gingham Dottie Angel.  There's nothing wrong with the dress per se, but the gingham is printed on the "right" side, rather than woven in pattern, and whatever they used for the printing is very stiff and almost waxy.  I've washed the fabric twice, soaked it in vinegar for 8 hours, and it is still feels weird to my fingers.  I also messed up when I was cutting the sleeves and ended up with shorter sleeves than is my preference.  Not a bad thing for a summer dress, but the sleeves hit me at a slightly less-than-flattering place on my arms.  It looks okay on me, but I just feel kind of meh about the whole thing.

I've been sewing long enough now to realize that these days will come.  I generally go through a period of weeks every couple of months where I really can't do anything right in the sewing department, and I just have to let it pass.  In the meantime, I'm focusing on warm weather dresses for the girls.  I made up a green seersucker dress for Birdie today from the leftovers of my Cool as a Cuke dress from last summer.  I've got their Pascha dresses cut out and need to sew them up.  Somehow, I had more than two yards of red gingham left over from my dress, so I cut out two dresses to test the children's version of the Dottie Angel frock for fit and sizing  I have a couple of piles of fabric pre-washed and waiting to be cut.  If the sizing on the children's Dottie Angel works out, I'm going to town with that pattern, because it don't involve a center back zip (my current nemesis--I remembered why I moved the zip to the side in my Frankendress pattern!).

I'm trying to figure out what to do next, because I still have that chambray skirt to make (gulp), and dresses to start on for summer.  I'm toying with trying to combine Simplicity 1080 with another similar pattern that has a different neckline treatment that is kind of interesting.  I have to see how well the other pattern will lay over the 1080 before I cut into anything.

I guess I mostly feel at loose ends.  I finished two books this week that I want to write a little about (the Charles Taylor book, and the one on prayer, plus the first Narnia book), but can't seem to find the words.  I'm uneasy with myself, and it seems to be affecting everything right now.  I suppose it is the first week of Lent talking.

Bear with me while I get myself sorted.  And forgive me a sinner!

Return to Tokyo

Second verse, same as the first...

Guess what?  It's another Dottie Angel frock.

I know.  I'm bored too.  But I really like this pattern!  I fell in love with this fabric over a year ago, and even pre-ordered it (something I rarely do with fabric).  I made it up last March using my Frankenpattern.  It was the first time I had made fitting changes to my Frankenpattern, and marked a shift toward a slightly different silhouette on that dress.  

I did made some mistakes with the original fabric, however.  I cut my pieces in the wrong order, and ended up having to piece the bodice because the fabric pattern is directional.  I also ran out of material for a proper belt and ended up making a snapped sash instead.  I did really like that sash--it kind of completed the dress.  And I had a heavy cotton sweater that coordinated perfectly, that was the right weight for the winter we had last year (i.e. two major snow storms in March!)

But when I tried on that dress in December, it was just too big.  I wore it a few times, trying to make it work, but it just looked and felt too big.  It was so big that it really wasn't feasible to take in without messing up the yoked pockets rather significantly.  So I donated it, and said a sad farewell to the Tokyo Train Ride fabric.

But I missed having it in my closet.  So, on a whim, I decided to see if I could find some more.  And I did!  Just in time for spring.  I made a Dottie Angel dress, of course.  Unfortunately, the sweater I wore last year is also now way too big, and I donated it earlier this winter.  The weather has turned quite warm the last few days, so actually, it doesn't matter, at least not this year.  I'm hoping to find something heavier to wear it with for next winter.

A good dress, overall.  I do wish it was maybe an inch longer, but I seem to be having a Goldilocks problem with the length on this dress!  I add a couple inches, take one off, go with the pattern length, decide I need a bit more...on and on.  I should just pick a length and stick to it.  It does hit just at the bottom of my knee, even though it doesn't look like it.

I would like to state for the record that it was 80 degrees yesterday.  Eighty.  It is March 10 today.  This does not bode well for summer, methinks.  I know it is an El Nino year and all that, but sheesh.  It is supposed to get back down to more normal spring-like temps tomorrow, so there's that.

I'm nearing the end of my spring sewing--I almost can't believe it!  I have one more skirt to make, and then I'm done for this rotation.  I really thought I'd be wandering through my spring sewing list until May.  Probably just as well, since my summer list is rather lengthy--almost nothing I made last summer fits this year, so I'm basically starting with a blank slate.  So expect more Dottie Angel.  A lot more.  sorrynotsorry. After wearing these dresses in the warmer weather these last few days, I can safely say, they are the stuff for sticky summer days. 

Just the facts:

Tokyo Train Ride Redux dress: Tokyo Train Ride, Cotton+Steel fabric, Simplicity 1080, elastic, bias binding

Michael Stars original t: ThredUp

Tights: Foot Traffic (via Sock Dreams)

Clogs: Dansko via ebay

Earrings/necklace set: etsy

Yarn Along: Pascha Knitting and pre-Lenten reading

It's Cheesefare week!!  Last week for dairy before the Great Fast.  I'm still evaluating what my Lenten reading list is going to be, but for the moment, I'm trying to get through a few things I'm in the middle of.

Currently on my nightstand:

James Smith's How (Not) to be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor, and The Magician's Nephew.  I've never read the Chronicles of Narnia, and this seemed like a good time to start.  The Smith book is a very good diagnostic book for the current age we find ourselves in, but I'm hoping he gets into some prescription soon, because I've more or less taken his basic point.  Full disclosure: the introduction is, at times, painfully obvious and hand-hold-y, but then the first chapter is almost unreadably obtuse.  The later chapters are better going.  I think it is worth taking in.  I'll write more when I'm finished.

One down, one to go!  I'm making sweaters for the girls to wear with their Pascha dresses this year.  This one is for Ponchik.  I still have to block it and put buttons on, but at least it is done (and fits!) I have a set of six vintage buttons that are a good match, and each sweater will have three, so it works out well!  I've got enough yarn to make Birdie's sweater plus caps and possibly leg warmers too.  Since Pascha is so late this year (May 1st), I know they won't probably wear the caps or leg warmers this year, but will save them for next winter.  

I'm also making the girls' Pascha dresses.  I was hoping to make a Dottie Angel-style frock for them , and I ended up adapting another pattern because the child's version *just* came out.  I did a mock up of one of the dresses in a different pink fabric, and will mock up the other for proper fit soon.  The girls are close in size in ready-to-wear clothing, but the pattern sizing is really wonky (*shakes fist at Big Four Pattern Co. crazy sizing/ease*), so I had to cut a smaller size for Ponchik.  At least this one fit Birdie well enough!  I can't decide if I should try and fit the Dottie Angel child's pattern for the Pascha dresses instead.  Decisions, decisions.  I lean toward just working with what I have for now, since I have a deadline and limited energy, and fitting the Dottie Angel frock for the next dresses I have planned for them for summer.

I'm going to make some matching fabric caps too, since I bought more than enough fabric and I have a cap template I can use.

This is the fabric for their Pascha dresses:

Still working on this green Saucy Librarian pullover--finally to the bottom ribbing (which goes on for a bit, but at least is more interesting than the plain knitting in the round):

Hoping to finish it before next winter, but I've set it aside while I finish the girls' sweaters.  I have two other cardigans I'd like to have done before this sweater, so it will probably have a good long nap this spring.  I'll be happy if it is done and blocked by December.  

Linking with Ginny for Yarn Along!

Ivy League dress and Thoughts about Hospital Stays

Well. Last week was a week.  Birdie had been severely sick over the weekend, and I thought she was on the mend by Monday, but she landed in the hospital overnight after turning septic sometime in the evening.  It was an eventful and unexpected turn, as you might imagine.  It took a while to get her stable in the ER and they told me right away she would be admitted.  She needed oxygen, IV fluids, and IV antibiotics, plus a lot of monitoring.  It was disconcerting to see our whirlwind girl so still and sick.  She stayed in the hospital until Thursday morning.  She was mostly off oxygen at that point, and had been off her IV fluids for 24 hours by then and was pretty perky.  I think the doctor might have been inclined to keep her another night had I not begged for discharge.  We had gotten a roommate the night previous and it was, to say the least, disruptive.  Our room was a single that had been converted into a double, it was crowded, I was getting sick, the three children at home were all sick, and I felt we just needed to get home.  It was the right decision, as I got pretty sick once we were home, and the rest of the kids really needed to be looked after as well.

I had put up my posts last week before everything went down, so I imagine my belated "update" on my Yarn Along post made no sense to most people.  On the upside, everyone went back to school yesterday, and the kids mostly seem over it.  I'm still a bit congested in my lungs, and just feel exhausted from being awake from Thursday-Wednesday (including a 48-hours-straight stretch from Monday-Tuesday).  I have some friends bringing meals this week, which is a great help, as I am just overwhelmed with household tasks right now.  I find the week after discharge is actually more difficult than the week in the hospital, because all the kids are off since they can't really understand what happened, the child who was in the hospital is still a little shocked by everything that was done to her, and we parents are just exhausted from adrenaline withdrawal and the whole ordeal.

So let me show you a dress I made a few weeks ago, k?

This is the same spotty dot fabric from Michael Miller that I made last summer, but in a different color way.  There ended up being a lot of issues with the fit of that dress, and I ended up not keeping it.  I had bought this fabric online in the meantime, however, and since the color combination just said "spring" to me, I decided to save it for this season. It is a pretty straight forward Dottie Angel frock, no real changes to note, except I used the pocket from my Swirl dress pattern, just for something different.   I did have to redo the elastic on this dress because it came out too loose the first time, but I think it is fine now.  

This one also came out just a smidge shorter than the other ones, but it is still at the bottom of my knee, so I think it is okay.  I know what I did differently to have it come out shorter, and I fixed it on the dress I made after this one.  

I think this color scheme is really preppy looking.  I have a bright green cardigan that is a good match to the green dots, but it is lighter weight than the weather called for, so I put a knit shirt underneath instead.  I'm still a little chilly this morning, but it is supposed to get up in the 60s later today, so I'll be fine this afternoon!  

I almost did visible bias on this dress, in green, but my green bias was just a little bit off color-wise, and didn't quite look right.  So I went with my standard bias treatment, still using the green.  It is a nice little peek of color around the neckline and sleeve cuffs.  

I do think this is one of those dresses that doesn't photograph particularly well, but I'll try not to let that influence me.  All in all, a good spring dress.

Just the facts:

Ivy League dress: Michael Miller fabric, Simplicity 1080 with modifications, elastic, bias tape

Michael Starrs knit undershirt: ThredUp

Tights: Foot Traffic (in Heather Mocha)

Necklace: from Georgia (the country)

Earrings: Etsy 

Boots: Macy's

Yarn Along: Rosemont Cardigan and The Shepherd's Life

Update: for those who are aware, Birdie is still in the hospital, but her prognosis is looking much better.  She may even be able to go home tomorrow.  I had set this post to go live several days ago, before everything happened. 

I finally got around to photographing my completed Rosemont cardigan!!  I've been wearing it to sleep in for the last week or so, and it has gotten a bit fuzzy on the arms, but overall, I'm pretty happy with how it came out.

It was a fast make, one I put my needles to it--I sort of tootled around with it for a few days in late December, then set it aside in favor of other shiny knitted things.   I decided to put my mind to it in early February so I could finish it for the spring rotation.  I'm glad I did!

I also made the dress which happens to coordinate perfectly--a win all around.  I decided I needed a bit more purple in my life.  The dress has a navy blue background, which means I can wear it with a navy cotton cardigan when it is warmer.

My only complaint about the sweater is that while the shawl collar rolls perfectly when not on my body, for some reason, it doesn't want to stay fully rolled over at the back of my neck while on me.  I discovered that rolling it twice really helps it stay put.  The sweater also wants to slide off my (admittedly narrow) shoulders and makes the sleeves seem too long, even though they aren't.  But overall, I can't complain.  I did shorten the body length by several inches because I know that the pattern length doesn't look good on me.

The dress is a straight up Dottie Angel frock, with my mods.  I think I've got it right now.  I've got the sleeve caps to the width I want, and I experimented with differently shaped pockets on this one to see if I could skip a step and save some bias binding (I did!)   The fabric was that rare unicorn of threads: a nice cotton lawn from Joann's.  It was listed with the quilting cottons, and I knew I was taking a chance ordering it online (my experience with Joann fabrics has been dodgy in the extreme), but it was a good deal, and I just loved the print.  I'm calling it the Yardley's dress because the color scheme kind of makes me think of English things.

I'm happy with the back elastic length, and I think I've worked out the best way to apply the elastic to both sides (wide zig-zag stitch, with elastic pinned on both ends and held VERY taut).

File this one under: Oh yes, I did.

I was browsing etsy a few weeks ago, looking for some Outlander themed jewelry as a kind of mid-winter pick-me-up, and I found this pin.  Of course I bought it straightaway.

(It is the Fraser motto and coat of arms, for the uninitiated)

I also just finished reading The Shepherd's Life by James Rebanks and I really enjoyed it.  I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys Wendall Berry's writing about farm life.  (Which makes me think I should crack some more Berry soon!)  I'm waiting for my copy of The Light Between the Oceans to arrive, as Kate convinced me that it is a must-read.  I'm also eager for the film in the fall--Michael Fassbender is one of my favorite actors, and the rest of the casting looks superb.

More gratuitous sweater photos, because I'm so pleased to have a wearable finished object that I knitted!  The yarn is the wool-alpaca blend from Valley Yarns Stockbridge line.  I recommend it--it is soft and has a nice bloom with wet blocking.

Just the facts:

Rosemont Cardigan: me-made, Stockbridge yarn, Rosemont pattern from Hannah Fettig

Yardley's dress: me-made, Simplicity 1080, light cotton fabric from Joann.com, vintage navy bias binding

Je Suis Pres brooch: etsy

Sea Glass earrings: etsy

Purple tights: Foot Traffic via Sock Dreams

Black boots: Payless

Linking with Ginny for Yarn Along!