Me-Made May Week 3

We are having a small run of mid-summer weather at the moment, so I'm in linen, linen, and more linen right now.   Supposedly it is going to rain later today and tomorrow and bring the temps back into a more normal range for May.  I just hope my fledgling strawberries don't cook!  

I'll list what I wore, starting upper left corner, going clockwise.

Sunday (upper left): Bluebird dress (made in 2016, altered 2020.  Probably oldest make still in my closet!)

Wednesday: lilac linen Remy raglan (just finished!), beet linen Free Range Skirt hack (2021).

Tuesday (upper right): dawn linen self-drafted drop shoulder shirt (2021), linen noil spruce Free Range skirt hack (2021)

Thursday (lower right): thrifted tank and jacket, linen/rayon black pepper Free Range skirt hack (2021)

Friday: Altered white linen Remy raglan (2021), sage linen/rayon M7353 skirt (unblogged)

Saturday: Meadow linen Sorrel shirt hack (2021), Purple Violet Squish skirt hack (originally made in 2019, hacked 2021)

Monday: altered thrifted tshirt, thrifted skirt.  This outfit was very meh.

My Thursday outfit was for a meeting I had to run at school and I felt totally awesome in it.  I thrifted that jacket months ago but have struggled to find a way to wear it.  I'll keep this outfit in my back pocket!

I think I like the Purple Violet Squish skirt enough to keep it in regular rotation.  It goes very nicely with the sage linen top, and probably will go with some other linen tops I've yet to make.  I made the lilac linen Remy early this week (I think!) to get my feet into sewing garments again, since it's been a minute.   I had just enough left over from a sewing student's project to squeak out the Remy.  I had to piece a tiny bit of one sleeve, but it ended up inside the French seams, so it's all good.   The color can wash me out a bit, so I made sure to have interesting colorful jewelry on near my face and that did the trick.

The sage linen skirt that I squeaked out of the leftovers from a Remy last fall turned out to be a good skirt!  I was skeptical when I first made it and didn't even bother to blog, but I think it will be a lovely summer piece.  My only regret is that I didn't have enough fabric for pockets, but since I got a skirt and 3/4 sleeve shirt out of less than 2 yards, I can't complain.  The white linen top will be much more useful with short sleeves, I think.  I want to do some tone-on-tone embroidery on it, but I keep waffling about the design.  That said, I did really like it with the sage skirt, although I did risk blinding passersby with my burns in the moonlight skin and light colored clothes.  Ha!

I finished the embroidery on my sage Remy raglan and will try to get a proper post about it soon.  Since almost none of my summer clothes fit right now, I'm on a mission to make stuff and try new things.  Yesterday, I made an Isla wrap dress out of some Indian block print cotton and cut out a cap sleeve Hinterland this morning, plus a simple linen top, so I should have new some things to post soon! 

Me Made May Week 2

Saturday...time for a weekly wrap up.  The weather has been bananas this week, so I was on and off with tights and boots.  Today I'm in linen and sandals, whereas last Sunday I was wearing a wool sweater and boots.  Go figure.  Go home, May, you're drunk.

I realized that I didn't really detail what I was wearing in last week's wrap, so I'll try to do better this week.  My unders are always me-made, but you'll just have to take my word for it.  😉  I'll go clockwise starting in the upper left corner, although the days are slightly out of order.  

Sunday (top left): Poet sweater, thrifted stripey shirt under, me-made jewelry from spring 2021, thrifted denim skirt.

Monday: Sage Toaster sweater, Purple Violet Squish skirt (original dress made 2019, made into a skirt 2021), etsy jewelry

Tuesday: Spruce noil Remy Raglan (2021), Woodrose French terry Elemental skirt (2021), etsy jewelry

Wednesday: I started out in sandals and changed mid-morning because I was so cold, so you get both outfits.  Upper right corner: thrifted Levi's stripey shirt, thrifted denim skirt altered to fit better in the waist, textured scarf (2019); lower right corner: Chili knit Coco shirt (2021), cuffs recently removed for 3/4 sleeves, thrifted/altered denim skirt.

Friday: a bit of a cheat, I admit, as this dress was made by my friend Kate.  She didn't care for it and so passed it to me to salvage the fabric, but I liked how it fit and swished, so have worn it a few times.  It's a little out of my current wheelhouse pattern-wise, but I feel pretty good in it.  I wear it on my "I can't even with a waistband" days.  I made the jewelry last fall.

Saturday: dawn linen drop shoulder shirt (self-drafted, 2021), much altered and embroidered English rose linen Everyday skirt (2020).  I never thought to put these two together and I love the combo.

Thursday (lower left): long sleeve cotton tshirt on clearance from Target, textured scarf (2019), black pepper Free Range Slacks skirt hack (2021).  That shirt was the best $5 I ever spent.  The fit is *mwah*.  

The thrifted denim skirt that I altered probably needs another tweak, since I'm not totally happy with the waistband fit yet, but it's okay to wear now.

I'm still not sure about the Purple Violet Squish skirt.  I mostly made it to salvage the fabric and feel less bad about the waste of it, but it is just okay.  It did look nice with the Toaster, though.

 
The Woodrose Elemental skirt had gone into a dark corner of my closet when it did not fit me at all in March, but it looks okay now with a loose Remy. It would look better with 10 more pounds off, but at least it is somewhat wearable again.

I let out my dawn linen shirt at the side seams after realizing it was just too tight across the middle to be comfortable.  I also noticed the fabric was pulling at the stitches and getting damaged. It is much more comfortable, although French seams are not my favorite thing to unpick.  At least the seams were short.  I may let out my other two drop shoulder linen shirts too, although they fit a bit differently for some reason.  It's those pesky little fixes that take almost no time that I put off forever and then wonder why I didn't do it sooner.  Contradiction, thy name is Juliana.

I've been thinking a lot about ease vs. flattering, and can't really come to a satisfying conclusion.  I like my clothes semi-fitted as a style matter, but sometimes overfit them as a comfort matter.  Or underfit.  Or something.  

My measurements have changed, although I admit I've been too much of a coward to find out how much, because the voice in my head is very mean.  After losing a few pounds over a few days last weekend and feeling like the dietary/activity changes I'd implemented months ago were finally having an effect, I gained it all back and then some.  Blerg.  But I need to take new measurements and move on, because wearing clothing that fits and feels well is more important than clinging to slopers that make me feel like a sausage casing.  I'm also in the middle of going down a big Saxon/Viking rabbit hole and their clothes were comfortable and loose.  And still looked great.   

I'm hoping to make some clothes for warmer weather in the coming weeks.  Dresses mostly, in search of that ever-elusive "one."  It will be interesting to see what comes of the experiment, as I'm planning to try a bunch of new-to-me patterns, including the much beloved Hinterland dress.  I'm realizing that I need to wear more woven linen in hot weather.  Knits, even cotton ones, get sweaty almost instantly and then just stay clammy all day, which makes me cross.  And since hot weather makes me cross anyway, I don't need my clothes adding to the fray.  Linen wicks and dries quickly, and if I can get the balance between fit and ease right, I'll be in a better place with my summer wardrobe.  At least that's the hope.

"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." (F. Scott Fitzgerald)

Poet

The lace beast is finally finished!  Man, this sweater was a slog.  I started it almost exactly 11 months ago, and nearly frogged it several times, but I'm glad I pushed through to the end.  It is a very pretty sweater, the fit is excellent, but I don't think I'll be revisiting this pattern.

Yarn is Cloudborn sport, part of the yarn I bought a year ago April in a great sale.  I'm finding it to be a pretty good yarn; it pills very little, has a good even ply, and has a nice feel in the hands while knitting.  The pattern is Poet by Sari Nordlund, and it has Issues.  I'm not sure if I received the magazine version that had a ton of errata, but the lace chart was hard to navigate in conjunction with the raglan increases, and I would have done better with it if she had explained it as a graduated raglan increase, the way Kate Davies does in the Doocot pattern.  

The written instructions were VERY difficult to integrate with the chart, and I really had to wing it, which is why I ended up with an extra lace repeat of about 10 rows after I put the sleeves on holders, but I didn't notice until I was very far into the body and I decided it wasn't worth tinking back to fix.   It's not terribly noticeable and looks almost intentional.

As expected, the neckline gaped after blocking, so I used a yarn tail to snug it up like a purse string. The fix is nearly invisible, adjustable because of how I left the ends, and saved me having to redo the neckline umpteen times to get the fit right. I'd already knit it twice and worried about wrecking the lace edge with repeated attempts.

We had a bunch of rainy days that cooled the weather significantly (yay!) so I was able to wear this yesterday for Mother's Day and was quite happy. The skirt is thrifted and I am happy to have a denim skirt that fits again, although this one needs some elastic in the back waist for a perfect fit. It's on my to-do list for this week.

Also on my to-do list: Swatch Moar Sweaters!! (ha!)

Me-Made May 2022 Week 1

 May is one of my busier months, not unlike January.  It is the Paschal season, plus we have two birthdays, an anniversary, and Mother's Day, all in the first half of the month.  By the time we get through all that, it's go-time for capstones x4, theater festival, and the push through to the end of the year.  

I wasn't sure I was going to participate in Me-Made May this year (at least from a photo-taking standpoint), and I'm not sure it will last, but I got photos this week at least.  

About what I wore: I was almost ready to let the red Remy go (lower left corner) because when I tried it on in March, it was uncomfortably tight, but it feels okay now.  I'm glad to have it still.  The sage Remy (upper left corner) that I barely blogged in the fall and wore exactly once because it made me feel dull is in the process of getting a facelift with embroidery.  I wore it last Sunday when the front stitching was complete, and am now working on the sleeves.  I'll do a proper post on it when I'm finished.  I really love the beet linen ensemble (upper right corner) and am glad of the linen tops like this I made in the fall.

The weather is all over the place, as you can see by my clothes.  I was on and off with tights all week although we've had a big rain in the last day that has cooled things down significantly.  Small mercies. 

I am struggling to feel okay in my body most days.  Of the 15 pounds I gained in a week in January, only five or so has come off, and I would need to lose another 10 to get back to where I was maintaining a year ago.  Peri-menopause is a B.  

Part of me thinks I need to accept being in a bigger body, and part of me knows that I feel better psychologically and physically at the lower weight.  I'm a bit angry that I can't eat a stable diet and maintain.  I hate it that I feel more worthy in a smaller body but that I can't seem to maintain one without am even more restricted food life than I already have.  I suppose the best I can do is to accept reality and move on (in bigger clothes).

So it goes, I guess.  Bodies change.  

The Everyday Sweater

I seem to get a bunch of things off needles at the end of April or beginning of May, but that's okay; it just means I have new things to wear when it gets cold in the fall!  In truth, I was able to wear this sweater all day Thursday in perfect comfort, as the temps are still chilly this week--yay!!  

This is the Everyday Sweater by DreaRenee Knits. It is an extremely straightforward and easy knit and went more quickly than I would have expected, given the weight and plain stitches, but I worked on it here and there from late February to early this week and finished it! I used sport weight Wool of the Andes yarn in the Papaya Heather colorway. It is a peachy-pink with some yellow heathering that gives the color depth and tonality. I love it.

At first, I dithered about whether to add a textured stitch to the yoke or some lace pattern, but I was stuck with my Poet sweater and fighting with the Not a Bláithín sweater at the time and just needed something completely mindless as a palette cleanser.   It allowed me to soldier on with the Poet sweater, and I finally completed the body this week!  I started one of the sleeves yesterday and made good progress on it. 

 

The Everyday Sweater pattern is nearly identical to the Stripes! one, except for the collar and hem ribbing, so I sized up to the third size, hoping to get the ease of Andrea's version but didn't quite get there.  I'm still not sure why her collar stands up and mine doesn't, but I see from others' versions that this is common, so it must be an ease thing.  It is a very comfy sweater, though, so it's okay.  I also added more stitches to the sleeves and decreased less based on my last sweater.  I'm pretty happy with the sleeve fit on this one.

Also, the yardage is WAY overstated, as seems to be common with her patterns.  I have more than half the yarn left that I bought based on the pattern yardage recommendation.   I might use it for a mosaic sweater in combination with some other pinks and reds I have hanging around.

I have a sweater's worth of this same yarn in the Hollyberry colorway and I had thought to make two of these, but I think I'll try something else for that yarn.  After I get my Poet off needles, I have a scrappy sweater to finish for Boo plus a fingering-weight shawl I've not touched since last summer, but after those are done, I can start swatching the Weekender and New Leaf sweaters I've had waiting in my queue!  

Ubi Caritas

One of the fascinating by-products of having kids in a classical school is that they come home with really interesting stuff.  Boo is not a natural student but he is very bright and aesthetically-minded; he would not necessarily seek out art and beauty for its own sake, but when exposed to it at school, it gets into him and excites him.  

A few weeks ago, he came home in raptures over the Non Nobis scene in Kenneth Branagh's Henry V.  He made me play it for the whole family because he wanted to share the beauty with the rest of us (and it is a beautiful scene).  

Yesterday, he came home and said we must listen to two versions of Ubi Caritas by Kings Return and Audrey Assad.  My personal favorite was the Kings Return version--it gave me shivers up my spine!--but Assad's is very beautiful too.  I wanted to share both here:

Ubi Caritas by Kings Return from Father Dyer Church on Vimeo.

Rewind

I almost can't believe it is Palm Sunday already.  (We in the East are a week behind this year).  The kids and I have been passing around a respiratory infection during spring break, so it has been a low-key week for us.  Birdie's infection developed into pneumonia mid-week, so I'm keeping her home from church this morning.  We'll stream the service from our cathedral in DC so at least we get the flavor of the day.  I've missed a number of Sunday services this Lent because of my own or my kids' illness, but that is okay.  To everything a season.  I'm grateful to have streaming options for times like these.  

We also received most excellent news this past week: my dad's cancer is in remission! Thank God!! He still has a long way to complete healing and recovery, and he'll need to be checked every few months for a while, but we'll take it. That said, even after recovery, he won't be going back to work as chief pharmacist at the hospital again, so his semi-retirement of September turned rather abruptly into a full retirement when everything happened last October. So we'll see what God has in store for him in this next season and will trust in His provision.  Thanks to everyone who has prayed, given financial support, brought meals, etc.  It has been such a help and blessing.

A dear friend of our family is also going through cancer treatment at the moment and I decided to make her a lap quilt.  My dad used his birthday quilt so much when he was in the hospital and during his recovery at home that I thought it might be a useful thing for her.  I had bought a couple of charm packs from the Moda Songbook fabric line and made up a simple patchwork quilt with some small sashing around the edges.  The backing and binding was from the same line of fabric.  The hardest part was figuring out the best arrangement of blocks!

I found a walking foot that fit my Bernina and quilted in diagonals, which was fun and satisfying.  I found the whole process of this quilt quite fun, actually.  My only complaint is that the walking foot is really hard on needles, and I had to change mine several times during the quilting process, but the result was so even and nice that it was worth it.  I have several more patchwork lap quilts in mind for both my home and as a gift or two.   

I finished several books lately.  Kristin Lavransdatter has been on my nightstand for a year now, and I finally finished the beast.  Fittingly, I started it last Lent, and finished it at the end of this one.  The last 50 pages were really beautiful, and I'm glad I read it, but I don't think I'll be revisiting the story any time soon.  (I know, I know.  I'm a terrible person.  Hopefully we can still be friends?)

I finished Martin Malia's The Soviet Tragedy after poking through it for several months and found it a very good and informative read.  Malia gave me a different perspective on Khrushchev that I appreciate very much.   It's also interesting to integrate Malia's work with Slezkine's, as they approach the same material with quite different frames, but both have important contributions toward understanding the period.

From there, I re-read Sana Krasikov's The Patriots, which is about the American emigration to the USSR during the Great Depression.  I noticed in her notes that she relied on a monograph called The Forsaken for parts of the story, and decided to run that book down.  It was an extremely engaging and informative read, although parts of the story are hard to take in and some are just plain infuriating.  (If you've seen Mr. Jones, the unconscionable Walter Duranty makes more than one appearance in Tzouliadis' book).  After that, I wanted to read more Krasikov, so read her first book of short stories called One More Year.  Each chapter is about a different post-Soviet immigrant.  Even though the book tends toward black humor, it was an informative window into the post-Soviet experience.

Somewhere in there, I also read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and enjoyed it very much. I loved the epistolary format, and wanted to read something similar, and found Letters from Skye, by Jessica Brockmole, which I started last night. I can hardly put it down, and am enjoying it almost as much. I also decided to re-read Dead Souls, which is a hilarious romp through the 19th century Russian countryside. Gogol was a comic genius.

Finally, I've been reading Pride and Prejudice aloud to the girls at bedtime for the past month or so, and we finished it this week in a marathon read-aloud on Friday during lunchtime.  We watched the BBC version with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth over several viewings this past week while the boys were occupied with a different show.  I also want to show them the 2005 movie version because I like both for different reasons.  The BBC version is extremely faithful to the book, but there is something about the condensed 2005 version that just grows on you.  I happen to like Matthew McFayden very much, and enjoyed his take on Mr. Darcy.   

We just started Persuasion, and I look forward to showing them the film version with Sally Hawkins and Rupert Penry-Jones when we've finished the book.  So much Austen, so little time!  I feel as though I'm getting a great books education right alongside my kids and it is fabulous.