Is It 'Learning' When You Don't Know What You've Done?

I knit this toque last winter to try to add some colour to my world and thought I would wear this hat with my purple jacket, purchased for the same reason.
I don't suffer from SAD, but I swear have CMS*.

You can see how the toque originally looked on my Ravelry page but because it turned out much too big, I didn't wear it much. It was still too big, even after I felted it a few times, and kept falling off if I turned my head too quickly, not optimal in our frigid weather.

I pulled it out again a few weeks ago intending to give it another go, having totally forgotten it is too large. Today I threw it in the wash again with the thought that if it didn't shrink, it was going be donated.
I did not intentionally do anything differently than the last two (or three) times I tried to shrink it, but today, it came out much smaller, almost the size I was hoping for in the first place. The only possible difference? There were many more things with which it rolled around in the dryer. I know friction pays a part in the felting process, but can that be the crucial part?

*CMS is my self-diagnosed disorder and means Colour Missing Syndrome. Here, in the winter, all is dirty snow; snow contaminated with sand and other dirt so it is just an dull, dingy affair. If the sun shines, they sky is blue but that is the only relief from the dun-coloured monotony. At least where I grew up the snow is white. By late January, I crave colour -grass, flowers, -anything but white, grey, and brown!

Merry Christmas and Season's Greetings

From all of us to all of you, the very best in the New Year!

A Pirate's Honeycrisp Mittens -They're Arrrrr-gyle

Yes, a huge groaner. But the mitts are great.

Winter has arrived and it seems even colder this year. Or else I'm becoming a wimp.

I have made mittens before by tracing around my hands, but they were less than stellar in their fit. The Honeycrisp looked very close-fitting around the wrist, the better to keep old cold winter drafts.

I used two thrifted sweaters I felted.

The grey sweater is much heavier than the argyle pair and could have been a size bigger, and they have a funny shape (they look like scuba mitts to me), but they will be fine as liners in leather mitts. The argyle pair, being thinner will go in in a smaller pair of leather mitts.

It may seem odd to have several different mitten combinations, but hands that are too hot and sweaty from too heavy a combination get just as cold as hands in too light a combo.
Yes, I spend far too much time thinking about this.

We Remember

Look What Followed Me Home

Does anyone else ever feel pangs of guilt when they contemplate the extent of their own good fortune?

Faux Cowl Top

 I have yet to figure out why it takes me so long to do things. I mean, there is nothing else going on in my life beyond work, the gym (now that rowing is finished for the season), laundry, groceries, cleaning occasionally and the other stuff that makes up our lives. Once I got down to it, this top took less than an hour to sew. This is the first of my fall sewing -New Look 6301.

It is starting to get dark once I get home from work, and I was too lazy to set up my other photographic method, so you get mirror reflection shots. (Excuse the wrinkles. Being rolled up and packed into panniers for my ride to the gym, then worn at work all day has an effect on things.)

The top still fits fairly well even tho' it is designed for a knit and I made it out of a stretch woven. There are gray spots in the flowers to match the gray skirt, but it is hard to pick those out here.

Pilates balls and old kitchen countertops in the background.

 I lengthened the sleeves slightly to slide better inside a sweater.

Old computer and desktop articles.

 I have also made this top with a very stretchy rayon knit. I call this my Europe shirt ("I see London, I see France...") because it is so very drapey when I lean over ("...I can see your underpants.") I wear a very high-necked camisole underneath.

A close-up of my freckles and the Geek's family pictures.

I think it turns out well enough from the woven fabric, but knits are obviously optimal.

It's Not Part of the Plan but It's Still Fall Sewing

This corduroy skirt, Vogue 1247, was cut out this spring. And since I am very fickle when it come to sewing projects, it jumped the queue.

It went on a bit of a wearing marathon after completion.

I wore it to work on Friday.

Then on a hike in the Pembina River Valley with my family on Saturday and to a fundraiser at a dog park on Sunday (no pictures of that tho').

Saturday was cool and it had just finished raining when we arrived but the walk was just as much fun as last time.

The walk was muddy and I had forgotten all the up and down sections of the trail. I wore the skirt as none of my jeans fit very well. The skirt was fine, except in places where I had to take really long steps to maintain my footing.

I constructed the skirt in manner similar to the yellow one and used seam binding to finish the hem.

I used iron-on interfacing to reinforce under the pocket openings to they wouldn't stretch too badly.

And serged around the pockets and seam allowances instead of using bias tape. I was going to change the serger thread to brown, but decided I liked how the blue looked against the rust-coloured corduroy.

I have totally adoped Tasia's Hollyburn waistband/ zipper method. That is such a neat and tidy way of putting in a zipper. I never thought of attaching the waistband before sewing up the back seam and then inserting the zipper. Everything lines up and you don't necessarily need another waistband closure.

I now need to apply some self-discipline and sew up the top and skirt I cut out and are now waiting on my cutting table.