Red Cedar
More apocalypse, less angst
Post #3029: Almost ready to turn on the fall projects.
It very suddenly feels like fall here – the leaves have been turning for the last couple of weeks, and this morning some much needed rain falls on my yard outside the studio (the sunrise photo above was taken last week during a sunnier commute). And though I see many of my friends upset by this turn of weather, west coast summers feeling always so brief, I myself welcome autumn with an open heart. By the end of August, I always feel like it’s time for a return to more routine and structure, and I love the return of the rains which make our part of the world so green for much of the year.
I’ve been thinking about fall projects a lot – I’m working on two different knit scarves at the moment, one of them is part of a memorial knitting project I am doing in the wake of my friend Bronwyn’s death, and the other is a lace stole that I am making for myself. The memorial knitting is great for travel and watching TV, the lace knitting is best done in silence, or to the sound of an audio book and nothing else. I have no great photos of either, but this photo of the memorial knit (triangular scarf) shows the way the colour striping from the two gradient yarns is working together. I am in love with this colour combination:
I’ve got some fall sewing also on my mind. I recently went to the wedding of my ex-boyfriend and sewed a whole outfit in honour of the occasion – dress, wrap (which I swapped out for a crochet wrap instead), and clutch:
This was my first time working with a lace overlaid on a satin lining, and I modified the Coco pattern for knits because I like the shape of it. I got lots of compliments on the dress, but there is one thing I need to change and that’s the fact that because the lining and the lace are different weights, there is a weird drag on the hem. I’m going to cut the lining free at the hem and hem it separately – which should fix it as a fancy dress that I can wear in the future. The wrap is the Elmira pattern from Seamwork/Collette and while I didn’t wear it with the dress in the end, I have found it to be a useful piece for late summer. I would like to make this again but lengthen it a bit to account for my bustline. The wrap is supposed to fall towards the waist, but in my case it sits high. That works, but I would like to size it properly for me. The clutch was made from some remnant upholstery fabric and some leftover dress lining using the Seamwork Valencia pattern.
In doing this marathon sewing blitz (all three pieces were completed in a four-day period during which I was also working), I was reminded that I really like the challenge of garment sewing and I would like to get back to more of it this fall. I’ve got fabric for skirts and a t-shirt, and an open cardigan. Additionally I’ve got two pieces of beautiful double gauze – enough for one shirt and a dress – it’s not really a seasonal fabric, but I tend to layer anyways.
I’m also itching to put another quilt together after finishing the baby quilt that is being gifted next week:
I’ve got some remnants put together from this one that I might use to create a full size quilt, but another baby is coming to our family in the new year so there may just be a replica baby quilt made from them and I’ll pull together a new house quilt with stuff I’ve got in the stash. I would like to eventually finish off the Tula Pink 100 blocks that I started in 2014 (I’ve made 38) as well since I quite like the hodgepodge effect of many small blocks/many fabrics.
In any case, as with the start of any new season, I am awash in new project ideas – some of which will happen, some which will not. That’s the beauty of planning – it’s a creative act in itself, and when it’s not work related, you only have to finish what you feel like finishing.
Before all that – we’ve got a little holiday coming up as we fly to NY tomorrow to visit a friend in Hudson-on-Croton, and my brother and sister-in-law and their new family addition on Long Island. I can’t say that I am over-eager to travel to the US in the run-up to election madness – from an outsider’s perspective, the US looks very unsafe to me from a variety of angles – but we will be mainly in the suburbs visiting people we are long overdue to see, and that makes the trip worthwhile. After this though, it will be a very long time before I go south again – the dollar, the potential right-wing government, and the internal violence being what they are. I have to admit to being frightened for my US friends and family, and by extension, frightened for Canada and Mexico – because it’s only a matter of time before that shit impacts both sides of the border (and I’m just glad I’m living on a small island that takes two ferries to get to).
But! For the next twelve days or so, I will be in the USian east, somewhere I have not visited for four years -and I’ve never spent any time on Long Island. I’m just considering it a bit of an adventure in the upside-down-world (for what is Donald Trump if not the shadow side of Justin Trudeau – liberal capitalism has a little bit of socialism on one side, and a little bit of fascism on the other after all).
That means my knitting will come along for the ride, but the sewing will have to wait until we return – though I am crossing my fingers that a couple of fabric shops will get visited during my travels, possibly a knit shop or two as well. I’ll try to post from the road – and will definitely start project posting on our return!
Red Cedar 
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