2021 in review

Good grief, where did 2021 go? One minute I'm care-free with plenty of free time to devote to projects, the next I get promoted and we're so short-staffed I start working 47-50 hours a week. 

Last year I put together a list of 10 projects I wanted to complete - I didn't even make it all the way to ten. This is more or less a review of what I finished last year from the list, and a few things I wasn't planning on that also were completed. 

The first three projects from 2021 were left over from 2020's project list and include

1. worsted wool gown - Finish the 18th-century worsted wool gown
   January 2022 - The only thing stopping this from being done is the sleeves. 
   I was an idiot and did not take the five minutes to track down some linen and line the sleeves the way you're supposed to, because I was more interested in getting the sleeves set than having them done properly. So I brought some wool twill tape to stitch to the raw edge of the sleeve and turn it under because  - SURPRISE! - I lost the pattern for the gown, and the only sleeves I have that I could make a copy from are too small for my arms. Except I've lost both the pattern AND the wool twill tape. So the dress is completely done except for raw edges at the ends of the sleeves.  
2. Finish hand quilting a utility quilt - the orange marmalade one 
   January 2022 - Yeah, nope. But I do know where it is. 
3. Bind two matching green quilts - the binding is at least cut.
   January 2022- One of these got done; was finally gifted to its intended giftee. 
4. Garter Yoke sweater - saw a picture of a finished one, but the pattern was outrageously expensive, so I'm kind of making it up as I go. One of the sleeves is done. It has both sleeves, and part of the body. Right now it's hibernating. 
   January 2022 -  I'm still plugging away at knitting this. I should have done steeks, it would have gone a heckovalot faster than knitting stockinet. Another typical me, I thought I had enough yarn to finish this. Turns out that the navy blues I have are from different dye lots. Whatever. It will be striped.
5. An 18th century silk gown - there's no post for this, but it was started
   Like many things this got lost, and then it's constituent pieces also got lost. It's all together again. I need to find the pattern for the other gown so I can cut sleeves out and finish this gown...
6.  Quilt a panel quilt - I ripped the old border off and put on a new one  
   3/13/2021 This project was completed (except for the border)  along with two others I didn't intend to work on but was able to get done. I used a bamboo blend for the batting and it has the best drape of any of the quilts I have done on a machine. 

I completely redid this! It deserves its own blog post! It needs to be bound, but I just bought some fabric to do that. 

7. Quilt an Americana quilt - it's in one piece now

January 2022- this is another nope. Was not a good year for quilting. 

9. Complete a wool capelet - I don't think I need the wool for this, but I may need silk...

January 2022- ... does it count if you don't even start the project? Asking for a friend...

10. (I don't actually have a 10th project!) - this was probably for the best😆

 

Basically, everything I set out to accomplish wasn't accomplished. 

spinning!

 Someone gifted me with a spinning wheel!

It's a Leclerc. That's about all I know right now, other than they don't make them anymore. 

Obviously, I have no idea what I'm doing. But it gets better!

This was a giant pain - I only have two bobbins. In order to do a double ply, I used a commercial single ply mohair blend in center pull hanks. Wasn't my favorite. 

I only have two bobbins, so I discovered Navajo plying, which is a technique that works when you only have two bobbins and creates a triple ply from one single ply. 

Smee thinks the wheel is absolutely the best thing in the world. 

 

When the wheel comes out, he's right there, watching the moving parts and generally getting underfoot and into mischief. 

Malabar farms and an 18th century shift

Spent Memorial Day weekend in Ohio with some friends. We took in some local sites, had some good food, and enjoyed each other's company. 

I also finally finished this 18th century shift, which I may or may not have started during the pandemic, and also made the mistake of not recording the measurements of before I sewed the pieces together. The last one I made was a complete disaster - I was following the instructions from a reputable tutorial. Despite my measurements being the same as the person leading the tutorial, it did not fit. At all. This one, which a friend helped me measure out, actually fits my body appropriately. 

Visible mending

I had no intentions of joining the visible mending club... until I bought a superfine merino wool sweater at Goodwill, and took it out of the delicate cycle with what seemed like a million holes. 

 
L'aine St. Pierre darning wool from Brooklyn Haberdashery, and the offending sweater

Oddly, the holes are just on the front of the sweater, and the sleeves. I'm not sure if you're supposed to use an embroidery hoop when darning like this, but it seemed the best choice for such a fine knit, and helped me see what I was doing. This isn't quite like darning a sock where you put something rounded under the hole. I used a mixture of techniques including an embroidery star stich, weaving, and mix of Scottish and Finnish darning. It took me a while poking on the internet to figure out how to darn, as the people currently teaching it aren't in my country and are charging for their expertise as teachers. I get it, I've paid for my share of classes when I want to learn something new, but I'm also the person who will try to figure it out for herself. 

I  had to special order the darning wool from Brooklyn Haberdashery in New York - the LYS doesn't carry darning wool, and the Amish general store doesn't have such bold colors. The sweater also presented the challenge of being super fine weight - great for spring, but not so great as the weight matches nothing in my yarn stash. The L'aine St. Pierre is more like a cotton darning thread, which is not plied into one yarn or string but wound onto the card or spool as 4 separate threads together - perfect for this project as I was able to split the strands apart like embroidery floss to more closely match the yarn gauge of the sweater.  The fiber content of the L'aine St. Pierre is similar to Regia darning wool, except Regia is a 2 ply thread. I used the Regia to darn fine gauge wool socks when I didn't have sock yarn. 

Saturday afternoon quilts

 

These were done together on the same piece of backing and batting. The one of the top was left over fabric from an I Spy quilt, and the one on the bottom I can't remember what I was thinking when I bought that fabric, except that the prints mostly went together an I liked them.  

This is the quilt I tore the border off of and started fresh with. I like it so much better now with the olive green and navy blue than the teal I had on there. The quilting thread is sort of a mauve/ plum purple, and the back is a shot cotton. I wanted wool batting for it, but there wasn't any to be had at the studio. When I said I had bamboo in it originally, the owner suggested a bamboo blend (Quilter's Dream Orient I think). This one easily has the best drape of any quilt I've done on a machine. Now I just need to bind it!

ObliGATOry cat and quilt photos

biscornu

I had grand plans last year to hand make a bunch of Christmas presents, and like most other years it just didn't happen. So I'm trying to get a jump on it this year, focusing on a craft that will also help develop my needlework skills. 

Why biscornu? I have no idea. They just sort of popped up in my Pinterest feed and I was enamored, though I can honestly say after having stitched the top of one I'm not sure if I want to cross stitch twelve of them. I have a yard of white linen and no idea what I'm doing trying to cross stitch on it.

This one is small, about 3" square when I started, and I'm looking at it now wondering if it wouldn't make a great pattern weight if I put some washers in it as well. 

 

I did end up purchasing some crushed walnut shells and lavender buds to fill it with. 

Leclerc Saxony Wheel

I came home from work yesterday to this cryptic text that wasn't on my phone by my mother's - would I like a spinning wheel?

YES.

It took a little investigating to figure out whom the text was from, and it turns out this same person had already gifted me with a demonstration kit consisting of a drop spindle, carding combs, and small amounts of wool fleece in various stages from raw to ready to spin. Saturday morning I ran over to her place and picked up the wheel, eager to play with my new toy. In the before times, I probably would have left immediately for the yarn shop, but with the social distancing and occupancy regulations, I had to call the shop first and make an appointment. 

My dad really hasn't left the house since this whole quarantine thing started, but he had reached his limit for sitting around the house so we went on a mini adventure - he stayed in the car while I bought fleece to spin, and I stayed in the car while he bought and traded some coins at the coin shop, and we both sat in the car and ate fast food in the restaurant parking lot because COVID (these are some seriously strange times we're living in; I'm sure anyone who has lived through something historically significant was also shaking their head, to say the least). 

I should have bought more fleece to spin, but I didn't think I was going to be this taken with it. If you don't know anything about spinning, the wool fiber has a bunch of different names depending on what shape and state it's in; I'm going to refer to this a roving. It had to be drafted, or pulled apart out of the hank, before it could be spun.

Nothing comes out perfect on the first go - I need more practice to get a consistent twist in the fiber as well as yarn size. 

Smee is entranced by the wheel. He won't leave it alone when I've got it out. 

Update: Some finished product! On the left is a double ply (1 single ply plus 1 single ply = 2 ply) of the first bits of spun roving and a hank of Lamb's Pride Worsted in Brown Patina (apparently it's wool and mohair, I had no idea until I looked at the label for the color name). On the left is a chain ply, which creates a 3 ply yarn. If you're not already confused, plying this together on the wheel looks a bit like a combination of spinning and crochet.