Testing, 1, 2, 3

I'm trying to get my Monmouth Cap up and running on Ravelry. The pattern is there, and is a free down load, you can get it here, Monmouth Cap, The Details Matter, if you are a Ravelry member. That is easy. But it's trickier for those who *aren't* Rav members! There are buttons I can put in, to link to the download, but I haven't quite figured that out, yet....

Download for non-Members (but, really, if you knit, why not join Rav???).

Now, we shall see if the links all work!

Monmouth Cap, The Details Matter (you can see the specs on the Rav page here)

download the pattern now

Yes, the above link does work! Clicking it grabs my download, over on Ravelry, and will download the pdf right now. Not exactly elegant, but effective. I've signed up for the beta-test feature that lets non-Ravelry members see your designs, but haven't gotten it, yet, so in the meantime, this is it.

Racism in the 'burbs

To the ladies (and I use the term loosely) at the class in the public store this morning:

Your racism was showing, load and clear. It was extremely upsetting to listen to. "Missing clothing ends up on the Boston Bus"...why did you have to keep repeating that? Are you that proud of your racism?

If your little girl brought her American Girl doll to kindergarten and she couldn't find it, how do you know it was in the backpack of the CA Metco equivalent? Did the teacher let you look? Did the teacher tell you? Or did you just assume "it was in the little black girl's backpack", while the teacher figured out which child had the doll and got it back to your daughter? It might have been in any child's backpack, and the teacher is unlikely to have told you which child.

And to the woman whose son lost his brand new black Northface jacket. How do you know it "went on the Boston bus"? How do you know, really, that he was correct with the statement that the last time he had it was on the playground. Maybe it ended up in lost and found, and that afternoon Jacob's mom found it, thinking it was Jacob's brand new black Northface jacket, lost yesterday. Only Jacob's jacket is on the floor under Anthony's bed...where Anthony announced to his mom his missing blue jacket turned black! Only Anthony's missing jacket is at grandma's summer house, left there at Thanksgiving....not to be found until next summer. The statement "Our kids don't need clothes. The only ones who would need to steal clothes are on the Boston Bus"....just boggles the mind.

My daughter's green Lands' End windbreaker wasn't on the fence, with all the other kindergarten coats one warm afternoon, in the middle of pickup. But a very similar, same size and color, London Fog windbreaker was! After several days, that London Fog coat showed up in lost and found. I eventually gave up and took it and washed it, and let my daughter wear it, posting a notice offering to swap coats back. Never heard a thing.

When we were on a long distance train to Florida, I put my sons handknit sweater (with sheep on it! It was so cute!) with our coats. It went missing. I didn't know if I left it on the train, if it was stolen, or what. It was just gone. What would one think? Those ladies, I bet, would assume that one of the many other passengers on this crowded, diverse car had stolen it.

Years later, when packing for a plane trip, while carefully checking every pocket of the suitcase for sharps, guess what I found in an obscure, seldom used pocket? Yep...Harry's long outgrown sheepy sweater!

I hope the teacher suggests a little more tolerance to this group of women.

End of the season

We had a great time at Hartwell, doing a foodways presentation of preparing and preserving food for the winter.



I got to hold Ginger the Chicken. She's a Buff Orpington, just like that silly lady kept in Busman's Honeymoon.



Sabra orchestrated a fabulous lunch...and as Sue said, we eat best in the Fall, because it's harvest!





We used the market stalls that Ken built...they are just so terrific, and they look so much like the drawings! I love having realistic tools and furniture.



Ginger had quite the fan club.


Rick built the cart kit that the park bought. We all used it to shlep our gear out. It worked great. Harry was able to pull it up all by himself. You have to balance it carefully, and tend it while loading and unloading, or else it tips over...not hard to keep it from tipping, but you do have to watch it!

Kids make it all real!

NOTHING looks more real when reenacting that a properly dressed child! Usually kids' clothes get skimped on, but that is a mistake. Kids are camera bait, and if someone's photo is going to wind up splashed across a paper, it's a child's, so it's worth doing them properly.



I never did finish posting the little outfit I made Anna. I'm totally happy with how it came out. The only things that aren't just right are on purpose...it's a tad loose, because I want it to fit next summer!


I just love this photo!!!!





Construction details can be seen here...the gown has a string to fasten its skirt, and those go through the lacing holes, so that they stay up! There is a placket to cover the lacing holes, and it really does make a neat effect.

I don't have a photo of her in her cloak and black bonnet...I need to get those, the whole thing is just so sweet! Anna still needs another petticoat and stays, but these will do for right now, breeches are next on my list!

Anna

Too tired to blog...but here:

She was obliging me by showing the back of her gown to the camera.

More coming.

Saintonge Flag Quilt

I have a friend, who's sick. He's going to be dealing with a lot of doctors and hospitals and feel crummy for a while. There isn't much I can do to help...but I can help keep him warm, while reminding him that there are people who care. And, while we are at it, this will remind every doctor and nurse who enters his hospital room that this man is important enough to have people making him hand made stuff.

When my daughter had her tonsils out, I noticed that the medical staff flocked to her, to admire her handmade doll and quilt...so I do my best to send friends and family prepared.

So, here is what I did....

At Jo-Ann's, we wanted to get fleur de lis polar fleece, but they didn't have any (I though I'd seen some, but, sadly, no). So Abe suggested a Saintonge flag, backed with Marine Corps polar fleece. I decided that was a great idea, so here is the flannel for the flag:


And my rulers and rotary cutter...this would have been impossible without big, good rulers...at one point I had to use 3 to cut my squares, these are big squares!



If one is clever, and remembers how, and the weird seam allowances necessary, you can get 4 squares, each made of 4 different colored triangles, without ever actually sewing a pair of triangles.



You take two squares, sew them diagonlaly, twcie, then cut between...that gives half square triangles.



Then you do the same, again, to get quarter square triangles.


I put the white all around, and the stripes of all the colors, like the ribbon/braid hanging from the real flag pole, to make it rectangular and long enough (a hint of this is to the left in the photo way back at the top). Here it's unironed, waiting for me to go to Jo-Ann's to get more white flannel. It's very very bright in person.



It's flannel on top, fleece on the back. Totally washable, soft and very cuddly. It folds up small, but should be nice and warm.

We just got back from giving him the quilt. He liked it, we chose well ;-)

For No Good Reason

Ok, I do have a reason for this post, but it's not a good one. I'm sewing growth tucks. I want this gown to have growth tucks. I just don't want to sew them. But I'm doing it. But I'm also bored. I have about 1.5 lengths of thread left to do, and I don't want to. So I'm procrastinating here.



My thread is waxed silk thread, from Utica threads. Size A.



I take the skein, as it comes out of the bag, fold it in half, so that there are two loops at one end and it's about 9 inches long (this makes each strand 18 inches) and tie a string around it at the middle. Then I cut the two loops, and divide it all into 3 sections, and braid it, and tie it off. Then, when I need a new strand, I gently separate one from the top of the braid (not the fringy end), and pull it out! No tangles, no cutting, no waxing, just one piece of 18 inch sewing thread! Very efficient, I love this thread!

This is how I sew. I always use a thimble. I didn't use one many years ago, and I wanted to learn to rocker quilt, so I used a trick by Ami Simms' How to Improve Your Quilt Stitch. I wore a thimble all day! I got used to it, used to considering it part of my hand. Now I hold my hand like this to sew:


You can just see the eye of the needle at the thimble.

The bandaid is from the abuse I gave my hands on Friday. I stabbed my thumb repeatedly, burned two fingers making dinner, and scraped a sewing callus off while peeling squash. And I never figured out what I used to shred my thumb. Then on Saturday, for the first time in YEARS, I stabbed myself on a pin closing my bedgown. I haven't done that since I first started wearing straight pins! I figure it was the cold I was just getting over.

I hold the right of the fabric between my pinky and ring finger:


Then I push the needle the rest of the way through with my middle finger.


This is pretty much what my hand usually looks like:

I hold the left side with my left, of course, and my thumb nail presses down right next to the needle tip, and my left and right hands stay tensed, while then rock up and down, building up sts on the needle. The fingers stay pretty still, relative to each other, except for slight pressure on the needle with my middle finger.

There. A totally useless post, and I'm ready to go finish those foolish tucks!