June de-railment

Just when I thought I'd escaped the most debilitating of pregnancy symptoms, I started getting dizzy, nauseous, etc.  Please pardon the radio silence.  I'm still stitching, but most of my personal projects have taken a back seat to naps.  Between the bouts of exhaustion, I'm squeezing in commissions.  My commission work is here, in case you're wondering, and I'm working on three projects as a seamstress for hire, one miniature, one 16th century gentleman's wardrobe, and an early 19th century girl's dress and accessories.  Once those are done, I may take on a couple of small for-profit jobs between now and my due date, but I've got a gnome-themed nursery to quilt, embroider, and paint before February.  As such, my monthly goals are likely to change drastically. 

Also, I need to make a "corset for a suffering woman," because, well, when will I have a better excuse to make a maternity corset? 

May Day

May is underway, and I'm making progress!
Goals:


0 of 1 item(s) for Etsy

1779 of 800 knit stitches (The completion of my mini sweater with 427 stitches and made a 1352 stitch start on a pixie cap to match the pink booties)

1 of 4 items for myself, my friends & family, or my dolls

Without further ado, my first finished sweater!!!  It's a 1/3 scale Abrazo from Knitty.  I stitched it on size 2 needles with Knitpicks Essential Sock Yarn, moving the cables a bit farther apart.  It's my first garment, and now I'm pretty confident I could make a human sized something-or-other. 

Booties!

I successfully made two booties.  And they're the same size!

Add 1334 more stitches to my monthly goal of 800.  I think I may need to reevaluate my goal.

April Showers and Stitch Update

With one week to go in the month of April, I figured an update was in order.  It's raining today, so I'm hoping to get a great deal of stitching done before braving the elements to deposit a check and grab a few materials for next month's knitting projects and my summer commission (16th century fencing duds for a gentleman in Ohio).

My cabled mini sweater vest is coming along nicely.  I'm to the underarms, where I'll cease to work in the round and split onto straight needles for the front and back:

I've begun a set of booties for my cousin Gretchen's little girl, who's due soon.  I started them at 7am, and they're coming together very quickly.  I may have them done by the end of the day, and then I can make a matching hooded capelet.  I don't have a pattern, though, so maybe I'll make a blanket instead.

And I'm going to gather materials very soon for Odile & Ulfr's baby gifts, which will take a while, since the perfect knitting pattern requires intarsia and other techniques that I've never tackled before.

Goal Update for April:
0 of 1 item(s) for Etsy
3420! of 800 knit stitches  (2880 of my mini sweater and 540 of baby booties as of 9:30am on 4/26)

8 of 4 items for myself, my friends & family, or my dolls (one 15th century Spanish Kirtle completed and worn to Three Saints, seven eco-friendly washable pantyliners)

Mid-March Stitchin'

Here's how the goals are going:


Etsy:  1 made / 1 projected
Knitting: 668 / 800 knit stitches.  I've done 3 rows of tiny sweater (192), and 8 rows of dishtowel (392) since my last post (84).

Sewing:  3 / 4 items complete.  The husband's doublet is done.  I really need to take a photo.  My kirtle is hemmed (by hand!) and awaiting buttonholes.

Some progress is being made, but I wish I had a bit more time to stitch.

Goals, making up for the incendiary dress fiasco...

So, I replaced the dress with 2 dresses!


My goals are:
1 completed item for Etsy each month (single pieces or outfits)
800 knit stitches per month.  My current project is an itsy-bitsy sweater, and that equates to 3-4 rows per week.
4 completed items for myself, my friends & family, or my dolls per month.


March status so far:

• Regency gown made and sold on Etsy
• 2 easter dresses made for Olivia, so Linda can take her pick.
• 1 fencing doublet nearing completion (needs closures)
• 1 15th century kirtly nearing completion (needs closures)
• 4 plain mid-19th c. day dresses for 1/3 BJD cut out
• 1/3 of a row since March started on Penelope's cabled vest

Negative completions...

I was going to make Olivia an easter dress.  I put it together in a couple of hours, and somehow, along the way, it got stained.  It was a sort of orangy rust -type stain.  And, I'm one of those ridiculous people who iron as I go, so before I knew it, the stain was set in. 

But, wait!  It gets better!  I tried numerous stain removal tactics, to no avail, and then decided the only way to salvage this otherwise perfectly adorable item was to tea-dye it. 

Well, I don't have to worry about that stain anymore.


I got stuff all ready to tea-dye the dress, laid it on a cookie sheet alongside the dish it'd be dunked in. Then I set the kettle up, turned the burner on high, and then wandered away waiting for the kettle to whistle. I saw steam in the kitchen, huge puffs of steam, but no whistling.

I turned the wrong burner on. The dress burned up.
 

A long-awaited finish, and a new start

Sunday and today were very productive.  On Sunday, the Barony hosted a sewing day, at which I managed to cut and piece together the first of many new late-15th C. Spanish gowns and cut out the DH's new doublet for rapier fighting.

I also managed today to do all the handwork on a 1/3 scale piece I figured I'd frog, finish all the machined stitching on the aforementioned gown, and begin a 1/3 scale cowl neckwarmer. 

Here's what I've been up to:

Regency for Elfdoll, cut out over 6 months ago, finally finished today.  I'm not a fan of Regency, so it's going up on Etsy.

We're planning on attending Pennsic this year, so I've begun the annual sewing-like-mad. I'm trying to be more focused on my SCAdian persona, who is a late 15th/early 16th century Spaniard.  On my to-do list is perfecting my tranzado and cofia (head dress) so they'll stay on my head, and making at least 3 new outfits.  I'm also going to be helping the hubby with his new clothes, and making blackworked shifts of flannel and loose gowns of wool for us both to wear while sleeping and to fight the morning chill. 

While I love to dabble in other periods, I'm really very fascinated by the unique nature of Spanish period clothing. Here's a little sampling of the inspiration: 

And my in-progress gown, modeled on the black dresses above (next up, a few partlets in varying levels of sheerness with red stripe patterns, and black stripe patterns, and perhaps a matron's headcovering like Queen Isabella's above):