Thursday, January 03, 2008

My First Sewing Project of the New Year

I made one correction to yesterday's yoga post. Sun salutation lacks spinal rotation and a balance pose. I usually fight my way through tree pose for balance. I actually need to work on balance poses a lot more since they are my weakness.

Yesterday was just as hectic as I thought it would be but I was able to accomplish everything, even getting yarn from the same dyelot to finish the leg warmers. I think I'll have them done by the weekend.

The thing about the leg warmer project that irritates me is the pattern calls for making them 26 inches long. From my daughters' perspective this is unnecessarily long but I didn't find this out until I had already bound off one of them. Had I known this sooner, I would have had enough yarn in the first place. (Obviously, I could have tried to unbind them but that scares me.)

I was thinking that one way to avoid a problem like this in the future is to wind the yarn into two equal size balls (ie. one for each leg warmer). Having this visual cue would help keep me on track. I mean, had I known I was running low on the one yarn, I could have changed to a different color for the last few rows, creating a stripe and then done the same on the second leg warmer. I think the dividing into two balls method would also be a good way for me to organize my thrift store yarn for bilateral projects like this one.

The kids are off to school this morning. Poor kids, its a whopping 4 degrees outside. What a welcome back to school that is. It was so cold when I drove Jim to the train that the keyless entry on my car wouldn't work. The fire is doing a nice job keeping the house pretty toasty but you can just feel the cold trying to get in. This is really our first frigid bit of weather and it inspired me to finally find a new use for the skinny quilts! They make great throw blankets to put on top of the boys' regular bedding on frigid nights.

The morning scramble for mittens just never lets up around here. I couldn't begin to count how many we've lost so far this year. It makes a person wonder how its possible that I have the same gloves in my coat for years at a time. Could be that I always put them back in my pockets, too bad my kids can't learn this simple lesson. Time for Plan B, which involves taking the leftover fleece I have and making mittens out of it and sewing said mittens onto coats with a little piece of elastic.

A well stocked, well organized fabric and notion stash is like a well stocked, well organized pantry. Both allow you to complete tasks without a trip to the store. I have everything I need to complete this project right here.
Here's a link to the fleece mitten pattern I used last year. Here's another that lets you personalize the size a bit more.

The cold weather in NY isn't letting up anytime soon, so let's get sewing! I'm planning to attack this later today.

No comments: