More leafcloths

I've knit up all the green and greenish dishcloth cotton, now it's on to exotic leaves and radiccio leaves. Cristina's lettuce comment inspired me to use bits of white or light green to get lettuce veins. My short rows are getting neater. I think some felted wool leaf coasters are next. This Missoni mohair lace dress in the NYT Magazine is so beautiful - as a curtain or a string bag. Why not knit one tunic length? We're headed out for the last two weeks of Summer. I hope you are enjoying yours! See you in September.

Leafcloths

We've been weaving potholders which naturally leads to knitting dishcloths which has lead to leafcloths. They look so pretty scattered on the counter, left in the sink, drying on the faucet. They can easily be pressed into service as coasters or set under flowerpots. The slip stitch dishrags are actually swatches for a rug.

Stripey sweater stash buster

I am fiddling with swatches for a Kaffe Fassett stripey sweater sport weight stash buster.

Ideas for rugs

On the left is a Vanessa Bell painting adapted for needlepoint in Melinda Coss's Bloomsbury Needlepoint and on the right is a rug designed by Duncan Grant. I think both would make wonderful hooked rugs - even a single panel of Grant's rug would be a wonderful runner. Ann Wiseman's book has lots of wonderful advice on hooked rugs including a section on inspiration: "adapt from the masters, beg from the innocent, borrow from the past, steal shadows". I especially love the designs inspired by enlarged coin rubbings and old playing cards.

My Mr Boy

This is my Mr Boy by Cristina Shiffman from the Summer Twist Collective. After knitting a denim version for my nephew, I pulled out some stash and began this version in a plain 3x3 rib with a crew neck. The sleeves will be three-quarter length when I finish. 

Can you imagine the Jane Austen version with a square neckline and smocking to give it an empire waist and a white linen blouse puffing out from the 3/4 sleeves? I would also like a high neck tweed version with a bronze zipper. A teen size would be cute with contrasting sleeves, or sleeves and top one color, a thin stripe, and then the bottom another color. You could also substitute a Cat Bordhi moebius collar, try it on and then pick up stitches for the saddles, front, and back from the edges, kind of a movie star walking the dog sweater, knit a little longer with pockets.

Kiki Mariko at rest

As I bound off the great tube I was not excited. I felt that by sticking to my stash I had compromised the color options. As I hoisted it from the washer I was even less excited. The various stash yarns had all felted differently. But I remembered Kay's post and I kept driving. Now I adore our new rug. I could never have planned the colors this way. It looks like a watercolor to me. It feels wonderful. I am planning another, larger version.

Bug in a rug

I'm at 50 inches of Kiki Mariko stash buster! It's been hard using only stash. I can't wait to do another with oranges and yellows and reds! In time management/project planner news, I did receive my telegram from two weeks ago about buying more nectarines!

Apron strings

While cleaning a cabinet I found two quarter yards of material meant to be aprons. I traced around a vintage apron I have and sewed on a little bias tape. They just need some ribbon for the strings. 

Time to cook!

I've been reading books about time. Michael Pollan's New York Times Magazine article this Sunday fits well with Stefan Klein's The Secret Pulse of Time. How do you spend your time?

The stash buster to rule them all

I am bent on clearing out my "leftovers" stash and the Kiki Mariko rug from the second Mason-Dixon Knitting is gobbling all the feltable wool.

Housekeeping

I've been paging through these housekeeping books looking for schedules or forms to add to my planner. There's a chapter on canning in So You're Going to Get Married that reminds the reader to ignore snide comments like, "I thought Mr. Dole canned pineapple!" Whenever we are discussing making anything from scratch (mustard, bread starter, yogurt) I hear that voice.

Wishful sewing

The current Selvedge has an article on Alison Taylor's SULA clothes. I love this tunic. I love these pleated clothes by Issey Miyake and the many ways you can wear them. This is what I want to be able to sew.

Telegram to myself

For my daily calendar/project planner, I want to be able to send notes to my future self. The usual lessons learned/best practices lists hide in drawers and are never delivered in time to save Christmas or prevent a back-to-school mishap. I want a telegram with specific warnings or shopping lists to arrive two weeks before a holiday or deadline. I'm making a stack of telegram forms in my planner that can be written out and then filed in the correct week of the following year. I also need weekly reminders. These Arctic Rose nectarines were heaven. The pluots were so-so. Why didn't I buy eight more? I sampled them. I knew they were wonderful. On Thursday, buy way more nectarines than you think you need!

Blue blanket

I've settled on a stash buster blanket project using all the leftover blue I can find: pick two shades, cast on a lot of stitches and join in the round, knit a fair isle pattern or Kaffe pattern or some stripes with a few steak stitches until the yarn is used up. When I have enough rectangles to make a blanket, I'll lay them all out and join them with interesting little odd bits filling in the gaps. Nothing to get bored of, no leftover yarn bits. This is strictly a use what you have project.

The paper hearts are another stab at something I've been thinking about - newsprint templates as applique. I'm imaging a tshirt with a small newsprint fabric cutout heart embroidered right on the front. Imagine if some clipped bits were randomly sewn falling down the front of the shirt. I would leave the edges all raggedy. I can't find the right shape. This is haunting me because I recently bought the Alabama Stitches book and I'm seeing things differently. I like early American embroidery and fraktur decoration and I want to bedazzle it with beads and sequins.

Summer rental

Sometimes when we're not going anywhere, we pretend we're holiday renters in our house. It gets you thinking. The Summer appetizers in the July Martha are inspiring me to throw together elegant little hunter gatherer experiments - food jaunts. 

Summer reading stack

Sometimes when I am collecting my books from around the house I realize how well suited they are for each other. This week I will be known as Mustard-Maker. 

We have been talking about the history of keeping time and wondering if Summer lasts longer without a calendar. Our "sequence of nows" can be counted so many ways. I began with a draft for a daily planner but I am drawn to a weekly bead bracelet, like prayer beads, on which you keep track of all the "nows", or mornings you can read in bed, market days, afternoons when supper is early, evenings in the studio. 

What a nice way to capture a favorite week - and then walking to work, you reach into your pocket and begin counting the beads of "now": this was the morning we walked in the rain, this was the market beneath the tracks, this was the lunch chosen off the grill, this was the washing machine in the alley, this was the snow cone that saved our lives, this was the bridge we decided to cross. Next week I will be known as Vacation Bracelet-Maker.

Yakult Swallows beat the Lions!

We saw the Yakult Swallows beat the Lions at Jingu stadium. As the Japanball site explains, when the Swallows get a run, the fans open tiny umbrellas and sing a song so that the opposing pitcher knows it's time to hit the showers. At one point the game was tied and the Lions fans began a huge cheer and ran back and forth across their section across the stadium from us. Today's New York Times has a travel story on baseball in Japan. 

Quilted Sails in Tokyo Museum

The sails on this model ship at the Edo-Tokyo Museum would make a great quilt. They remind me of this Dolce & Gabbana bag I saw all over Tokyo and momi paper. I saw some women wearing cardigans that looked like momi paper. I still have this image of a waterproof nylon momi bag with some origami folds. My drawstring backpack made from a pair of jeans worked really well, but I had to wear it beneath my rain jacket. The next version is going to be pieced from scraps with more thought given to interior pockets.

Kawai Kanjiro's house in Kyoto

This beautiful old wooden house belonged to the potter and sculptor Kawai Kanjiro. You naturally whisper here. This is the most wonderful place that we visited in Kyoto. We bumped into the Art Deco Nintendo building on the way, and got lost in an alleyway lined with diminutive mint green washing machines. Afterwards we walked through a cemetery that quietly led to the Kiyomizu Temple side entrance and then out the back gate to hike in the hills. Even in June, there are ways to navigate the city so that you feel you are among dozens of tourists, not thousands.

Japan at my feet

We did not have enough time in Japan. We should still be in Japan. While traveling I was forced to rig up a portable runcible bin using a discarded raku cooking pot and an electronic converter I found in Akihabara. I filled it with temple stamps, moss, little music boxes that play the Yamanote station tunes, green tea caramels, incense, slippers, books and magazines. I'll post ideas as I unpack them.

Drawstring bag

I am working on a drawstring backpack for Japan from Lexie Barnes's Sew What! Bags. I did not find the crinkled waterproof silk I have in my mind, but I did find some waterproof gray linen and some glittery white linen for the lining.  I used a seam tape maker to fold strips into drawstrings. I look forward to blogging about Japan when we return in July. Enjoy Summer!

1919 Kimono Waist

I've been practicing this pattern from Decades of Style. They have the most wonderful patterns from the 1920s-1950s. I am beginning a series of kimono waists in shirting fabrics and hopefully flea market remnants - wouldn't a Vera Neumann scarf be great as the front piece, or one of those huge mod ones as the shoulder/back piece? Next up is kitchenette pajamas.

Mr. Boy

The Summer Twist Collective is up and Cristina contributed a wonderful rib sweater named Mr. Boy. Last Summer I knit one in sport weight Rowan Denim for my nephew. The saddle shoulders are very becoming on everyone and the pattern is very adaptable. I made one for myself in a simple rib in Cascade 220. I think I will make a denim version for myself, maybe playing with those ribs for a smocking effect...

Kimono robe

It turned out just as I hoped - and I mean turned out literally because I used an old Threads issue on linings with directions for sewing the lining to the fabric and then performing Houdini contortions (on the robe) to turn it out properly! I still need to sew along the edges and make some kind of loop inside the neck. The photo is taken in our former dining room which we now refer to as the Japan Room. Inspired by our school's Around the World Week, we removed most of the furniture and brought out all our gifts from Japan. We also have a map, library books, and origami paper. 

Kimono robe

This is the Nani Iro fabric from way back that became a bedspread and is now a little bathrobe. I lined it with terrycloth and it is divine. I will post finished picture this week. I saw Super Eggplant has this fabric pattern in a stretch knit in red and white. I can see the danger of going all "Nani Iro" in Japan and coming back with suitcases of gorgeous fabric. I've been wanting to make some little sundress tunic things to wear over jeans with a little cardigan and this Heather Ross pattern is perfect - I have the Nani Iro fabric she is wearing!