quilted hot pads

This is ridiculous pacing, but I'm finally putting up photos of the last Christmas presents I made.  I made a set of hot pads (useful? potentially not very) out of scrap fabrics from the last few seasons of my work, for my boss.  Each one is a different season, with a different pattern and vibe.  They were really fun to make, if a little annoying trying to sew together all different kinds of fabrics, and I think they're a nice way of commemorating all that season's work.

babies

 Matching sweaters for babies I can't wait to meet.

linen tea towels

This year I decided to make things easy on myself and just tackle one, fairly simple Christmas craft.  And who doesn't need new tea towels once and a while?

We used the instructions in Made By Hand, although ended up altering the process slightly because we used dollar store glue and it was as terrible as you'd imagine.  I bought a few meters of natural linen, cut it into rectangles and hemmed the sides, then Seb and I spent a lovely wine-filled evening stamping them.  They are incredibly unevenly printed, but I love how they turned out.  I wish I had photographed them before shipping more out - we had triangles, sticks, and all these great patterns that I didn't want to give away!

Highly recommended as a holiday project - other than the hemming we did the whole thing in a really fun and relaxed evening.

christmas sweater

 So Seb just left from a visit here, and reminded me that he took photos of this sweater TWO VISITS AGO.  I'm the worst at getting things done.

I knit this for my sister for her Christmas present last year (just saying: I've totally earned the right to give her clothes from my work this year. No sewing for me!) and only finally finished it this fall.  It was just stockinette stitch forever and I got bored and knit it super slowly.  Anyways, the pattern was great and it looks cute on her.

More Christmas presents coming soon!

linen

 I've been slowly sewing up my New York fabric (I seriously cannot find linen in Canada like I can find linen in NY. And silk. And wool. And everything great), including this great-for-days-too-hot-for-clothes top.  Just in time for winter!

Anyways, I'm on a complete crafting hiatus right now as I've given myself tendinitis in my wrist from years of bass and knitting (I need a hobby that doesn't use the same fine motor skills!), so I'm blogging about all the stuff I made before! Any tips for tendinitis welcome....

storm king

This weekend I was lucky enough to rent a car with a couple of friends and drive to New York.  Aside from seeing Seb and checking out the city, I was extra excited to have a means to get to Storm King Art Centre.  It had been on my to-do list for ages, but always a little hard to get to.  We took the opportunity to sneak off for the afternoon while the others went into town and wander around the park.  Despite threatening to rain, it ended up being warm, misty, and a beautiful day for it!  Highly recommended.

woven tee

 This pattern took annoyingly long to get right, but I think it was worth it.  I've always had a soft spot for a woven tee, and while Montreal makes it impossible to enjoy a silk version, this soft, light-weight cotton is great.  I love the fabric so much, and the shirt is already in heavy rotation.

ps. Can you spot the difference in photos?! My very kind roommate agreed to help me take a photo (so I didn't only have blurry options), and instead of just clicking a couple photos on my camera, he brought in lighting, posing, backdrop,  and post-processing all into consideration.  Gotta love a roomie that goes all out.

denim for summer

Apparently trying to photograph myself is just tragic these days.  We also live on a pretty busy street where all sorts of cars were backed up in traffic and watching me try to run in front of the camera...

All that said, I made an oversized denim top a little while ago, and it's been getting loads of use in this early fall/still warm/finally no humidity weather.  Ug, can you even tell there is a breast pocket?  There is...

finished weaving

 Oh my this semester and fall have gotten away from me!

Between classes, working, and figuring out this long distance thing, I've actually been knitting and sewing more than I thought I would, but not really taking photos of anything.  Hopefully that will change.

So I finished my scarf a little while ago, and I'm really happy with it.  It was a total learning curve, and imperfect in SO many ways (there is puckering, uneven edges, and hardly any warp showing), but it is soft, warm, and feels awesome to wear.  Any tips out there for next project?!

I'm heading to New York next weekend to visit Seb before midterms start, and looking forward to finishing a sweater I've been knitting for almost a year now.

weaving

So I bought a loom!  In the middle of moving, exams, and a million summer visits I've been eking out little bits of time to weave lately.  The process has been a pretty slow learning curve, and I'm sure I'll look back on this project and cringe in the future, but I'm so happy to be doing it!  All the steps are so methodical and simple - it's a great way to zone out and repeat the same thing for an hour. 

Here's a brief overview of the weaving steps: (1) Get strands of the right length for you warp (the long direction).  You can use more official methods than this, but I found the fence  posts in front of our place worked really well.   (2) Make sure the strands cross each other like this, so they stay in order and don't get tangled.  (3) When you're done, tie the cross point, and move to the loom. (4) Attach the threads to one end of the loom, get a friend to hold the threads with tension, and wind all the thread onto the back bar. (5) Pull all the threads through the headles, in whatever pattern you've decided on.  Tie them on the other side to make sure they don't pull back through. (6) Feed all those threads through the reed next.  (7) Attach the threads to the front bar, and then start weaving! (8) As you can see, my ends are totally uneven, and the weaving is a little streaky and wavy, but I'm happy with it anyways!  My first knit scarf was pretty terrible, too.

I love that I can now make both knit and woven fabrics!  I like feeling one step closer to the materials I wear. 

Next up: knitting machine and spinning wheel (ha, I'd need a bigger house if that happened)

making a home

 I'm one of those people that nests like crazy - that put up decorations at summer camp.  I hadn't really done much of that in Montreal - seeing as we were moving yearly and the move was temporary. 

But now that I know I have another two years here (at least), I'm starting to fill the place with the little things I find comforting - the ceramics, textiles and photographs.  It feels really good.

sister visit

 A while ago my little sister came to town for a visit.  I dragged her to work, cleaning our new apartment, and other terrible things, but between those we hung out and relaxed, acted like tourists, played lots of petanque in the park, and treated ourselves to at-home facials (care of the drug store and bowls of hot water with towels over our heads!)

It was so awesome and rare now that we get to spend time together.  Normally when I see her now there are a million people to see and many relatives to compete with for attention (read: Christmas).  She's turning into such a charming and competant woman, I'm so proud of her!

Here's a photo of our faces, from her phone:

ps. I finally broke down and bought a linen towel from Fog Linen - couldn't be happier about it.  Never going back to terry!

spring

The snow has melted, and it's finally starting to feel like spring around here. The light is that perfect warm weather light that I miss so much in the winter.

Even though I'm in the middle of exams (yay procrastination!) I decided I needed a new top for summer, so I spent my Saturday afternoon sewing myself a button up tank with some fabric in my stash.  Now, if only I could find some good linen jersey in Montreal....