A well-trimmed hat is a summer necessity

Just a little note to say I'm still here.

I'm busy working on my project for school, though it doesn't feel like working because it involves all my favourite things: history, crochet, felting, weaving, telling stories and dressing up.

Yesterday I spent the afternoon trimming my hat with blue, red and white striped ribbon. I've never trimmed a hat before, but I've always enjoyed hats, so I must have absorbed a bit of hat-trimming skills subconsciously. I think it turned out great and I love my bow!

The ribbon is held on by some tacking stitches so if I change my mind I can easily snip the stitches and remove the ribbon. The difficulty of placing a ribbon around a tapered curve (ie: a conical form) is evidenced by the slight puckering of the ribbon. I'm not sure of a way around that...

The Boys...

Some of you may be wondering how Chubbs is dealing with his life as a widower. The news is that he has been taking it easy and just enjoying spending time with his kids. The other day Chubbs brought the kids over for a snack.

Chubbs the dutiful dad looks on while the youngsters stuff themselves. Notice the youngsters eat so fast the camera can't capture their heads. They learnt this from their parents - the quicker you eat, the more you get. Both Beaky and Chubbs were masters at the 'hit and run' eating method. Chubbs now prefers a quieter take on things. Though what this photo doesn't show is that seconds before Chubbs was stuffing his chops too...

A gratuitous photo of the beauty of the Chubbs. That is one handsome pigeon.

Mr Grey showing how its done. I didn't think pigeons would venture into containers to eat. I was wrong. Mr Grey pretty much climbed in to get the seeds!

Mr Grey cannot be trusted if the door is left open. He is one of the few pigeons that will invite himself in. Here he is caught on camera sneaking in. He has learnt that I keep the jar of seeds under that chair and if the door is open will go in to see if I left the jar open by accident. Who said pigeons are not smart?

While I work on my project for school, Mr Grey waits patiently on the windowsill. Sometimes I will ignore him for 5 hours and he just sits there waiting. Occasionally he will fly off to stretch his wings or stand up and walk back and forth in front of me to make sure I notice him. But mostly he sits quietly and waits. For he knows a patient bird is rewarded. Mrs Grey has not been seen in days, I think she is sitting on a nest :)

On things knitted...

A few things knitted in the past few months that I haven't yet posted.

The Kermit Skirt was begun when there was still snow on the ground. I had plans for this to be a nice houndstooth-pocketed number. But then I ran out of green wool! I had just enough wool to make the pockets, but not enough to sew them on. I tried to sew them on with the grey wool but it looked bad so I took them off. So now I have two pockets with nowhere to go. Of course I could buy more green wool, but it seems silly to buy a whole ball of wool to sew on two pockets. I'd need only a small amount. So for now I just wear the skirt without the pockets.

Nice pocket!

I made this skirt on circular needles so I wouldn't have to sew up side seams. It worked out perfectly and it makes the skirt more comfortable.

I love the elastic waistband for comfort purposes but if I made this again I would not follow the pattern here. The double layer of knitted fabric to make the pocket for the elastic adds so much bulk to the waist of the skirt. And seriously, who wants more bulk at their waist?

Knitted necklace. Made from soft lovely bamboo viscose and brass findings. One is heavy the other light so it makes for an interesting necklace.

Vest for a little baby boy. The mama said 'no blue' because everyone was giving her blue things for the baby. I was happy to oblige with a daffodil colour scheme: creamy yellow and spring green.

Vest for a baby girl. Bright pink and green. Cause little girls should get to wear colours other than pale pink.

Knitted scarflet for my nanna. Soft kid mohair in cherry red. The 'halo' of the mohair makes it hard to photograph but lovely to wear.

Buttoned 'cowl' style

The buttons allow it to be worn in two ways - as a circle or cowl and as a collar.

Buttoned 'collar' style.

Rest in Peace Beaky

The Mr and I went to Boston for a short holiday. I fed Beaky on the morning I left but I haven't seen her since I got back. All the other usual suspects have been back: Chubbs, Spotty, Ariel, Mrs Grey, Mr Grey, Impostor Mr Grey and Miss Greenstring. But no Beaky. I can only assume that 5 days was too long for her to go without food and she really couldn't eat without my help. I was hoping that Chubbs would feed her, but I guess pigeons don't do that. I guess it was inevitable- she would have died in August after I left anyway. But I would have liked to imagine her dying of a grand old age surrounded by dozens of offspring. Yet I take comfort in knowing I gave her 6 more weeks and she saw her latest batch of chicks grow into independent adults. And when I see Spotty and Ariel they remind me of her. They have her fearless attitude and strength and both have the makings of alpha-pigeons somewhere in the future, just like their mama. These are the last pictures I have of Beaky, she's just eaten and is wondering if she should have some more or fly off into that lovely blue sky.

It arrived!

On a dully and drizzly day I headed out to buy more supplies for my summer project (yes, summer! so why is it drizzly and dull?!) . On the way out I went to check my letterbox and found this lovely letter from Hermine waiting for me. Not being able to wait, I opened it while waiting for the train. The other passengers must have wondered why I smiled so happily to myself. I guess no one sent them feathers, lace and lovely things. They are missing out:

A lovely lace doily. I love the dark blue.

There were also sequins, photos and pumpkin seeds.

I will have to keep Mrs Grey and Beaky away from those pumpkin seeds, or I think they will eat them! They are extra hungry these days as they have chicks to feed and eggs to lay.

A Weaving Sampler

I've started weaving lessons with Colette and wove up 3 yards of sampler on a 4 shaft table loom. At first my selvedges were wonky and my patterns uneven (I kept forgetting where I was in the sequence of lifting one up and pressing another down!). But by the end of the 3 yards I was feeling pretty good. I tried out a bunch of different things and experimented with some bits of wool I had around and my favourite bamboo viscose. The warp was a linen/cotton blend and I also used this for the first 1.5 or so yards of the weft.

My nice wonky beginnings.

Trying out some colours and diamond patterns. This is the wool left over from the Mr's warm winter hat.

This is with a bamboo viscose weft. It has a nice sheen and turns out really soft. I am really happy with this. It would make a lovely soft drapey shawl.

Zigzags - I love!

The whole 3 yards.

Failure

Sometimes things I make don't work out. Either they don't turn out how I imagine them to be or they just don't suit me when I finish them. The summer camisole is one of the latter. It turned out rather like the picture and fits me okay. But it just doesn't suit me. I hardly ever wear camisole tops anyway, so I don't know what I was thinking with this one. Actually I know exactly what I was thinking: it looks great in the picture on the model, therefore it will also look great on me. Well, turns out it doesn't. In addition, the acrylic stretched out something horrid and the side seams are far from straight. This would annoy me immensely if I were wearing it.

So I decided to cut my losses and remove the crochet trim and undo the top back to the armholes to make a square cushion cover. Can't go wrong with cushion covers. But I took some photos before I undid it so you can see how it turned out. The camisole would have been nicer in bamboo or linen, but I'm glad I didn't waste $50 on buying that only to turn it into a cushion cover!

The pattern has a very nice trim, but a little too frilly for me.

The scalloped hem is also nice, but once again, not for me.

I widened the shoulder straps and it worked out well. The thinner straps in the pattern probably wouldn't have held up with the heavier acrylic anyway.

The finished camisole. Here you can see how horridly the acrylic stretched out and how far the side seams are off!

So I'm now working on my cushion cover. I think I'll make it a button top one and maybe with a flap closure... Failure is just a new opportunity.