Finished: Scarf for Mum

Mum taught me to knit when I was five. Unlike sewing, which neither of us remember her teaching me, we just remember me being allowed to use her machine, I remember her teaching me. I still have the scarf I knitted, somewhere. It's about twice as wide at the end as the start, is made up of multiple colours and different yarns, even has a block of a different colour in the middle of one stripe. You can totally tell it's a beginner piece. But you have to start somewhere.

So, where I'm going with this ramble down memory lane. I like making things for other people, but only people who appreciate the effort it takes to make something for them. Mum is one of those people. I don't think I've made her anything since a knitted pair of socks 6 years ago, (my first pair, still being worn) and thought it was time for something else. I know she likes scarves, so I decided to knit her one. But plain was no fun, so I designed an eyelet zigzag, which it turns out I really like. Very tempted to make myself one in the same design, different yarn of course.

In my 'Little Dresses' post I posted a photo of me working on something for my Mum. Now I can show the whole thing. Well, as much of it as I photographed as it was just over 2m long. It took ages to knit, but nothing worse than a scarf that's too short, so I'd checked how long Mum wanted it.

Mum's zigzag scarf

So here is the finished product, well, both ends of it. You'll just have to trust me that the middle section looks the same. 

Mum likes it. Says it feels nice and is warm too. I'm hoping she'll send me a photo of her wearing it. Or wear it next time I'm down. 

My Day Friday

One of the things I'm trying to do currently is take some time to myself. I feel like I have so many projects that I should do, both unfinished and planned, plus everything around the house. It's overwhelming at times.

On the trip up to Levana (I haven't written about it, but two of the others in the WSBN have, read about it here and here) I went up with Elisabeth of The Sewphist. There was much chatting on the drive. One of the things she mentioned was on Friday's she makes things for herself, even if it's just a cocktail, as she's blogged about here Which I thought was a fantastic idea. After a week of mulling it over in my mind, I decided that I was going to declare Friday's as My Day. This meant that I would only work on projects I wanted to, nothing that I felt I should work on. This included housework. Time for guilt free selfish sewing. Or just guilt free relaxing. And if I wanted to start a new project rather than work on an unfinished one, well that is fine too.

The first Friday I did this I ended up with Gynn home sick and a friend visiting. And you know what, I still drafted the pattern for my cloak. Then cut out two of the three layers. By then it was nearly time to go pick up the little one from daycare. I still need to cut out the lining for my cloak. It's a striped fabric, pale lavender and black, reminds me of Beetlejuice. I need to work out how I'm going to do it, mainly if I've got enough to try and pattern match the stripes, which I didn't think of when I bought the fabric, I just loved the colour/pattern. Even though it's going to mean more work and more time, I'm hoping I can pattern match, as it should look better that way. If I can't, I think I'm going to cut the panels going in two directions, so that it looks like it's not meant to match.

Cloak fabrics

The pale stripes are more lavender in real life, compared to the pale pink they look in the photo.
I can't decide if I'll work on the cloak or my Cake top tomorrow.

And I'm Back

I just realised it's been over two months since I wrote anything on here. Life got a bit overwhelming when my depression decided to rear it's ugly head. So while I've been crafting, even completing projects, writing about them has just had to take a back seat as I've only got so much time and energy to go around. I'm slowly trying to build more balance and supports into my life, plus somehow rewire my though processes.

I thought for a while that my UFO pile was going down. Actually, it was going down, I've finished a bunch of them. But we're going to Burning Man in less than 5 weeks. There is a whole bunch of things I need to get made before then. Like some merino clothing for myself and my husband, it gets cold in the middle of the desert at night. Thankfully my wonderful mother in law has already outfitted Guinevere in merino for this winter. I've got cloaks to make for myself and Guinevere, 3 layer affairs, with a fun fur outer, a polarfleece inner and a satin lining. Nighttime warmth plus blanket for when we get back to camp. I think there are about 15 things on the list.....

I want to write about all the awesome things I've finished recently, especially the scarf that arrived with Mum today. But I think I'm going to curl up on the couch tonight instead. I'll try for more rambles tomorrow.