How I spent my summer

The garden was half a success and half a dismal failure. Mostly due to the fact that I expected the compost I bought to be really fertile and I didn't add any fertilizer which turned out to be a big mistake. The success part was the zinnias and other flowers, but the veggies were pitiful, with the exception of the sweet potatoes. We're having some today with our dinner.

Next year, I will not have a backyard garden and will stick to just the front yard, where I only have to deal with one hose and not that much in the way of bugs, and other critters.

  

It was a difficult time dealing with Dave as he has declined, even with the help from Hospice, but now things have evened out a bit and I have new strategies as well as better drugs for him and I am coping much better. 

These are the handles to the stove which I have to hide so he can't turn on the burners, and then forget to turn them off. Mostly I have to pre-empt him from being in the kitchen, and that saves a lot of mess and dangers.

My neighbor's cat, Luna, comes to visit and I love having her. But I am sticking to my guns about no more pets after Chumley goes. 

I busied myself with church and lots of clothes sewing, and recently just got back to knitting. 

 

This is Potzblitz #5 and it is all made from scrap yarns. Most of which were my hand dyed sock yarn. 

After that I became interested in watching Youtube knitters and got the itch to do some fancy stitches. 

I was inspired by a small shawl called the Turtle Dove Shawl, which I loved but found it too small to be useful. So as is my wont, I devised a way to make it bigger and added a bunch of new stitch patterns to fill in the space. I learned a lot while making this shawl ... mostly how to read a chart. I have been knitting for 51 years and managed never to learn this important knitting 'language'. It was a struggle at first, but I was determined not to let it get the best of me. Eventually I actually bought some graph paper and wrote out the symbols for the stitches I would be using on a chart. Now I feel like I graduated!

Next I wanted to conquer another area that has been too scary to try. Lace stitches. There are lots of YouTube videos and written instructions to follow, as well as the charts, but nothing seemed to work for me until I discovered that I have been purling incorrectly all my life! Duh! It has to do with wrapping the yarn over the needle, not under it as I had been doing. It never mattered until I tried to do lace, where the increases and decreases are a major element of the designs.

I kept practicing the right way to purl until it became natural, which took DAYS to conquer, but now I have it down and the samples look the way they are supposed to look. Old dogs can learn new tricks.

On a personal note: as I watch my husband lose his memory, I wondered how much I might also be sliding downhill. I am 76, and I want to keep my wits about me as long as I can, so this challenge of learning new knitting techniques has shown me that I may still have mental acuity. Or at least determination. 





Another thing that happened this summer was that my car got stolen, right from my driveway, on a Sunday morning while I was at church! I walked to church as usual and on my way home I noticed that the driveway was vacant of my car. The nerve of some people!  

I called the police, my insurance company and my sister, of course, and then began shopping for a new car online. Well, I just assumed my car would never be found, or worse, found and destroyed, so why not get a replacement? Monday I had Enterprise pick me up and I drove to Carmax and bought a new car. Just like that. Then two days later the police knocked on my door at 4am, saying that they found my car! 

O dear. 

I really like my new car...a 2021 Hyundai IONIQ, another hybrid. So when the old Lexus was returned to me two weeks later, I just went online and got a quote from Carmax and drove it over and sold it to them. Now that's the way I like it. 

The perps were caught and two of the other 'victims' of car theft and I had to go to court to testify, but by then the one bad guy skipped bail and so we have to go back when they rearrest him. The other people lived in really nice neighborhoods, so it really doesn't matter where you live. If they wanna steal your car, they will. 

OK...I think that catches up the gist of how I spent my summer. We did get a bunch of nice rain from the remnants of Helene, but no flooding or other damage. Thank God for that.

O Happy Day

 I am so encouraged by these two California gals who decided to purchase these pieces from me. First last week, I was contacted by a previous collector who wanted me to send her this little house quilt. 3 Pennywood Lane.

 

 Then her friend, also a former collector, emailed me and wanted to know what else I had available. I sent off pictures and she decided on this little house quilt. 5 Pennywood Lane. 

And also this one called Yellow Study.

And this one called Hotcakes #2.

And for good measure, a small painting called Pony.

On top of that, it finally rained and cooled off the really hot temperatures here. What a glorious day. 

Inspired by Gudrun

Here's my inspiration from the Gudrun Sjoden website. I love the mix of prints, the bib/yoke, the slight gather under the bib and of course the pockets. Just everything but the price, which even on sale is $62 too much for my pocketbook.  

  I made a quick sketch and figured I could use my standard pajama pattern, McCalls 5992, in large, so it would be like a jacket. I drew lines for each section I would be cutting from different prints. I had a set of five fat quarters in black and white, and an additional two yard piece. Here's is the resulting combination.

 

I added a bias band with extention ties instead of the plain neckline. 

This is the sorta thing that really gets my juices flowing. The process of figuring out how I can achieve something, and then the doing of it, resulting in exactly my style of garment. 

McCall's 7969

This popular pattern has been sewn by gobs of folks and even has its own hashtag on Instagram where I first came across it. I love the crossover, or surplice look and figured I ought to give it a try.

 
Here's my first version from 2023 made from Walmart cottons, just to see if I liked sewing it. I did, I really did. It has a raised waistline and hits at my narrowest spot. And that neckline is LOW but flattering. I have to wear a camisole or I look like I ought to be in Bridgerton. I added a tie belt and pocket, of course. 

 My next version was made from a vintage linen tablecloth and the bodice from leftovers of pants I made. I was enamored with the idea of using things that had been packed away or underused. I got that tablecloth at a resale store. 

 Now, this is not the same pattern, but it was inspired by those dresses. I just switched out the bodice and made the skirt pleated instead of gathered. Cotton from Joann's. I really should have learned that a drapey fabric would be best for a garment with full sleeves and skirt, but alas, I didn't. Still it works and I wear it with no hint of a decolletage.

 O and I pieced the back to add that slit and button loop. 

This is today's version. A short blouse instead of a dress. The changes I made on this were lengthening the bodice by 1.5", raising the neckline to be more demure and adding fancy pockets.  

I loved playing with this old Kaffe Fassett shot cotton stripe. I mitered the bias band and pocket edges.
Of course I matched the stripes as I attached the pockets. This top goes perfectly with the teal pants from last week. I'll get a lot of wear out of those as I now have three new tops to coordinate.

There was actually another one of these tops that I made using two red prints, but it was weird looking on a 76 year old and went to Goodwill.  Never took pictures. 

One Yard Top, sorta

 I got inspired by this DIY pattern I saw on Pinterest.The tops I've been making or plan to make, all have longer sleeves, but it is a hot summer and where are my lightweight short sleeved blouses? I have a nice piece of Kaffe Fassett fabric, which is 'too small to use' at 46"and too large to toss. I could draft this pattern but would have to add sleeves of some kind to obscure my old lady arms, as a public service. 

So I went for this pattern which has been a stalwart for long sleeved tops (I had to fake the long sleeves, since the pattern didn't include them) but I decided if I could squeeze those short sleeves out of this skimpy bit of fabric I want to use, it could work. 

Laying out the pattern, I had just enough room for those short cap sleeves in the picture, but not enough for facings and so I would substitute bias tape from the scraps. The length was definitely going to be too short, but I forged ahead anyway, figuring I would try this on and figure out a solution later. 

Here's the resulting top. I added bias tape and a tiny bit of gathering at the sleeve hem as the cap was too flared. But the length solution was to insert a 2"wide strip of solid teal and then attach a final border after that. It worked! The length hits at just the right spot and the bodice is flared enough to not be grabby or difficult to pull over my shoulders.  And it actually looks nice on. Phew. This looks like a t-shirt and I am sure it would also work in a knit. That teal strip is leftover from my latest pair of expandomatic pants.

 Here they are and below are terrible shots of the ensemble, meant for fall wear.

Of course I will wear this little top with those pants sooner than September.

It's always shocking to see myself looking like a grandma, but it beats the alternative. 

More, more, MORE

 I no longer collect fabric, she said. 

Well, but how can I resist more 70% off stuff? So back I went to Joann's with my sister Brooke, as co-bargain shopper, with the intent to use my 20% entire purchase coupon, which I had in hand at check out and forgot to thrust forward. Darn.

Anyway, I got more fabric and more patterns. Geesh.

And then I found out that Joann's is not going out of business after all, and is now employee owned. Hurray!

Last week Brooke decided she is gonna draft all her patterns. She gave me her entire pattern collection, most of which she acquired when she worked at our Joann's. These were added to my stash and suddenly I had to the urge to organize them all. 

By that I mean, put them on a Pinterest board. https://www.pinterest.com/MixitupMel/patterns/

This way, I can peruse them and find the one that appeals, and not have to search through bins to see that this isn't the one I thought had the right design. It was easy, as all I had to do was search by pattern number and find the online photos and voila, post them. 

Even this ancient pattern was available to view online. It's from 1996 and I got it at Goodwill for 65 cents.

I forgot I had it and now I see it contains my current size, so I am really glad I went through this exercize.