One domestic Saturday

From a pair of cotton pants summer that were happily worn in grad school, pants that would pass for great pajamas these days, pants in which the elastic was shot and I just couldn't pitch them because I'd enjoyed the print so, faded as it is now, and it would make such lousy rags, tight and crisp a cotton as it was, why finally, some progress was made.
(Phew. Withstand that sentence, did you?)

I made a bag for bags. Even though I'm doing better with every passing day to shop less and to carry a bag, once in awhile there are some plastic bags. I save them for my trash bags. I have not purchased plastic garbage bags for years.

I also made a clothespin bag. It was a fitting set of little moments in a very productive, very domestic Saturday.

Stuff

Doing Creative Stuff
Elizabeth over at SABLE discussed some of the issues she faces in placing a design on a path for publication and knitterly opinion. I appreciate that she's willing to share her thoughts on the process. It helps me as I extrapolate over to the concerns I have about what I do. I do creative work in a school setting, so I rarely post the details (or much about the process) in an effort to preserve the dignity of my students and provide myself some degree of boundary. Somewhere, sometime, I'll be found, (There Be Knitters Here!) so I'd rather not have shared things which I wouldn't care to be found out. (On a similar note, I'll be avoiding the whole f*ceb*k thing forever, if I can, in light of wanting to respect others boundaries.)

Back to why I took note of Elizabeth's thoughts, as I digress. I go through such manouevres with myself as I wrestle with creative work, recognize that there has been progress, celebrate the fact that perhaps someone is learning something, hold everyone to a higher standard, acknowledge that I can't control everything, and occasional encourage myself to let go.

No matter what, someone will be of an opinion that the project was better than sliced bread, and someone else will find a million and ten things wrong with it. And really, neither of those responses are the reasons I do what I do. And so I remind myself. And so I forget. Elizabeth's post wasn't for me, but you know how it goes: what you read can often speak directly to what you need. I can get through my next week. Thanks, Elizabeth.


Shopping Stuff
I didn't go shopping. I have enough to do, and the crush of people makes the day go too long. In the spirit of creating a smaller impact with future shopping, I did, however, finally finish my Everlasting Bagstopper. All that was left to do was to apply straps. I finally found some fabric I liked for the task. Yesterday I whipped up two tubes, pressed them out, and applied them. The pictures I took are lousy. I'll want to redo them.

I also find it difficult to go shopping when I am making such steady if gentle headway on the clearing out of STUFF (aka thrift donations to the Sally Ann). Took two bags last Wednesday when I went to the thrift store to look for some costume items. (PS. I walked out without a purchase.) Dropped off two more bags today.

Making Stuff
Since I mention the shopping issues and the purging of stuff, I give you a hint of the knitting posts to come: I continue to make progress on finishing what's on the needles. And I've decided I am going to do my knitting on the halves. This one's for me, this one's for a gift.

Part of the reason I ever started knitting and sewing (back in the dark ages of my youth) was to outfit myself. I am by golly going to be doing a better job at that. It doesn't look good on me when it's in a tub, and I've been clearing out steadily the stuff that I don't wear and shouldn't wear.

The other thing I intend to do is make some no-fail pressies - just as people gift fruitcake or bottles of wine - useful, enjoyable in some way, practical and FROM STUFF I HAVE. Because I certainly have enough variety if I shop from my stash.

And I'm doing it on the halves. I can't go nuts making gifts and not take care of myself. One for me, another for the gifting - just as the quilters did when they pieced on the halves.

Stay tuned. I have already begun.

Re-use

That old quilt was definitely a history of reuse. I had come back from a summer of camp in Maine and knew for the next summer I wanted an extra quilt, the kind that wouldn't be hurt by camp cots and pine pitch on the back of the shorts. I had the bag of old shirts and dresses I knew could be used for something, if no longer for wearing. And then a housemate who had finished her craft project stint with a vacation bible school session gave me a bunch of vaguely square muslin pieces.

Log cabin was clearly the order of the day.


I don't know if I ever took a picture of the quilt when it was in better shape. You can see where the red flannel plaid strips are just frayed bits along the seam lines. That was the first flannel shirt I made for myself. Wore it through the elbows. Still, you know, there was decent fabric in the shirt tails - isn't that the usual reference made by the quiltmakers of years gone by?

The lighter toned red plaid was a plisse dress I wore in the 80's. It just got to be too thin to be decent, but there was enough poly in the blend, so the fabric still doesn't seem to have given up the ghost.

And just off center in most of the squares, on the lighter halves, is an old plisse fabric, white with little starbursts of red, yellow, and blue. That was one of my dad's shirts. I wore it out. My mother thought that shirt reflected an appalling lack of judgement and taste. It was a designer shirt. Pierre Cardin, no less. Strictly 70's. And it was not much more than pajama weight plisse. Oh, she thought that was an appalling expenditure, and tacky.

Most of the other pieces are scraps from sewing projects. Most of them were mine, but I may have co-opted some of my sister's scraps.

More to come on the extended thrift-life of this quilt.

You know I'm talking myself up to doing some more practical quilts, of course.

Representative Thrift

I gave away a GREAT representative bag of thrift stuff:

One was a sweater I made. Hard to give away things we make, isn't it?
I GAVE IT AWAY AND LIVED.

One was a jacket a friend loaned me for a trip abroad. It was perfect and packable. It looked good on me. She made me keep it, in one of HER purges. I INHERITED SOMEONE ELSE'S STUFF AND I GAVE IT AWAY.

One was a denim jumper/dress I purchased in an inappropriately impossible size. I let myself miss the return deadline and then convinced myself I'd remake it. I GAVE UP THE DREAM AND THE WORK AND I GAVE IT AWAY.

Final items were a pair of ice skates. My mother had become the default keeper of them and had recently returned them. I'd not gotten them out of the trunk of the car. I went to a college reunion recently and drove past the park which served as the ice skating rink nearest the campus. That was it. I decided the skates had to stay in that community. Did I mention I'm not that size mumble-something years later? I GAVE AWAY MY FAVORITE OLD SKATES.

Those are the kinds of things that are hard to give away. I left them miles away, out of state. It's rather freeing. I recommend it.

Say goodbye to the sweater!

Elizabeth's good sense was just what I needed to hear.

When I read the posts on the occasional blog or board thread that raise an eyebrow at those of us have acquired a little yarn here and there, I think quietly to myself, ah, but you don't know what FRUGAL thinking is at the core of all this.... Because I really do tend toward the use and reuse. Why do you think I learned to sew and knit in the first place? Time-honored traditions of making do, making things well, etc., run deep in my family. Some time I will tell the layered stories of thrift in this quilt.

So this sweater.



See the spot in the front cable? Okay, I notice the discolorations more in person, it's true.

I had also started to think about making it into a bag, but there would still be an unnecessary amount of time spent on it. I'd thought through using rings at the neckline, zigzagging and steeking the sides of the neckline, as it was knit circularly, opening up the shoulder seams, lining...... all for a bag there's no guarantee I'd really like and use.

Two days ago I moved a bunch of binders from an office space I hadn't finished clearing. Found a publicity picture of me in that sweater. That was a LONG time ago. I don't care how quickly I shape up, I don't think I'll wear that sweater again. Sleeves are too long anyway.

Thrift sounds wise. I wore it plenty. Easily there were 4 years of wear, and I did wear it in all seasons. If I'd bought it at Target, I'd consider it fair game for the thrift donation pile. It's no heirloom. It doesn't need the drawer space.

Elizabeth's right. I have perhaps invested all the time needed in that one cone of yarn. I think I picked up the original for less than five. Good sale.

I'll say goodbye. It'll go to the thrift store when the bag of thrift is full. (When I have something to donate, I start a bag near the front door. As soon as I fill it, I drop it off. I see the bag often enough that filling it quickly is added incentive.) If someone feeling even more frugal needs to rescue it, speak up soon.

Hello, Skirt!

This is all the glamour I need from this skirt. I have a nice self-fabric casing and I took care to edgestitch. I have a lightweight, bring-on-the-heat casual summer skirt.

The skirt's only as frumpy as I let it be. I'll wear it.
The dress? It languished for a couple summers.

Signs of Life

Feeling a little frayed?
Have been days when you've had very little left to give?

Overwhelmed by that whole heap of the mundane that lies at your feet?

Me too. What a spring.
Still, there are signs of life. I've even started to tackle this poor thing. It, too, seems on the exhausted edge. More on that in another post.

Meanwhile, there has been a little bit of knitting. I started these in the fall, and they were decidedly back-burnered.
I did a bit of this knitting in the half dark, half tired. I don't half care that there are some misplaced purls in the how-simple-can-it-be 3-to-1 rib. I laddered down to the ones I found when they were within range. This is TOO far down. I officially stopped caring. They're just for wearing when it's cold.

And lookee! Lorna's is decidedly fraternal!