What I'm Wearing to Teach Today: The Owls Have It!

Sweater: Owls by Kate Davies, knit by yours truly
Skirt: Brooklyn (from Seamwork magazine), sewn by yours truly
Tights: Simply Vera
Boots: Aquaitalia

Local: Something to Think About as Slow Fashion October Approaches

I've always thought of "local" being one of the qualities forefronted in slow fashion. Local implies knowing where an item was produced and with that, hopefully, assurances about worker and environmental safety.

Two recent things I've read have complicated my understanding of that, and I thought I'd share the links here.

Firstly, this disturbing piece from the New York Times about home workers (independent contractors)  in Italy. This is in sharp contrast to the way Alabama Chanin utilizes local artisans.

The other piece comes from Kate Davies's blog, and in many ways expands the way local can be understood.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. I'll be thinking about how I want to approach Slow Fashion October this year and what my goals will be.

What I'm Wearing to Teach Today: Take Your Carbeth to School Day

Sweater: Carbeth, knit by yours truly in Alafoss Lopi
Dress: Shack/J.Morgan Puett
Tights: Wolford
Shoes: Dansko (thrifted)

February Goals Into March Goals and Then Some

Okay, I know February only has 28 days (unless it's a leap year, of course), but this year February felt like it blew by.  I guess being away for 8 days made it feel even shorter. The nice thing is that the dates fall on the same day of the week (when February is 28 days long) so March feels like an extended dance-remix version, and I'm using it as such because I didn't quite manage to get everything I'd wanted to accomplished in February.

I did make kombucha and kimchi, but I didn't have the time to make beer.

I didn't finish my Kate Davies cardigan, but I did "bang out a Carbeth."

I did not deal with the dress shirt.

So March's 3 goals will look a little familiar:

1. Project to Finish (WIP): Yep, still Kate Davies's Bláithín cardigan. I may have to lower my grosgrain tape desires; I've found it hard to find some cute tape to back the button bands.

2. Fix/Remake/or Let Go: I'm going to deal with that dress shirt.
 
3. Get Started On:  I'm going to make some beer. Yes, I will. I'm also going to start sewing the Schoolhouse Tunic, a pattern I've long coveted but could never quite pull the trigger on until yesterday.

Photo from Sew Liberated

I have no issue acknowledging that the combination of a discount and a sew-along over the month of March encouraged me.

It's been a good year so far. I've had one story accepted for publication (although I have no idea when that publication will come out), and another story was a finalist for a fiction prize. I'll post links when they're published.

So, last night, as I gleefully joined yet another KAL (this time for the Brae Cove tunic, for which I plan to dye some yarn from my stash), I suddenly wondered if I were getting ahead of myself. Was I taking on too much? I'm leading another KAL (for Squam), for which I also have the yarn but have a generous deadline of June, and I have some writing and other creative projects simmering.

Then I realized what was going on. I'm in the second half of the term, which is generally less work for me as they're working on larger projects, and I'd just finished grading a major mid-term project for one class. So there's a sense of having some time. But what's really at play here is that I don't have any overwhelming art deadlines right now, and that's of our own making. 2018 was dubbed Project: Life, where we weren't going to try to make new art (working on showing what we've made) and instead would focus on taking care of the other projects in our lives. Holy cow! It was a revelation!

It's not as though my life was always like 2017, but last year really took us to the mat and kind of made us forget how we lived before. In the future, I'm striving for a more sane balance among the many projects I undertake. Right now, however, I feel like I'm on fire, and I'm going with it! Why not?

What I'm Wearing to Teach Today: Purple is the New Neutral

Sweater:  Owls pattern by Kate Davies, knit by yours truly
Skirt:  Brooklyn pattern from Seamwork magazine, made by yours truly
Tights:  Hue
Boots: Aquaitalia

Freakin' Adorable Dress (That I Will Not Be Buying)

Kate Davies was wearing this dress (without it's matching jacket) while modeling her new cardigan pattern, and it's freakin' adorable.  Yes, I would wear this.  The cardigan she designed is great with it.  She always does such a great job of styling her shoots, and I often find myself loving things she's wearing.   What a swell dress!

What I'm Wearing to Teach Today: Whooo, Indeed!

 

Sweater:  Owls pattern by Kate Davies, knit by yours truly.
Skirt:  Archie Brown & Son of Bermuda (thrifted)
Tights:  Falke
Boots:  La Canadienne

Community & Bartering & Crafting

As has previously been discussed on this blog (I like to pretend that we're discussing things here so please keep the illusion going), I am involved in a year-long project to knit and sew an average of one item (one knit, one sewn) a month, using materials from my stash.  A caveat I built into my side of the story is that I can trade stash items because, let's face it, we all have some yarn that we'll probably never use or was a novelty purchase.  Of course, I have both.

The boy was here recently for a two-week visit, which really was the best thing ever.  Can you hear my heart squeak?  (Yes, squeak.)  Anyway, no visit to Hamilton is complete without a trip to Value Village where I picked up this awesome skirt:

Yes, the bathrooms have the best light.  Yes, the skirt, made in Great Britain, was $4.99

Of course my mind goes to "What sweater can I knit to go with this?" and Kate Davies's Owls came to mind, a sweater that I've been wanting to make for some time now.  Of course, using up stash yarn was important, and I thought I was onto something when I saw that a number of knitters had used Alafoss Lopi for it.  What do you know?  I have some of that very yarn in my stash!

Christmas List Entry 1

Okay, I have a few things in mind, but this one is just blowing it (my mind, that is)!

I found out about it on Kate Davies's lovely and amazing blog.  (You may recall I sent her a "Get Well Soon" card, which she actually received.)  Anyway, this is a collaboration with yes, a shepherd, a shearer, and two knitting pattern authors (of which Kate is one).  I'm afraid my description of the project (oh, you know how I love projects) will not do it justice, but not only does it entail knitting up a good "working" sweater (read: not a frou-frou luxury yarn one - which I still love by the way), but some of the profits from the project will go to establish scholarships to help other women become sheep shearers.   It is definitely what I'd call a "nose-to-tail" knitting project, and I want in.

The question is - can I wait and see if it somehow materializes beneath my yet-to-be-found-and-cut-down Christmas tree (makes it sound like we're going to steal it, but we're not), or do I reward myself for my hard work this year (hah!)?  (Needless to say, this flies in the face of the no new crafting materials pledge, but c'mon.)

Sometimes It Lands the Way You Want it To

 There are two parts to this story, but they both involve the same person/same blog:  Kate Davies of Needled - a favourite blog of mine.


Last year I sent a "get well soon card" to Kate who had recently suffered a stroke.  I was, and still am, moved by her struggle and how well she seems to manage.  I'm such a crank that I'm sure I'd alienate all but those with the strongest intestinal fortitude.  I'm sure Kate has her days, but she actually communicates her struggles (rather than internalizes them as yours truly would do).

Checking in with her blog, I saw that she'd archived the correspondence she's received, and I found the card I sent her.* Yes, I'm a dork (what?); it was so gratifying to know that my card actually got to her.  Snail mail still has its merits.

The second part is related to yesterday's covetable dress.  I found out about Cabbages & Roses from her blog; she'd interviewed their designer as she is often asked about her wardrobe (much of which is Cabbages & Roses) so I went to their website where I fell in love with the red wool dress, which - by the way - is on its way to me (via a friend) right now (yay!).**

Visit her blog, buy her patterns, make something covetable.

*Thanks to my mother-in-law who I believe gave me those cards.
**Quite the compound/complex sentence.  I wonder if I'd let my students get away with that one.