black dresses

I have had been having a need to wear more black again.  So I took out the black linen I had and made two black dresses.  Very basic and something I can wash easily.

I was given Christmas and birthday money and I am thinking about making a couple more.  Whether they will be linen or a nice cotton, I do not know.  I just know that I need more washable then wool.  Though I am wearing the clothes that I used to wear to the office around the house.  I am playing with dye with some of them too just so they are darker.

I do not need more clothes.  I need to wear out what I have.  Which means it will really be years before I need new clothes.  What I make lasts until it falls apart.  Nightgown and slips are what fall apart the fastest.  I have been mending those by cutting off the falling apart bits and adding a new section.  I just do not wish to look tattered.

And I want more black.  And I do not really like RIT dye.  With the pandemic, many dyes that would give me a very dark brown or black are out of stock.  It makes life interesting.

This week is about grinding axes, working on chef rolls, and making more face masks.  I am waiting for the doctors to call about my Dad's next appointments.  The valve replacement is coming.  I am hoping to have enough quilt squares cut out at that point that I may actually work on a quilt while I am there.  Or maybe finish the sweater I am working on?  The stitch is hard on my hands and I have to count.  The quiet helps.

A bit of woods

This week has been tough.  Tough just to get through.  I did take myself to a state park and go for a walk in the woods.  It might not been my favorite woods.  It may have been hot.  But it was the woods.  It was cooler there then it would have been in the city.  The gallivanting included lunch watching a lake.  The breeze was nice.

I have been spending a bit of time each day spinning which seems to help with the air for me.  

I keep wanting to sit at my sewing machine.  Even though I do, I seem not to spend enough time there.  Maybe soon.  Part of me just wishes to make quilts all the time.  

modification or mending?

I seem to be doing a lot of modifications lately.  Long sleeve shirts to short sleeve.  It is not really mending but it feels like it.  And when there are ten shirts to be modified it is hard to get anything else done.

Life is full of things I am not enjoying currently.  People at work that did not make the decision of me leaving are panicing.  There is much work and many meetings.  Many early meetings.  So early that I do not have a chance to sew as much as I would wish.  I am very tired by the time I get a quiet bit so it is hard to stay awake at the sewing machine.  It is not as dangerous as other activities but still not good.

The next bit is going to be interesting as well.  The Tall Short Person is back from Oregon for a few weeks.  She will take Koda Bear with her.  What I am going to do without my small helper?  Yes, Chef!  

I am hoping to get a bit of time on my machine on this weekend.  Maybe?  I have lots of work to do.

cabbages to a slip

When I had dyed the fabric with the red cabbage, I got a very fuchsia pink/purple as the colour.  I am not a pink girl.  My favourite colour to wear is black.  I get threatened with pink.  The fabric was good because the dye worked but not good because of the colour.  But I was going to use it anyhow.  I pulled out silk and lace to start pondering about it.  

Then I washed it with my sea salt laundry detergent.

I was so happy!  So pleased!  I could have gone for a bit more purple in the blue but it was not pink!  I could add many more exclamation points.  

I put the slip together while listening to another one of my romantic comedies where the is gunfire and explosions.  Action movies are a preference.  The house is very quiet.  More dyed silk but not my work.  Lace.  

Finished.  And it is just lovely.  The cotton silk satin feels very nice on my nerve endings.  Since I am in the midst of a flare, soothing to my nerve endings is a plus.  I know silk, lace, and cotton do not make pain go away but the pleasure of making something pretty helps.  

I keep thinking I will feel better soon.  There were times today that it was a breath at a time.  But then I was sitting at my sewing machine again thinking that I wanted to take a skateboard out.  Too much traffic and much too stiff.  I am not sure anything moves that way right now.  But there is no surf but I can carve down the street.  It makes me smile and that is what counts right now.