September vibes

September felt like a month full of fits and starts with me finally hitting my stride on a few things towards the final week. It also brought cooler weather, at least in the evenings and mornings, along with changing leaves. I’m more than ready to put away the shorts and tanks and not be sweating anymore, but I think the warm days will linger well into October.

Making

In August I decided I really wanted to use up a lot of smaller amounts of leftover yarn, mostly sock yarn, so I’ve been knitting socks since. I finished two pairs this month and am really happy with them. I’ve almost got my perfect basic sock recipe totally refined and that feels good.

I also finished up a really simple raglan pullover in a cotton/linen blend yarn. I still have yet to wear it because it’s been so warm, but I really like the fit and I had 3 balls of yarn left so I’m planning another striped version.

Sewing was a different story. A while back I bought an online course all about bodice making and the course took you through making a dress. I’ll admit that right after buying the course and seeing the video table of contents I was worried that I’d wasted my money given the fact that this course was more than double any other sewing related course I’ve bought.

This month I started in on making a muslin to fit the dress bodice and it…. did not go well. You get fitting help with the class so I asked for help and made a second muslin. Again there were a lot of issue so I made some adjustments and made a third muslin, and there were still issues. Primarily it wasn’t comfortable. The communication with the fitting expert was difficult. While on a quick road trip (see below) I spoke with an experienced sewist at a fabric shop and it was so informative and helpful and in many ways gave me permission to abandon this project.

This isn’t easy for me, I’m a finisher, but honestly, the block this bodice is based on is not meant for my body without a lot of adjustments. And I found some other reviews online of the pattern and I’m not the only one who hasn’t had a great experience with it. Thank goodness I never cut into the nice linen I’d bought for this and can use it for a different pattern.

the reverse of a neon sign shows in the window which says Josephine's Dry Goods and in front of the window are manniquins without heads wearing samples of sewn clothing and the tops of bolts of fabric.
Insides Josephine's Dry Goods in Portland. Photo credit G

Road trip

We did a last minute trip up to Portland to celebrate G’s birthday and it was good. We got a great deal on a hotel, parked the car and never used it again over the two nights we were there. We walked around, did some shopping, hit up Powells, and ate a lot of great food. We needed the get away and a “big city fix” and while I don’t want to live in Portland again, it was good to hang out there for a few nights.

A windshield with the road in front of it and the top of a dash board is seen and in the review mirror is part of a woman's face wearing sunglasses as she drives.
Driving down the interstate. Photo credit G

Walking

I’ve been walking a lot in the mornings and it’s so nice that it’s cooled down. G and I also ran some errands together and he caught this picture of me with the local goat. We call him chocolate head because G overheard a guy talking with his daughter about naming the goats and she’d named him that—makes sense with the brown head. Chocolate head ran to me at the fence that day and as it’s the only goat now (we think this is a sanctuary where older animals live out their days) I can’t help but wonder if it’s lonely.

A black and white photo where a woman is standing holding a bag at a fence. She's wearing a baseball cap, a long sleeved white shirt, shorts, and athletic shoes. On the other side of the fence is a goat with a dark head and floppy ears and it strains to reach and sniff at the hand the woman holds out.
Saying hello to Chocolate Head. Photo credit G

All in all, a good month. Some sewing fails (including another the day I published this) but I’m learning a lot. For October I’ve got no big plans, other than trying to sew a few things, knit for the meditative pleasure of it, and I want to get back into my sketchbook. I’m staying away from news and social media as much as I can over the next 6 weeks, picking up my Kindle or book instead of a connected device. And, of course, there are the baseball playoffs and I love playoff baseball.