All posts by Peneloping

Montreal!

March 22, 2012 Peneloping

This past weekend Boyfriend and I rented a car and drove up to Montreal for a much-needed mini-holiday. Hooly crap, neither of us wanted to come home.

We got in really late on Friday night so we basically wandered looking for food and then passed out. The next morning we drove up to the mountain and walked around. So pretty! It was pretty warm out but still a bit foggy so none of those pictures turned out great.

There was, however, tons of SNOW! I was basically in heaven.

From there, we drove over to the botanical gardens to take a peek. There may have been varying levels of goofing around.

And lots of pretty plants!

There also were butterflies, which for some reason, I found terrifying. Boyfriend was amused by the butterflies nom-ing on orange slices.

There was also an insectarium but after all the walking we were pretty exhausted. There may have been a tiny nap to recuperate.

Afterwards we headed a few blocks down to Old Montreal for dinner. Super gorgeous and totally made me excited for our France trip this summer.

There may have been some St Patty’s Day celebrations after dinner, which may have involved some (i.e. lots of) amazing Canadian beer and bagels. On Sunday we did some last minute wandering and stopped at the store for maple syrup and car snacks and went on our way back to Boston.

Of course the trip back included some goofing off as well, especially when we found honey sticks at a gas station.

All in all, a totally awesome trip. We were only there for two days and we didn’t get to do most of the things on our list so we’ll definitely be going back.

Especially since everyone there speaks French! Ahhh I miss French! -le sigh-

I made a dress!

March 20, 2012 Peneloping

It occurred to me today that I rarely, if ever, sew things correctly. Like hems and whatnot. If you look inside most things I make, it’s like small animals have been nesting inside, what with all the loose threads and bare edges.

Today I decided to learn some proper techniques. And below is the result (minus a zipper and a bottom hem)! The neckline and arm holes are understitched (minus the part where I decided to do the bib at the end so it didn’t get sewn into the rest of the neckline). The waist and sides are french seamed and the skirt is pieced together and then reinforced with a zigzag stitch.

This probably sounds mundane and most of you are probably going, “Well duh,” but I swear this is the first time I’ve actually done this on a garment I’ve sewn. Though, to be fair, most of what I’ve sewn has at least seen my mom’s serger.

I’m rambly because I’m tired. Next up, zipper and hem!

Thrift store score

March 16, 2012 Peneloping

I’m supposed to be packing for Montreal, but I just wanted to sneak in here and share some new stash additions from the thrift store the other day. I’m still kind of amazed that this happened.

Apologies for the awful photo. And the awful editing. I have no excuses.

Fifty cents each. FIFTY. Cents.

I think the two mossy greens are going to be knit together into some sort of wispy scarf.

Andd now I should really go pack because we are leaving in 45 minutes. Whoops!

Kittens

March 9, 2012 Peneloping

Last week I was oggling some Kim Hargreaves patterns and decided that I needed to own a mohair sweater. One of those lofty ones that look like clouds.

So I went looking at yarns and decided that as much as I enjoyed the idea of buying a ton of Rowan Kidsilk Haze, my sad and abused bank account should probably not be subjected to that right now. But then I found some mohair yarn on ebay and all was well. Considering it’s 50% synthetic, it’s fairly soft. If the Rowan were knitting with kittens, this would be like knitting with a feral cat. Whose owner decided to dye its fur once or twice for fun.

Yes.

Anyway, so far the front and back are done, and I’m slightly stuck on the sleeves. I also can’t decide whether I like it with the stockinette facing out or inside out better. Hmm.

2 Comments knitting kim hargreaves - knitting - mohair - smoulder - sweater

Dresden monsters

March 8, 2012 Peneloping

While I was waiting for my quilt batting to arrive, I may have accidentally wandered into the fabric store and wandered out again with more fabric. And it’s possible that the finished dimensions of this quilt are going to be bigger than the first one. Whoops.

In my defense, the first quilt turned out rather boyish and aren’t these fabrics just adorbs together?

This one is taking much more time, even though it requires only twenty (much bigger) squares (the other one was made up of sixty-four smaller ones). So far I’ve only finished one complete square, and have started maybe seven more.

Doesn’t it just make you want to puke happily on a prairie?

In other news, I am awful at sewing in circles.