Happy Friday! I am deep, deep into edits for the next book and have come up for brief air. Wait, let me change that. I should be deep, deep into edits but as usual, I’m finding ways to put off the necessary task at hand. However, I’m getting close to finishing up, and as long as I submit everything by Halloween, I’m good to go.

That’s K’s unicorn drawing for me that I keep in my journal these days. I like that even its flatulence is rainbow-shaped. Dreaming and imagining are important. Believing in the intangible and supposedly impossible is also important.

So I am believing that I WILL complete K’s unicorn costume (so close) and my edits and a few other projects. If anyone will be in the Pierce County area tomorrow, I’ll be doing a short presentation at the DIY Fest through the Pierce County Library System at 11:30am. Sounds like it’ll be a lot of fun!

Aside from random blog posts, another favorite pastime (read: procrastination) is to plan all the marvelous things I’ll sew when I finally have this mythical, abundance of unicorn-like time.

I was picking up something from JoAnn’s the other day and was pleasantly surprised by the rebranding that New Look seems to be going through, at least for women’s wear. More neutral, a bit more chic. And then I saw them — tween patterns!

I grabbed a few, along with three patterns for myself. With my dodgy memory, I’m already starting to forget which ones K wanted me to make for her, so we’ll use this space as my record-keeping method. As far as I can remember, the only New Look pattern I’ve sewn is 6648, which I talked about here and here. The New Look brand is under the umbrella of Simplicity — I wonder what the difference is? Maybe they’re easier to make?

Anyhow, here are the ones K liked:

New Look 6241 // View B

New Look 6297 // Views A, C + D

New Look 6320 // View A

New Look 6338 // All of them

New Look 6487 // Views B and C (She hates view A, which is the one I would have made had I not known…)

“Please start with 6338 and 6297,” she said in her matter-of-fact, efficient way. She even agreed to get rid of some of her existing clothes so I’ll sew more clothes. Sounds like a fair deal to me.

For myself:

New Look 6482 // Views A, B + D

New Look 6449 // Views A, B + C

New Look 6414 // Views A + B

Ahhhhhh, imaginary sewing continues to be my happy place. Alright, I’ll be back next week and until then, have a spectacular weekend!

Happy Halloween!
Our resident unicorn
is beside herself 

P.S. Furoku members! I’m shooting to get #20 to you by November 1st, but I might need a couple of extra days…thank you!!

Hello! I didn’t mean to stay away for 3 weeks, but life has a way of creating a vortex of activities that then turn into more activities…but enough with the excuses.

I am, in fact, still in retreat mode and haven’t really been online much. Instead, I’ve been spending more time making things and it’s been restorative. I have to say: knitters, I finally get it. After years and years of balking at the craft, citing inane things such as “I can’t seem to count!” or “I just don’t have the patience,” I thoroughly and utterly fell in love with it these past few weeks.

What am I making? I have no idea. I’m just knitting and purling and seeing where the stitches take me, but I find the process so profoundly meditative and calming (and so portable!), I keep reaching for this little project of mine whenever I have a few moments to spare. One of the surprising parts of publishing Sewing Happiness was meeting many women who came to my readings or emailed me telling me how familiar my story was, how they found healing through making things too. Most of them, I noticed, were knitters and so I became curious. I dug out two skeins of Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino in slate — yarn that I’ve been hoarding for roughly 8 years for a “special project someday”.

The actual project I’m working on is unremarkable, but I’m glad I finally used the yarn, and when I ran out, I added some cream-colored wool I got from Seattle Recreative, the craft thrift store and art center I’ve mentioned before. Knitting has been lovely and so very soothing, just what I’ve been needing.

My mom is in town right now, and it’s always such a treat. I don’t cook at all while she’s here because she whips up things like this in a nanosecond:

Yes, that’s a lot of sashimi. She makes every day a party.

I hope we don’t die of mercury poisoning, but oh, the sushi rolls we inhaled were divine.

Summer is ending and K starts fifth grade next week. I have some fun sewing to share soon, but as I said, I’m still in cocoon mode and can’t guarantee regular posting for some time yet. We are going away for a few days to one of the small islands nearby this afternoon, and I hope it’s rejuvenating. More soon. I miss you, but this time away has done me wonders.

P.S. Furoku members, #18 will be heading your way by the end of the week!

 

Good morning! I am actually still here. In Seattle. Or rather, as I write this we are preparing for an overnight “trip” to a suburb for the last of K’s birthday celebration. We will stay in the new-ish McMenamins Anderson School, which should be quite the experience. It’s possible that we’ve gone a tad bonkers for our only child’s 10th birthday, but…well, I don’t feel too bad about it. We only live once and who cares what other people think, right? I have a feeling she’s going to remember her 10th bday with great fondness.

So the vacation is more of a mental one and I’m taking the next week or so off from this space to rejigger my noggin. I have to admit full defeat, my friends, because the hard life stuff has been like one of those trick birthday candles. I keep blowing and blowing, expecting the flame to extinguish, but no. There it is, popping right up again. Now that I’ve crossed off the last big thing for the summer with this final birthday celebration, I am a listless, amoeba-like mass, floating in a tide pool of exhaustion.

I must rest.

Have a wonderful week (or so), and see you back here in a few! xo

P.S. The image above is one I took when we went on a real deal vacation to Michigan. We roasted hot dogs and s’mores on the beach and the placid waters made for a lovely backdrop. Later, the sunset was gasp-inducingly gorgeous!