Goings On

Here's what's been happening since the last time I posted: Cold. Cold with sleet. Sleet with snow. Extreme cold to the point that schools were cancelled. Ice piled up everywhere. More snow. Continuing cold. Much stuff cancelled all over the place.

Thalia was sick, but it didn't much matter because everything she would've gone to was cancelled.

And as the sleet began I decided to finish another Jalie 2212:



Except that when it came time to put the binding on the hems I realized I didn't have any, and by that time we had reached the point of "don't go out unless you absolutely have to". So I just did a 2 needle hem instead. Except my 2 needle set up wasn't working (I think the gigantic spools of black thread I buy when thread's on sale were the problem -- they're too big for the spindles) so I did a single needle hem twice. The fleece is so plushy you can't much see any of the topstitching anyway.


I wore this quite a bit in all of the ensuing cold weather.

Then I made Vogue 8634 in some rayon jersey I found in the closet. After I started cutting it out it occurred to me that the fabric was perfect for leggings for Annabeth. It's sort of mediocre for this top. This is the first try at this pattern, by the way. The cowl droops down to where my cleavage would be if I had cleavage, so it needs a tank top under it.



After that I was going to make another one out of grey sweaterknit, plus I started taking apart Annabeth's school dress (Irish Dance) in order to alter it, but before I could get very far with these projects ALL the sewing stuff had to be put away because company was coming for the weekend. This was a top secret affair that we couldn't mention until now -- a surprise party for my sister-in-law. We even imported guests from other states.

The guests arrived Friday night, which gave us Saturday morning to decorate



and make cake (the exact type of cake her mom used to make years and years ago)


She was really, really, REALLY surprised. It was sort of surprising how surprised she was, as a matter of fact.

So, anyway, that was sort of like having a 2 day pajama party at our house, punctuated by trying to scrape the ice off of our driveway and front walk, because even though it's now in the 50s the ice still clings to everything. And the neighbor came over because all the ice was melting INTO her garage because her garage sits lower than the street and over the years the concrete has settled so it doesn't drain quite as well; her back is bad so she can't shovel, blah blah blah .... So we ended up shoveling hers out, too ("we" includes my other sister-in-law who was here).

And somewhere in there Annabeth got sick, we worked on bunches of Girl Scout badges, an entire ice floe slid off the roof of my car onto the windshield just as I was about to turn onto Manchester (busy road) from dance class (these things always happen at dance class), Annabeth's musical theater group decided they need a make-up rehearsal on the same day as the next feis right after I made the non-refundable payment for the feis, Thalia committed to going on the choir tour to Colorado in June, and some cat keeps hanging around our house that might be a new pet in the neighborhood or might be a stray. Oh, and we got a new rat. And Rick nearly got stuck Arkansas for days and days during THEIR snowstorm last week.

So. Now. Back to sewing. And crocheting. And school.