A Buffet-Style Week

I like it when I get to mix up my projects during the week. I think it's part of my Attention Deficit Fibre Disorder - but it keeps me happy while I'm busy on multiple projects.

I could have turned all of this into three or four posts, but I decided to do a weekly summary of everything. So bear with me.....

I continued on my Barbados wardrobe making. So far I have made 3 dresses, 3 tops and one skirt. (Not all this week - in the past few.) Another skirt is cut out and ready to go, but I think I need a ballpoint needle for the fabric. Here's a shot of everything together (I won't make you look at individual shots.)

As you can see, there is no colour theme to my wardrobe. I'm just using fabric that I have bought in the past year with a view to making dresses and skirts, since I found most of what I brought last year too warm. Since everything here is light jersey, these should be lovely and cool and should take up less space in my suitcase. (BTW, everything was purchased during sales and I don't think I paid more than $4 per meter for anything you see here. Quite the inexpensive holiday line - if you ignore the labour.)

In the knitting department, I am working on a cotton bag to take to Barbados called "Big Honking Bag" which I found as a free pattern on Ravelry.  Here's a picture from there. I am doing mine in off white cotton.

It really is a big honkin' bag, perfect for on the plane, since it will hold all my necessities plus my sock knitting which I will bring along for the 5.5 hour flight each way. For whatever reason, I really love everything about the design of this bag - the design on the front and back, the pockets on the ends to hold water bottles and other things - and I especially love the braided i-cord handles. I already chose my lining fabric and got some mottled beige drapery rings that attached the i-cord handles. (Finished picture to follow- hopefully next week.)

If the best part of a trip is the anticipation, all of these projects are  really adding to both the anticipation and the excitement. Way better than just packing the day before LOL.

On the hooking front, in preparation for a presentation on Rug Hooking at our Fiber Guild on February 1st, I am finishing a bunch of my smaller pieces with binding tape. You see, when you are posting pictures on your blog, you can create the illusion of being "finished" by cropping into the pictures you take. But then you are left with a small army of not-REALLY-finished projects. So, one by one, I am getting to them too.

Jennifer posted about this method before and she also shows all the pre-steps to getting here.  It's the perfect way to finish something that doesn't need a border. Here are a couple of shots to show the process and the result.  The first picture shows the seam tape up tight against the loops on the right side. With tiny stitches between the loops, the tape snuggles right in there and hides the backing. I just "wrap" around the corners and then deal with them when I flip it over.

This second picture shows the back. When you turn it over, you can tuck under the edges of your backing and then miter the corners when you get to them. I think it gives a nice clean finish. And if you want to hang them, you can either sew on a couple of little rings at the top - or you could insert a small rod and rod pocket.

And I realized that I had finished (or at least for-photography-finished) something that I had not shared.
My first stair riser.  Of course, it is the moose!! I remembered it when one of my students dropped in today for some wool and she asked what I had been working on. He will be receiving the above finishing treatment, joining the others already in the queue.

If variety is the spice of life, I guess I had a pretty "spicy" week. I have a feeling that this week won't be as spicy in the fibre area, since I feel a whole lotta work (the paying kind) comin' on.