It Breathes! Sorta

That was a seriously rough weekend. Not that I accomplished much of anything apart from staying alive. You know it’s bad when you have to wash and dry an emergency load of hankies just to have something to blow your sore red nose on. ’Nuff said. I promise you, you really don’t want the gory details. Now I think I’m finally improving. I hope.

Although I kind of missed it because I was snuggled under the covers in bed, the weather has been cloudy with some sunny periods but still colder than normal. There’s been occasional light morning frost which is about a month after our usual last frost date. Amazingly we even had some slushy snow on Friday that managed to stick lightly but only momentarily. I dragged myself out of my sick bed to rush to bring the poor plants in from the greenhouse. So far it’s not going well for them this year. Right now I’m too sick to care but I’m sure I’ll need to replant some things yet again. Sigh. I need more seedling mix.

Let us move on to more interesting topics, shall we? I managed to knit a little. Baby Rosebud’s spring green hoodie is currently blocking although I haven’t sewn in the zipper yet. I wanted to wait until I was sure the sweater and the zip were washed and stabilised before putting them together. I’m not totally happy with the knitting. The needle size was a little large for the yarn so it feels somewhat sleazy to me although I never quite got gauge. Also this yarn (Shepherd Aussie Baby DK) is nylon and acrylic and nearly too soft. Oh well. Chances are she won’t wear it more than a handful of times anyway. Looks like it will be a little large which is exactly what I was aiming for. More details when it’s actually a Finished Object.

Thanks to sewing blogger Shams, I now have a name for my preferred style of clothing: lagenlook. Popular in Germany and the Netherlands, the word means “layered look” and consists of soft flowing often natural fibre garments. They can be asymmetrical or somewhat “deconstructed” sometimes with fastenings that provide more than one way to wear them. Think Sewing Workshop or Marcy Tilton’s pattern line for Vogue. Or Studio Rundholz, Babette, or Sympli (a local-to-me company). The best thing is the pieces fit and flatter a range of body shapes and sizes and also they don’t go out of style easily. A piece can be a simple jersy t-shirt or extremely “art-to-wear”. The fun is all in how you put them together.

I know I have to work some on the asymmetry aspect. I tend to be very much the opposite. Also I want my garments to last a very long time so I’m kind of leery of “deconstructed” treatments. Love the look though. I just can’t bring myself to actually do it. Maybe it was all those lessons in grades 8 & 9 on the “proper” way to sew? Not that I always agreed with my teacher. After she kept marking me down for a sloppily-inserted zipper because I was trying to sew it her way (aka from the back – why?) I gave up and did it my way (from the front where I could actually see what I was doing). Never looked back. Interestingly, although I don’t use zippers very often they are just about the only thing I will baste before machine sewing. Not sure about the invisible zips I recently bought though. Haven’t sewn one of those in about 35 years. I can tell this because I couldn’t find my original invisible zipper foot, probably because it went with my Kenmore machine that I got rid of in the mid-1970’s when I bought my still-very-much-loved Pfaff. Still kicking myself over giving away my buttonhole attachment though. If I remember it was something like this one. Sewed fabulously neat buttonholes using templates. But I digress.

Or maybe I digress in a different direction? I was thinking about my preferred fabric types these days and what has been bugging me about the current fashions are: The Prints! Either the retro-inspired quilting fabrics or the gigantic all-over eye-searing op-art or floral knit types. Not my thing at all. (This from the person who was married in a 1970’s red psychedelic print!) I prefer my fabrics fairly plain or with muted woven-in textures, tweedy mixes, barely-there geometrics, natural nubbies, shibori or subtle variegated hand-dyes. I know it when I see it anyhow. My current favourite colours are charcoal, grey, browns, rust, greens and the ever-popular black. Bet this is all news to you, huh?

Sorry about the lack of pictures today. It’s too much trouble to get out of bed for more than another cup of tea or to use the bathroom. It’s 3 weeks and counting since the cough began and my chest still sounds like it’s full of crackling cellophane. At least I’m currently not running a temperature. I’m thankful for any small signs that these bugs are beginning to think about vacating me. I’ve played host long enough.