1. What random letter was generated by the online random-letter generator? (this doesn’t really count as one of your five questions) T
2. What food item, whose name begins with the letter in question #1, are you most likely to eat within the next few days? tofu...eating it now, rosetta's peanut butter tofu with mashed potatoes and kale.   yummy comfort food.
3. What item, whose name begins with the letter in question #1, are you most likely to purchase this weekend?  toilet paper...almost out.
4. What famous person, whose last name begins with the letter in question #1, makes you think thoughts you probably shouldn’t?  Oh, so sorry, this has to be a first name (you know what they say about rules).  Tom Brady, hands down, naughty thoughts.
5. What is your favorite film whose title begins with the letter in question #1?  The Big Lebowski!  Time to watch again.
6. What geographical location, whose name begins with the letter in question #1, are you most likely to see within the next few days?  Trying not to cheat and use something that starts with "The"...but I'm cheating in the interest of expediency.  THE Mountains to Sea trail.  There.  cheated.

Friday 5: We've Moved!

Latest edition of Friday 5. Try it. You'll like it!

1. When did you last move residences? Does the move to Seattle count if it never felt like home there? I'll consider that a hiatus and a brief return to my nomadic ways, and say the actual last time I moved was in 2002. Because I had a frame shop set up in our dining room and I had to stick 8 foot pieces of moulding out the window in order to saw them down to the appropriate size. Did I ever mention how much I LOVE my basement!
2. What song leaves you completely unmoved even though it seems everyone else is moved by it? Pachabel's Canon...blegh! Eye roll.
3. On what kinds of mornings is it easiest for you to jump out of bed and get moving? Spring mornings, when the world is changing too fast to keep up with it.
4. What object do you get most annoyed about when people move it without letting you know? I kept thinking there must be something my husband moves that annoys me, but no, turns out, it's me. I get on my own nerves. A lot. Because I am always losing track of things...my scissors, the dog's medicine, my favorite handmade coffee cup. But it's the keys to the car that I put down god know where that is my nemesis, that sends me flying around the house as I try to get somewhere on time, searching pockets, purses, bowls, cupboards, sometimes when they are already in my hand.
5. In what way are you waiting on someone else to make a move? Waiting on husband to retire so we can move to the country and get alpacas.

UFOs Part 1...Knitting 2011

We have some wonderful yarn shops in the Asheville area...lots of fiber fanatics here. Lately I've been trekking the 10 miles to Black Mountain to ogle the yarns at Black Mountain Yarn Shop. Don and Donna, the proprietors, have turned this lovely space into so much more than a yarn shop...it truly is a community gathering place. The staff (mostly Don & Donna, but Katy, too) are not just friendly ("Bring your knitting, stay a while, have some tea, hang out.") Where was I? Oh yeah, they are not just friendly, but downright INTERESTED in what you are doing and in helping you make it a successful. They don't even mind if I act like the dogs from "Up," (SQUIRREL!) and get distracted by YARN! when they're trying to show me something I just asked about not 5 minutes before.

Which brings me to the whole point of this post...just how easily distracted I get by shiny colors and soft textures. So distracted, I have a difficult time finishing the things I start. I was on a poncho craze, had to have a poncho IMMEDIATELY. So there I was at the yarn shop, looking for poncho business, when I got distracted by this lovely gem...the Lucy Bag.

To the untrained eye, it looks like I finished it, but I still have a lovely button to sew onto the short handle, then it will be done and delicious. But here is what I shamefully rounded up later:

The UFO Basket of Shame

And here is what is in the basket, and what I swear to finish before I buy one more skein of yarn or start one more project. (Too late, I bought more yarn, but I am working diligently now.)

1. The Short Sleeved Cardi from Aware Knits. Shameful because all I have left is the buttonhole band and the buttons.

2. The Cowl. Knitted from a luxurious merino Malabrigo sock yarn. Super Shameful

because all I have to do is weave in the ends.

3. Camisole from Romantic Style, knit from Hempathy, a hemp & cotton blend by Elizabeth Lavold. Shameful because I've been working on it since last spring and all I have

to show for it is one boob slightly larger than my own.

4. Fingerless Gloves knit from some sort of sock yarn with a pattern I found on Ravelry. Shameful just because.

4. Blue Sweater...shameful because I LOVE this yarn so much and I know

I will wear a sweater like this endlessly. But I lost momentum and I'm not

sure I'll remember where I was in the pattern and the shaping.

This is what I'm shooting for...from an Araucania book with a

half dozen other gorgeous styles.

5. Silk Sari Scarf. Yarn from Urban Gypz, Pattern from Twinkle's Big City Knits.

The holdup...I may run out of yarn and I have to learn how to crochet.

Ooooooooohhhh....this sari yarn is special. It is made from waste silk scraps

from the sari factory by women who've found a way to feed their families.

Fair trade, of course. Learn more here.

That's it for the walk of shame...but I'll be crossing all of these things off my list in the days (or weeks) to come. Let's just see how far I can go before I break down and start a poncho.

Oh, and guess what? I have a similar pile of sewing UFOs. Will it ever end?

Friday 5: Hanging Out

New discovery: Friday 5. I'm starting on Thursday, because I can.

1. Where did you hang out with friends when you were a teen? There was a pond in Charlotte where we used to gather on the weekends when the weather was warm. They tried to keep us out with boulders, trees felled across the dirt road, "no trespassing" signs. Didn't they know that forbidden fruit is exponentially more delicious?
2. Where did you hang out with friends when you were in your twenties? Bars. In Madrid we took the last subway out at night and rode the first one home in the morning.
3. Where do you hang out with friends now? Porches, patios and coffee shops.
4. What great hanging-out memories do you have? My second trip to Bonnaroo with my friend Pattie, who never meets a stranger. We camped next to some crazy Canadians and a red headed kid with his older brother, and ran into friends from the year before...Cape Man, his sidekick, and more. They all gathered at our campsite before the music started each day to share stories, jokes, food, music.
5. What ingredient makes hanging out better some times than others? A sense of humor.

Linen Dress Finished and Adorable

This J Crew dress was my inspiration:

And this is what I ended up with:

Looks like the dress form has been wearing it all day. (It was me! I love this dress.)

Looks like someone had been riding around with the windows down and the sunroof open, oh yeah, I love my new car and my new dress. Good thing my camera takes blurry pics.

Another blurry one (bad camera, I'm dreaming of DSLRs), but I found some gorgeous silk bias trim at Waechter's, hand dyed, and I just looped two pieces together to make the closure. So cute.

I bought the linen at Gail K in Atlanta when I took my recent whirlwind fabric road trip. The pattern is the Origami Blouse from Twinkle Sews, sans origami. Have you seen this book? I turn to it again and again for inspiration and my dream is to work my way through all the tops and dresses (I'm not crazy about any of the skirts except the English Garden skirt.)

Anyway, like I said, I just love this dress and I wore it on several outings this weekend. Perhaps I should have taken photos before I wrinkled it all up. Note to self for next time.

Stash Pics

From Gail K in Atlanta, blogged about HERE:

2 yards of gorgeous drapey silk, with a complimentary orange silk for accent pieces. I am thinking this Maxi Dress from Sew Serendipity Studios.
Then there was this light cotton lawn, which quickly became a summer tunic from one of my Japanese Dress Books.
This amazing cotton lawn a la Liberty of London is still percolating in my stash. I love it so much it will probably take me years to choose the perfect pattern. I got two yards in case it wants to be a dress.
This is a great linen, and I've already sewn it up into a really cute dress.

Finally, from Whipstitch in Atlanta. They specialize in cottons like these, and I've been wanting to get better at combining fabrics. I know, the fabrics practically combine themselves, but it's a start. I've cut this out already. It's destined for Claire Camidom!

Fabric Road Trip

A few weeks ago, I headed down to sweltering Alabama to see my folks and on the way home, instead of blasting through Atlanta at 80 mph, stopped to visit fabric stores and add stash to my stash. First stop, Whipstitch, a glorious little shop close to Georgia Tech

in the Brickworks development.

They specialize in bright cottons perfect for quilting or making eye-catching clothing. And they have a roster of fun classes at their

"Atlanta Sewing Lounge." While I was there, a sewing camp for girls was in full swing and there was lots of mad dashes around

Whipstitch to pick out the perfect fabrics and trims. I so wanted to dash madly with them, but that would have been creepy, so I pondered quietly instead.

I don't use quilting cottons much, but I've been inspired lately by The Snug Bug. She is so great at combining fun fabrics into cute dresses and tops. So I bought two fabrics with the idea that I would make a Claire Cami top, probably my last summer top before I dive into purple wool for fall.

Whipstitch has a beautiful space with high ceilings, exposed brick and lots of fun examples of garments and quilts

made with their whimsical fabric. Put it on your to do list if you ever find yourself in Atlanta with an afternoon to spare. Then try a very respectable Thai restaurant called Spoon just up the street. It hit the spot and fortified me for my next endeavour...Gail K.

A right royal mess in here!

Where Whipstitch is new, dignified, well-organized, and devoted to "modern prints, Gail K at 2216 Cheshire Bridge Rd, NE, Atlanta, is a chaotic madhouse of fashion fabrics--piled, stacked, leaned, buried, mixed and mashed all over the place. Not much to look at from the outside, once inside, a girl who relishes fine fabric could do some damage to her checking account. Honestly, I was there so long, at one point one of the clerks said to me, "Are YOU still here?" It was heaven. But the kind of heaven you have to be in the right frame of mind for. Sort of like the flea market. Or IKEA. Easy to get sucked into the undertow.

Like I said, I don't sew much with quilting cottons and even less with Home Dec fabrics, so anytime I don't have to

eliminate half a fabric shop automatically, it's

right up my alley and I'm already planning when I can return before I've even hand

over my credit card. Gail K is like Mood of the South with everything from linens to silks to wools, cottons, novelty fabrics, knits, shirtings, you name it, it's there. Good luck finding it, but it's there. Actually, there were plenty of people working and the staff is helpful and friendly even if they get tired of seeing you after three hours. Customers come from everywhere, too, and now I know why. Gail K rocks!

HERE is a stash post to see my lovelies from Gail K.

And look at these buttons!

Way more where these came from.

On another note...does anyone besides me get frustrated with Blogger's photo upload deal? Why can't I just put the pictures where I want them

and not where Blogger put them out of order and weird? Any hin

ts anyone? Somebody help me!