Dragon Rambles

I got a lot done this month on the craft front. There was the mad rush of knitting during the olympics and the skirt I’m learning to make. But the real star of this month was completing all my moonglow blocks and sewing them together.

I’m still plugging away on the borders, hopefully I’ll have them finished this coming week.

Since this quilt is completely hand sewn, I’m linking this up with Katie’s handmade parade

I’ll also be linking up on Sat with Fresh Sewing day over at Lily’s quilts.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned I was taking a beginner sewing class. Well, it’s a dressmaking class to be more exact, so not only am I learning how to machine sew properly, but also how to make clothes. We had to oick a pattern, buy the fabric and take it along, where we would be taken through the steps of making it.

The first week we covered measuring, reading patterns, cutting, tailor tacks and darts. Since then we’ve been slowly putting together our garments. I picked a skirt. Mainly because I was having trouble finding fabric for the dress styles I liked. But I’m now also glad I picked something fairly simple. It’s not finished yet, but it begins to look like a skirt.

It’s using a recent fabric of Valorie Wells.

Last night was time for me to learn how to put in the zip. I’m always one to laugh at myself, and last night I had my class mates joining in. Due to the following conversation (I’m using a shop sewing machine so I don’t have to cart mine in).

Me: I’m up to the zip!
Jane: Ok, to sew a zip, you need a zipper foot.
Me: I don’t have a zipper foot. Actually, I’m not sure what a zipper foot looks like.
Jane: This is a zipper foot.
Me: Ooh! I have one of those!

Anyway, zipper went in. I should probably undo it and try again. But nah, no one will notice it unless they’re looking closely at my butt. In which case, why are they looking that closely. Perves.

I finished sewing together my moonglow blocks on Sunday. They came together so quickly, I started to have delusions of grandeur: that I’d have a finished quilt top to show off come Friday.

Then I started the border. Three strips down…

Four to go.

These are a lot slower to sew together than I expected. The cutting of the strips, the pinning and then the long seams. Of course, I also have to make four sides. So if I think about it, I’ve already sewed (in seam length) almost the same as assembling the blocks. So I guess it hasn’t gone that slowly. I just grossly underestimated the amount of sewing.

But while I won’t have an assembled quilt top this week, I should do for the following.

For tonight, I’m giving my fingertips a break and am starting Laura’s scarf.

I had the day off yesterday to meet my long awaited sofa. It was made to order so took nine weeks until it was in store. After last week’s debacle, I was feeling nervous. But it was all good, showed up exactly as I pictured and UNDAMAGED! I also bought a bookcase for my lounge to replace the dresser that was one of last week’s disappointments. I’ve started moving things from the kitchen and unpacking my dinner set into it. It’s still a work in progress but I like how it’ll look when complete. To say I am happy would be an understatement.

You can’t see in the photo, but the sofa fabric is a beautiful woven black with silver through it. I love it, I’m so glad I picked this fabric.

And in case you’re wondering about the ducks, I had a friend from work over last night. We have a running joke about putting ducks in the pond outside our building. So far we’ve added ten little yellow ducks and five larger black and white devil ducks. I was showing him some pirate ones I still have.

As for the rest of the furniture, I’ve decided to go completely different from my original purchase so that I’m not thinking “this isn’t what I wanted” every time I see it. So my office/craft room is getting the ikea treatment (I’ll try again with something more permanent in a few years when I buy a house). I just have to wait for my money to be refunded so I can buy it. Then I’ll finally be able to get rid of all of the boxes.

I’m a firm believer of there being multiple finishes for a quilt. The first is finishing all the blocks. I am very happy to say that with the completion of my mariners compass block on Monday, I’ve now finished all the blocks for Moonglow. They have been ironed and ordered ready for assembly.

This finish has been almost two years in the making. I bought this kit when it was released over a decade ago. I made the first three blocks, but then PhD and life took over and it was packed away. Almost two years ago, I had three weeks off work. I was so burnt out that I decided I wanted to spend my holidays sewing. I dug out my kit and started again. I think I spent one week just cutting out all the pieces. Well, all the coloured pieces, I’ve been cutting the black as I go. I then did more in my xmas holidays that year but otherwise didn’t really work on it again until my next holidays a year after I’d restarted. These holidays saw me again completely burnt out and sick, so perfect time for sewing. I also made the decision then to leave my job when my contract ended, which also meant I took my foot off the pedal and gave me more sewing time. Allowing me to steadily plod through these blocks. To this finish. And I’m happy to say that I’m still as much in love with this project as I was when I bought it so very long ago.

As it’s friday, I’m linking up this very proud moment with Katie’s handmade parade.

And, for the very first time ever, I’m able to join in TGIFF. It’s hosted over here this week.

I’d love to say that I’ll reach the next finish (the completion of the quilt top) by the end of the month. But as well as sewing all those blocks together, there are five or six borders to attach. And remember, this is all being sewn by hand.

Warning: there may be some geek speak in this post.

I’ve been in my new job for a little over two months now, and since this blog is about my life as much as it is about my hobbies, I thought it was time to give an update.

I started out enjoying the shorter hours and being able to leave my work at work and have evenings and weekends free. This is the first time I can do that since, well, ever. I feel like I have oodles of time. All the better to indulge said hobbies

In this new job I’m a software developer. This is a big change (and risk) for me as it signalled a move away from research and, as it turns out, science. Yes, I am developing software for scientists but it’s not the same as doing science myself. I must admit I miss the science at times, just not the lifestyle. And I can get my fix with seminars or papers if I choose. Plus there’s plenty of things at work that I understand and can “translate” for the other software developers because of my science background.

In case you’re wondering, this career change isn’t totally left field as I am trained in both. I have two bachelors degrees, one in computer science, the other in biochemistry and molecular biology. Then I pursued the science side all the way to the rabbit hole otherwise known as PhD, then (eventually) out the other side again to a post-doc position which was equally science based and computer (programming) based.

So, back to the new job. A few weeks ago, things at work hit a rocky patch. Rocky enough that I was seriously considering whether I wanted to stay. Which really freaked me out as having made this sideways step in my career, I can’t really step back. Hence the mention of risk, above. I felt like it was being assumed that every piece of code I wrote was wrong before they even looked. My line manager wanted to look at everything I’d done, then get me to change it all, though it was done to the specs he gave me. And the colleague whose project I was working on was rewriting all the code I’d written to do it his way (and breaking it!). What’s worse was I couldn’t see this ending any time soon as I knew the plan was to have me floating from project to project helping to speed up development where needed.

Fast forward a few weeks, and well, that colleague is still pulling that shit – rewriting code that he’d changed, that I’d fixed, back to something that doesn’t work properly – but except for the the odd urge to hit him over the head with something heavy, I’m trying to not let it bother me. My line manager now realises I can do my job and the scrutiny is off. He’s happy that I get things done quickly (tells me he wants something turned into a REST service and two days later he has it) and he’s indicated that I can be assertive in getting fellow developers to get things done. That latter being something I wasn’t sure about since I am, after all, only about two months into this job.

So I can say I’m enjoying my job again and am no longer thinking maybe I should leave. And I’m having good, productive days which make my little type A heart sing. And best of all, on evenings and weekends I can socialise or indulge in my hobbies, or both (like tonight at the local meet and make).

So ends this epic, no photo post. If you’ve made it to here, congrats!

Tomorrow we’ll be back to our scheduled program, with a special event: a finish!

Warning: there are all kinds of finishes, hopefully you won’t be too disappointed with mine

I haven’t had a lot of sewing time lately, first with the knitting olympics, then with summer and socialising. But it was too hot yesterday to do much, so I spent the afternoon sewing. And finished the last block of Moonglow! Here it is in it’s unironed splendour

Unfortunately, the pics I have to share with you are not the ones I had hoped.

First there’s the writing bureau I was really excited about.

Hardly surprising given what the box looked like when it arrived.

The matching sideboard also looked like it had taken a few knocks

Some before it’d even been shipped.

I took photos of the front corners. And already knew it was unacceptable, before I even looked at what was underneath the worst damaged box parts.

Then there was my lovely big dresser for the dining area. It’s damage could be seen before it was even off the truck.

At this point I told them not to bother unloading any more, that I was refusing the whole shipment. They took it away and I called the company I bought it off. It now seems there will be a fight for me to get all my money back. Well if they want one, they’ll get one. And it’ll end up costing them a while lot more.

But in the meantime, I’m still without furniture. And without money to buy any because I spent it all on this broken crap. Yes, it’s been a shitty day.

The rest of the photos I took are here.

Well, the olympics are over, and not a moment too soon. Maybe now I’ll finally get chariots of fire out of my head. And I mostly avoided watching the coverage so just imagine how insane I would have gone if I watched it as much as some.

So the big question…. Did I finish my cardigan?

Of course not! But the back and both fronts are done.

Of course, I might have stood a chance if I hadn’t gotten all sociable this past week. But a sunny saturday at the beach is better than a day knitting. Unless of course you live in Australia and it’s so stinking hot and humid that a day at the beach will give you heat stroke

Yesterday I was feeling tired and lazy. In great need of several naps, but unable to nap. I was also feeling a tad inadequate for not having finished my cardi. So I whipped up a last minute entry, and performed a personal best. I knit a scarf in under 5 hours! Yes, you read correctly. In case you hadn’t figured it out yet, I’ve got an annoying type A personality. There’s no way I was going to finish the games without a finish.

Of course, it is a keyhole scarf, so faster to knit than your average scarf (being shorter). But a finish is a finish. I used some of the skein I had leftover from my hourglass throw.

I’m now going to take a little break from knitting. I’ve been missing my sewing, so moonglow is back in the spotlight this week. I’d really like to finish that last block.

Other updates in dragonrambles land:
I started a beginners sewing class last week. I’ll post pics of my project once the class is over in a few weeks. Then you can all point and snigger
The first of my furniture deliveries arrives on Wed. In time for me to unpack all my boxes before (hopefully) I get a call to arrange delivery for my sofa. I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to getting rid of the boxes. And a stack of the furniture coming is to set up my office/craft room

The knitting olympics, that is.

I spent a lot of time last weekend knitting Blumchen. Sunday nit just as I was getting to the end of the waist shaping, I thought I should measure it to work out how much more I needed to do to reach the armhole. Uh oh. The piece measured 14″ and the diresctions for the smallest size said it should be 13.5″ to the armhole.

All of this was ripped back to start again.

And yes, it did hurt to rip all that out. But I managed to restart it Sunday night. This time choosing a front piece to knit so that if disaster should strike again, there was less to lose. I dropped down another needle size and changed the shaping to occur over much less rows. This made more sense to me because the waist instructions were the same for all sizes, and really, should the waist shaping be the same for my short torso as it is for someone’s how is much taller? No, I don’t think so. I also took some height out. I may end up wishing I’d made it a little longer, but I can do that next time.

So this week, I’ve been madly knitting every evening. And I’ve also been getting up when I wake up rather than lying in bed reading blogs. This has given me 1.5 hours knitting time before work. And this morning I finished the second front piece. Yay!

Yes, they look like no normal person will be able to fit them. But they’ll be blocked out much wider.

I cast on the back this morning and got five rows done. If I can get the back finished by the end of the weekend, I just might still be able to finish on time. Might.