Sommer Designs

Something New

It's 5 a.m. and I am almost out the door. I know, insanity. Sheer insanity. I have an event today in Westlake Village, which is quite a commute from here so I'm leaving extra early. The drive home will be craptastic, I'm sure, but this is what we do! I wanted to leave you with something I've been working on...

 

Kitchen towels! To match the latest batch of aprons! I'm liking these more than I thought I would.

 

A simple add-on to the aprons - I'm actually not sure if they will be added to my website. I'm bringing them to my event today and will see what the reaction is - a little focus group if you will; unknowing guinea pigs.

 

Here's to a great day - wherever you are! ♥

There's a GIVEAWAY in blogland!

 

Attention Moms, Grandmas, Aunts, Cousins & Friends! My pal Kelley is having a 100th post giveaway on her blog! I can't believe she's come so far in so short a time - it seems like yesterday I harping and lecturing her to share all her goodness with everyone - and here she is, REALLY sharing!

All you have to do is leave a comment on her blog about what you'd like to see on her blog, and on Saturday she's rendomly picking TWO winners - anything in her webstore is up for grabs! Isn't she a doll?

I'm just so damn proud of her for taking the bait. Now go check it out and PASS IT ON!

(image courtesy of Kelley Hart)

Sweater Progress

 

Well, this is a little howdy-do. I'm a little farther along on that sleeve than I anticipated. According to the directions, I still have another 6 inches to go. That might work, if I had gorilla arms. Thank goodness I remembered Stephannie's words of wisdom: have you tried it on?

It looks like, maybe, another 2-3", and then there's another two rows of purl ridges (the bumpy parts on either side of the chevron lace detail). And hey, another coup, the chevron lace detail on that arm is actually STRAIGHT! Go me!

What's going on, by way of bullets

 

• Finally trying out an idea that's been bouncing around. I've decided I hate dyeing but now have 144 yards of trim sitting on my worktable and a bunch of different dyes. You may, or may not, hear about this more. Depends on my patience level and success.
• Iron issue: because I'm sure you are all on the edge of your seats. I caved. I'm such a wimp. I'm such a creature of habit; I bought this Rowenta yesterday with the 20% off coupon I had been visualizing from Bed, Bath & Beyond for the last 2 days. I did seriously consider the Black & Decker. The issue: my industrial sewing machine and iron are on the same circuit. Therefore, I have to unplug my iron when I am sewing, and vice versa. As many of you know, this is a frequent back and forth situation, up and down, on and off, countless times over the course of the day and it drives me beyond crazy to have to wait for the iron to heat up. So far, we are very happy together.

• My sweater: I have been almost done with the first sleeve for over a week. My enthusiasm is waning and I am just about over it. This is a problem. Luckily, since the circumferance of the sleeve is much smaller, the knitting goes faster, but I'm bored. Pictures soon.

• Next up: I think I am going to cast on and try teaching myself socks. I've been collecting the most delicious sock yarns and have to do something. And, I need a more portable project since the sweater has passed the point of portability. I bought this book at Border's recently and I love how it's organized. Each section has several different cuffs, bodies & heel examples/directions and then there's a little flip section, where you can choose/design what you want and can see how it will look with the cuff & body you want. Brilliant.

• I have a week filled with organizing, product packaging and getting ready for a show this Friday in the Valley. I feel behind, but everything is right on track so I'm thinking I'm still tired from holiday shows (?!?!). That was so two months ago!

• I hope you all had a fabulous, and restful, weekend!

Beautiful Sunday.

 

Whale watching at the Palos Verdes Interpretive Center...none spotted during my time there, but lovely surroundings nonetheless.

 

*sigh* I really love living here.

Irons Anon - who's in?

 

Thank you for the information! You guys are, just, wow, really there also. Such an important tool that we all love to hate. Funny enough, I only use it for my work and never use it for pressing clothing (that's what dry cleaners are for). The clear winners are either Rowenta (evil, evil, evil!) or just the simple-simon Black & Decker.

The Shark is most likely going back today or tomorrow. It's crap. Yesterday, while pressing a new batch of aprons (yes!), it leaked. 48 hours old. It's leaking.

So, I hope to reverse my tale of iron woe and find true love soon. In the meantime, I have finally updated my website! I know - that didn't take long. There are new totes, aprons and pouches.

RIP Rowenta

 

This is a crop from last weeks' picture. My iron in happier times, before it decided to go kaput in the middle of a tote production. Before it decided, with no warning whatsoever, to just not heat beyond lukewarm.

I've had a love-hate relationship with that iron for about 3 years. It was my second Rowenta, and when the last one died, I came this close to getting an industrial gravity feed iron. In fact, I bought one, and promptly returned it after it arrived because I got completely intimidated by the maintenance and sheer heft of the beast.

Rowenta wants you to believe that their irons are the best, and you would think so looking at the price. But it has leaked and it has spit. It also gets hot on a dime, reheats quickly and steams the hell out of anything. *sigh*

So when Rowenta up and died yesterday (RIP), I stopped my production immediately and ran to Target. I bypassed the Rowenta and found a SHARK. The SHARK sounded tough and it sounded strong, and looked to be mainly stainless steel instead of plastic. Oh joy. And then we went home, the SHARK and I.

 

And I was gravely disappointed. Yes, the SHARK is nice and heavy, big and strong, and has a steamy plate. But the damn thing takes forever to heat up; then every time I turn it on [it doesn't return the favor, and] I have to reset it to my temperature! [she's shaking her head and rolling her eyes] WTF?

I'm contemplating a quickie divorce. They probably haven't even filed the papers yet, so maybe an Annulment? I dunno - I was able to finish my production, so obviously, the relationship has been consummated; but the performance left a lot to be desired, if you know what I mean...

So I ask, dear friends...do you have an iron recommendation?

[Trying to] Do something creative everyday

It's no secret, Flickr is a huge source of creative inspiration. My list of groups grows and grows, and it takes longer and longer to peruse and scrutinize (plus, my eyes are going; see February 5 post).

A couple of years ago I noticed a lot of self portraits and '365' tags, and it really made me curious. How could people take photos of themselves everyday, and post them online?

It seemed so narcassistic; but they were always done very creatively and really well. I sort of became addicted and intrigued with the idea.

Just before the end of the year, I decided to try it.

Only, for me, it was less about a full-on face shot and more about doing something creative everyday, and somehow documenting my day.

I've done the full-on face shot, and it still makes me uncomfortable.

But I've also learned that that uncomfortableness is called stepping out of your comfort zone, and when you do it, the universe rewards you.

 

Today is Day 71 for me. Want to join me? Here are a couple of the groups - here is my Flickr set. There are many more groups, just do a group search for '365', '365 days' or 'YIP' (year in pictures).

Inspiration is good for the soul.

Beautiful Sunday

In the studio -

 

In the garden -

 

and trying to stay warm in both places. ♥

My new Interchangeable needles & their new home

I splurged last week on a set of Knit Picks Interchangeable Needles. They are decadent and wonderful and I know I'll use them for years to come. They came with an atrocious plastic zip bag, that they didn't even fit into. I don't know what the purpose of that bag is, except that it's totally useless. They do sell a binder for the needles, but, [I'm sorry dear Knit Picks people] it's downright ugly, and us knitters [I love that I call myself that] are pretty visual peeps.

Even still, I crave organization, and in my mind, my whole life is neatly organized. I've been thinking of how I could go about making my own needle case for these needles and yesterday, after I finished some pouches, set to work. A couple of hours later, I had my neat little case.

I didn't mind the cardboard backing that the needles were packaged with because they were neatly contained with elastic, so I decided to keep them in that for now, and didn't make the needle tip part with dividers. The needles slip into the section on the left, and there are two zippered compartments.

 

The cables fit perfectly in the first zippered portion (which goes to the bottom of the yellow martini fabric), and the smaller portion holds the end caps & little screwy thing (and other smaller items, like stitch markers, etc). The whole case folds up like a little binder, and closes with a zelcro strip down to a neat 8" x 9". I'm thinking about a tutorial for this, but I really winged it - it's that easy.

I'm so happy. Now I can get on with my life.