Does this need a title....?
The Jogakbo piece I brought back from Korea, by Seohyeon Moon, is finally hanging in my home.. She does not have a website, but you can see more of her work on Instagram @moon_sewing_art
Stepping back from grid posts on Instagram, and into blog posts has had some expected bumps. When I write for the blog I get wordier, if that is even possible. Well, it is because there are no word count limits for my blog as there are for Instagram. The blog also has complications when it comes to layouts that I need to overcome. Which is just practice. So, here I am practicing…. The wonkiness on display is not me, but my website. I don’t feel like spending the time to dig deep enough to polish it. So here it is, warts and all.
Note: The garments ID’ed in this post are all links to the pattern maker’s website, or Ravelry. But it should also be mentioned that one of the things Insta is really good for is searching hashtags to see how others have made up garments. So go look there for more inspiration….
My Cocoon Chokki, pattern by Noriko Ichikawa. Knit up in Highland Wool from Harrisville Yarns
Below the Chokki is one of my many Genra Shirts from Daughter Judy Patterns. This one is linen.
The pants are the Bisque Trousers from Vivian Shao Chen in a lightweight corduroy.
This is so my current silhouette, no…?
I hit the three year milestone for my breast cancer diagnosis and treatment last month. Phew. I had a check-up with my surgeon this week. I am feeling this moment. I am glad to have those days behind me. I am finally feeling like myself again, and I am SO glad for it. I wish I had had some indicator that let me know it would take me three years to get through that fog, that fatigue, that frustration. We never get that kind of perspective till we are through it though, do we. The difference is quite ephemeral, as I knew it would be. I could not tell you exactly how I feel now that I didn’t feel last Fall, but I can tell you it is different. After SO many false starts, I am finally getting my body moving in the manner I need, and rely on, for my psychological well being. I have gone a few weeks of thrice weekly Pilates classes and while I am tired, it is the familiar ache of muscles re-awakening, and the need for full nights of sleep to go again the next day. Not the wall of non-negotiable fatigue that landed me on the couch, napping. I am eager to keep going, thankful for the sore muscles, and grateful to be back in my body. If you are in those years just after treatment, please do not despair, you will get through them. Hang tight, have patience with yourself, let your body take the lead in the healing. To try any other path will be folly, pure and simple. In a word, this Fall I feel home, after traveling for a while.
My newest item off the needles- the Pelica Vest from Rosa Pomar. I don’t love knitting all garter stitch, but this vest was worth it.
What did I tell you about the Genre shirt, use the link above. Another linen one….
These Pietra pants from Closet Core Patterns have been a lifesaver this Fall, as when I made them last Spring I thought they were too big. Ha!
The visit with the breast surgeon also gave me new information. My original surgeon has left her practice to be replaced by a younger Doctor. At this first meeting with the new surgeon I learned that my ongoing seroma situation could have been avoided by a different approach during my surgery. No need to go into details, but the new Doc has a plastic surgery background. She told me there was another way to deal with how much (cancerous) tissue that was removed, in a manner that would have given me a less disfigured breast, and less chance of retaining fluid. And while there are options to fix the issue now, they are all complicated by the radiation that was done to KO the cancer cells. The radiation hardened the tissue in my breast and so it is more difficult to mitigate the fluid my body keeps using to replace the missing tissue. I will have a consult with a plastic surgery practice about options, but I honestly have little stomach for another surgery. Especially these days, with health insurance, and care, being as it is. The less I can be involved in that universe, the better…
I am currently perched in that upper right hand corner….
Edith says hello.
I am choosing to focus on how the rest of my life is doing quite well at the moment. How comfortable I am in my house. How my Making practice is expanding with my re-discovered quilting itch. How I am sinking happily into my age and maturity with fewer and fewer qualifications and anxieties. So my breasts are uneven and lumpy. I am, at least for the moment, cancer-free. I can live with that, contentedly.
My design wall takes up unused space in my downstairs hall. Narrow, but functional.
These Arthur Pants came out a bit more over-sized than I had anticipated in this wool/linen blend. My next pair I will size down…
With each week of Pilates my body creeps closer and closer to the shape it was last Winter when I wore various pairs of pants I love. Feeling that knowledge has eased my anxious need to make new pants. Now I find myself looking at my Coe and Adams patterns and thinking to cut them out, with wider seam allowances, now, because they will fit. Being the avowed Daughter Judy fan that I am, I am excited to try my hand at both the Brier and Monty patterns. I plan to use them as the backdrop to my January retreat website work. To get me off the laptop enough to keep the creative juices flowing. Computer work must be balanced by analog work for me to be successful at the former. So there is Top Down Center Out work in my future, on various levels.
The Felix Pullover hits just right with these pants…
There’s a Nikko Top hiding under that pullover.
Same Bisque Trousers, same Genre Shirt, this time topped by a Poppy Pullover in Jill Draper Makes Stuff, Ansel Yarn.
I do have to admit that I succumbed to the late November fabric sales and have some new cuts for both pants and tops in my stash. But I do not feel I was extravagant or impulsive in my purchases. And the quilting! Oh my! My entry into the quilting universe came through the improv door. I am most certainly a ‘modern’ quilter. I was, however, usually frustrated by my lack of precision, which had the effect of souring me on the whole process. Something always got lost in the translation necessary to square things up, so they could all go together. Learning how to foundation paper piece without sewing through all that paper has been a total game changer for me. I feel as if a new world of quilting has opened up to me, and I am eager to pull out all my stored flat cottons and get cutting and sewing. I can be precise while working in an improvisational manner! A heartfelt thanks goes to Tara Faughnan for showing me this path… Now I might actually finish a quilt for my own bed. I began a Free Wheeling Single Girl (so apt) years ago, all the fabrics are just waiting. Is this this year I finish it….?
The Long Leaf pattern from Carolyn Friedlander. Oh my, FPP….
FPP Log Cabins, those logs are about 1/2”… In linen. These would be an absolute bitch without the paper….
Click in to see the texture….!
I will continue to shore up my psyche by Making in order to gird myself for what is coming next month. I am sick with anxiety if I think about it much. It is the storm cloud I see out of the corner of my eye…
In stitches,
Samantha