Destination Yarn Shop Update Monday – Old Friends

So the Shop Update Monday thing has been going wonderfully so far. Last week’s installment America the Beautiful sold out very quickly. Thanks guys! I actually reserved two skeins that will be at the Trunk Show at River Colors on July 17. So if you missed out on the Etsy listing you can still get it there. If you’re fast, that is!

This week I decided to return to my roots.  I spent my first day of child care dying these three colorways:

New Orleans, Yosemite, and Copenhagen.

They are my three biggest sellers.

My mom was knitting with New Orleans at a Soft 'n Sassy retreat.  The owner loved the color and the rest is history.  Getting into that first major  yarn store in the area opened a lot of doors for me.  And this is the colorway that did it.

I know their dye solutions and sequencing by heart.

Yosemite carries my favorite story - one of my customers knit a pair of socks for someone who was going to climb El Captain.  I like to think that whoever did was wearing those socks when they reached the top.

Dying these skeins was like visiting with old friends. Good friends. Friends where you pick up right where you left off no matter how long it’s been since last you met.

Copenhagen was one of my very first colorways. And it was the colorway that put Destination Yarn on the map when it was featured on Anne Hanson and Cookie A's blogs. 

The best kind of friends.

I’ve missed them and hope you have, too!

All three are currently available at Destination Yarn and will be at the upcoming trunks show as well.

3 Fat Quarters = 2 Toddler Skirts Tutorial

So the response was so great to the Fat Quarter Skirts that I thought I”d write up the “tutorial.” I’m using the sarcastic air quotes there because I'm not nearly adept enough at the sewing thing to be telling other people how to do anything.  There’s probably a million better ways to do this but here’s what I did:

Materials:

3 fat quarters – 2 for the main part of the skirts and one for the trim.
½ inch elastic
cutting mat, rotary cutter, thread, iron, machine, etc.

Step 1: Iron the fat quarters. Because that’s what my grandma would want me to do.

Step 2: Take your first Main Color fat quarter and trim it so it's straight. This step might be unnecessary but I’m kindof OCD. Also I don’t trust my sewing skills. I figure if I start with something perfectly straight then I’ll end up with a skirt that’s straight.

Cut it in half lengthwise.

It doesn’t really matter what size these pieces end up exactly as long as they are the same. Mine were 9” x 22” Repeat for the other Main Color.


Step 3. Repeat Step 2 for the Trim Color then cut those pieces in half lengthwise again:

It doesn’t matter what size these pieces are either as long as they are the same. Mine were approx 4.5” x 22”

Step 4: Lay your Trim Color down right side up. Then lay your Main Color on top of that also right side up lining up your nice neat edges.

Roll your Main Color into a tube starting at the end furthest away from the trim.


Fold your Trim Color back over the roll, line up the edges and pin in place.

Repeat for the other 3 pieces so that you have 4 neat fabric rolls:

Step 5: Sew across the edge of the rolls.


Be careful not to catch the roll in your seam! That is BAD.

Step 6: Pull the Main Color out from the tube to turn the whole thing right side out.

Pull the bottom band straight and press it into place. You will top stitch this later.


Step 7: Pin your pieces wrong sides together, sew side seams, and press seams flat:

Step 8: Press down the top edge of the skirts ¼”.


Then press the top edge down ¾” to make casing for the elastic.

Sew the casings in place along the edge leaving a few inches open at the end to thread the elastic through.

Step 10: Thread the elastic through. I used a safety pin to do this.

Step 11: Mark how wide you want the skirts to be. The best way to do this is probably to try it on your kid but mine was sleeping at the time. Plus trying to wrestle a half finished skirt onto her so I could pin it sounded pretty horrifying. Instead I just used a skirt that she already had and made this elastic band the same size:

Step 12: Sew your elastic closed. I overlapped mine and then stitched a square because somewhere in the deep recesses of my brain I remembered that’s how you’re supposed to do it with elastic. I could be wrong. But I think I learned that when I made the Awesome Pants.

Step 13: Stitch the casings closed:

Step 14: Topstitch skirts along the trim:

It is probably easier to do this before you put in the elastic but I wanted to use red thread on this part and only wanted to change my bobbin once. I’m kindof lazy like that.

Step 15: Put it on your child and get her to Toddle the Runway for you!






Super cute! If anyone out there actually makes this I’d LOVE to see a picture!!!

A problem and a solution.

So my kid has these three adorable onesies for summer:

Problem is that I’m not really a just a onesie kindof a mom. It’s cool for sleeping in but I don’t want to take her out and about without pants on. Not ok with that. Because, really, pants always beats no pants. May as well start that rule now along with the “You will eat what we eat when we eat it I’m not a short order cook and this isn’t grandma’s house” rule. So I thought that with my newfound sewing abilities it would be fun to try to make her a little skirt to go with them. I pulled out one of her skirts to use as a “pattern” and noticed that it was about the same size as a fat quarter…

And the wheels started turning.

Would it be possible to make 2 skirts out of nothing but 3 fat quarters? And could I make those skirts match all of these little onsies?


Yes. Yes I can.


It was a pretty simple process. Cut, sew, elastic, done.


I will model this onesie without even putting it on.  I am that fierce.

And they turned out completely adorable.

I like wearing skirts. They are fun to play with.

The best part is that I used up every scrap of fabric that I bought. That’s new for me. I usually walk in to the fabric store, get all giddy with the possibilities, spend an hour lamenting fabric choice, and then walk out with about a million more yards than I need.

Whatever, Mommy.  That's how you build a fabric stash.

I will absolutely be making more of these!

I'm ALLDONE with this modeling gig.

Oh and in other news I figured out the “Networked Blogs” thing. So if you want to follow Life in Cleveland via Facebook there’s a link on the sidebar.

The First Day of Summer

So big things are going on right now at Life in Cleveland. The most notable is that I now have a steady childcare arrangement*. So once a week I’m going to be able to rock out the Destination Yarn. I haven’t been able to do much lately what with a toddler and a husband who’s working insane hours* so this is HUGE.  I’m so, so excited to be back to the dye pots.

It also means that every Monday there’s going to be a shop update.  Today’s offerings?  The entire America The Beautiful Semi-Solid Series:


Purple Mountain Majesties, Sea, Shining Sea, Fruited Plain, Amber Waves of Grain, Spacious Skies

I thought that it would be the perfect time to redye these what with the Fourth of July coming up. They are wonderful for any of your more complicated and patterned projects:

Sinuosity Socks designed and knit by Knitting Nonstop (Dawn) out of Sea

Summer Lovin’ socks knit by me in Spacious Skies

And look stunning in lace:

Traveling Woman Shawl knit by AndiRN out of Purple Mountain Majesties

But it’s summer. And I’m not really in the mood for complicated anymore. I want to sit by the pool and relax with some simple stockinet:

Baby pools count as pools, too.

So I took all of the colors from the America the Beautiful series and created this:

Available Here.  It’s kettle dyed – which is a different technique than I usually use. I allowed the colors to play together in the pot:


 The bleeding and mixing created new, deeper shades and tones:

An American melting pot, if you will.  (HAHAHAHAHA I"m lame)

The result is similar to when I tried this same thing last year… but not quite. With this technique things aren’t exactly repeatable. So just like last year this is a limited edition color. I dyed one batch and when it’s gone it’s gone.


Happy Summer, Everyone!

*She’s going to hang out with my mom one day a week.  Grandmas?  Are the BEST.

*being an architect pretty much sucks right now.  But he still has a job and a job that he likes so we’re way ahead of the game in a lot of ways.  Despite the crazy hours.