The Sweaters and their Recipients

 

Chris and Zachary very kindly modeled their sweaters. They seemed very pleased with them, and that pleased me. Zachary is also showing his rolling pin. He's very much into cooking, and Alton Brown of Good Eats fame is his favorite.

I took my sister to get her Christmas present today. I had told her I'd get her a thimble from Thimbles by TJ Lane, so we went to the studio and she tried on thimbles aplenty. She had her heart set on a Yubinuki (ring thimble) like mine, but her fingers are so tiny that they had to take the smallest one they made (a 3 1/2, which is what mine is) and cut it down for her, so we waited and browsed among all the other wonderful things they make while they cut and soldered and fitted. It's now about a size 1, or a bit smaller. She made inroads on their other inventory of chatelaines and various dependant tools, and she has a gorgeous piece of jewelry now which is also a portable sewing kit, basically. We pick up her thimble next week after it's been hardened and polished.


I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy Holiday Season, and I hope it's not over yet!

I am a Rockin'Girl Blogger?

Well, I guess I must be. Mardel of Sew Distracted has designated me as such, and what a nice thing to do! I haven't felt much like a rockin' anything lately, so this is a very nice boost to the psyche. If you haven't already read her blog lately, go quickly, and look at the wonderful trims she has found, as well as all her other interesting and lovely projects. She's quite the inspiration, and a wonderful writer as well, with an equally interesting knitting blog.

The skirt that won't work for me will work for someone else, and I finished it yesterday for her. I think it turned out well, and it's really cute. Just not cute on me. I hope she likes it.

I did a muslin of a knit top last night, which turned out kind of cute because of the fabric, which was a cheapie printed jersey. Cream with pale acqua zebra stripes. The top needs major changes beyond what I already did to it, and I won't use this fabric for the final version, as it's really too thin and lightweight, but I may see if I can get some more of it, because it's just really cute.

The handwork on the skirt finishing is where I was practicing with my new thimble ring, and I really like it. One thing that's nice about these thimbles is that the "dimples" where your needle goes are square rather than just rounded depressions, so once it's against the thimble, it's in one of the tiny squares, and can't slide off. All of their designs have this feature, and I think it's a real safety device, to say the least.

Yubinuki for Me

 

Well, I'd never heard of a Yubinuki either, but it's a sterling silver thimble ring. Once I realized that I could use and wear it while still having the end of my finger free, I was interested. I'm always taking my thimble off to be able to knot a thread or whatever. I'm still getting used to this ring, but it's becoming more and more natural and I really like it.

 

Our local Sewing Guild's first meeting of the year was Monday, and our program was Thimbles by TJ Lane. TJ's daughter, who makes thimbles along with her mother, lives in Lincoln, so it was easy to get her to come for a meeting. She's presented a delightful program, and tempted us all with her beautiful custom-fit thimbles, as well as chatelaines and all the accoutrements one could dream of.

One thing that really surprised me is that the closed end thimbles are very poor sellers for them, and so they're slowly discontinuing them. That was what I would definitely have wanted had I not seen these, but the open styles are much more decorative, and of course they allow a long nail to fit through the thimble, so I can see why they may be more popular.

Luckily I have some hand sewing to do lately in finishing a skirt, so I'm getting some practice with my new thimble, and it takes a little practice, since now I need to push from the side all the time, and usually I just push wherever.