And no, it still doesn’t involve an epic “look at all the stuff I’ve been doing that means I’m too busy to blog” update. Suffice it to say that I did the following, and they were all great/awesome:

  • Went to the Vancouver/Portland area with Mr. Boyfriend and the Banana, for a visit and a wedding. Got to see more of the lovely Oregon coast, Multnomah Falls, eat good food, etc. There was also a wedding, which was lovely and full of good things, and I got to see my mama. Good trip.
  • Worked on Action Philosophers!, which got the full remount treatment for its mainstage run at The Brick, and was fun.
  • Worked on Galactic Girl, which was putting in a one-performance showing at the New York ComicCon, which meant I got to attend ComicCon. For free. Sweeeeeet.
  • Took a train to Philadelphia and saw Gillian Welch and David Rawlings in concert, thus realizing a dream I’ve held since I was about fourteen. That experience moves slightly above the others to transcendental/surreal territory.
  • The very same evening of said concert, I hopped a bus back to  NYC to head straight to the airport, at which I boarded a plane that took me to Chicago for all of the third time in my life. We spent the weekend there with friends, and it was lovely. I bought some records and a comic book, and some yarn (of course). Good meals and great company. ‘Twas lovely.

And that’s really all the life-stuff that’s interceded betwixt blog and myself in the past few months. On more crafty, literary, and fibery notes, here are the other things that are guilty of interceding betwixt blog and myself:

  • Nancy (my sewing machine, blog hijacker extraordinaire). Nancy is just great, and now that I’ve refreshed my memory on how to use her, I’ve been plotting ways to spend a lot of time together. I’ve been working on a dress (link) for myself that’s delightfully retro and Mad Men-esque that I hoped to wear to a friend’s wedding. But since Mr. Boyfriend has been offered a lucrative gig that conflicts with said wedding, I’ve got an in-progress dress with no event to which to wear it, and have therefore let it sit. I have been consuming a whole lot of Gertie (link) lately, though.
  • In fact, I’ve been consuming a whole lot of print lately. Mostly trashy romance novels (I go through a phase every once in awhile) and Nancy Drew. Reading does unfortunately cut into crafting time, since I really can’t stand audiobooks and have not yet mastered the art of taking my eyes off my knitting (or sewing) to the extent that I can go to with a book propped in front of me.
  • And lastly, I’ve sort of lost my mojo. The crappy thing about sewing is that there is a certain threshold of time I have to have to feel like it’s worth attempting, since I have to set up machine, ironing board, iron, and all my various accoutrements. Knitting is not burdened by a similar constraint, but I really just haven’t felt like it.

Luckily, that feeling seems to be passing. I’m nearly finished with my Chickadee, a pretty cardigan with a colorwork yoke knit up in a super-soft wool. It’s from Ysolda Teague’s latest book, Little Red in the City (link). It’s a wonderful resource book about sweater fit and yarn behavior, and features pretty idiot-proof instructions.

And as I was sitting at work today, wishing I could be working on my second sleeve instead of tooling around on the internet, it hit me. Gertie’s Blog for Better Sewing, to which I linked above, started because Gertie wanted to sew through the fourteen patterns featured in Vogue’s New Book for Better Sewing. And I began to wonder, could I do the same? There are only seven sweaters in Little Red, and I really like all of them. And with Ysolda’s detailed instructions for a personalized fit, I have the tools at my disposal to make them all perfectly tailored to me. Sizing in my knitting is an ongoing battle for me. There are some garments I’ve finished that I do not wear, since the fit is not to my liking. There are some garments that fit fine after their first blocking, but have grown in ways I do not appreciate. There are garments with shoddy finishing, garments worked up in a yarn totally wrong for the pattern, and on and on. There are, of course, garments that I am incredibly happy with, but I would like my closets and drawers to be filled with more of these than I currently have.

And so. As a learning experience and an effort to create some more totally wearable pieces, I have decided that I AM GOING TO DO IT. I am going to knit all seven designs from Ysolda Teague’s Little Red in the City. I would love to be crazy and give myself a deadline, but I will not, for that way lies madness. I will impose, however, one other restriction on the project:

I must swatch the crap out of everything. MUST. I will gauge swatch. And pattern swatch. And weight the swatch if Ysolda recommends it. Because frankly, the fit issues that make me saddest are the ones that sneak up after a few wears (Delancey cardigan, you break my heart).

So yeah. That’s the plan. That’s the OFFICIAL plan.

Look out, guys. I have a plan.