I am totally exhausted this evening (aside from the reviving effects of a long hot bath), but ecstatic as a brand shiny new offcially trained doula! Now I have to find some births to attend so I can get certified... which shouldn't be too hard, really, the local doula is massively overbooked!

I'm really looking forward to begin praticing for real, even though I'm pretty apprehensive about that part where I've never actually had any labor or delivery experience of any kind. I was realizing late this afternoon that actually, being a doula is right perfect for the service part of my faith (as much as I actually follow any particular specific path): Starhawk's ideas (which have influenced me as much as anything) more or less require some sort of service to the planet/world community. She does hers through protests and the like, but although I have strong opinions about many issues, I'm not the protesting type. This to me seems a sort of service much more in line with my own ideals; it's practical, it's zomg useful, and it's actually, more or less quietly, pretty radical and society-rocking. And woman-centered!

One of the other women at the workshop told me tonight, as we were all beginning to part, that she loved the idea that I was openly, shamelessly spiritual in a non-Christian way. She said somethings about how if you're not Christian, you're sort of not allowed to be spiritual, and that she found it pretty liberating that I am. I've never found that, but I come from a much different place, one where I was encouraged to make my spirituality where I found it, and I have never pretended to be what I am not in this regard, never been in the "broom closet". I'm not always blatant about it, either, if the situation would make that bad, but I don't deny it. I hope that I can be of use to the Pagan community hereabouts, as some of the other ladies at the workshop intend to have a Christian focus for their work.

I discovered at some point today that I made a booboo on my Argosy. I'll have to rip pretty far back... but that's probably ok.

Saturday night, one more day of doula workshop to go.. but man do I feel good! If exhausted. I'd been feeling uncertain about my ability to do this, especially without shadowing a more experienced doula, and especially since I have absolutely no experience with laboring mothers of any kind. However, sometime today, in the midst of labor roleplay, I suddenly knew that I could do this, that if I had to, I could walk out of the workshop at that moment and straight into my first birth, and do fine. Of course I have tons to learn, and I would be much happier with some apprenticeship, but I know that I have the basic skill, and definitely the right instincts for this work. And one day to go!

However, labor roleplay and massage practice don't leave nearly as much time for sock knitting as lecture does, so I didn't get as much done on my current sock today as I'd hoped; I'm only partway down the heel flap. :( On the other hand, my knitting has brought up comments about knitting in particular as well as other activities to do while passing time during a labor. *And* a couple of my fellows were asking about learning... including one who asked about knitting socks! The infection spreads... *maniacal laughter*

The first day of the doula workshop was exhausting, but amazing. I felt like we spent about 3 days in the 8 hours. Teacher-sama promises that today at least will be slower... I did get quite a bit of my new Argosy done. Have I mentioned I hate not having a digicam? *sigh*

The blue-and-green scarf went well; I finished the fringe with about 20 inchs of yarn left! I'm brilliant!

Today's going to be a day of doing housework and prepping for my doula workshop that's occupying the next 4 days. I'd really rather not go into it with laundry, dishes, vacuuming, or unfnished socks hanging over my head, so I'm feeling ambitious (for me) and going to attempt to do all those things. Ok, the sock just needs its ends woven in. ^^; I really don't want to leave piles of dirty dishes hanging over our heads tho, and they are beginning to accumulate! I hate that.

My copies of Knitting Rules! and The Yarn Harlot Casts Off! arrived yesterday, and along with much laughter and actually a couple of tears I found a solution to a sock woe that has slowly been making myself noticable. My standard recipe fits just fine when I put them on, and then slowly loosens with wear, so that the socks start flipping around on my feet. I didn't even realize this was an issue until I made a pair that didn't! Steph remarks that this is a gauge issue, and recommends going down a needle size or two. I'm leery that this will make it hard to pull the socks on over my heels (I reeeeelly hate that!), but I ripped out a sock I had started, and am restarting it on 0s instead of 1s. Do I indeed have remarkably slender feet? I never thought so, but maybe I do. I'll have to report back about how the smaller gauge sock fits.

I know, I know, dropped-stitch scarves are so 3 years ago... but I have one I made 3 years ago, and I love it and wear it all the time. So when I was at my LYs the other day looking for some Noro for another Argosy, and I encountered a single ball of glorious blues and greens, I couldn't say no. Assuming I can stand to work with my #13 straights for the length of it, I'll have a blue-and-green dropped-stitch scarf to go next to my rose dropped-stitch scarf.

I've really gotten turned on to scarves recently as accessories. I spend a lot of time being just a little bit chillier than I'd really like, especially when I'm not at home (and so can't turn the heat up to my preferred sub-tropical!), and scarves help add just a little extra layer of warmth. Once I put them on, I rarely notice them, they're so comfy! So, making another in a colorway I don't have one in is semi-dorky, but practical.

That same reasoning goes for the Argosy I'm planning to make during the doula workshop... I'm not obsessed! I swear! Just chilly around the edges.

So Mom emailed me excitedly the other day about how the lovely Ann over at MasonDixon had posted a link to a tidbit about our favorite Yarn Harlot that neither of knew before: she's a doula. I found this news tremendously exciting and inspiring, as next week I take my first big step towards becoming a doula myself. I mean, here's a person I find amazing and inspiring anyway, for her humor, knitting and other fiber skills, and writing, and here she's also a member of a profession I'm about to join! I'm devastated! Steph, you are my hero. Seriously.

On other fronts, I have been inspired by Norma yet again, this time in the realm of socks. I may someday posess the blog skillz to add the Magic 28 button to this page, but until then this link will have to do.

Edit: I decided to actually look around at the tools provided to me, and not only did I join the webring successfully, but I also added it to my page! whee! I r 1337!

It's been over a month again... so hard to make myself post when I can't post pictures! But I've been traipsing all over Knit-Blogistan posting this url, so I figure I may as well put *something* up for whoever might possibly peek.

Finished the sweater: it's yummy and warm and I need to reblock the ribbing with steam.*grumbles* href="http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter06/PATTargosy.html">Argosy... which is naturally lovely and yummy and warm, as well. I can't let myself wear it with the sweater of the same yarn, tho... too much lavender. *cry* I guess I need to make another in a different color... *plots*

Now I'm working on a Shedir (if you want a pattern, go to Knitty and look it up) and a Baby Surprise Jacket and a pair of Nancy Bush twisted rib socks... among other things. Like housework. And using the God-gun on the cats. And my Netflix queue... And (emboldened by Norma's comments this evening) getting back to nursing my spiritual side.

I'm really looking forward to my Doula workshop later this month. It's a huge change for me, completely different from the academic career I'd always imagined for myself, but I think it'll be a good one, especially if I am able to pursue it all the way to my far-off misty vision of becoming a nurse-midwife.

It has been a couple of weeks.. a little has happened.

Still working on those socks - not finished with #1 yet. I still really like the pattern, but it is hard on my hands, being a tight gauge on smaller needles than I usually use for socks.

I finished the body of the sweater I"m making last night. I'm basing it off the one shown here, the Sienna Cardigan in IK's Fall '06 issue. Since I naturally don't have access to the exact yarn and needles, I'm using size 8s and KnitPick's Merino Style, rather than #9s and the Blue Sky Alpaca whatever the pattern calls for. Someday I'd like to make it again in the exact yarn, but that'll be a while, since my yarn budget is slender and KnitPicks is vastly closer to my reach than Blue Sky Alpaca is. Adapting the pattern for a different gauge is.. interesting, but a valuable lesson, and I'm glad I'm doing it. I think the biggest change I'm making, other than yarn and gauge (and making the body in one piece, because why sew more seams than you have to?), is that I'm doing the sleeves differently - I can't stand not to be able to push my sleeves up, and I wouldn't be able to do that with the original design. So rather than a neat hem-thing, I'm going to do ribbing to echo the ribbing on the body.

The single biggest thing in my life in the last couple weeks is that I cut my hair! I went from waist-length hair to an earlobe-length bob; I think I'll try and stay this length for a while, or maybe play around a little with styles around this length, for a number of reasons. Among those, in no particular order: it's easier to care for, Josh likes short hair, and I gather short hair is easier around babies (and we're more or less trying to get pregnant). I plan to donate the tail to Locks of Love; I'm just waiting for payday to afford the shipping!

I fell for them. But in a good way!

Back at Christmas, Mom got me skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Yarn for a pair of socks for both me and Josh. I had never worked with this yarn before, and it took a little figuring out as to what it did best. Josh's socks I immediately cast on, and did a variation on a lace pattern I've been making socks in for about 3 years now - the variation looks great, I'll post pics when I can, but I dont ever want to do it again!

Meanwhile, I've been casting about looking for a new pattern to do with the yarn for my socks. The trouble with my yarn is that it's not two skeins of the same colorway, it's two skeins of different but related color/colorway. One is a lucious purple, with slight color variations, but fairly solid. I love it! The other is a purple/green colorway that I find I don't quite like as much knitted up as I did in the skein - don't you just hate it when that happens? Anyway, I've been trying to work out how to incoporate these two yarns in a pair of socks.. and I eventually decided to make them parti-colored - greenurple socks with purple cuff, heel, and toe, and purple socks with greenurple cuff, heel and toe. Next problem was the pattern!

I eventually decided to try one of the patterns from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks, and it worked ok... until I saw Annypurl's version of Grumperina's variation on Hello Yarn's Cable Twist Socks. *whew* Anyway, just got them started, looking forward to finishing them!

Well, I haven't posted in a long, long time, but it has been brought to my attention that maybe I should start posting again.

Sewing has been at a standstill for months. I haven't touched the Elizabethan project since last spring. Some of that is because getting married is very distracting. Some of that is because I have lost interest in the project, at least for now. I have a Gothic Fitted Dress (a la Robin Netherton) in pieces around the living room, but again, I haven't touched it in a couple of months - it might be closer to completion if I'd been sewing the basic seams by machine, but by hand makes for easy discouragement.

What's really distracting me from my sewing is the amount of knitting I've been doing, at least theoretically. Socks as fast as I can get yarn, hobo mittens for Dear Darling Husband, toddler things for my friend's daughter; I even have a couple of sweaters on the needles - one is Annie Modesitt's Short Row Sweater from Stitch 'n Bitch, made this time in baby alpaca lace weight, and again not using the published sleeve patterns, and the other is the Shapely Tank from White Lies Designs. I'm also playing with the Sienna Cardigan from the Fall 06 KI, trying desperately to make my yarn and gauge fit the pattern.. I think I'm close, but I didn't buy quite enough yarn and I think it will be a bit of a struggle. But I'm finishing the Short Row alpaca first.

One hindrance to my blogging is that my digital camera died last September (I think the gay wedding we were at at the time blew its awesome circuits), and we haven't been able to afford a replacement. So I can't show pretty pictures of what I'm doing right now very easily. But I've been reading a fair number of knitting blogs this last month or so, and it's been quite an inspiration, not only to pick up my needles, but also to try blogging again myself.

Was at an actual-factual SCA event this weekend!!!! ZOMG!!! However, I haven't seen much sun in about a year and a half - a) Pacific Northwest = rain and b) I'm inside on the computer most of the day anyway. So most of my Californian gilding has gone the way of the dinosaurs, and I am Celtic fish-belly white all over.. and it was a beautiful, sunny, almost-warm day. So there I was, sitting, eating my lunch with all that lovely sun full in my face... so warm, so lovely... and I'm incredibly prone to sunburn anyway. D'oh! So I pulled out a kerchief I'd brought along for a just-in-case, pulled a couple of pins out of my sewing basket, and pinned it on my coifed head as neatly as I could (while not being able to see it). I felt pretty goofy, and indeed *I* look pretty goofy in this picture, but the veil actually looks pretty decent. Pretty good for instant period sunblock, eh?
The outfit I have on is my blue linen kirtle under the russet wool kirtle - a much less fuzzy pic than the previous one. Actually, it's the same outfit as that pic, all except the smock, which is the one I made for the Elizabethan outfit. I really like how it works under these kirtles, so I think I may make more to thise design in the future... I thought it was kinda funny that I brought 'working' clothes, since I ended up spending almost all day working in the kitchen. The veil incident took place during the hour and a half I had after lunch and before starting dinner - this pic was actually taken right before I went back to work, and the veil and coif were both off in the next 5 minutes.
I did get the loose gown wearably complete, but I did not, alas, manage to get any pictures. Soon, I promise, soon! It was nice and toasty-warm at night when it got chilly... and made a nice extra layer on top of my sleeping bag!

3 steps forward, one step back... /sigh. Finished the collar, attached it to the fronts, the whipstich technique is gorgeous. Got the back pleated, sewed it on the collar/fronts... hate the way it hangs, gonna take it off and put a yoke on tomorrow, so the catridge pleats will hang better. I get the feeling I'm not going to get the fur on before this weekend... especially since I haven't even started on the sleeves! and I have to wear it in... less than 48 hours! Gonna have to finish mostly by machine, I think. And, of course, sometime this afternoon I decided that I needed to make a new pair of sleeves... pulled out a piece of red brocade with white diagonal checks, it'll be lovely... but I'll make myself wait and work on those over the weekend I guess. Handwork ftw!

Well, I got my arm twisted into going to the barony event this weekend... trouble is, it's still pretty cool weatehr overall, and all my warm woolies have disappeared into the mists of interstate moving. So I'm takign some inspiration from the lovely ladies of MedCos and making an Elizabethan surcoat - call it ropa or loose gown, it's a loose, warm garment so's I don't freeze! It's also an addition to the Elizabethan outfit I'm slowly working on... a little out of order for skin out, but hey, I need it.
The lovely lady to the left shows the sort of garment I'm making, although my sleeves will be shorter, more in the English or German mode. I will, however, be using fur!! A group of friends got me a whole passle of bunny furs a few years ago, and I'm going to break into them to line at least a portion of this gown. I'm planning to line the collar and I hope a portion of the opening at this point, hoping to further line later. I'd also like to have a little fur showing at the edges of my sleeves, but I think I'll have to forgo that at this point due to time constraints.
I hope to post some pics soon of how the construction goes, as I use cartridge pleats for the first time, as well as the period technique of joining finished rather than raw edges at the seams - well, some of them.
Meanwhile, my fingers hurt, my back hurts, and my brain hurts from sewing all day!

Me and my terrible posture, and not really a new dress, but getting it documented... this is an Italian I made a few years ago out of gorgeous cotton jaquard... absolutely lucious! I wore it to my barony meeting tonight and got compliments up, own, and sideways.

Took a slight break from my 'lizzie project to remake an old wool T-tunic that never worked right: I moved the gores from the sides to front/back and recut the body and sleevesto make it in the style of the working overkirtle from Medieval Tailor's Assistant... and now it looks good and I love it! I need to do something with the neckline still, and the unevenness of the hem may eventually bother me enough to just redo it entirely someday... but it still looks good to me! The pic's a little out of focus, but you can see everything important.

I also did take a tiny step forward on the 'lizzie project today (while taking the kirtle for a test run) and hemmed the smock. Yay, a piece DONE!!!! Even if it's the least important part (the hem, I mean), it still feels good to have a piece of that done, since I can't move forward until I finish the corset... le sigh. But yay! Something done!

Well, here's a first post in my new blog... I expect to use this space for dress diaries, documenting trials and tribulations on the way to constructing nifty garb. For a first example, I have a picture of my current corset project, which is part of underpinnings for an Elizabethan outfit which will eventually consist outwardly of a kirtle under a doublet, over corset, shift, etc. I'm really looking forward to knitting stockings to go with it all, but that's a way off, as this project is currently being made from my stash, which is limited at the moment, and doesn't include enough sock-weight yarn for a proper pair of stockings... le sigh. Oh well, I have plenty of projects to keep me busy until then.

Meanwhile, here's me in my underwear!