Greenstyle Creations Fit Capsule

This month Greenstyle Creations is running their annual Fit Capsule where you make 3 items from their patterns to create an fitness gear capsule.   I chose to make the Tempo leggings, the Jillian Tank and the Moxi shorts.   I also have a Power Sports Bra cut out in cotton lycra, but that's not sewn up yet.

So here's the finished items:

Jillian tank with Moxi shorts

I suspect that a stretch woven would be better for the shorts, more body; but I was trying out the pattern for the first time so chose something that would be ok.

Jillian tank with Tempos; adjusted the pattern to make the upper leg shorter so the knee hits the right spot; darn these short legs!  This was necessary even when using the Petite fit.

 the pink fabric was a complete bitch to sew, it's some sort of swim fabric and none of my machines liked it.  My coverhem just said no, she's now up for sale on Trademe, not because of this, but because she also refuses to play nicely with woolly nylon; the listing mentions her foibles and what she's good at too.
My sewing machine started shredding thread, changed needles and it did it a couple more times.  She also skipped stitches.  Will see how she is with another new needle (different brand) and decent fabric; hoping she doesn't need a service.  Even the overlocker skipped stitches on this stuff, especially when adding clear elastic.  I will be ordering some proper athletic fabric to try out and making more Tempos in that.  I also have some custom printed cotton lycra to make another pair; I love this pattern!
Aside from the Greenstyle patterns I have cut out a custom fit t-shirt from Apostrophe Patterns in the blue print I used for the shorts, it doesn't have much stretch so I couldn't use the Greenstyle Green Tee.  After that it's probably time for me to make some casual trousers for Dh, I've got some nice green corduroy that'll work well and some grey wool flannel to use as a contrast; not enough of either to make pants, but together they'll do the job nicely.

A Health Update

I've been seeing a kinesiologist and we've definitely made some progress on the bowel side of things, however I'm still getting muscle pain, tingling in my right foot and injuring myself more often than I should; it's also taking longer than it should for me to heal.  I'm figuring that I need to do more than I have been so I've been reading the Medical Medium books; well, I've read part of his first one and part of the Liver Rescue one which I got out from the library to read on my Samsung tablet.
I'm not ready to jump in fully yet, but a lot of what he writes makes sense to me so I'm going to slowly improve my diet to what he recommends and the first thing I've done it bought a juicer and started on this stuff:

This is my first morning of taking celery juice (please ignore the crumbs, school lunches were prepared first).  I've never been keen on celery, but I'm really hoping I develop a taste for it, cos it's not very nice at the moment!  So the plan is I'll be drinking this stuff every morning and following it up with a fruit based breakfast which no fats to help my liver; then I'll be doing salads for lunch followed by a pretty much normal dinner so it won't impact on the family meals.   I can't start the whole thing till my physical book arrives in a couple of weeks from the UK; however I'll probably wait for a few months until I do the detox since I suspect it'll make me feel pretty awful.  A friend is doing it now and she's got vertigo and tinnitus and other things going on from it, considering I get those to some extent normally I have to expect I'll get them too.
If it works for me, then I'll see if I can persuade the family to change their diet to be more liver friendly, don't know how easy that'll be considering one's stuck in his ways and another is autistic.  I hope it does, sick of not feeling as well as I should be.  Certainly the dietary changes can't hurt, and they may well help.

I'm still knitting, but less than normal as one of my pain areas is both arms.  I have an ulnar nerve injury on both sides and my bicep on my right is tight and grumpy (that's not an injury, suspecting it has more to do with RSI).  Doing exercises for them and stretching as well as stretching for groin ache which came on on Sunday.   I've had that on and off ever since my first surgery, suspecting that is a direct result of how they treat your body when you're under so they can get to everything.  If it doesn't ease off that'll take me to the doctor just to get checked out.

I do have an answer for one of my problems, though, well it's probably an answer.  The dizziness I got after my 2015 turn looks like it's an after effect of a silent migraine.  I get this feeling like a piece of soft cloth (velvet) brushing through my brain for a moment; then I get tired and the next morning I'm absolutely wasted, plus the feeling off centre thing comes back and I have to start my balance exercises again.  My symptoms point in the migraine direction, especially the aftermath.  I had an MRI about a year after the first one so it's nothing really bad, but it's not fun either.

I have been sewing and am cutting out more stuff shortly; I need more workout leggings and I also need more undies without FOE as I seem to react to that when it's in sensitive areas; pity, it's so much easier to apply than cotton bands.

Back with more sewing

I've been having some elbow issues of late, a dickey nerve (I thought it was tendons but my physio says nerve) so less knitting.  Still waiting on more horsehair for the chair so that's on hold, and I can't start weaving till the next stage of the chair is finished so....

What do you do when you can't knit much, can't game (thumb tendonitis) and need to do more than read all day?   Well, you start cleaning house for one thing and you get back to the sewing for the other.

Today I deep cleaned the dining area, all bar the biggest book case which somehow I didn't see despite it dominating the room; will have to do that tomorrow.  Before I started that though I'd been doing sewing.   Some for the boys and some for me.  You've already seen the undies, now to show you the rest.

Youngest in his favourite new t-shirt.  Fabric was from For Fabric Sake, pattern is OTT T-shirt by Little Kiwi Closet.

I hate taking selfies, but the sports bra is the Pika pattern by Jalie and the fabric is from Levana Textiles.

Leggings for me, pattern from Apostrophe patterns, fabric from Levana (it's a polyester elastane I think).  I think I'll try this again with a little less negative east and shorter legs.

Eldest in his new favourite T, same pattern as youngest and fabric also from For Fabric Sake.

Modified Jalie Julia top, the original is an A-line, but didn't work in this fabric so I took it in and made a semi-fitted tank.  Fabric was originally beige, but I dyed it.

The Challenge of Finding Undies That Fit.

I'm sick of store bought undies, they don't last long in many cases and it's rare that they fit well so I decided to try out some home made ones instead.  I chose 5 patterns I already owned and got cutting.  I might have some more to try out later, but in the meantime this is my selection this time.

Clockwise from top left we have:  Jennifer Lauren Handmade Trixie Briefs, SUAT Women's boxers, SUAT Frisky Knickers and Jalie Julia Briefs

and finally SUAT Bunzies in the full coverage cut.

I'm not showing photos of them worn, my butt isn't something I want to show the world but I'll give you an idea of how these all fit.  I have a reasonably full rear end so I like coverage; all these undies were chosen because of their coverage claims.   I'm reasonably happy with 3 of them and found the other 2 did too much of the wedgie creep for me.

1.  Trixies - I love the look, they're a bit vintage, but unfortunately they do the wedgie creep; not the worse of the 5 but not good enough for me to make them again.

2. SUAT Boxers - surprisingly comfy, no wedgie for obvious reasons and will be great to stop the summer chafing.  Only downside is they do use a lot more fabric than the other styles and since they're a completely different style I'm taking these out of the running.  Will possibly make some for cycling in when I'm wearing a dress.  They have the advantage they don't look like you're flashing your knickers!

3. SUAT Frisky Knickers - these were the best ones in my opinion, very little creeping at all and reasonably flattering.   I do like the self bands too.

4. Jalie Julia - 2nd best, a little creep, but I didn't do the elastic quite right (cut it too short after reading the pattern incorrectly) so I'll have to make these again to see how they work when done correctly.  I do like the option to use a different fabric for the front panel too.  I think the FOE elastic I used was possibly not the greatest which may also be contributing.

5.  SUAT Bunzies - I was expecting a lot from this pattern after the Friskies (and the Scrundlewear I made a year back), but unfortunately these ones head straight for where they shouldn't and then stay there.  They won't be one I'll make again; pity cos I love the fabrics I used.

So that's it so far, I'm also testing out bra type tops but having only made 2 so far I feel I should try out at least one more before reporting on them.

Gluten Free Doesn't Have to Mean Taste Free

I've slowly been perfecting my gluten free bread recipe; this started out as a white loaf and has slowly morphed to a good solid seeded bread with body!  It's not a brick and it has good flavour and I'm pretty sure it may even be approaching good for you.

I make it in the breadmaker cos I'm lazy, but I'm sure you could do it the other way too.  I do premix; one thing I've found with GF bread and breadmakers is that if you don't premix you end up with lumps of dry flour in the finished loaf; not a good thing.

Ingredients:
2 cups GF flour - I use the following for this:
1/2 cup each tapioca, chickpea and sorghum flour (sieve these as they tend to clump)
1/4 cup each sunflower flour (home ground) and hemp flour
Handful of hulled hemp seeds, crushed almonds, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds plus a tablespoon of chia seeds
2 tbsp sugar (don't leave this out, the yeast needs to feed on it)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp xantham gum or similar; I'm slowly reducing this from 2 tsp and will see if I can get to 0
1 1/2 tsp active dried yeast

1 cup lukewarm milk or alternative (I use A2 cows milk)
2 tbsp oil (I use olive oil)
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 room temperature eggs

Combine and mix well in a bowl before transferring into your breadmaker's mixing bowl.  Set for GF loaf and let it do the rest.

Let the loaf rest after it comes out and then enjoy.  This goes equally well with butter, jam or cheese.   Tonight I'm using it to go around a sausage or two; it's less malleable than gluten type bread, but you can't have everything!

Keeps well for a few days on the bench.

Progress on the chair.

Despite some hiccups, mostly involving the silly staple gun jamming, I've managed to get the chair re-sprung.  I've also bought an upholstery staple gun and contacted the place I bought the heavier gauge one from to let them know about the jamming issue.  It's now a week since I emailed them a video of me using it as requested with no response; I'm feeling distinctly unhappy about that and will be ringing them on Monday if I don't hear anything by then.

This is what the chair looks like now:

As you can see it's now fully sprung and I've done the 8-way tie.  Unfortunately there's a couple of places I had to redo as the staple gun also cut my string a few times; I'll have to recheck it all before I put the first layer of fabric on it.

I've also started sampling for the fabric I'm weaving for the chair.  I can't do the main fabric until the chair has that first layer finished so I can get semi-accurate measurements.  Once that's done then I can warp up and get weaving. 
I'm weaving at 10EPI and I'm happy with that on the loom, it remains to be seen what it turns out like after wet finishing of course.

The yarn is a Romney boucle, it's not as easy as I'm used to due to all the lumps in the yarn, but it's actually behaving itself better than I expected.  I'm having to be careful to just use the beater to place the yarn as I'm aiming for an even weave with 10 picks per inch approx; though I will also trial a section with a harder beat to see which works best in the finished fabric.

This weekend will hopefully see me finish the sample and also get that first layer of fabric onto the chair as well as making the edge roll for the chair.  The only edge roll I could get here was an extruded foam product which is something I wasn't prepared to use.  Instead I'm making my own using the jute webbing and filling it with wool roving.  The reason for the edge roll is to soften the edge of the timber so the fabric won't wear through where it goes over the edge.  I want to get this finished so I can then move onto making my weaving stool.

Long Time

Yes, I've been a bad blogger again.  Partly due to health issues, partly due to losing my sewing chair (it's now my son's homework chair) and partly just me forgetting to blog.   I've been knitting and spinning and I'm trying something new as well.

The reason I don't have the sewing chair is that the chair my son was using started attacking him; it was originally my gran's chair and I decided to refurbish it.  Unfortunately I don't have a before photo, but I'm documenting as I go.   I first of all took off the disintegrating fabric, and took out the innards which had not been done correctly; they'd stapled the springs to a piece of wood on the bottom!

At this point I'm almost ready to put the new springs in, it'll be quite a high crown on the seat but the frame is quite short so it needs to be higher in order to be comfortable to get in and out of.  I've torn out the silly timber on the bottom and remade the back from scratch due to some major cracks in the original.  I've also learned how to use a compressor and put webbing on the bottom (after making a webbing stretcher) and also on the back.  The original back had 2 pieces of webbing, total!

The newly webbed chair, I'm pretty pleased with this.  You can see the original frame colour is brown too; this is being updated.

The new back, sides are made from an old loom and the rest is new timber.

The last few days have been spent sanding the chair and today I put on two coats of the new colour.  I will need to sand again tomorrow and put at least one more coat; I'm using a gloss spray paint.

This is after 2 coats so you can see there's a few spots where the wood is still drinking in the paint.  Hopefully a good sand and another coat will fix that.

Pathfinder Vest in Boiled Wool

I've finished my Pathfinder Vest by Twig + Tale using the gifted boiled wool and cotton elastane from For Fabric Sake and I'm in love! The pattern is wonderful with great instructions and the fabric is perfect for it. Boiled wool is lovely to work with, because it's a stretch knit it's very forgiving and being wool adds extra forgiveness, it doesn't need prewashing and won't fray either. Only thing to be aware of is when pressing be sure to use a press cloth or else it will go shiny; this is normal for wool, however that's a small price to pay when you consider how well it reacts to pressing in the first place; unlike polyester it plays very nicely with heat.

Pixie hood!  And embroidery :)

It's beautifully warm and it's going to be a staple in my wardrobe this year. The colour in the worn photos is more accurate.

You can get an idea of the lining here; unfortunately my phone didn't want to focus properly for some reason

I do love how the hood sits when it's down

See, embroidery!

And the lining is peeking, so pretty.

I made a couple of adjustments to the pattern, the main one was dropping the bust point due to Mother Nature attatching my breasts a little lower than pattern companies design for and I also graded between sizes since I'm best described as non-standard.  I have to do these adjustments with almost every pattern I use.  I top stitched around the hem and fronts so that the lining can't roll around; it wasn't actually trying to, as I said wool takes pressing very well but I don't like to take chances and I love how topstitching looks so...


In the interests of full disclosure I was given the fabric for this project by For Fabric Sake, I bought the pattern a while ago. Although I was gifted the fabric my opinions are not swayed by that in any way. If making the same outfit yourself I'd probably go with a slightly heavier weight lining or else use a woven fabric as a lightweight knit can be a little tricky unless you're used to them, but in this case the print went so well with the wool that I'm glad I put the effort in.

Sewing and knitting

I've got stuff cut out, but the weather has now turned cold and it's all summer stuff; it'll now be put on hold till next spring in the hopes that I'll be feeling healthier and that the fit will be better too due to my new diet I've lost a little weight.

I have done some sewing though and some knitting, I've finished 2 pairs of socks for Sock Madness and cast on a 3rd, and I've made Dh some undies.  Unfortunately the pattern doesn't suit him well, the cuffs are too tight (tree trunk legs from judo) and the top band isn't firm enough and rolls down.  This was the SUAT Mens Boxerwear pattern, I'm going to try a Jalie one next.  Much as I love SUAT's women's undies, my shape is rather different from DH's and not all pattern companies work for all body types.

Excuse the wrinkles, they'd been stuffed in a drawer; he won't be photographed in them so this is the best I could do.

On the knitting front here's the socks so far.

Smock Madness for Ian's enormous feet.

Demogorgon's Lair (fraternal socks for me)

Echoes with help from Ray

Yesterday

Yesterday something awful happened in Christchurch.  Someone attacked people at prayer, people who had done nothing to deserve it, people who were a part of our community.  I feel for those families and their friends as well as the people who are now helping them and who were first responders. 
If you are upset about this you should be, if you are angry that is also fine, but please don't take it out on anyone else.  Don't give the person who did this airtime, don't reward the behaviour; give your time to those who were affected instead.  Let us pull together as a community to support eachother in our grief, reach out your hands in love, do not give in to hate.

Doesn't look like it is the suppliments

I've been off both of them now for 2 weeks I think and no improvement.  Now looking at a gastroscopy to check if my hiatal hernia has decided to get worse and cause diaphragm issues, if it's not that then my doctor and I are both stumped and I'll have to ask for a referral to someone who specialises and hope they can work it out!

In the meantime I'm knitting and sewing and doing more house cleaning/tidying.  Kon Marie is happening and I'm also challenging FODMAPs.  I've determined that lactose is definitely an issue in larger amounts (up to 1/2 cup yoghurt is ok) and garlic (fructans) is too when over 1/2 clove; we're not sure how much over 1/2 a clove due to Dh forgetting the need to be exact, we need to rechallenge that.  He's now aware of that.  Honey (fructose) also seems to be ok so far, though I had the last challenge on that today so I may find differently in the morning.

I've also done knitting, which includes finishing 2 handspun hats with a commercial contrast; both using the same pattern.

And I'm still working on my cardigan with the foxes on it.  7 rows to go on the hem and then I can pick up for the sleeves.  The end while not in sight, is at least able to be contemplated.

Side Effects?

The question mark is because it might just be coincidence, I won't know for certain for a few more days.

On the 7th of this month I started taking Metagenics Parex, shortly afterwards I started feeling short of breath and noticing I was chest breathing again.  Now it's possible this was happening before and I'm just remembering incorrectly but I know it was Saturday last week when I was getting the shoulder blade pain and I remember lying to say I was fine when I was feeling breathless; why I didn't immediately connect that with the new regime I don't know.   Last night I started making some connections and this morning I did some research.  I didn't find anything on breathing as a side effect from Parex, but when I looked up the individual ingredients I found that Pomegranate skin extract can cause breathing difficulties as a side effect.

So today I'm not taking it and have put it away, and hopefully this'll mean that tomorrow I'll be breathing easier and can retrain to stomach breathing more easily.  At the moment it feels like my diaphragm is tight and can't expand fully.  I'm hoping this is the cause, sure it'll mean I can't take it to fix my middle, but in the scheme of things breathing is a slightly higher priority to me.  If this doesn't work then I'll be heading to the doctor (again).

25.02.19  Update:

Doesn't look like it was this, have been off it and NAC for well over a week now and it's not improved, if anything it's worse and we're now thinking my hiatal hernia might be a contributing factor.  Now been referred to get that looked at in the next 3 weeks, I'm hoping sooner since this is most uncomfortable!

New Year, no resolutions because...

I'm simply continuing what I was doing last year, I'm still visiting the gym 2 or 3 times a week and most times I'm biking there.   I'm still trying to get my digestion sorted, still having issues and we don't know why yet.  I'm on the low FODMAP diet and boy is that a pain in the arse!  I've determined that coconut is definitely an issue which makes things worse as many of the "safe" breakfast options include coconut; grrr.

I'm tidying house, so far the hall cupboard, main wardrobe and the pantry have been done and I'm doing a modified Kon Marie version.  Of course there are things that are necessary that don't spark joy and someone gets grumpy if I try to ditch things we've been given my relatives even if they're things we never ever use.  Some may just have to quietly leave.  Some things will be going on Trademe, including a very old Moulie (baby food grinder thing) that mum used for me.

I've made more little sheep baubles for an order at guild and finished my pin cushion, do you want to see her?   Of course you do!

Very fiddly and I'm never going to make another one, but very happy with her.  She had a light tea bath to get the skin tone right.

I'm now finding my studio which I'm hoping will spark my creative side again, at the moment I walk in and then walk straight back out again as it's so messy.  I really want to finish warping up for my fabric, but it needs to feel welcoming first.  I've also started washing some fleece that's been waiting for years, the weather is good for it right now, but I've got a lot and I don't have many places to safely dry it in the wind we've been having.  Plus it's mostly Polwarth which has a high wax content which makes it harder to wash.

Here we go again.

Today's blog post is brought to you by my dietician.  As you know I've had bowel issues for a few months now.  I've had a colonoscopy which picked up a polyp; obviously non-cancerous since I've not been recalled (this is good) and I got referred for breath testing to check for SIBO (Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth).   $675.00 later the test was negative and now I've been put on the low FODMAP diet.  We are still suspecting candida as well, but treating that could now be problematic as garlic is in almost every anti-candida product or inulin is and neither are allowed on the FODMAP thing.

Today is the first day of grocery shopping for it, I don't have a cookbook for it, so that's something to search for too.  So many things aren't allowed, all the salt mixes I use have either onion or garlic so they're not allowed; same goes for stock.  Sauces and sausages are also full of them too.  My favourite coconut milk?  Inulin, sigh.  My immune support tablets, garlic and also my sinus tablets which are the only thing to help with my funny head thing.  I've bought a new type of immune support with no garlic, hopefully they help and will have to get a sinus one too.  I spent quite a bit of time googling things I came across in the supermarket to find out if they were allowed or not.

Today I have my final packet of my favourite chips, which have both onion and garlic in them.  I've bought a pack of plain salted ones in the same range to help with withdrawal since I know I'm going to have that.

I'm on a new probiotic which was suggested by the dietician and will be getting my kinesiologist to check that as well as a few other things.  The best part?  I'm on this diet over the holiday season.  My MIL is going to try and make sure there's stuff I can eat, GF is easy enough, she's used to that with her other son's partner, DF she's done before too for her daughter, but GF/DF low sugar and low FODMAP will be a challenge.  Oh, and she wants me to ditch yeast for the duration as well so I'm going to have to try to make a soda bread that's also DF and GF.

I'm now going to go play a bit on the Xbox and knit and maybe order a cookbook, have to decide if I'm going to order locally and pay a premium or from overseas and wait for the postage to grind it over here.

The Monthly Stitch - Anything But Clothes

I've still not heard if I can use this pattern, but considering today's the last day I had to get it done anyway.  The pattern is this one.  I've made it before with some changes; this one's too small for knitting so I made it larger; probably should have remembered to also increase the length of the ribbons, sigh.  It still works, but not as well as it should.  In the photos the ribbons aren't inserted properly so they look ok there.

The main fabric is one I've been hoarding for some time now, Cicely Mary Barker's flower fairies; I love the books and had to have the fabric when I saw it.  The pixelated roses came with a bulk lot of quilting fabrics and the lining is plain old calico which gives it some body.

I thought about adding a pocket, but this will be a sock knitting bag and I've not usually found any need for one in those; I will make another one later with it though.

Now I need to get knitting, I've done none today despite being home all day.  I'm now on antibiotics and probiotics and hoping to see an improvement shortly healthwise.  I hate taking antibiotics but my immune system just isn't strong enough to kick this bug.

Fed Up

Back in August I started getting some digestive issues, worse than my usual ones after starting the Paleo diet, it took me a few batches of coconut flour baking to make the connection and unfortunately it looks like it did some damage since things have not yet gone back to normal.
I am having a painful middle quite frequently (like a not too bad period) and urgency issues as well.  I've gone back to just a GF/DF diet and determined that any sugar is too much and am now on a SIBO/Candida protocol to hopefully repair my gut.  This is from my nutritionist and I'm seriously considering going back to my GP as well. 

It's not all bad though, my back is apparently in very good shape, so my foot numbness/tingling is not coming from there; though it may have been since it took a few weeks to get the MRI and by then most of my symptoms on that front had eased.  Downside, the exercises I did to help my back set off ulnar nerve issues, sigh.  Oh, and the standing desk has caused issues with my achilles.  Bit of a chain reaction there, here's hoping those will ease off over time.

I've not yet done any more sewing for the Sew Monthly thing since the dress, partly because I've not yet had confirmation I can use the pattern I want to which is annoying.  I have got knitting done though, I'm almost finished on the bust shaping for my cardigan.

Loving the Outlaw Yarns Bohemia Sport for this, a touch splitty at times, but so soft!

An Anna Dress finished

Though I'm not 100% happy with it.  I had to do a bunch of adjustments, the bodice was way too short; seriously, is anyone really that short in the torso?  It was too long for empire, too short for waist length but was obviously meant to be waist length with the pleats.  I ended up dropping the bust 3cm and didn't take that cm off further down as I would with a big 4 pattern.  I also graded out from a size 12 US bust to a size 14 US waist and hip.

The front isn't too bad fit wise, but the back is way too wide; I've not had this problem to this extent with any other pattern brand so not sure what's going on here.  I think I'm going to have to put neck darts in to make it fit better which I shouldn't have to do.

The fabric is from deep stash, it's an organic cotton in cotton candy pink; not really my colour but it doesn't make me look ill and is a nice bright colour so I'll still wear it.

The pattern is from By Hand London and the internet seems to be full of people raving over it, but I'm not joining the chorus; I won't be making it again.

Hard to see the fit issues in this one, but they were the first thing my husband noticed which means they're incredibly obvious!

Keeping it real, this is after all what I'll be doing in it.

Beauty shot, I think the pleats are a little too long and as you can see the bodice isn't sitting correctly even with the changes I made.  Imagine what it'd be like without them though, eek!

A New Project (or 2)

I've just cast on for a new cardigan, Outlaw October has started and then there's the fact that I have nothing in the way of change of season cardigans in my wardrobe.  I've chosen Blairsden and I'm knitting it in 3 colours, not the 2 it's designed for.

This is the photo from Ravelry on the pattern page

The colours I'm using are:

Absinthe, London Town and Tarnished.  London Town is the main colour and the other two will alternate on the stripes.

I've decided I hate doing twisted rib, but I am continuing with it since it looks so good; but boy oh boy does it take ages to do!  

I've also cut out a dress using the Anna Dress pattern from By Hand London.  I'm using an organic cotton in pink and have already made some adjustments to the pattern.  Dropped the bust point and have graded out to a larger waist and hip measurement.

Envision this in pink and hopefully with a better fit too.

I need to get this finished tomorrow or Sunday at the latest.

I've been doing a lot!

Still having health issues, back pain and sciatic induced foot numbness have been added; plus a recent probable reaction to coconut in my diet was not pleasant.  I'm certainly hoping it was coconut since it's been going on for 2 weeks now and if it's not that then who knows what it is or when it'll stop.  I'll know in a few days if it's gone or not though; fingers crossed!

In the meantime I've been sewing, knitting, weaving, tidying and cleaning and travelling for a day.

I've finished my coat, got one area where the lining isn't quite long enough under one arm, but I'll tack it down at the top which should fix it.  Also the pocket lining keeps peeking; that's a design flaw.

I found the perfect buttons in my stash.  Pattern is an OOP Burda one.

I've almost finished Ian's socks, they should be finished by the end of this week, just 1.5 toes to go and I've made sure there's a little space in the end so he won't outgrow them too quickly.

Yarn from Vintage Purls, pattern is my own and I may publish it later.

The weaving which is now off the loom, still needs wet finishing but I'm going to check what people at guild recommend before I do that.  I'm in love with this.  There's enough for 2 scarves; one with a sewn hem and the other with fringes.  I'll keep fringe scarf and the hemmed one will go to the lady I bought the loom off.
Warp is hand dyed merino/possum/silk by Agnes Hauptli and the weft is black alpaca also from Agnes.

I'll do a separate post in a couple of days about our trip to Wellington, see you then!

Hemming

I feel like I've been doing a lot of that, but it's really only on two things so far.  I've done hemstitching on my scarf on the loom.   The actual scarf is finished now, but I've not yet cut it off as I don't want to waste any of the warp; instead I've wound it on enough for the fringe and then started again to make actual fabric for the rest of it, which will probably become a soft toy for the previous owner of the loom.

You can see the scarf on the bottom; the new fabric on top.  I am really pleased with how this is working out.

I'm also hand hemming my new coat, it's the next step before I start on the sleeves and then the lining.  I need to finish this so I can cut out some new undies for me and some tops too for working out in.

Catch stitch, takes ages and a heap of thread, but it's secure and invisible from the right side.

On a health front I'm now gluten and dairy free and my palpitations have reduced significantly in strength so it looks like there may be a food problem in there.  Had butter by accident two days ago and got major indigestion; this is not a good thing as I was hoping it was gluten that was the issue, not dairy.  I'll have to stay GF for a while yet before I challenge it back though, gluten stays in the system for longer than dairy.  Two weeks on the new eating plan and I've also stopped getting restless legs at night.  Still having problems with having to get up frequently and inflammatory joints but the other improvements make me hope that over time this will also improve.

I'm starting to enjoy the gym too, I don't have enough suitable clothes so have some on the way from the Marika Balance range, I find their stuff fits me well; though I do still need to make myself some tops.

Will be back later with more photos of spinning and the socks I'm knitting from my own pattern for youngest.  I'm over halfway through the foot and need to get them finished to deal with the lack of socks in his drawer, this is mostly due to the constant growth of said feet.