But you have a sewing machine...

So of course you wouldn't mind doing all of my nasty mending and hemming that has been put off. Does anyone ever do that to you? Someone in my family did, though she did offer to pay me as I wasn't working at the time. Then another family member realized that perhaps I could re-upholster one of his cars. I explained that although I had made outdoor gear (raincoats, bivi bags), my machine was not industrial, and probably wouldn't be suited for sewing naugahyde seat covers.

For a daycare auction, I foolishly donated 10 hours of sewing time. The daycare director bought my services, then asked if I could make her a two-piece rain outfit for bicycling. I recognized that this would be much more than 10 hours, and negotiated a selection of perennial divisions from her yard for the difference (which had been her donation, way way out of my price range).

I really don't mind small mending projects for other people. Once while visiting my Dad, I realized he had tried to convert a hooded sweatshirt to having a short collar...with a stapler. He even had a sewing machine in his house at the time, and I had seen him using it to repair some of his clothes when I was a kid (my Mother was not on speaking terms with the machine). I was glad to take it home and convert it for him, removing all the staples.

Pinnies were made for my Son's soccer team (colored vests to wear when an opposing team had the same color uniforms), and one of the parents recognized my talent and had me rescue a couple pairs of his son's drawstring pants that had lost the drawstrings. I did actually stitch the new drawstrings in place in the center back so they wouldn't pull out again.

Early on in my longarm quilting career, I received a phone call inquiring if I could quilt Kevlar. The caller was from South Carolina, and I directed him to try and find an industrial sewing shop closer to his home, and my machine could NOT quilt Kevlar. He was not questioned as to what he wanted quilted, as I didn't want to know!

Old Stuff, New Stuff

This was actually finished before Halloween - and gifted to a friend who had admired it at the retreat. She has a black cat, and wondered if her ginger cat might get jealous now!

Four quilt tops were turned in to Pacific Fabrics for Project Linus, along with six caps and a scarf for their Handmade Hat and Scarf drive. I've since finished another scarf for charity and started a third - several local yarn stores collect them.

The four "Boo the Bat" were finished before Halloween too, one delivered in person and the three others via my brother for his grandsons. I was very tempted to buy some orange yarn to make one for myself after seeing all the cute versions on Ravelry. The designer asked if she could link my picture to her gallery. http://mochimochiland.com/

In other knitting, The Daily Sweater from Mason-Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines has been making slow progress. It was re-started once as the cast-on was too loose - the neck fit loosely over 2 turtlenecks! Went down a size (but kept the same needle size), the 2nd try is going much better. Also finally asked very specific questions on the MDK group at Ravelry of people who had finished the sweater. The chart is a bit intimidating, but the conversations about it (hints on how to make sense of it) have encouraged several other people to start one. It was curious before I started to see how few people had started it, compared to some other patterns in the book.

This is a before and after look at yarn recycling. This well-aged wool yarn was once a reindeer sweater (well twice if you count that I ripped

the sleeve caps back and re-knit the reindeer trying to make it fit). Didn't understand gauge at the time, had been told that I was a tight knitter (only a tight cast-on, as it turned out) and the only other knitters I knew at the time thought I had a very strange technique (continental).

Anyway, the sad brown yarn had been sitting around for many years, when suddenly I realized that it could be overdyed! The two bright skeins on the left were the first two dyed, but there was still much dye left in the pot, so the second two were soaked in hot water and added. My dyeing technique is still rather experimental. It looked like more lanolin washed out of the paler yarn, since the first two were soaked in cold water, since they were added to a cold dye pot. I've already started a Felted Tree from MDK 2 and can't wait to play with some carrying yarn and miscellaneous buttons, sequins and threads to embellish them.