Quills and Needles

 Not much going on this week—it's getting close to finals and I've been writing a lot of papers, alas. I have less than a week of class remaining in my current college career and all I can think of is how tired I am. Blah.

Sewing: at the moment this is my main focus. I really want to get this dress done by graduation. I might have to put in a lot of hours during finals week, but I only have two exams, plus one paper, due then, so I should have time. (A couple of my classes end before finals week.) I'm presently working on catchstitching the seam allowances of all the seams. I'm hoping to get the zipper in and start working on the lining by the end of the weekend.



You can't see it too well, but that's the innards of my bodice. You can see the silk organza underlining (all written on!) and the catch-stitched seam allowances. I still have the skirt to do.

Just truckin' along here. It's starting to be the End of the Semester, which means finals are approaching, which means my free time will decrease slowly and then increase rapidly (after finals are done.) This week, I have mainly been working on The Dress, with a little spinning thrown in. (I also knit the first four rows of Chart B on my Haruni before deciding it wasn't very good movie knitting, and set it aside for later.)

( Pictures within... )
I was hand-basting last night when I couldn't sleep, and got to thinking about magic stuff—in Tamora Pierce's books (I'm thinking of Circle of Magic, specifically, but also in the Tortall universe) the characters have special magics in their particular areas of interest. (I find it interesting that the magics correspond to what the characters love, but of course that may be a correlation = causation situation.) If I lived in that world, I'd like to have either textile or animal magic (so, either Sandry or Daine, basically.) But of course, I don't. I have to put in all the slogging hours hand basting this dress, and I can't just order the thread around or demand the organza stop slipping and lie flat. (Silk apparently likes Sandry, so I assume she wouldn't have this problem.) I'm still pondering the economic implications of that. And, you know, in worlds with craft magic, you might meet someone who doesn't have magic but who excels in their field, because they're exceptional. But never anyone else. "This is Sandry, who is awesome with textiles and has magic. And this is Sally, who is incredible—and she doesn't even have magic! How incredible! (Oh, and this is Carrie, who is sorta middling with textiles and doesn't have magic, and isn't worth mentioning, even if Sandry might have been sorta-middling without any magic.)" Doesn't happen.

"Not everyone who loves a thing has magic with it, you know," Rosethorn said. (Tris's Book, p. 49)

On the plus side, no one here has magic, so at least that's one even playing ground.

In an effort to make myself post more, I'm trying a couple of things. One of these: WiP Wednesday! Here is some of the various stuff I'm working on.

( Knitting, weaving, and spinning: cut for pictures )

Normally I would be knitting one or two more projects but I happen to be between projects at the moment, unusually enough. But I've started winding some balls of yarn to cast on this weekend (when my spring break starts!) so I expect the next WIP Wednesday will show a rather different set. Until then!