Please Welcome my First iPhone App: ✄ Fabric U ✄

Yeah, this was the big secret project I was hinting about for a month.  While  I was talking it up amongst friends, I kept it on the down low online. It felt weird in that respect because I'm on Facebook nearly nonstop (thanks, iPhone). I just didn't want to jinx the project...which has been incubating in my head for a while.

I had no idea how challenging it would be to write an iPhone app. Really and truly, the hardest part is getting all those photos and I have nearly near 800 of 'em on my app. Most of those I took, the rest are from the Creative Commons section of Flickr.  My task was much easier thanks to my partner, Sutro Media, which has an incredibly easy online interface for uploading images and text. It could not be simpler, really.

For all the years that I've been sewing and manhandling fabric (isn't that what you're doing when you're punching a hole repeatedly into fabric with a sewing machine?), I've learned so much more about fabrics, some of which I take for granted since I see them nearly weekly at Vogue Fabrics. Take Juliette Double knit. Who knew that Jean-Paul Gaultier uses this knit for pull-on pants? Since I'm an exercise nut, I'd like to try that. Or that mosquito netting is so versatile? Or that even cheese cloth, which can be bought by the bolt at Vogue, has a multitude of uses? I didn't and now I do.

What's so neat about doing this app is that there are so many more fabrics to list. Eventually I'd like to have 300 on there. By the time I'm done with that, there will be even more fabrics to add with all the new technology cranking out new textiles daily. It's a terrific gig for me because I never get tired of petting fabric. Never! I'm always thinking about new stuff to make, even if I haven't touched the sewing machine in a while. Yes, I'm thinking about sewing while I'm knitting. Crazy!

And the app world is full of possibilities. It's like a candy store, half  full. I look up potential apps in the iTunes store...only to find that what I have in mind doesn't exist...yet. Yet is the operative word.  These are exciting times, friends. Exciting!

I should add my app isn't strictly a list. You can sort by types. For example, you can sort by Eco-friendly to find everything in that category. Ditto designer. I think my favorite feature to date is the comment section...that'd be handy for say something like "______ is great for Butterick ____!" or "Emmaonesock has a great selection of _____ right now!" So keeping it as real-time as possible will make   ✄ Fabric U ✄  useful for you.

Finally, I should note what my app is not. It's not a stash organizer or a sewing machine.  It's not a talk-show host or a seam ripper. It's not even a pair of scissors, contrary to the dingbats ✄ you see in the name. My apologies. For those of you who have iPhones or iTouches, it's an on-the-go tool. Those of you who are using Loseit! or other apps know what I'm talking about. Others, well, you can listen in and learn.

Anyhow, if you've got one of the abovementioned devices, and you're dying to write a review, let me know and I can send a promo code so you can download  ✄ Fabric U ✄ for free. I've got a limited number of freebies, so act fast.  And pretty please with turbinado sugar on top let me know how I can improve ✄ Fabric U ✄.  Last but not least, you're most welcome to join my ✄ Fabric U ✄ Facebook group (there's a link on the blog sidebar; that's the left side of the page). That's all, happy sewing, friends!

So Close, and So Far: The Gone with the Wind Hat

My Memorial Day weekend was a crafty one, aye.
I didn't swim, I didn't even venture outside of my state, I didn't make it to any parades. However, I got to experience short lines, nearly vacant buses and lots of silence. Oh yeah, boredom. Whoever said boredom is a precursor to creativity didn't have a refrigerator nearby! Empty hands and idle minds....well, they just lead to frequent forays into the kitchen.
Seriously,  I did get outside. The plan was to finish my Stitch in Time sweater and the Gone with the Wind hat.  That was the plan. My hands never even got into the sweater, although I did take my hat over to Arcadia Knitting. I sat that there patiently stitching my hat to the milinery wire. Man, I forgot how unwieldy and wonky a wide brim can be on a hat. The wider the circumference, the more problems in getting the wire to behave. In this case, I wanted the hat to "scoop" downward...but the wire insisted on flipping out so that one part was curved up while the rest was down.  I'd say the hat looked like a Kentucky Derby drunk walked into a wall wearing it. No matter, how much shaping I did with my hands....the wire just wouldn't behave. I was ready to ditch the hat despite all the hard work I did on it. Seriously. Pitch it into the closet where that 1940s crochet with a similar brim resides. That one sits under a pile of sheets, department store cloth bags and other stuff.  It has learned its lesson.
Somehow, I got in my head to dig that one out of the closet after all the frustrations with the latest hat. I thought, "Well, I'll switch gears and finish that!" Like maybe the wire powers-that-be would sit back because they were causing me so many problems with the Gone with the Wind hat. Funny, how the mind magically works that way at times.  I didn't act on that thought though. That was Saturday. That evening I attempted to make a t-shirt. That was a disaster. Drastically, the iron-on I used just left the faintest imprint on my jersey fabric. I also cut out a size too small. I finished the basic sewing, tried the t on. One look in the mirror at the too-small t-shirt  made out of very sheer fabric and I just thought, "Oh, forget it!" No. 2 stalled project. Yesterday,  I put on the Gone with Hat again, fiddled with the brim again for nearly an hour, but I didn't sew anything on it. Finally,  I picked up a crochet skirt that needed its loose ends sewn and cut.  I'm not finished with that part, but it's close enough to being done that I can perhaps say it's the one project that I actually finished this weekend.
For those of you who are experienced at making picture hats with wide brims, what's the secret to getting the brim wire to cooperate with you? In other words, how do you get it to curve downward all the way around? Post some words of wisdom, please! Before I do something drastic with the hat....

Craft Corps, page 105*

Ok, it's here, I am there. Specifically, I'm talking about Craft Corps: Celebrating the Creative Community One Story at a Time. I just got it today, so I haven't had a chance to read it from cover to cover. Naturally, the book flipped to the story on me. Page 105! Right there. I was a little disappointed they didn't use the umpteen shots of me making hats. What can I say? I still clean up nicely.
*This isn't the big announcement. Still forthcoming!

Nearly Finished WIth Gone With the Wind Hat, version 2.0

Wow. I'm inchworm-slow when it comes to knittng. Inchworm. Now it helped considerably that I made this hat once before. I had the memory of all the patterns etched into memory. It also helped HUGELY that I had the assistance of an ace knitter when I was doing the short-rows in the lace section. No knitter should be left behind when this kind of torture comes around. Now it was my choice to do the short-rows. Had I skipped that part I would have had a short, circular brim not the oval one I aspire to. So it's hard to believe...but I'm done with knitting this hat...at least a full week before my goal, Memorial Day! That's a first for me. I don't usually even set deadlines for my projects. This one I did, and by golly, I got it done earlier than I expected. I think I'll go get the millinery wire tomorrow and get started blocking! Fingers double-crossed (I can do that with my long nails), I'll be able to wear the hat Monday.

Hopefully,  in another week I'll be able to announce the top-secret project I've been working on for the past month. Yeah, the undertaking of a lifetime that has kept me away from blogging, but not knitting! Isn't that funny how that works? However, I go everywhere on bus and trains, so it's only natural that I keep the hands busy even if it's not at the computer keyboard. So knitting still happens even when the blogging doesn't.

Now it feels odd not to have a project to haul around with me. It feels strange to have the big masterpiece completed. It feels even more weird to have two adventures completed, one big, the other small, done. I feel so...empty. Don't worry. I'll fix that. There's a bottle of St. Germain on the kitchen counter. And more yarn in the front closet.

I really need to think about what I'm going to do during the Memorial Day weekend besides eat and not clean. Plan projects. Anyhow, I'll write up a review on the second hat once it's all wired together....sounds like I'm making a lamp, doesn't it? Over and out for now. What millinery projects are you working on...or not?

More New Hats From Woodland Farms Antiques

This new hat no. 1 from Woodland Farms Antiques. I'm not ordinarily a huge fan of 1920s cloches, but this I like. The texture combination is hugely appealing. You've got the rough straw and the soft velvet trim. Now the brown....that's a little hard to love, as is the size. It's small. Something in the 20 inch range. It seems most hats I encounter from the 1920s are small. They're either from teens who never wore their hats, and stuffed them in the back of their closets, untouched, for posterity. And all the large-head ladies wore their hats to death. So there's nothing left for the museum folks to archive. Nothing. I'm sort of convinced that teens are responsible for  the dearth of decently-sized 1920s hats. It's their fault.  I mean would you wear this hat if you were breaking out and you had major perspiration problems? This hat, sorry to say, is on the dowdy side. It's the color, really. The hat just sort says, "I'm depressed, I know it, dearie." It just wants to be worn with a matching thick-wool cardigan, a calf-length kick-pleat skirt and t-strap shoes.

This hat, on the other hand, is all flirtiness. I mean, it hides the eyes, which on third thought, could make it a little dangerous crossing a street. Now I'm surprised what good shape this hat is in. A lit cigarette didn't do any damage back in the day? Now, here's another hat that didn't see much use. It's just too much fun not to have a few dings in it, especially to the feathers. No feline saw fit to play with this hat? Unbelievable. My guess that this hat was a gift to a schoolmarm-type from her husband, who wanted his wife to dress up a litle more and go out on the town BADLY. But she didn't acquiese. This hat was not her thing. At all. So she politely accepted the gift, and promptly dumped it...guess where. The marriage survived, barely. But no more hats, although schoolmarm did continue to knit and darn socks for said hubby.

The perfect Sunday hat. This one's in amazing shape too. No apparent moth holes; the flowers are crisp and pretty, just like they might have been plumped with steam yesterday. Actually, that might have happened. How does a hat this cute remain so darling? I refuse to believe that the owner didn't wear it and didn't go to church. I think this hat was worn to teas and special fundraisers, which didn't happen enough for the owner. But she kept it all wonderfully wrapped up in tissue paper in a certain hatbox. When the 1950s hit, this particular style went out of style and the owner didn't wear it anymore, and the hat box fell into the back of the closet. Later, it was unearthed and moved to the attic, where it sat untouched until the 1990s, when the owner passed away, and her daughter was cleaning up the house getting it ready for sale.

Ok. This hat is very Rockette. It's not the kind of hat you wear to show, drinks and dinner. No, it's a bit too kicky for that. And that orange plume! So curly, and provocative. My guess is this is another gift from abovementioned lovelorn husband to prim-and-proper wife. But again, she didn't bite. She couldn't bring herself to wear this hat....which looked so very Vaudeville in her mind. Gaudy! Unwomanly! She was so horrified by the hat, that she couldn't even bring herself to talk about it with her friends. What would they think? Charlie was spending all this money....to hide something he was doing. Something terribly wrong.  She didn't need her friends gossiping, they already yakked enough about the time Dobie Doberman destroyed the geranium bed. So the hat needed go quietly....and be with that other thing.

Gone With the Wind Hat, designed by Annie Modesitt, version 2.0

So I have embarked on the second version of this hat even though the first hat was a hard project and it's too big on me. I'm feeling stubborn, like I want to master this pattern. Like I need to know if the hat is the right size, maybe I'll know it's not for me? That's an odd thing to say, but it's kind of like trying on clothes. If it fits and it's the wrong color, you know it's a combination that was meant to be? That's kind of how I feel about this hat at this moment. I'm going to give it another chance before I kick it to the curb. And I really don't want to kick it anywhere. Yarn is too expensive and time is even more so, so why go to all the trouble to make something and not love it? I know it happens. So anyhow, I'm planning on really loving this baby way more than no. 1. And wearing it too. It's amazing how much I wear the things that fit me than the stuff's that's too small or too big. I'm certain that will be the case with this new hat.

Anyhow, I've cast on my swatch and I've off to the races....and an odd analogy now that I think about it with the Kentucky Derby around the corner. And this hat would be perfect to wear the Derby. Perhaps the only knitted hat in sight. I'd love to be that odd duck. So I've set my 'due' date as May 25. I want to have this hat ready to wear before summer breaks out.

The yarn I'm swatching is actually my contrast yarn....the star of my show is a grey yarn, not shown. Grey and navy. I can see that with a pair of navy linen pants and a red, white and blue sweater knitted. Of course.

That's all for now. I'm back to my top-secret project. I'll announce it, probably in a few weeks. I'm quite excited about it and I think you will be 2.

Midwesterners Represent at Judith M Millinery Competition

Between Judith M Millinery in Indiana and the growing crop of hat designers in Chicago, it appears the Midwest is gaining traction as a millinery mecca. It may,  in part, have something to with the loss of Manny's Millinery in New York. There's nowhere on the East Coast to buy hat-making supplies. It's all online now with Judith M as a premiere resource. Anyhow, Judith M had a contest recently, which I understand drew entries worldwide. I'm just showing you the runner-ups because they're mostly Midwesterners like myself. My favorites would be those by Lisa Farrell (lower left) and Susan Freese (lower right). Freese's design makes me think of sheet music, Farrell's has the feeling of movement with the little feathers (?) in the back. What do you think? Which ones do you like?