slow progress

Well, that title's a lie there. For those who know me, I'm usually sort of fast on the uptake. Lately, all progress around here has been glacial. I'm getting better, but the weather does persist on being warm (dang it!) so my lungs hurt (asthma) and I am just feeling under the weather. I've been prescribed some nice medicine that makes me feel loopy.

That said, sewing on a sewing machine always feel like such a speed demon (compared to spinning, knitting, weaving, or sewing by hand) that I decided to get mine out. I mean, I felt too loopy to drive, so why not operate a sewing machine? (logic was lost for a little while there, but don't worry, I haven't hurt myself or others.) I put the spinning wheels on the window seat out of the way and set to sewing...about 6 seams, maybe.

For a long time, I haven't wanted to look out my kitchen windows. (I took this scenic view from the third floor, but I pushed aside a curtain first!) That would be because I have an awful view of the back door and parking lot of this place. The back door is where all the super skinny ladies sneak out after their face is all red and scary looking from the "beauty treatments." I could say a lot about why I don't think we need to have this place in the neighborhood, but I'll skip it for now...and talk about curtains.

I've had several ideas about the kitchen curtains, which even included weaving fabric for curtains. That plan went very well until I went to finish the handwoven fabric. It unexpectedly felted together and shrunk. Uh OH. That fabric will now become textured pillows as soon as I cut it up and sew them with my sewing machine. (scissors+loopy meds+ handwoven fabric? Uh oh. I'm waiting on that, too.)

A few months ago, I happened upon the perfect colored gingham fabric at Artsjunktion. Have I mentioned how I love that place? It wasn't a large piece of fabric, but fine for making cafe curtains for two windows...not enough for enormous gathers, but good enough and it was free. What held me up? Getting out the sewing machine and finding the right size tension rods. I went to several stores this summer looking for tension rods. (curtain rods/pressure rods--I thought of every name I could think of) I could not find the smaller sizes of tension rods. I couldn't use the magnetic rods, because my old window casements are made of --wood. It was frustrating. So, since I was at home and not driving anyhow, I made the curtains and thought: If I sew it, they (the curtain rods) will come. (Like building a baseball diamond, only different, right?!)

My kind professor sat next to me on the sofa and surfed the web with me until he found the right sized tension rods. (At Home Depot, of course. Why didn't I look there?) So, after my curtains were all made and washed, he went by the hardware store on his way to work and brought home the final ingredient to making kitchen curtains.

You'll note that you can still see the sky and trees above the curtains. Good. You can also see the ground and grass below the curtains. (Good for monitoring dogs at play.) Also, when you look at the photos, it sort of looks like I've always had these totally bland looking matching curtains there. (Perfect.) So, I feel satisfied with this project. I won't even tell you how stupid and loopy I felt while discovering I had the casing on one side and the hemming on the other at first..but I fixed that. They look ok now, and that's all that matters.

My sock KAL over on Ravelry is winding down, I think. My Mary Jane socks from Fiber Gathering are nearly done. I've decided to extend the ribbing as far as I can to use up every last bit of this lovely hand-dyed yarn. I'm sure I'll being doing the picot edging with the tail end of things, but my ankles will be warmer, come winter.

That is the knitting/sewing/fiber art-y news around here. Please--feel free to admire my (incredibly basic) kitchen curtains. :)
Every time I go downstairs for a cup of tea, I am still smiling in a somewhat loopy way at them. Maybe it's the antihistamine that's making me do that?!