2019: The Final Quarter

in ,

I’m in about the same #2019MakeNine place as I was when I last posted, except I finished my Courage Shawl. The Kelly Anorak is still waiting for me, I still haven’t brought myself to make an FBA for the Farrow Dress, I haven’t even thought about the Lou Box Dress, and I still have no further ideas for which blazer/jacket I want to make, although I have decided that I want it to be with two-sided fabric. But all that non-progress on my official Make Nine doesn’t mean I didn’t make anything in the last few months!

So, what else did I make from September — December?

Other things that happened this quarter: I got a new job, I started teaching an online class, and I took my final online class for the post-Master’s Knowledge Management certificate I’ve been working on — so it’s safe to say this was a really busy semester for me, and my making-plans went a little sideways.

I also started having trouble with my wrist, so even though I started a Seven Wonders sweater in the most amazing Farmer’s Daughter Fibers tweed that I’m super pumped about, I had to put it aside for a while because it was too much stress on my wrist. I’m still not entirely sure I can pick it back up again regularly, but I think if I take it slow I’ll be okay. So, instead of knitting the last three or so months, I’ve been sewing more and starting another new hobby — cross stitch.

A circular embroidery hoop with a cross-stitch poinsettia pattern.

Junebug and Darlin makes amazing cross stitch kits, and I picked up three of them when she was up at Urban Craft Uprising in December. This poinsettia wreath was a perfect starter and an equally perfect gift for my mom, who loves poinsettias. I’m already working on my second — Be Bold.

A white woman wearing a very cozy quilted jacket.

This fabric is absolutely amazing, and even though it frayed like anything it was really fun to work with and I love how cozy my third Wiksten Haori is. This time I made the mid-length, and I lined it with a nice toffee colored tencel. I even have a bit left over that I think I can make a top out of!

A white woman wears a spruce-colored skirt with side pockets and a brown hand-knitted sweater.

This is the only picture of my Gypsum Skirt — I’ve been trying to find ‘good’ places to take outfit photos at work, and this spot usually has a reasonable amount of natural light, though you can see I still have some work to do on angles. I pushed this up my to-make list when I found this amazing spruce-colored silk noil. I’ve been layering it with leggings and sweaters (especially my hand-knit sweaters), and it’s been perfect for our Seattle winter so far. Plus, it has extra large pockets for yarn and snacks.

I’ve been thinking about my plans for 2020, and I’ll post about those soon.

Slow Fashion October: In Summary

in

This was my first time participating in (well, attempting) Slow Fashion October, and like I said earlier, it coincided nicely with my desire to actually take a look at what I wear and what I want to wear.

There were two great things I did for myself this month, fashion-wise. The first is that I packed more handmade clothes than I’ve ever packed and took them on a trip where I knew I would be forced to wear them. I brought my Tegna Sweater, my Farrow Dress, and my Dress No. 2 in Magic Tulips (all pictured below).

Usually I bring one item that I’ve made, and then I save it for a “special occasion”, which doesn’t always happen. This time, 3 out of the 5 outfits I brought were something I made myself and I felt a lot more intentional about planning them, which is something I haven’t done often with the clothes I wear.

The second thing I did was start a Wardrobe Airtable (based on this template and inspired by Karen Templer’s blog post How to make a visual closet inventory), cataloged almost all of my clothes this month, and started keeping track of what I wore every day (almost). I made myself a couple rules: track everything, even if it’s the pajamas you didn’t change out of all day, and don’t feel obligated to wear anything.

A grid view showing several items of clothing captioned by their names.

A few years ago I had a secret blog called “What the fuck did I wear today” because I was so terrible at remembering what I wore and was also anxious about somehow repeating my outfits in a way someone would notice. The house I was living in at the time had a great long mirror setup and it was easy to take a picture of myself every day before I left for work. When I moved to Seattle, the mirrors weren’t as long and the lighting was less good, and I stopped doing it so often. And then I started wearing leggings and t-shirts to the office anyway, so who needed to track that?! The people I work with already know what I look like — I don’t need to try to impress them.

But after a while, leggings and t-shirts get boring (though no less comfortable). And taking time to care about your (my) fashion isn’t about impressing anyone else — it’s about impressing yourself, and making choices that you (I) enjoy. I’ve been working on this for a while, figuring out for myself what is enough effort, what I enjoy wearing, and why I wear (and make) the clothes I do. For me, I don’t want it to be how I am perceived by the world. I want it to be more about how I feel in the clothes that I wear and whether I can (and want to) take pride in that.

Anyway, if you got all the way to the bottom of this: thank you, and tell me how you feel! Are you in the same boat as I am?

P.S. If you haven’t heard of 99 Percent Invisible and the new podcast series they just did on Articles of Interest, I highly recommend checking it out. I keep trying to pick a favorite episode, and I can’t!