Pies and Babushkas

I took my pies up to the church yesterday morning. Shoppers flooded in as soon as the doors opened, which was wonderful to see as the two previous days had been a bit slow. I oversaw a version of the Mennonite Game in which several of my friends who get mentioned regularly in the blog got to meet each other in person. Sarah was there, so I introduced her to Tera and her husband, because they got a flock of Leicester Longwool sheep last year and I thought the three of them would be able to talk about fleeces and handspinning. As it turns out, Tera also knows Sarah’s daughter-in-law, who is a physician at the hospital where Tera works as a pharmacist.

[It’s a Small World, After All . . . la la la]

Tera’s husband lamented that he has never been on the blog, so maybe I’ll go visit Tera some day and interview him about his flock of sheep.

Here is Susan, who was heading up activities for the kids. Each year, the sale highlights a different country. The focus of the sale this year was on Ukraine:

Susan makes a wonderful babushka.

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I had planned to drop off pies and come home, but I ended up spending an hour at the sale. It was almost lunchtime by the time I got back. The (supposedly) heavier rayon/spandex that I ordered arrived a few days ago and I wanted to see how it sewed up, so I put that together yesterday afternoon.

Eh.

I’ve come to the conclusion that categorizing fabric by weight—either grams per square meter or ounces per yard—is basically useless. The range is too narrow. This was supposed to be a “heavyweight” rayon/spandex. It’s not. It is soft and drapey, just like the other ones I’ve sewn with, and does not resemble the fabric in that Liz Claiborne tunic.

Whitney, at TomKat Stitchery, did a YouTube video the other day where she talked about some of her favorite fabric suppliers. She buys certain kinds of fabrics from certain suppliers, and I remembered that she said one supplier carried different weights of ponte. I am most familiar with the heavier ponte, like the Robert Kauffman ponte that I’ve been using for the Renee pants.

And then I had an epiphany. (It happens.) I’ve been looking for a heavyweight rayon/spandex jersey to recreate that Liz tunic. I need to be looking for a lightweight ponte, instead. I got out the top and looked at it. Yep, it’s a doubleknit fabric, not a jersey. I was going by the fiber content on the tag and forgetting to look at the structure of the fabric. Shame on me.

Seamwork has an excellent article explaining the differences between a jersey fabric—which has a knit side and a purl side—and doubleknits, which have knit stitches on both sides with the purl stitches in between the layers. Interlock and ponte are both versions of doubleknit fabric. Doubleknit got a bit of a bad reputation in the 1970s (those polyester leisure suits!), but the newer fabrics are much nicer.

I revised my search efforts to find a lightweight rayon/spandex doubleknit fabric. Part of the issue is also overlap in terminology. Should I search for ponte or interlock or doubleknit? Searching on lightweight ponte brought up a lot of hits, but most of the fabrics were some combination of polyester and rayon. I don’t like the polyester-containing pontes. They can be too hot. I finally found a lightweight ponte that is 93% rayon and 7% spandex and looks like it might fit the bill. I ordered two yards.

Shopping for fabric online is frustrating. I’d much rather be able to see and handle some of these fabrics in person. I have ordered swatches, but that is a shotgun method.

The TomKat Stitchery newsletter comes out Monday evening and Whitney promised to include her favorite online retailers for specific kinds of fabrics. I think that will be a very helpful reference.

And I need to get myself a copy of this book:

I picked up a copy of the previous edition at a thrift store last year and gave it to DD#2. Fabric information is very useful in her job. I have taken her on a tour of Joann Fabrics to look at different kinds of substrates in person. If I see this book on my travels, I’ll pick it up.

I’ve been watching the Pacific Northwest weather closely. It looks like it will be in the 50s and rainy while I am in Seattle, although I might run into some snow going over the passes. I’m getting my new snow tires put on this Tuesday and I’ll also have the chains if I need them. I did notice that the Snoqualmie Pass Twitter account admitted that snow tires on 4WD/AWD vehicles (the BMW is AWD) are an acceptable substitute for chains. I thought that was the case, which is why I never carried chains. I think that studded snow tires on an AWD vehicle with Montana plates should get me some kind of special dispensation.