Hello, Winter

It’s a mess out there. Cancelling the trip to Spokane was a good call, much as I hated to do it. It snowed most of yesterday. Everything was beautiful, white, and fluffy. Temps warmed up after dinner, though, and the snow changed to rain. Now it’s all slushy and wet. The winds are kicking up. And tonight it is all going to freeze.

Some people in the valley are still without power, including homes just a ways down the road from us. I think they get power from a different substation.

My winter traveling supplies arrived yesterday.

In addition to the chains, the husband ordered me a padded mat to kneel on—so thoughtful—and some hazard lights to put on top of the car. I have to practice putting the chains on today. They go on the back wheels.

I-90 over Snoqualmie Pass was closed in both directions the other night due to drivers not understanding what mountain travel is like in bad weather. Some people have a very steep learning curve.

My neighbor, Theresa, brought me this beautiful wool scarf from Scotland last spring.

I got it out yesterday to wear with my winter coat. It is exactly the right size and shape and kept my neck nice and warm. I hate it when my neck is cold.

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One of the pieces of advice I give people in my serger classes is to look at clothing tags. To recreate a favorite top, check the fiber content on the tag for guidance on choosing a similar fabric. Not all knit fabrics behave the same way. The right choice can mean the difference between a successful project and one that doesn’t quite hit the mark.

In theory, that works; in practice, I am finding it difficult and frustrating. I have yet to see any 60/40 poly/cotton knit yardage for sale anywhere. That blend is everywhere in ready-to-wear T-shirts. I have a Liz Claiborne top that needs to be replaced. The tag indicates it is made of a beefy 93% rayon/7% spandex knit. Rayon/spandex knits are not hard to find. Rayon/spandex knits in a beefy weight are. The heaviest rayon/spandex I have been able to find is some 200 GSM from Stylish Fabrics. Two yards of that fabric arrived yesterday. I might make up the tunic pattern today to see how close I got. I also found a supplier—Stonemountain & Daughter Fabrics—that carries Eileen Fisher deadstock fabrics. (Eileen Fisher is one of the companies DD#2 knows well from working at Nordstrom.) Mood Fabrics carries deadstock Liz Claiborne suiting fabric but no knits.

I’m baffled, sometimes, by what suppliers think consumers want. They gather all this data on buying habits, but I wonder if anyone ever stops to ask the question, “Are consumers buying these goods because these are what they actually want, or because we aren’t giving them the option they would prefer?”

The husband says I am an outlier when it comes to consumer demographics. I want things that aren’t available, like a diesel station wagon with a manual transmission. Or clothing in colors other than muddy earth tones and sad pastels.

Whatever.

I stopped in at Joanns yesterday. McCalls’ patterns are on sale for $1.99 apiece this weekend, so I picked up the smaller size of the waterfall jacket pattern. When I got home, I traced the pattern, then compared my black one to it. After some consideration, I think I know how I can hack the pattern to make it more like my black one. That will will require making a muslin, however. The next time I am in town, I’ll see if the Walmart Mystery Fabric Rack has some suitable fabric.

I’ve also got the Patterns for Pirates Cocoon Jacket cut out of some sweater knit, also from the Walmart Mystery Fabric Rack. We’ll see how that fabric sews up. In terms of “sweater knit,” it is comparable to a sock yarn knit at a DK weight gauge, making it rather unstable. I suspect I’ll have to serge the seams using some kind of stabilizer and play around with the differential feed setting.