Today I accepted a whole bunch of social invitations. This is odd, since otherwise by day consisted of getting up early to work before church, going to church, and coming back and working some more.
That might be why I accepted all those invitations. That's not what Sundays are supposed to be like, even for people who enjoy their jobs.
It might also be that I have a birthday this week, so I feel as though I ought to be having some fun. That would be a good reason, too.
I ended up working pretty much all day yesterday, since some issues arose with websites. In the evening, though, I traced off the pattern pieces, cut the dress from the unpleasant fabric, and basted the front together to see if I could figure it out. While I seem to have done it backwards, it does appear to work, and I expect that it will fit and look reasonably good when finished, too. I guess I should slap the whole thing together real quick and resolve fitting issues, and then make a real one.
However, this is a pretty color, and it seems like a lot of work to get even this far with the dress and then quit and move on to another version of it.
This is where the whole concept of the wearable muslin comes in, and why I have so many garments made of weird fabrics. By the time I've actually made the wearable muslin, I often don't go ahead an make a real one at all.
In addition to working yesterday (and cleaning up the living room, only to have the other residents of the house mess it up again immediately), I did the grocery shopping for #1 daughter's and my Big Cooking Adventure today.
In light of that fun plan, I got up quit early this morning and finished up my work. I figure I can go to church and come home and get going on the cooking. This way, we'll have delicious, healthy food all week.
#2 daughter and I had lunch yesterday, our usual Friday custom but one which has been baffled by the snow recently. I teach on Friday mornings in the town where she lives, so we meet at Panera and deal with all the business issues that have arisen during the week. It's a good system.
I have to work some more today, and I also really have to do housework, but I am hoping also to spend some time sewing. I want to make this dress. It's a Burda pattern, so I have to trace the pattern, a huge enormous bother, and then there's all sorts of complex 3 dimensional stuff, so I must first make a muslin.
LaBella gave me a whole bunch of fabric a couple of years ago, and one piece was in one of my favorite colors, but polyester that truly feels like polyester. I figure I'll use that for the muslin. If it doesn't work out, I won't feel that I've spoiled good fabric, but if it does work out, I'll wear it in spite of the way it feels.
This whole dress-making idea actually came up because I am thinking of making a SWAP again this year. SWAP stands for Sewing With a Plan, and involves planning out a whole wardrobe according to various rules and sewing it up so that you have plenty to wear. 
I do need clothes, and I also have quite a lot of nice fabrics, so the idea of sewing some clothes seems quite reasonable. However, I'm also working 55-60 hours a week, so I haven't gotten much sewing done.
In fact, the only time I have ever made a complete by the rules SWAP was in 2007. Last year, I started a SWAP and actually completed a jacket, a 2 piece dress, a solid top, and two print tops that didn't fit into the SWAP at all, though I wear both of them often.
I 'm heading down the same path with this year's SWAP, I fear. Here I have a lovely print jersey which should be the two piece dress. It works well with the jacket I made earlier this month -- you can see the jacket fabric in the photo below. There's enough left of that fabric to make a straight skirt so I'd have a suit, and then there are the remaining fabrics from left to right: a lightweight gray wool for a skirt or pants, pale sage green linen for a blouse, burgundy linen and deep blue peachskin for 
simple woven tanks or shells, the aforementioned suit fabric, a nice burgundy jacquard linen to make a shirt to wear on its own or over the tops, and a twill for pants.
Having figured all this out, I needed only to choose a pattern for the two piece dress and get started.
The one I made last year looks sort of dumpy on me. Now I am an overweight middle aged woman, so things do look dumpy on me, but this seemed too dumpy, so I set off a on quest for a better choice, and ended up noticing the lovely dress at the top of the page. It's not two piece and it's not designed for knits, so I really have no business thinking about it when I should be working on a SWAP so I'll have clothes to wear, but it's very pretty, isn't it?
So I'll make my potentially-wearable muslin with it, probably over the next couple of months, and see what happens next, and this is roughly why I haven't finished a SWAP in all these years. Still, I do end up with a handful of wearable garments in the process of failing to make the SWAP, so I'm going to give it a shot.
Our horrible dog has been crying at night again. This combined with my husband's getting up at 4:00 am for work (and therefore my getting up at the same time) has resulted in a severe degree of sleep deprivation. But sometime in between bouts of swearing at the horrible dog, I had an odd dream.
I was living across the hall from a restaurant. The Computer Guy came to discuss some job or other, and left the door open. People from the restaurant then began to come over and sit down at the tables which fortunately appeared, complete with linens and centerpieces and dishes. I tried to suggest that they were in the wrong place, but for some reason couldn't get this point made. I ended up with 150 people eating their restaurant meals at my place, and -- this is the part that I found distressing in the dream -- using my bathroom. I woke up when I was about to have to wash all the dishes.
Clearly, this is a housekeeping dream. 
After working a mere six hours yesterday, bringing myself to 55 hours for the week, I did the grocery shopping, had some conversation with my husband and son, made Jerk Chicken Nachos, watched Eureka with #1 son, and knitted.
I made cowls for the women on my Christmas gift list this past holiday season, and then once I gave them away wanted one for myself, so I am making the Silk Fountain Hood. I stopped at cowl length when I made it for my mother and #1 daughter (#2 daughter, who doesn't like lace, got a more tailored style), but now in the snow I am going to make it long enough to pull up as a hood.
Today is church, a little more work for my Australians, and then I guess I had better clean my bathroom and kitchen in case I have another restaurant dream. I was quite embarrassed to think of people walking through my untidy bedroom, too, in that dream, so I may just be very domestic. On the other hand, I may do more knitting. Ideally I'll manage both. I'm enjoying Eureka, and also enjoying the book I'm reading, Dark Road to Darjeeling by Deanna Raybourn. It seems to be part of a series, so I'll have to go back and read the rest. It's an intelligently written romantic detective novel set in the Himalayas during the Raj (not sure whether the Raj properly belongs in time or in space, actually...).
It's still snowy, but the main roads are clear, I'm told. I haven't left my house since it started snowing last week.
I've been working what one of the guys I interviewed for the Successful Men series described as "half days" -- 12 hours a day.
However, I've also gotten some knitting done. Here you see the sleeves of the Diagonals in Flight cardigan. I'm doing them both at once on circular needles, which is a good thing, because I never seem to have the same stitch count. I'm counting every few rows and adjusting as I go, so they may not be perfect but they will be pretty close to matching.
I like the way the slant of the stitches shifts in the middle. I like the crunch texture of the cotton in this stitch, too. Sometimes I like the knitting and then don't like the garment, but I hope that isn't true in this case. 
This is repurposed yarn. I had knitted it all up into Oat Couture's Bijoux Blouse. The cotton spread out horribly at the bottom, the sleeves drooped in a schlumpy fashion, and I looked like a polar bear when wearing it. So, after a decent interval to allow me to forget all the hours I had put into it, I frogged the whole thing and began anew on this cardi.
I still have an hour to do for my Aussies, largely because I spent the time I should have spent on them yesterday in knitting, but I am also going to go to church. LaBella is picking me up; otherwise, I probably wouldn't go. It would be very easy for me just to become a hermit.
If you can be a hermit with a job and a family. Possibly this would interfere with the true hermetic life.
In any case, I'll be going to church and then writing for the Australians and grading paper, and if I have any time left at all, I'll get on with those sleeves.
We've been snowed in all week. My classes were canceled, though I have all of them online this term as well so I've still had lots of grading to do. Lots of writing, as well, and websites to work on.
#1 daughter and I spent last Sunday afternoon cooking for the freezer. This is what we made:
We should run out of food sometime this weekend. It worked perfectly. Too bad this Sunday we will still be snowed in and unable to repeat the excellent plan.
I have to work today, in fact. I've already worked about 56 hours this week, but I still have grading, my Australians, and a website that should have been finished yesterday.
I'm also planning to do some housework and at least work on my knitting -- sewing, too, if possible. I have a knit top cut out and ready to sew, and I'm on the sleeves of the Diagonals in Flight cardigan.
That's it on the left, being worn by both those ladies who seem to be having such a fun conversation. I'm making it from a peach cotton, and I'll take a picture of it for you when I get my camera back. 
I might have a bunch of yarn left when I finish. If so, I'm going to make the top shown below. Both patterns are from Lacy Little Knits.
One thing about working way too much is that your projects last a really long time. True, I knitted a sweater and some cowls for Christmas gifts, but apart from that I've been working on this cardigan since last summer. At this rate, the price of yarn becomes irrelevant. I could knit everything in alpaca and silk without a qualm if I only accomplish two sweaters a year.
Today was supposed to be the day of this Interfaith Event Janalisa and I were going to sing at. I think we'll be snowed in again instead.
There was to have been a reading of the Koran, chanting, some sort of Goddess Celebration, us singing a bunch of noncommital hymns and songs, stuff like that. At the rehearsal last week I ran into my brother's roomie from years back. She sings with the Unitarians now, and has finished writing a book called Worship Your Food, so I don't know quite where she is theologically, but it was great to see her.
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