A new arrival

Well, so far so good. I'm keeping up on my resolution to blog more. That doesn't mean that this site is getting any more traffic, but hey. It's a start.

The biggest news of the past week is that a new arrival has entered my home. No, no babies, but a new sewing machine! Woohoo! It's a Bernina Aurora 430 and I'm totally in love with it. I had forgotten how nice and smooth and pretty and sleek Bernina's were. But now? My memory is happily jogged. I've already made a few things on it--a bellydance choli, and a skirt I've been hacking at for ages on. That, at long last, is now down to the final bits--the gathering and sewing. And it's a lot of gathering. Photos to follow as they get taken!

New Year's and all that

Well, it's 2008, and that means, at least for most everyone, resolutions. I usually don't make them, but for some reason, this year they are showing up in abundance. Some way to improve every part of life. I want to get my thesis done (before the end of the year!), get to my WW goal weight, finish up projects I've had stashed away and make a dent in my scrapbook supplies...which kind of fits in with the projects stashed away. I also want to update this blog more. I've had it forever and never seem to do anything with it..I feel like I should either do it or not. So, I'm going to make an honest effort to do it.

Happy news: I'm finally about to get my sewing machine! I'm so excited. Since my machine was stolen, I've been handsewing what I need or borrowing machines as I need them. No more! I'm going to be the proud owner of a Bernina Aurora 440 QEE. It's a refurbished model, so I'm getting it at a deep discount (the previous owner traded up to an insanely expensive machine for Xmas)...the QEE part means Quilting Edition + Embroidery. It's got an embroidery unit, which will be fun to experiment with, and the quilting part just means that it has a lot of overhead and a nice big sewing platform. And lots of fun decorative stitches. I'll have a good time playing with this new toy. Visions of dresses and bellydancing clothes are dancing through my head right now.

Knitting news: I started a new project--Clapotis. I've seen hundreds of these things online, and there's probably hundreds more that are undocumented in the world. I was sold on it after seeing one in the flesh and trying it on. It's so elegant and makes use of such beautiful sock yarn that I just couldn't resist. Mine's in colinette jitterbug, colorway Gaugin (I love how they use artists names for their colorways!) Here's what it looks like so far:

More to come as I make progress. I hope to finish this soon, so I can wear it while it's still actually chilly outside. Given how long it's taken others, though, I have my doubts. I can still wear it into the spring, though. Once the AC is turned back on in school, I'm sure I'll be cold again!

Onward ho, back to the needles!