Sew What?

It has been a long time since I posted and even longer since I quietly stopped blogging regularly. I could write an update of all that has happened in the intervening years but that would just bore you. Instead, I will fast forward to the last 18 months.

When I started this blog it was to highlight my knitting. Eventually it grew to include stories of my family and the city I love -- and the occasional squirrel. I am resurrecting the blog to once again share my hobbies and the journey that is the coming years.

Over the last 18 months all of us have had to adapt and change to accommodate the times. It hasn't always been easy but there are plenty of stories of the good that has come out of the not so good. One of the pleasant occurrences in my life was the return to an old past time. It appeared in the guise of protecting my family -- and persisted.

For the last 22 years I have been an active and avid knitter. Hundreds of socks have emerged from my needles. A score or more of sweaters, mostly for my son, and enough wraps and scarves and shawls to keep a small village warm. Alongside and complementing the knitting is the spinning -- not on a bike (though I do still ride) but on a spinning wheel. Miles and miles of yarn has been created while listening to a good book or seven while sitting on my balcony.

But before I knit regularly I dabbled in other needle crafts. Some bobbin lace here, a bit of cross stitch there and yards and yards of tatting. With the onset of pregnancy I dove into sewing. I made some decent maternity clothes, a few pieces of nursing attire and many cute infant and toddler clothes. Sewing, however, requires space to spread out and space is at a premium in a NYC apartment. So I turned to knitting. Small and portable it fits nicely into the apartment lifestyle. (Feel free to laugh here.)

Masks were the gateway for my return to sewing. My membership in mask making groups on social media led to sewing ads appearing in my feeds. One particular ad kept attracting my attention and down the rabbit hole I went.

During lockdown we were all working from home. Our daughter, who had moved out, commuted each day to our apartment and her old room, now my craft room. She and I shared an office -- a room that kept calling out to me to craft instead of working.

Our adjustment to working from home required that my sewing machine table become a desk where one of us worked while the other used my actual desk. For several months I would convert the sewing machine table back and forth from "desk" during the week to sewing table on the weekends so that I could churn out masks for those I love.

Now we are back in our respective offices and  my weekends and evenings are devoted to making. Dresses, tops, workout gear and whatever else catches my fancy. Just yesterday Mike wore a particularly silly pair of shorts that I made for him. So (sew), to get to the point, I will now be sharing my journey from mask maker to sewist here, with you gentle readers. Yes, this will be a brag book but I also intend to talk through my difficulties and how I solved them -- or didn't. You can take the teacher out of the classroom but not out of the person.

The name of the blog will remain the same because, why not? Besides, I do still knit, just not quire as prolifically.

So welcome or welcome back to Squid Knits and join me on my journey through life and crafts.