How not to get hand cramps

...take a break from sewing for 20 minutes and do something else. Though I want to finish the orange ombre kosode today. Then I need to get the lining into the green uchikake and get that finished. I refuse to be one of those people who is sewing the night before the event and still needs half a dozen safety pins to make it work.  Being sick all week put a damper on my motivation, but I need to get a move on.

There is no way to have bacon and eggs for one without making the entire package of bacon. Well, there is, but it involves hacking the frozen bacon in quarters, putting it in a zip lock and then throwing it out six months later because it got freezer burned and you forgot it was in there behind the chicken pot pie dated "Best By Nov 2006.  Instead I cook it all and what's left goes in a zip lock in the fridge and will get crumbled up and mixed into egg salad or something. BTW, Farmer John maple bacon has a nice sweetness to it, even on the few bits that got a bit over cooked. 

LogoTV is running a  "Buffy" marathon on cable. The Turbo Snake ads are more revolting than the maggot man,  and the baby reading program is a little creepy. And there goes RuPaul....  OK, clearly this is not a cable channel I frequent terribly often. I will say that "Buffy" reruns are good to sew to: the dialogue keeps coming when you need your eyes on your fingers.

Break's over. Back to work.

That's SIR Patrick Stewart

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/01/royal-honors-for-patrick-stewart-and-marian-mcpartland/

Jazz great Marian McPartland was among those granted an OBE this year as well.

Sayagata kosode is done

 
For those unfamiliar with the term, sayagata refers to the pattern in the weave. Love the orange, love it. I do. The gradation is dark to light to white to light to dark from shoulder to hem. The dye wicked somewhat unevenly while it was hung to dry, but it's not a huge disaster, particularly as I'm planning to wear this under the green uchikake with the fans. The silk was an extremely lucky find on eBay being an unusual 16" wide. Most kimono bolts run about 14" these days.

The sewing is done on this, and I just put in some work on the lining for the uchikake, which is pieced because silk is a natural insulator and I do not care to cook in my own juices. Portions of the lining around the upper body which will not be visible are done in white cotton, while the overlap panels and the bottoms of the body panels to the hem are in red habotai.