Two Steps Forward

I was chatting with Clone the other day.  They are settling into their new home in the North West Territories, still figuring out living arrangements as their planned home has a cat and that is not working out well.  Breathing > Cat.  It was mild the day we were chatting and he was enjoying being able to go outside.  He is again, struggling to breathe outside when it's -20C (-4F), the cold air just takes his breath away.  I am not surprised.  I have issues with asthma when I'm around allergens, enough to understand the feeling.  Clone has lung damage from birth that contributes to his asthma.  It is an ongoing issue for him.

When Mr. Lina and I started snow shoeing, I found cold days were hard too, scarves weren't really covering me the way I needed them to.  I took inspiration from Colette's free cowl pattern, bought a half metre of polar fleece and made up some for Mr. Lina and I.  I say inspiration because I didn't print anything off, or make the pretty bow, ours are just black tubes and not nearly as wide as those pictures.  It's hard to see, but I am wearing it in this picture from last winter.

Mom made the mitts (including an idiot string).

I have found it easier to breathe with the cowl, so I offered to make some up for Clone and his wife.  It fogs up my glasses sometimes, but at least it stays in pace better than my scarves do.  So Saturday, I made up two cowls.  Neither are perfect but they will do.  It took a while to remember how I did it the first time.  I should have read the tutorial before winging it because there were seams I sewed inside out more than once.  Sigh, at least it's done, now to get it in the mail.

I was tired most of this weekend.  It was a late night Thursday getting ready, a late night Friday for the house concert, I didn't sleep all that well Friday night (too much late night food to blame I think).  Saturday  I went to bed a little earlier than I do mid week, I had to get up for the bowling tournament.  Silly me was still kind of out of it Sunday morning, I left my bowling shoes and balls at home.  Sigh.  Rental shoes and house balls for me.   I did enjoy seeing the proprietor, she's known me since I was oh... 7 I think.  So I had a good time, saw some people I haven't seen in a while, but I wasn't bowling well and not really awake. 

Sunday afternoon was going to be about the pants blocker.  I taped the pattern pieces together, found some fabric for muslin (pink suiting, polyester, I've made the top from Butterick 5147 from it, must have bought 3m of it) and went about cutting it out.  I really wanted this to be accurate so I took my time, marked out the sewing lines.  And then realized it was folded with the pretty side out so all the marks are not where I would be sewing.  Then I managed to sew the darts one facing in and one out, so it's like having two left sides.

At that point, I figured I needed a nap prior to trying again.  As much as it's a muslin and I don't have to worry about a lot of the seam finishings etc, screwing it up multiple times will not provide the kind of feedback needed on this project.  Between the missteps with the cowl and the pants, it was pretty clear I was not mentally up to sewing.  Two steps forward and one step back is not all that effective.

Now my throat is sore and I am still tired, I'm pretty sure I'm coming down with a cold.  Pout.