The Wool Cardigan Make-Over

I have had this wool, button-down cardigan sweater for so long that I no longer remember where it came from. I don't really like cardigan sweaters, so Ula and I decided it must have been a gift from my mother sometime in the distant past.



This past week, I decided it was finally time to give it a make-over.

The sweater had been washed sometime in the past and was already partially felted, so I didn't worry about it unraveling, as I cut off part of the sleeves and cut down the bodice to turn it into a shrug.

For the length of the sleeves, I just laid one of my short sleeve T-shirts over the sweater and cut where the short sleeve ended. The length of the bodice was determined by where the pockets on the sweater were situated. The top edge of the patch pockets became my cutline.



I removed the buttons and sewed the button holes closed.



I then measured around one of the sleeves, doubled that amount and cut two pieces of lace that length. Doing first one piece of lace, than the other, I sewed the raw ends of a piece of lace together to form a circle, used large basting stitches to gather the lace, pinned it in place around the very edge of the sleeve, and sewed it in place. I did the same thing for the lace along the bottom edge of the shrug (except I did not make it into a circle before sewing it on).

I like using cotton lace, because I can throw some in with any other fabric I may be dying and have a far wider variety of colors than the fabric store offers. This black lace was dyed in two different batches over a year ago and was just sitting around waiting to be used.



The final touch was a decorative clasp.

This Week in Grammar: Verbs

The Clean Up Your Grammar Game

The player has to sort words into recycling bins marked "noun" or "verb"

http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/adventure/grammar1.htm#

A Pirate Projects Round-Up

It's time to prepare for International Talk Like a Pirate Day (Sept. 19)

Treasure Hunt:

http://missiekrissie.blogspot.com/2010/07/tueday-freebies-treasure-hunt-time.html

Pirate jumping jack to cut out and assemble:

http://www.edupics.com/craft-pirate-jumping-jack-k14270.html

Printable treasure chest:

http://www.freeprintable.com/view/print.html?id=3555

Pirate cupcake toppers:

http://www.fantasyjr.com/printable-pirate-party-decorations/pirate-cupcake-toppers/

Pirates vs. Ninjas tic tac toe game:

http://www.donteatthepaste.com/2009/08/pirates-vs-ninjas-tic-tac-toe.html


Maybe you should consider the Dread Pirate Roberts Financial seminar:

Week Two of Nouns

It's a good thing I found these videos to do the teaching for me, because thanks to the cold I caught from the kids at school last week, I am now loosing my voice.

More Plantings of Protest

This morning, I went out to the garden to see if I could locate any of the missing tools, but had no luck. During the football game I added three more signs to my protest out there.



U.F. did win the game, but the television commentators kept talking about how poorly they were playing. I like to think the lack of skill on the football field today was due to karma.







Here is the gift of trash we received:



Proof that the Morning Glories were still blooming on the bamboo hut when they tore it down:

I Planted a Little Protest

Tomorrow is the first home game of the year for the U.F. football team. The game starts at noon, so there will probably be tailgaters out there before I wake up in the morning. I wanted to make sure they had something to look at as they strolled through the gardens, so I did a little late night planting (thank you DH for letting me drag you out to the garden at night, because I'm scared to go alone).

I'm Really Upset Right Now!

For the past couple years we have rented a garden plot from the university. I came home this afternoon to find my garden mowed down. Yes, I had been neglecting it. The bugs and the heat were just too much for me this summer. It was full of tall, out of control weeds, so I wouldn't have minded them mowing it if I had had some advance notice, so I could transplant a few things into pots first. I had a fig tree and a grafted lemon-lime tree out there, as well as a very healthy passion flower vine. They also cut down my banana trees and DH's monstrously huge lemongrass plant.
Blaze cried when he saw that all that was left of our bamboo hut, tools, and lawn ornaments was this pile of trash (which includes trash from all the other gardens that were mowed down, as well.



A handful of gardens, and one unrented plot, were spared from the mower.

So, I'm through! I'm not going to garden here any longer. I put too much time and money into that garden to just have the university mow it down without any warning. The lack of consideration that shows is just astounding.