The one with the stripes, Orson Welles, Snoopy and Cookie Monster

Does anyone else remember this Orson Welles/Masson wine commercial?

For some reason that last line had been echoing around in my ears for a few weeks and I finally figured out why:  my head is a cask of wine.  Wait.  I mean, like a cask of fine wine, aging until just the right moment, some ideas in my mind have been fomenting until they were ready to come forth.

And they finally have!

First up, I made a striped #Sewaholic #Renfrew top.  Yay!  

I love how the perpendicular stripes on cuffs, neckband and waistband give it a vaguely retro air (without referring to any particular era, as far as I can figure - actually this "vaguely retro" thing may all be in my head).  This is the first truly successful top I’ve made.  I’m very pleased with it and even wore it to work this week (my newbie nod to #MeMadeMay) and managed to refrain from shouting things in meetings like “That’s a good point, and I MADE THIS TOP!”  Heroically, I also avoided pointing out the few kinks I need to work out the next time I make a top from this pattern.  Really, this stripey top may have magical powers of silence because I was uncharacteristically quiet about it.

More details, showing cuff and neckband.  

I love it but I will certainly not choose to sew up anything in tiny stripes again for a while.  That was a challenge that made my brain hurt.  I love the pattern though.  I should make myself a slew of Renfrews and Cocos and never buy another knit top again.  

This striped success was the jumping off point for another project I’m working on – a simpler pattern but also somehow a more complicated project.  I’m holding my breath and going slowly and hoping I have another Yay! to share in a week or so. Before I even approach a sewing machine with this other project, I wanted a success under my belt, something done well that would give me the confidence to go forward with the other, more intimidating project.

I like these neutral stripes with bright red pants. Do you see the tiny pink fingers in the lower right corner?  I was playing peekaboo with a maniacal 2yo.  He popped out right after I took this picture and shouted “Me did that!”  I love the talks-like-Cookie-Monster phase.  Also, I kind of feel like pointing out any clothes I make with the same proud credit line:  “Me did that!”  I could easily get addicted to that feeling!

*Title of this post is a nod to “Friends” - the finale aired 10 years ago this May.  Let’s not speak of just how old that makes me feel.  Somehow, it makes me feel older than the reference to Orson Welles - and that commercial apparently first aired in 1979!!!