Easy Come, Easy Go

We have had quite the odd winter. It got cold, it stayed dry, and now, late in the season

it just can't decide if it wants to attempt winter or relinquish itself over to spring. The snow of last week, all 2.5 feet plus of it, had diminished to less than half of that by Friday night and by Sunday, bare muddy patches of ground were apparent everywhere but in the usual shady spots. Yesterday called for rain and snow, we got neither until snow showed up late last night. Nuisance snow, an early spring time specialty up in there parts. Makes a morning drive to town a white knuckle ride and by 3:00 p.m. you are wondering why you didn't go to town.

The weekend brought time for some sewing and warp making. I have one more bout to do on the board. I kept getting lured outside by our temps in the 50's and the bright sunshine. Just seemed perfect for dog walking and sitting on the porch steps listening to the birds and squirrels. And of course, watching snow melt!

I managed another pair of cargo pants.

Lots of lined or pleated pockets including back pockets, a snap flap of course and tons of top stitching. Two spools worth of top stitching. I can slam this pant pattern together in about 3 hours from cut to hem, but with the pocket making and decorative stitching I added a lot of time. It was worth it and Brother Ed did a fantabulous job serging.

I also did a test run through of a Connie Crawford pattern. Butterick 5261 and I have to say, I like it! It's a little big, but with some tweaking I can grade it down some.

I can wear tops like this all day long, cool in the summer because they don't cling, roomy enough in the winter to wear a turtleneck under and with the raglan sleeve a very good range of motion in the shoulder. Excellent for weaving or riding or just living in. This is closer to RTW construction (Ready to Wear), with it's lack of facings and such. A winner for a basic every day kind of blouse.

I gave myself a little splurge too last week. I have this pair of linen pants that I adore.

They are FLAX Design and are now long gone in the style and cut. Liesl, one of the gals that works at Fabric of Vision was able to make a pattern from them ( and not take them apart) so I can duplicate them, over and over again!

What a great service and very reasonably priced. The pattern itself is on a special non-oven type of paper sort of like Tyvek that will last forever, everything is marked clearly and comes in its own little pattern envelope.

How perfect!

This is what the "too sew" pile looks like for this week.

In farm news, nothing much to report. The local vets (and probably those up and down the west coast) are alerting everyone to the rabies outbreak in New Mexico.

Here it is in total from my vet.

There is a massive Rabies outbreak in New Mexico, near Carlsbad. Since Christmas, 22 skunks, 1 fox, and 1 dog have tested positive (rabies testing can only be done on deceased animals, as it requires examination of brain tissue). Thirty-two dogs, unstated numbers of livestock and at least one cat have been euthanized because they were exposed to infected animals and had no current rabies vaccination. Twelve people have had to receive post exposure treatment.
With the rapid transit of people and animals these days, inapparently infected animals could show up anywhere in the country any day. Please make sure all your animals - cats, dogs, ferrets, horses, goats - are vaccinated and up to date.
If you are considering travel to this area any time soon, you might want to reconsider. Leave your pets at home and stay away from the wildlife and local pets!!

So the take away message, get those critters vaccinated no matter where you live.

Parting shot: Stella, Stella, with your ball. Who's the fairest pup of all?