I am proud to know handcrafters who push the boundaries of what is safe and acceptable in modern society. Crafting is an art and has a meaning behind it, and sometimes that meaning is not always beautiful. The beauty comes from examining those meanings and emotions, and evolving.
If you haven’t had a chance to look at the guest post on Whipup by my lovely friend C, please do. And share your voice. The whole point is for us to talk about what language means to us.
I am proud of what she has started. I am proud to have a strong, thoughtful, and talented woman as a friend.
Edited to add: the guest post features NSFW language.
Holiday preparations
December 13, 2011
The cold has finally arrived in Philadelphia! It’s been a really mild late autumn, but now it feels like December. For this cold weather fan, this is greatly welcome.
I’m still so behind in photos to Flickr and posts here, but after the busy work months of October and November the holiday preparations immediately began. I also like the brief internet hiatus I was on, so I’m easing my way back in.
For the time being, Kasy and I are preparing the house for a lazy, food filled, warm and cozy holiday. Presents are being wrapped. Some knits that I worked on during shifts at Rosie’s Yarn Cellar this summer were slated as gifts and are being soaked and blocked. Food has been purchased and wool blankets are snuggled under at night.
I still have the annual tree to make and some baking to get done. Not to mention, a few gifts that require some time in front of my sewing machine. All in all, this winter is going to be excellent.
Let’s talk babies…
November 11, 2011
No not me. Sorry, Mom and Dad.
But everyone else I know! I am at the age where all my friends are pregnant. It’s crazy to turn around and learn about more and more mini-friends that are being created. So it gets my needles clicking. I’m not one who is interested in having my own children, much to my father and grandmother’s dismay**.
Now, as someone who likes to knit for others and likes to spread the love of wool, knitting for babies is kind of perfect. Not to mention..how stinkin’ cute are tiny baby knits?! Don’t get me wrong, the temptation is always there to put one on my cat. I’ve resisting every time…sadly.
So here’s the first in a parade of wee wooly knits for new humans entering into this crazy world.
The Offset Wraplan. So so cute! This was made for a, now born, baby in the Pacific Northwest. The first child to Kasy’s close friend Aaron, and wife Sharon. I worked on this in the woods in Northern NJ, while camping at Round Valley Reservoir, so I hope that it is full of good love-of-the-outdoors-and-camping juju for the baby! Since PNW can get cloudy and chilly, I thought that a bright sophisticated purple wool sweater would fit the bill.
The pattern is fab. Super easy, with adorable results. I knit this in a worsted weight, on size 6 needles, following the numbers for the 6-9mo size. The finished sweater is more of the 9-12 mo size. Perfect. Perfect.
And speaking of perfect…how great are these buttons?
As the baby’s dad, Aaron, is a boat-man (as Kasy is) and still owns a sailboat, these cute buttons were a fun choice.
Details:
Offset Wraplan
Size 6 needles
Plymouth Yarn Worsted Merino Superwash Solids (1.5 skeins)
Colorway 15
rav project page
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** I like to think that my parents and grandmother must think that I am the favorite child, if they want me to procreate so badly. How “middle child” is that logic?!
Apple picking by bicycle
September 25, 2011
Thank you for all the lovely comments on my crocheted blanket! I tried responding but kept having issues where my reply would reply on my blog and not to your emails. Oy, sometimes technology fails me. So, if you didn’t get an email reply I apologize!
I’m running around this morning, gathering up odds and ends to visit my parents for a couple of days in NY. Here are some lovely photos from a recent trip I took with a friend to go apple picking. We took the train, with our bikes, and rode from the station to the farm. Sadly, it seemed as though the rest of the city had picked the apples before us, but we made the best of it. Next picking trip, we’re going to grab a couple more of our friends and ride out to a different farm. Until then, these apples will have to do…
Are you doing any picking this fall?
After a storm, new life
August 29, 2011
First and foremost, thank you for the birthday wishes! 29 is turning out to be pretty great so far.
In other news, Hurricane Irene came through here and left Philly with a flooding river. Other than that, we got out unscathed. We bundled down in South Philly armed with delicious food, knitting, the humor of Louis C.K., and crosswords (for me).
On Sunday morning, Kasy and I rode up to the banks of the Schuylkill River to see the flooding. These were taken at 9:30am and the waters rose even higher later in the day. I know that we’re lucky to not have any damage to our persons or our home and my heart goes out to those who are still dealing with damage, major flooding, injury, and the sad loss of loved ones. While the storm may have seemed like hype to a lot of people (myself included, as I pshawed the warnings expecting nothing more than the rain we did receive) it really did reek havoc in many communities and we are lucky it did not cause more damage and sadness than it did.
As parts of the city are still recuperating, we continued on with our home renovations today. I had scheduled some debris haulers to come in and remove demolition waste from the tear down of the back room (where the kitchen used to be). We’re going to be building a pretty excellent back porch in its place. Our trusty haulers came out and upon removing the ply-wood board we had covering the crumbling Sheetrock pile, they discovered a newborn kitten snuggled into the pile of debris. Now, I’ve had animals in my life every since I was a wee one, but this is by far the scariest, tiniest, animal I’ve ever had to handle. I was a nervous wreck. Luckily, I know some great people who are excellent foster parents for the strays and surrenders in our city, and I called one of them immediately after putting the kitten in a box with towels. My friend awesomely handled finding someone to come and pick up the wee kitty, have it checked out at PAWS and passed on to a wonderful foster parent who is well versed in bottle-feeding. It was a stressful few hours, friends, as this tiny life was in my hands and I felt helpless and worried.
I’m hopeful that this little hurricane babe survives, even though it was found relatively abandoned with eyes and ears closed and cord still attached. It is a cutie and deserves a lovely cat life, not on the mean streets of stray-cat-ville South Philly. It was also an interesting reminder at how tiny life can be and how tenuous it can be, and how scary change and the world can seem.
summersummersummer and camping!
August 13, 2011
Not my favorite season by any means, but the upside of summer is camping. I love being out of the city and in the woods. Last weekend, we went to Round Valley Reservoir in New Jersey for the wilderness camping on a waterfront. Kasy and I had camped here a few years ago, and we remembered how absolutely gorgeous it was:
Last time we had ridden our bikes there, during a 4 day bike trip around NJ. This time, we asked our two friends if they wanted to join us and so we drove up in their Prius. The campgrounds are a healthy hilly hike in (3.5-7 miles) and we were ready for swimming when we got to our site!
So we went for a good swim and started a fire. The rainstorms predicted for the weekend began to roll in, but the temperature was perfect. We made delicious food, drank some adult beverages, talked, and laughed. The rain came and went all evening, with heavier rain overnight. No worries, though. The trip was still amazing. In the morning, with the area so quiet and drying off from the night before, we had coffee down at the water’s edge and made breakfast before packing up and hiking back out. For us, non-car drivers and non-car campers, it was wonderful to still be able to use human power to get to our campsite. It made the space just a little sweeter.
What are your favorite camping spots?
passing summer days
August 1, 2011
July is gone. In the blink of an eye. It was a very hot and very busy month here, hence the radio silence. Since I am still crawling out from under a pile o’lots of work for thedaytimejob, how about some visual treats of what July was like…
the first half of the month went like this…
in short, the first part of summer involved lots of outdoors, fireworks, drinks, swimming, cooking, a wedding, and some bowling.
Maryland Sheep & Wool 2011
May 14, 2011
Now that a week has passed, and I’ve somewhat caught up on the to-do list these past few days, I have a few quiet moments to share some photos from Maryland Sheep and Wool. Seems to be a theme, since Bridget just blogged about it too.
Last Saturday morning, we shepherded Philly knitters to and from MDSW on the annual bus ride from Rosie’s Yarn Cellar. It was early for most, but we had coffee and raffle prizes. The buses were abuzz with chatting and the clicking of needles.
Arriving at the fairgrounds mid-morning, the buses unleashed us on the festival. My goals this year were to not buy yarn. I followed that. It was so hard, as I was originally toying with the idea of getting some Bartlettyarns Sportweight for my first sweater design, set to commence (self-imposed start date) in January 2012. Instead, I was free to look, touch, and take photos of things that my heart loved. It was weirdly freeing to quiet those inner IMUSTHAVETHISEVENTHOUGHIWONTUSEITFORALONGTIME thoughts. Instead I bought a spearmint plant, a tomato plant (Paul Robeson tomato, if you are curious), some excellent handcast pewter buttons with big sailing ships on them (to be used on a sweater on my knitting priorities list, so I’ll show them when that is finished), and an adorable teeshirt for myself and for a friend’s wee one. The day was gorgeous, and I got to meet up with some wonderful internet (flickr/blog/twitter) friends throughout the day.
I’m only had half a cup of coffee this morning, so here are some pictures to show off the fun in the sun at MDSW.
Project Spectrum, and other things
May 6, 2011
Lolly has started up another round of Project Spectrum, and I’m so glad she did. I’ve enjoyed PS in the past but have never participated in the way that I want to. This time round, I hope to change all that.
May is the color RED, so I took the time a few days ago to look at the red items in my life right now. Once upon a time, when I was 8, red was my favorite color. Not sure why or why it changed, but red has not been a prominent color in my life since. I gravitate towards the blues, greens, grays, browns, oranges, yellows, and pinks. Even sometimes purple, if the purple is right. Red is a rare color for me, yet I’m currently working on 2 knitting projects that are bright red…and I’m enjoying it!
Since May is also the month of Macro May, these shots serve double duty. It’s interesting to see how much more I’m noticing the color red, now that the month is “dedicated” to it. That Lolly. She sneaks into your brain.
Even a photo of my dear friend Maura fits into the red category. Well, technically pink but with the spotlight it really showed up as a red on my camera. (This is from the circus show I mentioned last post. She is pretty amazing.)
Since I am still finding that my yarn, fabric, and fiber stashes are all overwhelmingly large, I thought that I would do a Project Spectrum themed giveaway this year. Each month, an offering or two will be put up to win, in the color being celebrated. Finding red yarn in my stash is proving difficult, but check back next post. I think I have a nice little something something that could be yours. I’ll be doing the standard random number generated winner from comments, but will detail all of that when I show you the red giveaway.
In the meantime, I need to tidy my house and bake some cookies. Headed to Maryland Sheep and Wool tomorrow morning, shepherding the Philly knitters on the Rosie’s Yarn Cellar annual bus trip. I hope to see many people there, this year, including Ms. Project Spectrum herself. If you see me at MDSW, don’t be shy! Say hi! I’d love to meet you! Oh, I cut my hair, so this is what I look like these days.
The first of many
May 1, 2011
Recently attended a bridal shower for a good friend and was not quite sure what to bring as an appropriate gift. Weddings are tough, gift-wise, for me. I do not have a lot of money nor do I want to merely pick something off of a list of pre-picked things. I’m even less interested in gifting something not on the pre-picked list that is bound to not be wanted or desired by the recipient. Basically, I like to think a lot about the giftee and what could be made lovingly and received lovingly.
I think I hit the nail on the head with this gift. Our friends are getting married this summer and have a great aesthetic in terms of fashion, home decor, and life. In addition, the bride-to-be is super crafty and appreciates all things well DIY’d.
I picked out some fun, bright cotton charm pack squares sitting in the stash and got to quilting a couple of potholders. Originally, this was to be a set of 3, but the third potholder was with fabrics that didn’t match these two as much…and I screwed up on the binding on that one so back into the WIP basket it went.
I had some cotton quilt batting sitting around and was unsure of how to use it, since it was crib dimensions and I am child-free. It was great to be able to cut off some of it to use here. I know I’ll be using the rest of that batting to make many more potholders. Some for us. Some for other people. They are just so fun! And a great quick gift.
I used a solid fabric for the back, as opposed to having a patchwork on both sides. Since I have never actually finished a quilt (please ignore those 4 quilt tops sitting in my office awaiting their completion), this was the first time I was able to sandwich the thing together, pin, chalk, and machine quilt. I was a bit nervous but followed the guidance on Oh Fransson! and was off! I pieced the tops of each so quick, since they are a simple 4 patch. They were received well and I am so pleased!
Happy May, everyone!
