days #12, #13, and #14: 30 + 1 handknits...

without meaning to, i managed to wear three items i knitted almost exactly a year apart each. forcing yourself to wear - and appreciate - things that you made with your own two hands, especially things you frequently overlook, is a really great exercise in creativity and valuing your own work. being able to keep yourself warm via your hands, two needles, and a bunch of yarn is a pretty amazing thing, all in all.

mostly, though, it makes me want to get chickens. and a goat. and maybe a few sheep. and generally just support myself with my own two hands as much as possible. i know, i know, i'm a freaking hippy, but, hey, that's what handmade is all about.

day #12: February Lady Sweater by pamela wynn, completed in september 2008. this pattern was simply lovely, and monday was definitely a flannel shirt, wool sweater kind of day: such a very cold morning, followed by a very gray day.


this is also a "two-fer" - check out that handknitted, bobbly cowl, keeping my sad little neck warm.

day #13: oscar the grouch sweater (personal pattern), completed in september 2009. i brought this yarn on super sale, intending to make a toxic-sludge looking scarf of some sort. i tried and i tried, but it kept looking straight up fugg and not at all ugly-cute. so then it became a fuzzy little sweater instead! ah, the life of a skein of yarn.




i don't remember what prompted the belly laughs, but it was awesome, i'm sure.


day #14: the leftovers sweater (personal pattern), completed in october 2010. another simple sweater out of my own head, this one features dropped stitch, open ribbing around the waistline. i knitted this whole thing using leftover yarn from other projects - thus, the name. there's something terribly pleasing about not having to buy anything to make a sweater (although it also speaks to how much yarn i have in my stash - i.e. too much).





also, boombox likes leaps:

make a gif at gickr.com

days #10 and #11: 30 + 1 handknits project...

most of my friends, co-workers, and friendly acquaintances know my december secret: i freaking love christmas. i've watched home alone three times since thanksgiving, i have a nutcracker suite pandora station i tune to all day, every day, and it takes hours and some creative ornament hanging to decorate my tree simply because there are so darn many ornaments to hang.

i love christmas, and i am not ashamed to admit it.

with that in mind, maybe you can understand why this was the best weekend ever for me. friday night, i finished printing a few block prints i plan to give out as gifts this year. then chris and i went to a local theater company's rendition of a christmas carol, which was pretty awesome (mostly because scrooge was THE BEST... seriously, i think he was actually crying at a few points).

on saturday, i finished christmas knitting, worked on a sweater for myself (finally! i'm done with christmas knitting!), made crackle-top mint chocolate cookies, and went to our friends' annual ugly christmas sweater party. afterwards, we drank white russians and built our first fire since moving into the new house.

now is the point at which i digress from the 30 + 1 handknits project to puke a little christmas all over the blog: our first fire in the new house.


boombox poses with chris' white elephant gift from the ugly christmas sweater party: six pounds of chef boyardee. do you see a resemblance at all?



we really are this creepy. and we really do dress like this on any given saturday evening.


okay, okay, on to the actual 30 + 1 project. day #10: Nob Hill by Ashley Adams Moncrief, completed june 2008. i actually pretty severely shrunk this at one point, but i like it even more now (it was sort of lumpy, large, and misshapen before the accidental shrinking). i almost talked myself into thinking i could wear this to the ugly christmas sweater party and be good. what, it has red and green in it! in hindsight, i'm glad i bit the bullet and wore the one that instead looks like christmas puked all over it.





you can hardly tell it didn't get above 29 degrees yesterday, can you? hooray, sunshine!


day #11: Tuck by Norah Gaughan, completed in june 2009. this sweater reminds me of ribs of the bone variety - like a knitted skeleton.




such a weird little number, no?


and now that i've collected kindling from the backyard, we can have fire #2 tonight!

days #8 and #9: 30 + 1 handknits...

i feel like i'm getting in a groove with this whole endeavor at this point (that is, the one where i try to incorporate a different handknitted item into my outfits every day for the month of december). strapless dress in december? i can do that! layering summer knits over (admittedly machine-made, scored at some box store) lightweight cardigans so as not to freeze, yet still get some play out of them? gotcha.

since it's friday night and i've got important things to do (i.e. cuddle with my boyfriend and watch "the trouble with tribbles" episode of star trek), let's keep this brief, shall we?

day #8: Ariosa Cropped Cardi by Susan Mills, completed april 2011. if you're a knitter, you understand my dilemma behind this little vest. i saw the yarn, petted it, loved the color, and thought it'd be nice to make something out of cotton for once. so i bought it. and then... i had no idea what type of garment it wanted to be. this yarn was three different things before i finally settled on this incarnation - and i think i finally found a match.





day #9: apple cardigan (personal pattern), completed in february 2009. look! it even has a little bustle thing going on at the back! i love this little cardigan - and, somehow, rarely wear it. we just got back from a local theater rendition of "a christmas carol." ebenezer was pretty fantastic, and now it's late and i'm feeling sassy and awake.





night night, all!


but first: boombox t. cat gets his day in the sun with block printed christmas cards - complete with glittered bow ties. MEOWY CHRISTMAS, JERKS!

days #5, #6, and #7: 30 + 1 handknits...

the 30 + 1 handknits project is a week old today! happy birthday, little project, you! a week in, and i have only two sage pieces of wisdom:

• i apparently have way too many articles of clothing in my closet as a whole. this isn't really a revelation, but it has certainly been underscored for me with this here project. i find myself pulling out handknitted items i haven't worn in over a year - and, presumably, handmade clothing should get the MOST play amidst all the random made-in-china pieces o' junk, right?
• i started working from home a few months ago, and even though i had the best of intentions at first, i've begun defaulting to jeans and cozy slippers. all day, every day. and that's just sad. it's been kind of nice forcing myself to take an extra minute or two to think about something fun and creative and color-related each morning before the craziness of the day takes over. i also recognize it's a total luxury to even have the alone time and peacefulness to have those few minutes each morning. i forget that sometimes in the busy-ness of life and all the projects i have swirling in my head all the time.

anyway, enough with that. bring on the handknits!

day #5: Beatnik by Norah Gaughan, completed in december 2010. an old friend from high school found a ton of this lovely avocado yarn at a thrift store in chicago for, like, 50 cents a skein. he bought it and sent it (and a ton of other colors) on down to me. so sweet of him, so i had to make something fantastic. i can't praise this pattern enough - it just makes such a lovely little vintage-y sweater.


i also got my first christmas present of the year in the mail: BACKYARD POULTRY magazine! iknowright?!


day #6: Pegboard Lace Tunic by Caroline Bautista, completed april 2009. this is one of those things i never ever ever wear. why? no idea, because now that i've worn it again, i kind of love it.




day #7: Frond by Norah Gaughan, completed in march 2009. two norah gaughan designs in three days! gotta love it. 




for good measure, we've got a couple christmas projects complete. here's a cross-filled cross stitch room sign for my nephew...


and a pouf pillow for the nephew!

days #3 and #4: 30 + 1 handknits...

ah, weekend. you may be my most favorite of all. saturday was full of christmas and finishing shopping and block printing and buying frames and framing and hanging said block prints and OMG THE LAST EPISODE OF THE WIRE. and egg nog ice cream. i made mashed potatoes for dinner and fell asleep watching the second in the die hard series. a truly great day, right?

the day #3 sweater du jour: Forecast by Stefanie Japel, knitted in july 2009. i don't know what i was thinking, knitting a wool, bobbly, cozy cardigan in my non-air conditioned little apartment in bloomington, in, in the middle of the summer. however, at this point i'm just glad i was thinking whatever it was i was thinking back then because this here sweater is wonderful at getting you through the midwestern winter.

well, i do distinctly remember thinking one thing: that i never wanted to knit another bobble again.


due to the nature of the day (running errands/getting covered in ink at the print studio), jeans were a necessity.





today, i scrubbed the heck out of the house. we're talking counters, sinks, bathtub, toilet, walls, bookshelves, carpet... the works. i am very, very bad at cleaning on anything remotely close to what one could call a schedule. then i find that i live in a pigsty and must spend half the day scrubbing the heck out of the house (see above). at least i had my nutcracker suite pandora station to keep me company. i am also eternally grateful that my boyfriend a) likes to vacuum and b) seems to not mind the christmas music. now it's time for football and knitting and pizza. again... way to weekend it up a notch, us.

the day #4 sweater is a pattern of my own, knitted in march 2010: a candy striped button neck made using three or four different yarns leftover from other patterns. with the rain and cold and overall grayness outside, i thought dressing like a walking valentine was warranted. this is still one of my favorite sweaters, too - i remember being so amazed when i finished it and it actually FIT.

day #2: 30 + 1 handknits...

today was filled with work then stringing handmade felted wool balls into a giant christmas-y garland then framing silly american gothic-esque photos for ambiance around the house then art openings with gorgeous woodcuts and pill-covered body casts and pieces entitled such things as "rich bitch" then beer and burgers at some upscale arty diner type place with 15 beers on tap. then home sweet home. MAAAAGIC.

and thus concludes day #2 of the 30 + 1 handknits project, featuring the Betty Minisweater by Hilary Smith Callis, completed in may 2011...


and a polyester button-up i got in college with an embroidered pink rooster...


and a lovely, loving LP plug thingy. what are those things called, anyway?



a happy friday to one and all.

day #1: 30 + 1 handknits = a celebration of sweater weather and style...

recently, i was staring at all the handknits in my big red wardrobe, idly wondering things like:

• when was the last time i wore that weird pumpkin-colored cotton vest with the folded over pieces that look like ribs?
• would that shrug i accidentally shrunk still work as something you would, you know... WEAR? like, in public?
• when will i make the time to replace those hideous, bright, plastic buttons on that otherwise uber-chic little moss green cardigan? you know, the one i never wear because it has BRIGHT, HIDEOUS, PLASTIC BUTTONS.

and the final thought: i wonder if i could wear nothing but my own handknits, a different one every day, for an entire month?  thus, 30 + 1 handknits was born.

THE RULES: this month, i will incorporate a different handknit item each day into my outfits. i'll post a picture or two (or five), along with whatever information i still have about the pattern.

i'm looking at this project as a celebration of yarn and needles, of color, of wool and cotton and linen, of the magic of how loop after loop of yarn can make something that keeps you warm... or cool... but hopefully always stylish.

plus, it's going to be just plain fun - for me, at the very least. come along for the ride!

without further ado, day #1: Rosamund's Cardigan by Andrea Pomerantz, completed in october 2009. take heed - that bear of a piece of furniture behind me is the aforementioned big red wardrobe that houses the handknits. way to go, big red wardrobe.


the cat is boombox, who will likely make many a cameo.


the photographer is chris, who is fantastic. in lots of ways.


there you have outfit #1! and so it begins.

living simply...

• for a rainy day: some interesting looking articles on living more simply.

• speaking of simple, check out this fantastic little knitted toy: squarey. i'm thinking maybe one of my relatives needs this little guy.

• and, not so simply, charts and graphs and all sorts of pretty data on why people are occupying all sorts of cities these days.

• so what are the simple things? street art that makes your heart swell: BLU and david ellis collab.

COMBO a collaborative animation by Blu and David Ellis (2 times loop) from blu on Vimeo.

• feet and bodies that move in ways that don't make sense and are the most beautiful: pumped up kicks/dubstep.

i will be with you when you lose your breath...

i spent the weekend on the jersey shore, of all places, wandering the beach, eating lots of good food, scooping up multiple scoops of ice cream, drinking coffee, chatting with coffee shop owners/patrons/their dogs, and galavanting up and down a massive wooden boardwalk under looming, windy, out-of-season beach houses.

why, you ask? well, duh - jeff mangum of neutral milk hotel was playing a solo show for the first time in ages. at the show, someone yelled out at one point, "you saved my life." i think that sums up how people feel about neutral milk hotel and this one damaged dude.

"oh, comely," from 1997: oh comely, i will be with you when you lose your breath chasing the only meaningful memory you thought you had left.


and he really did blow us away. i smiled a lot and sang along almost the whole time. it was better than i could have hoped. he played "little birds," which was painfully beautiful and which he had played live only once before, years and years ago. give it a listen: http://walkingwallofwords.com/previously-unreleased-track.html.

and then there's "jersey shore gone wilde." i have no idea how this has escaped my notice until now. drop it like it's hot, girl:

 

i'll probably just have to listen to some jeff mangum live and solo for a while. there really aren't any recordings surfacing just yet from this recent show, but a girl can dream. i might have to look into the all tomorrow's parties festival he is curating in england in december... wouldn't that be a dream?



i was so glad to get home, though, to my cats and my chris. :) of course, this morning i woke up with a sore throat. but oh well. the weekend was fantastic, the leaves are in full fall color, and things are good.

a taste of lotus fest, anyone?

bloomington's lotus world music fest is sort of a big deal - at least in bloomington. i don't know if anyone else in the world has ever heard of it... but i suspect some have. this is a "so i don't forget to check into this band more" type of post. from sweden, i give you, MOVITS!