Christmas Cheer - Holiday Windows

Its Christmas time again and time to get creative with our decorating strategies.

This year try a new spin on the old window decorations. I've done it to the back door that already has the division lines. Here's what you need:

I've used vellum sheets, found in the scrapbooking section of your craft store, and a grosgrain ribbon for added interest. You can personalize your window with any motif you like, just print a graphic holiday image from online, trace, and cut. Repeat for five designs. To adhere your vellum sheets to the window, try double sided tape and try to hide in the corners. To connect the 5 squares add ribbon. I used a 1 inch wide ribbon, but using a wider ribbon will help to hide any adhesive that shows through the vellum.

This is a quick and fun way to dress up your windows and still let light shine through.

There is Hope out there

For a creative person, having to play the game hurts, really hurts. You hate having to go with the flow, keep your head down, and put in your time. But there is hope out there for us. Etsy's blog posted this great interview with Michelle of cicadastudio about just the topic. And for me it was the perfect timing.
I got in an accident with the curb this morning 20 min into my 2.5 hour commute into lovely Soho New York. So needless to say, I didn't make it to Soho. But I called into work and was able to arrange my work to be sent home to me, so instead of missing a whole day and leaving people hanging, I was about to get something done at least. It sucks to have to do it, but you have to just pick up the pieces and put your best foot forward even when you want to crawl under the covers again b/c you didn't go into work. I have to consistently motivate myself to keep moving forward.

There is Hope out there.

Pain for Charity Knitting

This year I'm doing charity knitting. Check with your LYS for groups that they know of for a project that fits your style. I took this scarf as a challenge. I've challenged myself to learn a new skill.

I'm a proud thrower. Not a picker. I was taught to throw, my mother threw, my grandmother threw. BUT.... after working at my LYS, I've realized I need to learn how to pick, especially for ribbing. The connection between your knit and purl stitches is often shorter than between your purl and knit stitches leaving a ladder between every rib. But with continental ribbing you have more control of the ladders. So... after about 45 min of swearing under my breath and watching YouTube videos over and over again, my hands hurt and I only have 4 rows done.

I'm not thrilled about the speed I'm going at. At least I'm learning.

BONUS! Charity Knitting is a great way to use of stash yarn. Organizations often want 100% acrylic for washability. So break out that yarn you only let your kids use.

BONUS DEUX! A great way to use more than one color for fear that your main color choice will not last, try a cable cast on and work the main portion of the scarf. When you feel that you're running down you can start to add stripes to one end. To balance out the stripes on the other end, undo your crochet cast on, pick up and repeat the stripe in the same way!

Happy Thanksgiving '09

Happy Turkey Weekend! I hope everyone ate a lot of stuffing and wore their protective hats to scare off hunters during small game hunting season!

Cheers!

New Furniture

Successful trip to Goodwill resulted in this wonderful dry sink now in our kitchen in place of an old folding table that became the place where everything without a place went. Now it all has a place. The top drawer has become our wonderful utility drawer. Below is for extra baking goods, tupperware, batteries, light bulbs, and extra kitty food. Its a great piece right now with tons of potential to add color... we just don't have a color scheme yet. You'd expect Paz to be interested in the extra kitty food inside and the open bag outside the chest... but no... shes just upset that there's something new in the house. How dare we.

Shower Curtain for the Ages

Saturday was productive. A new shower curtain now hangs in our small bathroom with a wonderful slanted ceiling. Its a great sheer from Sunbrella, woven by Sunbury. Gromits at the top will stop any rust from the metal shower hooks from getting on the nice white fabric instead of making buttonholes (in addition to the problems with the bottonholer on the machine which I still have yet to resolve). But now the outside world cannot see us shower, which is always a nice thing to keep private.

Scooter Scarf Pattern!

I finally got around to writing up the pattern for the Scooter Scarf!
My scooterist had been asking for a scarf that would be warm and extra long for wrapping around multiple times - 7 feet was asked of me, and with double knitting... I only made it 6 feet.

It's a simple pattern based on double knitting. The explanation of double knitting in the "Son of a Stitch and Bitch" book is really helpful.

Update!

NEW CAMERA = MORE PICTURES!!!!

I finally got around to photographing one of the favorite gloves of this winter!! They are Cafe Mits to allow for all your wonderfully scenester activites whilst you warm your hands.

I kind of fell in love with the icy gray and had to have the same color. Knit with Zara Merino DK.

And now for the inspiration - check out all that I found on Flickr during my great explorations of the Philadelphia on Sunday after the Art Star Craft Baazar, which was a great event btw.

Fabric Fingers

Wednesday April 29, 2009, 12:01:47pm
Dunkin Dounuts to survive


I have to start pondering my senior show. We're given a limited amount of space and should display our portfolio aesthetically, while also supporting the program. WHAT!? like all my friends are saying - i just want to put up a big middle finger, but on fabric of course. It's a good enough school, if you like change every semester and don't want to have the same program from start to finish, check it out, PhilaUniv.

The idea of putting my work up, the work that is important to me, all the 10"x10" handwoven samples, hell - it's just going to make a big quilt-like block by block installation of black mat board. How boring is that?!

I dunno - we'll see as i try to make some sense of my diverse portfolio that makes me look like a better designer, but is going to be hard to put together - b/c heaven forbid we are too kitchy and not professional enough.

i'm getting obsessed with the idea of blogging, need to do better and spend time on "creating my brand"!

Sometimes Silly things make you SMILE

I've always been the girl to dream of the home she would live in one day as opposed to her wedding. I have it all planned out - brown room, black & white room, and the color room. Now don't forget the animals, 5 dogs and throw in some cats. So when I came across Kitty Pi while learning my toe up sock pattern from Wendyknits.net my day became complete... and its only 4pm with lots of studying to do tonight... as least kitties in felted beds make me happy.

Baby Blanket for non-existing Baby

Who doesn't need more blankets and projects to knit. I suppose yarn sitting around is just asking to be knit, so I decided to knit, it just happens to be an easy baby blanket. Mind-less knitting can be good for the soul. Just a small problem of that there is no baby in my life, no niece, nephew, small cousin, or friend is pregnant. Just knitting a baby blanket to sit in a box for later use.

Toe Hats

Pink toe hats are the warmest toe hats that i've ever worn. They're the perfect combination of toe slippers and toe socks. Now i will warn they are difficult to walk in and to keep on your toes. But toes remain happy when they're wearing toe hats!

The purpose of this post is to recognize what happens when knitters have been in cars for too long.

Aside from that, knitting two socks at once on two circular needles is the only way this knitter likes to knit socks. I will never suffer the second sock syndrome again!! Check out this for a great new cast on i've learned. It says "No knot" but I did that wrong and still got a small pucker at one corner from my slip knot, but its still a very friendly cast on that looks GREAT!!!

Some Ducks just need a lil more

Sometimes the gears slow down and you just don't have enough and sometimes when you're searching for duckling images to start creating a logo for your blog you come across things that just make you smile and cringe at the same time. Am I really ok with the preservation of live animals in a mechanical fashion? is it art or is it cruel.... but then again - i'm just going to stop thinking and smile because i wish i had gears inside me that could be fixed too.

Set Pieces

Caroline Cunningham begins the descriptions of photographer Richard Barnes nest collection with a great thought provoking statement.
"We have always been hunters and gatherers. We invest things with meaning the moment we pick them up on the beach or select them from the wall of an elegant gallery. We curate our collections, from smooth sea glass to exquisite paintings, and arrange them carefully in our rooms. We go to museums to admire objects that have been selected and arranged by other who have determined, on our behalf, what is important and worthy of representation."
What makes our carefully curated collections of "stuff" good/bad/ugly/beautiful? I live in a small studio of chaos all the time. Like many, if I clean, I loose stuff. I can function in an organized chaos. The world works in that sort of way most of the time. Chaos is created through miscommunication. When one person decides to act upon their feeling of unease in a situation, chaos ensues.

Design Expo

The career fair for designers - it's speed dating, but with employers. Who in their right mind thought that 15 min was enough for a designer to explain their thought process for 3 different skill sets to a handful of employers that aren't really interested in you?
The ideal job does exist. It's just a combination of finding the company and convincing them that I am the right candidate for the job, and oh yeah - it'd be great if I didn't have to move...
Alas, it is time to step it up and find the right fit and fast!

Woven food for thought!

Knitting Update

Kiri Scarf

All things I've created over the past year. It was catch-up. I'm a little of a scarf addict, but love anything that will keep you warm.

Holding Hands and Feeding Ducks

Foliage Hat