clean slate, for now

I haven’t come back to this space for a little bit and am not sure how I will do so in the future. I will at some point, but at what capacity?

I’m kind of over talking about knitting. I’m focusing on myself and personal growth and turning thirty in August, and selling our house, and finding a boat to live on, and planning bike touring adventures, and learning how to mountain bike.

And I’m talking about it over here:

life by bike

It felt right to start a new clean slate for this new phase of life I feel like I’m moving into. Follow me over there, if you’re interested. This space will stay for awhile until I figure out how to find where it fits into my life again.

Examining meaning. Examining emotion. Allowing handcrafts to have a dialogue.

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.

It’s pretty out here

Hi there! Haven’t stepped into this space in a little while so I wanted to pop in and show you the gorgeous sunrise I watched in Phoenix, AZ this morning.

I’m out here at TNNA for Fairmount Fibers, Ltd. and am excited to be in the Southwest for the first time ever. I definitely want to come back, with dear Kasy, our mountain bikes, and a plan to camp out in the mountains. It’s really gorgeous.

Phoenix itself, is a weird little place. I’m totally an East Coaster, so all this brown and small shrubs? It’s weird.

In protest of SOPA

I’m sure you know about this already, but in case you don’t….

learn

“What we call the beginning is often the end…

…And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.”
(T.S. Eliot)

And here we are, at the end of another year with the promise of a new clean future tomorrow. I’m not interested in looking back on this year, as it was one of the same old same old years. Instead, I am looking towards 2012 and thinking of the empty unknown, excitement, adventure, and clarity that it holds.

This is the year we will be putting our house on the market. This is the year we will be leaving to go on an epic adventure of the unknown on our bicycles (plans still unmade). This is the year I turn 30 and will change it all in my life in order to catch happiness and solace in myself and my surroundings.

I hope you all have a lovely end to your 2011 and a promising beginning to your 2012.

Christmas Eve

In my family tradition, and Kasy’s, Christmas Eve is where it’s at. This is the real Christmas – lots of food, hanging out, talking, watching movies, opening presents, and laughing.

So, Happy Christmas (eve)!

I made a batch of these delicious cookies that were going around my flickr-friends and twitter-friends and have plans to bake some more later today, after my Christmas present to myself (2 hrs at the tattoo shop getting more color in some tattoos in progress). They are easy as can be, all from ingredients I had in the kitchen, and taste like a dream.

Hope you are having a peaceful and cozy day with those you love.

getting in the spirit

I’m not a big Christmas music person. I don’t wear red and green or holiday sweatshirts. I don’t fill the house with garlands of pine or popcorn or lights.

But I do make Christmas trees from recycling, and put presents under them.

I started making a temporary DIY “tree” three years ago to help celebrate the holidays. Kasy and I don’t really buy into the whole cut tree thing and we don’t have a backyard that has room to plant any potted trees, but we still wanted to get the house all festive. This year’s tree was made from a Long Trail beer box and has yarn garlands around it. We’ve started to put our presents (wrapped in recycling) under the tree as well and I’m making a mental list of all the cookies I want to bake this week.

Stockings have been hung and the house is tidy and warm. And the radio even said we might get flurries in the morning!!

Holiday preparations

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…

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?!

Happy Halloween!

Just popping in to wish you a great day of spooks and treats! Be back this week with a mighty recap on the wonderful month of October. I have so much to talk to you about.

Until then….BRAAAAAINNSSS…..