Dress inspiration turned up to 11!

If anyone is looking for a gift for me... for any reason... say Valentine's Day?

100 Unforgettable Dresses

This is a gorgeous book!!!  I found it on Pantone's Color and Design Blog.  There are so many amazing dress moments... fantastic shapes, silhouettes, color, and detailing.  I do love books.

Knitting Stash

I keep my knitting stash in this lovely old trunk owned by my Great-Aunt Elsie after whom we named our daughter.  Aunt Elsie was an amazing woman who was into all sorts of crafts and herb drying and fun.  She would brush their dog Sardis and knit things out of his hair.  I have very fond memories of her.  Her name is still on the trunk.

I was desperate to find a storage place for my ever expanding yarn stash which had two exponential leaps in the past couple of years:

1. My father found a trove of wool yarn and hand weaving yarn at a yard sale for $7.00... and of course you can't say "No" to a deal like that... so it was added (not all of that haul is in the trunk by the way)
2. Last spring I went to an Estate Sale of a MAJOR knitter, world traveller, and Powell's Books employee and found unbelievable deals on mohair, lambswool, and sock weight wools.  So into the trunk those yarns went... the books are on the bookshelf.

The trunk being rather old and closed up for many decades by the time I received it wasn't smelling too fresh.  This past summer, determined not to let my lavender go to waste, I sewed up two really big sachets.  You can see one of them in the picture in the green and black check.  The trunk smells fantastic!  Especially when you first open it and that first blast of lavender escapes.  No moldy, ancient smells anymore.

I did some yarn sorting and organizing today and put some yarns together in plastic bags and left others in their piles.  I don't think anything is going to turn itself into a complete knot in here.  It did make me remember what I had.  I unravelled some UFO's that weren't going to ever get finished.  In some cases I had forgotten what I had even started.

More knitting!!

Woo hoo!  Double post today.  I am taking dance classes twice a week and eating more fruit... maybe that's the secret to productivity.  Anyway... here is a project in progress.  I usually don't post many knitting projects partway done, because they sometimes stay that way for many years.  But this one is a fast project.  The red had in the picture belongs to Miss E's grandfather.  She brought it home and announced that she wants one just like it, but with a pompom on top.  I rummage through my stash and found this beige yarn that is almost the same size as the red yarn.  You can read more about the yarn specifics here.

I knit a little bit every night, and since I'm using size 8 circular needles... it's a fast one.  Hopefully it won't become a UFO... I have enough of those that need to be frogged and repurposed.

Christmas Knitting

I am finally getting around to posting some of my Christmas projects.  Here are the socks that I knitted for the kids.  The dark grey colorway is Blackjack and the orange colorway is Tequila Sunrise.... I had to laugh at that once the socks were underway.

The dynamic duo had been wanting new socks for awhile. This was my first time knitting with a self-striping yarn.  I thought that the color increments were totally random, but as I was working on the second knee sock (Blackjack), I realized that I could have made the stripes line up on the pair if I had started knitting farther into the skein.  Oh well... I think the end result still looks random enough that most people won't notice.

Besides kids move fast, so you can hardly see the stripe repeat let alone that these are hand knit socks.

It is fun to pull them past your toes and make "floppy feet"..... just like Don Martin does in Mad Magazine of course.

Portland in the Winter

Miss E and I went down to the Pearl before Christmas to do a little last minute shopping.  I do like the way the old buildings look down there.

I need to spend more time out and about in the city.

Christmas Packaging

We finally felt good enough to decorate the house a week ago.  I haven't taken any pictures yet, but it is all sparkly and shiny!

Due to sickness, package wrapping was put off until the last minute... meaning that there was not great thought put into the overall packaging design which I really enjoy.  There are so many good ideas in the blog-sphere and in the online magazines this season too.

I started out with this Tiffany blue wrapping paper with white snowflakes (Target after-Christmas purchase from 2 years ago... I bought every roll I could find in the store!) and then found this great cotton string with silver in it.  The string was a yard sale purchase from I-don't-remember-when, and I found it languishing in a box in storage.  It looks very mid-century with the paper.  I brought out my box of tags and put blank manila ones on the packages.  (Everyone should have a box of these tags... so versatile!)  The packages looked good, but looked a little pale.

So I added a red stamp of a snowflake to the tags.... and it works!  You can see the spool of string in the background.  It might actually be yarn for weaving.  I have another spool which is much, much larger.  I think I will be using this for the next decade or so.

I do like red and blue together.

I have been in hyper-productive mode for the past three days sewing and knitting up a storm.  Unfortunately if I post my projects here, then everyone will see what they are getting for Christmas, so I will post after Christmas.  Another unfortunate thing... I didn't take pictures of anything before wrapping.  As soon as it was out from under the machine, into the wrapping paper it went.  I will try to be diligent on Christmas and snap some pictures.

Merry Christmas!

Bird in the Hand

Here is a little marzipan treat we made several weeks ago.  Miss E was having a friend over for a sleepover, and the friend brought a log of marzipan.  Many, many little objects and critters were made and eaten.  Then I was challenged to make eggs and then a bird!  This was the result... which, of course, has been eaten.

I have been Christmas-ing and sewing away in preparation for the big day... but have also been sick since Thanksgiving... hence the no-activity-on-the-blog.  I have been taking some pictures and will try to get some posts out soon.

Steampunk update

... so now it is raining heavily... Portland rain.... AND the wind is blowing, so there will be no fancy outdoor pictures of my Steampunk outfit until May.  I have this picture that my brother-in-law snapped and tweaked.

You can see the corset and skirt... and my fabulous vintage kid leather gloves in a TAN!!!  How unusual is that?!?!  Note the side arm that the spouse is carrying.  He made that himself.  The sepia picture doesn't show all the brass detailing.  At some point I will get around to taking some color pictures.

Here are some detail shots from the wedding:

This is the bride!  How gorgeous is she in all blue!  Even her hair!

This was taken shortly after we all danced the Timewarp.  It was a most fun wedding.