knit with me

Consider yourself formally invited. Ephemera Stationery Studio, the lovely shop where I teach knitting classes, is offering something new! A Saturday Knitting Workshop just for beginners. (Yes, you ... even if you've never knit a stitch in your life.)

Come hang out with me in the lovely East Village. We will talk and laugh and knit the day away!

Beginning Knitting Workshop

* Saturday, February 12th

* 10 AM - 12 PM, a break for lunch, and then from 1 PM - 3 PM

* $45

This one will go fast. Contact Arin and Karen at Ephemera to register.

shopping for vintage dresses (with help from long distance friends on Twitter}

Last Saturday night, I found myself looking at vintage scooter dresses on Etsy. I wanted to find one dress, and of course I found twenty. Which was quite a predicament. So I enlisted the help of a few girls I know (with vintage dress buying expertise) who could definitely help me out. On Twitter! Instant shopping advice. This was awesome. (Our conversation went something like this.)

 

Thanks to all of my friends' help, I ended up going with this tangerine dress with a geometric pieced skirt. I think it was calling out to my inner graphic design nerd. I just got it in the mail yesterday and haven't had time to figure out the proper accessories, so excuse the odd belt and shoes. And the top is a little big for me but I know a good seamstress and I think it can be fixed. Huge thanks to all my awesome Twitter girls who helped me out in a time of need! {Magics.}

the fairest of them all

Last week, I spotted this 1970s knitting pattern from New Zealand on Renegade Handmade's blog and couldn't believe my eyes. I have never loved two fair isle sweater patterns more ... even the colors are absolute perfection. It was just too cool to be true. So I immediately jumped over to this Etsy shop where it was for sale, sure that it had been snagged by some lucky person, but it was still there!

Except the shop owner was on vacation, so I couldn't actually buy it. So I signed up for the email notification thing so I'd know when the seller returned. And when I got my email a couple of days ago, I quickly jumped over to check again to see if this pattern was still in the shop and it was missing. And I felt so sad! Like it had just slipped through my fingers. So I sent a desperate email to the shop owner and asked if there was any way I could get a photocopy or scanned image of this pattern, in case she hadn't shipped it off to the lucky buyer yet. And then she emailed me back to tell me that the listing had expired while she was on vacation and that she still had the pattern! So I bought it and it's on it's way and I'm so excited! It's mine!

* I know, that was a really long, boring story. But I feel like such a lucky duck. I really really do!

I also scored a bunch of issues of Mon Tricot Knit & Crochet from the 60s and 70s when one of our local yarn shops closes a couple of summers ago. I look through these all of the time, and someday I'll definitely have to show you some of the photos. There are some pretty rad projects inside these pages! (Do you ever knit or crochet from vintage patterns?)

black and gold forever

Okay, so I'm just going to go ahead and call this vintage week. This is my last and most favorite discovery in my box of old clothes.

A mini old-school Iowa Hawkeye jacket!

My dad has always been a pretty huge Hawks fan (and then I had to run off to Iowa State.) But both me and my brother sported these awesome jackets for a few years in the 80s.

This one still has my name neatly printed on the tag. And it's going to fit Lotus for a couple of years (if she feels like wearing it.) I think she'd really turn heads at preschool.  ;)

nothing but frills

Yesterday, Lotus played dress-up with tiny t-shirts that I used to wear when I was little. And today, it was my old dresses.

 This pink one was hand-sewn by my mom, I think.

And here are the rest of my baby/little girl dresses! Some are too tiny for Lotus to wear now but they're all pretty fun to look at and everything is in great shape.

So fancy! (So funny.)

bloglovin'

Do you read a ton of blogs? Tons and tons of blogs? I was one of those people who swore up and down that Google Reader was the only way to go when it comes to keeping up with your favorite stuff on the interwebs. And it was good ... until I started getting overwhelmed by 400 unread items every. single. day. It was taking too long to find the stuff I wanted to read. I needed to come up for air.

So, now I'm a Bloglovin' girl. Not McLovin' ... Bloglovin. Follow me on Bloglovin'. (Try it, you'll like it.)

that old box in the closet ...

So, as you grow up and move into your own house and stuff, you sometimes inherit old boxes of things. We've been cleaning out our basement, and I've been going through boxes of my old things. And as you can see, I was a little girl who liked the color blue and went fishing in Minnesota. (Check out the rifle on that Lake Winnibigoshish t-shirt! That's right ... Winnibigoshish.)

I also remember loving this neon pink bikini.

And I wore this sweatshirt when I was probably Lotus's age. One day while I was wearing it, someone asked me who the President of the United States was. And I remember answering "Jimmy Carter." (wow.)

Guess who else was intrigued by all of these little vintage t-shirts?

My mini-me. (Check back tomorrow for some more fun things we found.)

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crochet a rainbow

You've most likely heard about the devastating floods in Australia. Lives have been lost and many families have lost all of their belongings. If you knit or crochet, you've most likely also heard of Sarah London, an Australian native. She's pretty much my crochet hero, a master of color, and the reason I wanted to learn how to make granny squares.

Sarah has started a project called Crochet a Rainbow for flood victims in her homeland, and you can help, too. Sign up and read about the project here if you're interested in helping out. Sarah's looking for regular sized granny squares, five rounds each, which she'll join to make blankets that will be distributed to those affected throughout Queensland and Victoria as they begin to rebuild their lives and start over.

If you're in need of some color inspiration, check out Sarah's crochet photo sets on Flickr to see her exceptionally cool color combos. You'll be itching to start hooking ASAP.

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giveaway on Freckled Nest

Be sure to check out this fantastic January giveaway over at Freckled Nest.

You can win a little something from me if you enter! *No, not the snowboard.  :)

pretty GAP-tastic ...

So, you might remember me posting about my GAP-tastic cowl last December.

Back when this real Gap cowl was briefly in stores and then sold out everywhere. I couldn't find one (along with many other people who loved it) and so I knitted a knock-off. And posted a free pattern on Ravelry.

In the short month that the pattern has been out, it has somehow made it's way to the number two spot on the most active recently published designs. Which means, as of today, 543 people have already made a GAP-tastic and 174 more are working on one! I have no idea how this happened, but it's pretty cool.

Anyway, I can't really take credit, since after all, it's just a big seed-stitch tube from Gap. But it's cool that we can all make our own now. It really is the most easy-to-wear and versatile cowl I've ever knitted and I hope everyone else loves theirs just as much as I do.

done and done

Way back in November, I started a little sweater project for Lotus – Milo, by Georgie Hallam. With Lo's help, I picked out some Noro Kureyon in this fun pink/black/chartreuse colorway from our favorite local shop, Knitted Together.

And then, the poor sweater sat in my bag looking like this for a couple of months. It was one of those projects that I could have probably finished in a week or two if I had kept at it, but ... you know. It sort of hibernated.

So this weekend, I was bound and determined to get this off the needles. This was after I realized it was going to turn out much, much larger than I had planned and had to pick up another skein of yarn before I could finish.

But it's done! Even though it's more of a tunic/dress than a sweater vest. I figured it would look cute with leggings/skinny jeans this winter.

I'm totally cool with the larger size, because she can easily wear it a good two or three years before she even gets close to outgrowing it.

I was sooo relieved to find out that Lo likes it. I've made things in the past that she wouldn't even try on, but she's pretty excited to wear this stripey dress to preschool.

She even thought she'd take it for a little spin (and I think that was the perfect thing to do.)

ace

 So, about three months ago, I was standing around with my friends in NYC.

 

I was just looking through these photos again and found this little set of pics, taken from the dirty cab window on the way back to the airport.

I was sitting in the back seat with Jamaica, probably crying. And she was saying that my weird sunglasses made me look like Johnny Depp in Alice in Wonderland.

It was such a fun time.

I had finally met Kara the day before.

And experienced Law & Order slumber parties with Kristi.

And cupcakes and nighttime dinner-finding adventures with Vee.

It was some serious girl time. We navigated. Took way too many pics. Kristi held out her arms like a gate at street corners to protect us from getting hit by cars. We consumed coffee, had heart-to-hearts and noodles with butter. Those trips are so good for the soul. (I miss it and I think another one needs to happen soon. xx.)