Thursday, March 27, 2008

SevenThings

The lovely Melissa of Bridgman Pottery tagged me with a 7 random creative things meme of things I probably haven't talked about before, so here we go!

1- I knit. A lot. I once knit my friend Andrew a ZoSo scarf on a dare. He would taunt me with pictures of Jimmy Page's handknit ZoSo sweater during boring library school classes, so eventually, I gave in when I moved down to Nashville. It didn't take me too long, which was surprising, because the thing was MASSIVE. I guess you can get a lot done when you move to a new city and have no friends. Sad!



2- I used to have a radio show here in Nashville for about 2 years. It was called Karaoke Blackout. It was a lot of fun, but with wedding planning and work, it was just too much.

Here's the playlist from my last show:
bob marley and the wailers - i'm dreaming of a white christmas - destiny : rare ska sides from studio one
the left banke - i've got something on my mind - walk away renee / pretty ballerina smash records
neil young and crazy horse - everybody knows this is nowhere- everybody knows this is nowhere
petula clark - i wanna see morning with him - memphis
annette poindexter and the pieces of peace - mama - eccentric soul, v. 2 : twinight's lunar rotation
tanya tucker - delta dawn - delta dawn
the pastels - nothing to be done - sittin' pretty
maxine brown - whatever happened to our love? - one kiss can lead to another
low - just like christmas - christmas
george jones - treasure of love - the definitive collection, 1955-1962
the clean - billy two - anthology
joe tex - show me - greatest hits!!!
the essex green - mrs. bean - everything is green
the fall - stepping out - psykick dancehall
p.p. arnold - the first cut is the deepest - one kiss can lead to another
loretta lynn - your squaw is on the warpath - loretta lynn writes'em and sings'em
desmond dekker - this woman - the definitive collection
donovan - epistle to dippy - the essential donovan
the monochrome set - eine symphone des grauens - compendium
the shangri-las - give him a great big kiss - the very best of the shangri-las
bob dylan w/ johnny cash - girl from the north country - nashville skyline
harry nilsson- gotta get up - nilsson schmilsson
bob wills - buffalo twist -1000 greatest country hits
dusty springfield - bring him back - love songs
sloan -she says what she means - navy blues
the visitors - bliss - miss
desperate bicycles - smokescreen - desperate bicycles anthology
glenda collins - if you gotta pick a baby - this little girl's gone rockin'
tammy wynette - your good girl's gonna go bad - your good girl's gonna go bad
the maytals - monkey girl - the king kong compilation
the nashville ramblers - the trains - children of nuggets rhino Rock
the jam - that's entertainment - greatest hits
emmylou harris - bluebird wine - pieces of the sky
charlie rich - you can have her - the complete smash session
television personalities - this angry silence - and don't the kids just love it
tommy roe - sweet pea - greatest hits
tina turner - river deep, mountain high - tina turner : the collected recordings
phyllis dillon - perfidia trojan - reggae sisters
josephine foster and the supposed - all the leaves are gone - all the leaves are gone
the pale fountains - thank you - longshot for your love

3- I knit a curtain for the kitchen of our new place! Every time I do the washing up, I get to admire my handiwork!



















4- Handspun yarn, and yarn dyed with marigolds! (the yellow yarn, obv.). The first two skeins on the left are some of my first attempts at spinning on my then new wheel. The yellow yarn was my first attempt at dyeing with natural dyes. It was spun by Beth of 3 Creeks Farm who hosted the Dye Day for our spinning group and sold me my wheel. I also dyed the purple yarn with some jacquard dyes at home.




5- The Papi Chullo I knit for my dad for snowblowing the driving in Buffalo! This was Christmas knitting for 2007. It's 100% alpaca, and oh so luxurious and warm.


6- I had a piece in an art zine called Swelt (we had a gallery opening and everything!). Alas, I have no more of my catalog card illustrations (I am a librarian, after all). I'll leave you with this:



7- And the last, let's see: I'm debating between socks and pies. I do make a lot of both, so I guess I leave you with a picture of each.

A lovely berry pie:



And the Waving Ripple socks I knit for my mother:



I guess I'm supposed to tag some more folks now. When I was tagged, I thought it was so sweet, but I hope it doesn't feel like receiving chain mail! So, Denyse, Marissa, and Hazel Evelyn, whaddya think?

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

i dream of a team of altidores

After a long weekend of entertaining a contingent of New Yorkers in town for the US U-23 Olympic Qualifiers, which I am happy to announce, that the US is a part of (for soccer), not much knitting and/or crafting got done. I was planning on knitting some socks during the tailgaiting portion of Sunday's events, but I was too busy eating ribs and making merry before the horrendously boring loss to Honduras. Also, we made pork pies. From scratch. Yeah, they took forever. We made homemade aspic and everything! Intense!

Well, things have since calmed down, and I'm making progress on the Nutkin socks, but I'm sad to announce that there is no way in Hades that they'll fit my US ladies size 11 (might I add painfully flat) feet. My sister has much smaller feet. Perhaps she will like them.

I noticed mention of this on Ravelry, and Mr. Wheezy-to-be brought me a print copy of this article today. Threadfest!


You'll find literally thousands of yards of trim, fabric and yarn, as well as quilt scraps, partially finished projects, crochet hooks and whatever other notions people in the community have donated.


COUNT ME IN.

Now, do I take an extended lunch on Friday on take Mr. Wheezy with me on Saturday afternoon? Oh, decisions!?

While I know I have no photos updating my progress, I do have video footage of my existence! Here are some highlight from the first game against Canada on Thursday night (I was helping to hold up the giant flag at around 2:35 - 2:38 in - NB my love hand knit bamboo scarf courtesy of my friend Kerry):

Friday, March 14, 2008

stress knitting

A year ago, when I first endeavored into the wild and crazy world of sock knitting, I never would have guessed that it would now be known as my comfort knitting. Last night, while watching the US men's under 23 soccer team team play, and I tried to sort out who to invite to the rehearsal dinner while I emailed the wedding photographer, in between crocheting those freaking wedding shower dishcloths, I looked longingly at Nancy Bush's Knitting on the road : sock patterns for the traveling knitter as it sat sadly on my shelf. So, what did i do? i stayed up, with my frazzled nerves and attempted to knit the sock that looked like a whiskey cask until midnight. Well, gentle reader, it didn't. The vikkel braid is not to be trifled with past a certain hour in the evening, I'm afraid.

I did, however, through the glory of ravelry and its free pattern browse, find the Nutkin Sock and shall start on that this weekend. Even though my sage coworkers are advising me to keep on keepin' on with the dishcloths, they do not understand the soul-crushing power that working with that much cotton can bring. Also, there's some sort of peace and solace that concentrating on starting of on that first sock brings, before you get the pattern down. It's just really nice and calming, and just what this over-stressed, planned-to-the-max lady needs!

This + a cup of tea = heaven, this weekend

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

captain easychord

spring has finally hit tennessee! i think! today was absolutely gorgeous! growing up in the snow belt, spring was such a rewarding season after 5 or 6 months of grueling cold and soul-crushing snow. since the album came out, i like to celebrate the change of seasons by putting on stereolab's sound-dust and celebrating the lovely change of weather. this is a quintessential spring album for me. it's funny how some songs or albums are tied so strongly to parts of our memory, like the time i was driving home from class during a blizzard and leonard cohen's "avalanche" from "songs from a room" just happened to be playing. i can't listen to that album during the summer, but i digress. anyway, i have fond memories of having the windows down on my car, listening to this stereolab album, driving to my job at the archives and saying hello to the niagara river and lake erie on fine may mornings (when spring usually hit in the homeland). definite plus of living in the south: having spring 2 months early!

i had to get away from the dishcloths! i am happy to report i am up to 30! yes! only 10 (or so) to go! so, i spun this past weekend with the roving i picked up from etsy. behold!


It's about 208 yards and a merino colonial blend! Oh so soft and squishy! I love it! I have absolutely no idea what I'll do with it, but I'll sure it'll come to me. Eventually.

It was so nice to spin again and get away from cotton. Don't get me wrong. I love me some cotton, but everything in moderation, including moderation.

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Golden Hands are the Devil's Playthings


After finding out from the lovely Marissa and Denyse about the sheer and vast publication glory that is Golden Hands, I spent the last of my money that was in my Paypal account and purchased this:

I think I might be addicted! I haven't done cross-stitch since I was 9, but that shouldn't stop me, right?

Monday, March 03, 2008

The Decline of Country and Western Civilization


This past weekend, my folks came down to visit and I am happy to say dishcloth creation was put on hold while wedding planning took over. We also went to the Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman Auditorium downtown, which was great, but I digress. When we weren't running around tasting cupcakes or discussing red Gerbera daisies, we thrift stored (hello, DIY center pieces) and hit Nashville's finest used bookstores. I scored bigtime!

I found this one book from 1973 called "Sew Exciting! Sew Simple!" that is right out of that era's vein of feminism that is sort of self-aware and apologetic, and is sort of like, "It's okay to want to sew your husband a terrycloth bathrobe! Women have been doing it for ages!" It's kind of hilarious. I will treasure it forever.


The other, "The Color Book of Embroidery" is sort of a hippy dippy 70s acid trip through embroidery. It does have a primer on smocking (yay!), but some of the projects are downright frightening (think weird elves) and there are creepy baby blankets that are kind of hilarious. This book was a whopping $2.00. The other was 25 cents. Yes. 25 cents. I picked up another for 2 bucks that is aptly titled and "Encyclopedia of Needlework" which I reckon will come in handy (no pun intended).

The peach colored pillowcases in the background were a gift from my aunt. The beautiful crocheted ends! The other was found thrifting this weekend for 69 cents. I intend to make and apron out of it.


Now this book is a certifiable doozy. It's called "Golden Hands : a comprehensive guides to knitting, dressmaking & needlecraft." Oh, the Kaftans! The owls! It has some utterly amazing things. While looking at some Russian Orthodox-esque tapestry designs in this book, my father told me a story of how he loved the movie"Dr. Zhivago" so much (who can blame him?) that he asked my grandmother to make him a tunic shirt much like Omar Shariff's shirt in the movie. Yeah, she did. WITH EMBROIDERY.

That, ladies and gentleman, is what's in my gene pool. I've just got to tap into that well some more.

 
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