I stole this from Melissa who stole it from someone else who stole it from someone else. I needed this break this afternoon....
1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? I'm using a combination of both this year (see photos in previous post). Every year my mother makes a few cloth gift bags out of christmassy fabric. These get reused and passed around every year.
2. Real or artificial tree? Little skinny artificial one. I'd love a real one, but I'm away a lot during the holidays and I can't deal with the mess a real one would make.
3. When do you put up the tree? The weekend after Thanksgiving.
4. When do you take it down? That night after the cats have knocked it over and stripped the ornaments off, broken half of them and hid the rest.... (but really the first time I have a few spare hours after new years...)
5. Do you like eggnog? No, but I heard a rumor that my next door neighbor makes his from scratch and it will change my life. I'm waiting for my invitation...
6. Favorite gift received as a child? None, because I never got the Easy Bake Oven I asked for every year up until I was 18.
7. Do you have a nativity scene? No.
8. Hardest person to buy for? Brother. He doesn't like stuff.
9. Easiest person to buy for? tie between mom and sis.
10. Worst Christmas present you ever got? When I was a kid Gramma W would give us mittens every year. We were always bummed - we wanted toys. What I wouldn't give now to have someone making me custom sized, fair isle mittens to match my new coat every year... Kids are dumb.
11. Mail or email Christmas cards? I try to mail them...but usually don't get to it.
12. Favorite Christmas movie? Love Actually
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I usually pick up one or two things in late summer or fall, but the real shopping (and knitting) starts in November.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No, but once my brother gave me something he found in a dumpster. Does that count?
15. Favorite thing to eat on Christmas? Christmas Eve we always have fondue and champagne. It makes me happy.
16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear
17. Favorite Christmas song? This year's favorite is Wizard Chess by Harry and the Potters.
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Home to mom and dad's in Vermont
19. Can you name all of Santa’s Reindeer? maybe. I can't be bothered to try though....
20. Angel or star on top of tree? Star (mine is rusty metal)
21. Open presents Christmas Eve or morning? Morning. In PJs, with good coffee and mom's coffee cake.
22. Most annoying thing this time of year? There's no time....
23. Do you decorate your tree in any theme or color? no
24. What do you leave for Santa? Cookies. And this year he's getting a bottle of Sam Adams Winter Lager with them. 'Cause man that beer goes good with cookies - seriously!
Friday, December 14, 2007
Simple Craftastic Tags (and a book)
I'm a bad bad blogger.... I promise to be better after the holidays.
In the meantime, I wanted to share these easy gift tags I made using symbol, dingbat, wingding and ornament fonts. I collect these sort of fonts and never have a use for them.
These were done using the Apple Symbols font that came installed on my Mac.
These are mostly from Zapf Dingbats, Bodoni Ornaments, Adobe Woodtype Ornaments and a font called Type Embellishments One.
I used Adobe InDesign to make these. There is a Glyphs pallet in the Type menu that lets you look at a whole font at once and easily paste the characters you want into your document. I resized the characters and changed the colors. I drew circles and squares around them with a very light dotted frame so they were easier to cut out. Laser printed on free cardstock samples from a paper company that I had lying around the office.
They look pretty good combined with the bags I bought at Ikea and the paper from the bargain bins at Target!
If anyone wants these, leave me a comment with your email and I'll send them to you as a PDF.
And....
BIG NEWS!!!!
Melissa's BOOK is out. The launch party is tomorrow (12/15/07) 1pm-3pm at Webs (changed from Sunday due to the impending Nor'easter...). I'm not a sock knitter, but somehow I 'volunteered' to demonstrate the technique during the launch, so if you're going to be there I'd recommend watching one of the other Two-at-a-Time models instead...
In the meantime, I wanted to share these easy gift tags I made using symbol, dingbat, wingding and ornament fonts. I collect these sort of fonts and never have a use for them.
These were done using the Apple Symbols font that came installed on my Mac.
These are mostly from Zapf Dingbats, Bodoni Ornaments, Adobe Woodtype Ornaments and a font called Type Embellishments One.
I used Adobe InDesign to make these. There is a Glyphs pallet in the Type menu that lets you look at a whole font at once and easily paste the characters you want into your document. I resized the characters and changed the colors. I drew circles and squares around them with a very light dotted frame so they were easier to cut out. Laser printed on free cardstock samples from a paper company that I had lying around the office.
They look pretty good combined with the bags I bought at Ikea and the paper from the bargain bins at Target!
If anyone wants these, leave me a comment with your email and I'll send them to you as a PDF.
And....
BIG NEWS!!!!
Melissa's BOOK is out. The launch party is tomorrow (12/15/07) 1pm-3pm at Webs (changed from Sunday due to the impending Nor'easter...). I'm not a sock knitter, but somehow I 'volunteered' to demonstrate the technique during the launch, so if you're going to be there I'd recommend watching one of the other Two-at-a-Time models instead...
Friday, October 19, 2007
Sheepin' & Woolin'
This time tomorrow, I'll be laying down my (probably already weary) head in a hotel full of friends somewhere in upstate New York. It's Rhinebeck weekend and we've been planning since Spring. There is much celebrating to be done, promoting Melissa's book, a margarita dinner and memosa breakfast (tailgate style in the parking lot before the festival opens - look for us near the gate. We'll have balloons. Join us.), many many inspiring (and famous) knitters to meet and friends to catch up with. Our little group has plans to go to two parties on Saturday night (Ravelry!). The internets are buzzing about this festival and people are coming from all over the country, so it could be crazy. It will definitely be exhausting. And I will come home with too much luverly yarn. And, hopefully, there will not be a repeat of last year's indiscretion. But, if there is, well... what happens at Rhinebeck stays at Rhinebeck. (And, in my defense, it was Cashmere....)
In other news, I finished the surprise project - a Tomten for the ragamuffin next door. She turns 3 on Sunday, but I couldn't wait that long. I ran over there as soon as I got home and her folks got her out of bed to try it on. I love this little coat!
It's done in Valley Yarns' Northampton - two strands held together on US 8s. It's a little big, but that means she can wear it for a long time.
Speaking of Valley Yarns I found this on the Webs website today. I know the holiday catalog is due out soon, but I hadn't seen the photos yet. This is the 'Hers' of the Housatonic His and Hers Reversible Cable Scarves I designed. These are done in Valley Yarns' Lenox (the poor man's cashmere).
In other news, I finished the surprise project - a Tomten for the ragamuffin next door. She turns 3 on Sunday, but I couldn't wait that long. I ran over there as soon as I got home and her folks got her out of bed to try it on. I love this little coat!
It's done in Valley Yarns' Northampton - two strands held together on US 8s. It's a little big, but that means she can wear it for a long time.
Speaking of Valley Yarns I found this on the Webs website today. I know the holiday catalog is due out soon, but I hadn't seen the photos yet. This is the 'Hers' of the Housatonic His and Hers Reversible Cable Scarves I designed. These are done in Valley Yarns' Lenox (the poor man's cashmere).
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Some knitting
I've been very busy keeping my Ravelry notebook up to date and I've completely neglected the blog. All my recent knits have been photographed and posted there. Traci and I spent most of a Sunday taking photos and uploading them. We found the perfect place for photographing hats:
I wonder if all fire hydrants in France wear berets?
Here's a few samples of recent stuff:
I made two of Elizabeth Zimmerman's February Baby Sweaters. The green one is on it's way to Nora Frances (poor Amy will have to accept that she's getting a baby sweater for her 35th birthday....).
The blue one was a gift for Haley Sienna's baptism. Haley is doing well. She recently had another MRI that showed the tumor has not grown since her surgery in August. At the luncheon after the baptism (where this photo was taken) she seemed happy and alert.
I also recently finished this shrug from the book Lace Style. It's a simple almost mindless project:
I'm working on the "Back to School Vest" from Fitted Knits. This is yarn I bought at the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival in 2006 from the Decadent Fibers people. It's been burning a hole in my stash waiting for the perfect project. The Fitted Knits book is fabulous - Glampyre is a genius - and I plan to make several other things from the book (when I can find some free time when I am not working on stuff for a class or the store or Christmas....).
Speaking of class things, I'm teaching Lace for All Levels in November and using Victorian Lace Today as a textbook. I had hoped to get a few samples from the book done before the class, but I kept putting it off. I'm working on one now that is flying along, so there's a chance I might have a couple of things done (assuming the knit on lace boarder on this one doesn't kill me). This is the Shoulder Shawl in Cherry Leaf Pattern. I'm using Blue Sky Alpaca's Alpaca Silk. The photo does not do justice to the color.
I also made these His and Hers scarves for the Webs Holiday Catalog. The pattern will be available from them soon. I believe they are calling them the Housatonic Reversible Cable Scarves. They are done in Valley Yarn's Lenox - a merino/baby alpaca blend that I've been known to call 'the poor man's cashmere'.
There is also a secret project going on that I cannot discuss yet. It involves these colors:
And, finally, in non-knitting news, it's a Steven Colberty kind of week. I bought his new book on Wednesday when it came out (I am a dork) and have been listening to the Audio book at the same time. He was on Fresh Air on Tuesday night and it was strange to hear him out of character. You kind of forget that he's not that guy all the time. At BookExpo back in June he was signing copies of the first 5 chapters. Here's a bad camera phone photo of him with my copy (gotta love the scruff....).
I wonder if all fire hydrants in France wear berets?
Here's a few samples of recent stuff:
I made two of Elizabeth Zimmerman's February Baby Sweaters. The green one is on it's way to Nora Frances (poor Amy will have to accept that she's getting a baby sweater for her 35th birthday....).
The blue one was a gift for Haley Sienna's baptism. Haley is doing well. She recently had another MRI that showed the tumor has not grown since her surgery in August. At the luncheon after the baptism (where this photo was taken) she seemed happy and alert.
I also recently finished this shrug from the book Lace Style. It's a simple almost mindless project:
I'm working on the "Back to School Vest" from Fitted Knits. This is yarn I bought at the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival in 2006 from the Decadent Fibers people. It's been burning a hole in my stash waiting for the perfect project. The Fitted Knits book is fabulous - Glampyre is a genius - and I plan to make several other things from the book (when I can find some free time when I am not working on stuff for a class or the store or Christmas....).
Speaking of class things, I'm teaching Lace for All Levels in November and using Victorian Lace Today as a textbook. I had hoped to get a few samples from the book done before the class, but I kept putting it off. I'm working on one now that is flying along, so there's a chance I might have a couple of things done (assuming the knit on lace boarder on this one doesn't kill me). This is the Shoulder Shawl in Cherry Leaf Pattern. I'm using Blue Sky Alpaca's Alpaca Silk. The photo does not do justice to the color.
I also made these His and Hers scarves for the Webs Holiday Catalog. The pattern will be available from them soon. I believe they are calling them the Housatonic Reversible Cable Scarves. They are done in Valley Yarn's Lenox - a merino/baby alpaca blend that I've been known to call 'the poor man's cashmere'.
There is also a secret project going on that I cannot discuss yet. It involves these colors:
And, finally, in non-knitting news, it's a Steven Colberty kind of week. I bought his new book on Wednesday when it came out (I am a dork) and have been listening to the Audio book at the same time. He was on Fresh Air on Tuesday night and it was strange to hear him out of character. You kind of forget that he's not that guy all the time. At BookExpo back in June he was signing copies of the first 5 chapters. Here's a bad camera phone photo of him with my copy (gotta love the scruff....).
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Audrey's Hat
I finally typed up the instructions for this toddler hat and posted them on Ravelry. Thought I'd put them here too. The Stockbridge is on sale this month at Webs for $2.99 a skein and the hat (in toddler size) only takes one skein...
AUDREY'S HAT
1 skein Valley Yarns Stockbridge (50% Wool, 50% Alpaca, 109 yds)
or, any worsted weight yarn will do
US 7 16” circular needles
Crochet Hook
CO 90 sts Join for working in the round and place marker to mark start of round.
knit 6 rows
Start pattern:
Row 1: Purl Row 2: [K1, YO] 6 times, K2Tog 6 times repeat to end
Row 3 & 4: Knit
Repeat rows 1-4 a total of 7 times. Knit one row even.
Crown: Row 1: K8, K2Tog repeat to end
Row 2 and all even rows: Knit
Row 3: K7, K2Tog repeat to end
Row 5: K5, K2Tog repeat to end
Row 7: K4, K2Tog repeat to end
Row 9: K3, K2Tog repeat to end
Row 11: K2, K2Tog repeat to end
Row 13: K1, K2Tog repeat to end
Row 15: K2Tog repeat to end
Break yarn (leaving long tail) and use darning needle to run tail through remaining 9 stitches. Pull tight and leave tail on outside.
Add ‘sprigs’: With Crochet hook, tightly chain stitch tail starting at the crown of the hat. Attach 5-6 more long pieces of yarn at center crown and chain stitch those.
For infant size, use DK or sport weight yarn. For larger sizes add stitches to the cast on in multiples of 18.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Mixing it up for fall
Have you seen the 2007 Holiday stamps designed by a knitter? I was in line at the post office this morning (with a stack of paperbackswap books) and saw them on the poster of 2007 stamp designs. From a distance they looked like icky trying to be cool bitmaped illustrations, but then I realized they were knitted. I may have made some sort of excited noise out loud. The guy in front of me turned around and looked nonplussed when I said, 'The holiday stamps? They're knitted!' Craftless heathen.
Last night I went to the hairdressers where they have new sinks with MASSAGING recliners. Absolute heaven. My favorite shampoo girl (you know you pay too much for your hairdresser when you have a favorite shampoo girl...) massaged conditioning treatment in my head while the chair back rolled around under me. I could have stayed there forever. Tiffany, my hairdresser, looks different every time I see her. Her hair yesterday was cut in a cool, longer in the front, stringy rocker chick style with fuchsia chunks through it. It looked amazing on her. I was jealous and inspired. I want the guts to have pink rock star hair. But pink would clash with my wardrobe... Tiffany is good though. She knew I was inspired and suggested we 'mix things up for fall'. She knows pink isn't for me so I acquiesced.
While I was waiting for my new bright copper streaks to set, I flipped through the biggest issue of Vogue ever (seriously it's over 800 pages). I stumbled across this picture which was LOLed so well by Grrleigh knits last month. I swear every time I look at that LOL I start snorting. So there I was in the hairdressers, under the heat lamps, with crazy alien satellite head trying not to snort. Tears were forming. There may have been snot. (Who's the crazy girl over there having a conniption over last month's Vogue?) There was also a crazy giant knit coat (styled as a dress in the photo) by the same designer, but I cannot find a photo of it. I went to the website listed in Vogue, but no luck. I did find some lovely inspiring designer knits though...
I love this coat:
And this sweater:
The construction on this one is very cool (though the cable looks a little funky on the inside where it flips open a the top. I would have to make it more 'reversible'):
Love this little $1650 number:
But seriously, Burburry, I think you can do better than this. It's called the Waffle knit cardigan, but anyone can see that it's not a waffle stitch. It's garter stitch. Should I choose to, I could crank this thing out so fast for a tiny fraction of the $650.
Last night I went to the hairdressers where they have new sinks with MASSAGING recliners. Absolute heaven. My favorite shampoo girl (you know you pay too much for your hairdresser when you have a favorite shampoo girl...) massaged conditioning treatment in my head while the chair back rolled around under me. I could have stayed there forever. Tiffany, my hairdresser, looks different every time I see her. Her hair yesterday was cut in a cool, longer in the front, stringy rocker chick style with fuchsia chunks through it. It looked amazing on her. I was jealous and inspired. I want the guts to have pink rock star hair. But pink would clash with my wardrobe... Tiffany is good though. She knew I was inspired and suggested we 'mix things up for fall'. She knows pink isn't for me so I acquiesced.
While I was waiting for my new bright copper streaks to set, I flipped through the biggest issue of Vogue ever (seriously it's over 800 pages). I stumbled across this picture which was LOLed so well by Grrleigh knits last month. I swear every time I look at that LOL I start snorting. So there I was in the hairdressers, under the heat lamps, with crazy alien satellite head trying not to snort. Tears were forming. There may have been snot. (Who's the crazy girl over there having a conniption over last month's Vogue?) There was also a crazy giant knit coat (styled as a dress in the photo) by the same designer, but I cannot find a photo of it. I went to the website listed in Vogue, but no luck. I did find some lovely inspiring designer knits though...
I love this coat:
And this sweater:
The construction on this one is very cool (though the cable looks a little funky on the inside where it flips open a the top. I would have to make it more 'reversible'):
Love this little $1650 number:
But seriously, Burburry, I think you can do better than this. It's called the Waffle knit cardigan, but anyone can see that it's not a waffle stitch. It's garter stitch. Should I choose to, I could crank this thing out so fast for a tiny fraction of the $650.
Friday, September 28, 2007
How my brother spent his summer vacation
My brother is awesome. He works with some difficult teenagers in a tiny town in the Rockies during the school year and spends his summers having crazy adventures. He hikes places normal people will never see, he goes on 6 week rafting trips and he builds beautiful things.
This summer he was asked to help out on a documentary film some friends of his are working on. Hydro Quebec is in the process of damming the Rupert River in Northern Quebec. There will be over 70 dams total which will flood most of the native Cree hunting ground. Michael and 5 other guys went up to Northern Quebec for a month this summer to document the river (and its crazy whitewater) and the impact the damming will have on the Cree people.
A trailer is up on youtube now.
I'm pretty sure the first kayaker you see in the video is my brother (if it's not him I'm sure some of the other boat footage is). He's the one with the red beard talking crap later.
He's a big dork, but he makes his big sis proud.
This summer he was asked to help out on a documentary film some friends of his are working on. Hydro Quebec is in the process of damming the Rupert River in Northern Quebec. There will be over 70 dams total which will flood most of the native Cree hunting ground. Michael and 5 other guys went up to Northern Quebec for a month this summer to document the river (and its crazy whitewater) and the impact the damming will have on the Cree people.
A trailer is up on youtube now.
I'm pretty sure the first kayaker you see in the video is my brother (if it's not him I'm sure some of the other boat footage is). He's the one with the red beard talking crap later.
He's a big dork, but he makes his big sis proud.
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