Coming Soon.

I'm very excited. I've been working on setting up an etsy store for my hand knit goods and during a test spin I sold my first item! I have spent the last two sunny days photographing the other items I have to sell and will be editing those images today to add to the shop by the end of the week. Then next week it is back to knitting because the projects are piling up! It's about time to get started on Holiday gifts. If you are having trouble thinking of gifts to buy or make, then give etsy a look. They will have tons of ideas for your shopping list and wish list!

Stormy Weather.

I didn't take these, but I am equally excited about them.

Grant Hamilton shoots sx70's in a very unique style. I like his site, too. As simple, clean and bold as his work.

Well, lots of projects getting started here, but nothing getting finished! I'll post pictures of what I am working on soon. As soon as I am done watching The Breakfast Club for the seventy millionth time on tv! Oh, stormy, rainy saturdays....


If anyone is looking for a birthday present for your favorite, polaroid freak friend, here's an idea.


It's a 'plusharoid' from etsy.com!

Oh, Halloween!

Very rarely do I get to say "oh no, I have go out and buy some candy!!"

Today is the day.

stuffed up.

I am really giving in to this whole being-sick-with-a-head-cold thing. Mostly because it's an excuse to be lazy, but also because I will do anything to get better so I can go see Jens on Monday even if that means staying cooped up on the couch getting my body as much rest as possible. In the process I am also reading knitting books and scouring the web for baby hat patterns. Not because I am expecting... no, no. I want to make one for someone else. I really like this pattern (also on a 'knit2', though a different project and person) as an alternative to a classic stockingette stitch hat with an umbilical chord on top, like every pattern book seems to host. Maybe this weekend I will head down to the yarn store to look at fibers and get some ideas from real live humans instead of the web. In the meantime, if anyone has any cute baby hat pattern to show + share please send them my way!

sick day / photographs

I'm back in New England and have found myself with quite a cold! Between sniffles, coughs and cups of tea I have been knitting cables, and scanning polaroid images to add to flickr. Mostly all pictures I took in New Mexico, though a few from the Vineyard that I took the day that I moved out.



I've been cropping the white borders off of all the Martha's Vineyard images, but I think that for the New Mexico pictures I may leave them on. Mainly because it requires less editing and the drowsy cold medicine is kicking in, but also because I want to separate these new images from the Martha's Vineyard ones. They are two very different series, one that I took when I was living in a place, another when I was visiting. Not to mention two very different places... one surrounded by the ocean, the other by mountains and sky.

you can click on the tree above to take a look at what I am talking about, or just to see more images from NM!

Continuous cables: an update.

I am getting the hang of the this busy cable stitch and it's becoming less and less like complicated math homework. (Or maybe that's just because I have been watching Nick do some real complicated math homework.) Here's what I completed in the week I have been in New Mexico. I must say it's looking quite good!


I've still got a ways to go. This is a photo of the project (completed) as it comes with the pattern.


The pattern is from Michaels if you want to try it out. I am using Lamb's Pride bulky in pastashio and knitting with just one strand as opposed to the double strand of thinner wool that the pattern calls for. And, not to get too far ahead of myself, but I have already picked out the cutest wooden handles. More updates (and more yarn! I've run out!) when I get home.

A Walk in the Desert.

Today was sunny but with a breeze, which made it a bit cooler to be out in the middle of the day. So Nick and I decided to go for a hike at Soledad Canyon.


After walking a little ways, Nick asked if I was going to have to stop and take a picture of everything. The answer is yes, I pretty much have to. There is just so much to look at in the desert that I can't normally see at home. Lots of rocks and dirt, bugs, bushes, round things, pointy things and tons and tons of bright open sky.


My favorite thing is seeing things on the ground in the desert that look like they could also be on the ocean floor. It is neat to think that a long time ago there was water right here in the dryness where I am now standing.

If you listen to the wind blowing through the canyon it sounds an awful lot like the ocean. This is amazing to me. I grew up and have always lived by the ocean, so the idea of being landlocked is strange. But in a place like this you cannot doubt its beauty.

Power Cables.

I decided on a challenging project to take with me on the flight to New Mexico. Too challenging, perhaps. The instructions read like a complicated math problem.

Numerous times on the flight I had the urge to throw my knitting out the window, had the windows been able to open. Still I worked away intensely and, like trying to solve a difficult math problem, eventualy finding the answer felt like a huge accomplishment. Still, I think I took out more stitches between Boston and Chicago than I put in. Here's what I accomplished on the first flight.


By the time I changed planes I had a better sense of how the instructions read and how the cables were supposed to look. Chicago to El Paso bought me a few more rows.


What's this going to be when it's done?
you'll see....

Mom's Knitting.

Since I've been home I've slowly been going through my mom's things. Some of them I am using and enjoying, as I know she would want me to, other things I am leaving as they are. Some things I just cannot touch. The other day I sorted through her yarn and made sense of the many baskets and bundles of fiber she had collected over the years. I found some beautiful scarves, blankets and other special projects that I remember sitting with her while she worked on in years past. This scarf was amongst the projects I found, though I never remember seeing her work on it. The stitch is a fading triangle pattern (made up of knits and purls) that she worked in often. I really like how she added the detail of folding up one end and adding buttons for decoration. Details were always important to her.


Although we were always very different knitters, favoring different yarns and accomplishing varied projects, crafting and creating was a past time we shared and a valuable skill that she taught me. When I found this scarf it was still on the needles, as were several other projects. She never got the chance to complete them. I decided to finish this scarf for her. I completed the last row and simply bound off the stitches so I can wear it this winter and have her style and warmth wrapped around me. Its just one of the many beautiful things she created in her lifetime.

New Music Today: Jens Lekman!

I don't know what your agenda is for today, but somewhere in there give a listen to the new Jens Lekman album, Night Falls Over Kortedala, which comes out in the US on Secretly Canadian.

Jens is a 26 year old Swede who sings quirky pop songs about girls he kissed, the city he lives in and his yearning for love. About a month ago Pitchfork gave the record a rave review (9.0!!) and Jens has begun gaining popularity stateside. Thanks to a very special friend (I don't know if I should put her name here, is it ok?) I received an advance copy of the disc and have been enjoying it non-stop for the past few weeks, as I have with his other releases. His lyrics are nostalgic like Jonathan Richman's and the new melodies are driven by layers of samples and strings from 1960's ballads. If this description is not enough to make you go buy it, just take one more look at that album cover! swooon!

putting all the pieces together

Yesterday I sewed together all five pieces of my sweater! Boy, sewing knits are tough, but getting this close to completion feels good.


I have already begun knitting a ribbed trim to go up the front of the cardigan, to keep the opening from rolling in the way the stockingette likes to. I put button holes on one side of the trim and will obviously sew buttons on the other. Then I just have to add some sort of collar. I don't know yet what that should look like...


I began this sweater sooo long ago - in the summer of 2006 - and its first incarnation was to be a knit camisole with little i-cord straps. very simple. Somehow I decided that I wanted to knit a cardigan and this (with the back halfway through with completion) became it. Looking at this sweater as it literally comes together, I have to say that I doubt this is something I will be wearing. Several things I learned from making my first sweater:

1) choose a yarn + color that will make a nice sweater, not something that looks pretty in the craft store when it's wrapped up in a ball. The colors I tend to wear and like are not green and pink with gold sparkles, but grey, taupe, brown and BLACK! If this were a black sweater it would not have taken me a year and a half to make. I would have been racing to complete it so I could pair it with every single item in my closet!

2) don't alter the pattern unless neccessary. I don't know why I decided to alter this pattern in so many places. The finished sweater is nothing like the one that Lion Brand originally directed me to make. And now, looking at the instruction sheet, I realize that I like the one in the photo a lot better. It's a lot more like a swing coat and calls for a single button at the neck. cute!! Why didn't I just make that sweater as directed? Also, the sleeves would be real sleeves rather than 3/4 sleeves had I used the correct gauge. (let's pretend that was intentional!) I guess now that I know how it's done, I can knit the real sweater next.

sew pizza.

I went downtown today to visit the sewing/quilting shop I had seen on Main St. in Plymouth called Sew Crazy, so I could get lining for my dress. I parked across the street and didn't notice until I got out of the car (which I did an amazing job parellel parking!) that the sign on the window no longer said Sew Crazy, but instead read Coming Soon: Domino's Pizza. This just about made me want to run for the boat. I almost took a picture but it was too sad.

look!

I've changed the background a little bit. Do you like? I am also still in the process of moving, unpacking mostly. And I am getting used to living on the mainland and figuring out what to do at stop lights and such. Anyone from the Vineyard, I am sure you can relate...

I've done such a tiny bit of crafting in the last few months. So many reasons, so many excuses. I am getting ready to pick up my needles again. At the moment, my main project is to get all of my stuff (oh and I mean all my stuff) out of the boxes on the porch and the backseat of my car, and into my room. but FIRST, there will be some renovations! stay tuned...

take me away!

another thing to divert you from this page and the lack of crafting i have to show, is my new flickr page. right now it consists of many polaroids i shot this summer and scanned into my computer. i might put something else there someday, too, but who knows. now take a look at my polaroid project! thanks.

aly at aquinnah beach, july 2007.

getting crafty again.

September here is just lovely! Hints of summer still linger in the air, but all the tourists have gone home and you can actually get a parking space when you go out to dinner. I finally have some extra time to myself, both for crafting and for blogging! I kind of fell out of the blogging thing for a while. I don't like wasting time talking about doing things, I just want to do them. So now I'll go shut up and let you know when my dress (see cut fabric above) is done.

like mother, like daughter.

A few years ago, I found this picture of my mom, at age 20, hanging out with a couple of her friends in college. I love finding pictures like this from the past! It's just fun to get a glimpse of my mom before i knew her, and to see what styles she was wearing. I also like seeing what sorts of ridiculous haircuts her friends were sporting.


I cannot help and compare this photo to a similar one of myself, also at age 20, hanging out with my college friends.

wonder who inspired those ridiculous haircuts?

so proud to be my mothers daughter, always!

on hiatus

til when??

who knows....

polaroid behavoir.

nick found 2 polaroid cameras at the dump this weekend. both have a flash and one even has a self timer. they are in the newer variety of cameras and both take 600 film so no modification neccessary. i just ordered a 10 pack of film. that is potential for 100 shots! i am sure that only a third of them will be good. thats the beauty of photography!

here's one i took on the new ferry a couple of weeks ago.


I am so in love with the polaroid process, if you cannot tell! I love to explore my surroundings through photography and I find that the best way is with the simplest kind of cameras - holgas, dianas, pinholes, polaroids. They show us the world in a way closer to how the eye sees it, not in the fancy, magnificent way of a more formal lens. Plus they show us the world often how we remember it, with a few blurry details and distortion on the edges. But i think the best part of the polaroid is, obviously, the instant gratification of watching it develop in your hand... moments after taking the picture! wayyyy more satisfying than digital. That is too exact, too punctual, too true. Every polaroid, no matter how long I spend framing the shot in my view finder or staring at a certain scene everyday, every image is a surprise as it emerges from in the fog in the little white square.

really, truly obsessive

about polaroids.

cute, cute.

I swear, If i could own a million different wallets I would. Including this one, made by tiny meat. It's sooo cute. I probably shouldn't even supply a link because then you will go buy it and I can't. The trouble is, I am always misplacing my wallet as it is, it wouldn't make sense to change it so often I forget which one to bring to the store with me. Chances are i'll bring the one with out any money anyway.

summer wastin'

it feels like summer. and the best things about this summer is that:

a. i get to spend my days with nick here.
b. i actually get days off!

i had a sunday off recently and we had a blissfully relaxing day, sitting outside in the overgrown grass, reading our books (i just finished a man without a country) and playing with the polaroid camera. I am addicted to taking polaroids. oh! it is so so addictive and the light here is so so nice!

I had to perform a few slight modifications since the camera is built for time/zero film and polaroid stopped making that about a year ago. now i scrounge through walgreens whenever i am off island looking for expired 600 film on sale... i am a polaroid junkie!
just look at the images... they are gorgeous!

so we had a great day off together. and topped it with a yummy dinner on the grill and a trip to lambert's cove beach to get our toes wet in the surf.

memorial day blues

I finished knitting my blue and green checkered intarsia bag, and now I am preparing it for felting! Lots of loose ends to tie in and shoulder handles to sew on.

Well, it's Memorial Day Weekend! The weekend everything on our tiny tourist Island begins. The crowds will be flooding in tomorrow, the restaurants will be crowded, the boats off schedule and traffic galore. but summer on the vineyard is always fun, too. and coming home from work and sitting on the deck, having a beer and working on a craft is what I look forward to all during my busy day.


That, and Sundays off to go to the beach.

Button Up! Bag

You may recall I started sewing this bag almost a year ago! Then I put it aside never to be finished... until today. I had never really thought of a clever way to attach the handles and not have my sloppy hand stitches show. Today I got the idea to sew on these buttons when I saw some Lili Pulitzer bags in a shop window downtown Edgartown. I'd never thought I'd be inspired by a Lili purse, but I must admit I am a fan of the vintage look. And it was the perfect way to finish off my design!



The fabric is old, found, or more so 'gifted' to me by someone who knew I liked to sew things. There is more scrap fabric where this came from and there should be more bags! I like the way this came out, too bad it took me a year to make it. If I make more in other colors/prints and you think you would like to own one, leave me a comment below. I'll think up a price. And I definitely could whip one up in much less time than it took me to make this!

inside is lined with the same print, but next time I think I will make it a surprise!

xoxo. v

arrivals.

4 more days until my love is here with me!

less blogging, more making

I must say, I've been spending a lot of time online lately, and less time making stuff. I have been updating my website and just looking at crafting projects, shopping for fabrics, reading blogs and getting ideas. But I have been knitting my square tote bag which I will felt soon, perhaps after another row of squares. It's fun to work on while I watch tv or ftp files to my server.


Today was the first really nice day of the season. I can only hope for more!

A Summer Quilting Project!

I always spend less time knitting in the summer. I think it might be the time to begin a quilt, as I have been wanting to do for some time now. Finally, I've chosen a pattern from Denise Schmidt Quilts that I really want to make and picked out some colors that I liked together. Its so hard deciding if the color scheme is good so I made a little mock-up in photoshop.



The fabrics are from purl soho and I have not seen them in person, only online. Will I still love the combo after months of working on it?