this photo isn’t from NYE, but, close enough.  (it was from pete’s work Xmas party back on dec. 10th.)

i have been around, but busy.  i also got an iPad and that derailed my blogging big time…went into deep media digestion mode and created virtually nothing in a virtual sense.  pinterest and Flickr efforts excepted.

it was a crazy year, full of a tremendous amount of change.  good change (moving, poppy growing up and getting potty trained (!), and starting at a new preschool), and bad change (health problems, peter’s dad passing away, etc.).

but overall, the year ended on a good note, i would say.

-poppy’s new school is great.  very urban and forward-thinking, as well as kind of hip.  her head teacher has pink hair!  they even make a point to serve them healthy organic food and emphasize environmentalism, which is a nice touch.  she’s going 5 mornings a week and seems to love it.  yay!

-poppy’s school is about a mile away.  i usually walk back home after dropping her off, and walk back over to pick her up.  lately i’ve been taking the stroller with me to pick her up so i can walk us home too, so I get about a 3 mile walk in each school day.  hooray for exercise!  i need it, as it’s been a non stop sweets and candy fest around here since Halloween…(maybe you can relate???)

-while poppy is at school, i usually head home to sew.  i’ve been getting into quilting, big time.  i made my parents a large quilt for Xmas, and also finished one baby quilt (for my newest niece marabel, born mid-dec), as well as a full size red and white zig zag quilt, which now resides on our bed.  i’ve also finished multitudinous quilt tops in the past little while and have more ideas and quilts in the queue.

-on a quilt related note, i joined the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild in dec and met a fabulous group of ladies there…including one famous quilter, jacquie, who lives in my building.  she and i have even gotten together a couple times since at her place to chat and sew.  she’s amazing.  so happy to make a friend here, especially one as nice as jacquie, and especially one who sews/quilts!

-i signed up for a fabric silk screening class, it starts next week, and runs for ten weeks.  so excited!

i’m off to do some sewing RIGHT NOW.  a perfect way to start the new year.  while i sew i plan to ponder my goals for 2012.  still formulating plans.  *smile*

***

what have you been up to?  i’ve missed you.  :)

several years ago (probably about 5 years now) i made the word “love” using soft letter pillows. sometime back, probably about 2.5 to 3 years ago (when poppy was but a wee little thing), i added the words “made you”, thinking it would, in toto, make a neat wallhanging somewhere, someday, in our home. perhaps over a bed, or maybe even in the kiddo’s space. i like the idea of those words together, because really, for most of us, it’s kinda true. idealistically anyway. finally got around to snapping a photo this past week. (wow i’m slow.) maybe in about 5 years i’ll actually get around to hanging them up. ha ha ha.

working on some other small baby-quilt/wall-hanging sized patchy/quilty stuff. will reveal at a later date.

taking an all day free-motion quilting course at a local fabric store on friday…i’m pretty excited.

i started playing around with instagram on my iPhone yesterday…popped off a couple pictures around the house.

on top: thinking about making a zig-zag quilt. made a simple sketch on graph paper on monday, so i could get an idea of how much fabric/how many blocks i’ll need to make one in queen size. i made of a few copies of said drawing so i could plan out colors. i don’t think i’ll be doing the colors shown; i was just having a little fun with a glass of wine and colored pencils while watching tosh.0.

middle: a jumper dress i made over the winter from ikea yardage. it’s the same 70s vintage pattern i used to make this green jumper and this orange jumper…

at the bottom: acrylic boxes, from the container store. i like how they look stacked and arranged; they remind me of buildings in a city. poppy LOVES playing with them; taking off the tops, putting stuff inside, stacking them, etc., etc.

as with hipstamatic…i can see this app being pretty addictive.

bits of color from inside the abode of yours truly. a bright respite for the eyes to rest upon during the longest days of this winter, as i am so tired of looking outside at the heaps of (dirty) snow. thank goodness this winter is wrapping up, FINALLY. yesterday we had a gloriously warm 60F day (in february??) and it was so amazing. a taste of what’s soon to come i hope. that groundhog better be right, damnit.

the last photo shows a granny stripe blanket i’ve got going, it’s still in progress as i write this. unsure how big it’s going to be in toto, it’s about 6 feet wide and about 3-4 feet long at this most current juncture. the yarns used within are from debbie stoller’s stitch nation line of yarns, in a rainbow gradation: bamboo ewe, full o’ sheep, and alpaca love. i really like the saturated colors in the line; just my speed. the price is pretty darn affordable for the yardage, and the yarns are easy to find (michaels and joann fabrics both carry the ranges, the latter having more colors of each type, if not all of them). awesome. and it crochets up incredibly fast. win win win.

it’s been kind of busy around here lately, especially on the weekends. personal changes are in the works…not at privy (due to my ongoing and persistent superstitions) to discuss anything quite yet, but will do so when the time is right. *crossing fingers*

a little fibery something something:

i’ve been wanting to try circular weaving since i saw these circular woven pieces on nothing is new. the idea is really neat and ridiculously simple, and seemed like a good way to use up random bits of yarn (of which i have ridiculous amounts). read on that site that kelly referenced the book weaving without a loom when making hers…so i bopped over to amazon and scored a cheap copy of said book. finally got around to trying out weaving in this way today. i’ve basically got it, just have to work out some kinks in understanding the method and how to finish it, but generally i think it’s pretty badass and hooboy, it gives me a lot of ideas!

p.s. this blog post about circular weaving seems helpful, in case the notion of such things intrigues you as well…

been spending the last several days (read: the weekend to now) making pinwheel patchwork blocks, using some beige twill i thrifted ages ago (so long ago i can’t remember when or where i found it), and scraps of silks, cottons, cords and blends. found the instructions for this block in a great patchwork-making book i snagged at purl at some point last year, 501 rotary-cut quilt blocks by judy hopkins.

each block is about 12.5 inches square, and i’ve got about 16 of them, so i’m probably going to gather them up together and make some kind of 4 x 4 foot square wall-hanging thing. never mind that i have no more free wall space on which to hang such a hanging…

i’ve found myself wanting to do a lot of quilting of late, or patchwork, really. wanting to play with fabric, color, design using patchwork as my medium. but not always wanting to go to the trouble of making a bed-sized behemoth. so i’m only committing myself to small-ish wall-hangings (like this one), and i’m having a lot of fun…

groovy lamps at my doctor’s office, and an amazing 1970s print that lives on one of the walls at the greenwich library’s main branch. i want to steal it.

shown here sportin’ a denim jumper i whipped up friday/saturday, from some new denim and a vintage simplicity pattern (circa 70s). this pattern to be exact (simplicity 5021):

sometimes people ask me where i get my inspiration from…
my best answer?
musty old patterns like this one. i especially love those that hail from the 1970s and 80s. those two versions on the right of the above pattern are so killer; i’d wear the outfits shown in a heartbeat.

because i’m curious: does anyone know if there’s a site for reviewing old sewing patterns, kind of like patternreview.com but something that’s for older patterns/out of date patterns and the crazy people who like to sew them (aka, people like yours truly)?

my final take? this particular pattern would probably be more suitable for a gal with a mile long torso and minimal boobage (like the drawings, haha!) (aka not me!), but i like it anyway.

been obsessing over aprons/pinafores/jumpers/overalls lately, esp. in denims or colored denims. another permutation of my workwear love, rearing it’s head, surely. i’ve been scouring etsy and ebay for old, interesting apron/apron jumper/overalls patterns like mad over the past couple months. have been amassing quite a little collection of said patterns.

other pertinent info:

-black and white striped tee: ralph lauren. thrifted in chicago
-apron: see above
-black and white polka dot leggings: uniqlo
-black shorty cowboy boots: frye
-brass fulani earrings: beads of paradise in manhattan
-goldtone cloud ring: adelineaffre.com

catching up again…there’s a lot going on personally and with family and we’ve been pretty overwhelmed.

anyway…

seen here getting ready to go get brunch, and then groceries, etc, back on the 7th.

i just finished this sweater, it’s the “swing pullover/bell sleeve turtleneck sweater” from knit simple’s fall 2010 issue (ravelry link). i’ve been crazy obsessed with garter stitch for a while. and the color yellow. so i pretty much did this one exactly as shown on the cover/in the mag.

this was a ridiculously fun and easy knit, but their instructions for finishing the neck area (in my opinion) are incomplete in the pattern as written. wrote them. unsurprisingly, got no reply. finished it my own way. whatever.

i’m calling it my “ronald mc big bird sweater”. that said i love it so. might make it in say, gray someday. it’s crazy cozy and comfortable but does weigh half a squillion pounds.

other deets:

-yellow thermal long sleeve tee: old navy, thrifted
-vintage levi’s 501’s: etsy
-red resin ring: dinosaur designs
-striped bag: from a vendor at the BAM africa festival summer 2010.
-red patent ankle boots: nordstrom’s rack in chicago
-acid yellow hat: crocheted by moi
-red acrylic earrings: UO
-crocheted scrumble pin: made in a freeform crochet class linda p. and i took years ago.
-star pin: thrifted in SF

on miss p.:

-hat: handknit by her great aunt patty (thought i lost it when she was around 6-7 months, found it in an old purse yesterday and almost cried!)
-red plaid windbreaker: polarn o. pyret
-pleated jeans: baby gap
-moto boots: target

more personal news of a crafty/”hey-i’m-published-again” sort: i’ve got a knitting pattern published in debbie stoller’s newly-released tome, stitch and bitch superstar knitting! it’s the “empire strikes back dress,” which can be found page 293. it was formerly known as the age of acid empires sweater dress (my original name for it), it’s the same dress i’m wearing in this ancient wardrobe_remix pic:

i’m so tickled that debbie chose to style the sweater with a contrasty color scheme (and have it modeled by a redhead!). hee hee!

thank you, thank you, thank you, debbie for letting me be a part of your book! this one, like all the others, is bound to be a big success…it’s chock-full of great info and knitting knowledge and debbie’s usual bon mots…and the patterns featured within are pretty frickin’ killer. a little something for everyone: cables, lace, beading, and so much more. GO GET A COPY.

and to anyone who ever emailed me, commented at me, or pestered me via ravelry about whether a pattern for this sweaterdress would ever be available, here you go. enjoy.

also: if you ever make this dress, or a variation of it, email me! i’d love to see other people’s twists or versions of it!