i keep seeing boots and shorts done up really well (like so), so i thought i’d have a go at it.
also this was a really cheap outfit. the only thing i possibly paid full price for was these shorts, which was at least five years ago… i don’t wear shorts often, but it was very close to 100 degrees today, and we do not have central air.
do you want the good news or the bad news first?
let’s just tear off the band-aid, shall we?
i have a cold. i am extremely upset about this.
but! the good news is….
after wrestling with various programs for several hours, i made and uploaded my first knitting pattern, free and available to you!
burning ring of fire is a quick fun knit, perfect for movie theatre knitting, or tv watching, or last minute gifting!
happy knitting!
ravelry was tempting me today. i saw some really beautiful patterns that made me want to go out and buy new yarn (like this shawl and this one too, plus i pinned this yesterday, that would be pretty easy to knit!). and then i remembered that i was broke. well, not broke, but all of my money is busy doing other things. but it makes me feel broke, sometimes. oh, yeah, and i’m trying to stash bust…
and somehow feeling broke makes me want to go shopping? i bought a bracelet for $1 today. and then, when i got home, there was more jewelry waiting for me! so today, i wore no jewelry all day at work, but now, lounging at home in a hand-me-down t-shirt from my grandpa (read: grandma made him put it in the rag box, and i stole it out of there because that’s when t-shirts are their softest) i am wearing two bracelets and two necklaces.
enough chit-chat! pictures now:
isn’t it pretty? this yarn is scrum-diddly.
this view makes me happy. i love these vibrant cords with the cheerful polish.
if all goes well, i should have a surprise for you guys very soon! i know, don’t you love vague promises? i hate ’em too. but i’m terrible at keeping secrets (jake always guesses what his presents are), so i have to say something…
navy blouse/olive tank/chocolate skinny cords… j. crew
brown faux leather purse/black faux-lace-up boots… target
the heat wave we’ve been having finally broke! i took advantage of the situation to celebrate a season i’m looking forward to: fall.
i’m also dipping into some of the inspiration i found but could not use during my 30 for 30. and! to give full credit where credit is due, jake came up with this outfit.
i missed these boots so much during the 30 for 30… last year, i put my winter boots away so well that i didn’t find them again until a few weeks ago. so finally in january, i sprang for a new pair of boots (these, in case i’m not being clear enough here). and then i wore them everyday! almost. i loves them.
they’ve been done for eons now. maybe not eons… but i honestly can’t remember when i finished them, which means it was probably at least a month ago? thanks to caitlin for lending me her feetsies for models.
FO: enter-stage right-parakeet <– ravelry project page
why the name? i honestly couldn’t tell you.
pattern: garter rib socks from sensational knitted socks (i own tooooo many sock patterns. they are totally my weakness. i own scads and scads of them. every time i think ‘no, i can’t buy any more sock books, surely i have enough for one lifetime,’ i find two more sock books i’m pretty certain i can’t live without. it’s a strange illness to have.)
yarn: some lovely bright koigu kppm that was a christmas present from me gram.
needles: US size 2 (2.75 mm)
the only mods i made were to keep doing the garter rib down the heel flap. although i’m not sure what counts as a mod for this pattern book, as everything is customizable. i think it was nikkinimble who extolled the virtues of this book, and if anyone can inspire me to knit socks, it’s her.
as you may or may not know, i have been trying to stash bust. i have enough projects mapped out, yarn at the ready, to last me for a little while. i’d like to get through some of those, instead of continually back-burner-ing them.
my rain on bricks was actually a partial stash-buster. between some christmas yarn jake bought me, with the additional yarn purchased with gift certificates, i managed to not spend any money on the yarn. but the cowl didn’t use up all of the skeins, so i couldn’t technically count them as de-stashed. so i came up with another plan.
toast! i modified the stripe sequence to suit a much much smaller tube of knitting, inverted the colors, and knit a couple of rows flat to make a thumbhole for maximum flexibility.
one down, one to go. if this doesn’t use up the majority of the leftover yarn, i might have to make a matching hat!
i don’t need to look chic or trendy everyday. but i would like to look intentional. put together. even if it’s just jeans and a t-shirt, i’d like it to look curated as well as comfortable.
there’s actually two pieces that never made it into any final outfits (grey shorts, and a grey tank. i chose too many grey items, i tell you!). so this is really more of a 28 for 30 remix… next time: more color, more variance in my selection (two knee length black skirts? really? how many grey t’s? c’mon!), more flats, less heels (when confronted with everyday comfort decisions, flats won. i may still try to use heels, but i gotta be real about the decisions i’m likely to make, too.).
and looking at a hundred magazines won’t tell me what looks good on me. you know what will? looking at a hundred pictures of me, wearing clothes i always wear.
links, links, oh my! all the links:
1: monday blues
2
3: meet the fleet
4: a checkered past
5: Friday a la Margot
6: Galena holiday
7: Monday Meh
*8: will you allow it?
9 & 10: twofer
*11: palescale
*12: gamine
13
14: memory parking lot
15: kiss with a fist
16
17: sassypants
18: like a pirate
19: freedloader
20
21: vingt et un
22: camp counselor
23: i mean raisins
vintage 24
*25: plaid & pines
26: hey!
27: plantagenet cherokee
*28: katherine hepburn
29: the penultimate peril
30: full circle
* are the outfits that i had never tried before, and i really liked them… these will be repeat offenders.
i definitely intend to do another 30 for 30 in the fall. i’ve really enjoyed this process, but in the mean time should i keep sharing my outfits? it probably wouldn’t be a daily thing. but two to three times a week is certainly a possibility. what do you think, guys? have you enjoyed this departure from my usual knitting stuff? would you be interested in my continued efforts to look presentable? is there anything i’m missing here? do you guys think i got any better at this outfit making endeavor?
belt and knee-highs? j. crew (are you surprised?)
i realized that i had all of the elements of the first outfit inspired by kendi. then i figured: what’s more appropriate for my 30th outfit than the one that sparked this all?
i thought i would try to do this cute row of buns. it worked, but it didn’t look great. i’ll give it another try or two before i give it up, but this first try wasn’t so successful (note that you are getting a cropped picture of only one side of my head…).
not to be whatever or anything, but guys? i can wear ANYTHING i want tomorrow! i have missed my motorcycle boots, my cowboy boots, and my black boots… and harry potter the other night made me miss my chambray shirt.
next up: roundup of all of the outfits, and my reflections upon this little venture of mine.
okay, so maybe i stole that title from lemony snicket. he’s a pretty good one to steal from, though.
i don’t know what it was… maybe because we were both hungry and tired after a long day at work, in the beginning of a heatwave that promises that it will feel like 109 degrees fahrenheit tomorrow (42.7 celcius), but jake wasn’t really liking the pictures he took today, and i didn’t really like the way i looked in the pictures today. i don’t think i’m happy with the way this outfit looks. this is a great example of this process working. i based this outfit off of a totally cute one (oh, pinterest, i never could’ve done this 30 for 30 without you…), and when dressed, this outfit did not raise any red flags in the mirror. but even after all of that, i’m not really into it.
in other news, tomorrow marks my 30th outfit!
bright white ruffly blouse? lands end. i am always wary of wearing bright white. i tend to spill on it… today it was coffee. but my scarf was near to cover up the damage.
today’s scarf was one of the last things i bought at the downtown marshall fields (sniff!). i still loathe that it is now macy’s. tut tut.
jake told me i looked like katherine hepburn today! (i just pinned her!) what an awesome compliment… i don’t think this is the face that inspired that comment:
squint… i tried that thing with my hair again, but this time i made the braids looser. i like it a lot. it meets all of my requirements for daily hairdo’s: it takes under five minutes, it doesn’t require products, and i don’t get a headache within 20 minutes. brilliant.
ifandany 