so, if you read kessa‘s blog, you will have perhaps noticed that she and i indulged in a swap?
she got her package (a while ago, actually… i’m a little behind in my blogging) so now i can tell you guys all about what i made for her!
FO: rosy fingered dawn <– ravelry project page
named after homer’s usual description of eos, goddess of dawn, in the odyssey.
pattern: a mash-up of annis and echo flower shawl
yarn: madelinetosh dk in molly ringwald (isn’t that a great name for this sweet pink?), exactly two skeins. i think i had maybe 5 feet of yarn left after binding off this shawl. approximately 450 yards.
needles: US size 9 (5.5mm)
mods: well, obviously, this is true to neither pattern. when i saw elven‘s lothlorien, i just fell head over heels in love with it. so i used the same mods: the crescent shaping and length of annis, and the last two lace charts of echo flower.
it took me a few tries to get the crescent shape where i wanted it to be. in case you guys are trying to do something similar, i added an additional 6 stitches to each row, in the usual manner of the annis shaping, and that got me a gently curved edge that i like. this is such a great, versatile shape. i can imagine picking practically any lace edging from a stitch dictionary and applying it to this shape and having a satisfying result.
it’s neither here nor there, but when it came time to do my nupps, i got over-excited and made bobbles instead for the entirety of the first row (40 total, i think?). only to facepalm when it came time to purl back. ^_^ ah, well. one row ain’t so terrible.
this is probably the most color accurate. i loved the quiet peachy tones, but you gotta get right up in the shawls business to see them. they remind me of the color of the inside of a seashell.
the echo flower shawl had a bind off that i hadn’t seen used before, which doubled the yarn and had the knitter purling the bind-off row. if the shawl was knit up in a thinner yarn, lace or fingering weight, and were a low or loose ply, i think this would have the effect of weighing down the edging, and helping it to drape better. i’m not convinced that it will have the same effect with madelinetosh dk, which is sturdy, stout, and tightly plied. but i gave it a go, if for no other reason than novelty.
images of kessa are from her blog, and used with her permission. if you wanna check out what else she got in her package, she blogged it, which is good, considering i totally forgot to document it. ^_^ thanks, kessa!
i’m not sure how much of this has been made glaringly apparent to those of you lovely enough to read my blog, but this winter has been a hard slog for me. literally, the season. i’ve been feeling low energy for several months, and in some serious need of sunshine. i mostly just want to be sitting on the couch.
that having been said, i can still appreciate the season when it throws some beauty my way. helllllo snowstorm!
driving home from work today was slow and arduous (my car is not built for weather. but it can deal with weather. slowly and arduously.) and when i wasn’t watching oncoming traffic slowly fishtailing it’s way towards me with a sense of impending panic, or working on minimizing the amount of panic which other drivers felt when watching me drive, i loved the recreated landscapes around me.
i’ve always enjoyed weather. i have some fantastic childhood memories of hours spent playing in snowstorms and rainstorms. of going out with a stick to clear dead leaves from the drains on the street and becoming mesmerized by the changing paths of the water, or hauling on every piece of cold weather gear to go see the new alien landscapes of familiar sights after a big snow.
we’ve had a few good snows already this year, and everytime i think i should get out there and document some of the things i love to see. but i never do. so today, when i got home there was still an hour or so of daylight left, and after succumbing to the siren call of the couch and a cup of hot chocolate, i forced myself upward and outward, to take a little walk with my camera in the snow.
beautiful world we live in, innit? i stopped for a cuppa joe and a chocolate chip cookie (best bakery made chocolate chip cookie i’ve ever had!).
i wore the red hat i just finished. it’s for the pinterest challenge:
i ran out of red part-way through. it was a partial skein, and i thought i’d have enough, but the garter sucked up a bit more yarn than i accounted for. i supplemented with the same grey as my last stockholm cowl, pulled out from a thrifted sweater. i like it tremendously, but i can’t quite decide whether to pursue a big fluffy pom pom like my inspiration source. would it detract from the colorblock? what do you think?
i saw this lonesome rose petal hanging out by itself, and i found it terribly evocative. bruised and marooned a week after valentines, on the cold cold street. oh, you lovely thing.
my nails are awfully fancy right now. the old gold is s-age is just a number from sephora. anyone have any light to shed on that name? the lines (inspired by this pin) are just black sharpie, with a top coat dashed on top.
i pinned this grey striped button down from free people, and then later that evening jake and i watched shawshank redemption (so good), and their prison shirts were remarkably similar, so i thought maybe i ought to wear my grey striped shirt.
i like that it has contrasting fabric inside. i always find that a nice touch. i put a little extra effort in via a stack of bracelets that jingled and jangled all day long.
my clean slate cowl has been getting a lot of wear since i finished it. i got the pin at the flea market, and immediately used it to pin the cowl closed, which makes it much warmer. i don’t know what such a gigantic industrial pin was used for, but i love it on my chunky cowl.
those brussels sprouts. because they are one of the best recipes the internet has brought me. fast, delicious, healthy, cheap. we eat them close to once a week. we’ve modified them to add a slice or two of bacon (trader joes has this great turkey bacon. so good that it’s become out default bacon. less guilt, yo.) chopped up with the sprouts. and this time i had some broccoli left over from something else, so i chucked them in, and hey, why not a little onion, and it was so good with a little sriracha on top!
talk at me guys. any nails catching your fancy? spent more time wondering about the names of nail polishes than they probably merit recently? or lipstick. those usually have fun names, too. what’s the best recipe you’ve found on the internet?
yay! it’s time for the winter 2013 pinterest challenge! i love these things.
here are some thoughts:
Source: designsponge.com via Eliza @ ifandany on Pinterest
i have some shoe boxes doing storage type business in the bathroom closet. that’s all well and good, but gee, they’d look better covered in some maps… or any kind of patterned/more cohesive looking paper.
Source: melissaesplin.com via Eliza @ ifandany on Pinterest
i inherited a cute tie-front polka dot blouse (this one, actually), and i think i’d like it even more if i altered the neckline.
Source: google.com via Eliza @ ifandany on Pinterest
i think this is super duper cute! i tend to save jars… only, i don’t really have an end goal for this…
Source: ravelry.com via Eliza @ ifandany on Pinterest
i’ve been meaning to knit some inro socks for a while…. and they are fairly chunky gauge, so i might be able to accomplish that in a week?
Source: farm7.static.flickr.com via Eliza @ ifandany on Pinterest
i fell in love with the idea of a red garter/reverse stockinette hat with a giant pom pom when i saw this picture, though i have yet to pursue it.
will any of you participate? what are you thinking of doing? any other suggestions for me?
FO: clean slate cowl <– ravelry project page
pattern: state street cowl
yarn: from a thrifted outdated gap sweater that i pulled apart.
needles: US size 11 & 13
mods: well, i knit this up on slightly smaller needles, as i don’t believe i own 15 circulars. and considering how massive this knit up on smaller needles, i think it’s a good thing! also, technically i did one row wrong, but good luck figuring out which one!
this is a pattern i’ve had a crush on for quite a while, and after my push to finish a couple of obligation knits at the end of 2012, i wanted to work on a purely selfish knit. but my queue of obligation knits is still a little long, so the large gauge and low yardage of this recommended it. clean slate is a bit of a misnomer, but calling it that made me feel a little better…
also shown: my harry! hat (ravelry project page, blog post). back to my backlog of knitting and my frontlog of obligations!
remember my broadcast sweater? i cast on for it in november of 2011, and made quite good progress on the torso, until i tried it on and it was too big.
since then, it’s languished. quietly. in a large pile with a bunch of other hibernating knits that bring on spasms of guilt when i look at/contemplate them. once or twice a year i’ll get the urge to finish one of them and then feel extra good about myself. i did actually bring it on my trip to england, at your suggestion, but i got less knitting done than i ever could have guessed on that trip, and it was all ‘mindless cowl knitting’, not ‘have to pay attention to row number and stitch count’ sweater knitting.
but i decided to work on it now, as i have a little time between projects. i have some yarn coming in the mail to start swatching for a semi-large-ish project (stockings, hopefully to be done in time for christmas 2013), and several hats that i will need to start on soon, but for the moment, i wanted to actually make progress on something i’d already started.
see that little dark stripe at the top above? i bought a fourth skein completely separate from the other three (and i just bought a fifth), and even though they looked similar in the skein, of course it was just a little different. which i knew would drive me bonkers in a finished knit. so i tore back to the end of the last skein, and i’m now alternating between the two skeins to minimize any color shifts.
i’m working my way up the second sleeve right now. i think i’m going to modify the neckline to a lowish scoopneck, as opposed to the tall boatneck called for in the original.
and that’s all the news that’s fit to print on this slow news day!
psst- julie over at knitted bliss featured me for her modification monday this week! scoot on over and take a peek!
there was a flea market this weekend! jill & i sacrificied a sleeping-in and went in the morning. i made a great haul.
my biggest purchase was the fan. i’ve been looking for an old school fan for at least a year now, and actually picked up a vintage looking fan from target last year, because the actual vintage fans i was finding in the vintage interior design stores in chicago had… unfriendly price tags. (but andersonville is a really fun place to window shop). this guy was a breezy $24. i was soooo excited.
this was one of the first things i saw. i have a weak spot for blue greens (have you noticed?), and this was at the bottom of a pile of wool blankets (another weak spot).
i’m beginning to have a bit of a collection….
which is kind of silly as i’m the only person who doesn’t mind that they are wool.
after admiring anna’s beautifully beaten up new wooden table earlier this week, i had wood and the kitchen on the mind. and let’s not forget my girl crush ariele and her gorgeously organic shaped cutting boards and cheese boards. so when i saw this guy:
(love the layered texture of warm old wood with the veined marble!)
and the other side:
i ask you: how could i resist?
and speaking of futile resistance:
um… old industrial ampersand? yes please and thank you, that is for me.
i didn’t buy everything i found, obviously. i had to leave this gorgeous 1940’s navajo woven rug, because they wanted $265 for it.
(oh, beautiful purple-y grey woven rug, you shall live in my dreams!)
and this cabinet had a good price tag, and excellent colors:
but had the lingering scent of a smokey home, and no place to go in the apartment. (plus if i’d bought the cabinet, it would have had to be my only purchase)
and i love this slogan:
For Making Good Things to Eat.
touche, wesson!
what do you look for a flea markets?
last FO post from my 2012 knits. only a few weeks late, no biggie! i only finished it in march! of 2012! and these pictures were taken in december!
FO: colorblock cowl <– ravelry project page
pattern: angora snood
yarn: wolle rodel kid-mohair, 4 skeins (one lilac, 2 purple, 1 blue), 440 yards (total. each skein is 110 yards)
needles: US size 6 (4mm)
the yarn was a present from my grandparents, who brought it back from a trip to southern germany.
isn’t the halo the funnest thing to photograph when it comes to mohair?
i usually only document outfits when i feel like i am making some kind of effort. i put on a blouse, or a skirt, or coordinate things in a new way, or bothered to put on jewelry (although you may have noticed that i tend to stick to the same pieces for like a month before rotating them for something else). for a change of pace, here’s an outfit with no real effort. slouchy jeans, t-shirt, big cardigan, warm boots. can you get more comfortable?
target gifted cardigan – thrifted h&m striped tee, boyfriend jeans – l.l. bean bean boots
this necklace doesn’t count as effort, as i haven’t taken it off for a month. taking it off would have been more of an effort! i like this outfit at least as much as some of my fancier outfits. but i feel kind of cheater-y posting it because it is so easy. but it’s the weekend! weekends are for sitting on the couch and knitting sweater sleeves, and occasionally sneaking in some housework, all while drinking coffee and listening to music, right? that’s my story, and i’m sticking to it!
Source: cestelle.tumblr.com via Eliza @ ifandany on Pinterest
i have a mad ridiculous crush on the dior oui ring. it’s cute and romantic and the tiniest bit twee but also kind of sophisticated… and while i’m not a girl who really cares about brand names, i’ve perused the knockoffs, and none of them have the same satisfyingly sleek yet sweet undulating quality that so attracts me to this one. sigh! i feel utterly silly for my little material crush.
Source: leblogdelamechante.fr via Eliza @ ifandany on Pinterest
this lipstick! is it the perfect valentine’s shade? MAYBE! delicious! (also, hey, you know, if you happen to have any vintage/vintage inspired amazing shirtdresses just hanging around? share the love, baby!)
Source: apri-cots.tumblr.com via Caroline on Pinterest
it is a fact often acknowledged that i am among the vanilla-est of people. and this does not bother me in the least. keep your fancy cookies and refined palettes! give me allllll of the sugar cookies with buttercream frosting that exist in the world!
and sometimes you don’t need romance, you need BRO-mance!
Source: somethingstupidornormalorhmmm.tumblr.com via Eliza @ ifandany
wooster & jeeves, i could watch you all day long.
Source: etsy.com via Eliza @ ifandany on Pinterest
sherlock & watson, same goes for you, buddies!
(oh and just since we are on the subject…)
Source: sherlock.soup.io via Eliza @ ifandany on Pinterest
clicky-click on through each picture for their source!
ifandany 
