Toasty Warm Toes

My growing sock collection!  With a ball of Crazy Zauberball thrown in for good measure.  I’ve posted some of these before, but wanted to showcase one of my new favorite things about winter.  Handknit socks!

 My “vanilla” socks.  As I often knit sweaters and rarely can resist the temptation to go offroading when I do, it’s a real treat to have one type of knitting project where I can fall back on safe, boring predictability.  Especially of late – I seem to have less and less patience for fussy crafting.  I just want to knit rectangles.  Even hats, with their decreases and brims – oh heavens! – can stall for weeks on end.  One thing I like about these is the reinforced heel flap, as that is often where my socks wear thin.  Mmmm … so warm and comfy.

Vanilla with sprinkles on top.  You’ve might recognize the pair on the far left.  Gosh I love this pattern!  The fit is superb, the pattern is simple enough to memorize but incredibly neat and fun.  It really is about as easy as a vanilla pattern, but with a very light twist to it.  I highly recommend.  I actually knit up a fourth pair for Grammy before she passed away.  She always delighted in wearing them and looking at the bright pinks and purples and reds, but my parents never let me leave them with her at the nursing home because they thought the staff would just lose them in the wash.  So I brought them with me whenever I visited her, and when she passed away I slipped them into her casket during the viewing.  Is that morbid?  Personally, I like the thought of my grandmother going to the next world with a warm pair of socks that had been stitched with love.

Roo posted up an interesting sock pattern that looks like it could become my next vanilla-esque sock pattern.  Chocolate chip, perhaps?

Environmental Symbolism (subtitled: Fall in Portland)

Otherwise, fall is always a nice time in Portland – brisk, still sunny but with a changing quality to the light, and this city was really made for scarves and sweaters and tights and boots, I think.  Some years we get gorgeous leaves that stay on the trees, some years a huge rain tears them off just as they turn that lovely golden color.  I get the feeling that this year will be the latter, but that’s OK.  Went for a hike yesterday in a state park near my apartment, and the smell was just divine.

Awhile ago, a writer friend and I exchanged a series of emails about life, love, jobs, and change – all the good stuff! – and I included the above paragraph as a closer.  He wrote back:

God damn you can write! It's hard to put my finger on it but the words... each one tugs me forward into the next sentence and paragraph. Things line up so beautifully non-sequitur. Just a pause to say how truly gifted you are. 

I'm wondering if that...your skill... is why I began to tear up over the last paragraph. That was just so beautiful a description. Beautiful and melancholy, which is a perfect descriptor for the whole of my being right now. In this moment I'm sad; no, "tired" would be the better word.

His response was a pleasant surprise (his state of mind nonwithstanding, although you’ll gather from our list of email topics that it was a heavy exchange).  Although I don’t think it was my words alone that caused him to tear up.  I’d guess he felt an emotional resonance with the words and saw his current emotional state mirrored within them.

And that made me think about “environmental symbolism” in writing, a new-to-me term that describes when a writer uses environmental descriptions to symbolize the mood of a character or storyline.  Usually when I think about description in writing, I think about: set the scene.  Help the reader “see” the location so that they’re pulled into the story and are not confused about where they are and what’s going on.  If you’re in a foreign locale, setting is exotic and fun!  Invite the reader to want to be there too!

This email exchange was a good reminder that description can set the mood, too.  I wasn’t thinking about mood when I wrote that paragraph – but I can see how this description could really set the mood.  As a writer, it’s always interesting to see how other people react to your words.  You’re in there in the weeds, mired in tunnel vision, so familiar with your half-excavated gems that you lose perspective on how your words might come across to the reader.  And now that I'm working my way through a second draft, it's reminded me that the seasons of the year sometimes correspond well to the mood of the narrator.  For instance, most of my book centers on two distinct time periods in the narrator's life, and each time, fall has actually been a time of decay in her life, followed by a seeming "dormant" winter season of turmoil of death, and then a "spring" of hope and new directions.  So now I plan to be more intentional about incorporating descriptions of the weather, scenery etc. that reflect the narrator's mood and personal growth.  Pretty cool stuff.

Some random thoughts on writing during this cold and blustery day!  Hope you’re staying warm!

Archer #1 + Moss #2 = Sunny Days

Archer #1.  Refashioned from an old men's shirt.  Gosh, I love this thing.  I didn't have enough fabric for the cuffs so I made, er, a cuff "facing" and decided that bracelet length was just the thing.  I often roll up the sleeves anyways.  I always feel perfectly chic in a slightly slouchy way, every time I put this thing on.  It's a look that's hard to pull off, but in Archer, I feel like I can do it.  This look is growing on me.

Moss #2.  Mustard cotton twill, zero stretch.  With one of Tasia's labels~ I love them so!  I eased the waistband by 1" on my last Moss, and really wish I'd done so on this one as well.  It allows the waistband to hug just enough that the skirt doesn't scoot around during the day, and yet doesn't feel restrictive.  (Mark Center Back notch, mark side seams; cut waistband 1/4" shorter than pattern calls for in 4 places: along the right front, left front, right back between side and CB notch, left back between side and CB notch.  Ease in 4 places.  Super simple)

What I love even more than my Archer and my new Moss?  Wearing the two of them together.  Archer #1 goes pretty smashingly with Moss #1, but this is such a happy, sunny combination, I think it's got me won over.

And just in time.  Moss #1 was starting to look a little faded and worn (I wear it multiple times each week if I can help it).  Plus, what says "fall" like a splash of mustard?

Hope your fall sewing has been going well so far :-).

Outfit post: summer dress into fall (plus some ramblings)

Around this time of year, the weather around here vacillates between summer and fall.  The San Francisco bay area is notorious for its Indian summer come September and October (really, the best time of year to visit the area), but between the fog and the shortening days, we also have our share of cooler days as well.

Awhile ago I commented to Scruffy Badger that my wardrobe planning/purchasing/making tends to go by my rules of "5"s which are my personal guidelines for a wardrobe that is cohesive, functional, minimal "enough," with a little room for spontaneity.  Will I get $5/wear out of this?  Does it go with at least 5 other items of clothing that I already own (items in the "to make" list don't count)?  Can I wear it through 5 months (or 3 seasons)?

This outfit is a classic example (wouldn't it look great with a skinny mustard belt for a wee bit of color?).  I try to make or buy summer dresses that can also layer into spring and fall, and if I can't think up at least a couple ways to layer a summer dress so that it can bleed into the months that bread-end summer, I don't make it.  I call this my "eager intern" blazer because I thrifted it while sourcing wardrobe for a short film I was working on, and though the actress who played our eager intern didn't wind up using it, I kept it in my wardrobe because it was a neutral, cropped (therefore pairing well with dresses), and a bit funky.  For me, I find that a few carefully selected layering pieces can go a long ways.  Cardigans, little jackets, leggings or tights, scarves and boots all fall into this category, and really, you only need 1 or 2 of each.

This morning as I lay in bed I reread parts of Your Money or Your Life, and just as I reached the part about "enough" and the peak of the fulfillment curve I happened to glance up at my open closet, and I thought, "I have a nice closet of dresses.  Most certainly enough."

(As an aside, it's interesting to note the composition of this suite of dresses.  5 are handmade, 5 come from China, 3 are thrifted, 1 comes from a boutique in Oakland, and 1 was handmade by an Etsy seller.  I am fine with this ratio.  Also interesting, for somebody who doesn't claim to like black very much, I have a lot of black dresses.  Brown and red/orange, too.  What's funny is that my favorite color is blue.  I'd love to add yellow or purple into the mix.  Is 15 too many summer dresses?  Probably, but I'm OK with it.  By the end of next summer, I imagine at least 2 or 3 of these will be gone from the mix.)

Now that my crafting mojo has returned, I have this impossibly long list of makes that I've been itching to get at, but this morning I realized that really, I don't need most of them.  And the mental stress of ploughing through the list doesn't seem very satisfactory, somehow.  This is even more true come fall, since between my love for knitting sweaters and making/refashioning skirts, I already have more than "enough."

So I lay down the book and mentally reevaluated the list to winnow out the "lark" projects and focus in on what fit that sweet spot of wardrobe "gaps" (taking the word loosely) and projects that excite me.  The list is now about half as long, which feels good.  Yes, I still plan to knit sweaters and sew skirts because those are my indulgence handmades, the things I love to make and thus will not deny myself because we all need a couple indulgences in life.  Just not quite so many. 

2011: Year in Review

Hm ... looks like I did one of these in April. Let's see if I learned any lessons from that round, shall we?

Hits of 2011 ... garments I like the most, garments that have received the most comments, garments that are the most "me" for whatever reason.

Handknits:



Handsewn:



Whimsical, quirky, bright, cheerful. I like garments, artwork, housewares, accessories, decorations that have personality and spunk, and more and more I have started making clothing that fits that description, too. I like this. I hope to continue this trend in 2012. Take my time and make it my own. If I'm going to take the time to make it, I might as well make it really, really me ... and since quirky and details are where I'm at, I should take the time to invest in that 20/80 rule (where that last 20% that takes it from handmade to Heck Yeah I Handmade That! takes 80% of the effort).

Misses of 2011 ... all have been donated to Goodwill.



2011 has been a year of dresses for me, but sadly not of successfully handmade dresses. The two brown dresses were "meh" on fit so I never really wore them. The green dress I adore, but I accidentally put it in the dryer and it shrank and sadly had to be donated as well. There's something about getting dresses to hang right, figuring out where waistlines should fall, that I haven't mastered. Something to work on in 2012?

Most worn:



I said it back in April and I'll say it again --- daym, there is something amazingly cozy about the combination of silk/mohair and wool knit up on big needles! I love lounging around in these sweaters (or trying to hustle them into a business casual environment). Probably won't make anything with this same yarn combination this year (too busy loving these sweaters and working on stuff in tiny gauges), but maybe next year.

Unexpectedly durable:



For how ambivalent I feel about the fit of this blouse, I've worn it surprisingly often. The bright color and 2 rows of beautiful lace are what keep me reaching for it. It's a combination of masculine and feminine, vintage-inspired quirky that works in a modern workplace. When I'm in a rush to get dressed for work, this blouse is a no-brainer for me to look and feel myself yet appear "acceptable" to the rest of my colleagues.

Biggest lesson:



I thrift a lot of stuff. Including a lot of stuff with refashion potential. I really like this skirt but had very little to pair it with, hence gifting it to my roommate (who said these were her favorite colors). More and more, I'm realizing how "time" is my limited resource when it comes to crafting (time and eyesight), and that I need to be very judicious about which projects I choose to tackle. "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should" is something I've often said about academic and career choices, but I've been applying this more and more to crafting as well.

Here's to a good 2012 for all of you out there! Thanks for taking the time to drop by, read or comment, and for being the amazing, beautiful people that you are! This community has helped me stay true to myself and become the person I am today. You all are creative, inspiring people who rock!

Refashion #30 // Dress #8 :: Cranberry Cocktails

Holiday season means dressy occasion season! Though I cannot lie to you, I hate dressing up. I hate fussing with my hair and worrying about the fact that I haven't a clue how to put on makeup (Asian eyes! How does one "sweep eye shadow over the lid until the crease" when there is no crease???). I also hate fretting about the fact that I have no appropriately dressy clothing. Thankfully the thrifting gods have stepped in on that front, and after a couple lucky scores and a bit of elbow grease, I now have not one but two cocktail-esque dresses that I can prance about in.


So ... this started out its life as a prom dress. I think I'm wearing 2" heels in the "before" photo and it still drags on the ground.


Originally I was just going to use gather the bottom to a wide black elastic waistband to make a super poofy but festive skirt to layer over a lace tee (tres trendy ... but maybe tres 2011?), but then my mom gushed over how pretty the bodice was, and so I tried it on and it turned out it actually fit me! How's that for thrifting karma?

To make a long story short, I basically chopped it off at the waist, chopped again 20.5" from the bottom of the skirt, removed 2 of the back panels (it was a 7-panel dress), put in pleats at the skirt waist for a 50's-inspired silhouette, and stitched the whole thing back together. The pleats atop are inspired by Zoe and exist because I hate strapless dresses and was going to add in halter straps (and then use the pleats to disguise the hemline), but when I added them on they looked strange and I made the last-minute decision to remove them, which is why, at 6:15 on a Saturday evening, I was still hand-inserting the zipper (cocktails started at 6:00, oops!)



The dress is a stiff 100% silk with horsehair trim inserted into the hemline, which is why it has such body. I had to iron those pleats in to take down the poof! Word to the wise, be careful when pressing pleats into silk. Those things don't come out so you better get it right the first time around ... and it'll hang funny if you don't get the angles right (which I didn't, exactly). I think it really needed the velvet ribbon belt, but looking at photos of the dress on and the floppiness of the bow, I think I should just attach with a vintage-esque bling-y brooch next time around (I put the matching bow in my hair. You can see the dress in vivo below; I cropped my coworker's faces as I wasn't sure if they wanted to appear on this blog!)



Truthfully, I don't think this is the best look for me. I feel very ... square ... in this dress. My bust ratio is not terribly pronounced, as it is my shoulder:waist and waist:hip ratio that gives me the appearance of curves, yet strapless dresses like this one are all about the bust:waist ratio and showing off shoulders (but in a "check out how sculpted my shoulders look! I spent hours in the gym to get this look!" kind of way, and in an isolated, not tying-shoulders-into-rest-of-body-silhouette kind of way. And clearly, I am not somebody who sculpts her shoulder muscles ... I mean, these days the only workout they get is pushing fabric through a sewing machine or propping up a pair of knitting needles. Hm ... 2012, I'm lookin' at you!)

But on a positive note, at the company holiday party they surprised the members of the committee that I chair with an achievement award, which meant that when we went up to receive our award, 500+ people got to witness the dress in action. If ever there was a year to wear handmade to the company party, this was it. Viva La Refashion-lution!

And of course, because it's me, here's how I styled the dress during the chillier moments of the night ...

Postcards from the East Coast

Thank you all for the cardigan refashion love!!! As much as I love making things myself, it's always nice hearing that I'm not the only one crazy about crazily embellished cardigans =). I leave you with some photos from my recent trip to the East Coast. It was such a lovely week, full of good food, good people, and a good break away from life! Like a mini retreat. Such a treat, to be able to fly 5 hours and see some of my favorite people and sights!

New York:





And Boston:

'Twas the 19th of December, and all through the house

The holidays!!! Every year we decorate Thanksgiving weekend, and we're a family that likes to go all out in the decorations (if you're curious, there's more of that sparkly stuff circling the base of the television, for example). Unfortunately I'm working both Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve so it's not like I have more time for jolly-making this holiday season ... but my brother is coming home!!! So I'm super excited and determined to reserve some quality time with him one of these evenings. I think we're going to talk about, among other things, the rigors of med school (of which I know nothing), and that television series of his that he wants me to write (the one he anticipates will run, oh, a casual 6 or 7 seasons ... I think we need a new rule for this collaboration, and it is: Michael, I need you to take at least one writing class!)


Wow, there's nobody like my brother to get me off track. Anyways, back to the decorations. If you thought I had a lot of sweaters and skirts, then I'll need you to take a moment to check out our tree. Clearly, a tendency towards collecting, especially things that are 1) cute, 2) quirky, and 3) unusual, runs in the family. But, as you can imagine, it makes for a fabulous time with the holiday decorations! (and for Exhibit B in the collecting category, please refer back to the photo at the top of this post for that nutcracker collection)


If you were beginning to fret that we lacked for handmade in the decorations category, worry no more. Check out, for example, that fantastic beaded loop at the bottom left of the above photograph. That's a classy little number, isn't it? Now just imagine its brother, made of packing peanuts artfully colored every hue of the rainbow, strung up on yarn ... and then imagine that you are the mother who is receiving not one but two such lovelies because they are earrings, to be carefully looped, one over each ear! And imagine your daughter begging you to wear your lovely birthday gifts, and that you go so far as to parade them out to the grocery store, at which point the clerk takes one look at you and says, "Oh myyyyyyyyy" and you just smile. Really, you'd be about the best mother in the world.


This one always tugs at my heart, that bell. My brother crocheted that one, and I always marvel at how he was able to get the darned thing to curve. That's a pretty special one, especially since he's since retired his hook.


Anyways, not sure if I'll make it back to this space before 2011, so I just wanted to wish everybody the happiest end to 2010! This little blog has grown so much this past year, it's truly humbling and fills me with gratitude, although the best part has been getting to meet so many excellent people and to be able to participate in this great growth of creativity and inspiration that is the online crafting community ... well, really, anybody who has any affinity for beauty, for handmade, for art, for joy and serenity and empathy, and of course for food. You all rock. 1000000 times over.

Dessert Formulas For You!

A step up from improvised meals, in my opinion, are those baked goods where you just toss in a pinch of this, a handful of that, and wind up with dessert. For someone raised in the tradition of measuring cups, that's a pretty terrifying prospect [and mystifying process]. I do have two sweets in my arsenal that are more formula than recipe - the Tightwad Gazette universal muffins, which still makes liberal use of aforementioned measuring cups, and this crisp, passed on to me by a Swedish girl I met while WWOOFing in Washington State two summers ago.


Formula:

1) Melt 1 stick butter [or you can use softened butter, I never plan ahead sufficiently for this]. Mix in flour and sweetener in a 1:1 ratio until the mixture becomes clumpy.*

2) Sprinkle chopped fruit or berries** into a 9*13*** pan. The fruit should cover the bottom of the pan liberally.

3) Crumble crisp on top of fruit. Bake at 350 until the fruit bubbles. If topping has not browned by this point, then turn oven to broil for a few minutes.


Fast, easy, versatile! You can use any fruit you'd usually find in a pie [although I've never tried citrus], any type of flour you have on hand [I love adding oats with a bit of wheat flour], and any type of sweetener too [honey, which I've never personally tried, will probably need more flour to compensate for stickiness]. Also tastes lovely with a scoop of ice cream or plain yogurt. Works well as a last-minute dessert, to use up odd leftovers in the fridge, to disguise mushy fruit, and if you're low on funds like most graduate students are, apples are an economical and filling way to stretch out berries and the like in the filling.



*If you prefer your desserts less sweet, like I do, then add less sugar:flour. If you like your desserts more buttery, then you'll want to stop adding sweetener/flour sooner, when there are larger clumps. Less buttery, look for finer grain clumps. The best part is that you can taste as you go to see if your topping is too sweet or not sweet enough, and adjust accordingly.

** If you have a wet fruit like berries, coat with a spoonful or two of flour so that it will become gooey upon heating. If your fruit are not terribly ripe, also coat with a spoonful or two of sugar.

*** Can also be made in an 8*8 pan. Just use less butter ... like 3/4 of a cup or so.

Note: in this photo, I didn't have much fruit on hand. Usually there'd be twice as much fruit in this kind of crisp.

For Zonnah, Courtesy of Sigrid - The March First, Faux Spring Party

When I mentioned the difficulties I was having with February, Sigrid helpfully suggested celebrating like crazy when March rolled around, because that would signal the beginning of the hope for spring. And so I emailed one of my favorite crazy ladies here and asked if we could pleaes wear our matching summery pink flower shirts ... and she happily obliged.

Heh, I like how we unintentionally matched-but-not with the way we wore our shirts. Yeay! March!!!

The tail end of February

On Saturday, a group of us got together to celebrate yuanxiaojie:

Homemade tangyuan! Yum. The colored blobs are our peanut and sesame filling, which we then wrapped in glutinous rice paste and boiled. Deeeeeeee-lish-us. [and if you notice, there is one, ahem, dumpling in the mix with the round balls. That's because a certain, ahem, somebody couldn't get the hang of rolling these up in bals without breaking the glutinous rice wrapper, but I was told it was a beautiful dumpling shape. My friends 很会安慰别人, or they know exactly what to say to soothe your feelings. Ha!]

Sky; Seven-Up

Zonnah and I have banded together to help each other through the winter blues, helped in part by a suggestion by Sigrid. I'm emailing her my part of the deal since I don't think I'm going to be able to get myself together enough for regular photography, but here's what I noticed on my first day of noticing the outdoors:

today as i was walking to the bus stop, i noticed how quietly elegant the bare trees are against the brick buildings and bright blue sky. it may be cold as heck and windy to boot, but the saturation of a winter sky is really hard to beat. i hope i remember that when i no longer live in boston.

And, coincidentally enough, when I got home at night and opened my inbox, I saw my friend had emailed me this photo he took while running along the Charles River:


So, Zonnah, even though I myself wasn't able to capture my winter blue sky through the viewfinder, I hope you enjoy the view from Boston!

More blues. I've finished yet another skirt. Skirt #18 // Refashion #14: Seven-Up.

Started waaaaaaaaaay back in the day. Technically this is upcycled fabric instead of a true refashion, a velvety corduroy something or other I picked up at SCRAP the summer before grad school. I made the e. twin an a-line winter skirt last winter [making a friend a skirt without her measurements is just slightly terrifying, although I happen to know that we're both about the same size. About.] with this fabric, and had just enough to create an asymmetrical button-up fitted skirt, with seven fabric-covered buttons that would leave enough of a slit to be fun without being skanky.

Of coures, I forgot to do the "sit test" in the skirt, and so when I sit down it rides up and then there is minor skankiness. Have not quite figured out what to do about that yet, other than to limit its wear to days where I know I'll be sitting in a chair that I can roll under the desk in front fo me, and then I wear it with relish and head for the very back row of the classroom.

This is another self-drafted pattern. I included a self-drafted yoke and lined it, plus a hook at top to help keep everything closed. The finishing is not terribly pretty, but I can live with that. Selective pickiness about detailing, right?

The blue fabric I used to cover the buttons and for the yoke are all from the stash, mostly vintage scraps from my aunt, though the polka dot is from Joann's a couple years ago. When I was working in San Francisco I saw a girl with funky brown boots that had small blue fabric-covered buttons up each side that carried a similar mismatched vintage vibe, and that image has stuck with me ever since. Now if I could only find those boots.

It's just that month

Oh, February. At least we are over Hump Day of the hardest month of the year, also known as Valentine's Day [though those two facts are relatively unrelated], and this year, also known as Lunar New Year. Many days to celebrate!

Ack, but February. This time of year always gets to me despite the best of intentions. I know it's coming. I stock up on chocolate [probably a bad idea, given my indecent lack of self control]. I hunt up soup recipes, seasonal recipes. I snuggle into my handknits, flout Weather.com and pull out my skirts and an extra pair of socks. I've picked up [semi] regular exercise. I've even started making bread every weekend.

And yet it still creeps up on me. It's a slight melancholy, a slight despair. A slight unendingness, sameness, that drives me bonkers and makes me wish I was anywhere but here, even though I was anywhere but here just four weeks ago. It's feeling both trapped and that the soothing routines are somehow not quite enough, if that makes sense. I know that sometimes winter is just gotten through one day at a time, but when you're stuck in that muddy middle ground it can be hard to prop up those flagging spirits.



So. How do you get through winter?

Going Incognito

The instant I spotted this pattern on Ravelry, I laughed out loud, clapped my hands, and immediately started planning a couple gifts for some friends I'd be seeing in California ...




It's so hard to resist something like this when you have a running joke about mustaches with multiple friends. I'm telling you, the next mustache party that comes up ... watch out world!

So. It's a cowl that can be pulled up for full effect or pushed down to warm your neck, kind of like an inside joke because nobody else can tell the mustache is there. If it's hard to see where the cowl ends and my sweater begins, that's because I had 1+ balls of yarn leftover from Ingenue [photos to come! Once I get back to Boston and upload them off my camera ... these photos courtesy of dad], which was perfect for this pattern. I resized it to the thinner yarn by casting on extra stitches, which seems to have worked out just fine.

Cowl #2 I brought home less yarn for, so I just did it in Stockinette stitch the whole way up. This bright color seemed more e. twin's speed, and when I presented it to her last night she happily informed me that it would be worn all over Paris on her trip.

I actually really like it in stockinette, it seems to roll down pretty well. You could just flip the mustache to the back if you didn't want the black to show.

As you can see I tinkered with the mustache design ever so slightly for the second [bottom] cowl, making it slightly more pronounced. I don't know which one I like better, but I do know that mustaches are always good for a laugh! And who doesn't need a laugh when they're trudging through midterms?