31 March 2006 · grannies, ranting and politics
I didn’t notice anything remarkable about these packages until I was on the way out the door to mail them this afternoon.
Galen, man of the house, addressed this one:
And this is the product of my womanly touch:
You can watch the progress towards this moment in both our family trees. Grandmothers with business diplomas, fathers who stayed home with babies, and so on. In a couple of generations, the clan will surely have morphed into swashbuckling androgynes of some sort. Hot! (… for my own fictional great-grandchildren! Um, I stand by it!)
29 March 2006 · diy, knitting, stash manifesto
This is the first knitted sweater I’ve actually finished and worn. (I made one up on trains in Europe, but, well, you know how sometimes, when people make sweaters and they don’t know what they’re doing…) Everytime I hit a section of ribbing I stalled out for a few months, so this sweater was in the works for about a year.
Those two facts, taken together, add up to a very proud little lady (formerly a bit of a whiny knitting martyr— when I wear this now, at least one of my friends is likely to blurt out some congratulation/consolation about my hard-won sweater with its miles of double-ribbing. It’s kind of embarrassing that my “hardship” is so memorable.)
It turned out about one size too small but now that it has stretched out a little, I wear it almost every day. It looks babe-a-licious with a dress, in a wholesome, scratchy wool way. All in all: success!
Stash items liberated!
- Two thirds of a bag of wool yarn from my mum. This came, I think, from the project she was planning when she finally abandoned knitting for good, in favour of sewing.
- A thrift store knitting magazine from the 1970s. It feels good to actually use one of my vintage patterns, instead of just admiring them with a wistful look on my face.
New purchases
- Six wooden buttons, had for about six dollars at Gala Fabrics aka The Den of Temptation.
Learning opportunities (ahem)
- What am I going to do with the leftover yarn? There’s enough to make half a small sweater. I could have just made a bigger sweater in the first place.
- There are no better buttonholes than E.Z.‘s one-row buttonholes. There is no need to try the technique recommended in pattern books. Next time, I’ll substitute the master buttonholes. What is up with these straggly excuses for buttonholes?
- No really, change yarn at the seam edges. I have saved so many extra inches of yarn that I don’t know what to do with the remainder, and as a bonus there are minor lumps across my tight little sweater.
I think I will have to work on the stash manifesto for a long time before I can see any change by looking at my stash closet. But the treasure I’m extracting from the craft clutter is very tangible. This makes my closet seem like a magical, bottomless cornucopia that breeds wardrobe staples. That’s ok with me.
29 March 2006 · ha ha, project ideas
Overheard while rehydrating this product:
- Yessss
- Are my dehydrated underwear ready to go?
- Happy! Pepper! Crotch!
Galen keeps threatening to start a Goblingram business, where he’d preside over a coven of goblins and send them out on bikes to deliver telegrams (“Blarrrgh! Zorg has message! Time to die!”). I like to think the green guys would aspire to the posture in that last photo. Just add a little tin hat and maybe a furry loincloth instead of the magic boxershorts.
28 March 2006 · death, diy, feelings, project ideas
I’d like to collect stories and descriptions of people’s epiphanies. How they snapped out of depression, or figured out their life’s work, or fixed their relationships, understood parenthood or life or sex or death or generally how to deal with reality. People’s answers to “What’s the secret?”
I’ve been thinking about this for awhile, occasionally stoked by articles like this one, but I had assumed it would be hard to find enough stories to make a worthwhile collection. Talking to Andrea at our small-business breakfast yesterday, we both had potential contributions to this topic. More than realizing I could find enough contributions, I remembered how totally compelled I am by people solving problems and figuring things out, and dealing with basic tragedies like the fact we’re all going to die. I want to go hunting.
*I can’t believe I don’t post daydream projects more often. It’s my most common conversational topic and constant preoccupation.
27 March 2006 ·
I just realized Google has found this website. That’s a laugh. Ha ha! Welcome to Half-Baked Code Zone, population: only me, I thought.
27 March 2006 · colours, project ideas
A really long time ago, Justin Hall told a story on links.net about watching his girlfriend Amy collect underwear to pack for a trip. “I have enough underwear here to make a salad,” she said.
Panty salad. Lodged in my brain forever, alongside all the names Rebecca and I have come up with for our fictional lingerie store over the years. Pantymonium, All Tomorrow’s Panties, the usual. I get more excited about the scope of our inventory than the name. We would fit everybody! We would cover a huge footprint on the matrix of fashion and comfort! We would host events. Etc etc.
But on laundry days I make panty salad, not pantymonium, out of all my “lay flat to dry” items.
26 March 2006 · ha ha
26 March 2006 · jellyfish couture, project ideas
One more fashion photo.
What is it about women with antlers? Lily Fawn ‘s stage get-up inspired a lot of knitted hat sketches in my notebook. I think I could make some stubby felted prongs that would stand up, if I got around to it.
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