Fall Flowers

Well, we've come to the end of a glorious long weekend...tomorrow it's back to school. I had a bit of a rough time as I've had a cold brewing since Thursday and it looks like it's all coming to a head just in time for my Monday morning first period class. Ugh. Yesterday I stayed in bed all day knit knit knitting for Christmas. I bundled myself up and put a smile on so that we could go out and see They Might Be Giants at the TLA. I have often said that once I hit 30, my standing-up-at-concerts time was over. I didn't have any choice at the TLA, and cold be damned, I made it through both sets. Once people were stomping for an encore though, I told Andrew I'd had enough.

Today was spent with Ginger making crafts to sell a show we're doing together next Saturday. I had it in me to try using resin for the first time, but ended up getting overwhelmed with it. I wasn't keen on the idea of risking a failed craft experience RIGHT before a show. Ginger is the best person to craft with because she's really bold and isn't as paranoid as I am about screwing everything up. We decided that we'll get together soon to try this resin thing...I just need to have my hand held through this process, I think. Either that or a really big drink before I get started (which could get ugly with resin).

So here are the latest felty hair clips I've made (see above). They are fun to put together because I have scads of vintage buttons and lots of great colors of felt, so seeing new combinations is always fun (although can be a little time consuming). I while back I started a "ribbons" box which I throw all of my odds and ends into. Little ribbon fragments that packages come tied up with, stuff like that. I found the loveliest little bit of vintage tatted lace in there today, and it sweetened up one of the clips here:

And Ginger ended up leaving with a clip that she fell in love with and realized that she can just stick it on her lapel if she'd rather have a pin (she's an outside of the box thinker, that girl!)

A Hint.

It's driving me a little bonkers that I can't write about what I'm knitting now since it's mostly Christmas gifts. I CAN show the yarn I'm using though, right??! All from Knitpicks.I'm also pondering getting a drop spindle or this slight upgrade to a drop spindle. Liz worked up some more of her Neptune yarn for me and I think I'm going to buy these fiber batts from her (or these) and learn to spin (whew...that was a lot of links....did you keep up??!) Something about being able to spin yarn anywhere has me quite happy...which is interesting since, to date, I've spun yarn nowhere.

Hell Week

It's here. It's ugly. It's wonderful.

It occurred to me that choreography counts as creativity, so here's where my creative energy is going to these days:

Ultracool.

I found a new favorite seller on Etsy today. She was featured on the front page and she makes these fabulous shoes. I've ordered them in Ultramarine and am so thrilled about them (and as always I owe my ability to finally make a color choice to Andrew.) Being able to clothe myself through Etsy is a good thing.And while at the Philadelphia Craft Show, I picked up this Lily Yung necklace which is my New Favorite Thing. Little felt circles sewn up with red thread. It has me thinking about using more fabric in my jewelry...

I also fell in love with Anna Torma's embroidery there. Stunning. I need to let it sink in and them maybe I'll be able to write about it.

I'm waiting on an order from Knitpicks that will allow me to start on some Christmas presents. I'm excited to start knitting for Christmas, but it REALLY irks me that stores already are doing the Christmas thing. Hawking Christmas before Thanksgiving should be illegal. Yesterday, in two separate stores, I had to listen to CHRISTMAS CAROLS. Ugh. I am a huge Christmas fan, but I hate Christmas when it's not Christmas. Don't even get me started on holiday special reruns in the summer.

Anyway, while I'm waiting for that yarn and since I finished Andrew's sweater, I'm starting a sweater for myself. This sweater involves size 5, 2, and 0 needles. Any bets on whether I'm going to finish it? I'm seriously worried that as soon as my holiday yarn comes in, this sweater will be dropped never to be seen again. The one thing it has going for it is that I'm knitting it up in a superwash wool. I've never used it before, but it's so soft and I'm enjoying puzzling over the magic that allows it to be machine washed and dried. That's reason enough to knit the whole thing up. Anyway, here I am humbly starting the bottom trim. Wish me luck.

Felted Stress

It's crunch time at school. Grades and comments are due on Friday (a beast of a job in the first quarter when you have 18 extra hours of hard work on top of continuing to be an engaging teacher) and the school play (which I choreograph) goes up a week from tomorrow (read: Hell Week). The school day exhausts me and I fall asleep by 9:30 and then am wide awake at 5:30Am. Sheesh. The good part is that I take this hour to putz around on the computer and so I'm a blogging fiend!

I've taken the handmade pledge this year, which means I'm going to make all of my gifts, or at least buy handmade. I think that the handmade pledge has been an ideal of mine for the past few years, but I needed a pretty icon to help me make it happen. With Etsy as my backup, I'm pretty confident that I can make it happen. Of course, I can't blog about anything that I'm making, so after the holidays, I suppose I'll have a craftacular post showing all the handmade stuff. So for the next few days, I have some free-ish crafting time because I'm waiting for a Knitpicks order to come in (by the way, the best company ever...you know my amazing needle set? One of the number 5 needles wouldn't thread onto the cords, I called them and they just sent me a new set...without making me return the old ones...I'm not sure the last time I've been trusted like that by a company. Very cool.), so I actually picked up my book club book (A God of Small Things) and loved the first 20 pages and now I'm going to have to juggle reading with knitting. If only I could mix those two hobbies, I'd be set (I'm lukewarm about books on tape if that's what you're thinking). So this month might be my first time going to book club without having finished the book. The inner student in me has MAJOR trouble not completing her homework, but there it is.

And lastly, I've just finished making a few hair clips. I have been wanting to make hair doodads with those alligator type clips (mostly because I've bought a few hair clips in the past, and those are the best on my long, thin hair) and here they are! They are made using that lovely bundle of hand dyed wool that I got this summer in Lancaster and some vintage wool scraps that I found at an amazing 4-H giHUGIC fabric sale. They are up in the shop if you want to take a peek.

Andrew's Sweater is Finished!

Yippee!! Laurel was lamenting the fact that knitting is so not instant-gratification. So true. But if you stick with it, you are in for some MAJOR satisfaction when you're done (that is if it all works out). I'm happy to say that Jared's Cobblestone Pullover was super-simple to knit (hello?!?! From now on, ALL of my sweaters must be knit in the round) with only ARMPIT seams to sew. Not kidding!!! I used to think weaving in ends was what I hated about finishing a sweater...nope, that was actually a nice, methodical way to say goodbye to this knitting project. Sewing seams is just a stressful pain in the arse if you ask me, and so I was happy to be able to avoid the whole mess with this project. Anyway, here it is modeled by my lovely guy:Almost as soon as I handed it off to him, Andrew said "could you..." I knew what was coming next ("knit me another?") and if it had been any other big project, I would have smacked him upside the head for asking me so soon after working it up. But I swear to Swiss cheese, this pattern worked out so well (I didn't even BLOCK the thing) that I had already made a decision to knit him another at some point (I'm thinking in blue, Andrew thinks the garter stitching should be in a different color than the stockinette.) THANK YOU, JARED!

Back in Time

I made breakfast for the troops again this morning, but this time I remembered my camera. I focused today on photos that looked as non-contemporary as possible. I especially love seeing kids involved in reenactments.

The British Troops (they win for bestest outfits):

Some of the decorations on the British uniforms was spectacular...little hearts at the corners where the coats were turned upwards, pretty ticking tape. And don't even get me started on the woman selling women's clothing (complete with taffeta BONNETS!!)

Boy, Drum, Tent, Port-o-Potty (so much for historical accuracy):

Andrew learns about colonial drugs:

Little girl collecting kindling:

Colonial Handles

Pre-read warning: pardon the crap-ola cell phone pictures. I left the house REEAALLLY early this morning and forgot the camera... Andrew and I helped out in the kitchen at Hope Lodge's annual encampment this morning. Perhaps it's because I love the theatre and dressing up in costume, but there is something so fun about watching the historic reenactors all running around in their capes and jackets and hats and boots. We drove in early while everyone was still asleep in their tents and then got to see the temporary town come to life as the sun came up. There's nothing quite like serving coffee to guys carrying muskets, and it never fails to tickle me when you look out and see them all hanging around looking pretty darn authentic and then a car drives by or someone shows up with a Starbucks cup. So here are some wonderful juxtapositions from my view inside the food tent.
After our shift was up, I checked out the folks selling goods. Oh, if only I was a colonial reenactor and could justify spending hundreds of dollars on dresses and petticoats and capes. But as luck would have it, I did manage to find some hand woven tape that was THE material I was waiting for for one of my UFOs. The tape is made from a lovely sky blue cotton.
And here it is finishing up my decidedly un-colonial project as handles for a bag. The Rice Tote is up in the shop!