SPA -Knit & Spin Retreat

On Saturday, my knitting group made the short drive up to Freeport for the annual NETA SPA Knit and Spin retreat.

We grabbed our spot in front of the lobby fire for the second (third?) year in a row and spent the day shopping, knitting, and spinning. With a brief break for barbecue.

I spent all my time spindle-spinning and I made significant process toward my 2011 Knitolution to spin 4 oz. and knit a shawl/shawl-lette. I only have about .5 oz of spinning left to do.

(This shirt should come with an asterisk -

*unless you're buying cashmere. Which I didn't, but someone else did!)

Putting Things on Walls

This weekend I finally took the plunge and put some nails in the walls.

Of course, since we spent so much time spackling and painting, I tried to make sure all the holes went in the right places. It would have gone a little faster (all-in I think it took me 2 hours to do the collage wall) had my templates not kept curling and falling off the walls, but in the end I think everything lined up pretty well.

The art in our home is mostly things made by friends, family, or myself; concert posters; and the odd print or two we've picked up in the past couple of years. Pretty much everything is tied to some kind of memory/person, even if it's not a photo of them.

Top row (from left):

• King Salmon photo taken by me Spring Break in Seattle my senior year of college;
• Wilco Sky Blue Sky Tour Poster by Pfahlert Creative Labs from concert we attended in Millennium Park in Chicago;
• REM, New Adventure in Hi-Fi, promo art.
• Low Anthem Live! Poster by Hatch Show Studio from Space Gallery show last year

Middle Row:

• My dad's Sargent Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Album
• Laura Veirs mermaid concert poster by Diana Sudyka from show at Schubas, Chicago. (I had to sweet talk the doorman to let me take it).
• Painting by me
• Horseshoe from house my senior year of college
• "Sweet Cookin'" Sailors drawing by Brenna in honor of being tap dancing stage hands  for Rough Crossing at Portland Stage
• Mr. Cleaver's concert ticket collection

Bottom Row:

• Print by local artist, Shannon Rankin.
• Postcard. Winslow Homer, Looking out to Sea, Cullercotes 1882 from Portland Museum of Art
• My dad's Abbey Road album
• Salt & Sea Piano Keys print by Evan B. Harris
• "never do this" painting by Biz, birthday gift.
• Mail-holding Lobster - wedding gift from my sister-in-law and her husband.

Over fishtank: Rae Lake. Photo by my Dad.

On top of bookcase:  Alvaro & Christina print by Andrew Wyeth

On Far Wall: "Owl Cat" by Drew Foster (gift from friend/artist)

Family Snapshots and old cameras, including our engagement photo by Ryan Ward Thompson.

More family photos. Eventually I'll get some books up on these shelves as well.

On wall : (Top) Photo by my Dad, taken when he was in college. (Bottom) Photo taken by me in Seattle.

Fish sculpture: Designed by me, made by my dad.  This is actually the model for the mailbox stand at my mother's house (which is obviously much much larger).

I've still got some more things to hang, but I'm glad I got this much up. It definitely changes the feel of the room and makes it feel more homey.

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In other image-related news, I started a Pinterest account and I love it. It saves me from saving all those inspiration images to my computer and I can drool on them from anywhere. Follow me if you'd like, and let me know if you have an account!

In My Studio: Before & Now

So one of the best things about the new house? I have my own studio.

(And whenever I say I'm going to my studio, I immediately think of this random reality tv moment I saw last summer. One, be forewarned, it'll get stuck in your head.  And two, it's worth it to watch to the second half of the video to see how context can change a song.)

I've co-opted the first floor bedroom, which used to belong to a baseball fan.

Thus far, we've only had the opportunity to remove the wallpaper (fortunately one easily-removable layer), so the room is far from finished, but I needed to set up and do some sewin'. So I figured I'd show it in it's current state.

The bears really make it.

There's great natural light during the day and there's plenty of space for my cutting table and all the other stuff. There might even be extra space, except...

there's one thing more: I bought a loom.

It's a 36inch four heddle Harrisville that I got used at a really great price on Sunday, thanks to a tip from Bristol. I haven't done anything with it yet except drool, but soon and very soon.

I'm so excited!!!

My Valentine Skirt

Happy Valentine's Day!!

About two weeks ago, I ordered a pretty red dress online and afterward thought it would be great to wear on Valentine's Day. Unfortunately, it didn't show up by Saturday.

Come Sunday, I decided I wanted something red to wear anyway.

Remembering I had some red fabric in my stash (received as part of the same group of fabric that became the granny skirt) and grabbing a simple previously made pattern (Simplicity 2758). I whipped this skirt up in an evening.

It is generally know that I am not a fast sewer.

It was only a through a confluence of positive circumstances that it came together so quickly:

1. I happened to have all the materials on hand, including the fabric, interfacing, red thread and a sufficiently long red zipper.
2. I has sewed the pattern before, so the pattern pieces were already cut out and I knew it fit well.
3. The pattern is basically three pieces: skirt front, skirt back, and waist band. Plus the added strip for the faux bow.
4. Only two seams to finish!
5. The material is a faux suede, so I couldn't really iron it. Meaning, I didn't have to iron it!
6. The zipper went in super easily on the first try.

To add a hint of pizazz, I added some top stitching on the waistband and on off-center bow.

And voila! Festive Valentine's Day skirt!

Sweater Update

I'm going to call it a case of hubris. I was knitting my bulky sweater and going through about 1½ balls of yarn a day and I'll admit it, I was thinking - you know, I might be able to knit this sweater in a week!! When last I showed this sweater (on 1/28) it looked like this:

January 29:

January 31:

February 2 (Morning):

February 2 (Evening):

Cue trombone sounds: "Wha-wha-wha-waaaaaaaaaaaah!"

I took the whole thing apart.

I had  swatched, washed and blocked and measured my swatch, but then on a larger scale, my gauge grew and the sweater was just too big. So I frogged it and started again the evening of the 2nd in the next size down.

The good news is, it fits great now, and I'm right back to where I left off the first time yarn usage-wise and a little further ahead pattern-wise.

February 9:

Master Bedroom: Before and After

I'm sure you were all waiting with bated breath for the decision regarding the bedroom paint color. (The vote was 15% keep it, 77% lose it, 8% other). Completely ignoring the will of the people, we kept it.

It grew on me and when I brought in swatches of my backup colors, they just didn't look great in the light. That said, we still didn't move into the master bedroom until yesterday because we didn't get the second coat on the trim until earlier this week.

So without further ado, the before and after reveal.

Before:

After:

Having a bedroom with no sewing tables, cross country skis, and bookcases in it feels, a bit weird - but I like it!!

Snowpocalypse 11:30am or the Joys of Home Ownership in New England

In case you haven't heard - it's snowing a lot here in New England. We're expected to get 14-20 inches today.

I'm working from home today and Mr. Cleaver & I have decided to attack our shoveling in batches. Here's go Number One. (Note, the piles are accumulated over several storms - we're running out of places to put it all)

On the Wires, On the Needles

Wednesday night I finished my lace project and put it on the blocking wires. Getting a project like this wet is awesome and terrifying, awesome because the lace really opens up and becomes truly lovely, terrifying because I had no idea how big it might get. (I generally only do gauge swatches for sweaters).

Fortunately this "scarf on steroids" project, as I've come to call it, ended up wider, but not substantially longer than the pattern. Not to say it isn't huge anyway - for a sense of scale, the orange strip on the ground is a yard stick.

This weekend I'll pull it off the wires and do some wearing demo photos and then it'll be packed up and shipped off to my mother in Northern California.

My long-neglected second sock not piquing my interest enough, I immediately cast on a new project (after swatching!) yesterday morning and I've already knit through a ball and a half. Lord love bulky yarn!!

Here's what I've done so far.

Must knit more!!

I Think I Ate a Whole Pie Yesterday

So the day after I moved in, I naturally invited a bunch of people over for my second annual National Pie Day celebration, like you do.

There were knitting quizzes and pie trivia!

There were door prizes!

There was much tea consumed!

There were rows knitted!

And there was a pie per person! (and some creme brulee that snuck in, but who can complain?)

(Counterclockwise from bottom right: quiche (egg pie), shepherd's pie, vegetarian shepherd's pie, banana's foster pie, cherry cream pie, spinach feta and phyllo pie, lemon meringue, and s'more pie.)

In other news, it's -10° F outside, but the house is warm and there were a pair of beautiful cardinals chirping outside my living room window as I ate my breakfast this morning.

And I have a bunch of leftover savory pies for my lunch. Not a bad start to a cold day!!

Moving Day - Part One

Moving Out:

See you on the other side!