socks + sewing madness

It was a long, hot, wonderful, relaxing Memorial Day weekend full of crafts, beer and did I mention relaxation?, and I pronounce it good. One of the products of the three-day weekend was Socks. She's a little bit shy, but she's a mostly friendly sock monster cat thing. Here she is relaxing in the backyard.

Sewing a sock monster is different from sewing other things. It's not very precise. It's a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of sewing project, without a lot of concern for perfection, or even sewing straight lines. But making all these sock monsters sort of started deluding me into believing that I like to sew, and maybe that I ought to sew some more things.


no straight lines here

And after ooh'ing and aah'ing over the beautiful set of shirts that Jay just finished making, I was feeling kind of inspired. Then my sister mentioned that the fabric store was having a big Memorial Day sale, and, well... I took on a sewing project.
I bought a pattern.
I bought fabric (on sale for $3.49 a yard!)
I bought thread.
I dragged out all the equipment.

Then I spent HOURS last night cutting out pieces of tissue-thin pattern paper, pinning it to fabric and painstakingly cutting out dozens of pieces that have to be just right. ARGH! Sewing! Why is it always like this???

Ahem. Tantrum over. Anyway, the pieces are all cut out and the fusible interfacing fused, and I am just a few dozen hours of sewing, cursing and kicking away from a shiny new.... bathrobe!

Yes, that's right, I'm making myself a new bathrobe. I live in North Carolina, I am too cheap to use the A/C most of the time, it's already 90 degrees, and my bathrobe is made from heavy winter fleece. Hence the sewing project.

I just wish sewing weren't so dependent on all these straight lines and matched-up pieces. It makes me crazy! I'm going to have to make a crazy monster with the leftover bathrobe fabric to re-orient my craft-making mindset.


perhaps I can orient your mindset?

saturday at home

It's nice to be home for a change on a Saturday, even if I am working some. This morning I went out into the yard to snap a picture of what's blooming, and noticed a very busy bee among the poppies. He posed for several photographs - this is one of my favorites.

This morning while drinking my tea I did a few rows on the super-bright sweater I'm making with some great yarn from my Secret Pal, Becky. It's Filatura di Crosa Ad Hoc Piu, which doesn't seem to be available anymore. It's not even listed on the Yarndex! Mystery yarn, but it's a nice easy-care blend of wool & acrylic in a funky bright color - perfect for a kids' sweater project.



And a shot of some happy footies - another stash-reduction project in keeping with the spirit of Use What You Have Month II, even if I'm off the non-shopping wagon. *sigh* I am so weak!



I haven't decided yet what to do with these footies - now that it's ninety degrees, wool-blend socks don't seem quite like the perfect gift. Maybe I'll squirrel them away in the craft cabinet and use them as an Xmas gift.

I'll be working on that yellow sweater a little while longer, but next I am dying to make the fish blanket that got Gray La Gran making little fishies. She generously sent me the pattern, and I happen to have a friend with a baby coming... I think it would look great in Blue Sky Alpacas organic cotton (my favorite yarn for newborn projects).

P.S. - For those of you who admired my felted snail purse á la bugheart, now you can own your own! Well, not the snail one, that's mine, but bugheart has begun putting her gorgeous creations up for sale at her etsy shop! Go take a look! (And while you're there, buy something, would ya? The girl's a grad student).

sparkle sparkle

Farewell to the money-saving virtues of Use What You Have month... I threw it all away this weekend in DC, unable to resist the siren song of Beadazzled, where I dropped $50 and didn't even buy a single bead. I had to stock up on supplies, because I needed to make my donations for an art auction that starts this weekend.

Well, I almost made it through May. And I'm still working on lots of projects with the stuff I already had - in fact, although I had to buy some wire and stuff, all the beads for both of these necklaces were stuff I already had. The necklace you see here is the 'silver starfish necklace,' made from an old vintage silver brooch, and it has both old crystal beads and new Czech glass beads. I don't like the clasp all that much so I'm just showing you the pretty part. I don't know if you can tell but there are tiny green beads between all the crystals - very subtle. I almost wore this to work today, but if I had I would have wanted to keep it and you know how that goes. So it's in its box, ready for the auction.

The other necklace is the funkier one - I'm calling this the 'sacred stones necklace.' It was made with a lot of beads that my friend Nora brought me from Nepal several years ago.



The big center stone is a carnelian, and the beads are carnelian, jasper, coral and bone. The silver is a mix of old and new beads. Some of them are so tarnished I just can't get them clean, but I actually like the way tarnish on silver looks with red stones, so I'm not too worried about it.

Lest you worry that I didn't get anything for myself out of this project, take heart. While I was rummaging around in my desk looking for jewelry boxes to use, I found a particularly ratty one with a surprise inside.



Holy cow! Art deco earrings! The white parts are abalone. Aren't they gorgeous? I have no idea where these earrings came from. I can only imagine that I bought them at some antique store ages ago and forgot where I put them. At any rate, I can't wait to wear them. I adore jewelry and design from the 1880's through the 1940's, but it's not easy to find and the pieces are usually pretty beat up, but these earrings are in great condition, despite some obvious wear. What luck!

If you're in North Carolina, you should come out to the Scrap Exchange for this art auction to benefit Student Action with Farmworkers. The opening 'Sneak Peek Reception' is this Saturday May 27 from 10am to 1pm, and the closing party will be Sunday June 11 from 3-5 pm. The gallery show (and the bidding) will be open from 5/27 to the closing party on 6/11. It's a great cause, and as you can see, the art will be fabulous.

home again

After several hours on the train, wondering just exactly how many pine trees there are in Virginia, here I am back in Raleigh. It was sad to leave bugheart this morning, in a flurry of craziness and complications as always, I hardly got to say thanks.

I love going to DC. Generally I need to go up once or twice a year for conferences and meetings and suchlike. This spring I went for a conference, and as always stayed at bugheart and grub's. Sadly grub wasn't there this time - grub escaped for a weekend in NYC with friends while bugheart and I visited with each other and with papa bugheart, as I'm sure you all read in yesterday's wonderful guest post, and in my ramblings yesterday on bugheart's blog.

The main thing I love about going there, even more than Teaism and museums and big city life, is the time with dear friends. Do you have someone that you never tire of being with? I feel so lucky to have a friend like Bugheart, even though we live kind of far apart now and I'm not very good about calling on the phone. Every time we get together it's like it's only been an afternoon since the last time we talked.

For those of you who don't know her, Bugheart is an amazing artist, photographer and craftista, which you have probably already deduced from her blog. She is also a really gifted scientist. As a liberal arts major myself, I really admire scientists, even though I don't always get along with them (my idea of hell is to spend an eternity in a locked room with an engineer). But biologists... oh baby. They are holistic thinkers. Big picture people with powers of concentration that allow them to focus on the tiniest of life cycles... biologists are hot stuff. Bugheart is an artist-biologist. She loves to find the itty-bitty details that make whole systems work. For her, I think, beauty is in the tiny mechanisms of living systems, like the cilia that let an insect skate along water on sheer surface tension.

Her photos and her artwork are full of little details, too. If you are ever lucky enough to get a package or a card in the mail from her, it will be full of tiny wonderful things that amaze you and make the whole package a delight (and if you know her for very long, you probably will get a package sooner or later). Bugheart is enormously generous, and she shows her love by showering people with gifts (though sometimes months or even years later than she intends to...). As proof, here are the parting gifts I left DC with this morning:


a vintage red top with embroidered leaves


a sleeveless linen blouse to wear with my fancy work clothes


an olive green top with embroidered flowers


my most recent monday give-away item: a sparkly green brooch


a vintage purse - the perfect size to cram a bunch of junk into


...and my new most prized possession, a bugheart original. the snail bag! be still my heart...

You can get some goodies too, since today is another exciting installment of the Great Monday Give-Away. What a haul! In exchange for the snail bag I owe bugheart my old Gocco printer, which I am swapping to her since I haven't used it in quite a while. I know she'll get good use out of it.

But of course, these are all material things. It's nice to have remembrances of the people you love, but time together is infinitely better. Thanks Bugheart for making so much time for me this weekend. I hope that all of you (those that slogged through all this sappiness and are still reading) get to spend some time with someone you love soon, too.

If this were a bedtime prayer I would close by saying "...and please bless HWWLLB, and Sis, and Grub, and Bugheart. I'm thankful for tea and for good friends." Good night!

no more bourbon

this is bugheart
making a special appearance
here on ms. pea's blog...



i am holding ms. pea
captive in my apartment
the nation's capitol.
i am forcing her listen
to my father's lectures
on physics
and
the benefits of lactase...
all the while
plying her with bourbon.
for the
aforementioned reasons
so she is unable
to update her blog.

in my family
we have a name
for the person
that rescues you
when you
are buttonholed
by a person,
namely my father...
we call them
the sapper.
this term references
the british term
for one
who clears minefields.

ms. pea
has been
my guest sapper.
thank you
dear ms.pea!

sapping
cannot just
be left to anyone...
it takes
a very special friend
who is willing
to go in and rescue you.

do you find
it difficult
to introduce
your friends
to your parents...
especially when
you are much older?

i feel like those dreams
that you have
when you are a kid...
you know,
those ones
in which you
find yourself naked
in front
of the entire
6th grade class.
that's how i feel
when people meet
my parents.
it's like they have
a window
into me as
a little vulnerable kid.
they hear storeis
about how i would follow
my dad around the house
as a little girl
and tell him what to do
or
that i use to faint
all the time
during choir practice.
those weird stories
you usually don't tell people.
not because you
are particularly
embarassed by them...
but somehow when
your parent is
laughing over it
with your friend
it takes on
an embarassing quality
it never had before.
why does that happen?
is it because
you have some
cool cover
that is getting blown?
seems like
that's not how
you should feel
at 31 years old.
i am so glad
the person
to hear those stories
was f.pea...
i don't mind
her hearing these
embarassing stories
because i know
she will still love me
in the morning.

some of you know
f.pea well...
some of you know
her only through
her lovely blog...
but she really
is an amazing women
and my dearest
and closest of friends
here on the east coast.
she knits a mean
pair of socks

and booty shakes
and sings in
jack white's
fake-o
tennessee accent
like no other...
to name only
a few reasons
why
we are having
a rocking time
here in dc.


xo
and
good night ya'll...
your f.pea
is headed back to nc
tomorrow
and i have
dishes to clean.

wednesday lunch break

What do you do on your lunch break? I used to go out and eat semi-fast food, sometimes with friends or colleauges, admire the scenery, play fashion police inside my head while people-watching, and drop $7 to $10 on a lousy meal.

Over the winter I decided to tighten up the budget and commit to bringing my lunch, every day. Sometimes that means I eat a can of soup or a PBJ, though today I had tasty leftover sesame noodles with tofu and bok choy from the farm. I don't eat out unless I have a lunch meeting, which averages to about once a week. So instead of $35-50 a week for lunch, I'm spending probably about $15, all told. It feels like I got a raise!

But that also means I don't go anyplace. Just down to the kitchen to grab my lunch, and then back up to my desk to eat it (unless it's a really nice day and I take the time to go eat in the park). No visits with friends, no fashion police. Am I missing out on something? Fresh air, at least.

Today I'm blogging on my lunch break, something I do quite often. And I just randomly stumbled onto a kind of amazing website, the blog of the Feminist Mormon Housewives. Yes, you read that correctly. Feminist Mormon Housewives. There are such creatures. There are apparently five of them, and they have this blog together. I'd imagine you'd have a lot of pent-up frustration to vent if you were a Feminist Mormon Housewife, so it kinda makes sense.

Anyhow, I got to reading and read the founder, Lisa's, post on how she became an FMH. It was an amazing story of faith and self-discovery.

"...And I was getting older, seventeen, eighteen. And I voted for the first time for George HW Bush with a warm glow that all was right in the world. And I was shocked! Shocked to wake up in the morning to that Bill Clinton guy!

"And the questions really started to add up. A Sunday School teacher who taught us that “Nothing Good came out of the Women’s Lib Movement.” And even as stoutly conservative as I was, my jaw still hit the floor. And it mystified me, could a truly righteous man stare the facts in the face and really believe that. Really?

"I was (not sure why) fascinated by Women’s history, and the Civil Right Movement. And as I read more deeply my initial impressions of distrust in “movements” and all those connected to them, grew slowly into admiration and a longing to emulate those brave enough to create movement."

You should go read this, it's a really good essay. But the other thing it was making me think was, how come artists and writers have to have really insane or difficult lives to be good? I mean, think about the really great artists - they're all manic depressives! Who ever heard of a happy artist? Personally, I had a healthy happy suburban upbringing, and I am a basically happy secure confident adult person in a secure and loving relationship, and my art is bad. My writing is boring. Writing is all about telling what you know, and what I know is so happy and boring it could put an insomniac out like a light.

I saw "Be Here to Love Me," the documentary about Townes Van Zandt, the other night. If you don't know Townes, you probably know his music (though you may not realize it). His songs have been recorded by folks like Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard and Emmy Lou Harris. In the movie, Steve Earle calls Townes the "greatest American songwriter." It may have been true. The documentary bascially focuses on Townes' depression and alcoholism. He wrote beautiful songs, left three wives and three children behind, and died of alcoholism at age 52. Brilliant songs. Brilliant artist. Horrible life.

Art is like that, I'm afraid. Those of us who have never been diagnosed with depression, who don't get beat up by our parents or our partners, we have it pretty good. We're the lucky ones. There is no art for us. For us, there are crafts. We may be boring, but we can follow a pattern like nobody's business!

So even though I'm not such a hot writer (or at least I don't have any interesting stories), I do know that I'm supposed to wrap up this post by connecting back to the opening thought... which was about lunch and what to do with one's lunch break. But I don't have anything to say about that.

Instead, I think I'll just end with a chirpy reflection on the transformative power of art and how it's this amazing human capacity to save ourselves from our own tragedies. If you were here in my office right now, you'd see me do a cheer for art... GO! ART! [imagine insane jumping with poor arm formations] This is the kind of thing we happy people do. We cheerlead about deep topics like artistic transendence.

That's it from the lunch desk. Back to you, Work!

claudette!

Oui oui, Claudette, elle est fini!

I am so excited... this is the first non-scarf garment I've ever made for myself, and I am particularly proud of the fact that I designed it, and it worked, and it fits, and I can't wait to wear it!

This is also a bit of a revolution in my knitting, because as I have mentioned before, I never ever knit myself anything. In my New Year's Resolutions (woe unto so many of them!), I vowed to knit things for myself and wear them once in a while. The baby tiger scarf was a less-than-impressive first attempt. Claudette is the triumphant comeback.

You're waiting for a picture, aren't you? I love you guys. It's coming, I swear.

Back to the verbosity: I struggled and struggled with the neckline. I wanted vintage laciness, and assumed crochet was the way to go. So... I took up crocheting, borrowed books from generous friends, practiced on scrap yarn, and eventually decided crochet was not the answer. The evidence:


big chunky first crochet picot attempt


slightly daintier second crochet picot attempt


f**** crochet! knitted lace rib sample
what does it say about my camera that this yarn is a different color in every picture?

The single crochet hook leaves me feeling like I have giant tiger cub paws for hands, and I fumble like crazy. Give me my two knitting needles any day!

After finishing the little cap sleeves, I was really liking the clean look of the ribbing, so I just used the really simple lace rib from sample #3. And voila! Here she is!


i think i'm going to be wearing this more than just once in a while.

There are some adjustments I need to make to the pattern to smooth out some bumps, but overall I am quite proud of my little design. Perhaps it will be made available via an upcoming Free Pattern Friday, if I can figure out how to offer other sizes without knitting this thing over and over again.

By the way... I love all this saving-money and saving-the-earth resulting from Use What You Have Month II, but my consumerist acculturation is hammering at me. I am really looking forward to June so that I can rush out to buy me some Opal Rainforest sock yarn (thanks ever-so Gray la Gran for tipping me off to this yarn). My debit card is humming in anticipation...