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Quick NYC Trip
Last week we made a quick day trip up to NYC for a very special occasion: My brother’s senior recital! After 4 long years of toil at the Julliard School, he’s gearing up to graduate, and I couldn’t be more proud of him. The final hurdle (besides finishing spring semester) for a music student is always the senior recital: you put on an entire hour-long concert yourself, and graduation hangs on it going well. Like a giant, public jury. It’s a pretty harrowing experience, even if you’re used to performing. Well, true to form, he did brilliantly. I couldn’t have been prouder of him. He is the most talented person…
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Gave the 30 Minute Scarf a Try
As I said in my post about my big squishy chunky scarf, over New Years I was introduced to the concept of arm knitting by one of my good friends. She quick showed me on her own project, and then showed me a YouTube video illustrating how. Naturally, after we went to go grab some yarn for me, I decided to do something entirely different, and by the time she left I had lost the link to the video she showed me. But not too long after I finished the first big chunky scarf, I got the itch for another, and this time I decided to try the arm knitting…
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Breaking out the Pysanky Stuff
With Christmas and New Years over, we have settled into the bleak, grey, and multicolor lightless bit of winter here in the northeast. It’s been cold (like, below zero windchill and sometimes the temp itself cold), and dark, and honestly it can get depressing without the distraction of the Christmas lights. So to keep some color in my life for the next few months, I’m skipping ahead to the next holiday a bit early, and starting on my pysanky already. What are pysanky? They’re Ukrainian Easter Eggs, made using a resist-dye method that’s similar to batik, and they look something like this: These are some of my eggs from last…
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The Good Things Jar
I saw a pin on pinterest the other day with a brilliant idea. I don’t have a link to the pin here, because I can’t seem to find the original source of the pin – all the pins simply take me to the image or a pic dump on some buzzfeed-type site (So if anyone knows the originating source, please let me know so I can give credit where credit is due). The idea goes something like this (direct quote from the pin): “Every January start filling an empty jar with notes about good things that happen. Then on New Years Eve, almost 12 months later, empty the jar and…
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Chunky Scarf Love
One of my close friends came and stayed with us over New Years and introduced me to the concept of arm knitting. As a bit of an ADD knitter who has spent multiple months working on a single scarf because of other distractions, the idea of being able to finish a functional, wearable, and cute scarf in about half an hour seemed too good to be true. I had to try it. So we made a trip to JoAnn’s to grab some super chunky yarn (Lion Brand Hometown USA in Aspen Tweed). However, in true “me” style, as soon as I got home I decided to do something entirely different…
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I’m In Love With The Katniss Cowl
I’m a big Hunger Games fan. So when Catching Fire came out I pretty stoked with the press photos, but not for the usual crazy fan reasons. The real reason was this cowl. Ohhhhh, this cowl. I’m not even entirely sure you can call it a cowl, it’s more like a hybrid between a cape, a shawl, a cloak, and a cowl. But whatever it is, it’s gorgeous. The original garment is, sadly, hand-woven specifically for the movie by designer Maria Dora and so obviously isn’t available as a pattern. Luckily, the knit/crochet community also fell as in love with this piece as I did, and since the press photos…