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ez love

I have a lot of Elizabeth Zimmermann’s books. In fact, one of the first books I read when I started knitting was Knitting Without Tears. Elizabeth’s attitude was so confident and fearless. I was instantly addicted.

elizabeth zimmermann opinionated knitter

A few months ago when Amanda wrote about her love for EZ, I realized that I have never read The Opinionated Knitter. What? When I checked the library, I found they didn’t have it. Double What? Thanks to the wonders of Interlibrary Loan, I’ve spent the past month pouring over the pages.

elizabeth zimmermann opinionated knitter

The graphic designer in me loves the diverse typography. Just look at her signature—so bold and beautiful! And her newsletters are typed by hand—simply awesome.

elizabeth zimmermann opinionated knitter

All of the artwork is hand drawn by EZ. I didn’t realize that these (free!) newsletters were for her wool customers. How did I miss that she designed patterns and sold wool?

elizabeth zimmermann opinionated knitter

I adore these excerpts of her handwritten journal.

elizabeth zimmermann opinionated knitter

Happy knitting, indeed.

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my creative space

crochet flower my creative space

My graphic design creative space has been hopping this week, which doesn’t leave a lot of time for my handmade creative space. Sometimes you just need to put technology on hold for a little bit and make a flower.

What’s in your creative space?

motif: Pattern from 201 Crochet Motifs, Blocks, Projects and Ideas. Book and yarn gifted to me by my friend Kelly.

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a clean slate: burlap inspiration board

faux coffee bean bag sack wall bulletin board

I am fascinated with all of the beautiful projects crafty people are making with coffee bean sacks. I’ve been meaning to make a covered bulletin board like this one for a long time. I just never got my act together and actually got the sack.

Then I found this great piece of burlap and decided I just had to get it up. There was no sewing involved. I used 3M removable hooks instead of putting holes in the wall. The grommets were from my stash. The whole thing took less than an hour from start to finish.

Now I just need to start filling it with inspiration!

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happiness is homemade yogurt

homemade yogurt

We’ve been eating so much yogurt around here lately, that I decided it would be best to just start making it at home. Nothing beats homemade yogurt. It’s got a natural sweetness that I love. It’s even better topped with homemade granola.

recipe: I make mine the same way as Amanda, except for the heating pad. I’ve got a little insulated bowl from my mother-in-law that I just wrap in a towel and put in an unheated oven.

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my creative space

my creative space

In my creative space today, I’m helping my daughter with a few seed projects. She found this book in the cupboard a few weeks ago and has been studying it for foods that we have in our kitchen. So far she’s collected seeds from an apple and a lemon. I’ve given her a few avocado seeds, but they have all dried out before we had a chance to get our sphagnum moss. (She took them to nature school show-n-tell, instead.)

Now that we’ve got our moss, she keeps asking me when I’m going to eat That Avocado in the Refrigerator and could I please remove the seed gently with a spoon? Wish us luck!

stash: I won this book from a giveaway by the publisher on Facebook. It hangs out with my stash of cookbooks, although I have a feeling it might be moving to her bookshelves in the future.

What’s in your creative space today? Visit Kirsty’s blog to play along.

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thinking about creativity

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about creativity. Isn’t it weird that when you have something on your mind, you start to see references to the same thing all over the place?

A few days ago I discovered Austin Kleon’s How to steal like an artist (and 9 other things nobody told me). It’s a list of things I’ve learned over the past 20 years living a professional creative life all summed up neatly in one blog post. How convenient! Here are my favorite quotes:

  • We are shaped and fashioned by what we love.
  • Every new idea is just a mashup or a remix of previous ideas.
  • …it’s in the act of making things that we figure out who we are.
  • Ask any real artist, and they’ll tell you the truth: they don’t know where the good stuff comes from. They just show up to do their thing.
    Every day. (Emphasis mine.)

Today I stumbled across a talk given by “Eat, Pray, Love” author Elizabeth Gilbert where she “muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses — and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person “being” a genius, all of us “have” a genius.”

Her advice to creatives echos the same sentiment as the last bullet point above.

…don’t be afraid. Don’t be daunted. Just do your job. Continue to show up for your piece of it, whatever that might be. If your job is to dance, do your dance. If the divine, cockeyed genius assigned to your case decides to let some sort of wonderment be glimpsed, for just one moment through your efforts, then “Ole!” And if not, do your dance anyhow. And “Ole!” to you, nonetheless. I believe this and I feel that we must teach it. “Ole!” to you, nonetheless, just for having the sheer human love and stubbornness to keep showing up.

Wow. Enough deep thoughts for today? Links found via Kirsty and Kate, respectively.

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wardrobe refashion: reverse appliqué saves the day

reverse applique tshirt

This is one of those shirts that has been saved over the years because of sentimental value. Every time my husband makes a recycle/donate pile of old t-shirts, it always makes the cut — even after the giant hole. I decided I’d fix it up for him. It’s way too thin to be worn much longer, but it can at least be made into something else if he wants.

reverse applique tshirt

Believe it or not, this is the first time I’ve done a reverse appliqué. I figured it would be the best choice because the fabric was already ripped. I filled in the peeling letters with a Sharpie marker. I’m still mending the holes above the letters. (Just when I thought I was finished sewing up holes!)

stash: Blue fabric from another shirt I’m planning to upcycle.

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thrifty find: vintage sewing basket

Last Friday my friend Kelly and I took a little trip west of Lincoln. A few people have mentioned to me how much they love Et-Cetera Gift & Thrift Shop in Seward. We decided a planned detour was in order.

vintage sewing basket

I made a quick sweep of the shop before treasure hunting and this vintage sewing basket caught my eye. It’s in really nice condition, especially on the inside. Needless to say it came home with me. It’s now home to my crochet blanket in progress.

vintage sewing basket

What fun things have you found lately?

Spring garages sales are just around the corner. I can’t wait!

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my creative space

my creative space

In my creative space today, I’m embroidering these sweet flowers onto another twirly skirt. My daughter was so excited when I brought home a second denim skirt, but was bummed that it didn’t have any decoration. I let her choose whatever she wanted out of this adorable Japanese embroidery book: Simple Stitch Life.

my creative space

What’s in your creative space today? Play along over at Kirsty’s place.

details: The embroidery thread came from a garage sale, already wound on bobbins in a filled case. I found the book on eBay. ISBN: 4579111036 / 9784579111039

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how to: color your own chenille sticks

color your own chenille stick pipe cleaner

I’m not sure this is really a “how-to” or more of a crafty public service announcement. We recently had a purple pipe cleaner emergency in our house. (Does anyone else have trouble calling them chenille sticks?)

The project was a rainbow with a pot of gold. We had every color of the rainbow except purple. I suggested we go ahead and make the project and fill in the missing color later. Our Artist in Residence balked at that idea. How can you make a rainbow without purple? Details, Mama, details!

So, in an act of desperation, I grabbed a white pipe cleaner and a permanent purple marker. A Sharpie probably would have been best, but all I had was a dry erase marker. It worked remarkably well: I just colored it, waited about a minute and wiped it down with a tissue to make sure it was dry. Crisis averted!