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what am i going to wear this summer?

Last summer I cleaned out my closet. I tossed out skinny jeans, pre-pregnancy clothes and pretty much anything that didn’t make me feel good. I accepted my body the way it was and bought clothes that fit my 40-year-old frame. I watched a lot of What Not to Wear and made a lot of trips to the thrift store. I felt better about myself.

In January, my husband mentioned something about P90X. I had actually thought about giving it to him for Christmas. I told him to get it if he wanted to do it. I’d do it with him.

Tomorrow, I start week 10 of the program and I find myself in a similar position. Nothing in my closet fits, only this time it’s all too big. I should be excited, but the thought of another closet overhaul is exhausting and overwhelming.

I have gone from a size 12 to a size 8 and I’m still shrinking. (Trust me when I tell you that there is only so much elastic you can sew into your waistband before you need to just go and buy a new pair of jeans.) All of the skirts I made and refashioned last year are too big. Even shirts are too big. (Just once I’d like to lose weight from my hips faster than from my bust.)

The weather is getting warmer and I can’t really ignore it anymore. I’m sharpening my seam ripper and heading back to the thrift store. Wish me luck!

details: In case you are curious, we are doing P90X Lean. I struggled with the nutrition plan because it places a lot of emphasis on meat, which I stopped eating last year. Instead, I’m following the nutrition plan outlined in Bring It!, which has a lot of yummy recipes by Melissa Costello.

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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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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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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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“return to julie-k” crochet heart necklace

I love e-window shopping on the Tiffany website. I get all happy when they send me a new email. Their product photography is so perfect and their jewelry designs are so timeless. My favorites are the pieces in their sterling silver collection.

tiffanys inspired heart necklace

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, I’ve been getting (almost) daily emails filled with all sorts of beautiful hearts. Whenever I see the Return to Tiffany heart, I think of my little crochet heart pattern. They are about the same size and shape. I thought it would be cool to turn my little heart into a Tiffany-inspired charm.

tiffanys inspired heart necklace

I made a few and decided the less fuzzy the yarn the better. The pink heart is Koigu, I think. It makes a nice loop without interfering with the heart shape. I really wanted the sparkly silver and gray yarn to work better, but the loop was too bulky. It looks nice all by itself, though.

This is something that’s been bouncing around in my head for awhile. I’m glad I finally took a few minutes to sort it out. It really only took a few minutes, too. Love those little crochet hearts!

stash: pink yarn from the bits and bobs, silver and gray yarn from a recycled sweater, crochet heart pattern from the archives

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trying to stay focused

Design-It-Yourself Clothes: Patternmaking Simplified

The time for holiday crafting is almost up and I’m almost finished. I didn’t have too much to make this year because I bought a lot of gifts off of etsy.com. Still, there are a few things that need to get done. Cal Patch’s book is making it hard to stay on track.

I got this as an early Christmas present and there are so many things I want to try! I haven’t even had a chance to sit down and read it, although I did look at the pictures. The day after Christmas I’ll be all over it!

How are you doing in the final days of gift preparation? Are you braving the malls for last minute gifts? Logging extra hours crafting in the wee hours? Share in the comments!

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24 hours of craft

craft retreat

Some enjoy 24 Hours of Le Mans or 24 Hours of Daytona. I prefer 24 Hours of Craft. Last weekend I attended another local craft retreat. It was just as much fun as the first one. I brought my sewing machine this time and was very productive.

• finished a beach blanket wedding gift
• used the Big Kick for the first time to patch my daughter’s jeans
• sewed half of a rollie pollie (bean bag chair)
• hemmed a pair of my daughter’s jeans
• taught friends how to unravel a sweater for yarn

The one thing I kept thinking all weekend was sewing [insert any craft here] isn’t hard. Finding time and space to get a project finished is the challenge. No one played with the on/off switch on my machine or jumped up and down on the fabric I had laid out on the floor. I didn’t have to stop and make food or put anyone to bed. I worked from 1 pm to 1 am on Saturday and then after breakfast on Sunday until checkout.

Thank you Kaitlyn for organizing this event and for the super cool pin. The weekend was just what I needed to get my sewing mojo back.

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retreat recap: contemplative knitting

contemplative knitting anne ginn

Our Sunday class at retreat wasn’t really a class, but more of an exercise. Anne led us in a morning of meditation and contemplative knitting. I wasn’t sure how this was going to work for me. I’ve never been good at meditation. Things are always popping into my head — what’s for dinner, need to email that file, got to finish the laundry. When Anne suggested we try for 10 minutes I didn’t think I would make it, but she offered a tip that really worked for me. You pick a word — something with no emotional attachment — and when a random thought enters your mind, you say that word to bring yourself back to meditation. It worked. I was really surprised. I went the whole 10 minutes.

Then we tried contemplative knitting. It’s the same type of meditation, but this time with a few balls of yarn and needles in hand. We knit for 15 minutes: any amount of stitches, any stitch pattern. The key is to be aware of the yarn in your hands making each stitch. This time something amazing happened. The random thoughts that went through my mind were no longer about mundane things. They were creative ideas about patterns, designs, projects, color and texture. I still used my word to shake them away, but I was excited that they were there and that I remembered them afterward.

I’m so glad Anne came and shared this with us. I’m hoping to incorporate contemplative knitting into my daily life and creative process. Now I just need find a quiet time in which to practice it.

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granny bookmark and the kind diet

the kind diet alicia silverstone

My little granny bookmark is finished. Actually, this is my second one. I gave the first one to my mom and now I’m working on a third. I went down a hook size since the first and I think I prefer the tighter stitches for this wool.

The book I’m reading is The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone. I just happened to pick it up at the library because it was on display next to the knitting books. I had to give up beef and dairy once before when my daughter had an intolerance. I remember thinking how hard it must be to go vegan because you had to give up even more!

Her book got me thinking, though. Here I am trying to save all of these things from the landfill for a better earth. Then I go out and order a hamburger for dinner. The dairy and beef industry are definitely not nice to our planet! I might have to rethink how I spend my food dollars.

in search of: currently looking for an inexpensive, used version of this book for my home collection.

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i finally bought a craft book from japan

I love looking at photos of Japanese craft books online, but I’ve never really felt compelled to buy one. Then I got sick, slowed on the crafting front and spent way too much time on ebay. (I’m feeling MUCH better, by the way. Thank you for all of the well wishes!)

japanese crochet book

I saw this book and immediately fell in love with the cover. Isn’t that blanket motif beautiful? I got even more excited as I scrolled through the sample pages. Here are some of my favorites. (All photos from the ebay listing.)

japanese crochet book

japanese crochet book

japanese crochet book

Now comes the waiting for shipping from Japan. I’m already impatient!

resource: There are lots of places to buy Japanese craft books online: etsy.com, ebay.com, yesasia.com and amazon.co.jp. The best site I’ve found to track down ISBN numbers is Crafting Japanese. If you’re just interested in browsing, search for “japanese craft book” on flickr for tons of eye candy.