Sasha's Blue Carpet

The obligatory Oakwood post

2010-05-24T15:37:00.001-05:00

So I've been here in the DC area with my husband, who will remain nameless, for about a week now. We're staying in Oakwood furnished apartments (the mothership, in case any of you reading this are familiar with the Foreign Service - and if you're not, it's where the FS puts up employees while they're in training). It seems the "thing to do" is to complain about Oakwood - and to be fair, it's hotel-like, temporary and I've heard some legitimate horror stories from other locations.

I just can't bring myself to. I swear to God, every time I sink into those down pillows at night and pull that fluffy, white comforter over my shoulders, I feel like a goddamned princess. Here I am in this place with everything I need - FOR FREE - and I've done nothing to deserve it (ok, I guess I passed the OA, which is what my husband did to deserve it, but my employment hasn't kicked in yet, so nyah). We have a couch! I can't believe I ever used to nap on my bed! We have a dishwasher that we can afford to run! The kitchen is small, but we have so much more counter space than I can use in the preparation of one meal! We have a maid! That's disconcerting, but lovely! We have a pool, and a hottub, and a bank of grills, and a playground and free yoga classes and more stuff than I have had time to take advantage of (stupid rain)!

And I don't have a job, and my knitting is in transit, and I am bored out of my skull. But let me tell you, this government-issued 1br apartment still seems to good to be true!

Homeless

2010-05-11T11:40:00.000-05:00

Not really. I mean...I have a place to stay. Hell, I even still have an apartment, it's just empty and unbelievably sketchy. But here's what's true: Last Monday, movers came and emptied out our apartment. We stayed in a hotel with the kitties until last Friday. My husband, who shall remain nameless, took the kitties to DC and I went on a trip with a friend and spent the weekend sleeping on the ground in a tent. Now I'm sleeping on the floor in a friend's house for the rest of the week. I'll be in a B&B this coming weekend, and then - only then - will I make it to DC, where my husband, who shall remain nameless, and my kitties await me. So for now, I do feel a bit like a vagrant.

I'm so tired. It's disconcerting not having my own space for so long. That apartment was no great shakes, but at least it was a consistent place. It had my creatures in it. Bouncing from floor to floor is exhausting.

But lemme tell you, crashing in a sleeping bag on my friend's floor is a damned sight better than crashing on the floor of my sketchy, empty apartment (that was my first plan, which my husband, who shall remain nameless, wisely vetoed). Her place isn't sketchy! And it's not empty. I'm an introvert - I do pretty okay by myself. But usually "by myself" at least involves kitties. It's nice having another soul in the house, y'know? And it's nice not to have cigarette smoke wafting through the bathroom vent and pot smoke creeping up from downstairs and neighbors screaming at each other, and wondering when the really sketchy people will figure out that you're 105lbs and all alone....

Thanks Becca! :-)

It's time to play: Finish! That! Quilt!

2010-04-18T18:41:00.000-05:00

This quilt was made for my husband, who will remain nameless, by his grandmother when he graduated from high school. It's a wonderful quilt - comfy, and it fits my nameless husband to a T. And when this quilt replaces our big comforter on the bed, I know it's really Spring.

It's also seen better days - there's a tear in the top that I'm not sure I can adequately mend, and it's starting to wear down. So we need a new quilt. What a coincidence - I need a project to document on this here blog to keep me posting regularly, and delusions of Knitty grandeur are keeping me from sharing my current knitting project, for the time being.

So I'm taking bets: How long will it take Sasha to finish that quilt that she started...um...over a year ago? :-D

Good to be home.

2010-04-04T13:08:00.000-05:00

I have had such a stressful whirlwind few days. On Sunday, I flew to DC for the Foreign Service Oral Assessment - a grueling day-long series of exercises and interviews that is the final step in the selection process for Foreign Service Officers (ok...not counting security clearances and all that). I won. So in a few months, barring some unforeseen catastrophe, I will begin training to be a US diplomat. But oh my dear sweet lord, was it ever a long, rough few days surrounding that.

So I've spent the past couple of days at home recuperating. I've been taking it nice and slow, spending time knitting and baking. Bread and granola and (not pictured) onion soup and asian-style coleslaw. Maybe crackers and granola bars today. And there's a ridiculous bete noire in the fridge, compliments of my husband, who shall remain nameless.

I'm home with my kitties and my person and my kitchen and my yarn, and I'm going to be a diplomat. Everything is good today. :-)

Ceres Winners!

2010-02-07T21:18:00.000-06:00

Congratulations Diane and Kat! You've each won a free copy of Ceres!

Since so many people entered my giveaway, and all of them with helpful, well thought-out responses to my question, I decided to give two copies away, instead of one. Spread the love. For those of you who are interested, able and didn't win, Ceres is available for you to purchase through my blog and through Ravelry.

Stay tuned for more patterns, and more giveaways!

Giveaway Glee!

2010-02-05T12:24:00.000-06:00

Jeez, kids, if many more of you enter my giveaway, I might have to give out two copies of Ceres! :-P

I'm really enjoying the responses to my Ceres giveaway! Some of it's stuff that really hadn't occurred to me, like buying patterns the moment you're ready to knit them. All of it's helpful. Thanks to everyone who's entered so far! For those who haven't, you've still got a couple of days left to enter and win a free copy of Ceres!

Brown Things

2010-02-02T09:59:00.003-06:00

I was supposed to go to a sort of folk-harp masterclass on Sunday morning. So I grab my harp, hop into my car, get horribly lost and miss the class. As a consolation prize, I took my husband, who shall remain nameless, to The Sow's Ear for yarn and chai, both of which he enjoys. Did I win the nameless husband lottery or what?

So I spent the $30 that I didn't get to blow on the class on yarn. Nice fall yarn, unfortunately, and I'm knitting something devastatingly simple, so expect a rather unseasonal free pattern to emerge before long. :-) I'm going to be nice to myself, knit for myself calm and easy before getting back into the "knitting for publication" groove. I have ideas, but I'm not going to push them out just yet.

I finally bought yarn. Oh, that feels good. And what yummy yarn it is. Merino wool, alpaca and silk. Sulka. Yes.

Ceres Giveaway!

2010-02-01T10:00:00.006-06:00

Like Ceres? Want a copy of the pattern? Don't wanna pay $5.00 for it?

I rather enjoyed the last giveaway I did. I think perhaps I'll make it a habit to do a giveaway each time I release a new pattern. So here's what we'll do, we'll conduct some market research while we're at it, maybe get an interesting discussion going.

To enter: post a comment answering the following question: What, if anything, would make you willing to pay for a knitting pattern? Comments entered before 8pm CST on Sunday, February 7th (that's next Sunday) will be entered into a random drawing. One winner will be drawn and posted that night.

There's no shortage of free knitting patterns on the internet, and there are a lot of people who stick exclusively to those. But there are people who purchase patterns for money - either in print magazines or individually online from sources like Ravelry, Twist Collective or individual blogs like mine. I'd like to get a better idea of what people expect and hope for in a knitting pattern that they're willing to shell out cash for. What makes a pattern worth paying for? (For the record, "nothing," is a perfectly legitimate and informative answer). What about the patterns you've paid for made you go, "Oooooooooooh..." and then buy the pattern? I ask this not just to boost sales, but to really make sure people get what they're after when they buy a pattern from me. So what tips you over the "I'll buy that" edge, and what do you expect when you go there?

Ceres

2010-01-31T19:29:00.000-06:00

$5.00 - pattern for hat and mitts

Finally, it's done. :-)

Ceres is a simple top-down beanie with a narrow, rolled brim and matching mitts. Its main features are the colored ridges, which are created using exposed stranded colorwork. The specific stranding technique creates the illusion that the strands are braided together. Knit in the colors shown, this piece brings to mind a plaited grass crown, or grass peeking through a light, early-winter snowfall. Hence its being named for the Roman goddess of agriculture, whose mourning brings on the winter each year. Ceres works well in a variety of colors, however, and looks as good on a man as it does on a woman.

Sizing: garments will comfortably stretch up to a couple of inches over the measurements given here.
Small (child) - 4" around wrist, 18" around head
Medium (woman) - 6" around wrist, 20" around head
Large (man) - 8" around wrist, 22" around head

Shown in medium

Skills: knitting in the round, stranded colorwork, simple increases.

Big thanks to my husband, who shall remain nameless, for the photography. Thanks also to acucena, curiouskate, mugginsquilts, schokolilo, lnupermom and truki of Ravelry for testing the draft of my pattern. They were extremely helpful, and I love how their projects turned out!

You can purchase this through Ravelry, or just click the "buy now" button at the top of the page. If you have any questions, email me or check out About the Patterns.

Bluebonnets is copyright Sasha Evans, all rights reserved. By downloading this pattern, you agree not to redistribute it or to use it for commercial purposes, unless you ask me very very nicely and I say yes.

Fly Lady

2010-01-30T11:12:00.000-06:00

It is with...mixed feelings...that I admit I have discovered the Fly Lady. For those of you not familiar with this impossibly chipper force of house-cleaning-and-organizing nature, she's developed a system of practices and habits designed to keep the the dirt and clutter in your home under control. She breaks daunting tasks into easily manageable chunks and sends out emails with reminders and encouragement each day to those who sign up for her email list.

These emails drive me freakin' crazy (but don't worry, we'll end on a positive note). First, there are approximately eleventy billion sent out each day. I suspect this is a clever, Fly Lady ploy to get you to organize your email inbox. The sheer volume of email from her list alone forced me to create a system of folders and automatic filters for my Blue Carpet email that's also helped me keep reader comments and pattern correspondence straight as well. So, um...thanks, Fly Lady.

The next step in my filter system is to filter out any of these emails that contain the word "testimonial." Easily half of these emails are forwards from users gushing about products - either the cleaning products she sells in her shop, or some cleaning product she's agreed to push for another company. Seems fake, gets old. But hey, the good stuff's free, and a girl's gotta make a living, right?

The Fly Lady claims she's talking to everyone, that her system can work and her emails are intended for any type of person - stay at home mom, single working mom, single working dad, wantonly childfree student, gay, straight, Christian, Pastafarian, whoever. And yet, though outwardly open, I get the feeling that her head is stuck quite firmly in the "middle-aged Christian woman with kids" mindset, and that's who she writes to. Every time she mentions a "God Breeze," I roll my eyes, heathen that I am. And dude, just look at her site. Not so much my aesthetic.

And yet...in spite of myself...after reading a few of her emails, I'm left with this bewilderingly warm and comforted feeling. It's the same kind of bizarrely calming feeling you get when you stumble blearily into the bathroom in the morning, and it's all shiny and clean, or when you flop into bed and the sheets are clean, and the kitty's curled up on it but not getting cat hair and kitty litter all over your sheets because it's made, and who cares if there's some cat hair on the foot of the comforter? It's like...this shouldn't make me feel good...but it does.

Most importantly, her system really works. And if she's subconsciously gearing it toward middle-aged women with kids, and it still works for Little Ms 20-Something-Cynicism, then wow. It's not a lot of work. Targeted cleaning happens in 2 or 15 minute chunks. Things get clean calmly, over time, and they stay clean through establishing habits. These habits are quick, simple, time-saving things that make you feel better about your space and yourself, which keeps you from throwing up your hands in despair like I, um...did...a few months ago...when we moved. :-\

Her system will take some adapting, but it's adaptable. No, Fly Lady, I will not put my face on every morning when I wake up or pretty much ever. But I guess I can brush my hair every morning...instead of just pulling it back into a bun so tight no one sees the tangles. And I really do feel like less of a schlub when I do that. So, um...thanks, Fly Lady.

I'M NOT DEAD!!! Yet.

2010-01-25T12:56:00.000-06:00

When last we left our heroine, she was tending to an incredible blonde lightening bolt while her boyfriend, who shall remain nameless, was tending to the estate of his mother, who had just passed away. Then she fell off the face of the planet.

It's been a crazy set of months, hence the no blogging. Or knitting. Seriously, I like...tried to knit a wisp while I was sick, and it didn't go well. That's pretty much been the extent of my knitting lately. And I'm way too broke for yarn. It's a sad state of affairs.

There have been many changes. I no longer have blue carpet. I now have ugly beige carpet in the most sketchy and dilapidated part of town I could find (but it's cheap). This has, in fact, been a huge contributing factor to the lack of blogging. It's hard to get revved up about domestic bliss when you're stuck in an apartment with mold in the basement, cigarette smoke wafting through the inoperable bathroom vent and boxes of still-unpacked stuff blocking your way to anything. We don't even know how long we'll be here. We've become transients, of a sort.

I also no longer have a boyfriend who shall remain nameless. I have a HUSBAND who shall remain nameless!!! (Hence the move away from the blue carpet). The incredible blond lightening bolt is now my stepson! And my husband, who shall remain nameless, is going to be a diplomat! (Hence the transience - we'll be moving to DC soon, we just don't know when). So things are looking up. They're just looking up from a long way down.

Anyway. The links for the pattern PDFs have been fixed (seems the file hosting service I was using stopped existing). I've emailed the pattern to those of you who left email addresses. Those who didn't, try the links again - they were broken, but they should work now. I'm not abandoning the blog any more than I'm abandoning knitting, but it's definitely in hibernation. I'll pop back on when I can and try to get it going again. I need to stop thinking of my place as "the shit-hole" and work to make it nicer. It is somewhat crucial to my mental state. :-\

The Secret Ingredient is Lurve

2009-08-17T09:39:00.006-05:00

The incredible blond lightening bolt turned 9 the other day, and he wanted a Pokemon cake. In addition to the fact that his father, who will remain nameless, and I are broke, said child is allergic to red dye! So it was looking grim.

Then we came up with this. He asked for a lemon cake with strawberry icing - easy, just add lemon juice in place of vanilla to a basic white layer cake recipe and mush up some strawberries into plain buttercream. It came out pretty much the shade of Mew, so we let our imaginations run from there. The incredible blond lightening bolt came up with pretty much the entire facial construction, and I did the tail. How lucky was it that we had this perfectly-shaped cutting board (which ordinarily looks like a swan)?

Not much knitting at all has been going on, I'm afraid, but I'll update you on that shortly all the same.

There is no snappy picture for this post.

2009-08-06T08:45:00.002-05:00

I'd meant to have Ceres published by the 1st of the month, but clearly that did not happen. Instead, we (my nameless boyfriend, the incredible blonde lightening bolt and I) got a phone call, packed our things on a moment's notice and drove down to Arkansas where his mother has been battling cancer. I was going to give her a voodoo doll shaped like a brain tumor, but she's been unconscious since before we arrived.

Last night, she passed. Her son, who will remain nameless, was with her. The lightening bolt is here with me, playing obliviously with a robot monster on the couch. He's fed, he's bathed, he's dressed, and he won't find out until his father gets home. I have no idea when that will happen. And I have no idea what will happen when that happens.

Other People's Babies

2009-07-26T15:24:00.006-05:00

Over the past month, I received news that two of my friends (ok...four, two couples) were expecting. They're all wonderful people and great parents. Both couples already have sons of about the same age, though they don't know each other, and both boys would make great big brothers. Both couples very much wanted their pregnancies, although one hadn't been sure it was possible after a bout with cancer, and everyone was excited for them.

Then, within the span of about three days, I received news that both couples had lost their babies. I am now much closer to understanding what the word "heartbroken" really means. It's shocking how something so absolutely and energetically good can just vanish. And it's frustrating not only because I have no idea what they need right now, but because even if I did, both couples (one of whom I'm very close friends with) are in Texas. There's only so much comfort that can be sent over the internet, and...it just doesn't seem a gift-sending occasion, so for now, I'll stay my knitting needles. I am, I think, going to mark the passings by lighting a candle...or something...in my own fumblingly pseudo-religious way. I don't believe that life begins at conception, and I certainly don't believe you have to be loved to have a soul, but...I think perhaps it may speed things along. These little people were very loved during their brief time in the world, and they still are.

In considerably happier news, my boyfriend (who will remain nameless) and I will be picking up his son from the airport next Saturday! He'll be with us all month, and we've decided to spend most of our time at my place, with a detour down south to the family farm (his family, not mine, but they're great). This has meant kitting out the "guest room" in the basement into something a little more kid friendly and less, well...basement-like, which has been a lot of fun! It's also involved a couple of new projects. Last summer, the incredible blond lightening bolt was quite attached to his army of stuffed animals. This summer, my boyfriend, who shall remain nameless, speculates that he may not have room in his luggage for any, as he's flying alone for the first time. Thus, currently, there is a pile of knitted, unstuffed rabbit parts. Soon there will be a rabbit. I figure if he thinks it's lame, I can foist it on my 8-month-old roommate. :-)

There is also (very nearly) a quilt (pictured above with my baby, Harlot)! I must admit, I'm making this quilt for myself because I absolutely hate my comforter. But it's occured to me that when my boyfriend, who shall remain nameless, and I finally get around to shacking up, it'll probably wind up on the incredible blond lightening bolt's bed. The overachiever who lives in my rian thinks I can have this done in time to put on his bed in the basement. The sane person who cohabitates with the overachiever in my brain is not so sure, but isn't worrying since there's more than enough bedding to go around...it's just not quite as snappy and hand-made. At any rate, it's coming along really nicely, and we'll just see when and for whom it comes out.

The Best Bread

2009-07-15T08:00:00.001-05:00

Here's the bread recipe I've been promising you. Since discovering the idea of no-knead bread, I literally have not bought bread from the store. For months, I have enjoyed a steady supply of fresh, healthy, home-made bread. The secret is making a large quantity of dough that keeps for up to two weeks in your fridge. When you need more bread, you break off a hunk of dough, let it sit for an hour and a half, and then pop it in the oven. That's it. No kneading, no carefully timed rises. It's brainless, and involves about 5 minutes of actual work per loaf.

And it's GOOD! Crusty with a nice, moist crumb, this bread has the tiniest hint of tang, reminiscent of sourdough (though it's not a sourdough). The addition of wheat bran and germ round off that tang and make it a little bit rustic. I've looked and not found a recipe that works like this that involves whole wheat flour, so for now the bran and germ make it healthier than white bread. Well, that and the complete lack of additives of any kind. Unless you...like...wanted to add them...for some reason...then you could.

Here is the recipe. Try it and marvel at how insanely easy (and cheap!) it is to have fresh, crusty artisan bread on hand at all times.
Makes dough for three loaves
1 1/2 Tbsp yeast
1 1/2 Tbsp salt
3.5 cups warm water
1/2 cup wheat bran
1/4 cup wheat germ
6 cups all purpose flour

In a large bowl, mix together the yeast and salt.
Add the water.
Mix in the wheat bran and germ.
Add the flour, mixing thoroughly until all lumps are gone. This is most easily done 2 cups at a time, stirring between each addition. The dough will be quite wet and sticky, and not entirely smooth, but there should be no pockets of dry flour when the mixing is done.
Cover, but not with an airtight lid, and let sit for at least 2 hours and as many as five.
Bake now, or store dough in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
When ready to bake, break off 1/3 of the dough (per loaf), and place in a greased and floured bowl (a cereal bowl will do fine).
Sprinkle liberally with flour, and let sit for about an hour (up to two, if dough has been refrigerated). It's ok to be very approximate with this time.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
Let bread stone warm to temperature as oven preheats.
Carefully transfer the dough from the bowl to the hot stone. The dough will still be very loose, but arrange in a nice, round mound. Slash the top three times with a sharp knife (this will be easier the more flour you dusted it with earlier).
Bake for 35 minutes, or until bread sounds hollow when thumped.
Cool on a wire rack until it's just cool enough not to burn you.
Slather with butter and devour while still warm.

Hints and Variations:

This is a great recipe to add stuff into. Nuts, seeds, garlic, olives, mushrooms, cheese, dried fruit, diamonds...mix it in before you start adding the flour, maybe a handful per loaf.
This bread can also be baked on a cookie sheet or in a greased loaf pan, but the baking stone really enhances the crust and the shape of the loaf.
On a related note, these would probably make great dinner rolls. One slash on the top, maybe brushed with an egg wash. They'd need to be baked for a shorter time than a full loaf. I shall experiment and report back!
When you're done stuffing your face, wrap the still-warm loaf in a cloth napkin until fully cool, then store in a zip bag. The warm bread will not become stale as it cools, even overnight, but it will become soggy if it cools in anything airtight.

Vive la France!

2009-07-14T14:34:00.002-05:00

And now, a few useful formulae:

scone + strawberry jam + whipped cream + strawberries = strawberry shortcake

scone + blueberry jam + whipped cream + blueberries = blueberry shortcake

scone + strawberry jam + whipped cream + blueberries = BASTILLE DAY SHORTCAKE!!!

And the winner is....

2009-07-11T10:47:00.003-05:00

...Mailophobic!!! Congratulations! Drop me an email letting me know to what email address you'd like me to send your copy of Bluebonnets.

That was kinda fun. I think mayhap I shall have another of those at some point. :-) In the meantime...

This is coming right up! We're in the testing stages, and then in a week or so the pattern for these mitts and their matching hat will be up for sale! So stay tuned.

Time For a Giveaway!!!

2009-07-05T20:00:00.001-05:00

Win this! The headband pattern, not the girl. Sicko. :-P

One of the strange things about blogging is that you really can't tell who's subscribed to your RSS feed. So, although there are various ways of telling who comes and visits your site, anyone who reads your blog via your feed is essentially invisible to you. This makes it sort of hard to gauge how many regular readers you have. Some services like Google Reader make it possible to see who's following you through that particular service, but I know I usually just subscribe directly to the feed, and I think most people like to do that too.

So here's my idea: If you are subscribed to my blog (or if you're just now subscribing) in any way, through any service, comment to this post and let me know! Everyone who comments will be entered into a drawing for a free copy of Bluebonnets, which is, you know...not usually free. And, just because I think it's fun to actually see my "followers," anyone who follows my blog via Google Reader will be entered twice!

A winner will be chosen on Saturday, July 11 via random number generator, so subscribe and submit your comments or subscribe through Google before then (see the "subscribe" and "follow" links to the left). I'll post the name of the winner that day, then it will be up to that person to email me and let me know at what email address they'd like to receive the PDF pattern.

The Tastiest Palindrome

2009-07-02T17:13:00.009-05:00

Haaaaallaaaaah.......

(In the interest of full disclosure, I normally spell it "challah." That's when I'm not trying to capitalize on its being a palindrome, of course).

Today, I am drowning in grainy goodness (I should go get a nice Heffeweisen and round things off). I've finished a hat (matching mitts to come) named after Ceres, the Roman goddess of grain and agriculture. Doesn't it remind you of woven grass? It reminds me of woven grass. Anyway. It's being tested now, and in celebration, I've decided to bake challah, and share the recipe with the masses!

Challah is rather more involved than most bread, and certainly more involved than the delightfully simple no-knead bread that I've very nearly perfected (about which more later). It has more than your typical 2 rises, it must rise in a warm oven and bake at a gradually increasing temperature.

Although I've had great luck baking Challah in a variety of shapes, it is traditionally baked in a nice, braided loaf. Furthermore, my recipe makes four loaves. That's a lotta baking! My understanding is that this is traditionally baked in quantity before the sun sets on Friday, so that there's plenty of challah to break off (not cut) and eat during the period of work-restriction during Shabbat. I could be wrong - I'm not Jewish. I just really like challah!

Today I'm quartering the recipe, and the recipe I'll share with you includes both measurements - numbers not in parentheses are for one loaf, numbers in parentheses are for four. I'll let you figure out the twos and threes and eights as you see fit. :-)

2-1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, more for dusting and adding in if the dough is too wet (10 cups)
1-1/2 tsp. salt (2 Tbsp.)
1/8 cup sugar (1/2 cup)
2 level Tbsp. yeast (2 heaping Tbsp.)
1/8 lb. butter, melted (1/2 lb.)
1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp. warm water (2-1/2 cups)
2 eggs at room temperature (6 eggs)
optional: seeds or dried fruit, about 1 handful total per loaf

1. Preheat oven to warm -- 140 deg. F.

2. Mix the flour and salt in a large nonmetal bowl, making a well in the center. (I tried it once in a metal bowl. The bread started to bake prematurely along the bottom during the rise. This may have been due to a sketchy Russian oven, or it may have been due to an overly conductive bowl. I'm not taking any more chances!)

3. Many people add seeds or dried fruit to their challah. I usually make mine plain, but on special occasions, I'll mix in sunflower seeds and golden raisins. Mix about a handful of your chosen stuff in with the dry ingredients now, if desired.

4. Add 1 Tbsp. (1/4 cup) sugar to the well, cover with the yeast, and top with remaining sugar.

5. Mix the yeast with the sugar in the well.

6. Combine the melted butter and warm water, mixing as best you can.

7. Add the butter mixture to the yeast mixture and work in well with your hands.

8. Separate 1 egg.

9. Add the remaining 1 egg (5 eggs) and white of the separated egg individually to the bread dough, kneading well afer each addition, until all the flour is absorbed, about 10 minutes. As you knead, you may have to add more flour, so have some handy. The dough will be sticky - add flour gradually until it doesn't stick hopelessly to your fingers.

10. Cover the bowl first with waxed paper smeared with butter, then with a towel, and put in the warm oven for 1/2 hour.

11. When the dough has almost doubled in size, punch it down and knead thoroughly and briskly for about 10 minutes. You will soon find that kneading warm bread dough is one of the more pleasurable activities life has to offer.

12. Cover with the greased paper and towel and let rise for 15-20 minutes more in the warm oven, until it is almost doubled again.

13. Remove once more, punch down, knead again for 5-10 minutes. Re-cover and let rise once more for 15-20 minutes in the warm oven.

14. Turn the dough onto a pastry board and knead thoroughly. (If baking 4 loaves, cut the dough into 4 equal pieces using a sharp knife.) Divide each loaf further into 6 pieces. Add a little flour, and knead each portion, and shape it into a ball. Cover the pieces not being worked on with a moist paper towel.

15. With the palm of your hand, roll out the balls into long ropes about 9 inches in length. Continue until all 6 balls are shaped into ropes.

16. Place 6 ropes side by side, touching at one end. Pinch that end to seal well. Bring the extreme right rope over the next three; then bring the extreme left over three. Continue until the bread is completely braided. when no more can be braided, pinch the ends to seal together. Place on a greased and floured cookie sheet. Repeat for as many loaves as you are making.

17. Brush with the remaining egg yolk, making sure you get into all the cracks.

18. Place in warm oven for 20 minutes.

19. Raise the oven temperature to 200 deg. F for 15 minutes.

20. Raise it to 275 deg F for 15 minutes.

21. Finally, raise the oven temperature to 375 deg. F for 10-15 minutes, until the bread is golden brown.

22. Let cool completely before slicing. If you really can't wait and want warm bread, let it cool enough to handle without burning yourself, and break chunks off. Bread really does slice better when it's cooled a bit, but this bread lends itself well to not being sliced.

23. The baked challah freezes well.

A Quick Plug

2009-07-02T12:10:00.004-05:00

The folks over at Martha's Vineyard Fiber Farm have come up with a wonderful way to destash for a good cause: Yarn Storming. These days, many knitters have had to cut yarn out of their budget to get by - and we all know how sanity-saving a good knit can be during a stressful time. Yarn Storm's secret agents collect extra stash yarn, and then send it out anonymously to people who could use it. Read more at the website linked above, and if you're on Ravelry, check out their group! You can contribute by sending in stash yarn or by nominating a recipient.

I think this is a fantastic idea, and I already know where there's a box of yarn I keep not using in my basement that I'll send in once I'm back in Madison. Makes me wish more of my down-and-out friends were knitters. :-)

There will be another post today as well - more of the usual fare involving recipes and pictures of bread and knitting and whatnot. Stay tuned!

No amount of sparkling could make up for what they're missing...

2009-06-30T22:40:00.004-05:00

So if you were to take it into your head to grill a head of garlic out back with your steak, you might then realize that the leftovers, in combination with some raw cloves, would make a nice garlic-infused olive oil. Were you to then dump said cloves into a pot of extra virgin olive oil and heat it gently until said oil were infused with garlicy goodness, you might then be tempted to remove said cloves, now sweet and warm and mushy, and spread them all over some fresh-baked crusty bread. Were you to succumb to said temptation, you would have yourself quite a nice little midnight snack.

I'm almost ready to say I have this bread recipe perfected. I have one more permutation of the wheat bran to wheat germ ratio to test, and then I will post the recipe here. :-)

And This Is Why You Swatch

2009-06-25T13:10:00.007-05:00

Update on Person Cozy: it'll be a while.

I didn't swatch. Rather, I used my hot water bottle cozy as a swatch to figure out gauge and how the yarn would behave after blocking. I figured this was perfectly reasonable - I was using the same yarn, same size needles, same stitch pattern - the only difference was the colorway. And oh, what a difference it made!

Berroco Peruvia in "sea turtle" is soft, squishy, warm, luscious with just enough of a halo to make it cozy. In black, however, it is scratchy, straw-like, less elastic, itchy and hairy. "Halo" is not the word - it's hairy. I noticed the difference early on while knitting - the yarn wasn't as soft, it was hairier, it was splittier than when I'd knit it in "sea turtle." I figured it would all even out after blocking. I was a fool.

The lesson I have learned, and I hope you'll all learn from my mistake, is to SWATCH!!! Swatch even when you don't think you need to. Switching to a new yarn of the same weight? SWATCH!!! Switching to a new colorway that feels slightly different? You're not crazy - SWATCH!!! I feel like I've flushed an itchy, hairy sweater's worth of yarn down the toilet. Ugh.

But in reality, I haven't. I have a prototype, I tried it on. I now know that the basic design works the way I wanted it to. I now know that if I raise the neckline and shorten the shoulder straps, it will look perfect. I now know exactly how much negative ease I want (it fits great width-wise, but the black yarn had less vertical stretch than the green yarn). I will find suitable yarn, I will swatch, I will knit a perfect and glorious Person Cozy, and it will be good. Someday. When I can afford the yarn. Like the phoenix, Person Cozy will rise again!

Knitting in Public

2009-06-20T13:19:00.003-05:00

Today is World Wide Knit in Public Day. Rejoice! There was a group meeting at a farmer's market not far from me this morning to knit in public. I thought about going, but decided that I'm probably just not strong enough to spend time surrounded by luscious, local, largely organic produce, meats, eggs, dairy and baked goods without buying something. Particularly circa breakfast time. And have we been keeping up with how pathetically jobless and broke I am? Yes.

So I humped my needles down to the park this afternoon. I found a nice, quiet, shady spot with a good view. It was pleasantly solitary, but there were enough joggers and bikers out today that it qualified as "knitting in public."

Pictured above is your basic garter stitch swiffer cover. While I'm usually not a huge fan of garter stitch, I find it's excellent for scrubbing and picking up schmutz! I got a whole mess of Sugar 'n Cream cotton from my mother a while back. Free yarn = free swiffer covers and washcloths! This is excellent from my broke-ass perspective! I might post a pattern for the swiffer cover at some point, but it's so stupid easy, I'm not sure the demand is there.

I have a hemlock ring blanket to finish that I'm out of yarn for. A couple of hats that are almost ready for testing. A new project I can't tell you about. But today - today I needed something simple and mindless that didn't involve buying new yarn. :-)

What's Next

2009-06-17T12:22:00.004-05:00

After posting my very first pattern, Hot Water Bottle Cozy, a friend of mine commented that it looked on first glance like a sleeveless turtleneck. I agreed, and thought furthermore that it would be pretty freakin' awesome if said sleeveless turtleneck existed.

And thus, "Person Cozy" was born. :-) Person Cozy will have the same basic construction as the bottle cozy - buttoned shoulder flaps instead of seams, an optional ribbed turtleneck that'll basically be a matching, tight-fitting cowl, and also matching removable sleeves. It's very modular, this piece. And, because of the shoulder flaps instead of seams and the torso being knit in the round, it has the added bonus of being completely seamless.

I have the last shoulder flap and the turtleneck to go. I'm so close to being done with the knitting, and yet I'm so far from having this thing ready to publish. I've got to block it (it looks like an ill-fitting piece of ass right now, but I think it'll block to perfection), finish it, and last but by no means least, have it tested in various sizes. I'm writing it in sizes x-small through 3x-large, and I'm just hoping and praying that the size standards I have for the larger sizes actually work the way they're supposed to on a woman's body! It's a rather fitted piece, you see.

Bluebonnets

2009-06-16T21:36:00.010-05:00

$2.00

Every spring, the hills of Central Texas turn blue, submitting to a thick blanket of wildflowers. Inspired by this lovely blue bamboo and silk yarn (from Paton's), I wanted to make a simple headband that captured this flower in lace. Open-work ribbing creates the blossoms, and slipped stitches and cabling create the stem and leaves below. This is a pretty quick project (I think my test knitters all finished before they thought they would) and would be a great first lace project.

Big thanks to my boyfriend, who shall remain nameless (unless you look very carefully), and RiverKiva for the wonderful photography. Thanks also to adriennepdx, CraftyCripple, preservationgal and tinker37 of Ravelry for testing the draft of my pattern. They were wonderful to work with, and their headbands came out gorgeous (you can see one of them here, at CraftyCripple's blog)!

You can purchase this through Ravelry, or just click the "buy now" button at the top of the page. If you have any questions, email me or check out About the Patterns.

Size: one (38" long by 4" at its widest point)
Skills: simple lace, cabling, increases and decreases, provisional casting on

Bluebonnets is copyright Sasha Evans, all rights reserved. By downloading this pattern, you agree not to redistribute it or to use it for commercial purposes, unless you ask me very very nicely and I say yes.

A Very Silly Post

2009-06-15T17:47:00.007-05:00

The following post is very silly and reflects my occasional fascination with Google Analytics. By way of preemptive apology, please accept this picture of blueberries and this weekend's chocolate torte. It was good. Wish you'd'a been there. :-)

Dear North Dakota,

What gives??? You are officially the only state in the union to have sent me no visitors whatsoever in the entire 6 months I've been maintaining this blog. I thought we were buds. Seriously, where's the midwest solidarity? South Dakota likes me just fine.

Nyah,
Sasha

Dear Russia,

Seriously??? I'm getting my effing PhD in you!!! Georgia sent me visitors, are you gonna let Georgia show you up??? I freaking have friends in you RIGHT NOW! If you don't send me some visitors, I will have them gang up on you and all visit my blog right now while they're inside you, just to spite you!

No love,
Sasha

Feminist Media

2009-06-14T14:01:00.004-05:00

I like to read feminist blogs, webzines, news sources, things like that from time to time. I find it provides a useful counterpoint to mainstream media - pointing out biases we take for granted and forget we have, offering viewpoints and experiences that are often underrepresented, making radical arguments that sometimes ring surprisingly true. Of course, "feminist media" is tough to define. It's difficult to pin down what qualifies.

Case in point, Double X. Based on the obvious biological allusion of the title, we all know about what we're going to get - a feminist (or at least unapologetically female) perspective. I skimmed through the headlines this morning and was pleased to find a variety of perspectives on a variety of topics, from abortion to the economy to the election in Iran.

Reading the articles wasn't terrible, but it was a bit anticlimactic. Their article on challenges to Myriad Genetics' patenting BRCA1 and BRCA2 (the "breast cancer genes") reads like a list of talking points prepared by the ACLU, glossing over many of the very details that make this case interesting and important. Their five-part series of letters between three authors of "What It's Like to Be a Military Wife" books was maddenlingly circular and strikingly uninformative, repeating what mainstream media has already made sure we all know - it's hard to be a military wife, and really confusing when you think you're a feminist. Despite the media-induced familiarity of their lives and despite how different and varied they keep insisting they are, their stories were uniformly distinct and alien from my own experience - to read them, you would think only officers married. Is this just a chip on my shoulder?

Wondering what their angle really is, I went to their "About Us" page, which, I realized, says very little. "Double X is a new Web magazine, founded by women but not just for women," - is it reactionary of me to think this comes across as apologizing for their readership? "...We started a conversation among women—about politics, sex, and culture—that both men and women listen in on," two sentences in a row, no less. It's as though they're saying, "We're oreinted around women...but not too much." Their topics are "sexual politics, fashion, parenting, health, science, sex, friendship, work-life balance, and anything else you might talk about with your friends over coffee." Is it silly of me to find that trivializing? They describe their approach as "unabashedly intellectual but not dry or condescending." Is it overly sensitve of me to find that very phrase condescending? So...just what is Double X about? News for girls? And for guys to? News written by girls? That guys can read too? If they never use the word "feminist" in their self-description, are they a feminist media source? Do they want to be? Or at least to look like one?

Contrast this nebulous self-description with the "About Us" section from bitchmagazine.org. "B-Word Worldwide is a nonprofit (501c3), independent, feminist media organization best known for publishing Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture, a print magazine devoted to feminist analysis and media criticism." It goes on to describe how and why they achieve this very clear objective. They have a focus - feminist analysis of pop culture, not "anything...you might talk about...over coffee." They're not afraid of the f-word, and their intended audience is, presumably, anyone who's interested enough in their topic and focus to keep reading. They don't bend over backwards to say, "It's ok, boys! You can read too! We're not scary!" Rather, they show men - and their readers in general - the respect of not asuming they're so jittery as to be scared away from material that might interest them by "f-bombs" (the 8-letter kind) and female authors.

This is not an issue of moderate versus radical feminism, it's an issue of having a focus and not apologizing for it. It is okay to have a specific focus - your focus does not negate the presence of different viewpoints well-represented elsewhere. It is okay to write with a specific demographic in mind - that focus does not negate all relevance to other demographics. And to those who feel unwelcomed by not being specifically greeted, I offer the same response I gave in college when asked, "Why should there be all of these high-calliber women's colleges but no high-calliber men's colleges?"

"No reason I can see. Quit whining and go start one."

The End is Near

2009-06-09T16:14:00.002-05:00

Bluebonnets is officially - finally - in the testing stages (you thought I was going to say "done" didn't you? Well the piece is done - done and GORGEOUS - and so is the pattern, it just needs to be tested. I will never charge money for a pattern that has not been tested or professionally tech edited, of that you can be sure)! I expect to have the pattern up for sale next week. Winners of the "Tied Up and Twisted" blog giveaway will get their free pattern as soon as it's up.

Has anyone else noticed that I was posting more often during finals than I am now that it's summer and I'm unemployed? Yeah. Funny how that works.

Anyway. I'd also been working on another much larger-scale project that I'd intended to submit to Knitty. Life, however, in the form of externally-imposed deadlines and sudden shortages of yarn, got in the way, and it's just as well. It was going to be great, but it's going to be better now that I'm not rushing to finish it. I'll post pictures of it soon, but here's a hint: it's a one-of-a-kind original sweater, but you'll recognize it. *smiles coyly*

If Pies Were Jobs, I'd Be Saving The World Economy

2009-05-27T12:03:00.005-05:00

Behold, the fruits of my unemployment! (Get it? Fruits? There's fruit in there. Strawberries, anyway, I'm not sure if rhubarb qualifies as fruit).

Funding for awesome Slavic-related summer activities did not come through for me this year, so I'm trying, with very little success so far, to find a job. As I'm sure many of you know, it is very easy to become a useless layabout when unemployed. After two days of sleeping until 1 in the afternoon, I decided this must not be. So I figured the least I could do is get up while it's still am. I've been setting my alarm for 8am, with the goal of being out of bed by 9am. I've been doing quite well, though it's really, really hard when there's nothing in particular that you're getting out of bed for. Today I've decided that I need to revise my personal edict to include being dressed before 10am. For some arbitrary reason.

It's not that I don't have things to do. I have knitting projects to finish and submit/put up for sale. I have swords and a big, flat backyard. I have a guitar I keep saying I'm going to learn how to play. I have rhubarb in the fridge that needs to become pie (check). I have dead and/or made-up languages that need learning! I have - gasp - pleasure reading I could do! Oh, and let's not forget, I have jobs that need applying for. Also blogging. You'd think I'd be updating my blog more frequently now that finals are over. Evidently, you'd be wrong.

The problem with all of this is that it's all stuff I can do on my own time. I can very easily do all of this at 3 in the morning. I can even do some of it in bed! But I'm less productive when I work like that, and even when I do get things done, I feel like I've wasted the day. I try to spend time in parks, I try to get errands done without using my car. But it's sooooooooo easy to spend 2 hours checking your email in your PJs.

This is why I must never be a housewife or stay-at-home-anything of any sort. Even the super-industrious home-business variety. I need a reason to leave the house every day and to interact with people. I need a reason to be out of bed by a certain time. I need structure, damnit. I can make the lack of structure work, I can be all self-starting and rah, but God, it's like pulling teeth!

The Ikea Effect

2009-05-15T22:44:00.004-05:00

Today we went to Ikea, mostly out of boredom, partly for the cheap Swedish meatballs and lingonberry jam. I was afraid it would make me pine for clever domestic things I can't afford, but I was pleasantly wrong. Ikea has these neat little alcoves set aside as fully furnished apartments with some astonishingly small square footage displayed like a badge of honor. "Look how clever we are, we can make this appalling space so comfortable, functional and welcoming."

So while peering into those, I was happily reminded of the process of kitting out my apartment back in Texas. I was living alone, on a modest teacher's salary in approximately 600 square feet, and for not much money, I made that place quite a nice little cave to spend a year in. Granted, it was hand-me-down furniture that really did the trick. And some cleverness of my own - repurposing extra curtain fabric, things like that. But it was fun, and I did a good job.

Ikea did not make me feel oppressed today, as I thought it would. But as I walked through aisles of clever, money-and-space-saving shelving and gadgetry, my mood drifted from happy nostalgia to wistful and then somewhat sad dreaming. I kept a running checklist in my head, ticking off what we wouldn't need, two grown people with their own pots and pans and beds and desks. I'd also imagine how we might transform a tiny apartment kitchen into a facility suitable for foodies, and my boyfriend, who will remain nameless, let his gaze linger on many of my chosen goodies. I'd picture what his son might draw or scrawl on the blackboard door of a wall-mounted cabinet, or how to portion-off rooms, so that three people might feel at home and welcome in too little space.

I have all I need and more than enough space now, with my roommates, but I would be so happy to make do on a small budget in a tiny space if that space were filled with people I love. But for that, he'd have to get a job in Madison. And so, I will continue to glory defiantly in my blue carpet, and to dream of some tiny apartment when I let my guard down.

Lunch from the Farmers' Market

2009-05-09T15:30:00.005-05:00

The farmers' market by my house is open again! Rejoice! It's still a bit early in the season for selection and prices to be at their best, but it's good enough for me for now. I'm basking in produce (and cheese. Cheesecheesecheesecheesecheese. God bless Wisconsin). :-)

After we got home from the market, I whipped this up for lunch to go with last night's steak leftovers. It's so quick, easy and good, I thought I'd share the recipe. This is best with really fresh mozzarella, but the local provonello we found today was great.

Tomato and Cucumber Salad

1 medium cucumber
1 medium tomato
a few generous slices of provonello
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp chopped fresh mint
a dab of mustard
a pinch of salt
a couple of twists of a pepper grinder

In a small tupperware, combine the vinegar, olive oil, mustard, salt, pepper and half the mint.
Close up the tupperware. Shake. Lots. Let it sit there for a few minutes, while you prepare the vegetables, or longer.
Slice the tomatoes, cucumbers and cheese and arrange on a plate.
Drizzle the vinaigrette over the vegetables and cheese.
Just before serving, sprinkle the remaining mint over everything. This lets part of the mint flavor the vinaigrette while part of it remains fresh and crisp.

This Post Has a Picture

2009-05-08T11:23:00.004-05:00

It's right there at the top of the post. Just beneath the title. You don't see it? It's easy to miss, but quite clear. It's my favorite size 6 circular needle that has SUDDENLY BECOME INVISIBLE!!! This vanishing needle made me unreasonably angry and upset last night. I bought amazingly yummy yarn yesterday for two new projects that are going to be wonderful. Both require a size 6 circular needle. I have 2, one of which has a sweater on it, one of which is now charmingly invisible. I looked everywhere. My darling boyfriend, who shall remain nameless, even searched through my car. He found horrifying tupperware with old leftovers in them, an alarm clock, a bird call and lots of candy but, of course, no size 6 circular needle. I'll probably go buy another one today after school. I can justify (sort of) buying a duplicate of a duplicate needle because I think these are both patterns that can sell. *looks at bank account and whimpers*

Speaking of luscious, beautiful "money saving" things, here are some books I want. I need to be coming up with these ideas myself and not paying someone to come up with them for me. Still...inspiration...it helps a lot, particularly when bogged down with finals. I mean...Dostoevsky's idea of evil and the Late Common Slavic period of disintegration are definitely inspiring, just...not in quite the same way, y'know? A trip to the library is called for, I think. Or perhaps some window-shopping at Barnes and Noble. Then if these patterns are a) completed and b) sell, I'll splurge on some more books that I don't have room for on my shelves. :-)

The Little Things

2009-05-07T16:00:00.001-05:00

I don't know what kind of flower this is, but now the entire dining room smells of it! My boyfriend, who will remain nameless, rescued this bloom from the sidewalk and wore it in his lapel on the bus ride home. He presented it to my roommate when we got home, who showed it to The Kiddo (her son, the most adorable and mercifully mild-mannered 6-month-old I have ever encountered). I think it's a more extreme smell than he's used to because his eyes got reeeeeeeally wiiiiiiiiide. Tiny kids are fun to watch when they first encounter things we take for granted. We had a pretty respectable thunder-storm this afternoon, and he stared out the window fascinated by the rain for as long as someone was willing to hold him near it. Kid's got good taste in nature.

Yum Kitchen and Bakery

2009-05-04T15:21:00.006-05:00

Why yes, those cupcakes were as good as they look! :-D Upside-down rhubarb cupcake and a dark, moist chocolate cupcake that you wish and hope will have the classic dollop of white cream on the inside, and it DOES!!! These cupcakes were everything I'd hoped they would be.

Anyway, this past Sunday, my boyfriend, who shall remain nameless, and I stopped in at Yum Kitchen and Bakery for lunch on our way back from the bike shop. The bakery case was the first thing we saw and, believe it or not, it just got better from there. In addition to these flirtatious morsels, we split a steak sandwich with arugula and red pepper aioli. Mmmmmmmm, dear God that was good. It came on crispy, toasted herb focaccia, with delicate potato chips and a big 'ole salty pickle. Seriously, the pickle was heaven. Not too tart, still crisp - I'm very particular about my pickles. I typically don't like them, but when they're right, oh, they're just perfect.

Anyway, if you find yourself in uptown Minneapolis any time soon, I suggest you stop in. It's a bit on the pricey side but if you split an entree with someone you love, it works out quite reasonably. I tried to reproduce the red pepper aioli and failed...tastily? What I made is not red pepper aioli, but it's still good. I'll post a recipe here if I ever come up with anything worthy of the moniker.

Happy finals, everyone! I'll try not to abandon the blog completely this week and next, but if I do, know that I'm on a series of hot dates with the Proto-Indo-Europeans, and that I'll be back before too long.

My Favorite Springtime Color

2009-04-30T15:25:00.003-05:00

My favorite springtime color is black. Just look at it!

It's been raining here for the past few days, punctuated by nice mild, sunny days. As a result, the trees and the grass are the kind of vibrant green that only fully develops in the rain, and flowers are popping out all over the place. Tulips and daffodils and these little purple things that I suspect are crocuses, but I'm not gonna lie, I actually don't know what a crocus is.

Amidst all of this glorious color, we have patches of rich black. The bark of a wet tree, the black soil out of which the new flowers have emerged. The night sky, deeper and darker than before after a few seconds of sudden, lightening-strike day.

The black is life-giving, and sets off the richness of the brighter springtime colors. But it's beautiful in its own right. It's rich, it's moist, it's velvety, and it has a life of its own. Within the black are sparkling droplets of water, storm clouds a slightly lighter black than the sky at night, texture and variation. It captures shades of brown and blue and even green and pulls them into the dark, fathomless realm of black.

Blogkeeping...

2009-04-20T19:55:00.005-05:00

It's like housekeeping, only...with blogs! I gotta warn ya today, kids, I was up until the wee hours last night writing a paper on how Dostoevsky expresses his life-affirming religious philosophy by having characters commit suicide and drown babies. Yah. Might be a titch disjointed today.

BUT WE'RE GONNA POST ANYWAY!!!

Subtle changes you probably didn't notice around the blog:
1) Files are now hosted through a new and MUCH BETTER service! Holy crap. I settled for much less than I should have with my first service, given that I was looking for something free. Now when you click on the download links from my pattern pages, you'll just start up a direct download. No leaving the site, no ads (well...no ads that you'll ever see. I'll look at all the flashy ads they want me to, as long as they don't charge me and don't hassle my users).
2) Pattern links are now listed to the left of my blog entries, along with links to errata and my new copyright notice.
3) New copyright notice!!! Go ahead and read it. I'll wait. K, you're back? Was it clear? Does it make sense? No? Then email me! I want it to be as simple and fair as possible. Want me to make an exception for you cuz you're special? Email me! I really just might! Seriously. There will be very slightly different copyright stipulations for my for-pay patterns, and I'll put those up once they're, y'know, relevant. :-)
4) In anticiapation of said for-pay patterns, I've opened up my Ravelry Store.
5) I've also opened an Etsy Shop for you non-Ravelites, but no link yet cuz it's ugly and empty. I'm tinkering with some small projects to list as well - FOs to help fill up the shop mostly so the one for-pay pattern I'm almost done with won't feel lonely. Pics of those to come. :-)
6) Knitting away on the larger-scale projects. Here's a teaser:

Cheese and apples and sky-blue mohair. I'm making a series of hats on a really neat theme - you'll see once it happens and I'm not all Dostoevskified. It's a set of three hats, and I think I'll offer one for free and then put the rest up for sale in lots of different sizes. Also cheese. Just...cheese. Cheesecheesecheesecheesecheeseheese. Need I say more?

Oh, I can't wait to be able to think again. Until then, I think I'll go do some mindless cabling.

Busy Weekend

2009-04-12T14:50:00.008-05:00

Of course, I'm sitting here blogging on my laptop at the dining room table, so you'd never know it's been a fairly busy weekend, BUT IT HAS BEEN!!! Not as busy as it needed to be...but still. I've gotten plenty done, and there's plenty more to do.

Probably of most interest to you will be the progress I've made on Bluebonnets! I really like how it's turning out. I feel the need to throw in the typical "This will look much nicer when it's blocked" disclaimer, but I like how the open rib at the top mimics the fluffy, round column of blossoms you get on a bluebonnet. I'm using a slipped-stitch cable to create the stem and leaves, and I love how leafy it's turning out! I'm knitting this hairband from the center out, and I now have one side done and the provisionally cast on stitches picked up. Pattern's set, chart is drafted, all I need now is to knit the other half and pretty up the directions, and it's off to be tested!

Did my taxes. Wooooooo. Unfortunately, my former job wasn't so good with the withholding, so I owed a painful chunk of change. Turns out, though, that after finishing up my taxes today, I only owe slightly over half of what I thought I owed. That's still over a month's worth of rent, but still. I'd planned for much, much worse.

And other than that, I have a boat-load of school work to do. I've been plowing through a Dostoevsky novel, reading up on a presentation I'm giving on Tuesday about Dostoevsky's less-than-sympathetic attitude toward Jews in Russia and Europe and doing some editing and follow-up emailing for a professor. Oh, and articles on cognitive linguistics and Russian morphology. Let's not forget those.

Oh right! It's Easter! Happy Easter, everyone. It's easy to forget about this particular holiday, being childless and not really religious. But it's blatantly springtime outside, and all of my friends are posting to their respective blogs about family and food and coloring eggs with children, so it's definitely Easter. I'd been planning to make a big roast chicken dinner tonight, actually forgetting that it was Easter. My boyfriend, who shall remain nameless, is at his place, my roommates are with family, so...big dinner by myself? Woo. I'll try to focus more on the amazingly tasty food I'm able to prepare, and less on the fact that I'll be enjoying a big, Easter dinner with my cats.

Tied Up and Twisted

2009-04-09T16:56:00.025-05:00

My "Happy Weekend" present to you: a new free pattern cum blog giveaway!

Pattern
Download the PDF here.
"Tied Up and Twisted" is amazingly quick, amazingly easy and surprisingly versatile. The twisty pulse-warmers will keep you (surprisingly) warm while the weather warms up, and the hairband can be worn in lots of different ways. There are yarn overs worked down the length of each piece, which allows you to button them anywhere along their length. Use these pictures as “serving suggestions.” There’s plenty of room for creativity!

I knit these to show off the wonderful handspun yarn I received for Christmas from Woolly H ands. Worked on large needles, this yarn knits up quickly and with lots of character! You could substitute a bulky yarn of more even thickness, but I think you’d lose some of the character of the piece.

Blog Giveaway
Remember "Bluebonnets?" It's coming along great, and I'm almost ready to have it tested. Because this pattern is slightly more complicated than my two free patterns, I'm going to charge a little for it.

Want to get it for free?

Knit up "Tied Up and Twisted" and post it to Ravelry with pictures and a rating by the end of the month, and I'll enter your name into a drawing for a free PDF copy of "Bluebonnets" when it's tested and finished. I'll draw 2 names at random and contact the winners through Ravelry on May 1. You have to be on Ravelry to enter, but this gives you time to get an account if you don't already have one (it's free, and soooooo worth the clicking and typing). And yes, I will enter your name even if you only give me one star. Be honest. :-)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License. Click here for an explanation of this term in plain English.

Sneak Peek

2009-04-09T15:41:00.003-05:00

New pattern, coming soon! This right here is only 1/3 of what you'll get. *smiles coyly*

Another "To Knit"

2009-04-02T16:00:00.000-05:00

This thick, delicious wool was spun for me by a friend (with the help of her son) as a birthday present, and it has "thrummed mittens" written all over it! The yarn is a bit scratchy, but not unpleasantly so. It's not something I'd want to have next to the skin on my forehead necessarily, but it's a good, sturdy yarn with character. This will make wonderfully warm, water-resistant mittens, and a layer of soft thrumming inside will keep my hands feeling warm and cushioned! I think a nice bright green roving would look nice with this yarn - spots of green on a field of rich brown, like the buds that really really really really really need to start poking out of the mud here soon.

My "To Knit" List

2009-04-01T16:00:00.000-05:00

I'm focusing very deliberately on my own designs these days (many of which I can't tell you about yet, but boy am I getting this coy smile down). As a result, it's been sort of a while since I've knit a pattern by anyone else! I think it's important that I continue to knit other people's designs not just for designer solidarity, and not just because there are so many beautiful things out there that I want but did not design. Knitting other people's patterns is how I learn new techniques and construction methods. It's how I push my envelope, and it's how I'm able to expand what I'm able to design myself.

I've been drooling over some patterns by Ysolda Teague, for instance. I've never knit toys or anything stuffed before, and I know at least two little boys who really need a handmade stuffed elephant. I've not knit a slouchy, beret style hat either, and she has some really nice ones. I'll go with a lacier one, I think, maybe Ishbel because I need to flex my lace chops some more. I should try out a shawl too, circles and triangles. Maybe Bethany Kok's Shipwreck.

I've never done much with color, but I'd like to work it into my knitting more. I may start with Paper Dolls, by Kate Davies. Owls (scroll down from "Paper Dolls") will happen as well, oh yes it will, though I don't need practice cabling. I just love it, and it needs to happen.

It will be a slow, slow process, working through this list, both because it's a rather expensive list and because I do intend to continue focusing on my own designs.

On and Off the Needles

2009-03-31T21:57:00.006-05:00

Did you think I meant that I'm on and off the needles? Because that would have been a hilariously inaccurate misconstrual! I am very much on the needles. On them like a drug. Here's what's off, though:

That's my Foliage. I wore it on the bus this morning, and who should step onto the bus as I sat in my morning fog but some random stranger wearing the same hat in a nice, warm yellow! I was delighted, and kept awkwardly trying to catch her eye to flash her my "Hey, we have the same hat which is cooler because we both obviously made the hats as well!" smile, but to no avail. She never looked at me, and I started to feel weird and stalkerish, so I gave up. It was a bit of a let-down, in the end. Now for what's on my needles:

Meet "Bluebonnets." If this turns out as nicely as I think it will, I may offer it for sale. We'll see. It's going to be a headband with two lacy bluebonnets knit down its length. This should be a great beginner lace project, and a really quick knit. I'm knitting it in Paton's bamboo/silk blend. It's shiny and slippery and smooth and silky and I'm really falling in love with the idea of bamboo yarn, not just from an ecological standpoint, but from a purely aesthetic one as well.

I have a number of larger-scale projects in the planning and knitting stages as well, but I can't tell you about them yet. Rest assured, I am smiling coyly as I type this.

Chipping Away at the Quilt

2009-03-26T20:54:00.008-05:00

This is what the quilt looks like right now. There's a system, trust me.

I've laid out the quilt top and am getting started sewing all of the squares together. Once the top is put together, I'll start thinking about backing and batting and whatnot.

I think the colors look more garish in these pictures than they do in real life. They're really a bit deeper and richer than what you get here.

Mongo approves!

Have I mentioned that I hate sewing? As I suspected, this isn't as bad as sewing frequently is, when I'm involved. Straight lines. I can do that. My sewing machine, however...I can't believe I haven't thrown it through the window yet. That's all I'm going to say about it right now.

In a fit of procrastination, I went and priced similarly-sized quilts online to see if I'm actually saving money in this little endeavor. Based on what I've spent so far (got the fabric on sale), and what I estimate I might spend on backing and batting, the grand total will come to about the same price as a similarly-sized quilt on clearance at places like Bed Bath and Beyond or Linens 'N Things. Meh. I guess that's not so bad. Clearance quilts are kinda ugly, and mine will be glorious. I'm keeping a mental list as I go, however, of ways I can cut down on the cost next time around.

I feel the need to have a knitting love fest here before long, so I'm gathering pictures of FOs and WIPs and yarn and will revel in those here once I have what I want. I have several projects to show off, several that I can't show you yet (sniff), and some really yummy yarns to rave about. So stay tuned!

Sunshine on a Cloudy Day

2009-03-25T16:37:00.006-05:00

Very nearly every blog I read these days is posting pictures of tender, green buds and waxing all excited over the newly blooming spring flowers (seriously, even Neil Gaiman). T'ain't nunuh that here. Spring, for those of you just now joining us, is by far my favorite time of year, and I'm really excited to be living in a place with real seasons again for this very reason. The harder and nastier your winters, the harder the flowers bloom when it's over. We're just not quite there yet.

Don't get me wrong, we've had some lovely days this March. It's just too early for flowers, and this week has been pretty consistently cold and dreary. So the Van Gogh umbrella helps. I feel like I'm forcefully unfurling sun and summer onto the tale-end of winter. Chasing it out. Or blending winter with summer, hoping the shake-up will settle sooner, rather than later, into real-life spring.

It's Mah Birfdaaaaaaaaaaay!!!

2009-03-19T21:37:00.005-05:00

Today, she is mah birfday. So this morning, I woke up and made birfday scones.

It's been a lovely day. In my book, birthdays aren't about getting things or giving things, but about feeling special. One should be made to feel special on one's birthday, which may or may not involve presents. I tend to shower my boyfriend, who shall remain nameless, with food on his birthday - either elaborately prepared at home or elegantly purchased at some schmancy restaurant. This year, I received several very thoughtful presents, and was made to feel very special through a combination of phone calls, a Facebook blitzkrieg of "happy birthday" wall posts and a lovely evening at home.

My boyfriend, who shall remain nameless, made me fried spiced beef with bacony ranch asparagus (or, "how to make asparagus bad for you"). The beef is actually a traditional Italian recipe that dates back to the Venetian spice trade...or something. I'll look it up for you when I can move again. I can't move, cuz then my roommates made QUADRUPLE CHOCOLATE CAKE!!! Uuuuuuuuuugh, so good, can't move! They also bought me a bag of Starbucks French roast that's bigger than my head. It's so beautiful. I'm just glad a sack of coffee that large exists. God bless Costco, and God bless Brad and Carrie! :-D

Anyway. I've had a day, a wonderful day, and it's not over. I'm going to go now. TA!!! *flits off into the Springtime*

I'm back!

2009-03-17T20:20:00.005-05:00

You, of course, did not realize I'd left. I had not mentioned it. But I did leave. And now I have returned.

My boyfriend, who shall remain nameless, and I spent the weekend in Muncie, visiting my grandmother. We met my father and brother there and had a wonderful time. I love getting to spend time with my family. It's relaxing, like a deep, intellectual sigh, and I love how my boyfriend, who shall remain nameless, fits into the mix. I am often reminded that some people dread spending time with their families, or enjoy the company of their families as long as it's kept to small doses. I feel very lucky to have such good people in my family. I can't spend enough time with them and would be satisfied to turn out like any of them later in my life - even the wackiest, most idiosyncratic of them is a really good person.

We stayed at the McDowell-Nearing House, and if you're ever in Muncie, I highly recommend you stay there. The proprietor, Jane, is very friendly and an excellent cook! Her breakfasts were much heartier than I'm used to...in a good way...and absolutley delicious! Breakfast on our first day was a slice of pound cake, fresh fruit, a breakfast casserole, cheesy grits and this baked apple...sausage....thing....God, it was good. Plus, of course, coffee and various types of juice and tea. After 3 mornings of this, my body was begging me for a salad, but I said, "NO!!! This stuff is GOOD!!!" My brother had to leave at the crack of dawn this morning with no time for breakfast, so she left him some cake and yogurt in the fridge. The rooms were spacious and comfortable. I have nothing but glowing, wonderful things to say about this place!

Brought some knitting along, didn't get much done. I guess I did, but it's a long, thin thing, so progress isn't really the spectacular kind. No, you don't get pictures yet. :-P For my upcoming birthday, my boyfriend, who shall remain nameless, got me a bread stone! With it, I made this. I'm getting seriously into baking bread. I've discovered the world of no-knead bread, in which one can have bread-dough ready to rise and bake on hand in the fridge at all times. You can find a basic recipe here (adapted by the New York Times from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François).

In other news, I returned home to discover three things. 1) I did not get a fellowship for next year, which is ok because I need to teach at some point anyway. 2) A good friend of mine got tenure. w00t!!! 3) Another good friend of mine from undergrad was accepted to the department of design studies here at UW Madison. This means not only will I have a good friend with whom I go way back living here in town, it means my friend is TOTALLY GETTING A PH.D. IN KNITTING, I AM NOT EVEN KIDDING, PEOPLE!!! Yes, you heard right. Ph.D. In knitting. HOW COOL IS THAT???

IT IS TIME FOR YOU TO BE SPRING!!!

2009-03-06T16:28:00.005-06:00

Did you hear that, nature??? I know you did because I got to wear short-sleeves today! w00t!!!

Today and yesterday have been in the 50s, and I've been wearing a skirt! I have never been so excited about skirts as I am now, on the tail-end of my first Wisconsin winter. It's been sunny in the afternoons with hints of rain to come. The piles of snow in everyone's yards are slowly decomposing and disappearing, leaving moist, black mud behind. There are no flowers yet by a long shot, but I can hear birds now, and I know that rich, thick mud has life starting to stir buried deep down beneath what I can see.

This morning was grey and mild and moist - the wind at the busstop was like silk on my cheek, not claws of ice. It made me feel Springy and happy, so I put on a skirt with boots and my polka-dotted tights! I traipsed into lecture feeling girly and bright, only to have a friend point out to me that I was clad entirely in shades of black and grey. Which was true. AND I DIDN'T CARE BECAUSE I HAD POLKA DOTS!!!

This is how Spring begins. The white fades to grey, leaving black on the ground before any color can emerge. But it's warm, and there's life and you're happy that it's finally starting to thaw. And this afternoon, my arms got to feel the wind for the first time in MONTHS!!!

Errata

2009-03-01T22:58:00.006-06:00

Oh, this so figures. I knew my first pattern would have at least one error in it. I didn't catch it. My proofreader didn't catch it. It was far too obvious for us to have caught. So I am very indebted to Leah, from Ravelry, for very nicely pointing it out to me.

Hot Water Bottle Cozy:
Line 4, in "Front" section, before "Begin Cable Pattern:"
Original: 2/14/09 - Continue in P2K2 rib
Updated: 3/1/09 - Continue in P2K4 rib

Gauge
Original: 2/14/09 - 16st/26 rows = 4" in cable pattern
Updated: 3/26/09 - 22st/26 rows = 4" in cable pattern

I will track errata for future patterns in this entry as well and will link in Ravelry and elsewhere where appropriate.

Copyright Notice

2009-03-01T15:08:00.006-06:00

Please do not share or distribute copies of my pattern, but feel free to pass along a link to my blog.
Make as many changes to my pattern as you want while you're knitting - be creative - but please do not publish an altered version of my pattern.
Please do not use my pattern for commercial purposes. This means you may not sell copies of my pattern, altered versions of my pattern, classes based on my pattern or finished objects made from my pattern.
If you would like to sell something based on one of my patterns, please drop me an email! I will take it as a compliment, and it's entirely possible - nay, likely - that we can work something out. I'm prepared to make exceptions to these stipulations, but please ask me first.

Free Patterns:

All of my free patterns are copyright Sasha Evans and are protected under the Creative Commons attribution non-commercial license. A straightforward explanation of this license, which includes a link to the full legal, code, may be found here.

In plain English, though, what it means is this:

Feel free to share the pattern with your friends, but be sure the copied pattern includes my name and the URL of my blog (found at the bottom of each page of my patterns).
Feel free to make changes to my pattern, or new patterns based on my pattern, but please give me credit. Mention the pattern of mine that inspired you and include my name and a link to my blog. This protects you as much as it does me - not only do I get credit for the work I've done that inspired you, but your innovations will not be confused for my work.
Please do not use my pattern for commercial purposes.
As always, if you'd like me to make an exception for you, please drop me an email!

If any of this doesn't make sense, please let me know. I'd be happy to discuss any points that may be unclear through email.

Questions I Would Imagine Would Be Frequently Asked, Had I Not Preempted Them

2009-03-01T10:00:00.001-06:00

Important Informational Links:
Copyright Notice - copyright information appears on every page of every pattern I publish. This information, as well as a link to an explanation in plain English, is also available in any blog post containing a pattern link. I've tried to make my terms of use as clear and easy to find as possible, as downloading my patterns constitutes acceptance of them. My terms are very standard, but if you feel strongly that you need to use my pattern other than how I currently allow you to, just email me. I don't bite, and I'll make exceptions in some cases. :-)

Errata - so far just for the hot water bottle cozy. A link to the errata page will also appear on the page of any pattern that has errata.

1) How does purchasing from your site work?
As of now, the only pattern for sale is Bluebonnets. Clicking the "buy now" button will take you away from my site to PayPal. There you can pay in a secure online environment either with a PayPal account or with a credit card, debit card or bank transfer. You do not have to have a PayPal account to purchase from my site, even though you will do so through PayPal! If you are a member of Ravelry, you can also buy my patterns through my Ravelry store

After your purchase, you will receive an email with an expiring link to download the pattern PDF. The link will expire 30 minutes after the first time it's used, so be sure to save the file! The "download here" links on my free patterns automatically begin downloading the pattern files - you do not have to enter any information or leave my site.

2) What kind of pattern support do you offer?
First and foremost, should any errata appear for a pattern you've purchased, I will notify you via email. In addition, if you have any questions about the directions in the pattern, please email me, and I'll try to clarify. I can't teach you how to knit, but I can help you understand what I've written. Same deal with patterns you've downloaded for free, except I don't send out errata updates. You'll have to check back here yourself if something seems wrong.

3) If I can't read your pattern before I buy it, how do I know it's any good?
Being a member of Ravelry or another online knitting forum helps. Here's what you do know: All of my for-sale patterns (and some of my free patterns) will be either test-knit or professionally tech edited, to catch as many mistakes as possible before publishing. Errata will be posted promptly if and when they're found. All for-sale patterns will include a list of skills involved, so you know what you're getting into before you shell out cash for it. Sorry, no refunds.

4) How long do you hold onto my email address, and what do you do with it?
When you purchase one of my patterns, you'll be asked to enter your email address. I hold onto it indefinitely, and I do two things with it: I send you the pattern you've purchased, and I notify you of errata, should they occur. That's it. I'll never send you emails about blog updates, sales, etc, and I'll never give your emails (or any other information) to third parties.

5) Can I use a picture from your site?
Email me for permission, and we'll talk. Many pictures (particularly in patterns) were taken by people other than myself and used with permission. In these cases, I can't give you permission to use them, but I can put you in touch with the photographer.

6) What is your nameless husband's name?
I'm not telling, but if you're very clever, you can figure it out. *smiles coyly*

Oh yes. There will be a quilt.

2009-02-22T12:39:00.005-06:00

LOOKIT I HAVE FABRIC!!!

I obviously went with cotton over silk or velvet because I am rather fond of my kidneys, thank you very much. I'm also aware that cotton is quite a bit easier to work with than silk or velvet, and given that I suck at sewing, I thought I'd spare myself the angst.

My boyfriend, who shall remain nameless, was very helpful in picking out these fabrics. Having someone whose taste I trust to bounce ideas and possibilities off of helps me overcome the paralyzing indecision that tends to strike me in fabric stores. Also, he helped with the math.

I am nearing the point of project-saturation. Right now, I have 3 knitting projects, two of which have deadlines (albeit not for a while), one of which is not my design (so it's very much at the bottom of my knitting basket). Then I have another very simple sewing project (also with a deadline), and this quilt. Meanwhile, school must continue to come first. Knitting is portable - I can get knitting done on the bus, or sitting around waiting for class to start (I tend not to knit during class. Only when we're derailed on particularly inane tangents will I knit surreptitiously under my desk). Quilting will have to stay at home, obviously, and I really just need to bang through this other sewing project...maybe today.

Right, so deadlines. I've decided to submit some of my designs to publications to see what happens. So obviously, I'm not going to tell you about them for a while. :-D I have two designs to submit at the beginning of March and two to complete by June. If nothing comes of the March designs, I'll post them here, but my fingers are crossed.

Is this sketchy? I think this is sketchy.

2009-02-19T11:36:00.000-06:00

I saw a wonderful hat on the bus this morning, so I sneakily snapped a photo of it with my phone. Is posting it here the sketchiest thing I could possibly do? I kinda think it is.
I've tried to crop it to minimize the presence of innocent bystanders and anything remotely identifying about the woman...even though it was snapped from the back anyway, and the most identifying feature she had going on this morning was definitely her amazingly wonderful hat. Amazingly wonderful hat lady, if you read this, please know that in my heart of hearts, I do respect your privacy and anonymity, and I admire the buhjeezus out of your taste in hats! :-)

It looks a lot more blah than it did in person. Less soft, the colors less rich. But still. It made my bus ride.

It's the Little Things

2009-02-17T12:03:00.006-06:00

My boyfriend, who shall remain nameless, went back home this morning after spending the weekend here with me. This always kinda gets me down, for obvious reasons. My room suddenly seems so empty and quiet, and of course, we have a tendency to...rather...mess things up while he's here. ;-) Instead of cheering me up, all of those little pieces of weekend-evidence just remind me that I'm alone in here again. It'll be a happier space once I've got it straightened back up (and once that French press is empty). Also, I find it fascinating that all of my cookbooks are some form of red or pink (even the Japanese cookbook, not shown). I wonder what market research led to that decision!

Lemme tell ya what else cheers me up, though, and it's something I didn't really anticipate when I started this blog. You guys! (Whoever the hell you are out there reading this blog). I love waking up in the morning, checking my Google Analytics page and seeing what cool, international readers dropped in during the night. Y'know, I don't expect to be racking up hits and getting all internet-famous or anything, and I'm not. But do you have any idea how cool it is to see that your blog is being read by people in Poland? And Greece? And Germany? And Great Britain? And Slovenia? That's just freaking spiff!

Also, since putting my hot water bottle cozy pattern up on Ravelry, it's started showing up in queues and favorite lists, and that makes me smile a little bit too, in a silly, small-time kinda way. It makes me excited to share more designs, as they pop out of my head, and they are popping in, at least, at a faster than normal rate. I've relied very heavily on other people's patterns, of course, for most of my time knitting, and it's so cool to make something that's really yours, from conception to creation to writing up. It just makes me all smiley and stuff.

Pattern: Hot Water Bottle Cozy

2009-02-14T12:50:00.008-06:00

Download the PDF here.
Errata available here.

You guys...this is my first pattern! :-D I hope you like it, and I hope it's clear. Please feel free to email me if anything isn't. Also, if you do knit one of these cozies, feel free to share pictures with me! I'd love to see what people wind up doing with this pattern.

I do request two things, however, of those who make use of this pattern. First, please don't use this for commercial purposes. Make it for yourself, make it for your friends, but don't put it up on your Etsy shop, right? Second, I'm offering this pattern for free, so you're welcome to share it with your friends, but please don't alter the document in any way. By all means make alterations to the pattern as you knit, and tell your friends (and me!) about them if they work, but leave the PDF itself intact. That way my pattern stays my pattern and your innovations stay your innovations. :-)

This pattern is knit in three pieces, and I like to think there's a little something for everyone here. The front and back are knit flat, and the cap is knit in the round. If you really hate seaming, you can easily adapt this to be knit entirely in the round. If you're not comfortable knitting in the round, you can skip the cap. It's pretty much a cosmetic feature - the opening of a hot water bottle doesn't get particularly hot, I find.

The bottle is held securely in the cozy by the flaps that button over the "shoulder" of the hot water bottle. I find that it's easier to slip a bottle full of scalding water into the cozy given this nice, large opening than given the tighter, neck-sized ribbed opening common to a lot of other patterns. There's some subtle shaping around the shoulders that keeps the cozy snug around the bottle, instead of sticking out under the flaps at the corners.

And now, further remarks on seaming: Ok, I hate seaming too. I suck at it. The beauty of this pattern is that the edges are reverse stockinette, so even if your seams are ugly as sin, they'll be lost between the big, pretty cables and no one has to know! Also, the cables make for handy guides to keep the front even with the back while you seam. What could be better? For a very clear and thorough seaming tutuorial, see this article from Knit Simple.

Anyway, I hope you like it, and I do hope you'll be in touch with me if you have any comments, questions or ideas. Again, this is my first pattern, and any feedback I can get from the knitting community out there will only make my subsequent patterns better!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License. Click here for an explanation of this term in plain English.

I'm going to make a quilt! I swear!

2009-02-13T16:26:00.000-06:00

I mentioned earlier that I thought I'd make a quilt. I still think I'll make a quilt. I've always been interested in quilts - they're nice, they're cozy, they're homey, they can be quite beautiful, and they seem like they have the potential to be a staggeringly creative undertaking.

Until recently, I had never even considered making one. Not because quilts are something that "little old ladies" make (although I still find myself stifling a defensive response to that imagined objection whenever my intention to quilt comes up). Rather, quilts have always struck me as impossibly intricate. As a child, the mother of my best friend was a quilter, and I remember seeing her...quilting apparatus. She had this...rack of some sort with her quilt arranged in a certain way stretched out over it. There are...patterns to understand, construction methods to discern, ways of doing things to divine, traditions to bear in mind...add to all of this the fact that sewing has never been my forte. I can sew a garment, but there will be much yelling and flinging of fabric before all is said and done (I've stopped short of flinging the scissors...for now).

Quilting is one of the topics discussed in Jane Brocket's The Gentle Art of Domesticity. She doesn't offer patterns or step-by-step guides, but she presents it as something that's accessible. She makes it seem simple, she lays out the theory behind it, and she encourages you to just go out and try it. I have to tell you, I got really jazzed and excited when I read through this. I've worked out in my head what I need to do, what materials I'll need, how I'll construct and assemble my quilt. I haven't gotten started yet, but I'm no longer intimidated by the mechanics of quilting! I can do this!

So the other day, I went fabric shopping. I didn't get anything - it was more of a reconnaissance mission. Now I'm intimidated again. Jane Brocket is an avowed color person. She likes bright, contrasting colors, that's what gets her aesthetic juices flowing. I like color as much as the next girl, but I'm much more of a texture person. When I knit, I'll go with cables over stripes. Give me one, rich, lovely color and then let me drown in the subtle variations that texture creates.

So, of course, quilting is all about color. Go to the quilting section of your local fabric store, and you'll see bolts upon bolts of bright, loud, colorful cotton prints waiting to be sliced up and jumbled together in a cacophony of comfort. It makes my head spin. I love color - I love what people do with color, but it's just not how my brain works.

What about a velvet quilt? Or a silk quilt? Can I find enough complimentary solid colors of silk in one place to make a quilt? And can I then acquire enough of said silk to make a quilt without selling a kidney?

Things to think about before I begin. I'd like to get started soon, as I'd love to have a nice, new quilt on my bed in lieu of my comforter when the weather starts to warm up. I just...need to get better at fabric shopping.

*(The images in this post were created by my boyfriend, who shall remain nameless, based on images I chose that represent colors I like. It is his talent you see, and my awesome taste in individual colors).

I think this deserves its own post.

2009-02-12T17:10:00.003-06:00

I did good!

The best weekend ever, from a chocolate standpoint.

2009-02-12T10:44:00.006-06:00

Guess who's up with the sun and baking for her man? Ok...half of that statement is true (a scant quarter, actually, when you consider how much of the cake I intend to eat myself). :-)

One year ago this weekend, my boyfriend, who shall remain nameless, flew in to see me for the first time in...about a year, I'd say. We'd been friends for a while but were now living in different states and had just realized that the huge crushes we had on each other were mutual. So we decided to give it a go.

Also this weekend includes Valentine's Day. Also this weekend includes his birthday. There will be chocolate, friends. Oh yes. There will be chocolate. I never thought I'd meet a man who appreciated chocolate on the same deep, spiritual, I suspect neurochemical level that I do, but damn. It has enriched our relationship. :-)

Better pictures to come later today, when it's iced. I wish I could upload the way my house smells right now. This cake involves chocolate and cherries and BEER!!! What could be better, my friends? I actually have a number of ideas, but I don't want to mess with the little "adult content" flag Blogger offers, so......yeah. :-D

"Black velvet in that little boy's smile..." *sigh* Happy.

The Economics of Knitting Part 2

2009-02-11T09:00:00.004-06:00

Yarn
When I first started knitting, back in college, it was with...like...Lion Brand and Red Heart acrylic stuff. The cheapest stuff I could get my hands on, essentially. Since then, I'm afraid I've developed rather more expensive tastes in yarn. This wasn't such a problem back when I was working full time, but now that I'm back to being a broke-ass student, well...yeah.

I'd say that my strongest preference when it comes to yarn is natural fibers. I realize this is somewhat arbitrary. There are some nice synthetic blends out there. It's part a crunchy-granola thing, and part the fact that I grew up in The Land of Spontaneous Brush Fires, not far from The Land of Spontaneous Hurricanes, where we have a deep appreciation for the miracle that is 100% cotton. But cotton isn't all that's good and pure in this world. Natural fibers in general breathe better than synthetics, and even in winter, when you're wearing layer upon warm layer, acrylics will make you sweat when wool won't.

I'd like to be even pickier in my yarn selection. I'd like to buy more locally produced fiber, wool from manufacturers with documented humane standards of treating their animals. I'd like to buy organic cotton and yarn dyed with the environment in mind. There's lots of locally, responsibly produced wool to be had in my area, and some gorgeous hand-painted artisan yarns. I'd like to focus on these, to help my community and vote with my dollar, but damnit, I can't afford to.

Not only can I not afford to, being a responsible consumer sometimes seems like an impossibly daunting task. A lot of people are faced with unacceptable choices - if there's not much locally produced organic produce to be had, for example, your decision to buy organic might send a message to the industry that buying local isn't important to you. If you want to buy locally, you may be sending the message that there's no demand for organic produce. Industry can spin your economic vote to further restrict your choices, if it's in its own financial best interests, and that is so frustrating when I think about it. I'm lucky, in that I live in an area in which I can buy my produce at farmer's markets and, during the right time of year, not spend any more than I would at the grocery store. Locally produced wool, however, is still beyond the reach of my wallet.

So...unfortunately, regarding this area of the economics of knitting, I just don't have any answers. I'm not going to give up my knitting because I can't afford to be as responsible a consumer as I'd like. That's not going to happen. I'm obviously not going to give up my graduate studies so that I can make enough to afford all-natural, organic, humane, locally-produced yarn. And I'm not going to start knitting with cheap-ass acrylics, which frankly, for all I know, could be environmentally destructive to manufacture (I really don't know. If you do - comment!).

It goes back to my reasons for knitting. It's a sensual experience. If I hate the yarn I'm using, I won't enjoy it enough to continue. But I also hate the idea of spending more than I would for a store-bought garment. I can pretty much knit small things, hats and scarves and whatnot, for considerably less than what I'd pay in a store, but I start to get diminishing financial returns when I move up to, say, sweaters. Sometimes you just gotta suck it up and pay through the nose for what you love. But I will not pay ~$100 for a sweater no matter how nice Rowan Cocoon is!

So I continue to bargain hunt. Every once in a while, you'll find some nice, yummy wool in a gorgeous color for $6 a generous skein, and then you buy those puppies up! I'm going to start looking in thrift stores for sweaters to frog - we'll see how that goes, I'll post about it here when I get around to it. Gift cards to yarn stores allow me to splurge. Felting being all the rage these days, the big yarn companies are coming out with more 100% wool yarns, so if I'm knitting, oh, say, a blitz of Christmas gifts, I can actually find wool that's worthy, nice and not too expensive at my local big-box fabric store. I'd still rather support local businesses and...y'know...shop in a store that feels like a store and not a warehouse.

Ok, ok, I knit a cozy!

2009-02-10T10:53:00.004-06:00

It's a hot water bottle sweater! Aint it cute? My boyfriend, who shall remain nameless, thought it was a sleeveless turtle-neck when he first looked at it. Heh.

Anyway, just a quick post to say, "Holy crap! There's room in my life for a cozy after all!" The thing works great. The bottle warms my sheets up just as well as ever, but now I can also snuggle my feet up to it, if I want to, without burning myself. If I want to move the bottle while it's under my sheets, I can just nudge it with my feet. Before, my feet had to find a kind of sweet-spot where they were close enough to the bottle to be toasty, but far enough away that they wouldn't accidentally touch it in the middle of the night (which happened one time. Didn't scald me or anything, but I definitely woke up going, "OOOOOOOOOOOW!!! What gives?").

Anyway, I maintain my general attitude toward cozies, but I make an eager exception for hot water bottle cozies. And motorcycle cozies, but we've discussed that already. :-)

I'll post my pattern here soon, if anyone wants it.

The Economics of Knitting Part 1

2009-02-07T14:15:00.001-06:00

Why I Knit
I knit for 4 main reasons, at least...4 that I've been able to think of just now.

1) Relaxation: If you've read Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon, you may remember that when Morgaine spins, she enters into a sort of trance state. I'm not saying I have visions when I knit, but it is definitely a meditative experience. When I knit, it gives my mind a chance to wander, to passively mull over things that are on it, rather than actively stressing about them. As my mind wanders undirected, it often finds paths that wouldn't have occurred to me in a more deliberate, active frame of mind.

2) Luxury: Leaving aside, for a moment, the delicious things you can get as a result of knitting, knitting is a pleasing sensual activity. Yarn is nice. It comes in pretty colors, yummy textures, it feels good in your hands and it looks luscious as the fabric you're creating grows like some living thing into whatever shape and pattern you've chosen for it. Yarn is soft and pretty and good.

3) Creativity and control: Once you get the hang of it, making things for yourself ensures that what you end up with is exactly what you want. I don't have to spend lots of money on a beautiful scarf that's kind of itchy, or a wonderful sweater that fits not quite just right. Fine, shaping and fit is something I'm still in the process of mastering, but in a materialistic sense, knitting and making things makes you the master of your own fate. This is where my reasons for knitting really intersect with my reasons for making things in general. If I want legwarmers to match my hat perfectly, then I shall have them! If I want carbonara that won't kill my boyfriend, who shall remain nameless, with cholesterol, then I shall leave out the egg yolks! If I want a pot-holder that matches both the mustard yellow of the kitchen counter and the avocado green of the stove top, I shall make it so! Creativity is liberating.

4) Saving money: As you may have deduced elsewhere on this blog, I am a broke-ass graduate student. Saving money is, for me, a necessity, but that doesn't mean I can't still have nice things in my life. I can knit myself a matching hat and scarf pair that's nicer and cheaper than one I'd find at, say, The Gap. I can make really great shirts and skirts out of old t-shirts that I never wear (more on that when it warms up outside). I can't afford to eat out much, but that doesn't mean I can't afford to eat well at home.

I know that I won't always be a broke-ass graduate student. At some point, I'll have the degree and the job and the house and the disposable income. At this point, I expect my first two reasons for knitting to really start conflicting with the last two - actually, more just #2 with #4. I think, however, that even then I'll value knitting as a means of saving money, and not just out of habit.

As much as I like pretty things, I have a definite anti-consumerist streak in me. I like showing "The Man," "The Powers That Be," "The Gods of Capitalism," or whomever that I am not a slave to the market, that I don't need what they're selling, that I can do perfectly well for myself. There are, of course, limits to this. I'm not about to run off and start homesteading. But I take pride and a subversive glee in not being a predictable consumer. If a company wants my money, they're going to have to put some effort into it, and not treat me like a non-existent generic member of my demographic. Give me real options, or I will make my own!

The next two installments of this series on the economics of knitting will deal with being a responsible consumer within this framework - because even as an independent, unpredictable consumer, I am still a consumer of yarn, of materials, of patterns, of ideas. But it will always boil down to why I knit.

Quick and of Interest

2009-02-05T17:56:00.004-06:00

Miss Manners on knitting in public.

"For centuries, ladies sat quietly doing needlework while gentlemen conversed around them, and didn’t miss a thing of what was going on."

Cold Feet

2009-02-03T17:57:00.011-06:00

Behold the glorious trinity of foot happiness! Blanket + fuzzy slippers + hot-water bottle!

Right, so. I live in The Land of Cold. This much is very clear. My roommates, having grown up in The Land of Cold, tend to keep the heater on low during the winter and wear sweaters around the house. I, having grown up in The Land of Spontaneous Brush Fires, am not so used to this (though I have spent winters in Boston and Moscow, so I knew what I was getting myself into, thank you very much). When I moved up here, I decided that I'd roll with it - learn to wear sweaters during the winter and acclimate my wussy Texan tushy to the realities of my new climate. I should emphasize that my roommates have made it perfectly clear that I'm welcome to crank up the heat whenever I want - they're not ogres or misers by any means. But for financial, environmental and macho reasons, I've decided to acclimate.

It's worked quite well, actually. During the day and before I go to bed, I'm perfectly comfortable walking around in my gloriously long sweater-duster and fuzzy slippers. It's at night that the suffering begins. When I climb into bed, it is so cold under my covers that I have to lie there unmoving until my little patch of sheets warm up. Only then can I tentatively venture to roll over or otherwise shift position. On a cold night, my feet never warm up. I can bundle the rest of me up in nice, warm PJs, I can even wear socks to bed, but my feet stay cold. The warmth never quite makes it all the way down to the foot of the bed.

I knew I needed a hot-water bottle. More economical than cranking the heat, charmingly old-fashioned and I hear they're good for cramps, too! So imagine my surprise when every grocery and drug store I went to was completely bereft of hot-water bottles. I'm not sure "bereft" is the right word, it seems to imply that there were some to begin with. They had electric heating pads, electric blankets, even those weird stick-on hot/cold pads, but no hot-water bottles. Finally, I went to a Target in Minnesota. My boyfriend, who shall remain nameless, and I searched every possible aisle to no avail. We finally asked the woman behind the pharmacy counter if she had any. "No! Yes! Special order!" Someone had to special order hot water bottles in order to find any within a two-state radius. HELLO!!! HAS ANYONE ELSE NOTICED THAT IT GETS EFFING COLD HERE IN JANUARY??? I mean I know I grew up in Texas, but this can't just be me.

This is the hot-water bottle I had been using. Harlot worked very well, all things considered, but she had one chief draw-back: she wouldn't pre-warm the bed. Harlot is completely uninterested in taking the brunt of a freezing bed for the woman who feeds her. She prefers it to be a more collaborative effort. I warm her up while she warms me up. This works tolerably well until she loses interest. This new water bottle I can slip under the covers 10 or so minutes before I go to bed. I can be comfortable from the moment I snuggle under the covers and never have that "want to roll over but don't want to re-warm a new patch of sheets" let-down that keeps you from drifting off unmolested. Didn't leak (of course it didn't leak, but I was paranoid). Its one draw-back is that it does get quite hot to the touch. It keeps me comfortable all night as long as my feet don't actually make contact with it. Seriously, though, not only were my sheets still warm when I woke up this morning, the bottle itself was still pleasantly warm. I'm quite impressed. And so is Harlot.

Mending

2009-02-02T15:17:00.011-06:00

Not the most exciting thing in the world, mending, and I've been putting it off for a few weeks, to be honest. Taking something that's broken and fixing it - not as fun and creative as making something shiny and new. But it needs to be done all the same.

I think we waste too much in our culture anyway. We've become so consumer driven that we throw things out as soon as something breaks, even if we could fix it. My briefcase, for instance. If I still had a 9-5 job, I'd have thrown it out and bought a new one by now. I don't have a 9-5 job anymore, and I need to save my leftover money for things I really value.

The fake-leather covering on the handles had started coming off, exposing the mesh padding underneath. This more than anything made it look torn and shabby, and of course the mesh would start to go soon as well. So I rigged this up. I don't really crochet, but a basic chain-stitch is a useful thing to know. I had some leftover black wool lying around, so I crocheted it around the handles of my briefcase - a lot like you might do to a clothes hanger, or a provisional cast-on in knitting. It's not exactly chic, but it's functional, innocuous and not falling apart.

Our culture has become so consumerist that things aren't made to last - I don't think the makers of my briefcase expected me to keep it this long. I'm not sure I did, when I bought it. Shoes aren't meant to be worn more than 6 months. You're supposed to keep throwing things out and buying new things. I kind of resent that. Even if I had money to throw around, I'd like to have the option of buying something nice, well-made, lasting, of not buying trash, if I'm going to buy anything. And that's aside from the environmental implications of a culture based on producing and throwing away trash at the quickest affordable rate.

I guess you get what you pay for. I also sewed 3 buttons onto my winter coat this weekend. My coat has five buttons going up the front, three of which have come flying off since I bought it in November. I'll probably have to replace the bottom two before next winter, but for now, it fastens fine. I had a really hard time finding a coat this winter (having just moved to Wisconsin from Texas), and I finally found one at the mall for much cheaper than I'd expected. I got what I paid for, though. A nice, wool coat that's warm and fits me with buttons that fling themselves from the fabric when you look at them funny. I'm actually still quite satisfied with my purchase, all things considered.

Then there are the things you make yourself. I made myself a neck-warmer last year based on John Brinegar's "Fourteen" (pictured at top because it's the prettiest). I think the yarn stretched out somewhat with use, but I also think that the length the pattern calls for, while perfect for a man's neck, is a bit much for my skinny little girl-neck. It was loose enough to let the wind in easier than I preferred. Discarding it was, of course, not an option not only because I went to the trouble of making it but because I love it and the hat and leg-warmers that now go with it! So this weekend, I finally fixed it - frogged back until it felt tight around my neck, then re-knit the button-hole rows. Fits like a charm now. I'm currently knitting a scarf on the needles I needed for this mending, so I just shoved the scarf down to the bottom of the needles while I fixed the neck-warmer. It wound up looking like flags or banners while I worked. I dig it.

Tea and Toast...or Why I Don't So Much Do Cozies

2009-01-29T16:49:00.010-06:00

Sometimes, thank God, luxury is cheap. Particularly now that it's cold, I like to make myself tea and toast in the afternoon when I get back home from class. Lunch is wearing off about that point, and I'm cold and could use a subtle caffeine hit. In addition to fairly low levels of caffeine, tea contains l-theanine, a sedative compound naturally found in the body. This makes tea, in my experience, the perfect after-school drink. It relaxes you while it revives you. It won't make you feel wired and jittery, and it won't lead to a caffeine crash later on. And then what's not to like about sourdough toast with honey and blueberry jam? Mmmmmmmmmmmmm. Quick and easy and cheap and yum.

I really like my teapot. It's a nice cobalt blue that I think sets off my dishes nicely, and it holds enough for you to have tea even when you're not alone! I really like using it, and this is why I'm never going to knit a tea cozy. It's not that I object to cozies themselves (although I have heard from admitted tea snobs that they "stew the tea." I'm not 100% sure what that means). But why would I want to hide such a nice thing as my teapot behind some flouncy, squooshy dish-sweater?

I avoid tea cozies for the same reason I avoid tablecloths. My roommates have a really nice dining-room table made out of rich, dark wood. Why would you want to cover that up? I love the look of wood (although what you see pictured is "birch veneer," courtesy of Ikea. It's fake, but I still like the look of it). I suppose if you happen to prefer the look of lace to the look of wood, it would make sense to strew your surfaces with doilies and cloths. I prefer the surfaces themselves. I love the texture you can see in a smooth piece of wood. I love the way the light plays off of the shiny surface of my teapot. I guess I could go for a table-runner, as long as it didn't detract from the look of the wood.

There seems to be a cozy-craze afoot in the world of knitting at present. If you look hard enough, you can find a pattern for a knitted object that will fit nicely around anything. That just seems a bit excessive to me. Maybe it's just that my aesthetic happens not to involve covering things, but can't we think of something useful to knit? Is a layer of yarn really going to protect your iPod if you drop it on the sidewalk? Is your decoratively floral box of kleenexes really so hideous that it needs its own ruffly sweater? I thought I'd seen the cozy-craze at its worst when I found this ice-cream pint cozy, but then an image flashed into my head: I'm blundering toward the freezer in the dead of night. I need ice-cream. All I want is to stand next to the freezer blearily devouring ice-cream from the carton, but my hands...dear Gods, I can't feel my hands!!! That sweet, treacherous ice-cream has frozen them completely numb. So I'm willing to admit that the ice-cream pint cozy is absolute genius.

This cozy-craze is delightfully expressed by the character Emerson Cod in the shamefully canceled series "Pushing Daisies." Emerson is a tough, cynical PI with a heart of stone. He is also a stress-knitter. His office is filled with objects wearing little object-sweaters - there is a file-holder cozy, a pencil-holder cozy, he even tucks wads of cash away in a drawer, lovingly arranged in little green money cozies. It's the juxtaposition inherent in this image that tickles me. It's why I get a kick out of knitting a sweater on the bus with my rapier leaning against my seat. And it's why I am so pleased that this motorcycle cozy exists!

Angry, Sword-Wielding Feminist Seeks Peaceful Spot to Knit

2009-01-28T21:43:00.008-06:00

Hi, I'm Sasha. I like swords, Star Wars, Russian literature and knitting.

I'm a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison working on my Ph.D. in Slavic languages. I have very little free time and even less money. I rent a room from a wonderful family whose decor I would describe as...unapologetially 70s. Alright, it's not their decor per se, but they haven't quite gotten around to ripping out all of the blue carpet yet. My boyfriend, who shall remain nameless, is in his last year of law school in a different state. The two of us look forward to buying a house, shacking up and, with the help of a bit of disposable income, making said shack a home. With the job market the way it is, it's lookin' like I'll be staying in my rented room for a few more years.

For Christmas, my mother gave me Jane Brocket's The Gentle Art of Domesticity. I love it! I'm at the point, both in my knitting and in my cooking, where inspiration is at least as valuable to me as straight-up "how tos," and I found this book to be very inspiring. Lush, even. Perhaps a bit heavy on the pink for my taste, but it's really Brocket's appreciation of the value, both sensual and emotional, of domestic creativity that strikes a chord in me.

So my reaction to Liz Hunt's review in The Daily Telegraph was one of surprise...and then surprise at my surprise. Hunt, through exasperated sarcasm, accuses Brocket of popularizing yet another set of "impossible standards [for] the rest of womankind via beautifully illustrated books and websites." I must admit, from time to time I myself fall into the trap that seems to ensnare Hunt.

Let's face it: I'm young, I'm broke, I can't even set up a home with my boyfriend, who shall continue to remain nameless. I live in a rented room - I can't splash brightly colored paint all over my walls to brighten up my living space. I don't have an expensive digital camera with which to take gloriously luxurious pictures of my finished projects. I certainly don't have time to bake all the damned time.

But then Jesus, who does? How many of us actually are, as Hunt describes them, "women who have done the career bit and, looking around for a new diversion and cushioned by private income or a wealthy husband or generous alimony, target the home and impose impossible standards on the rest of womankind via beautifully illustrated books and websites." Who really has the kind of time to create a home as airy, as peaceful, as lush as Jane Brocket's? Who are these women? And how on God's green earth will I ever find the time or the money to make my home the bright, cheery, welcoming haven that I see in all of these beautiful pictures?

Decades ago, women in America were relegated to this domestic sphere whether they liked it or not. They had the time, and some of them had the money, but they had little choice. And they too, through the spread of television in particular, had impossible standards to live up to. Then the feminist movement blasted out a place for women in the workforce. It wasn't easy, but women could find productive, fulfilling, rewarding work outside the home, if that's where their interests lay. And for a while, the worst thing that an energetic, intelligent, educated woman could do was to chain herself to the home in defiance of her new, hard-won freedom.

The craft movement is a sign of things changing yet again. Women, by baking, quilting, gardening, knitting and most of all by being proud of their work, are reclaiming parts of our femininity that had been devalued. Men, by finding the same delight in the same pursuits, are showing that traditional concepts of femininity are not dirty or shameful. Just as I can put on a suit, grab a sword and go conquor the world, a man can knit an afghan to enrich his home. Creation and domesticity are empowering. I learned to knit at Wellesley, for Chrissakes!

But now it's in the media. Now we have books of inspiration - or standards - published by women with means far beyond those of most of us. My stockinette will never be that even. I will never get this damned bulb to sprout. I will never be able to afford a house that would ever look like that. And who the hell quilts? I have blue carpet, and it's not going anywhere. Is this liberating development yet another set of impossible standards - new shackles for my hypothetical daughters to break?

Every time we break through the walls of what defines feminity, we set up another, newer, shinier set of walls, but they're just as constricting. So fuck it. My home, my little room, is going to be every bit as gorgeous as Jane Brocket's, blue carpet and all. Because I effing said so. I can't afford much, but that's one reason I love making things: doing for myself. I will make this the home I want it to be. It's not going to look like anyone else's, and that's what will make it perfect. That's what will make it mine.

I'm done looking outside myself for standards to live up to. There's inspiration, and then there are standards. Inspiration is at its most delightfully surprising when it comes from outside of you. Standards, to have any validity, must come from within you. I will be inspired by Jane Brocket's books and blog and beautiful photographs, as she intended, but I will never expect to resemble her. I will not be knitting tea cozies, but I do think I'll make a quilt. I will stay in this rented room, but I will be home. In place of my boyfriend, who shall remain nameless, I will live with my hilariously blue carpet. I will make this room a haven. A place of warmth, of comfort, of ease, of beauty. And I will do it on my terms - less pink, more swords!

If anyone ever follows this blog, I hope it inspires you to do the same. Not to embrace my undoubtedly quirky esthetic, nor my necessarily frugal budget, nor my giddily rabid feminist ideals, nor my insistant use of the words "nor" and "whom," but to redefine, to destroy entirely the standards that my gender - that both genders - have been duped into falling short of. I like knitting, and I like fighting, and I have blue carpet, and that just freaking rules.

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