This is just a whole other thing

To my thinking, hop skip jump is to the stuffed toy what Denyse Schmidt is to the quilt. Soothing and cool, they manage to look very straightforward at first, but then superhuman upon closer inspection. Look!


Aren't they painfully cute? Doesn't it just seem like the most fun thing to make one of these long-legged creatures and then make little clothes for it? COME ON!

That v-neck sweater and plaid pants?! SO. CUTE.

MUST. HAVE.
MUST. MAKE.
MUST. CHANGE. LIFE.

If you can't make 'em, buy 'em!

I've mentioned before that I think giving handmade gifts is a way to do a pretty great thing. But sometimes, there's just not the time. I realize this. But! If you live in or around Los Angeles, this is where you are, once again, in luck.

I give you: Felt Club.


Handmade crafts with the added bonus of ass-kicking, all in one place.

I've never been to Felt Club, but I've spent many hours on many blogs of crafters who sell or have sold their lovely items at Felt Club. (Ok, that last link, the "lovely items" one? She may not have anything to do with Felt Club, but her items are so great they make my teeth hurt. So, I thought I'd throw her in there.)

October's is fast-approaching. It's this Sunday, in fact.


Here's yet another nifty way to get a jump on any winter holiday shopping needs you might have without giving your money to oh, I don't know, some evil corporation. (There, I said it.)

You may not have the time to make it yourself, so these awesome artists and crafters have done all the work for you. They make it. You buy it. Somebody gets a one-of-a-kind gift. Everybody wins. Felt Club!

Picture day for the pinks

All the pinks in my yarn collection got together for a class photo in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Back row (l to r): Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, GGH Esprit, Misti Alpaca, and Debbie Bliss Chunkerino (My partner-in-crime and I renamed it. We feel it's catchier that way.).

Front row (l to r): some pink yarn that wandered in which might be Lana Grossa Bingo, Suss multi-strand concoction, Linie 67 Como (which is really more pink than it appears here), and Trendsetter Bugia.

The two rows usually keep to themselves. The top row is a quiet, understated bunch. And the bottom row is little more out of control, frankly -- you should have seen that bottom row in this year's talent show. They were all, "Look at us! We do weird stuff, and we're kind of a mess." While the top row was all, "Please. Show a little restraint."

But then the two rows did this sweet little number together, and they realized they can be very lovely when they mingle. Awww. Mingle little pinks, MINGLE!

Blue Moon

For those of you who've used this amazing-looking yarn, what weights have you used?

The idea of knitting something on a size 0 or 1 needle kinda kills me. But, I'm concerned that the yarn for the size 3 or 4 needle is called "heavyweight". I live in LA. I don't want to be knitting socks for the tundra. Does anyone have any words of wisdom?

This creeps me out

I don't have a baby, and I don't plan on having one. I'll borrow a baby for a predetermined amount of time, but even then, it's gotta be a pretty special baby.

So, it's news to me that, as a parent or caretaker, you can buy big hands. Like, it's news, and it's weird.

The tagline for these hands is: It's like leaving a part of you with your baby.

Um, gross. They should play that Every time you go away, you take a piece of me with you song from the 80's on their website.* (Only it's not the babies going, it's you. Hmm. I should rethink that one.)

Anyway, it's very likely that I'm just out of the loop on this one, and the big hands are all the rage with the babies of the world. But, given that they're new to me, I hope you'll allow me to ask a few burning questions about the big hands:

If I were to have a baby, how much of the childrearing work do you think I could get the hands to do for me?

Do you think I could get them to also write articles for me?

Should I buy the hands and test them out, just to see what kinds of powers they have?

Could I just make the hands myself out of Sesame Street-style felt and wire, and then give them as strange and inappropriate gifts?

Is one of these actually the Invisible Hand of the Free Market those economists are always talking about?

Hey! These questions leave me no longer creeped out. I'm intrigued!

* My brother and I used to sing along to this song, but instead of "me", we'd sing "meat". And it was fracking hilarious.

( link to these creepy hands via Loobylu)

It's easier to say no than it is to say yes

What with airport security measures changing every two seconds, I decided to leave my knitting at home for my trip to San Francisco. Yes, yes, I know. Knitting needles are allowed on the plane, but I just didn't want to risk the possibility of dealing with:

(a) some rogue screener person on a mission, out to get the knitters;
(b) the rules changing on my way to the airport; or
(c) because of (a) and/or (b), someone taking away my beloved knitting supplies.

While I realize (a) and (b) are both not really plausible, there's always a chance of (c) as far as I'm concerned.

OK. Truth be told, after figuring out how to cram all my liquids into a quart-sized Ziploc bag, my grouchiness made it nearly impossible to think of anything being fun. Even knitting. So, I didn't pack a single knitting-related item. (And, by the way, if you haven't been asked already, do you know how many liquids you require for a trip? Do you think they all fit in a small Ziploc bag? You'd be surprised how much they kinda don't.)

I regretted leaving my knitting almost immediately. I tried to justify the decision with "It's a really short plane ride" and "When would I have time to knit anyway?" But the lack of sleep and the residual grouchiness from my involvement in the Ziploc-Liquids Experience the night before just didn't help matters. It wasn't the prettiest thing, but I shook it off. It was fine.

My sidekick and I went straight from the airport to our conference. We spent the whole day there, then went to check into our hotel around 5:00. We were both exhausted and thought we'd take a nap before going out to dinner. When we got into our room, I dropped my bags in the living room, and my sidekick went into the bedroom to put his things down.

SIDEKICK (from the bedroom): Hey! Come check out our view.
ME (from the living room): What do you want.
SIDEKICK: Come CHECK OUT OUR VIEW!
ME (tired): I'll be there in a second.
SIDEKICK: But it's a really good view!
ME: Okay. (still with traces of the grouchy)

With a little bit of foot-dragging, I went into the bedroom where my sidekick was standing next to the closed blinds.

ME: What.
SIDEKICK: Look!

He slowly opened the blinds to reveal a view of a tiny little street and a long stretch of apartment buildings. And one tiny storefront.

SIDEKICK: Look what's right there.

Right there, all small and unassuming, with the cutest things in the window, just sitting there almost smiling at me, was Greenwich Yarn and Stitchworks. Yarn? Does that say yarn? Is that yarn? Yarn! Right outside our window!

Is my sidekick not the cutest? And can you believe there was that knitting store right there? Like RIGHT there.

Nap? Postponed. Store? Adorable and open till 6! Sidekick? Treated me to these:



He is the soon-to-be proud owner of 100% Merino wool Koigu socks, solid charcoal color 2409 courtesy of Greenwich Yarn & Stitchworks.

Life is lovely sometimes.

(For the record, "soon-to-be" = "hopefully no later than Christmas.")

Be right back

I'll be right back...just going off to a quick conference. Take this chance to really look around, and please come right back, won't you?

In the meantime, I can't wait for this Sublime Stitching book!

Here's how you know it's handmade

Like many people, I started knitting as a way to relax. I figured it would be a meditative, soothing, and calming thing in my life. And it is those things. Sometimes.

And other times, not so much.

Just ask the Yarn Harlot. She'll tell you that knitting can be anything but soothing, and it has a nasty tendency to fall more into the category of painful life experiences you'd rather not revisit.

But, as she will also tell you, knitting reminds (or teaches) us things like patience and humility. And how to stand up to Perfectionism even in the most challenging situations.

I really believe that when a handmade item isn't perfect, it's a lovely reminder that the item was made -- stitch by stitch -- by a person, and not by a machine. I didn't invent this idea. I'm just a believer in it.

But, what a hypocrite, me! The photo of the scarf above excludes the portion of the scarf where I repeated too soon and made an extra little cable where one should not have been.

So. In the interest of putting my money where my mouth is, I give you... a flawed scarf:


See it? It's just a little something extra built right in. That too-soon cable happened at the exact moment that I was laughing until I was crying with two of my closest friends. And so that little extra cable, I think, will be a permanent reminder of that specific moment in time. Right?

I'm not the only person this has ever happened to, but I'm now very taken with this idea. I think that rather than beat ourselves up about losing our place in a pattern, we should just start calling these foibles "Laughing Cables," and love them as little moments of real life built right into our items.

(We could also call them "Fuck It Cables", but that just seems so crass.)

The pattern, for anyone interested, is Laura Zimmerman's "40-Stitch Reversible Cable Scarf" for Knit Cafe. I bought it and the (alpaca?) yarn in the store in West Hollywood, CA.

Hey, welcome!

To all you folks popping in from Grandmother Purl's Blanket, hi there! Please feel free to take a look around. Even if you don't care for the sewing (which, believe me, I didn't think I did either), if you do some poking around, you may find something that tickles your fancy. There are knitting-related items mixed in with the other things...

If you're looking for my Grandmother Purl squares, the links are in the sidebar ("Grandmother Purl's blanket" and "While I was at it"). Or click here and here. The second square really did look better in person, I promise. Frankly, I'm a little embarrassed that I didn't do a little more pre-camera work on her before taking the photo. But she was just so eager to get in the mail, I didn't want to fight her on it. You know how squares can be.

Anyhow, it's nice to have you here. Thanks for stopping by. Please visit again soon!

Quiltie, Pile of Quilt

Quiltie is still giving me the cold shoulder, despite my having worked on it a little over the weekend. What do I expect? I'm still not really treating it right. If only I'd keep my word and fold the queen-sized guy. But, nope. I'm still wadding.

But, how about this? Let's take this opportunity to see how many different things the pile of quilt can resemble!

Today it looks like it's in a fetal position, no? It's kinda creepy if you look close. Kinda like a guy keeled over clutching his stomach and going, "Uuurrgggh. My aching stummick!" Right? (Because a guy who'd be wrapped up in a quilt, on my living room chair, keeling over wouldn't say "stomach." He'd say "stummick." Trust me.) Do you see it? See his nubby little knees there on the seat-part of the chair? Poor bastard.

Don't worry. If it starts rocking and flapping, I will take it in for immediate care.

Well, here's your problem

I never thought I'd be quilting, as I've mentioned. Kinda like when people can't believe they're doing heroin when all they meant to do was go party with some friends. One minute you're crocheting a flower with your granny, and next thing you know, you're Bubbs from The Wire.

I blame Stitch 'n' Bitch (the book).

Chain of events, circa Summer, 2004:

1. My partner-in-crime and I learn to knit.
2. We buy Stitch 'n' Bitch.
3. Our money magically shape-shifts into knitting needles. Lots of knitting needles.
4. We see hand-sewn needle cases being sold at our local yarn store (LYS).
4b. We see they're being sold for a bazillion dollars.
4c. We notice that all our money magically shape-shifted into knitting needles.
5. We remember Stitch 'n' Bitch has a sewing pattern for making your own needle case.
6. We think to ourselves, and out loud, "We could just make our own! How hard can it be?!"

Modifications were made to the pattern (I can't remember what they were now), and here's the one I made:


It's important to note that before this project, the last time I'd sewn anything was in the summer of 1977, and it was a brown bikini made from sand-colored Holly Hobbie fabric. I was 9. (Jealous?)

(Author's note: I found an image of Holly Hobbie just now, and pasted it here for a moment to remind you of her form. But, no offense to all you HH fans out there, *that* is a very special kind of ugg, and I just couldn't bear to keep it here. Click through to here if you must, but don't say I didn't warn you.)


Ahhhhh. Soothing colors. No ducks or bonnets. Where was I? Oh, yes.

So you'll see here that, when folded, the edges of things don't line up exactly. Turns out, the bikini-sewing didn't include the "lining up" skills I'd need 30 years later for this pattern. But it works just fine. I'm not trying to sell it for a bazillion dollars or anything.



I got a little big for my britches, did a bit of math, and made a crochet hook case, too. It is significantly smaller than the other case:


About six months after I made these, I was at my LYS and saw a needle case for sale that was made using the exact flowered fabric I'd used. Someone was biting my style! Strangely, it pleased me a great deal and just reinforced our crazy idea that we should just make stuff if we thought we could.

But then one thing led to another, sewing led to quilting, and the next thing I knew, the quilting was running my life. It's a slippery slope. You'll see.

Wash up. Be well.

This squid soap looks awesome! From their site:

SquidSoap works by applying a small ink mark on a person's hand when they press the pump to dispense the soap. The ink is designed to wash off after the hands are washed for about 15-20 seconds, which is the time recommended by most doctors.

Wash 'em up, people!

(via, as always, boingboing)

Real quilters, avert your eyes

If the sight of a quilt-in-progress being mishandled makes you queasy, you might want to look away here. This is documentation of the current state of the Denyse Schmidt "What a Bunch of Squares" quilt. It's not pretty.



I doubt Denyse rolls her quilts, holds them in place with some bicycle clips, then kinda folds (wads) them up and puts them on a chair in the living room. With the needle just sticking out the top there.

Strange how it looks like a little creature is hiding in it. There isn't. It's just the poor quilt. Scrunched up. Maybe crying a little. Certainly wrinkling a great deal.

Here's a square that was suffocating in the earlier pictures:

Breathe, little guy, breathe. It'll be ok.

Maybe now, after really looking at these gruesome pictures, I'll try a different approach. Maybe unclip it? Fold it nicely? I was doing that before, but it seemed so, I don't know, labor intensive. (This from a person who is hand-quilting a queen-sized quilt.) Maybe I'll give it a hug and a sincere apology and call it a day.

Sorry, quiltie. I love you.

(Note: Quiltie has reacted to my apology with a shocking level of indifference.)

Get out!

Cutest things you ever saw? Very likely. Look at the ones with the dots. LOOK AT THEM!

Now, make them.

Free pattern here. (via Quilters Buzz)

Those are all the demands I have for now. I thank you.

The more you know

Wondering where your U.S. income tax dollars are going exactly? These folks have a 2007 poster for you.

Peruse it online. Buy it for yourself. Buy it for Congress.

The more you know... (insert shooting star graphic and cheesy music: doo do doo DOOOOO). Seriously. Do.

via boingboing

While I was at it

I figured I'd make another square for Grandma Purl. You know, why not?

Same Lana Grossa yarn as before. Also on US size 10.5 needles. An 8" square.

This was the Tuck Stitch (also from Vogue Knitting). The pattern:

NOTE: Tuck stitch - Insert RH (right hand) needle through the center of stitch that is two rows below and knit this stitch.

Cast on a multiple of 4 + 3 extra. (I cast on 32 + 3 = 35).

Row 1 (RS): Purl.
Row 2 (and all WS rows): Knit.
Row 3: *P3, tuck st; repeat from *, end P3.
Row 4: Knit.
Row 5: Purl.
Row 6: Knit.
Row 7: *P1, tuck st, p2; repeat from *, end p1, tuck st, p1.
Row 8: Knit.
Repeat rows 1-8 to desired length.

This square wasn't as photogenic as the first, but it's quite nice in person.

As I was making it, my sidekick said in passing, "That's a nice stitch for a sweater." And I had to say, I was impressed with his Monday-morning-armchair-designing. A sweater, indeed!

Grandmother Purl's blanket

People can be really kind. Really thoughtful. And really kind.

This is a very sweet gesture spearheaded by a kindhearted fan of Crazy Aunt Purl's.

Here's my small contribution.


It's an 8" square, knit on US size 10.5 needles using *less than* one ball of Lana Grossa Bingo yarn (100% Marino Virgin Wool. 80 meters/50 grams -- It's soft and machine washable!).

The stitch is a Broken 2x2 Rib.



The recipe (or pattern, whatever) is from Vogue Knitting. And it is the following:

Cast on a multiple of 4 stitches. (I cast on 40.)

Row 1 (RS): *K2, P2; repeat from * until end.
Rows 2-6 (WS): Repeat Row 1.
Rows 7-12: *P2, K2; repeat from * until end.
Repeat rows 1-12.

I did this until it reached 8", bound off in pattern, and that was it!

If I'm feeling adventurous, I may try another new stitch for another square.

In the meantime, (not to be too earnest but...) I'll be appreciative of the kindness that people extend to one another. And I'll try to remember to do that more. (Yes, you-know-who-you-are. I said "extend".)

Little list of cool items to make

I'm not gonna say that you should get started on any winter-time holiday gift-making at this juncture, because that would just be ri-donk-ulous. But, these are v. awesome items worth considering when the time comes.

Leia buns. All the knitters out there have seen this by now, I'd imagine. But for those of you who haven't and love you some Star Wars, check it.

Subversive Cross Stitch. I made the one about cancer for my partner-in-crime. The bunnies make it extra adorable. Very quick to make. I'd never cross-stitched before, and this was super easy and fast. Great gift for friends who like it subversive-style.

Knitted Converse sneakers on Craftster. (via boingboing) Ok, you're not really gonna make these, but check them out!

Fingerless gloves. These are so great. You can embellish them any way you'd like. But those embroidered tree ones? Jeez! Those are beauties.

Giving handmade gifts just feels like a right thing to do (not "the" right thing. One of many possible right things.) Don't you think?

Small Denyse Schmidt projects

So I officially take back all of my pishing of the smaller projects. Turns out it's really, really satisfying to start and finish something all in one sitting. (I may be a doctor, but sometimes I'm a little slow on the uptake.)

I gleefully made this "I Can See Clearly Now Eyeglasses Case" (from the Quilt It Kit) in around 2 hours. That included the time it took for fabric selection. I didn't realize this ahead of time, but it's a great scraps project, as those patterned pieces are quite tiny.




The heating pad cover you'll see below did not take one sitting, and that's my own damn fault. It's the (Frankensteinian) "Hold Me Close Heating Pad Cover." I was too lazy to take the actual pattern to be enlarged, so I cut out the batting and the back per Denyse's specs (let's pretend she and I are on a first-name basis). Then I just kinda eyeballed it. It's ok. Not great. I'd go to the trouble of using the pattern the next time, truth be told.



Back view:



Meh. You win some, you lose some. That's what you get for pishing.

Already with the meme

This is a lovely meme (definition of "meme" here) from back in the day that I always enjoyed seeing on the blogs.

Refresh your "Party Shuffle" on your iTunes, and list the first 10 songs that come up.

You could say sharing this information is a great way to let others know about music, broaden their horizons! But frankly, like the "overheard" notion (see yesterday's post), this meme is really just another way to draw all kinds of conclusions about someone else based on very little information. Diabolical!

So. Pencils ready? Let the drawing of conclusions begin.

My Party Shuffle exposes me thusly:

Channel 1 Suite (Four Tet Remix) : Cinematic Orchestra
Sweet Baby (with Erykah Badu) : Macy Gray
Turn Me On : Norah Jones
All or Nothing : O-Town
One Sweet Day : Mariah Carey
Save Me : Aimee Mann
Señorita : Justin Timberlake
Party Up (Up in Here) : DMX
Eat It Up : Representative Ball
Angel Eyes : Anita O’Day

This is how it came out. I didn't re-refresh. I didn't omit or add any songs. This is just what my iTunes wanted you to know about me today. I shall decline all invitations to defend my O-Town or look down my nose at you about my Anita O'Day. But I will say that Representative Ball is where it's at.

What are the first 10 songs on your Party Shuffle? I'd love for you to post a comment so I can get to know you better. (And by "better" I do mean more narrowly.)