Hi! So this was my first blog ever and I love it...but I'm graduating to wordpress with a different title and structure....I wanted to be able to rant about anything and feel like it fit.
So here it is:
http://textilesandbicycles.wordpress.com
tada!
All the posts from here are already over there, so it'll just be different from now on.
Hope to see you there!
1.3.08
29.2.08
Buona Sera
This was my favorite thing to hear in Italy...the sing-songy and warm way in which it was said was so lovely to hear.
So I'm back from my trip to Delhi, Rome and Venice.
I was in Delhi for my cousin's wedding, which as I predicted was absolutely exhausting. From a combination of the jetlag, the traveling from the bride's city to my cousin's home city twice, and all of the many long ceremonies, I must have gotten 10 hours of sleep the entire week. No joke.
My cousin and his lovely wife:
They seemed quite happy even though they were no doubt 100 times more exhausted than I was--and seeing that was exactly why I went. Totally worth it.
The real fun was when I met my man in Italy and traveled around Rome and Venice.
Rome may be my new favorite city. The architectural beauty was something I always heard about and after 5 years of high school Latin, the ancient city was something else that I knew was a draw.
But there were other things I found fantastic:
1. The urban form
I'm an urban planner and the fact that everyone drove smart cars or walked was so amazing to see. This was what I thought was great about Venice too--nothing motorized off the water. It was a complete pedestrian city.
I love that this was an actual street with it's own name in Venice:
2. Attention to Detail
While Italy seems to be filled with gorgeous details like micro-mosaics (which are incredible), gilded ceilings, and massive sculptures, there were other little details I thought were so cool:
This isn't the best picture, but in Rome (and possibly elsewhere in Italy) they would actually take the time and resources to paint the scaffolding on buildings having work done...
My favorite detail was this:
The little girl on the sign has a bow in her hair.
I love Rome.
I'll have more to come on this trip. Such as, in Venice, I happened upon a yarn store and bought some gorgeous cotton/silk/viscose Italian yarn for my dress version of Nora Gaughan's Anais. I haven't made enough progress to share yet though.
Check out my flickr page for more photos of my trip.
So I'm back from my trip to Delhi, Rome and Venice.
I was in Delhi for my cousin's wedding, which as I predicted was absolutely exhausting. From a combination of the jetlag, the traveling from the bride's city to my cousin's home city twice, and all of the many long ceremonies, I must have gotten 10 hours of sleep the entire week. No joke.
My cousin and his lovely wife:
They seemed quite happy even though they were no doubt 100 times more exhausted than I was--and seeing that was exactly why I went. Totally worth it.
The real fun was when I met my man in Italy and traveled around Rome and Venice.
Rome may be my new favorite city. The architectural beauty was something I always heard about and after 5 years of high school Latin, the ancient city was something else that I knew was a draw.
But there were other things I found fantastic:
1. The urban form
I'm an urban planner and the fact that everyone drove smart cars or walked was so amazing to see. This was what I thought was great about Venice too--nothing motorized off the water. It was a complete pedestrian city.
I love that this was an actual street with it's own name in Venice:
2. Attention to Detail
While Italy seems to be filled with gorgeous details like micro-mosaics (which are incredible), gilded ceilings, and massive sculptures, there were other little details I thought were so cool:
This isn't the best picture, but in Rome (and possibly elsewhere in Italy) they would actually take the time and resources to paint the scaffolding on buildings having work done...
My favorite detail was this:
The little girl on the sign has a bow in her hair.
I love Rome.
I'll have more to come on this trip. Such as, in Venice, I happened upon a yarn store and bought some gorgeous cotton/silk/viscose Italian yarn for my dress version of Nora Gaughan's Anais. I haven't made enough progress to share yet though.
Check out my flickr page for more photos of my trip.
7.2.08
New Twinkle
Upon googling Twinkle's Weekend Knits in an attempt to find images of the patterns before buying the book (which I don't think I'll be doing) I found this on Marie Claire. I think it's from Wenlan Chia's new spring collection, but I really wish it was in one of her pattern books. I love it and would make it in an instant if there were a pattern...unfortunately I don't think I'm experienced enough to figure out the bottom edge or the top netting. And I can't quite make out the bottom rows of pattern. Sad.
Actually now that I think of it my next project is a dress version of Nora Gaughan's Anais, which has a netting on the top that is sort of similar to this. So maybe I can incorporate some elements of the Twinkle dress into the skirt--mainly the YOs I think and maybe the scallopy bottom edge if I can find out how to do it!
2.2.08
Finished! Twinkle Dress
This was really fun to knit. I had never done dropped stitches before and I think the effect is lovely. I also had never grafted, which was surprisingly easy thanks to this great tutorial.
But. I'm still considering redoing it, and this is where I need your help.
I'm thinking of redoing the cabled skirt part to be looser--so it fits when it's worn the way it looks when it's on the hanger.
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Should I redo it?
I think what I'm envisioning now is closer to the runway version, which another blog talked about. Initially I had decided to incorporate just a couple of elements from the runway version: to add more ribbing to make an almost empire waist instead of having all that cable business across my chest--which i think would've looked horrendous on me. So I added 10 rows of ribbing before joining the sleeves. I also added about 4 inches of length to the whole thing b/c I wanted it to hit right above the knees.
But. I'm still considering redoing it, and this is where I need your help.
I'm thinking of redoing the cabled skirt part to be looser--so it fits when it's worn the way it looks when it's on the hanger.
.jpg)
I do like it the way it is and I'm a little afraid that making it loose will be like wearing a big fluffy sack.
Should I redo it?
I think what I'm envisioning now is closer to the runway version, which another blog talked about. Initially I had decided to incorporate just a couple of elements from the runway version: to add more ribbing to make an almost empire waist instead of having all that cable business across my chest--which i think would've looked horrendous on me. So I added 10 rows of ribbing before joining the sleeves. I also added about 4 inches of length to the whole thing b/c I wanted it to hit right above the knees.
A couple of other notes:
the pattern says to cast on more stitches for the medium version than the small.
Obviously a typo, right? So I went with the smaller number of stitches.
It's not a typo.
It makes for the right multiple of stitches when setting up the cables. Oops. It was easily fixable with mods that are not noticeable at all--I just casted off combinations of 3 and 4 stitches for the dropped stitch spaces instead of all them being 4 stitches wide.
I also knit the sleeves in the round even though the pattern says explicitly not to join. The piece never blew up or anything so I think it's ok. And yay for no bulky seaming.
Overall, I have to say that I really like it. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the color. It's just gorgeous. The raglan sleeves make me look a little like a linebacker, but I'm really happy with the bust ribbing--I actually think it may be a little flattering!
I still think it makes me look like 20 pounds heavier than I am, but at least for this one it's mostly in the shoulders. I can live with that.
2/4: I forgot to add some useful information, so thanks to RunningKnitter's comments:
I used the famous Twinkle Soft Chunky in Sapphire, which is my favorite color I've used so far. I think it took me 3 or 4 days...I think 4 total with one of those days for the sleeves. Either way it knits up incredible fast. For me it's one of those things with Twinkle where right from when you cast on you can see that you're almost done--so it's hard to stop. I could just be crazy though!
the pattern says to cast on more stitches for the medium version than the small.
Obviously a typo, right? So I went with the smaller number of stitches.
It's not a typo.
It makes for the right multiple of stitches when setting up the cables. Oops. It was easily fixable with mods that are not noticeable at all--I just casted off combinations of 3 and 4 stitches for the dropped stitch spaces instead of all them being 4 stitches wide.
I also knit the sleeves in the round even though the pattern says explicitly not to join. The piece never blew up or anything so I think it's ok. And yay for no bulky seaming.
Overall, I have to say that I really like it. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the color. It's just gorgeous. The raglan sleeves make me look a little like a linebacker, but I'm really happy with the bust ribbing--I actually think it may be a little flattering!
I still think it makes me look like 20 pounds heavier than I am, but at least for this one it's mostly in the shoulders. I can live with that.
2/4: I forgot to add some useful information, so thanks to RunningKnitter's comments:
I used the famous Twinkle Soft Chunky in Sapphire, which is my favorite color I've used so far. I think it took me 3 or 4 days...I think 4 total with one of those days for the sleeves. Either way it knits up incredible fast. For me it's one of those things with Twinkle where right from when you cast on you can see that you're almost done--so it's hard to stop. I could just be crazy though!
1.2.08
2008 trends?
I hope not:
This is from the Resort 2008 DKNY collection...I really hope this isn't what we see coming out this year in knitwear...
I hate(d) the baby doll look that seemed to exist simply because every single celebrity felt like having baby after baby. Overpopulation anyone? I'm sort of kidding, but not really.
Anyway, I hope the potato sack look isn't what's coming.
In looking through New York Magazine's fashion section I clicked through Chanel's Spring 2008 couture collection. It's amazing. It's kind of Dune meets Jackie Kennedy.
(this is a tamer one, but I really like it)
If anyone else is in love with Lagerfeld's Chanel, there's a pretty interesting French documentary about Karl Lagerfeld, Lagerfeld Confidential.
I know a lot of people aren't into runway couture, but my favorite place is the Met's Costume Institute. And that's what couture is to me--it's costume. I wish it was the way we all approached fashion at least sometimes...with some whimsy and fantasy.
On another note, this is one of the model's from the Chanel show:
I could break her just by breathing too hard.
Whatever happened to that weighing models thing?
This is from the Resort 2008 DKNY collection...I really hope this isn't what we see coming out this year in knitwear...
I hate(d) the baby doll look that seemed to exist simply because every single celebrity felt like having baby after baby. Overpopulation anyone? I'm sort of kidding, but not really.
Anyway, I hope the potato sack look isn't what's coming.
In looking through New York Magazine's fashion section I clicked through Chanel's Spring 2008 couture collection. It's amazing. It's kind of Dune meets Jackie Kennedy.
(this is a tamer one, but I really like it)
If anyone else is in love with Lagerfeld's Chanel, there's a pretty interesting French documentary about Karl Lagerfeld, Lagerfeld Confidential.
I know a lot of people aren't into runway couture, but my favorite place is the Met's Costume Institute. And that's what couture is to me--it's costume. I wish it was the way we all approached fashion at least sometimes...with some whimsy and fantasy.
On another note, this is one of the model's from the Chanel show:
I could break her just by breathing too hard.
Whatever happened to that weighing models thing?
30.1.08
Did you make it yourself?
Some of you Esty-ers may know about this already but there's a cool little contest at StyleMob called Made It Myself.
Submit photos of stuff you've sewn, designed, crafted, etc and then they're voted on. The prizes are Etsy gift certificates.
Not sure if I will enter anything (there are some crazy sewn FOs from a while ago), but I imagine lots of you will have something to contribute to the contest.
Submit photos of stuff you've sewn, designed, crafted, etc and then they're voted on. The prizes are Etsy gift certificates.
Not sure if I will enter anything (there are some crazy sewn FOs from a while ago), but I imagine lots of you will have something to contribute to the contest.
28.1.08
sometimes I get angry...
When I have to defend things that I feel need no defense: like knitting.
I received a comment on my Hillary's Nipple post that ended with a comment about returning to the subject of knitting, with what I interpret as a suggestion that knitting is frivolous.
Here's my question to all that think knitting is frivolous:
What can you do/make that is useful? (typing doesn't count)
Can you actually meet any of your basic needs on your own--food, clothing, shelter?
Maybe I'm alone in this, maybe I'm not--but I've always had incredible respect for people that are able to do these things: carpenters, metalsmiths, farmers, knitters and sewers, among others.
I received a comment on my Hillary's Nipple post that ended with a comment about returning to the subject of knitting, with what I interpret as a suggestion that knitting is frivolous.
Here's my question to all that think knitting is frivolous:
What can you do/make that is useful? (typing doesn't count)
Can you actually meet any of your basic needs on your own--food, clothing, shelter?
Maybe I'm alone in this, maybe I'm not--but I've always had incredible respect for people that are able to do these things: carpenters, metalsmiths, farmers, knitters and sewers, among others.
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