12.9.09

Dress and boots: Thrifted; Cardigan: gift

Meh. But I dig these boots!

Finally done with today’s post-a-thon, now off to eat! Did I mention that I’m ravenously hungry all the time?

ish

So I’ve been designing a lot of embroidery. And actually embroidering a little, too. By “designing” I mean opening a photo in Pixelmator (the poor man’s photoshop) and drawing over it. Lazy, but effective. The picture above is a design that has not come to fruition but probably will next time I get frustrated with the Christmas knitting.

I think embroidery is a better outlet for strong emotion than knitting. At least for me. Most of my designs thus far have been a bit vulgar, so I won’t put them here because my mom reads this blog. You can see my two latest finished pieces (both donated to Joey) here and here, but be warned – they cuss. My mom also cusses. But for some reason I’m nervous about mom seeing me cuss. Hi, mom! And by “mom” I mean my mom and big sisters. They’re kind of a conglomerate.

Anyway, lately I’ve really been enjoying designing pictures of people I dislike and then writing how I feel about them above the pictures. I won’t put those pictures here, because although people have been hassling me about being passive aggressive on the blog, I think they’d prefer the passiveness to flat-out aggressiveness. If I’m mistaken, let me know. Because that could be fun.

Anyway, next I’m going to embroider this, from Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax, based on this photo and this counted-cross sttich I did ages ago.

12.8.09

Blazer and dress: Thrifted; Boots: hand-me-down Nordstroms from mom; Hat: handmade by me

Outfit post! The first in … two months? Yeah. I’ve been wearing things I’m proud of for quite a while, just not taking pictures. Anyway, I wore this grocery shopping (the little one stayed at home with grandpa), and I felt pretty good about it. These are morning-after photos, hence the wrinkles.

I’ve been debating with myself on how I should dress. There is a lot of pressure (only from me thus far) to dress like a mom, whatever that means. And I don’t feel like I look like “a mom” in these pictures. The skirt’s too short, I should be wearing pants – it’s too young. Or something. I don’t know.  Anyway, I’ve decided that if the outfit is practical and lends itself to the daily chores of motherhood, and I also feel like myself in it, that’s what I should be wearing. The end. And for now I still feel like myself in too-short skirts, vintage boots, and silly hipster jackets.

As for Grady, today she’s sporting a pink onesie, pink checkered pants, and a fuzzy blanket. As I type she’s asleep in her vibrating bouncer. She’s such a lovely baby, but yesterday was a bit traumatic. She got scared three separate times, and that throws her whole day off. Poor girl. But in general she’s a happy baby.

I think this is the first picture I’ve seen of myself standing up holding her, like I so often do. Yeah, I don’t look like a mom. But nevertheless I think I’m doing a good job. Also, that creepy pencil portrait behind me is of my dad. It reminds me of Dorian Gray and I don’t like it. One half of his face looks like him ten years ago, the other half ten years from now. I mean, the artist did a great job. It’s really really well done. Just a bit creepy.

I could say that I’m including this picture to show off the cute print of the dress (this is about as much print as I do), but really it’s just to show off the cute naked baby. And my boob, which is large and awesome. And life-giving and deserving of respect, just so we’re clear. But also large and awesome.

FO: Alpaca beret

(Note: This was written for yarnies. So, fashion-bloggers and college friends, I’m sorry but you probably won’t be entertained by this.)

I promise I am working hard on Christmas presents. Really. Except for a few embroideries (I’ll post about that later) and this hat, everything I’m doing is presents.

But. The way my house is situated now, at night I can’t leave my current bedroom without waking up my dad. He’s currently camped out in the living room. Yeah, we have fun. This house is too big for two people and  a baby, so we move around sometimes so that rooms don’t feel neglected.

Anyway.

I was trapped in my room late at night, I had run out of yarn on the green scarf and couldn’t trek across the house to get another skein. Luckily I had a couple crochet hooks and some recently-thrifted vintage Lion Brand Al-pa-ka and Brown Sheep Top of the Lamb. (I know. Best thrifted yarn find ever.) So, in a few hours, I whipped up this perfect beret with the Al-pa-ka.

I love it. So much. I changed the dc shaping rows a bit – took out one straight row, I think. Not sure. I just didn’t want it to be as droopy as the other pictures I saw on Ravelry. But I used a hook one size smaller than recommended, and the yarn is a very twee worsted. Almost sport, I’d say.

Anyway, this yarn is fantastic. It has just enough alpaca content for that fuzzy look and infamous texture, but the wool and nylon do away with the tendency alpaca has to be heavy and droopy. I’m sad it’s been discontinued, but I got five good skeins of it and this only took up one. So our love affair isn’t over yet.

I normally avoid unnecessary blocking because I’m lazy. But this beret, like most berets, must be blocked. I opted for a full-on wet-block instead of my preferred method of just spritzing, because the motif in the center needed to be whooped into shape. It was very rebellious. And I used a plate to shape it, as I’ve seen so many other bloggers do.

At first I didn’t like the way those large holes at the edge of the motif affected the main fabric, but it actually gives the front of the hat a really great shape. It reminds me of the berets that the writer of Sally Jane Vintage is so fond of.

Okay. And I’m done. But I’m planning on writing many blog posts today. So be warned.