Imbolc Randomness

Some random thoughts on this Groundhog Day/Candlemas/Imbolc/Brighid’s Day or the day after.

• First of all, congratulations to Amity and Nhi on the launch of their new pattern line Lolita Patterns! Their first pattern, a darling skirt with scalloped hem in sizes 0 to 26 (Yay!) called Fuschia will be available February 6 and it's FREE! So rush on over there and take advantage of these two crazy couturieuses before they come to their senses and start charging for their work!
  
  
• A couple of weeks ago at Goodwill I saw a mother trying to rein in her over-excited 4(?)-year-old. She kept calling his name and he kept bellowing "Attitude! Attitude!" Indeed.
  
  
• Rather than change the thread in my machines I made myself another Vogue 8618 using what was left of the fabric for DD's Christmas dress.
  
  
  
  This comfy item is now in such heavy rotation in my wardrobe that I had to pull it out of the laundry for this picture (hence the wrinkles).
  
  
• Here are two patches I embroidered after figuring out how to spell the recipients' names in Arabic. Allah bless the internet! I did some of the design with a Frixion pen, which vanishes when ironed. However, apparently the marks reappear when the item gets cold and you can see some scribbles on the patch on the left. Just another reason to pay the big bucks to live in Southern California, I guess.
  
  
• Traveling further back in time, I was inspired by an early December post by Shams to make myself a coccoon sweater, so I ran one up that very same day and spent much of the holidays wrapped in it.
  
  
• I have been reading and enjoying--admiring, really--everyone's wrap-up of 2012 and thoughts or resewlutions for 2013. I love being included a little bit in so many different interesting, challenging, amusing and productive lives. As to my own life, well, I think I'm coming to a point where I can't go on tolerating some chronic low-level unhappiness of my own and will have to address it by causing some acute major unhappiness around me. I have never been one to rock the boat, much less mutiny or sink it all together. We shall see. I suppose I'll need new clothes.
  
  

The New Year So Far

The downside--the ONLY downside--of being a law professor is that the holiday season brings a heavier workload. Exams to grade, syllabi to polish, exams to grade, annual meeting of law professors to attend, exams to grade, the list is endless. Plus I had exams to grade. So while the rest of the stitching-and-blogging world is relaxing, partying, taking stock of the year gone by and making lists for the year to come, I'm grading exams.

Or, rather, doing other stuff to avoid grading exams. I've actually been rather productive so far this year, but whenever I've sat down to blog about it I've felt so guilty about those not-yet-damned exams festering next to my keyboard that I've had to go knit something.

My snooding with chunky yarn and big needles went so well that I decided I'm a knitting natural and should make all the men in my household hand-knitted socks for Christmas. The original plan, of course, was to have the socks actually knitted by Christmas, ha ha I mean ho ho. Instead, each lucky recipient got yarn and a promise. But isn't the yarn pretty?


So to make up for lost time I've decided to try knitting these socks toe-up, two at a time by the magic loop method. I've watched this wonderful youtube video a hundred times at least,



and I am proud to announce that I have created this:



If you look closely you can see a toe-ish sort of shape there. In fact, there are two. And they are still there on the needles and cable this morning, despite my beloved kitty's best efforts to destroy them while I slept.



He chewed three holes in my ziploc knitting bag and pulled a skein through the largest of them! My cat is now in the doghouse.

OK, not really.

Upcycling Recycled

I've finally figured out what was bothering me about the GreenCraft magazine I complained about in my previous post. It's not that bits and scraps and old used things can't be turned into lovely useful items--they can, the magazine is full of them and you have no doubt made a few yourself. The fact that my recycled trash still looks like trash makes me grumpy but doesn't make the concept any less valuable. What bugged me about the magazine was that the focus was on what to do with trash, rather than on how to make beautiful things.

I love to look at articles that show me how, if I need or want a beautiful bag, I can make one out of an old tablecloth. Etsy is awash with beautiful tablecloth tote bags. But an entire magazine telling me not to throw away my old tablecloths, plastic bags, measuring tapes, T-shirts and magazines because they can all be upcycled into other stuff just makes me feel guilty about my entire life.

Anyway, I feel better now because I gave the magazine to a woman waiting to board the subway from which I had just disembarked. Does getting two posts and a random act of kindness out of one magazine count as upcycling?

Speaking of random, here's a notice posted on the wall of a ladies' room in a bar in Amsterdam. Disturbing on several levels.