merry chickmas!

shewt, you guys. i love you wacky knitters so. happiest holidays to y'all.

extremes.

three things that are way too easy to do with results as lovely as they are.


lettuce edges.
cake mixes.
scribble lace.

1. twelve days of christmas presents for my little sisters and former roommates are DONE just need to be mailed and delivered!

2. safety pin decorated red velvet cupcakes (fabric store jokes!) for my favorite manager's birthday.


3. scarf for baby sister, using scribble lace method from mason dixon knitting book.

can i just tell you, this move is taking so much out of us. as excited as we are, good god it is hard. we're SUPPOSED to close on the house in i believe eleven days. it's unreal. every moment is occupied with thoughts of paint and furniture and learning a new place and dwindling checkbook balances. oh my goodness. i do not look forward to hauling all my books and magazines around or thirteen hours in the scion with two pissed off tabby cats. one of my lovely co-workers told me they'll miss me but that we'll be able to have a better life there (lower cost of living, a wonderful little house after two years in a teensy apartment, havin kids someday. SOMEDAY I SAID SOMEDAY OK SIMMER DOWN). we don't have it half bad here, so i can only hope.

ATTN: debbie stoller, the boat just left without you.

gosh darn you urban outfitters.

they're even pointelle.

perseverance.

looks like it's true what they say about how the most difficult things are the ones most worth doing. appears to apply to baby quilts (assembled via the making-shit-up-as-you-go-along method) and motherhood (from an observer's standpoint). perhaps it also applies to moving into an adorable 1917 bungalow four states west of your hometown of 23 years. here's hoping.

HELLLLOOOOOOO!

oh my. it has been too long, little blog. the thing is that, much like you, dear reader, is that i have been working on way, way, way too many projects lately. so i keep starting more, haven't finished hardly a thing, and i dont think you need to see the mess i'm making of the entire apartment!

commercial message:
if you ever plan on making any bias tape, for quilting or otherwise, do yourself a favor and get one of these doodaddies. it worked like a charm. i was really really surprised. i kinda wanna go make like fifty eight yards of bias tape and just SQUEEEE over how awesome it is.

baby quilt family photo pathwork pillow 24X4 tiny presents bike tshirt amp cozy scribble lace fifty billion fingerless mitts fimo everything ack ack ack oh ack.

we'll be in chi-town for thanksgiving with my lovely inlaws, where we're going to do some birthday and christmas present exchangin', which definitley puts the hurt on my rushy rushy crafting my tush off. but i'm really excited about the gifts i'm working on. you know the feeling when youre working on a gift and you just know it's dead on and they'll love it? that is what is keeping me going.

oscar the grouch and i have something in common.

STORY OF MY MESSY, MESSY, CLUTTERED LIFE.

smallest launch party ever.

erin made this is officially available at g. inc designs, 639 monroe ave rochester ny 14607.

six pairs of lucky 13 fingerless gloves.




i can really do this.

happy halloween!

love, erinosaurus rex.

so please be kind if i'm a mess.

cheddar shortbreads from moosewood celebrates - i made these in heart-shapes for our wedding. for the team joann potluck. they taste like goldfish crackers. having another one of our super exciting two-day sales--- MOONLIGHT MADNESS, daddy. everyone brings food to keep spirits up. weekend is sure to be full of arguments about coupons and wackadoos who drove two hours into rochester from the middle of nowhere to buy half-priced drapery lining and annoy me!!!

in other news, i'm on my fifth pair of fingerless gloves.

IF A GIRL WANTS TO DANCE.

we've been able to sponge bandwidth off someone, somewhere, for the past few days. as unexpectedly and elusively as the innernets appear, SO DO THEY STOP DISAPEAR. enjoying it while it lasts. so hi, friends, it is me, and i'm in my sweatpants and barefoot. tres lux, as compared to going out in public.

hey did you know brooke shield's first baby (tom "i know everything about post-partum depression i'm a scientologist" cruise, remember?) is named ROWAN??? pshaw! totally true access hollywood says so.

ok, so do me a favor? go to designhergals.com and tell me if you think i should get some business cards from them. i made a girl that i think looks like me, dressed her in a pink jacket with ballet flats and put a cupcake in her hand. my spendy muscles are, like, twitching in anticipation but i don't know. should i come up with something on my own? and i'm sorry if you go there and become addicted to personalized cutie stationary and other printed matter. i'm really sorry.

today at work i popped advils and helped a mother and daughter figure out some drapes for the daughter's bedroom. and it turns out that the daughter and i both graduated from brockport this spring! her degree is in dance, which is about as useful as my studio art degree. she's living at home with her parents now and she's not feeling very good about herself. kinda lost and kinda scared and kinda sad. i feel like we need to get together for a disapointed SUNY brockport graduates support group. except no, cos she's thinking about going to school for nursing, and i've been knitting like a mofo. fingerless gloves or bust, so help me god. something good is going to happen if it kills me. i think i threw out my back hunching over (hence the advils), but that's nothin! do these people know who i am? no way. i'm on fire, ladies.

speak slow.

did you guys think i was dead? no!!! it's been a week of drunkdialing and mischief, but mostly i've just been up to my neck in wilton method class buttercream. no joke.

this is cake #1. very ugly and also delicious. a fine mess indeed.

THIS IS CAKE #3! i made some cute cupcakes in between but i let the girls at the store eat them so they were not photographed. us joann girls love us some baked goods it seems. but cake 3 looks nice and i don't mind saying so!!! i am awesome. however. it's been a week and the thing is still untouched. i have to throw it away before it gets up and walks out to look for a job or soemthing. so. in conclusion: don't try to make stiff consistency buttercream with a hand-me-down handmixer because you will feel bad for making a small appliance groan so. and also, don't make anything chocolate so beautiful that it pains you to bring a knife to it to feed your friends and dear husband. it's a waste of devil's food. good times. but i'm glad i get to go back to knit club.

GIFT SPOILER: IF YOU ARE LISA MY HETEROLIFEMATE AND YOU ARE READING THIS CLOSE YR BROWSER AND GO DO SOMETHING ELSE.

is she gone? ok.

poor lisa's 22nd birthday was july 20th, and her worthless friend erin (THAT'S ME) is so worthless she just this week made her a present to commemorate her birthday and new townhouse. so this is the pillowcase apron. i can't believe how well it worked out.

and this is a recipe card box for my pookie's new kitchen. i got the box from the unfinished wood section at my store and i painted it and glued some stuff to it and filled it with a few recipes (the cheese crisp recipe she requested, my favorite brownies and some cocktails) and a stack of colorful 3x5 cards. i miss lisa so much. she moved two hours away so i must box it and mail it off to her. i am such a bad friend.

what a blabberpost. anyways last thing.

the girl on the cover of the latest urban outfitters catolog is wearing some cute, cabled fingerless gloves. they are selling for like 16 dollars and they are wool and ACRYLIC, PEOPLE. gross! so erin here, she says "eff that", gets herself a skein of cash irona from village yarns, who BTW are severing all ties with knitting fever international and selling off the debbie bliss and noro for like, dirt cheap, and also a 32" circ, finally figures out the magic that has earned it the name magic loop, faked some cables, and five days later bam i rule urban outfitters sucks. my lovely sister cut my hair and every single lady at her salon asked me what i was making and was all AWWW WHAT A GOOD IDEA THOSE ARE CUTE. plan: i'm gonna knit 38472 pairs and sell em and make my first million.

they keep yr hands cozy and yet you can still find your keys and send text messages while you wear them. magic.

speaking of my haircut, i can't believe how when alex styled it, it was adorable, and when i try to do it, it look like a messed up cross between tegan and sara's haircuts. save me from myself.

tame.

hi. i'm at the library. i have ten minutes NO NINE to write this and hopefully upload it. sorry nothing pretty or even visually interesting at that, unless yr a text fiend. then eat up.

the wilton company, producer of cake dec supplies and other such fancies, is kind of a monster. but my class is kind of fun and i've been up to my eyeballs in buttercream for the past two weeks. it's fun, albiet nauseatingly expensive.

um. i have finished piecing two baby quilt blocks. i still kind of shudder at the sight of the bag the bits live in. eeagahgfa.

i will not be receiving my big underpants-design premiere via SNBIII. i'm disapointed but understanding. the world is not ready for the secret underpants? maybe i'm just not ready to fully exploit the opportunity yet. i'm goin to go look for a book on small business starting and lament. i still feel like i have no idea what i am doing with my life and i don't think i'm in any position for anything remotely big to happen yet. things fall in place when they are supposed to and mine aren't there yet, i know, i know. i know.


this seriously happened.
scene: home dec counter last weekend.

me: hi can i help you?
him: yes i'm looking for some youthful idealism, do you have any?
me: ha, oh yes,in spades.

F.O. & S.P. & OTHR GBBRSH

pattern: yoke vest, by teva durham, from loop-d-loop.
yarn: big kuryeon by noro, 1.5 skeins.
needle: bryspun 24" US11
mods: yarn sub, paper clips as stitch markers. i don't reccomend.

i knit this "nod to fashion history" on the road. i used the big kuryeon because i can't find filtes king van dyck an.ywh.ere. it was half price at village yarns anyways and i can't resist noro even though i am begining to think i love it more when it's in a pretty ball than when it's knitted up. the guage was dead on. i don't know how i feel about the stripes. or the rolled hem. scene: at starry nights with binet, when she notices how rolly the hem is. i'm like, "umm rolled hems are a design feature. kind of". she looks at the photo in the book, where the model is standing there, looking as demure as possible in the vest and opera gloves, arms crossed at the elbow, reaching down, in a "I'M SO SWEET" pose, and she says "LOOK SHE'S HOLDING IT DOWN SO IT DOESN'T ROLL!!!". i thought only vogue knitting pulled that kind of scam. so anyways. it's knit. i still haven't finished the back of the secret underpants v2.0 (STILL NOTHING) and i've barely touched the baby quilt in ages (due date: october 20).

but there is good news!



my secret pal is a dear and sent me all this great stuff! there was chocolate too but honey you know that didn't last long enough to be in the picture. and those treats have turned the already insane cats into total crackheads. thank you so much, laurie, you are the best secret pal ever. i bet i knit fifteen ballband dishcloths before i finish that quilt or you tackle your serger. big love, pointy.

a dissertation on cake, followed by the great midwestern roadtrip 2006

i baked these last week (from the september living, one bowl deserts, they're vanilla cupcakes with DARK CHOCOLATE INSIDE and they were EASY). aaron was eating one and he asked me "what is it with you and cupcakes?"
what it is with me and cupcakes:
1. the answers:

a. cake is an indicator of celebration. right?!! cake means happy party time. that's why i like cake. cake is comforting and it makes you feel five in a good way.
b. cupcakes are little single serving CELEBRATIONS. they are miniature cakes. everyone knows MINIATURES are CUTER.
c. the cop-out: "uhhhh. i don't know. you came with a muffin tin. and i don't really have any cake pans." (when i moved in with him, he just had this muffin pan. there is was. poor aaron is fated to a lifetime of cupcakes of his own doing. i can think of worse things, can't you??)

cupcakes. cupcakes are an excellent way of saying THANK YOU! or, I LIKE YOU! with cupcakes around, you'll never have to say I'M SORRY. say it with sprinkles.

so anyways. speaking of cake we drove 39058387583uwtushyt89 hours on an epic midwest weddding adventure this weekend. i finished 90% teva durham's yoke vest from loop-d-loop in the car and read "the partly cloudy patriot" by sarah vowell in two sittings. we stayed one night in chicago with the BIL and the uber-preggers wifey and ate crepes and talked about swollen feet. QUILT UPDATE: baby is due in eight weeks. quilt is due in like eight years. so then we drove all over freaking eastern iowa. then the wedding stuff began. a served as the best man as his best friend tied the proverbial knot. after fifteen years and three kids, they got hitched. who'da thunk it. but it was cute. here's the good stuff:



i can't honestly say that i think purple and orange are a good idea together, but what do you do when the bride's a redhead who loves purple. there was a cake. there was a watermelon carved into a basket full of fruit, and there were cream cheese mints (a weird midwestern thing if i ever heard of one?). it was nice. and then we got to drive back. driving back is worse, cos you lose an hour, vs. headin' west, where you gain one. and cos we took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in michigan. and cos work called me and said WHY AREN'T YOU HERE? and i had to call them back and say COS I'M IN INDIANA AND I ALREADY TOLD YA TWICE I COULDN'T DO TODAY. silly girls.

i didn't get to go to ikea or any yarnstores or even hobby lobby or dunkin donuts or get a tattoo or anything i wanted but that's ok. it's good to get away for a spell. i'll talk to you later. keep it crafty. xo.

p.s. still no news on the secret underpants front. she's killing me.

ONLY 692 TO GO.

my brother-in-law and his darling wife are having a little girl, due on halloween. i am going to be an aunt. imagine the trouble the poor dear will have when she realizes her only aunt and uncle (my BIL's only sibling is my DH and katy is an only child) are called by the same name. oh jeez. so anyways i have embarked upon my First Ever Quilt, to commemorate the child's birth. i wanted to do hexagons, but quickly realized this was a terrible idea. so i am doing squares. little 1 and 1/4 inch squares.

list of reasons this is a bad m-f-in' idea:
1. to compose a 36ishy inch square baby blanket is going to require a dizzying 784 of these dainty squares.

2. that means that i cut out 784 little paper squares and am now in the process of basting the calico to them.

3. the next step is acutally piecing the thing, so whipstitching 784 squares together and then removing the previously mentioned basting stitches and discarding the 784 paper squares.

3. a guest i was cutting stuff for and discussing quilting with (90 PERCENT OF THE SHOPPERS AT THE STORE QUILT) asked me why in the hell i was piecing it by this stupid stupid method and why wasn't i strip-piecing it (she was much more polite than that, i just am feeling like a boner at this point for not seeing that this would have been a Good Idea and i didn't think of it). this exchange happens the day after i have shredded my fabric into little 1.5 inch squares aka Point of No Return.

4. upon hearing the story, aaron says "ok then start over if it's going to be a pain, and do it the other way". i think i made a face at this point and said NO. i'm too stubborn and resolute in my silly ways and also too cheap to start over.

so maybe it'll be done when she starts kindergarten. kids still like blankies when they are five, right? or does that make them wussies?

cos i've been working on this thing almost a week now. i have a hole in my finger from handstitching without my thimble (i swear when i wear the thinble i find a new way to sew so i'm not PUSHING with the thimbled finger, thus purpose = defeated), and 692 left squares to baste. oh kill me now.

5 things about me, followed by some other stuff.

1. although my twenty-third birthday will be here in not four months, i am frequently mistaken for much younger. how often i have had to inform people that, actually, i recently graduated from college, not high school. i don't know exactly what they base this assessment on, but it can be rather embarassing. which leads me to item two.
2.
on june 4 2005, i married my favorite, aaron david. there was cake and gingham and pink ribbon and christmas lights and country music and hot dogs and beer and it was lovely. we are alike in too many ways to list (we have, phonetically, the same name!, our birthdays are one right after the other, we've both quit smoking, are liberal and vegetarians and behave the same way when we are nervous, to name only a few). i love him to death and he is my very best friend. and if one more person tells me "OHHHHH you're too young to be married", i'm gonna punch them in the mouth. we're terribly happy together, and i think when it's right you will just Know. so they can cram it.
3. my ipod's name is shirley temple. my ibook's name is lappy. my hard disk's name is edna. my bike doesn't have a name but maybe it should.
4. i burst into tears when the topic of moving away comes up, but i know someday we will have to. i have lived in rochester ny my entire life and it's getting to be about that time to Go Do Something Else. just to see. but don't worry cos i'm not going anywhere yet.
5. if/when i start my "line" of "things", the working title is "terrible delicious", which is ganked from a recipe for barbequed tofu, from an incredible cookbook by cresent dragonwagon. i want to make the recipe but am intimidated by it's extremely long ingredients list. someone has to have a cookout to motivate me (and they better not say EWWW TOFU GROSS before ever even trying it. tofu is super)!

so there it is.

in other news, we are buying a scion Xa. a red one!! so last night, we were sitting in a cubicle at the desk of our sales guy, who was going to get something from somewhere else. i'm a world away, knitting the front of the secret underpants with renewed determination (still no word from d. stoller), when aaron leans in and asks me "what are you making?". i answer, without looking away from my needles, "you know, secret underpants two point oh to see if this yarn will sub my first yarn was discontinued". he says. "oh, right", sits up, and says loudly "UNDERPANTS." alarmed by my husband yelling UNDERPANTS across a room full of toyota salesmen, i look up in horror to realize that my knitting had sparked the curiousity of the sales manager across the way, who apparently couldn't get my attention to ask me directly what i was working on. so he asked aaron. AARON. HE OF NO SHAME. i must have turned same color as the underpants in question (4227). god bless him but i would have answered SHORTS.

hello dears. hey so there's a record-breaking heatwave currently kicking the east coast's ass. you might be asking yourself, who the heck is baking in this kind of weather? only me. only me. chocolate chip gingerbread cookies from feb06 living, with fresh ginger from the illustrious public market. and darn it they are fabulous. even though opening the 350 oven to remove them kind of makes you want to kill yourself. at 350 that makes it only like 3 or 4 degrees hotter inside the oven than the rest of the apartment.

speaking of killing yourself, yesterday i walked like four blocks to the VOA and viet nam vet thriftstores on main, in the 3457637 degree heat i trekked over, bravely, in search of like 3 key items. let me also mention that binet and jenna and i visited these stores a couple weeks ago. the vet store had like literally 6 cakestands. so i go in yesterday, determined to buy myself a cakestand and oh they only have two in the whole store and they are both fugly. i didn't buy anything and it was really sad. i risked heatstroke for a recipe card box and was rewarded with nothing. MORAL OF THE STORY IS NEVER PASS UP A SWEET YELLOW CAKEPLATE THE KIND WITH LIKE THE WEIRD GLITTER NO MATTER HOW LITTLE SPACE YOU HAVE TO STORE AND DISPLAY YOUR CAKEPLATE. i wont make that mistake again. cakeplates of the world i will make you mine.

also sorry for the whiny disatisfied last post wheeech that was a weinerized moment. ill try not to do that too much. my dad says dont wish your life away, so i wont. it's kind of lazy to be like I DONT WANT TO DO THE WORK I JUST WANT A LOVELY LIFE WITHOUT PUTTING IN THE EFFORT.

anyways im taking the wilton 1 cake decorating class at my store in september with two cute girls that i work with (here's how it works at joann: there are basically two kinds of employees: ones that are prolly old enough to be my mom and ones that are in college slash recent grads trying to get their shit together. there are a handful of exceptions, but not many). unfortch, its going to be on thursday nights also known as knit night. oh no, you guys. when two of my unhealthy loves collide: CAKE VS. KNITTING. death match.

i'm going to become auntie erin in a few months when my little husband's little brother and his little wife have a little baby girl. so i am planning a baby blanket for the anticipated child. i was all about the HEXAGON until today i did a little math and found that i would have to cut out, at minimum, 896 hexagons, baste them all, and then whip them together by hand. a little too ambitious for a first quilt. i'm switching my sights to a postage stamp quilt top. 896 hexagons ain't going to happen. freakin baby would be like graduating highschool by the time her crazy aunt finishes her babygift.

blogger doesn't seem in the mood to upload my pics. lovely. im gonna go, my iced mocha is melted and i have to work in a few hours. damn you blogger. xoxoxox bye friends stay classy.

insane demands

i am obsessed with buying a house. every aspect of buying the house. the house we live in is/was lovely, albeit slightly rundown in that way that all rental properties have the freedom to become. the landlord people know that they don't have to maintain the houses terribly well, and it shows. our house really isn't that bad, but sometimes when i am walking around i just think what a terrible shame it is that these beautiful older homes are in such disrepair and what a huge difference a new paintjob and a lawnmower could make. the house we live in is on a corner and has a big porch with a slapdash railing and some lovely stained glass. in it there are seven apartments, of varying shapes and sizes with occupants of various levels of annoying. there used to be two RIT students, girls, who lives across the hall, that treated the place as a dormitory. they were terribly rude (the tall one was, the short one i have no real issue with, but the tall one i would like to throw sand in her face) and now that they have moved out i steal their magazines from their mailbox and i know it's not legal but they have been out the house for over a month. i would never buy in style or glamour or shop etc but if i can get it for free with a karmic payback, then hell yeah, it's good to know which 1.5k$ bags are hot for fall i suppose. i wish they had subscribed to domino (i am obsessed with domino also) and lucky, but no. i want our own house. i have been the checkbook nazi for the past month. my dear husband is a sweet man and he works very hard and loves animals but for someone who worries about money as much as i know he does he has a very blase attitude towards the checkbook. before we got our joint account, before i finished school and was blowing all my loan money on yarn (very few regrets in that respect, but oh lord i dread the day i have to start paying it back), when he'd get his checking account balence or statement and go WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT 18 HUNDRED DOLLARS IT'S GONE. that's a bad thing. that't not for me. so now i am receipt nazi. i get a bit irritated when he puts gas in the car without telling me. i highlight all the purchases and withdrawls (pink for erin spending, blue for aaron spending, yellow for the completely unavoidable things like rent gas and food, and orange for the occasional nice things for us like the drive-in or a bottle of wine) and i have figured out what costs what and how much is left over, to be either saved or applied to the repayment of debts. honestly i was just happy to find there was something left over. we are not living totally from miserable paycheck to miserable paycheck. thank the stars or something. i want our own house. i dream of color schemes ( this weeek it's robin's egg blue, cherry red, eggshell, and dark chocolate. do you love it?!!) and of bedding (a quilt, big squares, cherry print on a black background, with red and green and white and eyelet). i want to be able to use the lovely wedding gifts (simply calphalon from my parents, an empire red kitchenaid from his mom and step-dad) that still sit in their boxes because there is no where for them to live in our galley kitchen. a few times i have said "i wish i were thirty". and people say no no no you don't. i just mean that i wish it was seven and a half years from now, when hopefully we will know what we are doing, will be doing things we like, career-wise, will be living somewhere better than a two-room studio apartment with the world's tiniest kitchen, hopefully with stairs for the cats to run up and down. i just like to think that by that time, 20freakin13, that we will be there, or at the very least, much closer, to the list of insane demands with regard to our future lifestyle i have growing in my head. i want a garden and a baby (yeah i know that came out of nowhere but i won't bring it up again) and a normal grown-up life. not that i don't like my little job but i have no interest in doing it forever. i feel good about it because at least i am doing something, but i am more interested in the next phase, whatever that may be. i love our clawfoot tub but i need a kitchen sink larger than one square foot, where if i don't do the dishes every day, it looks like we live in complete squalor the tiny pile stacks up so quickly. i think i am whining entirely too much here, but i can't help believing that a lot of people must be feeling this same way. i know aaron feels the same way, and he is older than me and so has been stuck in this in-between phase for much longer and must hate it even more. oh i am being such a weenie. perhaps i will look back on my ridiculous rants when we do buy the house, and it turns out to be a pain, and i will laugh at how grossly naive i am being right now. i kind of know what i want. i just don't have the patience or fiscal resources right now to go out and get it. i am not unsatisfied with our little life! we have each other and that is so wonderful and i don't mean to sound ungrateful. i live with my very best friend and two little furballs, and i am the luckiest girl in the world. i just want to house our relationship somewhere else. somewhere with our own washer and dryer, and neighbors that we don't have to share any walls or backdoors with. figure something out, i will i will we will we will. enough already, my goodness. wasn't this post more fun when it was about snatching fashion ragazines from the ex-neighbors?

anyways. after a knitting funk, i am trying to re-work the written pattern for the secret underpants, which was, upon draft one, riddled with Big Errors, in Dale of Norway's Svale. poor d.stoller has been ill and needs more time to select patterns for the book. she can take all the time she needs, i was just happy that the email brought news that i have not yet been rejected. but anyways. i bought two balls of blue skys cotton in honeydew last night from the lovely lovely lucinda at wild wools who so graciously invited our little knit club to her store, where she offered us wine (hi if there are two things i have noticed that darn near all knitters seem to have in common besides fiberlust is cats and wine) and a discount and some really really good cheese. but after knitting one inch of my swatch, it became quite apparent that the guage is never gonna happen. no bother, i guess i will have to design some new shorts to utilize the yum that is this yarn. i am not discouraged. i am reading a heartbreaking work of staggering genius by dave eggers and it is very good. i figured i better put my brain to some kind of use beyond crushing on sandals and dinnerware and organizing solutions that stare up at me from the glossy glossy pages of my usual reading material. oh poor erin and her post-BFA blues.

what's COOKIN, y'all!

kyrie rules. she made me the most darling apron (which i am so close to safety pinning in one or two key points and wearing as a skirt) that totally matches my red kitchen gear and sent delish-sounding recipes with respect for my vegetarian ways and has a lovely child and one on the way. thank you kyrie e-hug from west NY you are a love.

it's been a weekend of erin getting spoiled, actually, as pointy, my much <3ed secret pal, sent me ysolda's matilda jane pattern and some fun socks and post-its and gum. she clearly has got my number. sometimes i love the internet so much. i must be off because knitter nichole and i are going to bed bath and beyond and to see a terrible movie and eat ice cream to contend with the nastyass 90some-odd degree weather. ugh! stay classy, dears.

much ado.

so this is a finished "BLOUSE", built by me, with the aid of a pattern from lovely built by wendy. the collar nearly killed me (i scorched collar #1 applying the interfacing and had to quickly cut out a new one. oops.) and the 3/8" seam allowances and narrow hems struck me as wonky but i survived it. next time i think i will use something with better drape than calico (damned floof sleeves have no floof), but keepsake was a dollar off per yard and i was hesitant to ruin something more precious. i don't hate it. ta-da.

meanwhile i haven't hardly knit a a stitch in ages and i still haven't figured out what the serger's problem is. you fix it.

i feel like i went to lauren's wedding dressed as 1967. im glad you can't see the zipper cos that is the ugly part. i'm not good at zippers. i'm also not good at eating marshemellows from the chocolate fountain cos i got chocolate all over the front of my WHOLE BODY. also please note that i have been using vaseline healthy glow lotion for a week to catch my legs up to my arms and my husband keeps giving me grief about being orange and yet notice how white my legs continue to be. SIGH!

sew or die, too.

sew or die, or, at the very least, have nothing to wear to lauren's wedding on saturday.

no chicks with sticks for erin for TWO WEEKS! i have to close! i respectfully request that you girls change your meeting spot to the main home dec counter at joann store 1943 so i can still take part in the debauchery and do my job simultaneously.

life is funny.

i forgot to post these, but they are long since done. and when i put them on, i could feel every stitch with the soles of my feet. which had me slightly worried about my current project. if the socks are hurty on my feet, what happens when you sit on a knit? i am not posting anything here just yet, for a number of reasons: i like secrets, for one, and for another, um it borders on NSFW. or maybe i am just a prude. but yeah. my submission for SnBIII has been mailed. and now we x our fingers and wait for the illustrious debbie stoller to decide said item's fate.

the new sewing machine is incredible. truly. i am so happy to have one. and in other news, my picture book from this spring is almost done, and if you want to give me your money, i want to give you my book.

i'll try to post on a more regular basis, but it's hard when you have to leave your house to blog, either to brave coffee shop snobbery or the wackjobs at the public library!

optimistic.

the best you can is good enough.

lovely.

i've convinced myself i enjoy untangling knots. and sometimes it can be satisfying. but this afternoon after unsnarling three raging knots of epic proportions, i began to think "what did i ever do to cascade and why do they enjoy me suffering?". i wanna know whose stupid idea it was to sell yarn put up in anything but a center-pull ball. seriously. this is a picture of my works-in-progress "basket". i would love to replace this stupid tupperware moonstrosity with a lovely basket but i live with two hell-raiser cats who would steal and proceed to shred anything fiberous they could get their paws on.

BUT DON'T DISPAIR OVER AESTHETICALLY UNPLEASING STORAGE SOLUTIONS BECAUSE

POINTY, THE BEST SECRETPAL EVER IS HERE TO SAVE THE DAY. do you SEE that CUPCAKE BOOK? most important volume ever published. if i made a batch of cupcakes once a week (which i won't cos i don't think all the yoga videos in the world could counteract that) it would take me roughly ten years to use every recipe in that book. TEN YEARS OF CUPCAKES!!! not to mention the lovely candy and tea and cute flipflops. thank you, pointy, you rule. when i opened the box, you can ask my husband even, i was all I LOVE MY SECRET PAL I HAVE THE BEST SECRET PAL EVER! no joke. hearts, pointy <33333.

oh and speaking of swap fever, which apparently i have, i have also joined up with what's cookin?, an adorable apron and recipe swap organized by the lovely sarah and mary. i'm excited, and they don't mind that i am a veggie! so here is my meme : )

1. first apron (that you can remember): green and floral print waist apron of my mom's with flowers for pockets. much cuter than her dumb full length "kiss the cook" type of corny one.

2. last (most recent) apron: a borrowed quasi spanish-looking waist apron of alisia's with a chicken on it, with a heart that ends up right over the wearer's uterus haha.

3. dream/favorite apron: the knitted one i made for my BFA show (it's on my flickr)

4. dream sewing machine: OH I AM GETTING IT. it's my graduation present from my dear parents. they wrote me a check and said um you can go shopping for it weeee don't know what you want. husquevarna viking emerald 118, baby, at 15% off. my other dream is that someone figures out why my serger gave up on me and refuses to serge.

5. what do you put in your pockets? or what strange thing have you ever found in them?: candy wrappers. hubby always tells me my pocket is not a trash can. but it kind of is.

6. condiment(s) you can't live without: cheap crappy yellow mustard.

7. do you wear more showy aprons or dutiful ones?: i dig the fancy.

8. favorite cooking gadget: i am crazy for my french press. it makes coffee so good i don't put sugar in it (!)

9. cooking gagdet that promised the world but didn't deliver: damn silicone pot grabber thing that totally transmits heat like a mofo YOU LET ME DOWN.

10. a recipe that you know by heart and any stories behind it: my friend tristan gave me his copy of the moosewood cookbook and i love it to death. i can pretty much make the swiss and mushroom quiche with my eyes closed. tristan soon after renounced flesh and returned to the vegetarian life, bless his little heart. maybe i would feel bad about being in possession of one of the best veg cookbooks ever if it weren't for the party where lisa and t made bacon and i ended up being the one to scrub out the pan full of ANIMAL FAT the next morning. (t you know i heart you yr my effer fo life.)

i talk way too much. big love. see you chicks_with_sticks tonight. xo.

p.r.d.c.t.

does anybody know if panicking counts as cardio? if your heart is racing does that count as excercise?

sometimes i hate the bus.

anyways. i got rowdy at LUX last night with my beloved chicks with sticks. i talk too much for sure and gin doesn't help. but the graduation day sock is done and i knit about one and a half rounds on sock no.2. no secondsocksyndrome here, y'all.

i'm crossing my fingers my bike's not been stolen and then i'm heading for home with the new knit.1. i passed on interweave knits today - i'm sure i'll end up succumbing to the urge to clutter the tiny apartment with more magazines but i almost never knit anything in it. silly erin. have a great weekend, loves. xo.

HOOTY HOO.

YES, FRIENDS, I DID IT. I GRADUATED. WHILE WEARING HUGE SUNGLASSES AND KNITTING A SOCK. DAMN RIGHT.

the yarn is some regia i got in skanneatles and at this point i have about two more inches to go before i start decreasing for the toe.

in other news, i now work at joann fabrics in southtown by marketplace mall. tomorrow is my first real day. it's fun and i have a button-shaped nametag that says ERIN on it. FIFTEEN PERCENT EMPLOYEE DISCOUNT, Y'ALL.

other than that, secret pal 8 is upon us and i am looking forward to it. and i started doing my nerdy powerwalk/yoga video routine again yesterday and my shoulders are begging for mercy. grey's anatomy last night made me cry. tonight i am going to bake my love a quiche and make him some rice pudding out of leftover chinese take out white rice. good stuff. xox.

nautie nautie & survey says

hello meet nautie. nautie was a gift for my friend patrick the math major. we were in the most ridiculous contemporary art and criticism class together and nautie basically is the missing link in complicated inside joke. so i knit this for patrick. he laughed really hard when i gifted it to him. nautie is made out of some truly awful red heart on inox US4 dpns. love him.

also, i'm really excited about SECRETPAL8 because it combines my two favorite things which are getting mail and making presents for people. survey is go.

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?

i love brown sheep co. i love noro. i love cotton. here comes the snobby part: i'm pretty anti-fun fur and the last thing i need is more acrylic.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?

um a coffee can. ain't no good.

3. How long have you been knitting? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?

eleven years. which is half my life. i'm a hardcore intermediate.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?

no but that's a good idea. if i make one, secret friend, i will let you know.

5. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products etc.)

i wear chance by chanel. i like things that smell like candy except cotton candy.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?

um hell yes i have a sweet tooth. dark chocolate is my biggest weakness. i also like necco wafers and those goelitz champagne sparkle thingies.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?

i have never spun but i want a drop spindle. i sew and embroider and crochet. i'm also obsessed with gouache.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)

my favorite bands are sonic youth, the yeah yeah yeahs and the dandy warhols. i like noisy music. mp3s are go.

9. What's your favorite color? Or--do you have a color family/season/palette you prefer? Any colors you just can't stand?

my favorite color is pink. second is green (especially lime and apple/kelly/japanese - no forest or hunter, yucky). i love gaudy shiny gold too. i guess i never wear orange.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?

me and my darling cowboy husband live in a teensy weensy apartment with two kitty cats named norton and trixie after the neighbors on the honeymooners.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?

frequently / rarely / yes / no no no.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?

i love clever construction and a good challenge.

13. What are you knitting right now?

um i'm two rounds into a sock.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?

yes'm.

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?

i'm really sick of aluminum straights. i am digging on bamboo and hardwood.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?

no i don't.

17. How did you learn to knit?

my mom taught me when i was in sixth grade. i figured out about a month ago i have been purling "the lazy way" for years. i don't know how that happened.

18. How old is your oldest UFO?

a year. it's a black sweater with a big white skull on it. i designed it myself and it's got about 99 problems.

19. What is your favorite holiday?

valentines day because it's pink.

20. Is there anything that you collect?

vintage needlework paraphernalia (magazines and pamphlets and patterns and buttons and accountrements). i also have an unhealthy obsession with cake. especially cupcakes. if we ever buy a house i want to collect cake stands.

21. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?

i want mason-dixon knitting. i can't find filtes/king van dyck anywhere either. the only magazine i subscribe to is living.

22. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?

magic loop and needlefelting.

23. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?

yes. i wear a size seven shoe. um my foot is about 9 inches long i just measured it. it was weird.

24. When is your birthday? (mm/dd)

december first nineteen eighty-three.

THUS CONCLUDES THE LONGEST POST EVER. chicks_with_sticks, my loves, see you tonight at spot.

happy cinco de mayo, y'all.

this happy little cuppycake was a giftie for dear kim, a chick_with_sticks, who celebrated her birthday yesterday. YAY KIM HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU. i heart my knitters.

nautie's almost done. i'm thinkin about pompon socks for my next project.

thanks to rachel fr directing me here :knitta please. i love it i love it i love it it's brilliant, we need to start a crew!!!!

turn into.

oh hello i'd like to introduce you to the cutest thing EVER. i basically died from embarassment and happiness. jane loved the apron and this picture is of said apron hanging on the wall in her room. i don't think it's normal to post pictures of kids that are not yours on the internet so you can't see the picture of her wearing it. monday was a big day, cos i got to hear about the apron's reception and because sara loved her hat and pretty much my heart exploded. and now i must figure out how to make a lucrative career out of making people presents.

presents.

i went to the drawing studio and stole a creepy dummy to be my model for the following two FOs.




this is the apron i was talking about a few posts back. it's for the 9-year-old daughter of the sculpture professor in my department. you can see the original apron in my flickr, in the problem with no name album. it has a crocheted scallop halter, smocked bodice, pink floral calico skirt, a little pocket with her name on it, a touch of embroidery, a satin ribbon roses, and grosgrain ties. hopefully it will fit jane better than it fits this dumb mannequin. i put it in her mom's mailbox in the office and i'm kinda embarassed but i hope she likes it and she's not afraid to wear it.

this is the completed gingham checkered hat for sara. it's kinda square (i did some math, it told me to only make 4 dbl dec points as opposed to my usual star-shaped five). i like to think of it as a quirky design detail. lisa and tristan said it looks like a bishop's hat. i hate my friends.

clearly i did not knit this, but i wanted to share. this is a gift for my friend lauren's bridal shower. it's the good thing plate clock from i think the april issue of ms living. lo and her future-huzz just bought a house, with a yellow and brown kitchen. so i found this plate at the antique store (TRES APPROPROS, it's a cake plate). it's autumn leaves and i was scared to death to drill the hole in it but it actually went fine. the clock hands are ripped off a cheap walmart clock (why pay 6 dollars for a clock kit when you can smash one and rip it's face off for 3.75?) and then i spraypainted them brown. ta da, lovely customized crafty shower gift for a dear friend (for under 20 dollars). thank you martha and associates you saved me from the gift registry!!

hello, capelet.

pattern: from family circle easy knitting magazine, by alicia paulson.
yarn: reynolds cabana, 2 balls
start to finish: april 13 - 22 i think but i forget.

can i just say that the photo in the magazine does not do this lovely item justice? why does it look a weird pale dishywater green in the photo when in fact, it's a soft grey? silly magazine. anyways. i used grosgrain rather than satin ribbon cos i am just a grosgrain kind of girl, and a lil dab of elmer's keep the fishtails from fraying. i needed a size K crochet hook and i SPLURGED and treated myself to a delicious brittany crochet hook. god bless boye's $1.99 aluminum hooks you do the lord's work but the brittany hook is LIKE BUTTA. it took the slightest bit of getting used to but it feels super-nice in your hand. well worth the extra five dollars to avoid the weird aluminum hand strain feeling. heart you, brittany hook.

pink and orange hat is done. ballet shoes need to be felted again. i give up on hand-felting. i need to go work on my tracey emin paper. i am scared to death of graduating and i don't really want to talk about it. xo.

there were five in the bed and the little one said, "yarn over, yarn over"....

HELLO PLEASE WELCOME THE CAKE WITH LEGS.

yes. it is really here. the cake with legs. single crochet with my trusty G hook in assorted shades of sugar 'n cream and some walmart bullshit called peaches and cream. trixie is shown here sniffing her friend. and yes she is being supported by a US7 needle jammed through her ahhh backside and into a chunk of scrap wood i stole from the sculpture shop.


this is a hat-in-progress for one of the instructors here in my department. in some weird utopian i-am-afraid-to-take-people's-money-for-the-stuff-i-make compromise, i make people trade me stuff. i say i will make you this thing if you make me something. i made my friend a green and white checkered hat with a big dumb pompon and earflaps, and he brought me a big silly gift basket full of fruit and barbie paperdolls and a coffee mug that says "WHEN I SAID I DO I DIDN'T THINK I'D HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING" and these creepy plastic cat figurines. so anyways. i am knitting sarah this hat out of my beloved lamb's pride in orange you glad and RPM pink and she is going to make me a drawing. i am making it up as i go along but the gingham checky pattern is stolen from knitting over the edge.


this is the print i was griping about in the post about tricking the printer. i printed the graph paper grid on with an inkjet printer, the pink is a collagraph (where you take a 3-D object, ink it, and run it. so i knitted this chunk of stockinette, made fake needles out of foamcore, glued the whole thing down, gesso'ed it, ran it thru the press to flatten it, and printed the bad mother in PINNNNK. it was hard cos it had to be in reverse so secretly the yarnover is on the left needle on the purl side OMFG i was confused). the black text is screenprinted on top. the edition size is TWENTYFIVE. it's fr an exchange portfolio we're doing with UB's print kids. the theme is VISUAL VOCABULARY so this is how i took it. chart symbols. how boring. but i don't hate it. i don't hate it. lisa and tristan are insisting i call it "so they all yarned over and one fell out" cos i've been singing it all week. you know what i'm talking about! best song ever.

tomorrow: the capelet post and chicks with sticks at javas. have a lovely wednesday. i'm gonna go try to make joann fabrics at southtown realize how bad they want me.

the computers are conspiring against us, we think.

this generator has allowed me to make many ridiculous I MEAN wonderful things. it is indispensible for intarsia and every knitter should have it in their bookmarks.

but what i want to know is this: why do i have to trick the computer, and tell it my paper is secretly 12 by 17, to get it to print a bleed image on 11 by 15 paper? if i don't lie to it, it doesn't deliver. i feel guilty, but the lie is working, and the desire to throw the EPSON off the roof is passing.

the sculpture professor here has a 9 year old daughter that is apparently quite taken with the apron for viv from my show. she told me she is still talking about it. her mom casts aprons out of bronze. i feel like we all have an apron connection and i was very flattered. the admiration of children is so genuine and sincere. so i started an apron for jane. it has a smocked bodice and a calico skirt with a pocket. i am going to embroider her name on it and it will have a grosgrain ribbon sash and sugar scallops around the edges. i hope it inspires creative craftiness and adventures.

FO, y'all!

hello meet marley.



this was aggravating in all the pushing the links around the dpns but it was worth it cos i knew in the end it would be hot. my modifications were insignificant but: i used jamieson's soft shetland cos i already had it. one ball, knit on US8s over 24 sts, yielded 37 links and post-felt is about 5.5 feet long. i felted it by hand, because we have a coin-op laundry system over here and i'm frugal like that. it could probly be feltier if it had had it's ass kicked harder but i broke a sweat and decided i was done kneading my scarf. the best part about this project is that people cannot figure out how in lord's name you made it.

here, have a good day. pink frosting always helps.


p.s. the cake with legs didn't get accepted but the installation did. the world doesn't appear to be ready for cake with legs but at least i am going to dominate the student show.

p.s.&. i am missing the annie modesitt book signing RIGHT NOW because buses are lame and also i have the worst headache of my life and this is literally the fourth time i have tried to post this stupid post. oh my god.

penny lane.

today there is gonna be a showdown between me and the belt sander. oh dang. and if adobe illustrator isn't careful it might be in for it too. i am serious.

i am head over heels mad for any and all things posy. these aprons are killing me i have never seen anything so adorable in my entire life. no one takes better photos or has a sweeter blog.

my sister's boyfriend is opening a shop on monroe avenue on saturday and he's offered to sell made-by-erin stuff. but i haven't had enough time to make anything!! how awful!! the other thing is that he is all about the teva durham ballet t-shirt i knit for my sister for her birthday and no one else seems to understand copyright law and how exceedingly illegal it would be for me to knit that shirt and then sell it!!! i would never do that to teva she is my favorite knitwear designer if i wrote her a letter it would be embarassingly gushy. so hopefully i can get something together soon for him so there will be stuff for the ladies at g inc.

real gold?

blogger just ate my post.

i think this is the first time in the past year at school where i have been making more STUFF than knitting. i have two prints underway and a book going, and the cake with legs is in finishing touches phase, and i haven't been knitting hardly at all. i ripped out the one and a half inches i had knitted around my ipod headphones cord cos it has that dumb gappyladder thing. the earmuffs still annoy me. it's been too nice to knit earmuffs. marley is done and felted and lovely. i am designing a sweater that looks like a teacup in my head. i have fallen in love with FRIDA. i never saw it before and it makes me want to surround myself with deep deep yummy red. mexican culture has color. color is missing from american life, i kind of think.

so i made FUNFETTI cupcakes. ta da yay for color!



this bad mother is gettin entered in the student show. i am gonna hog the whole room. woo!

happy st. patricks day!

spring break 06 has not exactly made history but here are the highlights:

1. riding all over creation in the back of a minivan while sitting on a brand new bag of kitty litter.
2. doing hours of painful and boring research on a crappy PC in the SUNY student resource center (read: basement) of the rochester public library.
3. drawing and inking the most ridiculous picture book ever (stay tuned).
4. greezy brunch at my favorite diner with three of my favorite friends.
5. four boring, COLD hours of gallery sitting at the local alternative gallery space.
6. chicks with sticks woo.
7. martha martha martha martha.
8. going to the yarn store and NOT BUYING ANYTHING... only to go back two days later and spend a very very small wad. i have willpower. yeah. and a ballof rowan lurex shimmer and a giant ball of yellow merino batting.

in k'ing news; my baby socks got holes in the heelcup (read: i f'ed up), i hate the froot loops scarf, my thrummed earmuffs are grossing me out with their suckiness, and my marley is getting really long!

and go.

the real question is: caps or no caps? um. probly gonna have to go with no caps. so you can tell when i am Being A Smart-Ass.