Friday, November 17, 2006
HELLLLOOOOOOO!
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.
Monday, November 06, 2006
Thursday, November 02, 2006
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.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Thursday, October 19, 2006
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.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
IF A GIRL WANTS TO DANCE.
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.
Friday, October 06, 2006
speak slow.

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.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
tame.
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.
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
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.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
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.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
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.
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
5 things about me, followed by some other stuff.
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.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006

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.
Friday, July 21, 2006
insane demands
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.
Monday, July 17, 2006
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.
Monday, July 03, 2006
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.
Wednesday, June 28, 2006

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!
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
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.
Thursday, June 15, 2006
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!


