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.