Drago[knit]fly

  I’m generally not one to reknit patterns, reread books or rewatch movies. That said, once in awhile I come across one of the aforementioned that warrants repeating. And repeating. And repeating. I can’t get enough. It’s the reason I’ve watched National Lampoons Christmas Vacation 400 times, memorized most episodes of Sex and the City and Seinfeld and it’s the reason there is always at least one Elizabeth Zimmermann’s baby sweater on the needles. Mostly the Baby Surprise Jacket (the surprise gets me every time. Seriously, how does that strange stretch of fabric become a sweater?!), but also the February Baby (or Lady!) Sweater .  There’s just something about that gull stitch pattern that makes this sweater fly off the needles. There’s enough to it to keep my interest, but it’s not so taxing I can’t multitask or memorize the pattern. And the garter stitch yoke / lace body combination makes the sweater appropriate for any season, isn’t too girly, and has that little extr...

(disclaimer: this will most likely 99% for sure be the last post about whole30) So, I’m beyond day 30 of my whole30, but I hesitate to say my Whole30 is complete. I’m not 100% compliant these days, though I find I’m generally keeping up with the good habits I picked up (dare I say, earned?) during a month of clean eating. A quick run down of what I learned about myself and about the diet.      finished! 1. Does that girl have a home?  I eat both breakfast and lunch at my desk five days a week. I don’t know why this was a shock to me as I’m me and I know what events take place during my day. It doesn’t take a whole lot of self-awareness to pick up on where I eat meals. Yet, it took me taking pics of all my meals to realize that they’re always against a backdrop of my fake wood desk. Sad. eggs in a thermos. breakfast of champions.  surprise! eating at my desk again.  2. Become one with your body.  You’ll get so in tune with your ...

Remember WIP shares? Maybe they’re still happening somewhere, but for years my blog feed has been taken over by FOs – beautiful, carefully photographed ones—but still, no works in progress. In any case, let’s pretend it’s 2006 again! So, grab your flip phone and let's go... There’s no dirty mirror selfie with the ubiquitous giant flash, but it’s a crappy WIP shot nonetheless For my niece’s 2 nd birthday, my sister requested a knit sweater to replace the couple of baby sweaters she’s outgrown. I warned her I was a little backlogged, which she totally understood. Not sure she realized it would be ohh… six plus months before a sweater would appear, but better late than never, right?   Did I mention this was back in July? In our house, there’s a lot of love for the somehow unblogged Ella Funt I made for Greta back when I was pregnant and was in constant wardrobe rotation until she was at least three.   Maybe four. I wasn’t messing around when I said ther...

So, I know this is a blog about crafting and knitting and such, but since I never really ever post anymore I’m not really sure anyone will notice if I shift gears for a moment to talk dietary things.   On Monday, Krug and I will be embarking into the new territory known as Whole30.   I know we’re all behind the times on this whole paleo thing, but our friends are coming off an epic experience with it, Krug’s not been feeling great, and I’m up for a challenge so we thought swearing off all our favorite foods (and booze!   You can’t see, but tears are rolling down my cheeks) would be a character building experience.   And would make us feel super human and unstoppable.   And maybe I’ll lose like twenty pounds even.   And look younger. So, you can tell my expectati ons are at an appropriate level. Now that we’ve covered all the positives, let’s talk about my fears. Coffee with milk. So, you should know about me that motivation for coffee i...

Do you ever find that when you look in your closet, it’s just rows of the same stuff?  In my closet, I probably have twenty dresses, fifteen skirts, but only four pairs of pants. Only two of which actually get worn, but that’s beside the point.  Despite this obvious pants deficit, every time I go shopping I find myself with an armful of dresses when I head to the dressing room.   The same phenomenon applies to my crafting.  I have a pile of scarves, yet my hands are perpetually freezing because I only have one pair of gloves.  Still, I keep knitting scarves.  I have yet to determine if it’s certain types of patterns I’m drawn to or if it’s the end product itself. Fabric:  Lotta Jandsotter, Bella Poppy  I suspect the real common denominator is the flash-factor.  Even if patterned or neon, pants just seem infinitely more utilitarian than a flouncy dress.  Am I right or am I right? Despite my love of the fun and fancy, someti...

According to Flickr , I bought fabric for this quilt back in July 2010.  The intention was always for a quilt for Alice’s big girl bed…. Which she moved into in ( again, according to Flickr ) in October 2010.   Let me break this down.   I thought I could sew a queen sized quilt in 3 months.  During my final weeks of pregnancy through G’s first month.   Reality: >3 years.  I really might be delusional.  This delusion coming from the same place that told me I could knit the sweater from this post in AN AFTERNOON.  I guess there are worse things than raising the bar too high for yourself, but still! With this project complete and now warming my favorite 5-year-old’s bed and not shoved half-finished and in pieces in a closet, I’ve realized some things.  One such discovery is that even though overwhelming to have a large-scale (for me) project in progress, I feel a little lost without a giant anchor project to give...