mmm.... coffee.....

i'm sorry sir, i flunked flank.

quick, real quick, i wanted to let you know that i have knit an entire piece of my little brown Rosa sweater!  here is the obligatory shot of the knitted piece accompanied by the pattern book.  oh i am so excited, it looks to be about the right size, it feels lovely, and, from what i've read, elsebeth lavold's silkywool doesn't change size in some wacky way when you block it.  i'm knitting fairly fast, but i've had too many other things to do between sales & roommate-hunting.  i'm currently watching the fourth season of Six Feet Under & hope to cast on for the front piece tonight!

alabama's gotten me so upsettennessee made me lose my rest

when exactly did this become a knitting blog?  someone should've sent a memo.  also, don't i keep whining about not getting anything done?  well, i've really screwed myself now: we had a crafty field trip to visit tara of plain mabel & go to Webs in Northampton this weekend.  sigh.  it was beautiful.  it was huge.  it was well-lit.  there were multiple rooms & friendly staff.  there were even a few guys shopping.  although i had a productive day in my studio yesterday, cleaning, sorting, cutting & sewing some vinyl, there has also been several inches of progress on MY FIRST SWEATER.  sure, it might be done just in time for the summer, but more likely it will be done in time for the fall:

that would be Elsebeth Lavold's silky wool in the color chocolate being knit into Rosa by Louisa Harding.  it doesn't even remotely resemble the yarn i'm supposed to use, but it's got the same gauge & i think it will drape well & it cost about $40.  it shouldn't surprise you, i'm not good at doing these things the simple way!  ( i did knit lace for my first sock)  here are some more photos to entice you to take the pilgrimage to webs in case the close-up of noro kureyon wasn't enough:

answer: total eclipse on middle earth

an olympic gold for little me & my sock!  i am wearing it & di's sock today (over a pair of black knee-highs because that's what we gotta do in new england!)  i intended on posting more photos from my trip to nyc, but i was spontaneously struck down with a hideous sick on tuesday & have only just begun to think clearly again - well, that is until i took some actifed to try to clear my ears out this morning!  i had a sinus headache, swollen glands, runny nose, congested ears, dry pathetic cough, some fever, mostly chills & the occasional sharp shooting pain in my ear canal.  nothing has been accomplished for days.  except for much watching of an invader zim dvd, far too much HGtv & what appeared to be the same episode of the daily show 4 times a day for 2 straight days.  i also managed to cause some trouble on the internet via the sad laptop which really ought to have been taken away from me.  that myspace, man, it's a time-sucker, between that & live journal & sleeping & the delerium...


ah, now that clears the mind.  no, it's not ikea furniture, dare i say it's better than ikea furniture!  this is spread out across the floor of the conservation lab right now & by the end of the day it will be a glorious locking taboret cabinet drawer masterpiece.  the directions are crap, but luckily i have years of experience putting together mine & everyone else's ikea furniture.  turn up that music, i've got work to do!

when you had little voice or none

the olympic sock went to NYC for a long weekend so i was unable to post about it until now!  the sock visited the dream coffee machine, played nintendo til 4am, slept late, saw some of the city, did a little shopping & hung out with my sister & jo.  it was finshed just in time, despite gross amounts of unknitting (which i am now quite skilled at) and it even fits.  perhaps a lace sock pattern was not the wisest choice of a first sock, but i think i would have otherwise been rather bored.  i knit a bit at lunch times last week, so i took a few in-progress photos of the sock at work with me:

i was making a giant box for an artist's book that is shaped like a fan & in the upper corner you can see the sadly broken porcelain ring that used to close it up.  i also started another sock while in NYC, a toe-up version of grumperina's jaywalker, my neighbor on the bus was quite entertained & watched me knit for an uncomfortably long time:

some things have been stressing me out lately & it was really great to go away for several days & see my sister on her little vacation.  there was, as always, good food & great company.  we talk of moving other places, but it will be sad one day when we're farther apart because i have so enjoyed getting closer to her.

quails:1 america:0

it finally snowed!  we got a huge blizzard this weekend & i loved it.  despite being a little sore from all the shovelling (my landlord is conveniently away in Florida) it was great fun being "trapped" inside, forced to work on my olympic knitting.  (seen posing with the sock knit by clementine's shoes)  it's turning out to not be much of a challenge after all, i may have to adjust my plan to seeing how many socks i can knit before the closing ceremony!  there was quite a bit of unknitting here & there, i started it then had to frog because i finally decided to knit the elfine's sock.  the sock has progressed over the ankle & has been nearly finished since that photo, but it's hard to take good shots at 2am.  here are some knitting & snow photos in no particular order:



as you can see i was fueled by olives for a good part of the knitting.  it's a childish thing, i know, but when i was young my mother wouldn't let me eat too many olives.  "you'll make yourself sick," she said.  when i moved into my first apt & went grocery shopping i bought a jar of olives & yes, made myself sick eating them.  they're just that good.  you can also see the poor little craptop in all it's blueberryness - i finally found & deleted all the "laugh" sound files on it so it no longer giggles at me.  there's my new roommate, rachel, who being from texas is not quite a fan of the snow.  i was also fueled by those new strawberry yogurt burst cheerios, buy some, they're awesome.  allright, that's all you get, pictures of kool-aid dyed yarn saved for later - i need to go trek through the snow to buy some more sock yarn!

christine, come crash on my floor

i was cleaning my studio this weekend & came across a little pile of izone polaroids & a box with my sketchbooks, all from college.  especially while going through my sketchbook from 2nd semester freshman year, i was struck by how often we miss connections with each other.  there were once friendships & relationships with people that are now forgotten.  i'm not feeling sorry for myself, i know it is often me who doesn't keep in contact.  i also know that i conciously chose to cut people out of my life 2 years ago as i tried to understand my anxiety.  and i know that many of them didn't understand & still don't, that's why they're gone.  i'm sorry for that because i do like people, i like having friends.  despite that, i can't possibly imagine what i could have done to deserve the following.  someone actually hates me enough to fake being the art director of ReadyMade magazine, email me that they saw me at the Bizarre Bazaar Boston and ask to profile me in a new section.  i thought it was fishy because of the address, but i responded briefly to see what would happen.  this is what i got back:

---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: "Maili Holiman"

Date:  Wed, 08 Feb 2006 07:18:11 -0800

Dear Erica, The author of this letter is truly, truly sorry.
It's something that sould have never been done, and I'm sure karma will come back.
This email is the product of someone you hurt and someone who is bitter.
This was intended to hurt you, and done in a moment of weakness.
It was stupid, and crazy.
As wrong as it was to do this I still wanted you to know that as sensitive as you are sometimes you don't think of other peoples feelings .
Please except my apologie, and be grateful that you are not like myself the type of person to come up with such a desperate act of bitterness.
You do lovely work and the author of this letter is going to work on letting things go.
I really couldn't feel worse about what I did to you.
So sorry,sorry,sorry,sorry,sorry,sorry,sorry.
I will do 7 acts of penance!

so, whoever you are, yes, you have hurt me.  in a completely strange & pointless way that changes nothing.  do you feel better?  i doubt it.

well, back in the real world where pink bunnies like to nest in allison's yarn: i have officially joined the knitting olympics!  (thank you, yarn harlot!)  i have decided to knit my first sock with this gorgeous ArtYarn's merino sock yarn.  just one sock, i have been itching to knit a partner to the gorgeous sock knit by the talented Di at Clementine's Shoes.  have i ever shown it to you?  i wear the poor lonely thing all the time, but am very careful on my hardwood floors.  i don't have a photos of it right now, instead please admire my practice sock (seen watching the weather channel) upon which i learned how to turkish cast on:

cause missdemeanor said so

since you asked: i mostly figured out the kool-aid dying from this article on knitty.  she even made a sample set with labels so you get an idea how things will turn out!  luckily i haven't been able to get to the grocery store lately otherwise i'd have an excuse to buy some white yarn...  the amazing & evil dharia of skeintily clad dangerously offered to let me visit & use some of her undyed yarn & dyes...  evil!  wasn't i just talking about having to start making vinyl things again?  must. stay. away. from. the. fiber.

i sheltered you with leaves & flowers

i made this last night for no reason.  it's just a tiny bunny sewn out of felt.  all pink & cute as a ... bunny.
  well, alright, not for no reason, it comes from a lot things: like my idea for making holiday gifts for the craft group, but then we decided to just get teresa presents, and from the cat toy i just made, it reminded me i like to work with the wool felt, also relating to the jabberwocky creatures (shh, don't say that too loud or people will start emailing me again!) i wanted to make a strange creature out of felt, a weird creepy thing, but somehow i just ended up making a cute pink bunny.  sigh.

that is my attempt to photograph the (i think) super cool machine-quilting i did on the large solid space on the bottom of the orange & green quilt.  i drew it out by hand with an evaporating marker, straightened the lines with a ruler, then just sewed it on my little pfaff.  what?  not my necci?  no, the pfaff has a larger surface arm thing to it which makes machine-quilting so much easier.  and it's still wicked hard, i need a friend with one of those long-arm quilters...  i also need some undyed yarn & many packets of kool aid:

i dyed this yarn (recycled from an old wool sweater of my mom's) many many months ago.  abby had left behind some packets of kool-aid so i thought i'd give it a try & i've been dieing to do it again!  (oh yes, pun entirely intended)  the yarn came out really sweet, turns out it knits up quite pretty, too.  yeah, i know, i said i wasn't going to knit any more, but did you see the yarn harlot started a knitting olympics?  can't i just knit one sock?  please?  of course that means i'd have to buy some sock yarn...

all my memories are in clipart

i made this little cat toy last night for Sputnik, jonathan & ana's new kitty.  i was playing with him friday night, sputnik is one of those awesome cats that you can get to jump really high & twist around when playing with string.  they call it the zombie string because it won't die so i made a zombie head on a string & filled it with catnip.  the face i embroidered is from a painting by jonathan.  i know some of you crafty ladies make things with other people's drawings & i wondered why, i like to draw myself, but it was fun taking someone else's work & making a new creation out of it.  i asked jon if i could make more things with his drawings & he said yeah, he'd draw some more for me!

both quilts are almost done, but i hesitated because i wasn't ready for them to be finished, it was happening too fast.  besides, when the green one is done i have to give it to the person who requested it!  i was thinking about doing a little beading on it because i know he is going to hang it on a wall instead of using it...  i'm not sure, i did buy some green beads though...  instead i knit myself a hat this weekend.  i really wanted to make marnie's nautilus hat even though it bothered my wrist to work with the double-pointed needles.  here is a series of photos of the hat in which i try to make up for lack of quality by giving you quantity:


in the background you can see the corner of a poster for movies with live soundtracks from Fort Thunder (by the brad pitt of comics?) an IWW solidarity poster (by my friend mike) and a poster for brit-pop night at the greenroom (by uncle) can you tell i've been staying up til 3am lately?  i blame the knitting & my need to learn the turkish cast-on for socks.  i decided to catch up with some of the ladies this weekend, i had breakfast at the modern diner with kristen, watched a movie with allison & had dinner with jodie.  i also went out saturday night to AS220 with jonathan & JP!  happily i got to see bob & ginny and talked with JP for a while (that's a misquote from him in the subject line.)  it was great.  i should do that again some time.

look, but don't look like you're looking

can you spot what my sister is wearing on her wrist?
the first blanket of snow arrived in providence thanksgiving morning.  i crept out onto my front porch & listened to the amazing sound of snowflakes falling through the leaves still on trees.  my little street was all asleep, but then one by one neighbors came out & greeted each other with a happy thanksgiving.
last week was good, my parents drove up to providence for the week & we drove down to my sister & jo's for the night.  jo cooked up a delicious meal with little birds & we had a nice time all being together.  on friday we walked around the city a little bit, i managed to spot the amazing Yarn Co. where my sis bought me a little skein of brown & pink wool yarn.  we met up with jo at Galleria illy for delicious coffee (i can't believe i forgot to bring my camera!) and on to a delicious dinner at the restaurant Lupa where i ate a bite of tripe.  i'm pretty sure i know what it is, but please don't confirm my suspicions!  after a rowdy game of spit with lee we zipped back to little ol' rhode island. then there was a morning of yarn drooling & quilt planning with my mother... 
 
i didn't get much work done & i'm now very overwhelmed by upcoming deadlines.  there are many things i want to make & people i want to send things to!  thank you so much for the enthusiastic response to all my new work, vinyl & quilted.  you won't hear much from me in the coming weeks because i will be attached to my sewing machine & rotary cutter, but look out for my stuff at places like PlainMabel, Boston Bazaar Bizarre & Craftland...