with my bare hands

A Little Wisdom

2012-02-08T11:03:00.001-05:00

I'm getting antsy for spring, so I've been thinking a lot about when I should start my plants this year. I'm not one who believes in the Zodiac. Let's get that squared away first and foremost... ...But some things make me wonder... not deity-wise, but Earth-wise. For example, successfully planting a crop by the signs. It seems like an archaic practice, but some folks swear by it. I believe

Vintage Pattern: Booties in an Evening

2012-02-06T11:56:00.001-05:00

Babies babies babies! I have cousins having babies all over the planet! Thank goodness I have a stack of baby patterns from my grandmother. I've been trying to knit through the stack of patterns whenever I see a pattern that has no image. I'm always curious to see how things come out, and if they're pretty. I found this tiny little pattern cut out from a magazine claiming the pattern

Vintage Children's Pattern: Little Girl Blue

2012-02-02T09:49:00.000-05:00

My grandmother actually knit this for me when I was a baby, but I'll be damned if I can find the pictures! I loved the sweater, but I don't recall the hat. Mom, if you're reading this and you've got some pictures, share! In the meantime, enjoy knitting this beautiful set for your little one(s)! Page 1 Page 2 My grandmother had some notes on the pattern - please don't mind them!

Woven Rugs for the Home

2012-01-31T09:01:00.000-05:00

Have you ever heard of the Big E? It's the big fair here in New England! Each state even has its own state building on the fairgrounds, and when you go into each state building, you're actually in that state! I've been waiting a while to post about these woven rugs I got in the New Hampshire building, but they've stood the test of time and I think it's fair that I tell you about them, too. In

Vintage Children's Pattern: Overtop

2012-01-30T09:38:00.000-05:00

This is the first pattern from the stack of my grandmother's vintage patterns. This one isn't too "vintage" compared to a lot of the ones I have, but I thought it was adorable! I'm not sure which magazine this came from, but I hope someone out there can knit this up! The instructions are underneath the diamond quilting stitch image. If anyone out there ends up making this, I'd love to see the

Inheritance

2012-01-28T16:08:00.000-05:00

My grandmother was a great knitter. She stopped knitting when I was young, but she kept almost everything... including a six inch high stack of patterns, some dating back to 1947. I knew she had some yarn in the house, but I figured there wasn't too much left. Well, looks like my grandmother got the itch like the rest of us and literally stashed three canvas tote bags away in her garage. My

Hiatus

2012-01-24T11:45:00.003-05:00

Hi y'all. I've been absent, but there's a reason. My maternal grandmother passed this past Friday, on my 30th birthday. Her passing followed Chris's paternal grandfather passing just 2 weeks prior. The beginning of our year has been tough. I'm just fine, but I'm trying my best to fill in as support for my mother. All but one of her three brothers have passed, and the one remaining isn't very

Stop American Censorship!

2012-01-18T00:46:00.002-05:00

Just a very quick post to show solidarity with today's internet blackout. Read about it here.

Little House Cornbread

2012-01-13T09:05:00.000-05:00

I was shopping on Amazon for Christmas presents a couple of weeks ago and I stumbled upon The Prairie Girl's Guide to Life by Jennifer Worick. After reading the reviews some folks left, I was compelled to buy a used copy for a few bucks. Apparently, there are techniques and skills involved in this book that some consider "American treasures" of folk culture. That sold me. I've since read most of

Rainy Day Craft

2012-01-12T10:36:00.000-05:00

It was said that we were supposed to get a nor'easter last night into today and tonight. That nor'easter turned out to be just a plain old rainy day, which I won't complain about! Some snow before March would be nice, but I don't want to have to worry about 11 feet of snow above my mailbox this year. So I've turned on some Ella Fitzgerald, lit a candle or two, and am trying to enjoy a morning

Ravelry Round-Up

2012-01-11T09:33:00.000-05:00

It's been a while, and I've got a bunch of things queued up in my favorites! First up: The Lacy Hooded Scarf by Caroline Doe Designs photo © Caroline Doe Doesn't this just scream old world to you? Maybe that's a drawback to some of you, but when you're on the town in a white out in a New England winter, you appreciate some of the practicality that the old world can offer. And with

$5 Chicken Stretch

2012-01-10T18:53:00.000-05:00

I know a lot of us out there are trying to cut back, budgetary-wise. I'm always looking for a good way to stretch a buck, but this $5 rotisserie chicken business is amazing. We have a Costco membership ($50 a year), and Costco has some really delicious rotisserie chickens. People actually stand around and wait for them to come off the spit. But I'm sure some of you have similar rotisserie

A Lesson in Self-Sufficiency, Backwoods Style

2012-01-09T09:03:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine recently told me about the Foxfire books. He knows me so well! I read the description of the first book in the series and I figured it was definitely something I was interested in. I immediately queued it up on my library's reserve list and patiently waited for it to become available for me to pick up. I've hardly been able to put it down since. The book is written in such a

Name change!

2012-01-06T15:30:00.002-05:00

I finally made it down to social security and the RMV to change my name before the end of 2011. We've been married since June, but I was very nervous about having to take a day off from work just to go to the social security office and wait all day. There never seemed to be a good time for me to go, work is always so hectic. Anyways, with the new year and my new name, I decided it was time to

Shoulder Bag Project

2012-01-06T09:16:00.000-05:00

After doing a lot of talking about wanting to get into sewing, I decided it was time to shut up and produce. I went in search of something I would enjoy making and find practicality in. I settled on the simple shoulder bag tutorial. I'll be honest: I tried the bag more than a year ago and got frustrated with it, but I realize why I gave up now: I never understood the point of pressing

The Storm

2012-01-05T11:58:00.000-05:00

This is a very late post about Snowpocalypse 2011, but there hasn't been any substantial snowfall since the storm, and I thought it was worth keeping record of. If you're a New Englander, you know why there was no Halloween this year. On October 29, there was a massive, freak snow storm that dropped a good foot on us here in western Massachusetts. Luckily, the storm hit on a Saturday afternoon

Whew!

2012-01-04T14:47:00.000-05:00

Well, it's over. And good riddance, I say! Panic knitting and homemaking is terrifying, especially when you hit a technique or supply that you neither know of nor possess. Luckily, I got everything that I wanted to get done over with! I'm a little burned out on yarn as a result, but I'm sure that's fleeting. Instead of yarn crafting, I've seriously been considering a quilt. I know, ha ha, what

Knitting Frenzy

2011-12-01T17:49:00.000-05:00

That's it. It's December 1, and I've got 25 days to knit all the gifts I have staked out on Ravelry. I finished off 2 projects this afternoon while answering phones, which is a great relief. I actually lost the buttons that I had originally bought for my Puerperium to the cats, so I just went with what I had handy, just so I could pack it up into a cute little box and prepare everything else for

Distance is a matter of perspective

2011-11-29T12:50:00.000-05:00

I haven't been around much lately, I know. Here and I thought it was a summer thing, ha ha! The Sweetie "helping" while I'm "at work." In all honesty, things have changed a little bit in my routines, which lends reason to why I've been absent...hopefully. I recently axed a 25+ minute commute one way to my office and moved everything into my home office. Thank goodness, too; road rage was

Occupy X

2011-10-12T13:39:00.000-04:00

We canceled our cable more than 2 years ago now, and we haven't looked back. We don't get CNN, Fox, MSNBC, or any of the other major 24 hour news outlets that have almost credit in our home. But we pay attention to the news. We read a lot on the internet news sites. We do our very best to get as many angles and different sources for our news. One thing we've been hearing about outside of almost

'Tis the Season for.... babies?

2011-10-06T13:58:00.000-04:00

No, Mom. Not my own. Almost everyone I know is having kids, if they don't already have any! I have three cousins overseas in France, two of which are expecting for the winter of 2011/12. I'm so happy for them, I find myself completely overwhelmed with the need to knit! Baby knits are by far the most fun to make. You can get creative, spend lots of cash, follow a pattern, or spend very little.

Considering

2011-10-04T13:15:00.001-04:00

The first sweater I ever made was the Central Park Hoodie. I have no idea how I got so ambitious to start there (I was new to cabling too), but I ended up there. I think I was too hasty in picking a very large size for this sweater. I think I may have a skewed sense of body size (don't we all?) since I always aim for one size thinking "you better fit into this if you work that hard to make it!" I

Yarn Upcycle!

2011-09-30T09:13:00.001-04:00

Sometimes, I look at the thrifty knitters group on Ravelry and wonder how these folks find their cashmere sweaters to frog for a few bucks. Until now. While in New Hampshire, I discovered a wool and angora sweater that would fit a small child, but somehow, putting this beautiful sweater on a small child seemed silly. It was like a fisherman knit angora sweater. I couldn't let it just sit there

Ravelry Favorites

2011-09-29T09:31:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since I've unloaded my Ravelry favorites here. They've certainly accrued over the past few months! Let's start with this adorable sweater: Little Birds by Ysolda Teaguephoto © Caroline Bergeron Isn't this just the cutest little sweater? And the fit looks so flattering! I love the wrap-around style and that long, double-buttoned ribbed cuff. For a fine-waisted woman, this would

Thrift store finds!

2011-09-28T09:01:00.000-04:00

While we were up in New Hampshire to visit family, we found a new Salvation Army that recently opened up. It was a large Salvation Army, which makes for a good afternoon in my life, but probably not Chris's so much. This time around, I found a vintage weekender suitcase ("Travel Joy" is the brand, it seems) that was covered in state stickers and had gotten beaten up and dirty over the years.