Blue! and black, grey, white...

A picture for Project Spectrum:
A thrifted necklace -which recently broke
A thrifted shirt bought for boyfriend -ditto
And a dress from H&M -which is still intact
Against my bedroom wall, which just so happens to be blue, too!

Look what I got!

yeah, so i'm basically just posting this to show off, but check this out! 725 metres of undyed, 2ply dk, 100% pure virgin wool, from Hamilton, New Zealand all the way to Hamilton, Ontario! From a thrift shop! For $3! Canadian! I want to dye this eventually, but I want my first experiments to be with a smaller amount of yarn, so that I won't be too upset if I mess it up. I also need to find the perfect project to knit: I have politely asked the wool what it wants to be, and have put it up to my ear and waited patiently for it's whispered reply...but nothing, yet.

I swear, sometimes it's like talking to a log.

Shameless self-promotion

Okay, I know I don't actually have enough time to actually do the things I'm supposed to do, let alone the things I want to do (ie. knit!) But I couldn't resist starting another blog today...
What a Skirt will feature posts about all things skirt-related, check it out if you are interested!
I've also added a link in the sidebar to Horizons, an exhibit for the Virtual Museum of Canada which I worked on for the Art Gallery of Hamilton. As a curatorial intern, I selected and digitized works from the gallery's collection to be included in the exhibit, and wrote the interpretive texts to go along with them. It was nominated for a Webby last year, and won a Digital Marketing award. I can't take too much credit for the actual web design, we worked with an amazing creative team at ecentricarts, but I am very proud of the finished result!

Kid's Knits

I mentioned Lesley Anne Price's Kid's Knits in my last post, and I just wanted to show you some of the adorable children's clothes that I plan to knit one day, when I have or know someone who has kids to knit for. Do you see that fair isle ensemble above? I will dress my little girl in this jaunty outfit when we go to the farmer's market on on a Saturday morning in early Fall. And her rosy cheeked little brother (who she likes to boss around a little sometimes, but he looks up to her and follows her around like a puppy) will don these lederhosen:


She'll wear this dress


for Christmas dinner. And this wrap:


when I take her to ballet class (if that's what she chooses to do)

There are so many adorable, classic children's clothes in this book, that I might just have to get started on making things now, so that by the time I actually have kids, they will get their clothes before they grow out of them!

Discarded

About twice a year, the public library holds a crazy-super-wonderful-funtime sale to raise money and make room for new aquisitions. My heart goes out to all those poor, unloved, unwanted books...I just want to take them all home and under my wing, to nurture and care for them...I'm like the Angelina Jolie Mia Farrow Mother Theresa of orphaned books.
You could spend anywhere from $.25-$10.00, but the average price for craft books is $2.00.
I am extraordinarily compulsive when it comes to cheap books (If I had more money, I'd have a huge problem) It must be hereditary, as my mother is the only person I know who hoards them even more than I do. Some of the wonderful finds I managed to adopt this year included a coffee table book on Francois Truffaut, biographies on Jackie O, and Marlene Dietrich, some books on the social history of fashion, and a few knitting, craft, and cooking books:


My favourite find was Alice Starmore's Fair Isle Knitting, for $1! And Kid's Knits, by Lesley Anne Price. And see the big book at the bottom of that stack? Well, it's a facsimile reproduction 0f an 1882 edition of an encyclopedia of every type of needlecraft you can imagine. I love it. The illustrations are amazing, and just look at these needles:


They're stumpy! And I love that there are illustrations of men's hands as well as women's holding needles. Not only that, there is a whole section at the front of advertisements. Check out these lovely ladies:
Ask me anything about needlecrafts, from Abaca (The native name for the manilla hemp) to Zulu cloth (A closely woven cloth, twill-made, designed for Crewel Embroidery or Outline Work)
I've got the answers, now!

Better late than never

Thank goodness Project Spectrum is a no pressure project, because have done hardly anything for the month of May. I began the month with such high hopes and aspirations, but alas, it was not to be. Those darn Hedera socks are still waiting to be finished, the irony is they took me less than a week to get the first sock almost done, and then came to a complete standstill. First, due to my uncertainty, and then, due to a playful cat and some gaps in the floorboards. Now, we are onto June, and really, it is the perfect time to finish my Lucky Clover wrap.

So, here is my one and only contribution to Project Spectrum this month (well, last month, actually) It is finally lush and green here, thanks to all of the lovely rain we've been having, and the view from my window is almost enough to make me stay in this apartment forever, just taking pictures of the changing garden outside. Quite the difference from how it looked in April

Not only is June the month for the colour blue, it is also Finish What You Have month, started by Turkey Feathers. So, next up for me will be those green socks, once I retrieve my needles, and then (famous last words, I know...) Lucky will be finished, if it's the last thing I do!

"Threadless"? Not I.

My T-shirt order from Threadless arrived a little while back, and I finally got around to taking some pictures of my pick-me-up-purchases! There is just something so much more thrilling about recieving a package in the mail rather than impulse buys at the mall...maybe it's the delayed gratification- I mean, these t's were definately bought on impulse, I was feeling down, they were on sale, one click of a button and it was done...but to recieve them a few days later, or even better-a note telling you to go to the post office and pick it up, as the dimensions of your package are too large to fit in your mailbox...well, that is just too exciting for words! Here is a picture of me in my "Silence of the Lambs" top, I love it in pink! (I also love this picture and how it makes me look like an amputee)


And my "Piece of Meat" t, again minus one arm:

I also wanted to say that surprise packages are even better than ones you were expecting... Thank-you Mom, you are absolutely the best!