Our House.... is a very, very. very fine House....

Here are some pictures of the little house we are renting this year. Today we are having a little family tour of all of the houses everyone moved into this summer! there was a lot of moving going on! So I thought we should share some pictures of our house with those who couldn't be here!   THIS is our Dining area- looking into our kitchen with a print from an MFA grad student at Penn last year.


The other view of our family room- with the painting by my friend Justin.

. This is a detail shot of a display on a dresser in our family room/ area.
Our stairway decorated for Christmas!
The Dresser that belonged to my Grandmother's Cousin- "Cousin Betty"
Our family room with the blue dresser I got for FREE on craigslist! And the Anthro Chair I bought with money I made selling artwork- of course I waited until the chair was on sale! and our very first christmas tree!
Earlier this year- over the summer Cameron all sleepy-faced eating the pancakes he just made.

GREEN Ornaments

 Going through my old thread collection- I decided they would make the perfect ornaments! I just threaded this one with some left over yarn and added some buttons and a hook- it took all of 5 mins!
I also made this little garland to string around the tree. I added buttons, varied the size of the spools of thread and included a buckle and other discarded items! Then I attached hooks to the green yarn and hung it on the stronger branches- due to the weight of some of the spools.

A Hat for Mia

            Mia picked out the yellow yarn- it looks like a halo!
                       This is another way you can wear it- just fold up the rim of the hat
                              Here it is from the side with the crazy pom-pom

                                      And the very back of the hat!

HOW TO!

I saw a hat like this in a vogue knitting magazine and knew that I wanted to make something similar. As with all of my other hats and with most things- I abandoned a pattern and went solo.

I used a pair of 7 rounds and cast on 82 stitches, which sounds like a lot and I probably could have gotten away with 72- but 82 just worked! the needles were small for the bulky-ish yarn- hence 82 worked out with this wacky ratio.

I knit 2 prl 2 to make a cabled rim and then I went crazy like I did with Ben's hat (see earlier post). After the cable I purled a row and then I dropped stitch a row- dropping three stitches. I mostly did a moss stitch for the majority of the hat- this is where you knt 1 prl 1 for the 1st row then prl 1 knit 1 for the second- and then repeat- it makes a cool pattern, plus its dense and warm!

When the hat was about 2-3 tall I added on a ton of stitches! Since I was knitting it on a train up to NYC and I didn't have a lot of resources- I winged it. I knit 2 then I yarn over at the purl stitch- ie add on, and repeat the entire row. I think I ended up with 150 some stitches!

Then I just kept knitting and eventually I knit a cable that decreased as it went up towards the top of the hat. I knit 2, prl 2 for 3 rows then I knit 2 prl 1- decreasing the prl into the other... make sense?

I finished with another platform type shape as I did with Ben's and topped it off with a MASSIVE pom-pom of yellow, white, pink and a tiny bit of green.

The Fall Wrap up

                                 Cameron and Millie in Northern PA on a camping trip
                                              A walk through the Park
                                                    Tennis in the fall
                                                Cameron as a Grocery shopping ad
                                             fall colors across the street

a Hat for Ben

While out in Portland this October for my Brother's wedding- I hung out with my friends Mia and Ben.  I took my green "swiss Miss" hat along with me- see previous post for pics- and while I was there one of Ben's friends asked if I could make him the Swiss Miss in Red.  I did and I also made a hat for Ben.

THIS is the hat for Ben. It only took me a few hours and according to Mia he wears it all the time! I look forward to posting pictures of my recipients in their hats at some point in the near future!

Ben's Hat was easy to make. I used a bulky green yarn (the same used in my green swiss miss) and cast on about 52 stitches onto a set of large 11s in the round. I then knit 2, prl 2 to create a small cable for the rim of the hat and then I just went crazy for the rest of the hat! It was very sporadic- purl a few rows, moss stitch a few, knit a few, repeat cable etc etc.  I decreased as I neared the top of the hat. BUT I never fully decreased- as you normally would- so the very top of the hat where the pom pom sits- is a little round box. (makes sense?) The COOL thing is when its not on your head it looks like a tiered cake!

Then I topped it off with a yellow pom-pom from the yarn I made Mia's hat with.

I sent Mia's hat yesterday and I will post the pictures of it with a -how to description- after she gets the hat later this week!

My mom already went out and bought me some yarn to make a Mia styled hat for her! I'm turning into a busy knitter!

Spice UP a sweater if you please!

This fall I have been SPICING up some old sweaters- breathing life into them by adding embellishments!

I will be posting these sweaters all through the winter- to give some fresh projects for those long winter months!

This is my first sweater!

I bought it last year on ebay. Its a great vintage bright yellow sweater. It was a little plain and honestly I didn't wear it all that much.

After going through my grandmother's scarves I decided to use one of the shorter ones as an embellishment to this sweater. It was wide so I was able to cut it in half in order to make it go all the way around the sweater. I removed the buttons from the sweater and with my sewing machine I attached the scarf and hemmed its edges. 

THEN I did a little couture hand sew- around the top to form the bow- to make it just right!

I'm going to wear it with a purple dress, some tights and my funky brown leather boots- THAT - coincidentally have purple fabric on the back of them with a yellow stitch! Perfect for Work!

ITS all about reinventing the old and making it new!

Its good for the environment and GREAT for your wallet!

If you Display it - YOU will wear it!

In order to be more "green" we have to cut WAY back on our instinct to CONSUME- to buy anything and everything we like.  Hence its been fun to recycle old jewelry and to find fun ways to display my Jewelry so I will actually wear it!

1st

I made a peg board- out of an old set of stretcher bars from a painting. There wasn't any canvas covering the stretchers so I cut a piece of cardboard to fit the opening and taped it to the back of the stretchers. Then I covered it with an old piece of fabric. I stapled the fabric on the back and then screwed in some screws by hand- to hang my necklaces on! And then I hung it on the back of the door with i-screws and nails.

For my earrings, pins and bracelets- I took my grandmother's old cake plate and one of her pretty dishes and set up a little display on the book shelf opposite the back door and next to my closet.

Since dusting off my jewelry and displaying it all this way- I have been wearing it more thus getting a new use out of something I already own and not needing to buy any new jewelry! 

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