Faux-Dermy

In recent years, my Mom has developed an inexplicable liking of taxidermy. My parents aren’t hunters and my mom is actually pescitarian, so her decision to outfit the basement with a stuffed moose head and baby black bear was baffling. And despite my pleading, she won’t get rid of them.

Cruelty issues aside, taxidermy just grosses me out. Ick. But through the magic of Etsy, I’ve discovered that I’m a HUGE fan of faux-dermy. Maybe it’s my inner smart-alec trying to take a jab at Mom, or maybe – deep down – I really do share her taste in decorating (ahhhhh!)? Either way, I have been lusting after several items. Most notably:

[Image credit: rubyslounge etsy shop]

Resin dear heads covered in wallpaper by Ruby’s Lounge. The paisley print on the left is my absolute favorite – it’s chic, kitschy, and whimsical, all at the same time. Love, love it. She also does amazing wolf and rhino heads.

[Image credit: girlsavage etsy shop]

Girl Savage does all manner of feltidermy – mounted trophies and plush animals of many different species -  but my absolute favorite are her mounted jackalope heads. Whimsical and incredibly well crafted. I can’t wait to get one!

[Image credit: cardboardsafari etsy shop]

Last, but not least, Cardboard Sarfari brings the joy of faux-dermy to your home for a very affordable price using sustainable materials (cardboard!). They have a wide variety of items in their Etsy shop – everything from inanimate objects like rockets and hearts, to the moose head pictured above – which I love!

Now to find some wall-space for these wonderful items…

Drop Stitch Scarf

I finished it in only 2 days (a record for me) and I love it!  Once again, the project is raveled here.

I just got a Mac and have been playing around with the PhotoBooth application – here’s a photo of me wearing it (please excuse the mess behind me in my office!):

It’s nice and wide, but I wish I had a third ball of yarn to make it a bit longer.  That said – it’s pretty, it wraps around my neck, and it’s warm, which are all that really matters. I’m notorious for gifting away most of my  knitting, but this one I’m keeping for me!

Progress*

*My progress in knitting does not necessarily reflect complimentary progress in writing my thesis.

I knit through the first ball of yarn yesterday and have barely started on the second. I hope there’s enough for a decently long scarf (raveled).

New yarn is good for the soul

…especially when there’s a 40% off sale! Today a good buddy and I stopped by The Needle Lady to browse their sale yarns – Mimi, the proprietor is turning 50 this weekend, and decided to celebrate by discounting MANY of their nice yarns. I picked up a couple skeins of Tonalita by Trendsetter Yarns the colorway is called “Country Garden” and it’s a wool / acrylic blend. Feels nice and soft and I love the range of colors (the two balls below are the same dye lot!):

I’ve been wanting to make a drop-stitch scarf (raveled here) for a while now, so I think that’s just what I’ll do. Maybe I could reward myself with a few rows for every paragraph of my masters thesis I write?

Also on the needles are the Naive Socks (raveled here) for my Aunt. I’ve been working on them exclusively during my Tuesday night knitting group. Needless to say, progress is slow…but I’ve turned the heel on the second sock and will certainly have them finished in time for her birthday in March.

Now back to work!

Away for a bit

Hello, dear readers, just a quick note to let you know that I’m tied up writing my masters thesis. Once it’s all over, I’ll be back with more crafty rambles. ‘Til then, please stay tuned!

Learning to Knit

My youngest sibling is 9 yrs old and from an early age she’s shown an aptitude for all things crafty – unlike my teenage sister and tween-aged brother (there’s quite an age gap between me and them) – which I have to admit, makes me really really happy. Last year I got her a small cross-stitch kit and she patiently stitched away at it, working for several hours at a time to finish it in less than a week. I can’t help gushing. I’ve never seen such fortitude in a kid so young!

This year, I decided she was ready for knitting, so I purchased her a set of US 8 and US 10.5 knitting needles and (admittedly) destashed on her some Sugar ‘n’ Cream Cotton, Boucle and Fun Fur. We didn’t have a chance to sit down for our knitting lesson until we were at the hotel near Disneyland, but here she is knitting away:

She learned VERY quickly and I bet she’s going to be a much better knitter than her Big Sis as time goes by. Woot!

Winter Vacation

Hubby and I just returned from a 10-day, rather hectic vacation out West. We blitzed through AZ, then headed to Southern and Central CA, visiting family and friends. Below is a recap through photos. [Unfortunately, I have none of our time in AZ - the story picks up after my family piled into 2 large SUVs  and drove out to Disneyland / California Adventure.] Here is the famous Mickey flower bed just as you walk through the gates at Disneyland:

I don’t know those people in the bottom corner. It was SO packed it was impossible to get a clear shot – even just for a moment. The second day we were there the park sold out, which according to this blog post from 2004, means there were approximately 82,000 people in the park. We were packed in there like sardines! But for all those people, the place looked immaculate – no trash anywhere. Below is a shot of the pretty holiday lights outlining the Small World Castle (as in “It’s a small world after all…”):

Fun times, but I think I’ve got my Disneyland fix for a while. Below is a shot of California Adventure’s entrance (just opposite Disneyland):

I had never visited California Adventure and was expecting a hard-core roller coaster park, but was pleased to see that they had a wide variety of attractions. It also kept the whimsical feel of Disneyland, which I enjoyed. All in all, I was rather impressed – although compared to Disneyland, the place was a ghost town. Such a shame.

Next we hopped aboard the Coast Starlight Train in L.A. and rode up to visit my Aunt and Uncle in Monterey, CA. I was WAY behind in finishing the socks I intended to knit them, though I managed to finish my Aunt’s first sock (raveled here) on the train ride over, which required me to learn the Kitchener stitch…yikes! I modeled it in the train’s lounge car:

Next, my Aunt and Uncle took us on a driving tour of Monterey Bay. We stopped in a couple places and took photos – the water was amazingly clear and blue. I believe these are from Lover’s Point Park in Pacific Grove:

We also stopped at the famous Monterey Bay Aquarium, which I hadn’t seen since I was a child. It was pretty spectacular, but unfortunately VERY crowded – after Disneyland we were done with crowds, so we only stayed a couple hours. Here’s a shot of Hubby with a starfish in the touch pond:

We rounded off our time in Central CA with a trip to Fisherman’s Wharf. There were Otters everywhere, but not close enough to us to get a good photo. They are unbelievably cute! We also ran across a giant starfish attached to one of the dock posts:

Next, we hopped on a plane back to VA and are very happy to be home. We have this awful habit of packing too much into our vacations… Now it’s back to work and finishing up those socks!

I hope, dear readers, you had a wonderful time over the holidays and are enjoying this brand new year!

Blizzard Aftermath

We woke up to a bright, sunny day with nearly 2 ft deep snow everywhere. For some perspective, here is the picnic table across the way from our barn – the first shot was taken yesterday morning; the second was taken today:

Our trail to the goat pen:

The goats looked great -  nice and warm and happy to see us.  Hubby got this shot of me feeding Ivan with Hamlet in the background, as usual. Notice my ski goggles!

Also, our cat Luna is a serious snow adventurer:

We’re leaving in a couple days to spend the holidays with my family out West, so this is likely my last post for the next 2 weeks or so. Enjoy the holidays & have a happy new year!

Blizzard

We’ve just been hit by the largest snowfall in December in recorded Virginia history. It started last night (Friday) and is just now (11pm on Saturday) tapering off. We’ve got a solid 22 inches at the farm and have been tucked in our barn all day. Although we did venture out this morning to feed and check on the goats – at the time, there was only 8 or 10 inches on the ground, but it was still enough to bury Hamlet up to his belly:

Hubby went in with the tractor and plowed a path between their shelter and their hay bale:

Walking the path:

Hamlet is looking very dainty in the snow; he’s got with lots of straw in his coat from laying on it to stay cozy:

Ivan wasn’t wary of venturing into the snow drifts:

That’s all for now – as I said, we now have more than double this amount of snow. I’ll take more tomorrow and post them for you to see the magnitude of the storm. So much snow!

Lung Tie

My dad is a pulmonologist (lung doctor) and this year I decided to make him something lung-themed for his holiday gift. I thought about knitting him a giant lung (there is actually a ravelry pattern for it!), but ultimately decided to make him a tie with lung embroidery, because he often wears ties. However,  sewing and embroidery are by far my weakest crafty skill-sets, so this project was a big challenge for me.

I found the pattern for the tie (Osman Tie) at BurdaStyle and purchased it for a very reasonable $2.00. Then I sent out to my local fabric store and bought several yards of medium gray silk (plenty of extra) and some navy suiting wool to use as the tie liner. [Note this is the true color of the fabrics.]:

The pattern was very well written and easy to follow – I had no problems whatsoever. But I decided to use a double layer of the suiting wool for the liner because one layer didn’t seem substantial enough. Here’s an incredibly blurry photo of the liner laid inside the pieced-together silk (notice how jagged my cuts are – yikes!):

And here’s a shot from later in the day when I had wrangled all the folds into place and pinned it…took me forever! Please excuse the poor lighting:

After pinning I did a loose basting stitch along the tie seam to keep it together, which apparently is done on all ties  – I had no idea.

As for the embroidery, I love Jenny Hart’s Sublime Stitching patterns and noticed a while back that the “Vital Organs” pattern pack includes a lung, among other awesome anatomical parts. My dad really likes the color purple (yep, I said purple), so I purchased two shades of it in silk embroidery thread and set to work. Now, dear readers, I’m under no illusion that my work below is actually good, but it’s passable – and I’m totally okay with that. Once again, please excuse the poor lighting – it was horribly foggy this morning…and clearly, I need to iron the creases out:

I just got these labels made and am really excited to use one for the first time!

I didn’t have any tissue paper on hand, so I’ve wrapped the tie in paper towels for now – not so pretty, but it works:

Phwew! That was fun, but stressful. I should have practiced embroidering something simple like pillowcases first. Or better yet, stick to knitting!