Merchant & Mills: Fetish Alert!

Okay, so if you didn't know this blog at all, you might immediately associate "fetish" with "sex," but as any crafter worth her/his stash would know, there are many ways to get your jollies. (Wow, a phrase I haven't pulled out in a long time; wait, there are now numerous sexual innuendos.  Full stop.)

So with my mind full of admiration and desire, I wanted to share the lust-worthiness of Merchant & Mills.

C'mon, don't tell me you didn't swoon, at least a little bit.  Sustainability, craft, feminism, collaboration, British accents, egads!

I have an errand to run for my PiC at Purl Soho while I'm in NYC, and it so happens that they carry Merchant & Mills patterns and notions.  I have been dreaming about the Trapeze Dress since before the holidays, and it seems like I cannot ignore the opportunity to pick up this pattern.  While I would love the single-sized heavy paper version, I will be going for the less expensive multi-sized tissue paper version.  (Trying to keep my crafty self out of the poor house.)

So simple, yet so chic.

Look at this sleeve detail!

The possibilities feel endless, and isn't that one of the things we like about being makers?

Be Still My English Paper Piecing Heart

One of the gifts the ladyfriend gave me for Christmas was an English Paper Piecing class at Needlework, our local fabric & sewing store.  I took the class this past Tuesday night, and I seem to have found yet another crafty love.  It's all hand sewing and utilizes scraps.  Perfect for someone who keeps little bits of fabric too sweet to trash.  The scraps for the rosette above came from a bundle I bought from the workroom at City of Craft a few years ago.  While I've already started seven more hexagons to make another rosette, I'll have to be wait to really tuck into this as I have three projects on my knitting needles, two of which are time sensitive (as in due by the end of the month), and the other is the Isolda Teague Mystery Knit-a-long, which should be finished this weekend, but I'm behind a couple of clues.

Patience, that's what I need a little more of - patience, and that's something sewing is always teaching me.

What I'm Wearing to Teach Today: Stand and Deliver

Jacket & Pants:  J. Morgan Puett (ebay)
Turtleneck:  Akris
Tights (not seen):  Wolford
Shoes (no on): Aquaitalia

Reading List

 A number of years ago (2005 or 2006) the ladyfriend gave me this book in which to write down all the books I wanted to read.  (There are additional sections for books lent and what-not, but the "To Read" list dominates.)  And over the years I've done just that.

Yesterday, as I was catching up on the NYTimes Book Review I went to add a couple of books and realized there were pages and pages of books I'd listed and had yet to read.

There were some books that I had read, which had little check marks next to them (I even saw a book on the list above that I'd read but had failed to mark as so.  Bonus!), but for the most part, there are pages of books that I thought I'd like to read that, frankly, I'd forgotten about.  So yes, you guessed it.  I have a new project.  I'm going to start going through the list and reading them.

When I noted the books, I made little notations as to whether they were fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or other (e.g. photobooks, crafting books, etc.) and if fiction, whether they were collections of short stories or not.  Later on, I began to write a brief description because frankly, as noted above, I can't always remember why they're on the list.

Today, I started a list on my library's website of the books they have that are on my list, and I picked up the first one today:  Molly O'Neill's Mostly True.  My goal is to write a brief review here of each book I read from the list.  Of course there are always other books that butt into line, but the idea that I'm actually going to follow up on the books that at one time caught my imagination is really exciting.

A few years ago I remember reading a brief piece by Lisa Moore in The Walrus (I'm pretty sure) about how as she got older she realized that she had a limited number of books she could conceivably read.  That's not the impetus that's moving me (at least consciously); it's more of a "I have all these books on my To Read list; better start working on them now."  I'm a list-maker, and I like to check things off.

Stay tuned for reviews.

Just When It Couldn't Get Worse (Olympic Edition)

Really?  This was the winner for the U.S. Olympic team?  Yikes!  Just another reason not to watch - my eyes!  At least they had the wherewithal to have them made in the U.S.  You can't say that about most Ralph Lauren merchandise...

It's not often that I would say, "Poor Zach Parise"

Click here for an amusing slideshow of this year's Olympic uniforms.

Update:  I can't believe they've sold out of these hideous cardigans, and they're selling on ebay for $3,000! 

Just Say "No"...to the Olympics

Yep, I'm not watching the Olympics, and frankly, I'm surprised at how unabashedly excited everyone seems to be about Sochi.  It's kind of embarrassing.  I guess it's easy to brush off any concerns about the human rights of Russia's citizens - queer or not - in the service of good television, I mean, displays of superior athleticism in service to nationalistic pride.

I actually really like the winter Olympics (remember, I went to Vancouver), but this just feels wrong in so many ways that I can't stomach it.  I will probably get a lot of reading and/or knitting done while the ladyfriend watches Olympic hockey (yes, she's watching).  I will, however, watch highlights on SportsCentre.