Rachael Herron's Blog, page 35

Winner!

Thanks, y’all, for playing along in the win-a-Romi book! Drum roll, please…. The randomly drawn winner is Grace who liked the Bright Moments cardigan! Grace, you’ve been emailed!

And Happy New Year to everyone! I’d do a recap, but you know what? For once I don’t want to. 2015 was a bit of a slog. I’m not sad to boot it out the door. I’m already feeling a tingling in my toes that says 2016 will do things worth dancing about.

Without making resolutions (because come on, the only reason to make one is to break one), I’ve actually been able to journal every day this year so far. It’s the one thing I’d really like to make into a habit, so I’m keeping it light. Just a paragraph or two, entered in a Word document on my computer. I’m so tired of trying to figure out how to store my old journals, and while I write a lot in my paper journal (with my Livescribe pen! Which is awesome but honestly not that practical for my lifestyle, I have to admit) it’s mostly lists and illegible scrawls.

I’ve been so inspired by reading The Folded Clock: A Diary by Hedi Julavits.* It’s a collection of journal snippets that read as somehow more than just that. Eula Bliss says of it: “This diary is a record of the interior weather of an adept thinker.” Exactly so. And I adore the idea of keeping a journal that holds actual, concrete memories–short, but well described moments in time. I thought to myself it was as if she sat down every night and fictionalized a moment in her day. My next thought was I could do that.

I could.

I’m a writer, after all.

Sometimes that thought still gives me thrills. Okay, it often gives me thrills, not just sometimes. I am a writer. I just finished a draft of my first Patreon essay, and I’m happy with it. I got to a (real) point and unraveled something I truly believe within its pages, and that’s where I love writing best–when I can dive down deep and get confused and talk to myself and come up with something real. It’s twenty-two pages! It’s about liars and thieves, and how artists are both, but benevolently so, and I’m terrified about it. Dude, I swear I catch imposter syndrome like it’s airborne. (Speaking of that, I abandoned the lovely Station Eleven — god, for some of you, Alzheimer’s is your greatest fear, and for that, I apologize for Splinters of Light. But pandemic is one of my greatest fears, and while all of you were right — the book is not about that, not really — the plot is so closely and inextricably related to pandemic that even after my sister told me the ending, I’m still having nightmares a week later. Sensitive flower alert. It’s so good! But not for me.)

Anyway. Back to more polishing and then I’ll be sending it out today or tomorrow. (There’s still time to get your own copy by pledging a tip of your choice per essay, or you can read it in the collection next year.)

And to you: I wish you only resolutions that say things like, “Sleep more” and “Hug people” and if you want to break those, too, then I give you absolution *makes the sign of a chocolate croissant over your head*

Kiss.

* Affiliate link because mama needs a yard or two more yarn

Romi’s New Book!

I love Romi. She is literally the reason I was finally brave enough to knit lace. She kept telling me over and over again, in that calm, beautiful voice of hers, “You can do it. It’s actually easy. You can totally do it.”

I’m so excited that I get to give away a copy of her new book, New Lace Knitting. Details after the interview!

Hi, friend! I know I can’t ask what your favorite design in the book is (they’re all your babies) but can you tell us which was the most fun to design?


That’s a difficult one! I think it’s a toss-up between the Talus Cardigan and the Williwaw Cardigan. I’d been fooling around the idea for Talus for quite some time and it was so much fun to see it come to fruition. It turned out exactly as I had envisioned it, though the construction ended up a bit different than what I had initially imagined. Williwaw was just so much fun. I put all sorts of little geeky details into it – my favorite. Super fun parts: the way the pattern carries across on the back, the way the lace pattern emerges on the front asymmetric opening, the way the yarn shows stitch definition. Loved the whole process!


If you weren’t a full-time knit designer, what would you be doing today?

Wow. I haven’t really thought about it! Making pretty things, for sure. But what kind of pretty things? Maybe photos? Maybe I would be a writer. Potter? Glass blower? I’m not giving up knitting design any time soon though.

 

What’s your favorite last minute oh-crap-I-have-make-dinner meal?

Believe it or not, our family has such a crazy schedule that we’re hardly ever together for dinner. Older son does triathlon and has a bazillion AP classes. Younger son is an amazing trumpet player and in youth orchestra, band, and steel drum band (how cool is STEEL DRUM BAND?). So, I guess the last minute go-to would be sourdough cornbread (I am into all things sourdough) and soup. If weather permits, we’ll barbeque some chicken to go with. With the soup, I cheat and do Trader Joe’s Black Bean soup with beans and corn salsa added. We aren’t much into dessert, but there’s always some fruit around and/or ingredients for a smoothie.

To enter: peruse the patterns at Ravelry and let me know which is your favorite in the comments! I’ll draw a winner randomly on January 5th and pop it in the mail!

Many Things Make a Post

Hi there!!

Oh, my goodness, you smell good. Did you just bake cookies or something? Because damn. I’m glad you’re here.

And because mama loves a list:

I was sick this week with a cruddy chest and head cold and it served to remind me for the millionth time that I’m so bad at slowing down. I gave myself two days in bed, which was AGONY but it was also kind of fun. I had to do it. I wasn’t in pain like I am with a migraine, so I just flopped around the bed and threw used Kleenex like soggy confetti and read. Enforced lazy reading! I can get behind that. As long as I don’t have to take NyQuil anytime soon. That stuff is awful and I will never forget the dream in which my normal face melted off and I was left with a FunkoPop one.


This list thing is jacking me up and I think every single one of these is going to be #1 which is making me laugh and is just fine. You’re number one, too.


While in bed, I read a book in one day, something I can’t remember doing in a long time. It was LEAVING TIME by Jodi Picoult . People. If you like deep feeling books about mothers and daughters, grab it. Plus, there’s a mystery. And a psychic. And gorgeous prose. AND ELEPHANTS. I loved it so much.


Now reading: Shonda Rhimes’s memoir, Year of Yes, and it has to be one of the funniest books I’ve read since I was twelve and busting a gut over Erma Bombeck (don’t judge. At twelve, my life’s goal was to be a suburban housewife with four children, a husband, and a talent for cooking soufflés. I reveled in the Ladies Home Journals I boosted from the wineries my parents visited). Anyway, Shonda deserves to rule Thursday night (she’s the creator of Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal (WHICH I LOVE but am behind in), and How to Get Away with Murder (which I haven’t tried yet).  I’m finding myself rereading pages just to see how she fits all the funny in. It’s her voice, but it’s also her timing, all of which comes across even on a sterile e-reader screen.


There’s a lot of shit happening in this world. Hug someone you love. Kiss someone, too. Vote. Protest. Send letters. Talk to your friends. (Oh! Recently we saw W. Kamau Bell speak and, in answer to “What can allied white people do to try to help this broken, systemically racist country?” he said, “Talk to your white friends. Have difficult, awkward conversations. Then do it some more.” Keep talking, friends.)


Also: Fuck Trump, painting almost ONE THIRD of the world as less-than, other, and criminal.


Trello. It’s an app/website for project management, and it’s free, and it’s apparently everything I ever wanted. I love my Bullet Journal but my life with two full-time jobs and a part-time volunteer job has exploded past paper lists. My Moleskine journal croaks in fear when I enter my office. Trello makes it all pretty and I want to smooch it with all the smooches I have.


Except for some that I will save for The Smartyboo. WHY?


Speaking of two jobs, I gotta say that I’ve been working two full-time gigs now since 2008. And that’s cool. Most of the time I’ve got the energy for both. I’ve been published since 2010, and I just turned in my tenth contracted book. 2016 will be a year of lots of things for you to read by me, should you happen to enjoy that sort of thing.


Speaking of writing, I love sending out my tinyletter email. This isn’t a plug for you to join it (though it would be great if you did) but I think I’m going to backdate and post my missives here (so now you don’t actually have to) because in them, I’m as real as I am here at the blog, and honestly, I use the blog as a way to remember things. Those emails feel important to me. I’m glad so many of you are getting so much out of them. I love your email responses. They’re like secret blog comments that only I can read. Delicious.


Patreon. Damn. Humbled. Thank you.


I’ve been knitting a lot, and I promise to show you things soon. It’s not even secret holiday knitting — I’m just too lazy to take photos of things in progress.


My sister Bethany (whose sweater is almost done) went with me to my work holiday party and we had a grand time. I’m so lucky to have all this: my family, my friends, my jobs. I have Issues with what we’re sometimes Obliged To Feel this time of year, but the fact that sometimes we notice things more–that’s just good, plain and simple.

 

 

* Affiliate links above because a girl has to buy ink. 

I’m Writing Essays on Living a Creative Life

(If you’re on my subscriber list, you already got this email! Thanks for ALREADY BEING AWESOME!)

I write a lot (you might have noticed). I write all the time: on planes, trains, and I would write on automobiles, but I get car sick and the quality of the work would suffer along with my equilibrium. As you know, I write books! I write novels about families torn apart and repaired with hope. I write love stories about couples who can’t be together but who must (and do) find a way to love.

In the past, I’ve written essays, too. I wrote a whole book of them, in fact! A Life in Stitches is one of the books I’m most proud of, and it’s about living the knitting life. They’re true stories, told with my heart wide open.

I want to do more of this, and I want to do it BIGGER. I want to write essays about not just writing or knitting, but about how we manage to cobble together a creative life in one that’s already full of errands and family and jobs and worries. Essays on finding art inside the chaos of every day.

More writing takes more time, which is something I don’t have much of. So I’m asking for support to do it. ALL THE DETAILS ARE HERE at my Patreon page. There’s a short video of me talking about it, the nerves audible in my voice. You can read about the perks you can get (from receiving text messages from me, encouraging YOU to get going on your creative dreams, all the way up to one-on-one creativity coaching with me!).

And now that I’ve been Very Brave and posted this, I’m closing the computer and opening my notebook. In this noisy cafe, and in the long autumn morning light, I’m plotting the romance I’ll start tomorrow (oh, my gosh, next year is so happily book-heavy! The Darling Songbirds, the start of a new romance series, comes out in March! A women’s fiction novel, The Ones Who Matter Most, launches in April! The second romance in the new series will be out in September!

I’d love it if you watched the short video on my Patreon page.

I love writing.

I love that you believe in me. It truly means the world to me.

with thanks and newly sharpened pencils,

Rachael

Iceland Adventure Pants!

 

At Cafe Loki, best place in town. 

Cold: I don’t know how to do cold, as much as it THRILLS me to my frostbitten toes. Half the time I was sweating, the other half I was missing some necessary parts of my clothing. On the very first day, I lost my favorite hat (only hat!) knitted out of my very first handspun yarn. Once I didn’t wear tights under my skirt and almost froze off some things I prefer to keep. I kept waiting until we got outside to replace all the layers I’d taken off inside (inside the bus, inside the cafe) which wasn’t ideal, but I still don’t really understand the method of dressing-for-cold.

Raincoats! WHO KNEW? (Oh, you did. Of course you did.) They’re awesome! Screw the umbrella, just put on the coat and go! (I literally think the last time I wore one I was about eight years old.)

Adventure pants: Ditto! I bought them because Extreme Iceland said to get some for the glacier walk. I thought I’d never wear them again, but I’ve already worn them three times. You get to go tumble around in the wet and have fun! I’m honestly looking forward to El Niño and winter dog hikes in California now.

The South Coast: 

We spent two days on a bus tour guided by a wonderful man named Ásgeir who had the kindest eyes I think I have ever seen. Somehow, he was able to spend two days with perfect strangers and make them believe he was excited to do it. He was darling and I want him to be my friend, and he promised if we didn’t see the Northern Lights, he’d take us himself next time. I didn’t see the lights, Ásgeir. When’s good for you? 

Glacier hike: 

So, we get to the glacier and learn how to put on crampons (spikes for the bottoms of your boots which is so hardcore I can’t even handle how awesome that is). Ásgeir teaches us how not to fall off a mountain by holding your ice axe at the ready. This makes me nervous, in a fluttery, pit-of-the-stomach way. If someone can fall off a glacier, it will probably be me.

“Take your time. Walk heavily. Pound each step.”

I take the first few steps slowly to judge how the crampons hold. When my feet feel secure, I relax and move forward. Lala, behind me, has a harder time because she grew up around ice. She knows that to walk on blue ice which has flowing water underneath the cap could be dangerous and her body tells her to stop! Retreat! My body tells me to go forward, go faster, see more.

It’s cold. It rains a bit. We hike out on three-thousand year old ice that has carved the area into the stunning geological landscape it is today.

The dirt in the ice is dirt the glacier has dragged off the mountains. It’s where the mountains went.

There is a tour group ahead of us in this picture. Can you find them? 

We walk into a crevasse as narrow as our shoulders and we can see INTO the ice. We are inside a massive ice cube made for a drink the size of the sun.

The second guide chips ice with his axe above us to simulate a mini-avalanche. We shriek delightedly. A sliver of ice hits my cheek and leaves a gash which I’m exceedingly proud of. (Lala says, “I’ve seen rock-filled snowballs hit people a million times. No one has ever BLED because of it.”)

As we leave the ice a perfect 90 minutes later, Ásgeir is as lit up and excited as I am. He lives here and is still knocked out by the scenery’s magnificence. I think there’s nothing better than loving what you do for a living, and all I want to do is listen to him talk. I knit him a hat with local wool on the bus, but I can’t weave in the ends since I have no needle in my bag. He says his mother will do it for him, but she’ll be jealous another woman is knitting for him. My crush on him flutters in my chest. (Lala doesn’t mind my crush. We’re good that way.) This is a picture Lala took of him. You might flutter a bit, too:

ICEBERGS: 

Are amazing. They are REALLY BLUE. I always kind of thought they were photo-filtered. But no.

I SAY, HELLO! I can’t say too much more about them because they were out of the range of imagination. I hope you get to see them, that’s my wish for you.

Food: Dried fish and butter is amazing. I ate a bite of whale. I tried the shark, and dude, it wasn’t as bad as Anthony Bourdain made it out to be! It smelled like death on a toothpick, but tasted like strong cheese. I wouldn’t do it again, but glad I did once. Smoked trout is amazing:

Icelandic horses. Don’t call them ponies because they aren’t baby horses. They’re short but very strong (like me!). They have five–not the normal four–gaits: they have the very special tölt, which is a very smooth trot. I totally did it and didn’t fall off. My horse and I were simpatico, and I got nuzzles afterward. Also: THEY ROLL IN THE DIRT a lot. Like border collies at the beach. Although they wait for you to dismount, which is very polite of them.

Yarn: We took a bus to Alafoss and bought yarn. A lopi for each of us is in our future. I absolutely love how every Icelander wears his Lopapyesa with pride, without irony. It is his, and he loves it, and his mother made it, and it’s warm.

Darling Stephanie! We had such a great time with her and Rob!

HOT TUBS. 

How to behave at the public geothermal pools in Iceland.

First of all, go to the Blue Lagoon. Sure, it’s expensive and crowded but worth it for the experience. Plus, SWIM-UP BAR. Life achievement unlocked. (I only had a juice but it was magical, I’m telling you.) Also, eating in Lava in your robe while most everyone else is wearing (nice) street clothes makes you feel like a rock star in the very best way:

But even better than the tourist-filled geothermal waters is going to the local hot pots. They’re where the community gathers, where the elders gossip and where the teens flirt. Great guide here.

We went to the Secret Pool, Lauguar Spa, Laugardalslaug, Vesturbæjarlaug and Sundhöllin. Vesturbæjarlaug was by far our favorite, with its big hot tubs and jets so strong they have handles to hang on to when in use. We went a couple of times there. Björk goes to that one, you know. It’s the best.

I love this about all of the tubs we went to: people are hanging out together, being people, in their bodies. All body shapes are represented with no shame. Strangers chat naked in the shower. They chat in the baths. Tummies hang out. That woman over there has big breasts and a large bum. That guy is skinny. Everyone looks great, exactly as they should look. That ease with the body must make for a happier society, don’t you think?

Two important things to know about the swimming pools: 

1 – Bathe first, naked. There’s no faking this. Wash the important bits WITH SOAP: head, pits, bottom, and feet.

Use this for reference:

Never have I seen so many strangers scrubbing their asses so thoroughly. Americans wouldn’t do this, and THAT’s why we can’t have nice things like non-chlorinated pools. Iceland’s geothermal water is magic, and non-chlorinated, so wash, please. If you don’t, an attendant will make sure you do. Then put on your suit and go out into the cold where the heated water will make you feel more alive than you’ve ever felt.

2 – Shower again afterward and dry off before you go into the changing room. They keep those floors dry and clean and it’s so much better than the damp locker room floors I remember from high school and my old membership gym. Again, you’ll be reminded if you forget to do this. I like to do things right (to an obsessive degree, I can admit this), so I enjoy knowing the rules.

Home again.

We’re home, and I’m back in the swing of things. I have copyedits due this week to Random House Australia on a book that comes out next year, and NaNoWriMo starts in two days. At the day (and night) job, I’ve got a 73-hour shift this weekend (you may be falling back, but that means an extra hour of work for night-shifters). But I’m happy. Heart-deep happy.

And I’m so damn lucky it hurts.

Dear Fairy Godmother

I thought this would be the year that I didn’t participate in NaNoWriMo at all. I’ve worked so hard for the last few years, and I was thinking about taking it easy. Taking a break. I’m speaking at my local RWA chapter on Saturday with the founder Chris Baty and current executive director Grant Faulkner. I’m on the Writer’s Board. (Did you know that? HOW COOL IS THAT?) I thought maybe that would grant me a pass this year.

But then, last night while in bed, an idea that had lodged itself in my head a few weeks ago suddenly sprouted wings, big huge glitter-covered ones. It started flapping about inside my head and I think I have to write this book. Soon.

Then I realized what else is soon. National Novel Writing Month. It’s just around the corner.

So, I’m in. Again. I’m so madly in love with this idea, and I think it could be big and sweet and wonderful, dusted with a bit of magical realism, which I’ve always wanted to write. This wee baby ghost is tugging at my sleeve, and I can’t seem to shake it. It wants to be real. (As real as a ghost can ever be, that is.)

And if you wanted to send me to the Night of Writing Dangerously, here’s my page. If you don’t, darling Fairy Godmother, that’s okay, too. Don’t do it if it’s a hardship! I worry! (For those of you newer to my world, the Night of Writing Dangerously is an amazing candy and caffeine-fueled fundraiser for the branch of NaNoWriMo that brings the programs to schools all over the country. It’s wonderful. An anonymous benefactor has been sending me to it for years, and it’s my high holiday, truly.)

And Fairy Godmother? If, say, you ever wanted to reveal yourself to me and come to SF from wherever you are and participate, too, could I take you to dinner? I WOULD LOVE TO MEET YOU and the fact that I still don’t know who you are is the Great Unsolved Mystery (and I have to admit, it’s delicious). But I would totally take you out on the town if you ever unmasked. Just saying.

love,

Rachael

 

Soapagogo

I adore Stephanie Klose, and I have for a long time (so much so that we’re vacationing together soon!). She’s a knitter extraordinaire, and a Brooklyn-based writer and editor. You’ve seen her Best in Show Craftsy’s 2014 Silvermine knitted wedding dress, right? Oh, you should see it now, if you haven’t:

Let’s kvell for a moment. Linen/cashmere, people. Her own design.

Okay. Whew. *wipes brow* I will never get over that dress.

Her side hustle is makin’ soap, and she’s just as good at soap as she is at everything else she does.

Schoon Soap. Now, there are a lot of soap makers out there, and I’m a scent-fiend. I have one of those dog noses (which makes it very hard o live with dogs, I’m telling you). Scents are hugely important to me.

And basically, I never ever ever want to live a life without her Herkimer soap. It’s spicy and clovey and completely wonderful. (Clove, cinnamon leaf, rosemary, eucalyptus, and citrusy, earthy litsea cubeba.) I love ALL her soaps, but this one has become essential to my day.

And she’s doing a giveaway AND a discount code for us!

1.  Hey, Stephanie, in life, what’s your very favorite smell?

As if I could narrow it down to one—there are SO MANY smells I love. Some of my favorites, like mulch or woodsmoke, don’t really lend themselves to soap, but some do, like cardamom and bergamot. And then there are plenty of scents I love that are perfect

for soap, but can only be achieved using synthetic fragrances (lilac and almond come to mind), so they aren’t a fit for Schoon.

2. Do you do all this boiling/making in your home? What’s your setup like? 

I do all of it at home! Part of me likes the idea of a dedicated studio, but if I had to go somewhere else to do it, I’d be a lot less productive. I make the soap in our kitchen and use the guest room/office/amp storage room to cure the bars, wrap and label them, and store the wrapped soap. We also do all of the packing and shipping in there.

[YOUR HOUSE MUST SMELL SO DAMN GOOD.]

3. We are going to Iceland together! What are you going to be knitting? And will you be wearing any Alabama Chanin while there?

I’m SO EXCITED about Iceland! I’m not sure yet what project(s) I’m going to bring to work on (something at least moderately interesting to keep me entertained on the flights and something simple for bus rides and so on while we’re there, I think), but I did spin and knit a sweater especially for the trip. The yarn is one ply of a variegated charcoal Gotland fleece I bought at Rhinebeck two years ago and one ply black commercial silk/merino top. The Gotland is pretty hairy and wild so the silk/merino is barely visible; it just gives the yarn a little weight and drape. The sweater itself is a completely plain stockinette raglan pullover that I think I’ll wear to death if I ever get the neckline right. I’ve redone it three times now, but I’m still not 100% happy with it.

I’m going to try to pack as little as I can get away with (something I imagine you’d approve of), but I do have an Alabama Chanin skirt in the works using an old wool jersey dress I felted. That might be just the ticket for dressing up in Iceland in late October.

ONE WINNER will win a four-pack of soaps of your choice.

TO ENTER:

Go here. Peruse her creations. Leave a comment with which four soaps you would prefer if you are the lucky winner! Winner will be drawn in two days, Saturday afternoon. (International entries okay.)

Get a bonus entry by joining her email list.

If you miss out on winning, or just can’t stand waiting, use the code SOAPAGOGO for 25% off, good till Oct 16, 2015.

And if you buy all her Herkimer, I will come to your house and get some because I can’t live without it.

Still Knitting

A-line dress in black, pewter stitching, red/black Bloomers stencil skirt

I was wondering why people were asking me, all worried-like, if I was still knitting. I didn’t get it. I’m always knitting. Of course I’m knitting! I’m mostly done with Bethany’s long-overdue sweater.

But I’ve always been the knitter who doesn’t blog about knitting, haven’t I? I get completely OBSESSED with new things, but it’s never to the exclusion of others. Knitting and writing I always go back to. They’re always with me, no matter what. I just don’t photograph them as I’m going along.

But I tell you what, the Alabama Chanin sewing? It’s blowing my mind. No WONDER people are wondering if I’m still knitting!

Anna’s Garden stencil

I made it myself, after finding out the stencils run from $90-120. (Alabama Chanin encourages you to learn how to make your own things, using her technique. You can make your skirt from 2 thrifted T-shirts = $4. Or you can buy a kit from them = $300. Or you can buy one sewn by the artisans = $1900. Your pick. It’s awesome. I recommend the fourth book, which comes with a CD that has all the previous books’ patterns and all the techniques.)

People have been asking me about how I made the stencil:

I bought a large-enough sheet of .75 mil mylar from a local art supply (I think it was 24 x 30 inches, something like that). I also bought a $5 printout of the Anna’s Garden stencil from the Alabama Chanin site. I used blue Sharpie to mark the mylar, then I used a heated stencil cutter* to cut it out (rested the mylar on the glass of a large picture frame so I didn’t burn anything underneath). It took about 3 hours total, but since it’s the stencil I’m most in love with, I can foresee using this one a long time.

Kay Gardiner commented on Instagram that this kind of sewing scratches the same itch that knitting does, and it’s so true. I’m not a fan of sewing-as-in-mending. I’ll let a ripped shirt go to the thrift store for recycling (watch this movie on Netflix, The True Cost, to learn more about the clothing industry — fascinating), and buttons that fly off my sweaters (because I swear that’s what they do) tend to stay off for way too long. And I love to sew clothes, but it’s really time-intensive. You have to be with your machine. You have to have your stuff. I was never a person who could sew for just twenty minutes and then put everything away.

But this hand-sewing is portable. You’re embroidering small pieces. Everything is in my little sewing basket. No one stitch matters too much because there are so many of them. If you screw up, you’re going slow enough to fix it (not so with a serger! Oh, no! Zip! And your finger’s lying on the ground along with the sleeve of the dress! Maybe I’m not the best with my serger. Hmmm).

And this kind of sewing is gorgeous. Slowly, so slowly, I’m making pieces of clothing that works with MY aesthetic. So far I’ve made a skirt, and a dress, and a tunic, and now I’m working on an embroidered tank. I want to wear all of them, every day. This is my style. This is ME, because I chose it. I spent hours and hours making it, thinking about it as I went. I made the dress out of Alabama Chanin cotton I bought at Verb, but the other pieces are all from thrifted T-shirts (god bless a 5XL man who’s not too hard on his clothing — I SCORED at Thrift Town — some still had tags on!)

It’s bringing out creativity, too. Shirts big enough–those 5XLs aside–can be hard to find. I love gray. So I cut up 5 shirts and started piecing them, for the tunic.

It was fast and dirty, just like everything else I do, but it worked out well. I cut strips and basted them together so they were big enough to use to cut out the pattern pieces.

Ended up with pieces like this:

which I then sewed together into this:

Comfy worn with this gray skirt! (Flat-felled to the outside, knots in, 2 ply black button thread.)

Now I’m working on a black-under-blue tank (same as the above tunic, just a bit shorter).

I sponge-painted the pieces with Jacquard cloth paint. It was a SUPER messy process, and I did it on one of the days recently which was like 140 degrees in the house, so I sweated and swore my way through it. But it was worth it.

Look how beautifully it’s stitching up!

That particular pattern, Anna’s Garden, just makes me weak in the knees. This one will take a while (the simple sewing, like the black a-line and the tunic, go REALLY fast — appliqué like this, of course, goes slower. Still, everything is faster than knitting, amirite?). But slow is okay.

Slow can be really darn fine, actually.

* affil link: That stencil cutter was a piece of crap and I broke both tips. But it worked till I was done, so there’s that.

Falling in Love AGAIN

The goal of my life has been to fall in love as much as possible. I used to laughingly say that when I was dating (but I meant it) and even now that I’m very-happily married (is there anything nicer?), I still say it because it’s still true.

I fall in love ALL the time. I fall in love with individuals (as friends, as crushes, as mentors). I fall in love with groups (my new mastermind writers’ group, IMPACT self-defense). I fall in love with people I see waiting at bus stops and sitting in cafes. And obviously, I fall in love with all of my characters. Those last, actually, are usually a slower burn, now that I think about it. Normally I write most of a first draft before I can see them clearly. I’m irritated with them until that moment, and then bam, I’m in mad-delirious love, even with the problem characters.

I fall in love with activities, too: square-foot gardening! Bread baking! Straw-bale gardening! Minimizing! Spinning! Running! Ukulele! Accordion!

I have two brand new loves, and they couldn’t be more different. One is physical and loud, one is introspective and quiet. Both are beautiful.

Kajukenbo

Kajukenbo is a Hawaiian hybrid mixed-martial art, made up of a mishmash of KArate, JUjitso, KENpo, and BOxing. It’s pretty high contact (meaning: hitting! kicking!) and very high intensity. It’s gorgeous, a blend of dancing and fighting, and the Oakland kwoon (school) is just as incredible: a mix of races, genders, and sexual orientations. It feels safe that way. It’s okay to have a girl tummy (big and squooshy and sexy) and fight, too.

The thing is: I’m bad at it. I love things that I’m automatically and quickly good at. The arts tend to come quickly to me. Anything physical is harder, and this is SO physical. Last Thursday night, I wanted to run away. My beginning class was with a substitute, and I wasn’t following her language as well as I did our normal teacher, and it was a millionty degrees in the room, and I just kept thinking, “I could leave. I know no one here. No one but Twitter knows I’m trying to do this. I won’t tell them I left! No one has to know!”

But I want to be someone who says, “I’m a martial artist,” instead of someone who says, “I’d love to be a martial artist.” So I stayed. And I’ll keep going. I’m stubborn, thankfully.

And I love the way I feel afterward. I have yoga-eyes when I get out, if that makes sense to you. All floppy and happy, top down on the car on the way home and even more in love with the overhead moon than I was before.

(I just remembered — I don’t know where it came from but when I was little, I had a serious phobia of substitute teachers. My first act of the school day was always to find the yard-monitor teacher and tug on her dress to ask her if my teacher was there that day. If she said no or that she wasn’t sure, I usually threw up. This is true. Apparently I still get nervous around substitutes. Luckily, I didn’t vomit, but it was touch and go there for a minute.)

Alabama Chanin 

I know I’m the last to this party, but PEOPLE. I’m in LOVE.

Clothes, made by hand (every little bit, every stitch), to fit, in jersey (because we all live in jersey, or want to). I went to hear Natalie Chanin speak at A Verb for Keeping Warm last week, and I tried on the clothes in the trunk show. Completely unembellished, those clothes fit me better and looked better than anything ever has. I felt like I’d finally found my true style. When your aforementioned soft belly feels like it’s wearing PJs but you know you could go from the office to the garden and then to a party and look great at all the places? Hello. Come to me, darling.

I was a bit worried, getting started. The only crafting thing I hate to do is sew by hand, so I’m not sure why I was so sure I’d love the reverse appliqué method. But I was pretty dang sure I would. Then I started, and I remembered that I’ve always loved embroidery, and that’s all this is. You’re using embroidery methods to hold fabric together. How cool is that?

This is the stencil I cut from felt (using the Blooomers stencil in her first book).

I’m making a 4-gore skirt from thrifted XXXL T-shirts. I cut the eight pieces (two layers) and painted the top layer with fabric paint:

This is an afternoon of Gilmore Girls, more than half a gore’s worth of stitching accomplished.

Eventually, I’ll cut out the middles, like in this swatch:

Ain’t she stunning?

Next week I expect I’ll be obsessed with deep-sea crabbing or ice surfing or something. (Never fear, I’m still in love with writing and knitting. Those remain constant. Hey, in case you missed it, A Life in Stitches* is currently $1.99 in most e-versions! Grab it while you can, if you haven’t read my memoir. Plenty of falling in love there, too. Send one to a friend! Cheaper than buying her a cup of coffee!)

What are you in love with right now?

*affil link

 

Knitting for Bethany

This is to mark my place.

I’m knitting a sweater for my sister, Bethany. I thought it was such a clever idea. For her birthday, I presented her with a gift certificate for a Custom Fit sweater. It’s great — have you used it yet? You enter your exact sizes, put in the details from your swatch, and whammo. Sweater time. Amy Herzog is genius.

I had a plan: I would measure my sister, she would choose the yarn, and bam, she’d have a new sweater in next to no time. After all, I’m quite a fast knitter. *blows dust off invisible badge*

She loved the idea! We even went to the yarn store to pick out some yarn (which I was going to buy later — the store didn’t have enough in stock). I was going to measure her really soon.

Then I forgot for a year and a half.

A YEAR AND A HALF.

I’ve ticked off way too many people with this forgetful brain of mine. Bethany loves me (and when I wailed, WHY DIDN’T YOU REMIND ME? she said something like I knew you were busy) and forgave me. I know she’s not even mad at me.

But I’m damn aware that it hurts when someone you love doesn’t make you feel special. I think I might owe her a couple of sweaters now. Man, I’ve been feeling lucky in love and family and friends lately. I love that feeling. It kind of knocks my pins right out from under me–that I get such amazing people in my life.

I’d like to forget more things (laundry soap, paper towels, oil changes) and remember more people, my people, who are the reason for everything.

So this post serves to remind me that I have a sweater to knit. And socks to send to Linda. And books to mail to Diane. And marmalade to make for a couple of people.

I have probably forgotten a lot, yes, but I haven’t forgotten you.