Antics | Love Is All You Knit

Aug 23 2013

Antics, birds, bunnies, squirrels, Texas

Flora and Fauna

One of the things I missed most while living in NYC was nature. I will always love and miss the busy-ness and energy of living in such a city, but there is something about being surrounded by beautiful plants and trees or looking skyward to catch a glimpse of a bird in flight that makes me feel centered and peaceful. Our little house in Texas is surrounded by plenty of trees and plants that are home to many different animals and I get such a kick out of spying on them from my windows.

I’ve mentioned our bunnies before (rabbits, actually) and Joey and I continue to keep tabs on them and their goings on. We don’t have a vegetable garden (though I dream of someday having one), so the abundance of rabbits in our area is more of a joy than a bother. I may have even bought a bag of rabbit food to leave out for them on occasion. I’m not putting out so much food that they will come to rely on it, but just enough to get a few extra fluffy cottontail glimpses every now and then.

We also have lots of birds that make their home in the trees and bushes that surround our neighborhood. There is a cardinal pair that we see almost every day, chirping happily to each other as they flit from branch to branch. And Joey recently brought my attention to a dove and her two babies, who have been flapping around in our bushes lately. I decided to put out a bird feeder to further entice these feathered creatures to enjoy our area, and since then I have seen daily visits from the cardinals, and even spotted a woodpecker!

I initially hung the feeder from my back porch and within 20 minutes I was getting a few interested visitors. By the second day the feeder had already been emptied, with a huge mess of seeds having been tossed out onto my porch. I knew it must have been a squirrel, as no bird could have had the strength to completely knock over the feeder and create such a mess. I even spotted the culprit in a nearby tree, waiting for me to refill the feeder one rainy day.

I’ve since moved the feeder to our front porch just outside our picture window, thinking it may be slightly harder for the squirrels to reach it as it hangs far from the edge of our roof. Not that they haven’t been trying, though. I came home the other day to find that they’ve overturned a small potted cactus and completely strewn potting soil (and birdseed) all over our porch. I righted the cactus only to find it overturned and further trampled the very next day.

The last straw came this week when I came home to find that my little cactus-sproutling, the very one I had been so enamored with a few weeks ago had been mangled by what I can only assume were those crazy ass squirrels. I usually enjoy a good squirrel scamper, but I’m so sad that they attacked my little cactus!

Aug 02 2013

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Antics, baby knits, designing, Dogs, Family, gloves/mittens, Hats, knitting, Other Crafty Things, wool

Insta July

July brought the birth of our nephew Healy, who was promptly snuggled in a handknit wool blankie and has been bringing us all love and happiness nonstop ever since. I’ve also been spending lots of time with Joey as he gets ready to start touring with Midlake again soon. There have been lots of stolen moments between his rehearsals and my work schedule to get in as much time together as we can before he leaves. I was able to catch one of their production rehearsals the other day and I was blown away… I welled up with emotion and pride at how beautiful everything sounds and how hard these guys have been working to get this album to fruition, and its almost time! There’s even been a little bit of knitting and crafting in the wee hours before I go to sleep. I have some secret knitty-type things I’m planning that I’m super excited about but I just need to find a little more time to get them going. And of course I can always count on Henry’s silly antics. He’s such a ridiculously sweet and goofy dog and he just makes us laugh and smile every single day.

Jul 30 2013

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Antics, designing, gloves/mittens, knitting

Gusseted

I spent the better part of my Sunday afternoon battling with a thumb gusset for a fingerless mitt I’m working on. On my first sad attempt, I was increasing too rapidly and the stitches were all bunched up. I probably shouldn’t even tell you the part about how my working yarn was clearly in the wrong spot when it was time to put the stitches on a holder…..

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiip!

Take two is looking much more like an actual thumb gusset, thank goodness!

Jul 27 2013

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Antics, Dogs

A Saturday Drive With Henry

Blue skies, fluffy clouds

New smells to be sniffed on the breeze,

Velvety ears flapping in the wind,

and a fuzzy little chinny chin chin.

Jul 19 2013

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Antics, designing, Hats, knitting

When All Else Fails, Knit Stripes

The intarsia was a big fail. Just a few rounds in, I had 15 different strands of yarn hanging from the work, getting so tangled I couldn’t take it. I ripped it back for probably the twentieth time and just called it a loss. The awesomely cute colorwork hat idea I had will just have to wait on the back burner for a while. After a few weeks of knit frustration where the only project I would let myself work on was this colorwork idea and nothing to show for it, I snapped. All I wanted to do was just KNIT SOMETHING. And so I knit stripes. Simple, soothing, stockinette stripes.

Yes I realize the pic is dark and grainy, and you can barely see the stripes, but have you ever tried snapping a one-armed selfie while standing next to your kitchen window hoping to get the few last rays of sunlight at 8:45pm before your poor neglected blog readers have to go yet another day without any knitting pictures, all the while trying to garner a demure smile?

Phew. I think I need to knit a few more “soothing” stockinette hats.

Jul 07 2013

2 Comments

Antics, Texas

Cactus Watch ’13

The little cactus sproutling that I thought was going to be a blossom turned out to be a little baby cactus! I’m way more excited about this than any normal person should be.

Jun 27 2013

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Antics, designing, Dogs, Family, knitting, Texas, wool

Insta June

And just like that, June has come to a close. Any spare moment I had these past few weeks was spent seeking sun and fun or a bit of relaxation and conversation with good friends. I was inspired by a message to ‘walk in beauty,’ and so I took the time to savor the sounds of beautiful music made by people I love and adore, the splendor of heart stopping sunrises, the wonderful feel of squishy soft American-made wool in my hands and on my knitting needles, and the unexpected delight from discovering a tiny little cactus blossom sprouting from a cutting I planted at the end of last summer.

Walk in beauty, indeed.

Jun 24 2013

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Antics, designing, Dogs, Hats, knitting, Texas, Yarn

On Summer, Swatching & Unconventional Yarn Holders

What was it I said at the end of May– something about looking forward to summertime? Oh yes, summer is in full effect here in Texas. So much that there has been an insanely negligible amount of knitting to show. I knitted a small swatch for a colorwork hat idea I’m working on, but the stranded method I had originally planned didn’t look very good as the floats were way too long, and duplicate stitching the color sections made it way too bulky, so I’m trying a different approach.

Have you ever tried intarsia in the round? I watched a video of someone doing it the other day and it blew my mind. I had no idea it was done with wraps and turns and knitting back and forth while the rest of the piece is worked circularly. Hopefully I will have more success with this method of adding some color to my knitting, because as of right now this hat is looking like a total snooze-fest.

Also, who needs a yarn bowl when you have a sleepy old basset? Five minutes after I took this picture he was wagging his tail and barking in his sleep. Oh Henry, you melt my heart with your sweetness.

Jun 17 2013

A Day at the Beach

We have some friends in town, Johan and Anna who are visiting from Sweden. Johan is here to record an album at Redwood and Anna is here visiting the states for the very first time. While the boys spend their days making some really beautiful music in the studio, my friend Felicia and I are doing our best to make sure Anna gets a good glimpse of Texas while she’s here. This weekend, we found ourselves sitting on the beach of a lake that felt like an ocean.

We packed ourselves into the car; I squeezed in alongside Anna, Felicia, and our friend Shayla and her two littles and we started making our way north towards the lake. It was a classic Texas summer day—bright blue skies with gorgeous white clouds and the feel of the hot hot sun on your skin. Anna had her camera out during most of the drive, snapping shots of the horses and cows that were grazing the pastures that lined the small farm roads.

We arrived at the swimming beach and made a quick dash to the water which was the perfect temperature for cooling off in the heat. Tons of bright umbrellas were staked in the sand and lots of excited swimmers were having a blast and splashing around on colorful inflatables. Kids were laughing, dogs were barking and families were grilling food and enjoying the sunshine.

Our day was full of so many fun memories: we swam out to the buoys, we caught a rogue dolphin inflatable and we grossed out when our toes touched the mossy rocks on the lake bottom. We made up silly water games and laughed really, really hard. And at the end of the day, we drove home sandy-footed and waterlogged and with that sleepy-happy feeling that comes from a day well spent with good friends.

PS- if you have some time, be sure to check out Johan and Anna’s websites linked above. Johan has an amazing voice and writes beautiful songs and Anna is a very talented painter who recently had her work on exhibition at the Louvre.

Jun 01 2013