Antics | Love Is All You Knit

Mar 06 2013

Love and Coffee Mugs

Joey and I have amassed a collection of coffee mugs that tell a little story of our lives. It wasn’t an intentional collection, but every time he leaves for a tour he comes back with a little something from whatever fabulous country or city he has visited, and the souvenirs that see the most use are always the mugs. I have a few special ones in the collection too and I was noticing the other day how we tend to pick out certain mugs for each other, and that there may be little unspoken messages behind our selections.

When I’m pouring the coffee I always think something along the lines of “oh he gets the Union Jack cause he’s going to London soon and I’ll take the knitting one because I plan to do tons of knitting today” or “I feel like tea and I’m going to drink it out of my London tea cup and since that one is little, Joey gets the little one from Sweden. He loves Sweden.”

When he pours the coffee, he tends to make mine in the Love Is All You Knit mug and his in either the Amsterdam mug or maybe the Don’t Mess With Texas. Sometimes he’ll bring me coffee in the little mug from Holland with the Dutch girl and boy leaning in for a kiss. And when he is on tour, I tend to drink from a mug that is geographically close to wherever he is traveling. Yes, there has been an “oh he’s in Spain, so I’m drinking from Barcelona today,” and I’ve even drank from his J- initial cup to feel extra close while he was away.

Our subconscious mug-selection habits may be a little silly, but one thing is for sure: our cups are always filled with love.

Tagged amsterdam, barcelona, coffee, holland, london, love, mugs, spain, sweden, tea, texas, travel

Feb 28 2013

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Antics, designing, Dogs, Family, knitting, Music, Texas, writing

Insta February

February was a month where Joey and I both found ourselves working hard. He has spent lots of time working at Redwood Studio- recording music and in the down time finishing some of their last bits of studio construction. They are putting the final touches on the “apartment” side of the studio, so that out of town musicians can have a place to stay when they record an album there. They held a grand opening event, with two of the artists they have been working with performing live for a small crowd. The night had a magical energy about it and it was so good to get to finally share the fruits of our labor with others and see them enjoy it so much.

I’ve been working on drafting patterns for a few of my latest designs and also making a big office move that has sapped lots of my nightly knitting energy. (Hello, exhausted 9pm bedtimes and doggie snuggles!) I celebrated a birthday and also celebrated the release of my pattern and article in Pom Pom. We’ve had some house guests the past week- a good friend from our NYC days who has since moved to CA, and a new friend from England, who are both in town to record at Redwood.

Things are good. Things are good.

Feb 17 2013

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Antics, crochet, knitting, Texas

Knit Spotting

Joey and I went wandering around town after brunch yesterday and happened upon a vintage shop that had tons of knitwear. Here are a few of the pieces that caught my eye.

As a child of the 80s, I can’t see this sweater and not think of Nintendo’s Duck Hunt game. I think you could have a lot of fun with this sweater vest if you had enough moxie to pull it off, though I’m not sure I would be confident enough to do it.

This sweater caught my eye because of the bold graphic diamond and zig zag patterning. I’m not so sure about what the checkered finish line and puppy dogs have to do with anything, but there they are. This one was rightly tagged as a “fun Cosby sweater.”

I love the red and grey and white combo and the nice slim silhouette of this sweater. Its a vintage University of Alabama sweater. (definitely had to google that.)

Off the wall? Off the planet more like. The label reads “Expressions by Campus” which is a fashion label from the late 60s early 70s and it seems they had a lot of interesting knit and crochet sweaters.

Feb 01 2013

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Antics, bags, designing, Dogs, Family, knitting, Music, NYC, shawls/wraps, Texas, travel, writing

Insta-January

January was a bit of a whirlwind for me. Knit-wise, I started off by photographing and releasing my hat pattern, Borlänge, and I made some nice progress on a few upcoming designs. Travel-wise, there was a super quick weekend trip to Texas Hill Country to visit with some dear friends and Joey took a weeklong music trip to NYC during the coldest week ever. In our downtime, we enjoyed a fabulous dinner party with good friends that ended with lots of laughs and even a bit of singing and dancing. There was also a nice long Saturday afternoon spent at Redwood studio: me knitting, Joey working on guitar parts for a friend’s record, and Henry lounging around on the cozy shag rug. Unfortunately, January ended on a sad note with the loss of our sweet, sweet Daisy and my parents’ gentle dog Fly. We’ve all been a bit broken hearted this week as we had to unexpectedly say goodbye to these wonderful dogs that brought so much love and happiness to our lives. But as Elizabeth Zimmerman says, “properly practiced, knitting soothes the troubled spirit, and it doesn’t hurt the untroubled spirit, either.”

and I’ve got some knitting to do….

Tagged dogs, elizabeth zimmerman, knitting, music, NYC, texas

Jan 26 2013

Gettin Zippy With It

I’ve been working on a design for a little zig zag bag since before Christmas and I’ve been putting off the finishing- sewing in a zipper and a fabric lining. I have to admit I have always been a little intimidated by finishing things. You spend so much time knitting something and if you do a shoddy job at finishing, it can ruin the whole thing. (See here for the story of the Five Year Sweater that literally sat around unfinished for years because I was too afraid to sew in the sleeves.)

Well today, I armed myself with needle and thread and just dived right in.

I unzipped the zipper and pinned one side of the tape to the inside edge of the bag and just stitched away. Then I pinned the other side and stitched that down too. And lo and behold, I sewed in that entire zipper in with no major catastrophes.

Now on to the lining! And finishing up the pattern I’m writing for this 🙂

Tagged bag, knitting, pouch, zig zag, zipper

Jan 17 2013

2 Comments

Antics, designing, knitting, travel, writing, Yarn

Psst….

Just wanted to share the sneak peek teaser that Pom Pom Quarterly have released for their upcoming Spring Issue:

image source: Pom Pom Quarterly

I have a travelogue article featured in this issue and maybe even a teensy little pattern to go along with it! I’m very excited to be a part of this issue, as Pom Pom is such an exciting new publication for the knitting community.

PRE ORDER Issue 4 or SUBSCRIBE to the next four issues.

Tagged crafting, crochet, embroidery, knitting, pom pom, pom pom quarterly, yarn

Jan 14 2013

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Antics, baby knits, cardigans, Hats, knitting, Yarn

Baby Knits

A little over a year ago on the eve of 2012, Joey and I were sitting around a fire with some of our closest friends and discussing the dawning of a new year. One by one we went around the circle, each of us sharing in turn some of our most closely held ambitions. One of my goals was to design and publish a knitting pattern (which I did here and here). One of Joey’s goals was to build and open a recording studio (which he did here). When it came to our friend Israel’s turn, he looked at his wife Laura and shared that they really wanted to become parents in the coming year. I’m excited to share that he and Laura will be welcoming little Miss Willow Blanche towards the end of February!

Of course I had to pour my love and excitement for them into a couple of snuggly knits for this little one and now that they have been gifted I can share them with you.

The cardigan is the Baby Sophisticate pattern which is a really quick and adorable knit. The hat is the Super Soft Super Simple Baby Hat by the Purl Bee and I am in love with the silly pom pom on top. I used Berroco Vintage chunky yarn for both.

Tagged baby hat, baby sweater, berroco, cardigan, hat, knitting, newborn, pom pom, sweater

Jan 09 2013

3 Comments

Antics, designing, Family, Hats, knitting, Music, travel

New Pattern: Borlänge

Borlänge is a fitted beanie knitted with three sea-inspired shades of Rowan Felted Tweed DK and embellished with a pom pom and an anchor motif.

Borlänge was inspired by Joey’s travels through Sweden and Norway. During his time there, he was struck by the prevalence of anchors in Scandinavian culture. The anchor is a strong symbol of hope, stability, and steadfastness, and it was in Borlänge, Sweden where he played the Peace & Love Music Festival that he got a tattoo of an anchor to memorialize his travels and to celebrate the stable and anchored feeling that our love gives him when we are apart. I knitted my love into this hat, with an anchor of my own to keep us connected when he is away.

Materials

Three shades of DK or sport weight yarn (Rowan Felted Tweed DK suggested; 191 yards of Clay, 50 yards of Camel, and 2 yards of Seasalter)

1 set of US 4 (3.5 mm) 40″ circular needles for magic loop method

1 set of US 5 (3.75 mm) double pointed needles or

1 set of US 5 (3.75 mm) 40″ circular needles for magic loop method

tapestry needle

6 stitch markers

Finished Size

One Size; to comfortably fit an adult head of 19-23 inch circumference. Finished hat has a circumference of 19 inches and a depth of 8.75 inches

BUY NOW or view the pattern page on Ravelry

Tagged anchor, borlange, hat, knitting, pom pom, rowan felted tweed, scandanavian

Jan 05 2013

2 Comments

Antics, Books, crochet, Yarn

FO: Chevron Rug

I fell pretty hard for the recent chevron trend and decided I needed a little zig-zag décor for my house. Using a rug from West Elm as my inspiration, I decided to crochet a rug.

This was my “back-burner” project over the summer as I would pick it up in between some of the other projects I had on the needles. It took a long time for me to finish something so simple, but it came out really cute. I used cotton/acrylic yarn, so it will be easy to just toss in the wash when it gets dirty…. cause somebody around here loves to dirty up my rugs!

Pattern: Slightly modified version of Sahara from the book 200 ripple stitch patterns by Jan Eaton. I crocheted 6 pattern rows before changing colors.

Yarn: Lion Brand Cotton Ease, in colors grey and white

Hook: size G 4.25 MM

Tagged acrylic, chevron, cotton, crochet, rug, zig zag

Jan 03 2013

How To: Plant Cactus Cuttings

I’ve been wanting a few cactus plants for my home as they are super low maintenance, which is my kind of houseplant. It’s pretty easy to replant cactus cuttings, so I thought I’d share my process.

I gathered some cuttings while I was out visiting my parents’ ranch over the holidays. My mom and dad helped me pick out the different types that you see above. You will also want some pretty heavy duty gloves to protect from their barbs.

I read online that a cutting needs to develop a “callus” at the cutting site before you replant it, otherwise it is likely to rot. I left these cuttings out for a week for that purpose. Then I filled my terra cotta pots halfway with slightly damp soil, and gently placed each cactus cutting into the soil and held it upright as I poured additional soil around the base of the cactus. I lightly watered the rest of the soil after filling the pot to the rim and there you have it: rugged greenery for your home.