I love surrounding myself with an evolving collection of interesting resources, whatever the topic. After building a career in publishing that was not especially gratifying, I was on a quest to figure out how to build a work-life that would include my artistic self within a profession that offered a reliable means of support. Early…
I haven’t read the Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House on the Prairie books in decades, but a happy memory that lives on is the image of women crafting, their hands busy with making things both beautiful and useful. The women are seated around a table, enjoying a break from regular routines as they engage in…
Knitter/Designer Kristin Nicholas’s post today captures my thoughts exactly. In response to her question, nothing soothes me faster than making something with my hands. This week, the solution was knitting, which also means I am charging forward towards a finish (remember my 2013 commitment?!) on the Mitered Cross Blanket in Noro’s Silk Garden wool/mohair/silk yarn. Interestingly, this…
I had a little help during the … … sixteen-hour knitting marathon involved to get this blocked and wrapped for Christmas. and thoroughly enjoyed the making and gifting this year. Now I’m off to Vogue’s Knitting Live Event in NYC. Yipp-ee-i-ay! This is one of those things that’s been on my “List of Things to…
There’s nothing like having company over to motivate me to organize piles of books, discarded mail that needs shredding, fabric-waiting-for-a-project, and at this time of year, holiday catalogs that I feel as though I must look through at least once for fear of missing that great something. On the first Saturday every December a group…
A ‘thank you’ in words alone did not seem enough, so I embellished one of the vintage copyright-free downloads from The Graphics Fairy to accompany a little email note expressing gratitude for yesterday’s festivities. My brother Anthony is the co-founder of the pretty-darn-famous OTTO pizza restaurants. Yesterday he closed his Coolidge Corner (Brookline, MA) location and…
Since the moment I laid eyes on Adaliza‘s crocheted wonder, Gypsy Rose, in Kristin Nicholas’ blog post, I was full-on in love, but working with wool in the heat and humidity of summer is not what I do, so I went a little wild and ordered a mountain of Kristin’s Julia yarn (discontinued but recently reissued as…
My love affair with all-things-bookish goes way back, so I barely paused before volunteering to help at my library’s handmade books workshop. As well, my friend Jerri had recently won this year’s MFA Contest in the Amoskeag Journal, and in honor of her award, the ‘concertina’ or ‘flower fold’ style book seemed the perfect something special. After…
