Wire bags

This page of wire carry-alls from a recent Real Simple got me thinking about knitting string bags with wire! I have been seeing a version in my head that looks like tinsel and shredded pink tissue. I'm sure there are multiple possibilities over at Habu.

Parsley Snap Pea leaves

Nothing gets watered in our yard. The only thing that made it through the Summer was a recycle container on the back step filled with potting soil and a basil plant and some mint - I emptied the tea kettle into it whenever I thought of it. So I am planning a kitchen doorstep garden and trying out Quince and Co.'s Puffin yarn on large needles in the Cotton Leaf Rag pattern.

Old gold socks and "A Reverence for Wood"

This is Cookie A's Angee pattern from "Sock Innovation." I love this old gold color which I think is from Black Bunny Fibers. On Phila*craft's advice, I am reading Eric Sloane's "A Reverence for Wood" - old barns, eel traps, barrels and canoes.

Last days of summer

This wonderful raspberry souffle is really a neck warmer using Quince and Co.'s Osprey yarn. The pattern is from Reversible Knitting. I have finally settled into the new school year and need to take pictures of all my Summer knitting!

Yarn bomb in my neighborhood

We were very excited to see a yarn bombing right here in our neighborhood! The Berkeleyside blog did a post here:
http://www.berkeleyside.com/2010/07/20/inside-the-mind-of-an-anonymous-yarn-bomber/

Hands on with a hand axe

Late on a Friday we discovered the British Museum was celebrating the Italian Renaissance. Besides falconry, sword fighting and dancing, they had a table where you could hold a 350,000 year old hand axe. My hand fit perfectly! Have you been listening to the British Museum's 100 objects podcasts?
http://www.britishmuseum.org/ahistoryoftheworld

Tea granita

A glass of tea granita with a chilled spoon really hits the spot when it's 105! I was inspired by the granita recipes in Jamie Oliver's British magazine. I steeped some tea in a sugar syrup for about four minutes and then froze it. When you need a treat, scratch the ice with a fork until you have a nice cup of tea. The magazine also had an ad for Aztec Duel, "the new garden game phenomenon for 2010," which makes our plain old ladder golf game sound so exotic!

Tarkhan linen dress

This is the 5000 year old linen dress from the Petrie Museum. I would like to sew my own version as a tunic, maybe in that deep green from the Tube tile photo with light turquoise beads.

Tube tile

This forest green and light turquoise tile is from the Green Park tube station. After cases and cases of Egyptian beads at the Petrie Museum I think I have been brainwashed to covet all kinds of dark green and turquoise color combinations.

The fountains of Lego

I love this outdoor fountain made of yellow legos. Legoland's miniature Europe has so many beautiful buildings, but I really love the boats and fountains. Throughout the park there were beautiful Lego doves tucked into eaves and trees. I think our garden at home will benefit from a Lego fountain and dove!

Paint your kitchen on fire

I've thought about putting a mosaic above my stove or maybe a mirror. but now that I've seen this kitchen display in the Museum of London, I'm planning a soot and flame mural.

"Handmade Modern" inspiration

This book is a mini introduction to many modern designers and contains DIY projects inspired by their styles. The bedside table with the stained cork board top would make a lovely table anywhere, especially if you painted a design on the cork! I like the idea of finding a table top and adding modern legs.

Summer cups

My small handle-less cups have dropped their T Brown coats and transformed themselves with green glazes for Summer drinks and wines. I'm enjoying the carving and need to explore other tools.

Hyacinth! You commented about a hanging garden in your city window and I must direct you to the Window Farms site. Please get going on some plant hangers for your plastic bottles. Don't be shy of hemp and beads! Try thin, deep red or deep pink hemp, turquoise. Add a little hand-bent copper wire and some tiny pulleys. This is going to look fantastic in your pre-war 6 foot narrow windows.

Do you happen to have any of those little garden lights that look like dragonflies? A small string of Pmas lights in an empty glass jar hanging somewhere in the midst of this would be good, some holes poked into the lid and the slightest wiff of pickle juice.

Irene Feesey

The April issue of The World of Interiors has a wonderful article by Ruth Guilding on Irene Feesey. Antony Crolla's photographs show the artist's needlepoint, embroidery, paper mache bowls and lovely handmade cards. I love that songbird cushion behind her in the photo. I think it would make a great ipad cover.

Another Audrey

I've knitted another Audrey cardigan and I'm planning another. I'd like to use two strands of Haiku or Kidsilk Haze next time. I think I will keep knitting this pattern over and over. Wouldn't it be nice as a sleeveless pullover in something silky with cotton?

20 innings of chair weaving

Well it didn't take 20 innings of the Cardinals' game, only 3 or 4 tries to get the chair sorted out. I ended up sewing my denim strips together into one long strip. This chair needs a cushion. I may cut up another pair of old jeans and weave a cushion top.

I'm about to finish another Audrey cardigan in Scottish Tweed. Next, I'll cast on Uhura in SWTC's Terra. I'd like to knit Audrey in some kind of cottony blend for Summer. What Summer yarns do you like in 24s/4" gauge?

The batter is in the shadows

"The batter is in the shadows and the pitcher is in the sun." I'm listening to Game 3 of the 1968 World Series while weaving a new chair seat. At last weekend's Alabama Chanin workshop, Butch Anthony gave a little demonstration on weaving ties into a chair seat. We have no ties, but these strips of old blue jeans are working fine. If there isn't a game on the radio near you while weaving or weeding or mopping, I highly recommend listening to a 'vintage' game here.

Alabama Chanin

I have fallen off the blogging wagon into a prickly sewing patch - can't even remember my flickr password. Saturday I walked down to the Edible Schoolyard for the Alabama Chanin Workshop. You've probably seen the books - Alabama Stitch Book and Alabama Studio Style - but have you clicked through the couture photos on their site? I began a little pieced tank top in reverse applique for the young Miss Lear.

These books and patterns change the way you think of applique. You begin using the word as a verb. I am annoyed when people use 'impact' as a verb. It sounds rough and careless to run around impacting things with bulletpoints. But now 'applique' is sounding just as reckless. If you're not going to wear that, I'd like to applique it...applique over that stuff...I should just applique that thing.

Embroidery is also sounding slightly destructive. It appears like propaganda overnight - clean laundry is not just mended but a-mended with a vine and a little house. All the market bags are open targets. I am armed with milliners, sharps and betweens and I find clean and simple tedious.

"Simple Flowers" by Constance Spry

While cleaning the hallway I found the umbrella stand. I bought some lilac stems this morning and snipped some things from the yard and now I have my very own arrangement a la "Simple Flowers". I love the photos in this book and the simple advice. The chapter on containers is good too.

Desk by the window

Vanessa Bell's "Interior with Housemaid" painted in 1939 inspires me to push all the tables and desks to the windows - and where there's no sense of privacy, place large painted screens.

Style Inspiration

This photo sums up all the elements I want to pour into our home: bookshelves, plants, and workspace. This room was photographed by Jason Schmidt for the New York Times Magazine, April 11, 1999. The caption explains the room belongs to George and Effie Soter and was used in the movie "You've Got Mail" as Jean Stapleton's apartment. I've added my inspiration pictures to a flickr set here.

Apartment Therapy's Spring Cure

Apartment Therapy's Spring Cure begins today and I am signed on! This is the diningroom "before" picture and there's my yarn stash in the foreground - not much left really. I'm knitting another Audrey sweater between bouts of mopping and sorting.

Golden Gate Gardening

This year I am embracing the cool fogginess of my backyard. I just got my copy of Pam Peirce's Golden Gate Gardening. We're lucky to have some fruit trees and some herbs that have gone native in back; I keep a pot of mint on the front porch. But this Spring I would like to put in a few more things. I want to grow some viney things.

Planting time

I am starting some seeds from last summer's farmers' market - French cantaloupe, a bright yellow melon, and some sweet peppers on the windowsill. I moved my yarn armoire into the kitchen to be a pantry. This has left my stash sitting around the diningroom suddenly homeless and vulnerable.

Jane Birkin's sweater

I love Jane Birkin's sweater in this Financial Times photo - the neckline, three-quarter sleeves, the ribbing - the color.