a year of hats : february

Squeaking in here just in time to share my February hats::

This was a busy month, and I only finished two hats. Both sweet little baby hats for friends far away. Both knit with 100% wool yarn from my stash that has long lost it's color name. The blue is a superwash by my friend Shelly and the purple is a Cascade superwash. The pattern was inspired by this sweet little hat, details on ravelry. I finished the blue hat on our way to Alaska to gift a friend in Cordova…. along with play silks and a quilt and some flag banners for their new home. There are perks to being a friend to someone with shop inventory!

On the other needle this month I stitched up those sweet little pants using the quick change trousers pattern from this book and a lovely silk & flannel blanket that matches the purple hat perfectly! The pants are sewn up with some double gauze fabric from my Heather Ross Far Far Away stash. Let me tell you, that fabric makes wonderfully soft little pants! I really love the way these turned out. And yes, they are reversible, complete cuteness overload! My dear friend in Louisiana just welcomed her fourth little one…. a sweet baby girl! It was so fun putting together a box of handmade goodness for her.

Tell me….. what are you making these days?

xo,

pssst…… year of hats on instagram #yearofhats2015 – feel free to join and add any hats you're knitting to the pool. I'd love to see them!

alaska in february…….

Joe & I got away last week for the quickest trip ever to Cordova. Yes, just the two of us. My brother chose us as godparents for the newest little one in the family, who we were so excited to meet! We really enjoyed seeing everyone, getting lots of nephew love, and visiting with mom. She's doing amazing….. it was so good to see her.

As quick trips tend to be, the long weekend was a whirlwind. We couldn't land in Cordova the first day due to fog, so we had an impromptu overnight in Juneau where we ate halibut fish and chips and drank good beer while we watched college students sing karaoke. (and we felt kind of old) We ran out to the airport one afternoon to see an old friend who was passing through. He was headed home to Sitka from a weekend of skiing in Anchorage, and the flight makes several stops, one being Cordova. He ran off the plane, we gave each other a hug and laughed, and then he got back on. We celebrated an early 40th birthday for a certain someone (not me). Had a lovely brunch with some sweet friends and their brand new baby girl. Joe got his long expired license renewed at the DMV, which was a hilarious fiasco involving the dismantling of the DMV camera and Joe's mechanic abilities to get it working. Only in rural Alaska would someone come in on her day off to renew someone's license. Lots of nephew hugs and silliness. And a bit of fun chaos chasing four labradors around. (yes, those ones…. they're huge!) It was crazy. But Alaska managed to do that thing it always does to me. Pull at my heartstrings with it's beauty. The mountains. The people. The salt in the air…..

And fifty-degree weather didn't hurt either…….

And now we're home. Getting settled back into the rhythm of our days…..

xo,

well, there’s snow…..

It's doing it again right now.

Snowing.

Thank goodness Joe built a plow. (Out of a riding mower without a mowing deck and a plow blade – both given to him by people moving). He taught the girl how to drive it and this last storm she scooped snow to the edge of our ever shrinking driveway and he shoveled it over the berm.

I'm actually not sick of it, the snow, which I hate to admit because I know a lot of you are. But the truth is, it doesn't really cramp my style. Only one of the kids gets snow days. So does the man, but that's kind of a sweet deal. It piles up. I get a workout from shoveling. I need that workout, believe me. I need the motivation to get out there. Work to be done does that. Except when the guy gets a snow day and he says I should spend the day in the studio. And so I do. There was that one part where the roof had to be shoveled, and the enormous icicles entangled the outdoor lights I had forgotten to take down, and we used a dozen or more buckets of hot water (which I sent out the second floor window to Joe who was on the roof) to melt a huge ice dam threatening to damage our roof. That part was a little crappy.

But the rest of it? The garden is under nearly three feet. Dogs wade belly deep to try and find their beloved sticks. We are all bundled in layer upon layer to keep warm. Extra seeds get tossed on top of the snow for our forest friends and to our chickens. The bees quietly buzz away. Snowflakes on your nose. Kids playing in a hammock and flailing themselves off into the fluff. As it starts falling again, I can stand still and watch for what seems like forever. A little in love, a little in awe. I'm convinced it is one of the last magical things as a grown up as I watch it flutter from heaven to the earth…. yeah, I'm still kinda digging it. With soul and biceps.

xo,

maybe it’s cabin fever

I suddenly decided to clean out closets.

I'm not sure what it was. To be honest, it's usually not the mess. It's usually something I'm thinking about that is totally unrelated to the mess. Decluttering helps clear my mind. And the best time to get rid of piles of stuff is when your mind is preoccupied. It takes a lot to grab your attention, you know? More stuff goes in the bag.

So I hit my side of the closet and dresser first. One bag. Two bag. My favorite thrifted sweater that I've had for over a decade finally got the boot. The book shelf after that (woah mama, this lady is on a roll.) One box, two box to donate plus one HUGE stack to sell on Amazon. On to the kitchen and pantry. Three box. I would have started in the studio next, but we leave soon for a quick trip north for my new little nephew's baptism….. so I temporarily stopped the get-rid-of-stuff train.

I have a lot of shifting to do in the studio. I recently sold my spinning wheel…… did I tell you that already? I don't remember. And I'm paring down what I sell in my shop, no more sewn goods for the time being. I'm hoping to do some patterns for my aprons, bags, art wraps, and doll quilts as pdf downloads…. available this spring (fingers crossed). All of that is the long way of saying I suddenly realized that if I am not sewing for other people, I have entirely too much fabric. And yarn. Which is always falling on my head. I thought of taking pictures of each thing and selling them individually….. but I think it would be so much fun to put together mystery studio bundles. And you have to say "mystery studio bundles!" in a booming theatrical voice, c'mon it's fun! Each would contain a few half yards of fabric, one skein of yarn, and some other random goodies. Just like Soulemama did f-o-r-e-v-e-r ago when they moved into their farmhouse. What do you think? I love a good surprise!

I guess that's all I have to share this morning. Maybe I'll head to the bathroom drawers next. My lovely kiddos have a knack for collecting odd bits of things in there…. along with never throwing a band-aid wrapper away. Ever. Instead they pile up in the back of the drawer, because, you know…. the bathroom trash can is sooooooo far away from the drawer that contains band-aids. Goofy kids.

xo,

ps – if you wonder I've been stopping in here less, I blame it all on instagram. all the cool kids are there. come on over. it's pretty fun!