reconstructed sweater

i found this sweater in front of my building this spring. it's 100 percent cashmere.


but it had the most hideous neckline. yuck!



so i undid it and redid it (using both knitting and crochet.)


i think i'll embroider it a little.

vegetation

um, guys? some of you may know that i live a few doors down from the police station. look at what's growing out in front. i wish i could have gotten a shot of it with the station behind, but it's not tall enough. yet. stay tuned.




oh: and i didn't plant it. i swear.

blackle

how exciting! an extremely easy way to make your life a little greener: blackle. it's google, but with a black background, so it saves energy! switch now!

productivity update

the morning glories have really taken off! soon they will be all the way up to the upstairs neighbor's. i hope his enjoyment of them inspires him not to toss his cigarette butts into my pots.


the cilantro sprouted!

future salsa



my mother gave me some beautiful wide wale corduroy, so i made a skirt. no pattern, i didn't have the patience. i love it and will wear it a lot, but i kind of wish i hadn't done darts with this fabric. of course they don't lie flat.

i made a pillow with blue of the same fabric. well, actually, i covered an old pillow that had been stained, but had been covered in such a way that the cover could not be removed to be washed. i firmly believe that all furniture and furniture accessories should be covered in removable covers. anyways. it's not fancy, just functional.


unlike the pillow behind it, which was made for warren and me for our wedding by badecca. she even has a whole post about it on her blog. check out her awesome designs!

detail of the fabric. oh, so fall!


here's the labradorite necklace. i decided not to weigh it down with the big bead because it drapes nicely around the collarbone, having been individually knotted and all.

new job

i have the day off from work today because we are waiting for the network to tell us if they like our episode. yay! then, most likely, i'm done with this job.

i have decided, and posting this here will help me stick to my decision, to knit some things to sell for the fall season until i get another editing job. i want to make something that i can sell right away to see whether i can make a tiny bit of a living at it. and then maybe i could knit instead of edit. not that i don't like editing, but i'd like to try something i feel more passionate about. clothes. i am very passionate about clothes.

i thought vests would be good. hats and scarves won't sell until it gets much colder. vests are very "back-to-school" looking and can be worn even if it's still not very cool in september, which it probably won't be.

i'm going to make them out of reclaimed yarn, that is, yarn that comes from unraveling a secondhand sweater. that way, my costs will be minimal, and it will be so eco!

i just won a set of knitting needles on ebay for an insanely reasonable price through my stealth method of only bidding at the very last second. this way, i have every size so that i don't have to run to the local yarn store every time i use a new kind of yarn.



there are all kinds of stores now in new york that offer items made by independent makers, and this one even specializes in repurposed and eco garments and jewelry. it's right around the corner from my apartment, and maybe they will want to sell my stuff. i'm going to make ten vests and then try to get a store to sell them. at the very least, i will sell them on etsy. (i love the idea of etsy; here are some of my favorite items.) if i am successful, i will make hats and scarves this winter. of course i will be blogging it all. i'll make a new blog for it. "tiaworks"?

until my needles arrive, however, i am going to finish my labradorite necklace and sew some more napkins.

continuing saga of the tomato

i ate the first tomato today. it was totally amazing and lived up to all its hype. i made a salad out of it with basil i grew too.




guess who's next?

(oh, in case you're following along, i forgot all about the coriander, and it dried out. also, the morning glories have turned out to be pink.)

tomato update etc.

i know you've been wondering how my tomatoes are doing. well, i'll tell you: they are just now starting to turn red.


my husband's coworker's father has a farm upstate, and he gave us some of his tomatoes. it was like eating heaven. i hadn't had goodness like that since high school, when my dad grew them on our back porch. i had forgotten they could be that good. so now i am getting even more impatient!

i have started to get more brazen about taking pictures of people. i know it's probably morally wrong, but i can't keep letting all of these sights go unshared.