Monthly Archives: October 2011

Socks Rock

Cat: Totally not impressed with my ballet moves

Ohmygosh – you know what would be a totally great holiday present for someone, man or female, young or old?  Or even just a great present for yourself?  Hand knit socks!  Socks rock.  Click here for the Etsy listing.

When I started knitting socks this summer (summer knitting needs to be small, otherwise forget it in our humid North East) I was like “Hmm, why would people want ‘expensive’ hand knit socks when you can waltz down to target and pick up something pretty similar for 10 or 12 dollars?”

Well.  Here are some reasons:

–Subsistence culture.  It’s the new old thing, learning how to make essentials (gardens, hosiery, cooking, etc.) from scratch.  Even if you’re not great with the four needles in the round yourself, at least having something that was made with them is a start!

–Comfort, comfort, comfort.  These socks are so warm and so comfy – knit with peruvian worsted wool the fibers are a continues thread of wool, unspun, so there are not a lot of gaps between stitches making these just about the warmest socks that will still comfortably fit in a pair of sneakers.  Sweaty feet?  No problem.  Lanolin in wool naturally wicks away moisture making your feet comfy AND dry throughout the day.  Personally tested, because (TMI) I have super sweaty feet.

–Made in the U.S.A.  Don’t you love that?  Our country doesn’t make a lot of things nowadays, and by buying American made you’re strengthening the economy double fold by transferring money and transferring it domestically.

–Customizable.  Don’t see the sock height/size/color you want?  Send me a note and you can pretty much get whatever you want at a reasonable price.  I’m only doing solid color socks at present, but be on the lookout for multicolors soon!

More Colors! Let me know if you want something different - I'll see what I can do!

Super Sunday

Socks for Sale!

Yes!  I finally took the pictures I wanted of my favorite new thing to make:  socks!  The above foot warmers are made with 100% Peruvian wool and are SUPER warm.  Don’t worry about sweaty feet, though, because the wool will wick away moisture while keeping your toes warm.  The ankle-high sock is $29, and the high top sock is $34.  Each pair is made to order, and if you have any special requests I am happy to try and accommodate.  Please specify shoe size (or foot length, from back of heel to tip of big toe) for perfect fit (or, if you’re not sure, ‘small’ ‘medium’ or ‘large’).  These will be going up in my Etsy shop before the weekend is up so come check it out!

Delicious Treats Only Take 30 Minutes

I’m excited, because tonight we’re going to Brian and Tara’s house for a fire.  Because I love fire so much, it doubles the fun of hanging out with friends.  I am going to bring my camera and do weird things with it!  I made the brownies above for the event, and because Brian and Tara are in a band called the Rattlesnakes this concoction is now called ‘Rattlesnacks’ in my mind cookbook.  All you really do is add Reese’s peanut butter chips to brownie mix, but sh, don’t tell.  I did these while I was simultaneously making chicken salad/chicken broth – so with a total of maybe one hour in the kitchen I managed to make lunch, a food staple and dessert in one sitting.  Plus I got to wear one of my vintage aprons so… totally worth it.

Lots of bottle caps

Lots of bottle cap work yesterday, today and tomorrow.  See how each of those has a little jump ring in them?  Well.  Each jump ring must have a hole made for it.  Then the hole needs to be sealed after the ring is put in.  Le sigh…

More Socks on the Way

Started this pair to fill the monotony between bottle cap batches.  A typical day goes like this:  come home from work (7am-4pm), throw stuff on a chair, sit on the couch, turn on the Cosmos, lean over bottle caps, every hour take a stretching, sitting up, dry time break and knit.  Eat dinner at some point, bottle caps, knit, repeat.

If you haven’t seen that applications are open for The Big Chill this December 3rd, then you should click on this to download your application now!

I must be manic today.

Photograph 10/08/2011

Casco Bay Shores

Spent the morning working at sunrise, doing a portrait session at Spring Point, near SMCC, in South Portland.  I should have stopped at 158 for a bagel.  But I had bought breakfast last night (a Clif bar) for $.99 and am being consciously frugal this week.  Saving for a house is expensive.  Watching the sun rise on a peninsula is the best.  I wish ‘work’ could be like this more often.  I put those quotation marks there because meeting new people, using my eyes and making pretty pictures doesn’t feel at all like work.

What does feel like work?  Today, I will be fastening little bits of cardboard to about 600 bottle caps so that I can make a shipment early next week.  Once I’ve sealed all the bottle caps then I will hunch over a table for an hour filling the bottle caps with epoxy.  But it’s alright, because I can do it in my pajamas!  It’s going to be beautiful out — I hope to carve out at least four hours for outside time.

Happy long weekend, even if Monday is the weirdest. holiday. ever.

Quiet Awhile

Just sorta need to get away and get quiet for awhile.

October is so gorgeous, even in the rain, that I may just spend most of it with my back to the computer.

The Big Chill applications are now officially open.  December 3rd (a Saturday) we will all be partying big time, while selling our goods.  Why don’t you join us?

Although I have always ‘occupied’ Maine, I am not officially considering myself as doing so.  Maybe you might like to spend an hour, or two, or twenty occupying Maine as well?

Now, I’ve begun writing on (hopefully) a daily basis in a less ‘professional’ (ha ha, yeah right!) forum.  You can check out mise en place, Maine here.

Off to spend the evening playing music.  Isn’t that nice?