« it "snowed" tonight! | Main | i said i'd love you forever, but i never promised i'd be true »
January 19, 2008
i hope you get things done the way that you intend
'cause you know how to get things done, and not everybody does that
I'd intended to spend at least the first part of the day in the studio today, cutting new woodblocks and working on some prints for a portfolio exchange that's due soon. But the cold and rainy weather doesn't provide much motivation for leaving the house and getting things done, and somehow I whiled away the better part of the morning still in my pyjamas, futzing around online and leaving comments on photos from my old elementary school that other people have posted to facebook (I know, I KNOW).
So I got my umbrella and squelched and slid my way along the muddy, eroding foot path to the studio and grabbed my freshly-printed dresses off the drying rack (I wouldn't have bothered going in at all at this point, but I didn't have a dress to wear other than the ones in that rack), and came back home straightaway. I've just gotten off the phone with my mom (it's her birthday today!) and I think I'll settle back on the couch and spend some quality time with a nice pot of strong black tea and this, the newest object of my affection:
That's Ariann (but I'm choosing to call mine Miss Henry) by Bonne Marie Burns. Since I've publicly declared my intention to knit from stash this year (I've been dragging my arse on making a dedicated blog post about this and about documenting/cataloguing the stash, but it'll happen soon, I promise), I had to find something around the apartment for this project. I had my doubts as I cast on with this recycled secondhand Gap-sweater wool, all the reasons why the wool sucked competing in my mind with my stitch count: its boringness, its drab colour, its devastating lack of fancy-store-boughtness. But after soldiering on through the ribbing and into the eyelet pattern I began to notice how pleasingly sturdy my button band was, how perfectly defined the columns of decreases were, how wonderfully rich (not at all drab) the grey was, and how incredibly cozy-soft it felt. I wish I could let y'all feel it, the poorly-lit photo (see above re: cold rainy weather) doesn't do it justice at all. Because, you know what? Recycled secondhand drab grey Gap-sweater lambswool is PERFECT. And I am madly in love with this sweater already, even though I'm only nine inches into it so far. I plan to change that today, and woodcuts can wait until tomorrow.
And speaking of sweaters I love, allow me to clumsily segue into this, a show-and-tell of my totally awesome curling sweater, bought last summer at the Goodwill buckapound:
Not even having to explain to all of my students what curling is, and then later to my fellow grads that they're rocks, not tanks, could dampen my giddy happiness at wearing this silly thing. I think I'm going to make this my default winter coat. All I need now is a faded blue and red plaid lumber jacket to wear underneath. I bet the buckapound can help me out there, too.
Posted by jodi at January 19, 2008 11:11 AM | categories: sticks and string
Comments
The snow is coming down rather nicely here and I'm curled up with tea and still in my pajamas as well. Seeing as that I'm stuck down here in the sweltering South all year round.. I figure I'd better soak up the joy of a snow day for all its worth.
I love the sweater! I was going to make some sort of terrible joke about how it "rocked" (because of the
curling stones..) but its probably only amusing in my own head.
Posted by: Mouse at January 19, 2008 02:58 PM
OH MY GOD! My husband has been asking me to knit him a curling sweater ever since I learned how to knit. That one is perfection.
Posted by: Megan at January 19, 2008 04:18 PM
No one in my family understands my obsession with curling. We probably watched the same TV as kids; we were on the Northern edge of the Windsor signal.
OK, I was much older than you, but you get my point.
Awesome coat. Slightly disturbing, but awesome.
Posted by: NWJR at January 20, 2008 08:29 AM
Heh heh - a friend of mine calls those plaid jackets, "Cape Breton Dinner Jackets"
Posted by: Steph VW at January 20, 2008 09:44 AM
Wow, that is an amazing sweater! I thought it was nautical the first time I looked at the picture but a curling sweater! I trust you found it at the buckapound in Windsor, not Athens?
Americans only see curling during the Olympics, hence our sad ignorance of the sport. It's fun, though, to drive by curling clubs in in Maine or NH.
Posted by: Kathode Ray Tube at January 20, 2008 09:52 AM
I got interested in curling a couple of winter olympics ago. It's a really interesting sport. And your sweater is perfect commemorating it.
Posted by: Janice in GA at January 20, 2008 06:51 PM
That is the single most awesome sweater in the history of the creation of awesome sweaters...I bet that hit Georgia like a ton of...uh...curling stones or some such heavy objects.
And Miss Henry is lovely as well.
Posted by: Ragnar at January 21, 2008 12:50 PM
all hail the plaid lumber jacket!!
Posted by: brenda in toronto at January 21, 2008 12:58 PM
I love the curling sweater! We actually were going to have a goodwill christmas sweater party (you know the sweaters I'm talking about) this year, but it didn't pan out. Next year....
I never have very much luck finding good sweaters to recycle. They are always a little to felted to take apart. Just have to keep looking. I would love any tips if you have any.
Posted by: Jodie at January 21, 2008 02:03 PM
That is a fabu sweater! (You may apply this comment to the sweater of your choice in this post!)
Posted by: liz at January 21, 2008 06:28 PM
Your curling sweater is a work of art.
Posted by: grace at January 22, 2008 11:36 AM
I've been a sloth, too...but knitting away happily..so it must be going around.
Love the curling sweater! What a find.
Posted by: TheAmpuT at January 22, 2008 07:05 PM
I have a sweater I made mostly out of recycled Gap sweater wool (grey, no less...I wonder if we started with the same model) and it is one of my favorites. The recycled, slightly felted wool is so soft and cozy. Where I had to finish with some Paton's merino (I ran out of the recycled wool) it isn't nearly as nice.
Posted by: Lyssa Kaehler at January 23, 2008 01:59 PM
The curling sweater is perfection, Jodi.
...and Ariann is a going to be a close second :)
Posted by: Lolly at January 24, 2008 07:18 AM
hey sister! I nominated you for a you make my day award on my blog today!
Posted by: Mama-E at January 24, 2008 01:24 PM
Love that you re-purposed a GAP sweater! And awesome curling sweater, as well.
Posted by: Laurie at January 26, 2008 07:42 PM
Congrats, Mariah is sweater of the week at limenviolet's daily chum!
Posted by: chris at January 28, 2008 01:25 PM