Hey!
I’m in Connecticut right now, buried under close to three feet of snow. But the power is on. Hooray for teh interwebz!
So look what I found. I love yarn bombing!
See more here!
Category Archives: Knitting
Planning Week, Fall 2012 – Minimalist Closet Hack: Shop Your Closet
I’m pretty sure I’ve talked about this before, but it bears repeating: shop your closet! (Warning: this post contains many exclamation points!)
As I’m preparing for my fall wardrobe, I’m looking through what I already own to see what things I’ll be including. I’m so excited! I love my awesome clothes.
Here are a few of my clothes that will definitely be in my closet this fall:
Here are my skirts. From left to right: brown wool skirt, raspberry pencil skirt, navy pencil skirt.
Look at my navy tops! Sequined tank top, striped long sleeve shirt, and navy velvet blazer. I love this blazer!
I recently bought this dress; this is its first appearance on my blog. I love it! It’s brown linen. See the seams on the tummy area? It’s so perfect – both in fit and in detail. I anticipate that I am going to wear this dress a lot.
Random: This dress is actually a petite. When you are thrift shopping, try on everything! You never know what’s going to fit. This fits me like a glove, and I am certainly not a petite.
This halter top is definitely staying in my closet. Perfect for date nights with knee-high boots and a cardigan.
This dress is also a keeper. Must I say it? I love it. 
And remember this dress? It’s with the rest of my fall and winter clothes. I can’t wait to wear it constantly this fall. Again, probably with my leather boots. So pretty!
And last, here is a cardigan I am knitting. I started it about a month ago, and I have 1.5 sleeves done. I tried to give myself plenty of time before the weather gets really cold. I love the pattern and I love the yarn. I hope it fits when I’m done!
I haven’t decided for sure what’s going to be in my closet, but these items definitely will be. It’s easy to get dressed when you love your clothes. And boy do I love these clothes! I am so inspired, and I can’t wait to see the outfits I make this fall.
Do you have any great basics in your closet that you swear by? Do you see anything that I’m missing? I <3 planning week!
PS Speaking of planning week, tomorrow is the last day! Be sure to check back as I wrap up my wardrobe planning for this fall!
Planning Week, Fall 2012 – Minimalist Closet Hack: Style Binder
Last night, I sat down and updated my style binder. This is the fountain of my wardrobe inspiration.
For the uninitiated, a style binder is a collection of images of outfits. For me, it’s a way to notice patterns in what I like, pick up trendy ideas and plan my wardrobe. I have been keeping a style binder for over a year now, and it’s been helpful. I focus my time and energy so I know what I need for my wardrobe and how I can wear the things I already have in new stylish ways.
For my style binder, I tear out pages from catalogs that come in the mail. Now and again, I print images out from online, but the majority are pictures from catalogs.
What I did last night was group my images into four separate categories: spring/summer pictures, fall/winter pictures, striped shirt pictures, and knitting inspiration pictures.
Since I was just updating my binder, I went through what I had and took out anything I didn’t like anymore. Then I worked through each of my four categories to scrapbook my images. Sometimes I wrote little sticky notes to point out something notable about a particular outfit. See the note above? Definitely going to keep an eye out for a preppy belt like that for the fall.
So if you are playing along at home, so far we have selected our color palette for the fall, and now we have collected together images of outfits we would like to emulate. Stay tuned to Planning Week to see the rest of the process!
PS Planning a haircut this weekend. Here’s a sneak peek at what I want. I can’t wait!
Welcome, any new Gussy Sews friends! Do you keep a style binder? Or do you have an electronic version? Where do you get your wardrobe inspiration from? I would love to hear!
One Fish, Two Fish
It’s exactly what you’re thinking.
I started knitting these fish last week, and suddenly, all I could think about was Dr. Seuss. So I had to make that happen. As they allegedly say in Minnesota, “Oh, fer cute!“
And here are a pair representing the Green Bay Packers.
And more obscurely, the Colfax (Wisconsin) Vikings.
These are too much fun! I had all of the supplies on hand, so that makes them even cooler.
Anyway, this set of fish isn’t for me. I am going to pass them along to a sweet 2-year old little girl who loves “shish”. They are theoretically a good way to learn colors. Plus they are awesome, so there you go.
What are you all making? I am knitting like crazy and I love it!
Funny Bunny Is Funny
I’ve been noticing a trend lately of bloggers being completely honest about some aspect in their lives, as a way to show how everything isn’t perfect online. “Keeping it real“, if you will.
Here’s my confession for the day: sometimes I make things that I think look bad.
Exhibit A: Funny Bunny
This is one mangled softie. You can’t really tell in the picture, but her legs are all wonky. All four are the same size, which makes the bottom ones seem out of proportion. They aren’t really in the same plane either; it looks like she’s constantly doing some weird yoga move. Also, her “face” isn’t centered on her head.
Same thing with her ears.
But you know what? She was made with a whole lot of love.
So I’m going to send her to my niece anyway for Easter, and I hope that someday she can see appreciate the intention behind this accidentally-creepy rabbit.
Funny Bunny reminds me of a quotation from Ira Glass on NPR about ambition, intention, and skill:
“All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work … It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions … It’s gonna take a while … You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”
Back to Funny Bunny: she comes bearing chocolate, so I hope that helps.
Have you ever made something that didn’t come out the way you planned? What did you do with it? Did you try to improve it by adding chocolate??
Show & Tell 12/9/2011
Look! I made something! And it’s finished! I feel like I’m finally getting my mojo back.
I even had all the supplies on hand and cranked this cowl out in less than 24 hours. I used some chunky white yarn that I had bought on sale last summer. One skein! (Well, technically a hank.) I love the color, and I LOVE the texture. This little project was fulfilling on many levels.
I haven’t yet decided the fate of this beauty. But for right now, I’m happy it’s done.
What have you been making lately? Share share share! I need some inspiration.
Show & Tell 10/7/2011
I am posting so late! Today was one of those days were I only worked for part of the day, so I thought I had plenty of time to get lots of things done. Well, one never has an infinite amount of time. I did run some important errands, including getting my hair cut:
Anyway, I finished this scarf last night, and I meant to post this a lot earlier. But I am doing it now; that’s what counts.
Behold! Grey scarf, knitted in baby alpaca yarn, from a pattern printed in the 1940s.
I tricked the Man into modeling for me. Doesn’t he look manly?!
This scarf is soft like a baby lamb or knitted scarf. Seriously, this is beautiful to feel. I can’t say it any better than that. It’s big too, which is how I like my scarves.
I am planning on listing this in the Etsy shop this weekend. It’s the first of (hopefully) many items I want to knit based on vintage patterns. Like I mentioned earlier, this pattern was printed in the 1940s. There was a glove pattern that matches, but it would be a PITA to knit. So I just made the scarf.
I’ve already got something new on the needles! I’m hoping to get some serious knitting done this weekend on a little road trip. Hope you’re all having a creative weekend! See you back here next week. As always, I want to hear what you’re making too. Share!
Gussy Sews Inspiration Workshop!: Fall
Fall has arrived in New England. We are having chilly mornings and evenings, leaves falling from the trees, and mums popping up everywhere.
I took on this week’s Gussy Sews Inspiration Workshop!‘s prompt as a photography challenge. Whenever I saw something “Fall”, I whipped out my camera and snapped some pictures.
For your eyeballs only, my version of Fall:
We are having a rainy fall. I went into the woods to take a picture of the leaves falling and discovered this waterfall in full force. The sound was deafening. It was beautiful!
Here is the project that’s on my needles right now. I am knitting this man’s scarf based on a pattern from the 1940′s. I am using Alpaca yarn; it feels like a cloud. Look for it in my shop hopefully this weekend!
I was knitting at my favorite coffee shop, where I ordered a Pumpkin Spice Latte. Yum! I try not to drink too much caffeine, but if I did, I would definitely have one of these every day.
With the chilly air, I have started rocking my tights. I love these in blue! They really do make a difference.
Tulmeadow Farm has their pumpkins and mums out. Beautiful! I saw yesterday that they also sell huge stalks of corn for fall decorating. I love this place, especially their ice cream. I bought Pumpkin ice cream when I was there yesterday. I love that I live so close to a farm; it is a jewel.
That’s my little fall tour from Connecticut. The leaves aren’t in full color yet, but fall has definitely arrived.
Do you experience fall where you live? Are you seeing the signs yet? This weather makes me want to knit all day. Thanks for stopping by!
Show & Tell 9/16/2011
Hi! I’m still at The Creative Connection today and tomorrow. I’m feeling excited, inspired, and overwhelmed. I hope you all will see some amazing improvements on the blog in the next few weeks as I implement all of the techniques that I’m learning.
But that’s not why you’re here today. I bet you’re here to see something that I made!
I knit this scarf out of Cascade Magnum, and it is absolutely gorgeous – soft and warm and squishy and beautiful. It’s mine! All mine!!
There is a seam in the back. I didn’t have a darning needle large enough for this yarn, so I used a crochet hook to make the seam. I think it turned out all right (I will always know which side is the back), but if I ever knit this again, I’m going to use a provisional cast on and then weave the back together so there is no seam. Fancy.
Also! I blocked this scarf!! I wasn’t able to take any pictures since I blocked it at night, but I will post in the future directions on how to block your knitted things. It really was easy.
Hello to any new readers from The Creative Connection! Please feel free to share a link in the comments to something you have created lately.
Gussy Sews Inpiration Workshop!: My favorite shop
Time again for Gussy Sews Inspiration Workshop!. I wanted to throw you a curve ball this week and NOT talk about my yarn shop.
Instead, I’m going to show you someplace where I knit. (You didn’t see that coming, did you?)
That place is my favorite coffee shop JoJo’s. It’s close to where I work. When I need to take a nice relaxing lunch break, this is where you will find me.
I liked it originally because it’s a great coffee shop. They have every tea imaginable; I tried Bubble Tea there on Tuesday. I can never decide amongst the ham, brie and Bosc pear, grilled veggie panini, or egg and cheese English muffin. The interior is relaxing and inspiring.
Now that I have frequented this coffee shop for years, I have some great memories of that place too. Fun breakfasts with friends after working out. Meeting people for lunch. Talking to other knitters.
This is one of my favorite places in the whole world.
What about you? Where do you go to relax? Or get a great sandwich? Please share!
Welcome, to all the Gussy Sews folks. And the rest of you. Happy Thursday!
