baker's doz: i made a box bag, i must have a problem.

tada! i made a friggen box bag. why? I BARELY KNOW. this is just what happens sometimes when i can't fall asleep fast enough. laying in bed pondering how i'm going to find a sweater-in-progress sized box bag in a print i like while also thinking about how i should be more resourceful (one of my 2013 goals). then my mind wandered to "huh, i bet i could make one, it would be exactly what i want, would cost like $6 total and i have all the supplies except a standard zipper....." then the 2am iphone box bag tutorial hunt began.

so, it was easy. a bit fidgety for some parts and i did something horrifying to my sewing machine that i didn't realize was possible while trying to do the inside near the zip tab. there will be no attempting to sew through 6 layers of canvas, two layers of quilting cotton and both sides of a strip of bias tape in my machine's future. besides that it basically made itself like a middle school home-ec project. ruler, fabric, scissors, done. i had to hand sew the bias tape on after the machine ate it because i broke the only needle that works in my old as dirt (but best dirt ever) sewing machine, but i had neon thread! it ended up looking cooler than if my machine had just done as commanded anyways. don't you love when disaster turns into something amazing? it's the story of my life and i love it.

now the color! seriously, i dyed it and it came out better than i was hoping for. i was shooting for "i just was attacked by a field full of ripe strawberries" and i think i nailed it. the lining is a scrap of my fave fabric of all time. super clash but who cares? i made it myself for myself, no need to be tasteful... i'm not fooling anyone.

my in progress project's view. like the neon/bias tape situation? obviously the only correct answer is yes.

it works! so everyone, do you want me to write up a tutorial? i made a hybrid version of the ones i found and i'm pretty sure it's the best/easiest way AND i made a formula to figure out fabric dimensions for any sized bag. oh math, who the hell knew i'd only use you for fun? high school me would be absolutely shocked.

exterior - Robert Kaufman Organic Canvas Deluxe - hand dyed by WHITE LIGHT (more details on that soon!)
lining - Mum Toss by Martha Negley for Rowan - i can't find the teal for sale anymore, bummer.
finished dimensions are 10.5Lx6Wx5D"

baker's doz: jo's kale leggies

at the risk of being redundant... here are more pictures of legs and feet on my deck. i hope you guys like them because i had to use a timer and looked like a lunatic jumping around in the freezing cold in front of a camera on a stool. it was awesome, i have zero shame.

so these fabulous cold repellent devices are for my friend jo. she and i both have an undying love of wearing sundresses, strongly dislike winter and refuse to ever stop wearing tights no matter how heinously cold it gets. we are in hardcore denial all winter every year and without fail nearly freeze to death because of it. i made myself a pair of these legwarmers a few months ago and they are awesome. when jo asked me if i could whip up a pair of legwarmers for her in a neutral color so she could wear them to work, i knew exactly what pattern and color to use.

keepin' it real up in providence, keeping the fight against winter alive!

some cloudy day legwarmers by tiny owl knits
madelinetosh sport - kale

baker's doz: db's socks

third finished project of 2013! totally killing it already! i started these last year in hopes they'd be part of the 2012 dirty dozen, but i let them take just long enough for all the magic of working on them to wear off. the one half of a sock i'd managed to choke out lived quietly in a ziplock bag, guilting me at all times, while i started and finished like 10 other projects.

when db went on a snowboarding trip i decided since i couldn't be chillin with him, i could at least make him a present. in one night i finished the first sock, doubling the amount i'd knit on them in like 1/10 the time. i managed to finish them in a week and db is all about them. he told me within 15 minutes of putting them on that i had to knit myself a pair of socks, they're that awesome. that's quite possibly my favorite knitting related compliment ever.

also, do you like his "foot poses"? i'm going to have to knit him more socks just to take more of these pics.

harvest dew by Rose Hiver
malabrigo yarn sock - caribeno
*cutest dog in the world not included

VD!

nothing quite like fouling out my camera with some mega-saturated valentine's day colors! i made this scarf just for today and it came out beyond awesome, i love messing with color in every medium ever. everything i'm wearing except my shirt is pink, so i'm wearing my heart on my whole self, just not my sleeve. please tell me i'm not the only one that does this.

today i got my first ever video message, it kind of blew my mind. i didn't know you could even do that, i love living in the future! i got to see my valentine even though he's across the ocean! how magical is that? so fucking rad. i could really just go to bed now because after living real life star wars i doubt my day can get cooler, but i'm all about cramming as much awesome into every second of my life as possible... sleep is for suckers. so for the rest of my day, i'm going to cuddle with my little brown puppy valentine and watch stupid girly movies while eating the chocolate covered strawberries my awesome second family sent me as a surprise. i'm so feeling the love! maybe i'll even go get a drink down the street with strangers later. who the hell knows what weird thing i'm going to do next! make some more cute valentines? yup. maybe i'll bring one to the bar and make friends with the waitstaff.

i hope you guys all have a ridiculously pink and awesome valentine's day!

baker's doz: vogue 9486

so this is happening.

every february i start pretending it's spring and day dreaming about what the good weather will be like. there will be green back in the world, the breeze will be warm, the birds will come back... basically everything will be awesome. i pretend like my days will consist solely of laying in grass, smelling good smells and feeling the world on my skin. goddamnit winter, GO AWAY.

anyways, i think my desperately wanting to make this skirt right now has a lot to do with that. this amazing vintage fabric is like summer in a print and i've been wanting to use it for a while. sometimes it's dangerous to use such cool fabric, what if what i make turns out horrible? wrap skirts are a pretty safe bet though, so if it turns out i even have enough, it's turning into this. they always fit perfectly, a bow and pockets are involved, and hopefully i'll wear it more than a dress... which would be accomplished by wearing it like 3 times a year.

summer park picnics here i come.

baker's doz: db's ridiculous hat

so, i knit this. i finished it just in time to send it off with db on his snowboarding adventure last month. it came out really good but seriously, it does not look good on him! he doesn't ever keep the brim rolled up far enough, it rolls into his face and practically covers his eyebrows. do you have any idea how ridiculous that looks?! so. bad. he's like a bean head. i go to lovingly look at him and all i see is UGH! HAT! maybe i'll sew the brim up at the right height so he isn't in control of how he looks because it's a known fact he doesn't look in the mirror ever.

anyways, enough hat bashing. this was the second project i finished this year! not bad right? db needed a new hat so i gathered up a ton of pattern options and yarn colors and this was what happened. after his pattern choices for this hat and the socks i knit for him i've decided he might hate me though. he always picks patterns that makes my fussy, time consuming habit of knitting fussier and even more time consuming... it's just a skill he has. i guess i can also take it as a compliment, right? because when he sees things that i've never done before he doesn't see it as a problem. he knows i'll figure the damn thing out or else.

a most bespeckled hat by alexandra tinsley

madelinetosh tosh vintage - nassau blue

pom pom - blue large clover pom pom maker

mt. chocorua

i realized yesterday that i never posted about the most epic adventure of the year! when db and i went up north for the holidays, we and my brother drove to the white mountains in new hampshire and climbed mt. chocorua on december 23rd!

it was awesome. it's 3,487', pretty tall right? don't ask me why i only find myself on top of mountains wearing spikes and trudging through snow. maybe nice weather would make it boring? we lucked out so huge with the weather though, apparently earlier in the day the summit was ridiculously windy and some people who had turned back tried to scare us off on their hike back down. ha! yeah, sounds terrible. don't mind us while we ignore your advice and see for ourselves. we're not sure if they were just wimpy or the weather really was that terrible an hour before, but we're happy we went up anyways.

total ridiculousness, it was like another planet. i'd never seen rime ice before so i took like 30 pics of a rime covered tree only to walk another 30 feet and see a forest of them. it was so cool. SO DAMN COOL.

so the top pic is my standard proof we've been somewhere feet/view pic of db, me and eric at the summit. below is the summit from right above tree line, there's nothing to scale it but it it way bigger than it looks, a forest of sparkly rime covered trees and eric looking like he may as well be on top of mt everest.

we so earned our mac and cheese pizza that day, it was badass.

elk neck state park and chesapeake bay

this weekend involved pennsylvania, new jersey, delaware and maryland. all it took to make it happen was my realization that i hadn't gone outside the city limits in literally a month, a scan of maps on my phone and directions to the nearest salt water looking state park i could find. apparently i picked the northernmost tip of chesapeake bay by happy accident, i only realized it and asked db where we were when we were already wandering around and looking at the water for the first time.

we saw lots of really cool orange colored dirt (and sand and water), heard a weird version of my favorite bird song, stumbled into a mini forest of wild holly trees and watched uzo willingly run around in the snow... all of which were firsts. we also decided philadelphia is great and all, but it's too damn far from the ocean. we are way more portuguese than we originally thought.