Earth Day

Today is the 50th celebration of Earth Day. It’s a reminder for all of us, every single one of us, that our job is to take care of the Earth, to keep it, conserve it, and steward it for future generations.

We only get one earth, and so many of the things I think about each day come back to it: Is this a sustainable action? Will this go on to stay in a landfill after I use it? What kind of world am I creating by purchasing this product, or choosing these materials to craft with, or picking this project? It’s all so important and complex and it can feel very overwhelming at times to think about being a maker, consumer, and person living on this earth and trying to keep it healthy.

One of my favorite things from the past few weeks of quarantine has been seeing how the earth is absolutely rebounding without the negative influence of human activity: smog is clearing in large cities, wildlife is returning to old habitats, waterways are no longer being actively polluted. This is all so good! While we need to be able to exist in the world, run businesses, interact with each other, and I, like so many, can’t wait for the world to continue to turn, there are lessons to be learned here, and I hope that many of us have the space here to reflect on those.

Fashion is a HUGE source of pollutants and carbon emissions globally, so when I take the time to knit a sweater or hat, sew a dress, or mend a pair of jeans, I am choosing sustainability, slow and mindful work, and to opt out of oppressive systems that affect people and the planet in ways we can’t begin to predict yet. There is so much hope in being able to make a choice for myself and for my family that is not only beneficial for us, but for our planet.

I have learned so much from other makers who are also working to make the world more beautiful with their creations and with the processes they use to create them. While choosing natural fibers over synthetics is a great way to make a more sustainable choice with crafting overall, here are a few of the companies and resources that I love who are doing wonderful work with crafts and sustainability.

• Brooklyn Tweed’s American grown yarns, particularly their breed specific collections
• Echoview Fiber Mill, who creates yarn and fiber from farms primarily in the Southeast and has the COOLEST recycled fiber yarn.
• A Verb For Keeping Warm’s podcast, highlighting their process of creating yarns and working with designers rooted in sustainability. Their yarns are also absolutely incredible.
• Mending resources by Katrina Rodabaugh to extend the life of our clothes and make our clothes into art
• Needles by Indian Lake Artisans (swoon).
• Natural Dyeing books: The Modern Natural Dyer, The Wild Dyer, and Natural Dyes and Home Dyeing are three of my favorites
• Quince and Company’s affordable American wool yarns, including mohair from Texas and their own “cleaner cotton”
• So many good posts by The Craft Sessions
• The work of building regenerative fiber systems across America through Fibershed and all of its affiliate groups
• Favorite fiber farms: Wing and a Prayer Farm, Sawkill Farm, Bovidae Farm, and Rising Meadow Farm
• An oldie, but a goodie: the Woolful podcast. Also love the Local Wool podcast these days.

Gosh, this doesn’t even scratch the surface. I’m sure I will come back and add additional info here in the future, but for today, I invite you to peruse these awesome businesses, authors, and farms, and to take JOY in the earth! When we live in harmony with the earth, there is so much joy to be found.

Building a wardrobe 2020.3.22 - Wiksten Haori (Take Two)

My work-from-home office is also the space where all of my crafts live: my yarn cabinet, fabric storage, sewing machines, tea materials, spinning wheel, etc. My schedule before a few weeks ago was to mainly only use this space on the weekends while sewing or starting new projects, and one of the unexpected small happinesses from being home has been how I’ve paid attention to and used the spaces in my home differently than I previously ever had. Being surrounded by these materials has been super inspiring and has led to a cacophony of new ideas and things to work on. As a part of my effort to stash down, however, I’m trying to remain focused and purposeful in my crafting, with allowances for random new ideas and energy. First on my projects list was a new Wiksten Haori jacket for the spring.

Ever since my last Wiksten Haori (gosh, I cannot believe that was 2 years ago) I have wanted to make another one of these useful, simple, beautiful jackets. I have been eyeing this beautiful cross-stitched fabric (like this, but I purchased mine at Freeman’s Creative). I believe that I purchased 2.5 yards, since I knew I would shorten it and I wanted to make an unlined version using Jenny’s tutorial on her blog.

I made a size M again using the original pattern from Making volume 4 “Lines” and only shortened it by about 2” to make it a little longer than my last cropped version. I also lengthened the sleeve by about 4” and then did a double cuffed sleeve to make it feel a little more polished. I followed all of the modifications for the unlined version until I got to the collar. I didn’t have quite enough fabric to cut out four full pieces for the collar so I had to improvise a little. It worked out great, though, and would totally do this again. Here’s basically what I did:

• Sewed the two pieces together at short ends to make one super long strip (as directed)
• Folded over both long ends 3/8” towards the wrong side on both sides
• Lined up one long side with the collar seam at the center back neck and pinned one long, folded side to the raw edge of the collar and sewed at together.
• Like a quilt binding or like a folded skirt waistband, I brought the other long folded edge around to the inside of the jacket and overlapped the 3/8” fold over the seam I just made by securing the collar to the raw edge, pinning into place. Now the seam is enclosed behind my nice fold!
• From the outside of the jacket, stitched in the ditch slowly to not break any pins all the way the length of the collar and secure the inside folded edge. Took out the pins and ironed a nice edge for the collar.

I finished sewing and basically didn’t take it off for two days. It’s so comfy and perfect for layering inside my chilly house for hours on end. Looking forward to styling it with some dresses and jeans soon as well.

Obsessed with these lil checks

Moving ahead in a new world

Natural dyeing as meditation, and home-based crafting

The title of this post feels a little dramatic, but then again, so does the past two weeks. While I was still checking in on the Australian wildfires, it seemed, I began to hear and connect with the fact that some new virus was spreading like crazy abroad. Watching the images come out of Wuhan and Italy has been nothing short of shocking. And then, suddenly, our plans went from, “Hey, we should maybe think about this,” to, “We have to do something about this right now.”

I’m working from home, which is an incredible luxury. B is a resident physician and had to go into the hospital for the first part of this week. Each day I disinfected our living spaces and door handles in the morning after he left. My house is definitely cleaner than its been since we moved in two and a half years ago. Luckily, he’s been working (furiously) from home trying to make sure patients have everything they need outside of an imminent infection and it has been humbling to see the most organized and systematic processes at his work have to be completely re-made and adapted for telehealth and virtual meetings at the forefront of care.

I’m sure that many will resonate with the fact that one of the hardest things about this time for me is the uncertainty. No one knows when the worst of this will be over. In China, only half of the cases have resolved in over a month, although it looks like containment might actually be working. We have no idea what events we may or may not be able to have in April, May, and beyond, and if it gets better over the summer (as some predict), whether it will return in the fall. My dad is immunocompromised and every day I am nervous I will wake up to hear he had to be hospitalized, or worse. My sister-in-law and brother are expecting their first baby and all plans to shower them have been completely cancelled, and my best friend’s early April wedding as well. It feels impossible.

My faith is the anchor of my hope, and it is being surely tested. Crafting helps. Putting together new routines helps. Making small lists of specific things I can accomplish each day helps. Dreaming of new projects and looking forward to creating new things really helps. My library’s virtual resources help. Family group chats help. Watching a comforting TV show helps. Going on a nature walk helps. Stretching helps. Praying helps.

Hold on to what is helping you in this season. Give yourself and those around you grace as things ram to a halt. Call in the order for that yarn that you’ve been wanting or buy yourself a gift card to your local craft store and favorite restaurant to treat yourself when the social distancing ends and you can celebrate life in a way that you didn’t before. Take this chance to clean out and un-busy your life and see the good in that. Look at the generosity of strangers and small businesses offering free resources for those who are home-bound and know that we are all in this together and that we will get through it one day at a time. I am trying to do this, and it is helping. Little by little, we’re moving forward.

Picked these flowers for you <3

Iceland: Part 5 (Up North, the Glaumbær Turf Farm & Spider Lace)

The next day, we continued our journey north. We drove on roads so elevated and narrow that in the wintertime, they become impassable, and we also learned about the unique sheep herding culture in Iceland. We passed a sheep pen which had many smaller pens inside of it, used annually by farmers. In Iceland, all of their sheep roam completely free throughout the spring and summer with no boundaries of a traditional farm, and come the fall farmers work together to round up every sheep in the countryside. Then, they meet to divide the sheep according to the farmers who keep them and ensure they stay safe for the winter. In the spring, they are shorn and released back out again to roam and grow another season.

We visited the Glaumbær Turf Farm, one of the last in Iceland of its kind, where the homestead was literally built into hills in the earth for insulation and protection, long hallways connecting rooms for every function a family would need throughout each season. Larders, kitchens, laundry rooms, sitting rooms, spinning rooms, everything was accessible through internal passageways that eliminated the need to let in the cold. I loved those yellow doors! It makes me want to paint my front door yellow, but I doubt I could pull it off as well. Everyone in the household slept in one big room in bunk-style beds which was also where much of the women’s work, spinning and knitting and braiding horse hair and all of the essential crafts occurred. On our visit, it was actually a special exhibition day where actors representing women’s traditional crafts and costumes from many different eras of Iceland’s history came together and demonstrated their skills, and how it might be like to all live and work together in one place at the farm. Seeing this unfold, I was once again amazed at the resilience, resourcefulness, and determination of the Icelandic people. Their relationship with wool was born of necessity, but grew beyond subsistence into artistry and love. It was bitterly cold by my estimation on this spring day and it gave me a whole new appreciation for their way of life.

Wearing my plotulopi sweater!

We ate lunch (salad sandwiches, pasta salad, yogurt, OJ) and finished our journey to Skagafjörður, a tiny, sweet town on the northern coast. We toured the only tannery in Iceland, if you can believe it, considering all of their sheep, and visited a local grocery store to peruse their YARN (something we were all in disbelief about) but alas! We arrived at around 3:50 PM and this grocery, in a tiny town at the top of the world, closed at 4 PM on Saturday for the whole weekend. Despite our collective disappointment, I had to smile. Sometimes it felt as though traveling in Iceland was like traveling back to a simpler time. Of course, everyone has internet, and modern amenities, they travel and go to school and do so many things like I do. But here, the grocery store closes at 4 PM for the weekend, so you better get your goods before then because this grocer is getting a Sunday off. I love that defiance to our culture of needing everything right now.

That evening, Helene introduced me to and made everyone laugh with her obsession with the Eurovision. I can’t believe I’ve never heard of this before! It was terribly awesome. The performances lasted at least 2 hours and we went to bed an hour into the judging, and they were maybe a third of the way through. Hilarious. She also demonstrated how she blocks her shawl designs and showed us an entire trunk full of various Icelandic designs and techniques for shawls. The shawls were all Icelandic in tradition but original in design, each with a unique variation and color story. Lots of undulating lace patterns, natural gradients, triangles, and lace borders.

The entire next day, we knit. Helene shared with us the basics of spider lace, a simple pattern to follow, and let us loose with a bag of yarn. I don’t think I’ve ever knit that long, with that fine of a yarn, and enjoyed it so much. Before I knew it, three hours had passed. All of us, sitting in an old church and knitting for hours. Quite reminiscent of the women we had seen crafting away at Glaumbær. We broke for lunch, coffee and to begin planning out the yarns we wanted to bring home for various projects to make sure we got them the next day (our last day), and then continued knitting until dinner. The result? By the end of the day I had made a tiny, traditional shawl, and Helene had taught me how to block the heck out of it as lace should be blocked (as in, I thought I had blocked it aggressively, but Helene saw my work, removed half of my pins and nearly doubled the size of my shawl).

One of the good, wonderful realizations that I had on this trip was that every one of us on this trip approached making in a unique way. I find it so easy to become enamored with the “things” you “need” to knit - the culture, the brands, the American way of having a special bag and a special tool for each thing. I love those things, and I love supporting makers who elevate my crafting experience. I think it’s worth it to invest in the things that make you happy. But this trip reminded me that sometimes, all you need is a cooking pot to block lace, that you can knit a baby sweater on old, straight, aluminum needles if you like, and that some knitters never use patterns. My roommate Kris was one of those, and during the week we spent together she wore a different sweater each day - completely unique, completely designed by her based on ideas that she had collected on a Pinterest board and which fit her perfectly. I don’t even think she used Ravelry. When you take away everything else, the one thing we all had in common was the act of knitting, looping wool over wool. How great is that?

Never been so proud of something so small

oh hai blog

Hi friends. Happy New Year! Happy goal setting month, happy arbitrary but often useful fresh start for big dreams and reflection and (hopefully) new inspiration. We traveled so much over Christmas, from here in NC to both families, to Atlanta and Nashville and I feel like the new year is already way back into the swing of things overall. It’s exciting! It can feel overwhelming, too, but I’m choosing to lean into what Elise Joy talks about in her Love to Sew podcast episode and rather than get overwhelmed by all the possibilities of all the things - get excited about the fact that there are SO MANY THINGS to be inspired by and want to take on this year.

I’d love to say that making this blog a more relevant part of my online presence is a goal of mine (and back of my mind, it definitely IS), but no promises friends. 2018 brought on a new job for me, a new workout routine that I love, a new schedule for my husband and his work, lots of travel and I honestly don’t see any of that really changing much in 2019. Except for hopefully the new job thing, because I am in a really good place with my work. :)

At the same time, the end of the year brought on quite a few new personal things for me in the way of tackling a LOT of anxiety about my stage of life, what I am accomplishing and what makes a meaningful life. Right around that time I also read this incredible post from The Craft Sessions about the meaningful work of making. I clapped, I exclaimed, I cried a little bit. It is so good y’all. If you are a maker in any capacity, I highly encourage you to check it out. And maybe bookmark it for those days when you get discouraged by just another individual being bewildered by your passion for anything that they consider to be “just a hobby”. I know I have.

So I do have some intentions that I’d like to share with you all at this beginning of the new year. I find this to be much more helpful and doable than putting a number on specific goals when I’m juggling quite a few things. It includes the excitement and the motivation for the new year while removing the potential guilt of not meeting some arbitrary number of things that I decided in the dead of winter to do.

• The first is to document more of my work in an intentional way. Not sure yet whether that will mean this space, Ravelry, doing more general posting in my Instagram feed or perhaps collections of Instagram stories? At the end of the year I was trying to go through and get a full collection of my finished works for the year and discovered that while my making was very much a regular practice in my life, my documentation was not.

• Don’t buy any new fabric. For how periodically I sew, I have a really good size stash of fabrics and I’m ready to figure out which patterns they want to be and go for it. This was clarified after a recent incredible fabric sale at the Scrap Exchange and an amazing workshop on planning a handmade wardrobe by River Takada-Capel at Freeman’s Creative. Although there is some pretttttty incredible silk noil on Blackbird Fabrics that is reallllly calling to me right now…

• Go beyond the boxy top. 2018 was my first year with a really amazing sewing machine (I love my Janome Magnolia). So, I made a jacket and a pair of pants and felt like a badass (Note, I am still actually pretty far from being a sewing badass by my own estimation, but the feeling was real great). AND - all of the early sewing projects that I tackled, some variation on the basic boxy top, are not things I regularly wear. When I consider what makes me feel confident, I definitely still come back to waist-defining or some sort of fitted garment so that’s ultimately what I need to be sewing as well! Some ideas that are percolating in my head are the Adria top, Hinterland dress (yay Durham!), Tea House dress, and the Scarborough Fair skirt or something similar. I would also love to make another pair of Winslow culottes in a longer length and elastic waist and an unlined version of the Wiksten Haori jacket in something that involves swiss dots.

• Steek a sweater! This one is already in progress!

• And related to this, flex my creative knitting muscles more this year. I love a good, mindless sweater knit or a vanilla sock probably more than anything, and while there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, I have several really exciting projects I’d like to tackle this year that will require more brain power, and I want to lean into this.

I’m really happy to have this space on the internet to come back to, and I hope that in some small way, my sharings here bring some joy to you and spark inspiring ideas for all that this new year will hold.

slow fashion, and other deep thoughts on a seemingly not philosophical topic (what we wear)

I've had quite a few thoughts, feelings, ideas, philosophical arguments, rants etc. swirling around in my head about slow fashion for about a year now that I feel it is time to finally get out on paper (or, HTML, as the case is today). I know there are others who will say ALL of the things I want to say much more eloquently than I, but I also know that I want to be a part of the conversation around sustainable and ethical clothing choices, and not wait for the right words or the perfect moment to share my thoughts with the world.

Slow fashion, for me, is the idea that there is a better way to live than supporting large corporations who make cheaply constructed and environmentally destructive clothing overseas, only to be sold for an outrageous profit margin to consumers in the US, who in turn will grow bored with these clothes or find a minor flaw in their construction after some use, and either donate them or throw them away. The issue of how our clothes are made has so many human rights and environmental implications, from the time that the fibers are produced, dyed, sewn, sold and eventually, passed on or disposed of. There are lots of resources out there for anyone interested in understanding these impacts, but a book I found helpful last year was Overdressed: The shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion. 

For something that is so essential to our day to day living, as essential as the food we eat, the water we drink, the jobs we hold, how do we break out of the cycle of consumerism and a culture that demands new clothes every season, no matter the cost to ourselves or our planet? 

There's so many ways, and I really struggle with articulating my feelings about slow fashion sometimes because the ways that we can work to make slow fashion a reality are so expansive. From high-end ethically grown and USA-based clothing companies all the way to sewing up the holes in a skirt you've owned for 15 years to make sure it sees 15 more, it can sometimes seem paralyzing to even know where to start or direct your energy.

In fact, while returning to a draft of this blog post, which I first sat down to write in January of this year, I discovered another, much shorter, blog post (which depending on how you feel about my verbosity, you may have preferred) in which I literally just wrote: "SEWING IS IMPORTANT. MENDING IS IMPORTANT. BUYING LOCAL FIBER IS IMPORTANT. SUPPORTING ETHICAL COMPANIES IS IMPORTANT. HOW DO I KNOW WHICH ONES TO DO THE MOST??" I could, and I know that there are organizations out there that do, focus on the impacts of fast fashion and trace their way back to the source, lobbying for fast fashion companies to make changes in their labor practices, environmental impacts, and sourcing, and I want advocates to keep pursuing these very important efforts, knowing that even with the maker movement having a huge comeback in the past 10 years, the majority of people in the world will continue to acquire most, if not all, of their clothing from a large retailer. 

The most beautiful thing to me, and where I think I am in my journey of slow fashion, is as a maker, when slow fashion and the joy of sewing and knitting meet. Because of my interest in creating my own wardrobe by hand, wearable garments and accessories that I love, I think there was always going to be a natural interest and focus on being a part of the label of the "slow fashion movement" and to see others interested in creating a sustainable wardrobe chime in on the ethics and pleasure of a wardrobe that is at its core, slow, is a really exciting thing. I don't think that I am wrong for choosing to sew my spring and summer tops, or alter clothes I swapped at a local clothing exchange, rather than advocate for the reform of fast fashion companies, just as I don't think that anyone who focuses on buying sustainable retail are wrong for not wanting to learn to make their own clothes. It's all important. And I want to hear everyone's voice who care about the people who make our clothes and the impact of what we wear on our planet. 

Teaching on Skillshare

Hello world!

It's been a colorful summer so far, literally and figuratively. But I have an exciting new project to talk about. I recently began teaching through Skillshare! Skillshare is an online platform with nearly a million and a half users, teaching everything from watercolor painting to how to pair wines with food, professional design skills and more. My class is on Fiber Arts 101: Spinning Yarn on a Drop Spindle. In the class I go over the basics of drop spindles, what fibers to spin, how to ply and tips and tricks for when you're just getting started. The yarns above are three types of fiber prep that I sample spinning so you can get an idea of how they differ. I'm excited to share a bit of what I've learned since I started spinning and hope you enjoy it!

The class and many others is only available through Skillshare premium, but right now you can get 3 months of Skillshare premium for only 99 cents! Click here for the link to check it out. Happy spinning!

a long spring

This year is not quite shaping up the way that I had anticipated at its genesis. In February, we decided we were going to try to buy a house. And after 7 offers, 3 months and one drawn out conversation with our mortgage lender, we are walking away from that prospect for another year. But it took a lot of time and a lot out of us, and so many things have had to take a spot on the back burner. 

And unrelated, but I'm on my 5th pair of knitted socks for this year. Fifth! I never dreamed that I would knit so many pairs in 2016. It certainly was not on my list of goals for the year, but here we are. Magic loop method and friends who are beautiful indie dyers are to blame. They're quick and portable and I have read Cookie A's book on Sock design several times already thinking through the many ways they can be customized. So fun. 

There have been lots of good things this spring, the Mr. graduating from medical school, Nash surviving a harrowing vet visit, starting on my first weaving adventure and lots of time with those we love via family vacation. 

And so we arrive at June. And to celebrate, we are having a shop update this evening. Lots of lovely naturally dyed, handspun goodness. I'll be taking a little break and closing up the shop when we move next weekend, so be sure to scoop up everything you want before then!

Happy Summer everyone. It promises to be eventful, and wonderful.