Happy Friday + Knitting

Happy Friday! Thank you so much for all the kind comments and emails yesterday! I feel a little bit like the time M’s friends came over unannounced a few days ago. The house was in a state that could only be described as disastrous (cleaning was not a priority during the art show prep and supplies covered every available surface) and though I’ve known these friends a while, I don’t know them that well. I was a bit embarrassed to have them see the messy side of me, but I suddenly felt a lot more comfortable with them. After some furious tidying, my house is almost restored to its former semi-neatness, and now I’m eager to talk about making stuff.

So. Any crafter wanting to prove his or her mettle will usually attempt knitting at some point. That point came for me around 2007. I bought a copy of this book, some knitting needles and wool, and embarked on an epic task of adding/dropping stitches to create a sweater for M.

It took me a year.

The dark forest green wool I used is fantastic. It hardly pills, it’s mind-bogglingly warm, and the color brings out the verdant undertones of his blue-green eyes. The problem was that knitting a sweater for a man requires copious amounts of yarn. Crazy, crazy amounts. I kept running out and at one point had to make do with a similar-but-not-quite-right skein because I had literally purchased all the stock at two stores.

I was cursing that sweater by the time I finally finished it twelve months later. And to add insult to injury, despite my careful hand-washing and efforts of laying it out flat to dry, the darn thing kept shrinking. M adores this sweater because I remind him endlessly of all the sweat and tears that went into it, but I’ve begged him not to wear it — it now looks like a really bad fashion statement from the eighties and is hideously cropped on my man (but the sleeves keep getting longer…how??).

I’m afraid that I do not love knitting. However, I am a crafter out to prove my mettle and feel that the first project I took on was just too challenging for my skill level, and I didn’t give this ancient and highly respectable craft a fair shake. So I am going to try again this winter. My new knitting goal: a cowl. I will let you know how this pans out. Perhaps I will fall in love. I hope so.

Since I got all personal with y’all yesterday, I figured it’s high time I get over my phobia of getting my picture taken. I’ve been preparing to sew clothes for myself and it wouldn’t be any fun if I couldn’t share them with you. I decided to take baby steps and model M’s shrunken sweater. Hard to see here, but the sweater is actually quite roomy on me and makes me look like I have Michelin man arms.

Hi. I’m Sanae. Friends, I wore make-up for you. I rarely wear make-up these days. And my hair doesn’t look like that normally either. It’s always in some bizarre, frayed bun with pieces sticking out all over (I know that top knots are all the rage with the cool kids, but mine looks nothing like that). And because this was my first time with a tripod and remote, I kept cutting off weird parts of my body and face. It felt really odd and awkward taking pictures of myself, I must say. I can’t even go into how mortifying it was perusing them – I had no idea that I have a lazy eye and that my eyebrows are uneven! I didn’t use any Photoshop magic despite the enormous urge to do so.

Anyway, have a wonderful weekend everyone! I’ll be back on Monday with an outfit for K!