"What are you doing?" he asked me. It was the pounding that caused him to poke his head into the room -- he looked confused and slightly alarmed. I stood there with the hammer poised a few inches above an overturned cast iron skillet. "Making jeans," I replied. And whacked a rivet into place. I made jeans. JEANS. !!!!! These Gingers Skinny Jeans took me just shy of a year to complete from the initial muslin, mostly because I was stymied by the idea of altering the pattern. ... Read more
Happy Friday + Randomness
Happy Friday! I've had an eventful couple of weeks, what with my car overheating and billowing smoke all over the highway and then losing my ipad -- which is like an appendage of mine -- so I was rather discombobulated. We've ended on a high note, however, because the car's been repaired, the ipad returned (I left it in a cafe bathroom and someone was kind enough to turn it into the staff) and holy wow, the Secret Valentine Exchange!!!! We clocked in with over 180 participants!!! We think there ... Read more
Last Day to Sign Up for 2016 SVE!
Hello! Just a quick note today with one last reminder that today's the deadline to sign up for the Secret Valentine Exchange. We'll stop taking sign-ups tonight, around midnight-ish my time (PST). We have nearly 150 participants!! Ute and I can't wait to pair everyone up - there are over 20 countries represented, making this the most internationally diverse SVE yet! I, of course, am planning, planning, planning. Last year, Ute made a stunning constellation mini quilt for Elle (scroll down ... Read more
Faux Fur Infinity Scarf + Giveaway [CLOSED]
Well now. Ute and I are simply blown away by the enthusiastic response to the Secret Valentine Exchange!! It's been so enthusiastic that my server crashed a number of times last week. It's true that I have a wimpy, tiny server, but still. I also think there's something problematic about multiple people trying to fill out the form simultaneously, but that's an uneducated guess on my part. We're approaching 130 sign-ups!! If you were one of the folks who couldn't access the form to ... Read more
Happy Friday + Randomness
Happy Friday! I may have mentioned this before, but in my family we had this sacred tradition: on the morning of New Year's Day, my mom would plop a few pairs of new underwear on all the kids' beds, and the three Ishida offspring knew that it was mandatory to don one of them to bed the first night of the year. Just to clarify, the new undergarments are worn on the first evening of the year, and not on New Year's Eve. I have no idea if this is a traditional Japanese thing, or if it's some weird ... Read more