Life in Color Photo – Page 258 – Celebrating crafts, kids and the everyday through photographs.

Corners of my home – The phone Cabinet

August 22, 2009

I've never participated in Corners of My Home before, but today I had that moment of walking by this cabinet like to every day and suddenly I just saw it. I saw it in it's poor neglected, unchanged state and realized that was what I was meant to work on today. Forget about the wonderful project I finally did finish up tonight (and will share with you tomorrow, along with a giveaway). Forget about all the other things I needed to do, this was what I wanted to do.

This cabinet was super dusty and stale really, from the construction. I don't know if you remember but they had to redo that arch to include additional support. I let things collect in here:

Namely so much mail that I can't close this up. Now I have it paired down to the things I need, including a little leather dish with teething tablets, a small tape measure, rubber bands, etc. I also have an old silver toast holder that has things like my dry cleaner pick up slip (that I forgot about, oops, I could have picked that up over a week ago). Plus I have a little ceramic box that hold an assortment of postcards from my collection for quick notes. Above that shelf:

A replica princess phone. So retro, so suspenseful, who could be on the other line? With out caller ID you'll never know until you pick it up! No, seriously, I love this phone. I love having a land line, and I love pulling the cord out really far and sitting on the big chair and having a long conversations with far away friends.

Above the phone a few more fun things. Some chalk letters with my (maiden) initials. Old camera parts and a funny metal toy horse that I just had to have from an estate sale.

Finally some pictures of Tuesday (the house is lacking in pictures of her)! This one, and one of my other favorites is below it, Tuesday wrapped in one of the blankets I knit her. The map frame is something that my friends and I used to do in high school. Buy the cheapest ugliest frames and cover them. I was reminded of it when I changed out the picture. The frame was like a cardboard/plastic mix underneath. Pretty much everything I owned while going to school was decoupaged, right Erin? The little picture is Ceara and I a dozen years ago getting ready for a dance.

The top shelf has some of my favorite things. An old globe bank, a funny ape figurine I picked out while Sciarrino and I were thrifting and the place lost power so I was shopping by the light of my phone. A picture of Bj at Wall Drug. A very clever picture frame from Coach I got while driving cross country with a friend at an outlet. I love it because what ever you put in you can see both sides of and it doesn't hurt the item at all, little magnets in the corner hold the two pieces of acrylic together. I've never been able to find another one like it. In it I have a vintage postcard.

A cool old fan sits behind two little reminders of my art school days. A pig from my pig photo project sits on top of a small piece of a larger instillation from a friend.

Now when I make the many trips through the living room into the kitchen (and down to the lower level) I get to pass by this loveliness, so maybe it was necessary after all (and there are a few more pictures on my flickr).

All this organizing/decorating made me what to go through my magazine stash. I pull out what I like and file it all away, I'll have to show you some of the things I have saved some day. I came across this magazine I had been saving because I didn't want to cut into it.

One of my readers sent it to me from Australia, I can't remember who, but I love it. Anyone interested in a little magazine swap, just me and you? I get lots and I can supplement (who doesn't love an opportunity to browse all the magazines in the bookshop?). I'm thinking a straight across trade for a bundle of idea mags? Home decorating, crafting, gardening, something like that? Anyone (not in north america) interested?
Knitting Answers

August 20, 2009

I was able to upload more pictures to my ravelry page for the knit in the last post. While there I posted an updated picture of my thrive sweater:

From these handspun singles. I am loving the progress, and it should be ready to go for a nice comfy pullover this fall.

I get the feeling some people think I'm clever in the knitting department, and I don't really think I am. I do knit quickly, and can read a pattern well, but I rarely deviate from them. When my gauge is off I usually just cheat and go up or down a size, bad Amber. I've recently answered some emails from beginner knitters, and Carmen commenting on the advice I gave her reminded me that I should post here what I've told others.

*Side note: I've been meaning to say that I now answer comments in the comments section. I changed it to be like a big thread, I like it and I hope you do too! So please feel free to ask me anything and I'll chat with you down there.

The main questions I get are, "What baby or easy projects to do you recommend?" and, "What knitting books do you recommend?"

First of all I do not recommend that you start with a scarf. If you must do a little stockinette (see my thrive example above, one side is all knit, the other all purl), do a little dish cloth. It will be a lot quicker, and if you make mistakes you still have something you will use. First things first go, quick, run, and sign up for Ravlery. I link to it a lot because that is where I organize all my knitting. It is a totally free site with lots of great features, like pattern searches (and links to free patterns), yarn indexes, and places to organize your stash (if you are so inclined). Plus forums where lovely knitters will answer your questions likity split.

Now that you've done that I can direct you to some of those quick and easy patterns I love so much. I don't think many of you will be surprised with my favorite beginner pattern:

The tri-peak hat is a crowd pleaser (and a free download(, and you can make it in any type of yarn. I've done it in very light fingering sock yarn to bulky handspun, and it always looks great. No decreases, no purling. Not that those things are hard, but it's nice to have a go to gift hat to show off new knitting skills. Use Ravely's wonderful search engine (you can specify a pattern be free if you like) to find more great projects. Here is one I want to try and get done for Tuesday this winter.

As far as knitting books go you can see all of them I have on my Ravlery library page. I have a lot of books, they are great inspiration and I have made lots of things out of them. But if you are just starting out save yourself the headache and get the Vogue Knitting Book first. This will take the mystery out of a SSK, and help you read all the wonderful patterns in other books. There are no patterns for finished garments in this book, though if you read through the whole thing and did swatches you could probably make one. I used this a lot in the beginning (my mom had an older version, if you find one at a used bookstore pick it up, a few things have changed, but it should still be relevant), and I use it a lot now.

I was just going to do a super quick post about the hourglass sweater progress, but I could talk about knitting for hours! Any other questions? Maybe why am I talking about knitting in the heat of summer? Ask away!
If I could pull this off I would

August 19, 2009

I love my newest finished knit for Tutu. I brought it as vacation knitting to Alaska and it was just the perfect thing, so easy. Also I got extra knitting time spending time in a car. And since it is still light enough to knit at eleven o'clock at night there that helped a lot!

It's knit in the round (after the opening you see there at the top right) and is so quick and easy. I made this in the 6 month size, but longer I think, as Tuesday is quite skinny. I'm planning on this being a dress for the fall, and then more of tunic/top for the spring. It's big on her now:

Hmm, maybe if I made it again I would figure out how to make smaller arm holes too. I'm not that great at pattern modification. I did finally do my own crochet edging.

Just around the opening and for the button hole, but still! My mother-in-law was here and gave me a little refresher. But she held the yarn differently than Paula showed me, so I'm going to have to figure out what works for me, I'm still really awkward with the hook. I love garter stitch, and purl ridges have that same springy feel and look:

One of my favorite easy most mindless (in a good way) knits ever.

It has the added bonus of taking exactly one skein of Medium Weight Socks That Rock. I am freaking out because I have a lot of skeins of this yarn, and many are only one per colorway. This was fine when a whole sweater took only one skein, but that is not going to be the case this winter! I'm going to have to figure out color-work, or do some striping, or something. Or I might just make a dozen of these. Here's the Ravelry link, but I don't have pictures up yet. My flickr uploader isn't working and I'm too tired to try and fix it.

Corners of my home – The phone Cabinet

Knitting Answers

If I could pull this off I would

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