melting

I was going to take a nice photo of our new aluminum ice cube trays that we got at a garage sale this summer, but it’s hot and I would rather drink the ice cold water and sit her by the open window. But the ice cube trays are great. We got two trays for a $1.50 each. Can you believe that?! from what I can tell online it was a good deal. It is so satisfying wrenching the leaver back to get the ice out. The novelty hasn’t worn off yet, and it means two fewer pieces of plastic in our home.

So instead, I wanted to share these equally amazing “propaganda” posters by Portlander Joe Wirtheim. See more posters at his website Victory Garden of Tomorrow or at his Etsy shop.  I like this one because of the chicken and the boots, I want boots like that too. Of course I would need a chicken or two to go with the boots. I also like the compost poster, if only there were worms in it.

Felt

I have been drooling over this book for a long time, and now it’s mine. Needle felting always seemed nice but this book has really made me want to do actually do needle felting. My favorite pattern in the book is the Willamette wrap, because it is stunning and so geographically appropriate. The wrap is knit and then the collar is needle felted with the same color roving.

The next most inspiring pattern is the Market bag, I love that the wool is needle felted into a print on the fabric. Obviously I will never find this print to recreate the bag but that opens up the possibilities of so many different kinds of bags depending on the selected print.

Needle felting is in the September 2009 Martha Stewart magazine too. Of course she has a pretty wooden handled needle.

More inspiring recycled felt projects (not needle felting) in this post at Purl Bee about the fabulous book Sewing Green.

wee nest

I started a second blog to cover the bulk of my thoughts and photos on baby related things. I will probably still share some of the baby knitting here too but didn’t want to bombard everyone with baby everyhting all the time, since it’s starting to play a big part in my life. I plan to continue to have a non-baby side of my identity too and hope to give it a place here at Tangled Fleece. Check it out at Wee Nest.

Update: Opps, the privacy setting was on before. Now you can actually see it.

argylin’

I thought that I had blogged about this before, but now it looks like I haven’t introduced the argyle vest yet. Please meet the first inches of Lars’ argyle vest. It has been a planned work in progress for years now, but didn’t really get a start on it until about a year ago. After starting the ribbing I looked the fear of argyle in the face and asked for advise on how to start at my LYS. That was a number of months ago and it turns out this not really that complicated, or as complicated as I think it seemed. I had a few errors and set backs at the begining since it’s a lot of work to get the hang of the process while reading the pattern chart and increaseing every 17 rows. So I didn’t work on it for a while, but I think I’ve gotten passed the trouble spots and I’m on a knitting high. The knitting high makes me want to knit all the time and not only this but a billion other things at the same time. Don’t worry Lars, I will finish your vest some day.

The pattern is from Knitting for him and the yarn is Knit Picks Palette: pool, navy, and sky.

knitting for two

This is what I made with the leftover yarn from the scarf. I made a baby bolero about two years ago for my nephew and this time I got to make it for me, well really my baby-to-be. Yup, we are due around November. We are going to wait until we get to see the little tot to know the gender, so I think this is a good gender neutral color that isn’t the typical baby green. This is another reason I haven’t been posting. Not because pregnancy is debilitating or an illness, but I really have been sleeping through most of the last few months when I’m not at work. The energy seems to be coming back now and I have lots of things I want to sew and knit. Baby things are the best because they are small, fast the knit, and so cute it’s hard not to be satisfied with the project.

Baby bolero from “One Skein” by Leigh Radford

Lion brand yarn- superwash merino in Dijon