Thursday, February 28, 2008

Dries Van Noten

Dries Van Noten - Fall 2008 (photos from Style.com




Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Tao harnesses my chi!

Tao - fall collection 2008 (photos from Style.com)



Okay, so they're not all knits, but you have to admit there's something more than a little DIY about the esthetic! Super pretty.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

waxing political

I'm officially not the only person in North America who has found the past few months of U.S.-primary media coverage both eye-opening and depressing! A couple of great editorials:

A Glaring Double Standard, by Judith Timson for The Globe and Mail

Goodbye to All That (#2), by Robin Morgan

How much longer until we stop being treated like an unwelcome minority group? "Iron my shirt"... he might as well have said "pick my cotton".

Monday, February 25, 2008

A.F. Vandevorst

A.F. Vandevorst - Fall Collection 2008 (photos from Style.com)



Sunday, February 24, 2008

finished cushion covers

I spent my Saturday night finishing off these cushion covers for our living room couch! Both of the fabrics I used are from Ikea.








We have a couple of pictures on our walls with thick black frames, so my intention was to introduce more black into the room to tie things together a bit. What do you think?









Friday, February 22, 2008

knits from fendi

Fendi - Fall Collection 2008 (photos from Style.com)




Thursday, February 21, 2008

beautiful knits from rodarte

Rodarte - Fall Collection 2008 (photos from Style.com)




These dresses leave me speechless. Sometimes I wish I lived in a different world, somewhere I could wear things like this. 

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

walk in this shoe

After perusing KnitKnit last night, I had the urge to check out more work by Isabel Berglund.


Minus the pins, I would wear these shoes. With the pins, I prefer to imagine them being worn by the person who stole my winter boots last December. Grrrr.

a few pretties

Gianfranco Ferre - Fall Collection 2008 (photos from Style.com)



Peter Jensen - Fall Collection 2008




(check out the little creature around her neck!)

Monday, February 18, 2008

they're here!

Sabrina Gschwandtner's KnitKnit, and Wenlan Chia's Twinkle's Weekend Knits!


I've only had a chance to flip through them quickly so far, but I'm already super impressed, especially by Knit Knit! It's profiles are so varied, and it's full of exactly the kind of knitting I love: quirky and smart. There's lots of good reading to be had, as soon as I have time! This totally makes up for the eye-gouging nature of the rest of my day (see previous post).

blood and tears: you said it Tatyana!

An image of Tatyana Yanishevsky's amazing Blood and Tears.


Yes, those are little knit eyeballs being pierced by sharpened metal spears. Some of them are crying, and some of them are bleeding. This pretty much sums up my day today. So I'm off to take out my troubles on the treadmill! Someone's gonna earn her dinner tonight! (And a glass of wine or two, I tells you what!)

Sunday, February 17, 2008

lazy sunday

Graduate students aren't supposed to have lazy sundays, but I just had one. To be fair (to myself!), I did get quite a bit of apartment-cleaning and errand-running done. But otherwise, nothing very productive... why do weekend days always go by so quickly? I always intend to get so much done, and then all of a sudden it's Monday morning.

Anyway, one "errand" I ran today was a quick trip to ikea to pick up a frame for the new poster I recently ordered and received from Mat Daly. 

Twenty dollar poster plus twenty dollar frame equals one pretty picture, I think! And one fewer bare walls in my now clean apartment.









Last thing for today! I recently finished this partly-knit necklace, and I'm not completely in love with it. In my head, it was supposed to be a chunky, sophisticated, textural necklace... but the finished object is a little hokier (is that even a word?) than I would have liked. It reminds me too much of 60's macrame, I think. Is it the colours? The shape of the beads? Any advice on how to fix it up?



more! more! more! knitwear!

Central Saint Martins - Fall Collection 2008 
(photos from Style.com)




arty knitting, or knitty arting?

Adult-sized, seamlessly knit super hero costumes by Mark Newport.

My only question: where are the knit six-packs? Codpieces? Man nipples?

A full scale tank cozy, by Marianne Jorgensen.

Until I see a battleship cozy, or a space shuttle cozy, this one's going down as the ultimate cozy in my book (ie. on my blog). Never before have I had the urge to nuzzle a tank.

A beautiful wall hanging by textile artist Carol Hummel.


On bad days, this is what I imagine my childhood hopes and dreams look like. On good days, all I see are pretty colours and soft yarny goodness.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

a little cheese... ipod cozies

for me                     for my tolerant other
  

For the record, I have promised my other not to cozy any of his stuff without his permission. 
I do love cozies, though... especially a la Freddie Robins. His cozies make me want to cozy everything.



a little eye candy

From Sandra Backlund's body skin and hair collection

Monday, February 11, 2008

new books on the way...

I ordered two new knitting books today! Both from my "things I'm coveting" list...
  • Twinkle's Weekend Knits, by Wenlan Chia
  • Knit Knit, by Sabrina Gschwandtner
I will definitely be sure to give you a "book review" once they've arrived and I've stopped drooling. I am already imagining me at my local yarn store (it's only three blocks from my apartment... so dangerous) with my pockets full of change (all the money I have right now) begging the mean lady who works there (she really is unbelievably nasty) to accept hundreds of pennies for a ball of chunky wool. Will let you know how the negotiations go.

knitwear! knitwear! knitwear!

Malo - Fall Collection 2008 (photos from Style.com)





VPL - Fall Collection 2008





Louise Goldin - Fall Collection 2008





Sunday, February 10, 2008

mittens for my sister!

They're finally finished!  I wish her birthday was tomorrow instead of last friday :-)
I started these convertible mittens for my sister Joanna months ago. I think it only took me a couple of days to make the first one, but of course I didn't start the second until I'd conveniently forgotten everything about the first, including the needle size I used. I am hopeless when it comes to writing things down as I go. Anyway, the second mitten ended up being slightly larger than the first. It may just be the tension (too much wine? not enough?) or it may be the needles... oh well. Hopefully she'll just be happy to get them (sorry they're so late Jo!).




Yesterday I made a trip to fabricville on Ste. Catherine street, where I found some very cheap pink/peach/orangey fabric that inspired me to make Joanna this brightly-lined little makeup bag/pencil case/random junk holder.  I like my old singer sewing machine (I found it on Craigslist, and bought it and a little table and chair for $100 in total), but it can be pretty frustrating sometimes. The tension is crazy and super sensitive, and I managed to break the needle on the zipper when I was 90% finished. So I ended up finishing the lining off by hand. I'm not sure if that's devotion to one's craft or just plain old compulsion. No that's not true, I am sure which it is.