Showing posts with label guest post. Show all posts
I'm blogging over at New Nostalgia today, sharing some of my favorite knitting patterns for beating the winter chill! Come join me and check out what I found!
Beating The Winter Chill
Jan 28, 2012
I'm guest posting today over at Amy's blog New Nostalgia - won't you head on over and take a look?! I've shared a few things I'm going to be letting go of in 2012!
letting go
Jan 7, 2012
{love me some Amy!}
And two more that I didn't mention? Twitter and sponsored ads - but more on that in 2012!
five in 2012
Dec 17, 2011
Every year, on December 26th, there is a tradition with my family. No, it's not shopping. Or eating some special meal. We take out the Christmas trash. Bows, ribbon, wrapping paper, gift bags, boxes, more wrapping paper, so, so much wrapping paper. There are many ways to reduce your environmental impact this time of year without going over budget. Most of these tips can be used year-round.
Make the wrapping part of the gift. Bath towels, dish cloths, baby blankets and many more fabric items like these can be wrapped around the gift as if they were regular paper. Make a game out of it, and wrap a small gift in the smallest towel, and then the next size up, and so on until they are all used up. This always gets some laughs.
Fabric sacks. I remember way back in Girl Guides making gift bags for the holidays. That was about 10 years ago, around the same time I learned how to knit. We followed steps very close to these from Sew Many Ways. If you're feeling adventurous, you could also knit or crochet some bags.
Use a basket. My grandmother is great for this one. Most years, my dads gift is a big basket filled with some of his favourite snacks. Everything from crackers to pickles to kippered snacks, it's all piled up into a wicker basket, which will likely be used by my mom to package another gift in the future. If you go this route, choose a nice, deep basket, so that you won't need to use plastic wrapping to keep everything in.
Use the news. This is a classic. The colour comic pages from the weekend paper being used by the stereotypical broke college student. There is no need to be broke to do this! You can use any section of the paper to wrap the gifts. For example, the sports section would be great for the hockey nut in your family.
Art works! Do you have a young Picasso or Pollock in your home? Is your fridge covered in their works form the past six months? Take some of the older art down and use that as wrapping paper. Grandma and Grandpa are sure to appreciate something like that.
Go naked. The gift that is. For some people, unwrapping the gift is more tedious than anything. Satisfy these folks with an unwrapped gift. If you want to dress it up a little, make your own gift bows with this tutorial from How About Orange.
This holiday season, keep these ideas in mind to lessen your impact on the planet. Don't forget to reuse these ideas next year!
Nicole blogs at Knit Nicole, Knit! and runs a sweet Etsy Shop!
Guest Post: Alternative Wrapping from Nicole
Dec 13, 2011
{not Katie, but a great photo!}
I knit because when I watch a film, my hands get bored.
I knit because I love to learn and I want to know the mechanics of how things are made.
I love the long slow process of knitting - there are no corners to cut, just the repetitive actions that lead to rows appearing!
wearables magically growing out of the needles.
I need to create.
I find it exciting that I am creating fabric.
Knitting is methodical and helps you practice concentration.
Knitting teaches you to SLOW DOWN and smell the roses.
Knitting is either right or it is wrong: you have either made a stitch, or you haven't.
I love that knitting is considered a 'Grandmothers' craft' but there is so much potential and possibility for pushing knitting forward into the future,
with the artists and pioneers of the new school of knit, and so many people willing to make the effort to get excited about this timeless craft.
I love to take old crafts, and subvert them, or bring them up to date.
I love to carefully craft something by hand, I love thinking about the person it's being made for,
I love contemplating how many thoughts are held inside each and every stitch.
To knit is to love: it is a labour of love! I love the mistakes in knitting, dropped stitches,
little holes, wonky seams - these are all the markings of a piece made with love and by hand.
Knitting is useful, practical and easy!
I love yarn: colour, fibre, texture, thickness, thinness, bumpiness, shininess, and I LOVE to make my own handspun wool!
(And secretly, I find pleasure and satisfaction in untangling balls of wool!)
I knit to contemplate future possibilities, or reflect on the past.
Knitting is like a meditation: you focus on the action, then your hands and muscle memory takes over; the rhythm continues,
and you are submerged into your own thoughts.
Many things have been worked out, resolved whilst knitting.
It is calming, peaceful, solitary, social, old, new, borrowed, blue.
I knit because I can, and because now I am hooked!
The same goes for crochet by the way, I am rather fond and fairly accomplished of that too! This short documentary about the work of designer Helen Rodel sums up what I love about crochet, and inspires me to strive to be an artisan too.
Tammy on Rowdy Kittens wrote a great list called 5 Life Lessons I've Learned from Knitting.
In Knitting Through It: Inspiring Stories for Times of Trouble, I love this excerpt by Amy Holman in her short story The Rising Tide, on how knitting helped her through unemployment.
"Knitting has stitches and patterns and textures and colours that mix and mingle. Once the stitch is understood, it's just a rhythm you can follow. Knitting a scarf ordered my mind when I had trouble re-writing a proposal for a book on how to get published so that I could return to it refreshed and flowing. The repetitive stitches are especially useful when thinking structurally, as for the chapter outline of the book.
"Knitting is connection, the unravelling of yarn to pull loops through loops to create one fabric.
"I dream big and don't plan well, then see that planning might work along with the dreams."
Why do you knit? What do you love about your craft?
Katie blogs at Je Suis Une Monstre - a wonderful blog about knitting, Katie's everyday life, and her gorgeous shop updates! Swing by and tell her happy birthday (she's just turned 24!!)!!!
Why I Knit {Guest Post from Katie Probert}
Sep 15, 2011
Lately, all I can think about is fall. It's a bit tricky to actually get into the spirit because I live in San Diego and the weather rarely reflects the correct season. But I am celebrating it myself by baking sweet smelling bread, changing my sheets to warmer pattern and sipping hot tea in the afternoons and evenings. Eventually the crisp air will come to San Diego and I'll be ready with scarves and boots to greet it.
Here are a few things I am loving for fall : this bread recipe, lululemon vinyasa scarf, David's Tea, madewell short boots
Thanks so much to Elise for this amazing guest post, giving me some time off to enjoy my new little boy Owen! Elise blogs on her site EnJoy It, and runs a fabulous Etsy shop as well! Pop on over and tell her hello!
Here are a few things I am loving for fall : this bread recipe, lululemon vinyasa scarf, David's Tea, madewell short boots
Thanks so much to Elise for this amazing guest post, giving me some time off to enjoy my new little boy Owen! Elise blogs on her site EnJoy It, and runs a fabulous Etsy shop as well! Pop on over and tell her hello!
Loving Lately {guest post from Elise Blaha}
Sep 7, 2011
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