Sunday, December 27, 2009

happy new year

Happy New Year!  Last night was an amazing New Year's Eve.  It was the end of a decade and we were so fortunate to experience a Blue Moon!  A Blue Moon is the second full moon in one calendar month, which only happens about every 2.5 years, however, the last year a Blue Moon fell on December 31 was 1990 and the next year it will happen will be 2028.  Pretty awesome and what great energy it inspired!


To finish off 2009 right, we finished up the breakfast nook by hand sewing some pillows and hanging some nice lighting.





Bonus photos!  
  
Merry Christmas!
And a nice view from my dad's front door.


Enjoy the beginning of a new decade and good luck with all those resolutions!

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Cold cold cold!

Apparently I have had a request from one of my readers (thanks for being my reader Karen!) to break away from my frenzied knitting and actually blog a little about my frenzied knitting.


I have been delighted to find myself in a transition between stages of knitting obsession.  I am currently entering the stage of production obsession.  All I want to do is knit, and I want to knit many many projects in little little time.  I knit in the morning, on my lunch break, in the evenings, and every Tuesday night from 7-9 at Stix.  I have been cranking out knitting projects like there is no tomorrow, especially since days on end of negative degree weather have encouraged me to stay inside where the air is warm and the wool is soft.


But of course there is a tomorrow.  Life goes on with or without scarves, hats, sweaters, and fine lace shawls.  But with the economy how it is and a certain species of dolladollabills becoming harder and harder to find, my new habit of obsessive knitting today has started to make a dollar for me to tuck away for tomorrow.  


And with Green being the new Black, knitting and animal fibers prove to be a sustainable choice, and it's all the rage!  So with sustainability and 'greenness' at the forefront of my knitting, I have made a choice to cater to another new rage in alternative lifestyle, rock climbing.  Specifically, I am encouraging a move away from petroleum based products designed for rock climbers and on towards the woolly.  Obviously it's a benefit for some climbing gear to be made from the newest, strongest, bestest, whatever, due to safety concerns....But in my opinion, all those high tech 'endurance gear' materials aren't necessary for some of the accessories, especially chalk bags.  


A chalk bag's primary and obvious function is to hold chalk, not save your life.  Another very obvious function is to declare your flavor, your style, your spice. Most climbing gear is designed for purpose with little style in mind and when viewed from below, as most climbers commonly are, pretty much all that is seen is a butt and a chalk bag.  As seen below...







So to allow all those style-savvy climber out there to express themselves and their support for a more sustainable mindset, I have created Baa Bags.  They're made from sheep!   Hand knit, felted chalk bags, and (soon to come) bags made from recycled wool sweaters.  These bags will soon be available on Etsy and maybe at a climbing gym near you!