From Blockhead to Bloghead

I wasn’t always such a crochety [sic] pinster [ditto]. In fact, back in my heyday, I was quite the baller. Nary a fellow managed to pin me down. Nor can I say that I was a stranger to casting off. As the old yarns about me got worsted and worsted, I decided it was time to change my pursewts. I’ve long since abandoned my extremist ways and am proud to say that I now exclusively pull from the center. Wound a little tight? Yes, but at least it’s consistent. I rarely get knotted up over anything anymore.

OK - no more puns (on to parentheses!). This blog is mostly about my transition from cerebral to sartorial (left to left?), from crafty to craftsy and from bitter to knitter. As much as I am a slave to live for graduate school, I’ve learned that, by itself, graduate school didn’t quite cut it. Here, I’ll take you through my own adventures in teaching my old self new pricks. I’ll review patterns, both knitting and sewing, explaining where I had trouble and how I jury-rigged epiphanically arrived at a solution. I’ll also suggest, for other beginners, books, tools, machines and other resources that I’ve found particularly helpful in my quest to acquire that elusive nirvana, seaminess. 

Which brings me to recent undertakings (in the most funerary sense): I’ve been working really hard to avoid working on my dissertation and crafts seem as good as any other way to procrastinate. Add to that effort a month-long residence at the cummings’ (I don’t want to offend e.e. with proper capitalization) former summer swamp  house, where, with no TV (though we do have access to two ATVs) and no company (Peter is too busy poring over alcohol recipes), I’ve resorted to cultivating (emphasis on cult) an interest in crafts. 

Tasked with finding my sister a sewing machine for her birthday (more on this later, as it would spoil the surprise if she read which machine we bought her), I, too, have taken up sewing. After all, I had to do all the research. For now, I’ll leave you with the pattern of the day, a photo of the lovely tote bag I constructed to test my sister’s wooly dog machine, and the random photo of the day (Siobhan's interpretation of East meets West, Bejing 2008). 

Bon sewoire, mes amis!