Anthropologie & Urban Outfitters ‘@home’ in Savannah

My friend Liz Demos, the creative talent behind one of Savannah’s most wonderful shops, @home, has confirmed in her blog that Urban Outfitters has signed a lease for more than 11,000 square feet of retail space in downtown Savannah. Now, won’t that just satisfy my shopping jones?  Poor me ~ I got a daughter whose idea of a cute outfit is her school uniform and who thinks Urban Outfitters makes clothes for “weird” people.  So I dream on their website of all the trendy get-ups I would put her in … if I could.  Now I can actually go into the store and dream.

Meanwhile, Anthropologie has already hit Savannah … without telling me! Last night I was browsing through the new catalog when something hit me. There was something ~ what was it? ~ very familiar about those pictures. Then I saw the names of some of the clothing … Forsyth Park Cardigan, Wormsloe Sweater Coat, Savannah Blouse, Monterey Stripe Surplice, Broughton Blouse. Now, if you’ve visited Savannah, those names don’t have to be explained, but if you haven’t, they’re names of prominent sites in Savannah that have been borrowed to go with the backgrounds of the pictures. If Anthropologie would let me download a photo I would, but they’ve got that site locked up tight, so just go thumb through the online catalog and you can get a glimpse of this wonderful, beautiful place I love live.  Where this afternoon, by the way, at the crack of February, it was 67.4 degrees outside my kitchen window and the magnolias were budding on my neighbor’s tree.

So I’ve been messing with some felting and hand-sewing this week and have come up with a little pet-lover’s tutorial ~ a way of making your own cute beaded or otherwise embellished and felted pet collars.  Check out the free tutorial in pdf download on a separate page.

               

    

Those “Compliments”

WHAT NOT TO HEAR

I just walked through the TV room when somebody on some show like “What Not To Wear” was telling his victim that “That sort of dress makes you look like you have a waist.”  Reminds me of the compliment I got from my mother by phone yesterday when I sent her a few pictures of myself in my newly completed “Flicca” coat (designed by the remarkable Anna Bell of My Fashionable Life).

“I love your coat ~ it makes you look like you’ve lost weight.” 
“Well, I haven’t.” 
“Then you should wear it all the time because it makes you look like you have.”

I know she meant well, but, well, I’ve long since come to terms with my weight, something I guess my mom will never do, and I’m not trying to lose ~ or even look like I have.  Anyway, here’s the coat.  What do you think?

          

Now, I love this coat.  I made it with RYC Soft Tweed in slate blue, and it didn’t take nearly as long as I thought it would.  Despite the yarn’s bulk (3 sts to the inch), it’s amazingly lightweight, so wearing the coat is a dream, even in Savannah, which hardly has any winter at all.

 This is my other recent creation, “Dinah” from Rowan 42, made in Blue Sky Alpacas Alpaca Silk and GGH Soft Kid instead of the called for Rowan Wool Cotton and Kidsilk Haze.

This is my absolute favorite garment I’ve ever made.  I was drawn to the beautiful, completely coincidental matching of the two yarns made by two different companies, and when I found out the gauges on both worked with the pattern, it was mine!  I just loved working on this sweater ~ both yarns are so nice to stitch with.  Then I set about to find a ribbon to match ~ good luck.  I picked the silk satin one from M&J Trim and ordered it, sure it wouldn’t even be close to the color it was on my monitor.  As you can see, it’s a perfect match.  I was thrilled.

SOME ETSY FAVORITES

Seller Treehouse28‘s wonderful custom clothing, priced right and so perfect for my life, in comfy knits.

    

I am crrrrazy for this over-the-top crocheted dress by Pink Willow Designs. It makes me think of all the wonderful times I’ve had in the islands, gets me in the mood for spring and summer like nothing else I’ve seen lately, and ~ to be honest ~ sets the wheels turning for how I can turn out a knockoff for myself (sorry, Pink Willow).

And these fabulous Valentines from the frantic meerkat. I bought the first for my daughter (who just finished studying evolution vs. intelligent design, etc.) and the second for my husband, who is just wonderful and will get it.

 

AND NOW …

I’m off to JoAnn’s to pick up a few items to complete something I’ll share with you next time.

A Grand Opening Gift

If you read my ONE previous post, back at the end of November, you’ll see it was with much ambivalence that I dove into these blogging waters.  But I’ve gotten myself excited about this thing, so now I’m of course all about it. 

       

A couple of weeks ago I set a February 1 deadline to make a 2008 Valentine’s dog sweater and create a pattern to give away here.  That done, I’m offering this cutie, one of the sweetest little sweaters I’ve made for my pup.  Love the Cascade 220 for a dog sweater.  Love love LOVE the Cascade Cloud 9 for the sheer pleasure of knitting with it and for the gentle aura of fuzz it works up before you can even get it off the needles.  And I love the tiny floral lining. I hope you’ll enjoy knitting this sweater, and please let me know if you find any errors.

That said, I’m so tired from creating the pattern, working out how to do this blog thing, and recuperating from a recent rotator cuff repair operation … that I don’t have anything else to say for now.  Enjoy the pattern, and let me know how it goes for you.  I’ll have more fun stuff up next week ~ promise.

Living, Stitching and Dog-wrangling in the Deep South

When Huckleberry Finn flees from his brutal father, he meets up with an old friend, the slave Jim, who is also running away.  Together, they travel by raft down the Mississippi, tumbling in and out of amazing adventures … and experience some of the strange ways of people in the Deep South.

~ Puffin Classics, Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

    I’ve always thought blogs were so self-indulgent, but I guess I can blab about myself on the web as easily as anybody else.  Who am I, and why should you care what I have to say?  I’m an ex-hippie (though it might be said that, as there’s no such thing as an ex-Marine, there’s no such thing as an ex-hippie) who grew up on the front steps of the Civil Rights movement in Montgomery, Alabama; a wild child who’s grown into the spit ‘n’ image of my paternal grandmother; a former journalist and editor; a wife, mother and dog-lover; a dyed-redhead; and a rabid knitter and crocheter.

My grandmother Rose, the one I look like, always had a deep freeze full of cakes and pies, and even in the days before microwaves she could lay out a full spread if you dropped in on a moment’s notice.  Her little house was filled with all sorts of ticky-tacky ~ ceramics, hooked rugs and doilies ~ oh, the doilies.  They were everywhere.  Little Rose (she was only about 4’10) crocheted all the time\, and when she died in her early 90s, she was buried in a pink metallic child’s casket, wearing a pink dress and holding her crochet hook and a bit of work she hadn’t finished.

Now that I look like my grandmother, I’ve taken up her hobby along with knitting, and ~ like everything else I do ~ I overdo.  My daughter said to me recently, “Mom, do you knit all the time?”  Well, I wouldn’t knit during a funeral or in church, but I have made the doctor wait while I finish a row.

Among other things, I love to knit dog sweaters, so I’ll be posting a few free patterns as well as some more you can buy.  Even some finished sweaters if you’re not on the needle yourself.  There’ll be more, too, since the dog sweater thing isn’t all I do. Stay tuned.