I Sew. I Knit. I Rock.

I). I SEW. Or at least, I attempt to sew.

Last night, I uncovered the sewing machine in order to make my first-ever tissue holder, inspired (and instructed) by Craftapalooza (see her post of 28 September for a detailed tutorial, which has also been cross-posted at Whipup.


Here's the back of the tissue holder beside some rocks, to give an idea of size. (Okay, who am I kidding? I put the rocks in there simply because I like the rocks). Craftapalooza's instructions are dandy, but boy o' boy did I struggle to make this wee thing. I must must must practice my sewing--

II). I KNIT. So what do you suppose this is?


Here, I'll give more of a clue...



That's right. I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm making my first-ever Clapotis (which I won't even bother linking given its ubiquity in the knitting-blog world [but I will link its fabulous designer]). I'm with An Abudance of Lisa, who, in the Zimmermania KAL, quotes EZ in stating that "she is the boss of her knitting" and therefore will knit whatever she damn well chooses despite the fact that people are probably poo-pooing the very late "jumping on the band wagon." (Philosophical query moment: Why do we assume if something becomes popular, or is made by many, many people, then it's not as good, or that it loses some of its value/prestige? This is partly what Olga is getting at in her post, I think. Craft doesn't (supposedly) attain the status of art because it's too inclusive, open or available to too many? The hierarchy of art/craft is clearly a result of sexism and racism, and must end! I'd go on but this post is getting too unwieldy as it is, and so this is a conversation, started by Olga, to which I will return...)


III). I ROCK.


Amanda Cathleen(ETA: oh my gosh! she too is having a baby! congratulations!) commented yesterday in my "Morning Glory" post about the vividness of the colours of the flowers in the photographs; she remarked that my camera takes such clear photos. Yes, I love my camera (Nikon [hey! I'm Kodachrome, after all] CoolPix 4300), and yes it takes (when I'm not screwing up) mostly clear photos, but I do sometimes hit "Autocorrect" in Microsoft Photo Editor which seems to add light to the photos. For example, the photo of the rocks above has not been edited by me at all, but the photo below has been "auto-corrected".


I did feel sorta guilty for doing this to many of my blog photos, but then Cara at January One, and Jane at Yarnstorm both mentioned that they edit their photos most of the time. Given I'm a writer/teacher of English and literature, I know the importance of editing--it's critical!--and so, I frequently edit my photos too.

However, that said, here below is a photo with no editing. It's what my work-area looked like this morning post-tissue holder experiment. I was so tired last night after trying to sew a tissue holder like those beauties over at Craftapalooza, I went straight to bed with no post-sewing tidying.


Guess what I have to look forward to for my Friday evening? .... I clean?