Sisters Redux

More sewing photos, anyone? This isn't a very recent project, but it's one that pleases me.

When I went to the Sisters of Mercy show this spring, I bought a band shirt which I didn't like very much. I'm not nuts about this logo, and it didn't fit well.


(Okay, nothing new there. Commercial t-shirts never fit me well. That's why I do so many t-shirt sewing projects.)

I cut up the shirt and put it back together with pieces salvaged from a failed project, and voilà!


I finally got around to asking Zak to take some photos for me tonight. He took a lot of really nice ones - I was very tempted to post, like, twelve of them. Click for big.

Vanity, thy name is Mandy. Take a flattering shot of me and I want to show the world.


Soon I'll also have a new tattoo photo to show! My brother Dan and his friend Mike are visiting tomorrow, and Dan and I are finally going to get the tattoos we've talked about for the last 800 years. This will be his first one. I'm going to make sure he gets done before me - I'm a wimp with the pain, and I'm getting them done in very painful spots.


When I got tattooed with my Mom, aunts and great-aunt, I made sure they all went before me so I wouldn't inspire them to chicken out. (I was the only one who had been tattooed previously.) They all said I was right to make them go first, after seeing how tough I wasn't.

Heh. Oh well. At least I get it done.

I'll try to post some more sewing photos in the next few weeks. I have a lot of projects from the last year or so that I have been meaning to show. I'm afraid it's likely to be a while before you see any kntting on this here knitting blog. I'm currently working on one of those notorious secret design projects that seem to be plaguing the knit-blogging world.

Eighties Love

I made some fun pants a little while ago, to show off my long legs in as garish a manner as possible. I've inflicted them on the world a few times recently, and Rachael kindly took a photo for me.

As usual, click for big. Sometimes when I sew, I don't feel like doing the detail work of making small pieces like pockets or belt loops. I buy jeans at thrift stores for a few dollars and use them for parts. I love the way that worked out for these pants. They're long, tight, tapered, stretchy, comfortable and hilarious. I love them, but I have to be feeling pretty good to wear them out of the house.

Help!

Folks, I need a little help. I am in need of a knitting font to use in my work for Knitty, and for my other tech editing work. I know about the Aire River font, and the one available from Knitter's, but those are intended for personal use. I need something I can use for commercial applications.

I'd like to just make my own, but I don't know what tools to use. I don't have Photoshop, and I can't afford to buy it just for this. I have Gimp on my Mac, perhaps I could use that? So far I've only used it to edit photos, I don't kow what the limits of its powers are.

Really, I don't know where to start with this. Please, if you have any advice for me, I'd be grateful for it.

Or, if you know of a knitting font package I could buy, please let me know. I've written to the person at Aire River to ask about buying that font, I'm not sure what she or he will say.

Thanks in advance...

A Public Service Announcement, etc.

My hand is still in sort of a bad way, though it's getting better. I'm being careful, thank you for your concerned comments.

The Public Service Announcement:
If you don't read Rollertrain, you should. She works for a company that makes porn, so there's some writng about the sex industry - I'm telling you that because there seems to be a rule in blogging that people need to warned if a linked site has anything to do with sex. Most of her entries are not about sex, though. She writes well, beautifully and movingly about her life. Start with this, most recent and quite wonderful, entry.

The Tangent:
One of the panels I attended at BlogHer was about sex blogging. One of the questions discussed was (to paraphrase), "Why don't most people talk about their sex lives in their blogs?" It was a really interesting discussion - unfortunately the podcast isn't up yet, I'll keep and eye on the BlogHer site and let you know when it is.

Food for thought, it was. As enthusiastic as I am about my sex life, it would feel weird and forced to talk about it here... perhaps if I were a more frequent blogger, and discussed more of my life here, it would seem more natural. For better or worse, I guess that's not the kind of blog this is. It's not much of a knitting blog, really, though that's where it starts. I guess it's what I need it to be, which keeps changing. I'm glad that there are people who read it.

Edited to add: A salient point of this discussion was about the shame surrounding sex, especially for women. This was a point that really resonated with me, and a lot of the work I did about sex when I was in college (see below) was concerned with this issue. The panelists were discussing how the separation between our sex lives and our "real lives" was absurd and artificial, and contributed to harmful ideas about sex... of course I'm paraphrasing here and it's a much more involved discussion than I'm prepared to get into right now. This, however, is the idea that's been rolling around in my head as I have thought about this issue since the conference.

Steph's comment, however, brings it back to reality. Although I do agree with many of the points that were made by the panelists, for many of us it is not a good practical choice to discuss our sex lives on our blogs. (I hear you saying "Duh!") Yeah, I know that. It's not a good choice for me, either. I really shouldn't have left it unsaid.

When I was in art college, a lot of the work I did was about sex and sexuality, on both personal and political/societal levels. I've often thought that I'd like to do more work on these themes, and there are some books I'd like to write. Attending this session made me realize just how much I really haven't been working on, and researching for, these "some-day" projects. Reading Susie Bright's and Melissa Gira's blogs has reminded me of just how much more articulate, well-read and -informed I'll need to be if I want to start saying anything about anything. I'm out of practice, out of the loop.

So what am I going to do about it? For now, I can't distract myself from the other things I'm working out in my life - work, money, health, you know. But I need to be mindful of the goals and dreams I'm deferring til later (writing about sex isn't the only one). I need to be sure that when I say I'm working on an aspect of my life, I'm really working on it, instead of hiding behind my incompetence and using it as an excuse to avoid something else.

My Treacherous Hand

Part of my left hand has been somewhat numb and tingly for most of the day. I have editing and knitting deadlines I have to meet - I don't have time for this now!!! I'm typing this entry with my right hand only, so it will be very short.


Here are a few photos of a shawl I made a while ago for my stylish friend Rachael. I forgot to photograph it - she just took some shots for me and sent them tonight. Click for really-quite-big.

Wow, typing with one hand really sucks. It's making me grumpy. Project details when my hand is better. 'Til next time, dear readers...

Still Here

Hello again.

This is my Giger bear, which I bought last night at Voltage. Rachael and I found this awesome store last night by accident, and barely escaped without far, far too much stuff. Actually, she managed to buy nothing, which was impressive. It was a great night - we poked around in exciting vintage stores, had delicious food with great conversation, saw really amazing art, found the aforementioned fantastic store, and bought me a new camera, all in under 5 hours. I even picked up the new VK, IK, and Threads magazines. What more can you ask for from an evening?

I've been having a hard time even thinking of blogging lately. Lots is going on, and I haven't really felt like talking about any of it. I should tell you a bit about BlogHer, though.

First of all, thank you again for being so generous with your stories. If you haven't read through the stories that were left in the comments, I would encourage you to do so, they're lovely and interesting. Even more stories were sent to me via email. I was pretty overwhelmed by the response.

Unfotunately, the panel didn't really go the way I had hoped it might, and I wasn't able to share your experiences with the audience at all. The session could have used a moderator, but we didn't have one, and chose to let audience questions determine the course of the discussion. In the end, I felt that I wasn't really a good fit - the session was on group blogging, and I don't have a group blog. The idea to put me in that session was an inspired and interesting one; the coordinator's thought was that the knit-blogging community functions, in some ways, as a large group blog. When we (the coordinator and panelists) discussed the session in a conference call beforehand, the discussion was really interesting and it seemed like a good fit. However, the audience ended up asking a lot of practical questions about running a group blog, so I ddn't have a lot to contribute in the end. Ah well.

I did enjoy BlogHer, though. I attended a couple of really interesting session, which I'll write a bit more about later. For now, though, I have to get back to work. The fall issue of Knitty will have some really lovely sweaters, and unfortunately (or fortunately, or I wouldn't have a job) the patterns for these sweaters aren't going to edit themselves. (Man, I hate it when people say things like that. I'm afraid I've been reduced to irritating clichés. Even my title sucks.)

I'll write more soon. I just wanted to drop in and let you know I'm still here.