Stitch Rabbit

Secret Projects on The Side.

Breaking Through The Creative Wall (once again)

I haven't been in the studio for awhile. It took me about a half an hour of fingering material and flipping through books before I finally flipped the switch and turned on my sewing machines. I don't know what my problem has been lately, but the lack of inspiration in the sewing room has left me gritting my teeth and pacing floors.

Finally a break through.

When I'm not being particularly creative I feel like I'm not doing enough. I've been really busy with the knitting these days, lots of orders from the shop, lots of requests for mittens and hats for this family of mine. But I was missing the scissors, the measuring. Crisp fabric and pins and lights. It's nice to get back in here. And all it took was one day to get my mind cranking out ideas for new projects.

I didn't get too complicated with what I was doing, just made a few things that were on my list...a few Christmas gifts I can't let out of the bag, and a travel cosmetic bag using the very last of my Ruby Star Rising "Vintage Ladies" fabric.

An afternoon alone to cut and sew makes for one happy mama.

 

Winter is here....

 

 

All surfaces are covered in knitting projects, getting bigger and cozier as the cold comes.

 

The hallways are lined with our warmest jackets and boots.

 

The winter baskets of scarves and hats are overflowing.

 

The crafting is a constant.

 

There are cookies on the cooling racks more often than not.

 

The cat hasn't moved for six days.

 

In The Studio with Erin Cleal

This is something I've been wanting to document for a long, long time.

 

It isn't often you come across someone like Erin Cleal, a good friend of mine with an incredible talent for all things beautiful. Her long-time studio in East Vancouver is an art piece on it's own, a sanctuary for lost and found things, a place where tiny forgotten pieces of treasure are magically transformed into the usable, and the beautiful. Impossibly organized, you can spend hours peering through her things, amazed at her eye and ability to see something not for what it is, but for what it could be. Erin is, in my opinion, the Queen of Re-use, and I would like to, without further ado, take you on a tour of the magical place that is completely her.

A well-rounded artist with a knack for cutting and pasting, Erin is meticulous in her studio's organization. Really, with the amount of stuff she has, I can't imagine trying to function in a studio that wasn't so tightly dialed. She thrifts with incredible luck and talent, using everything that you could imagine to store her treasures and materials. From tupperware to jars to suitcases and spice racks, everything - I mean EVERYTHING is labeled, sometimes plain and sometimes quirky with what you'll find inside. Exploring her finds and keeps is like stepping directly into her mind.

Erin's love for her tools of her trade is apparent in quantity alone. She is the one who has every scissor, every brush, every pen that you could desire. The tiniest piece of hard wear you could need, she's got. In silver and in brass.

Systematic and beautiful in every way, I think the best part about visiting Erin's studio is finding something you would've never thought to be useful, and there it is, with purpose, and you're saying "I would've never thought of using that thing that way."

Thank you to my lovely friend Erin Cleal for letting me document her space and write about her and the place that is most definitely at the heart of it.

xo stitch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In The Studio Lately.

With the awfully drawn-out Halloween weekend of madness out of the way, I've finally swept the studio floor of the remnents of costume and gotten back to life as it should be. A really nice, steady flow of cowl orders have been coming in and I'm so pleased to have busy hands as the nights get colder.

I've also been busy finishing a sweater that has seriously been on the sticks for almost a year. It was just one of those projects that kept getting pushed back for smaller, faster projects. And then it was summer, and who wants to knit a giant winter cardigan in the middle of July? I'm on the sleeves now. It shouldn't be much longer, right?

Finally I'm fooling around with something the quilters call "improvised quilting". Basically, you cut and sew and hopefully it turns into something beautiful. It's slow and methodical, and perfect for nights in with a glass or four of wine and a lot of music.

You can always tell that winter's coming in this house. We all get back to work on the things we love.

 

Love Letters.

"to mom and dad , frankie"

 

 

"frake   i luv you bekus we r a famle. luv frankie."

 

 

And then I started bawling. Sheesh.

In The Bag.

When you're a knitter, you're usually a knitter on the go. I'm always lugging around a separate bag with a project or two in it, along with a mess of patterns and needles and scissors. The bag itself was getting a bit hectic so I pulled it all out today and after I pulled out all the half-finished projects and knitting books and leftover yarn, I ended up with the essentials:

Basically, I like to keep tools in a couple of little bags to keep things (ahem) organized. I keep a book and a pen for notes and pattern details, a coupla measuring tapes, scissors, markers, cable needles, counters and some finishing needles.

My most prized possesion in my knitting bag? See that black case in the corner?

Most knitters are pretty fiercely loyal to the sticks that they use and I am definitely a huge fan of these bad boys. This is the Addi Turbo Click set. It consists of 10 different sizes of nickel-plated circular needles and three different lengths of cord.

In the words of my husband, it's like tools for ladies. I say it's like porn for knitters. And it's true. Any time I've pulled out this case even the manliest of men in the room come over to check out what's going on. This is some serious business up in here. Get yer knit on.