Abysmally behind schedule

A small aside before I begin with the fun stuff: 
I know we've been hearing a lot about Hurricane Irene and its predicted destructive journey through New England. I have lots of family there and I'm really worried about them. I hope the hurricane doesn't hit them hard, but in the meantime.....my thoughts are with you guys. Love you all. 

An ad for the Cheetah Girls is playing as I write, so forgive me if this is a little incomprehensible. My brain is getting more scrambled than eggs.
I have fallen prey to something unspeakable.....one Yarn Harlot (she knows me not, but I hold her books in the highest regard for being both hilarious and about my favorite crafty subject....knitting) deems this phenomenon "IT". "IT" usually happens around Christmastime, but in this case it is birthday of a dear friend (you may remember her cupcakes) that has sent me into a knitting frenzy.

As her birthday appeared on the horizon I began to have the happy notion of "hmm, what shall I make her?" (my new tradition is for all of my gifts to be handmade if possible). I puttered around New Hampshire, pondering, but restricted computer access made it impossible to scoot around the Great Wide Internet looking for ideas and much as I love my knitting books they do not display the types of things said friend would actually wear. 

This friend is very hard to knit for. She is the opposite of preppy and therefore will not take cabled sweaters or otherwise offensively preppy items. She is not a fussy dresser and if you can find a speck of lace in her room I'll knit you a shawl. Socks are rendered moot by the irrational sock rules of my school (and she has rainbow socks already). Hats are questionable and must be discussed in great depth, which would probably ruin the surprise of the thing, and scarves require similar talks. 

So what was left? 

And then it dawned on me in a brilliant stroke of genius (unfortunately, her birthday was five days away). 

Now here I am, begging parents to take me to a yarn store--but not for my own personal gain*--with an idea that was supposed to be a birthday present by yesterday. When I see you on Monday, my sincere apologies in advance for receiving a skein of yarn for your birthday. You'll like it when it's finished. In a couple months. 

<3 Maggie

P.S. I've noticed that there has been a sad lack of pictures on this blog. Sorry about that. Finished things coming soon.

*Oh my god. I take that back. Joann's is having a 30% off sale on all their yarns. ALL of it. I'm serious. This opportunity is too good to miss. 

back and better than ever

Hey guys! I'm BAAAAACK! What's making me so chipper today, you ask? A combination of piles of yarn, semi working internet, and the joys of being home again:

1. Woke up super early, cursed time difference and jet lag, went back to sleep.
2. Woke up again, decided not to fight, fetched laptop and IMed friends until felt jet lagged again and unceremoniously went back to sleep.
3. Woke up yet again, muttered at it still being before 9 am, fetched sock in progress and knit for a while. Happily and peacefully.
4. Cat wandered in, disrupted happy peace by gazing at my ball of sock yarn in a hungry way and complaining at me for going on vacation. That simply won't do as this is a fancy sock yarn that can't take cat attacks the way acrylic yarn can.
5. Sock? Sock yarn? Did I not tell you I was making socks? Well I am. I am making socks and they are addictive. They're my first pair and make me feel really clever even though they're plain socks and thousands of people have done them before. I think it has something to do with using double-pointed needles.
6. While we're on this knitting track, I can exclusively reveal that the East Coast has some excellent yarn shops (shocker, right?) and I managed to somehow acquire....
-5 balls of silky bamboo yarn purchased at local Joann's Fabrics to make a gorgeous LBD found in a book of vintage knitting patterns, recklessly abandoned by me halfway through for socks. It is now languishing in my suitcase atop a pile of clothes I need to wash (TMI?)
-1 single, glorious skein of handspun alpaca purchased at local farmer's market. The little tag has a picture of the alpaca it came from. It is gorgeous.
-3 skeins of emerald green DK weight merino blend, purchased from a booth at town celebration, also gorgeous.
-8 skeins of durable acrylic yarn purchased from local flea market for a whopping $4 total (four skeins of which we shall not speak; I re-gifted them to someone who appreciates them better)
-1 perfect, amazing hank of yarn made from the hair of a baby llama (don't laugh, it's softer than a baby's tender buttocks) in the most glorious shade of blue you can imagine.
-1 alpaca/merino/nylon blend sock yarn currently on needles. I was gloating all the way up to the cash register about getting such a big skein for a mere $12....until the yarn shop lady rung it up and I realized it was $21
7. Went into freshly painted yarn room (supposedly the place where I do my homework.....really the place where I keep my craft supplies) oohed and ahhed at beautiful color and excellent organizing job on various possessions my mother did--she really does spoil me--to put away said yarns and pet the rest of stash.
8. A HORRIBLE REALIZATION OCCURRED. I have unknowingly received, on the duration of my vacation, an extensive yarn education. This is mostly a good thing as before this trip I thought alpaca was a character in Dr. Seuss and merino was a brand they sold at target. However, before I knew the joys of luxury yarn I was perfectly happy getting (let's be honest here) acrylic yarn of shall we say lesser quality from Joann's. I reached out to pet the happy softness I already owned and realized it wasn't really so soft after all, it kinda sucked really and exfoliated the tender skin of my palms. Am I turning into a fiber snob or is this just the result of being in the presence of hand-dyed hanks of cashmere?
9. Could not answer these questions so went downstairs to make tea. After an extended period of time took a bath and got up properly. Then did the same things I did when my hair was greasy and I was in pjs. Finished a book I needed to read for school, switched to some blogs I hadn't read for a while, which reminded me to post on this one.
It's nice to be back. I missed you guys.
<3 Maggie
P.S. Sock pictures soon. Really all it is are 3 emotionally demoralizing inches of ribbing on needles. I've knit and knit and knit and still it's only 3 inches long. WHERE DID MY 4TH INCH GO?
P.P.S. In case you haven't noticed, (and I probably mentioned this before) I'm sort of cultivating a full-blown obsession with knitting. :D

double trouble

Hi there everyone! This blog post is brought to you by the local library, who was kind enough to let me huddle in a corner with MY LAPTOP typing away for an hour. That's right, I said MY LAPTOP for I have been dancing around in dizzy circles for two weeks now throwing handfuls of rainbow confetti in the air* because I GOT A LAPTOP!!!!!!!!

Ok, deep breaths, moving on. The real reason I'm huddled in a corner is not to reveal my confetti-throwing habits, but because I've been knitting like crazy even though its freaking hot degrees outside and finished two scarves! My dad thinks I'm cuckoo and after amassing 8 balls of colorful yarn from a flea market and 4 more balls of yarn from Joann's for an upcoming project he has declared a ban on buying more yarn. This has caused me extreme pain and a side effect of  retreating to my room stroking the yarn like a pet chinchilla. Maybe I'm going a little crazy with this knitting stuff. Oh phooey, I've always been crazy.

Well. Allow me to distract you with pictures of the finished products.

This is my dad wearing the cowl scarf I made for him. I used Knit1Slip1's January Cowl pattern and it turned out super warm and cozy. A bit too warm and cozy for August, but he's going to forget about it until Christmas. 

Then I used a Maggie Pattern to make a similar version for my mom. Basically knit a scarf using stockinette stitch (which rolls like crazy!) until I could wrap it twice around my neck and join the ends, then I sewed it up, then I modeled it.
Allow me to say something in my defense. Some people have the magical gift of being photogenic. I am not one of those people. Try to take a picture of me and nine times out of ten I look ridiculous, grouchy, or like I'm on drugs. Exhibit A:

Outtake #1: I Didn't Touch The Brownies, I Swear

Outtake #2: "I Am The Walrus". But look how pretty the scarf is!

Outtake #3: Attempted the blogger head-down pose that so many fashion bloggers look adorable doing, and look constipated instead. 

Sigh. I can't win.

Gotta go, I've stretched the library goodwill to its breaking point. For all you non-knitters out there, I highly recommend trying it. It's easier than you think with the help of a good book or person and is the perfect plane distraction.

<3 Maggie




*this is how I express extreme happiness

heads up!

Just a quick few announcements--
first of all, I created a gmail for this blog: threadheadblog@gmail.com. Shoot me an e-mail if you have any questions or want to contact me! This blog was created on a different account, it's a little confusing I know. I'm working on it. In the meantime, if you want me to read it use the blog's gmail. :)

also, sadly, I'll be out of town for a few weeks which means--alas!--no posts. I'm visiting my grandpa, it's his birthday soon (Birthday wishes in the house!!) and while I love him dearly he has internet slower than a drugged-out dinosaur. So in short I'm taking a minor technology break with exceptions for e-mail :P. Wish me luck. I'll post if I survive.
 I guess this concludes the long and dragged-out (re)design your summer month/week/thing. I hope you guys had as much fun reading as I had making and writing! It was great to get creative and thinking of new, interesting projects on a regular basis (I should try this more often! What do you guys think?).
have a great rest of the summer, everyone!

<3 Maggie

(re)design your summer: go with the flo

 .....and by flo, I mean Flo, as in a dreamy aunt named Florence who lives alone with her paintings in a chic flat in Italy and sends fancy chocolates to her nieces and nephews for Christmas, whom I imagine owned this shirt.

I'm wearing shorts under this guys, promise

And then I saw my neighbor looking out his window watching my dad take photos of me in the kitchen. So--naturally--I blushed tomato red and ran into the living room. Hence the awkward smile.

I kid, you guys. It belonged to my mom. And then she gave it to me (actually, I snatched it from the Goodwill bag). Maybe this is a sign that we should move to Italy and eat fancy chocolates?
I'm going off on a tangent here. This happens often when I wear soft and/or silky fabrics. I feel so romantic and dreamy. And then people look at me funny when I try to recite sweet love poems in my own ear (I bet you just tried that, didn't you?).

So. To business. This shirt wasn't bad to begin with, very good quality and nice fabrics. In fact all it needed was some rolling-up-the-sleeves action, my t-shirt maxi skirt and voila, new blouse!

I could have done so many things with this shirt. I stashed it in my refashion drawer for months, pondering what to do with it. Skirt? Dress? Tighter shirt? In the end, due to my doubtful sewing skills and complete lack of experience with silky fabrics I just embraced the shirt and went with the flow.
     This Zen attitude may or may not have been because I spent the morning surfing and have truly spectacular wetsuit tan lines to show for it (that and a Zen attitude). I bet you wish you could have seen me running at an enormous wave about to break on my head, clutching my surfboard bravely and screaming "CHAAAAAAAAARGE!" You'll just have to come surf with me then, won't you?
;)

<3 Maggie

ravish me rainbow

hey guys!

oh boy are you in for a treat. Do you remember my friend Jane's past apperances on ze blog? Well guess what? She baked you more rainbow cupcakes and wants to share them with you!
Something magical happened. Between the space of this post and now, our swirly rainbow cupcakes grew up and organized the awesomesauce swirls into rainbow-order lines. Who knew those stoned teenage cupcakes would grow up to be responsible, SUV-driving suburban soccer mom types?

Cupcakes. Stoned teenagers. Rainbows. Was that all I wanted to say? Yes? Well then. PICTURE TIME!

a little bit of background: Jane, like AM, is an aspiring model. So these are her practice poses for when she gets her big break, catalog modeling for J.Crew.

Pose #1: You Want Some'a This, Homegirl?

Pose #2: These Cupcakes Had A Special Ingredient

Pose #3: OM NOM NOM

Pose #4: Ravish me Rainbow*

<3 Maggie

*not as creepy as it sounds, I swear. It's a lipstick color AM was making fun of at the drugstore. And it was Ravish me Red, but I didn't want to exclude all the other colors. It would hurt their feelings.

these boots were made for blogging

hiya everyone! what's up?
Apologies for being AWOL this last week. I'm so bad about posting regularly....and add to that our internet was on the fritz and too slow to make loading pictures worth it, and you get a very lazy Maggie who neglects her blog and can't get her daily fill of Kendi Everyday.

So anyway. I'm here to bore everybody by talking about shoes. I have long scoffed at the wayward fellows among us who love shoes. I myself had an aversion to shoes and would wear nothing but sneakers and occasionally just dirty socks. Flats if my mother could force me into them (my less stylish younger self frequently committed the *cue horror movie music* sandals with socks crime but she was 7 so I'll forgive her). But recently I've ignored my balance problems and gone for the wedge heel. And I love it. And now wedge heels have given me new confidence and faith in shoes and I find myself coveting several different types.
Sigh, if only we didn't have school uniforms....
There are three types of shoes I am coveting right now (because I know you all care). CB you are right now in a position to score some very fine shoes so if you are reading this....*hint, hint*. :P

Oxfords:

(all via Forever 21)

Unfortunately I don't think we're allowed to wear these shoes to school, however well they may go with our uniforms. Therefore they are for weekends and breaks only :(. Other things we're not allowed to wear although they go with our uniforms: bright colors, ivory socks, unicorns and smiles. Only one of those things is a lie. You decide which one (hint: it's not the socks)


floral espadrilles:

via Forever 21

You already have floral wedges Maggie! cries my more responsible side. Au contraire--I have wedges with a fabric flower on the toe. I do not have floral-print fabric wedges. And mine aren't espadrilles. There's a difference. 


tall boots:

all via target
Sadly I no longer own a good pair of tall boots having outgrown my metallic gold Fuggs (fake uggs). They were fabulous let me tell you. But I'll settle for vegan-leather boots, those are quite nice too. Knee-high or midcalf, I am loving me a comfy pair of tall boots!


What is the one (or more) type of shoe that you're coveting right now?