Heath Ceramics and Other Stuff
May 20, 2009 9:05 pm PDT
I haven't written anything in a while. Nothing has been catching my eye. Mostly I've been spending my time making surly comments on
Apartment Therapy. I'm so frickin' tired of all the "smaller is better" crap on there. Everyone seems to buy into the "I'm green and cool because my apartment is 200 square feet" rhetoric. This mentality is completely at odds with all the photos of larger-than-a-shoebox interiors. I'm sorry, but if you have room for an errant side chair anywhere in your house, it's gotta be pretty big. Smaller, in my humble opinion, is just a huge pain in the ass. There's nowhere for guests, it's impossible to vacuum and finding room for your stuff is a herculean task. Anyway, enough with the rant. Here are some things I'm really liking right now:
Bemz makes slipcovers for popular Ikea upholstered furniture. I currently do not have any Ikea furniture, although I have in the past and I have to say that I always found their slipcover selection to be pathetically ugly. Bemz to the rescue. Granted you'll pay more for a Bemz slipcover than you did for the actual piece of furniture, but they have some mighty nice stuff. Plus, I just read that they are partnering with Marimekko to offer even more fabric choices. Now if they only offered slipcovers for my overpriced sofa from Bassett -- but I digress.
Knit Picks is the most awesome knitting supply website/catalog ever. This isn't new and I've been a fan forever, but I especially enjoyed their most
recent catalog. It was chock-full of super cute baby and kids patterns including this beautiful circles and stripes baby blanket. I also can't say enough good things about their
Options interchangeable needles. I bought a set of the aluminum ones when they first came out and they are the only needles I use. They also just introduced a private label
yarn winder that is way less expensive than competing models and comes in a pretty purple/lavender color combo. Finally, they just started carrying
The Knit Kit, which is a little self-contained kit full of all the essential knitting accessories.
Heath Ceramics is a Sausilito, Ca based ceramics company that makes gorgeous tableware and tiles. I recently went to their open studio and got an extensive tour of their factory. Their stuff is pretty expensive, but after touring their factory, I can understand why. The amount of hand work that goes into each item is staggering. They also have a factory store that carries second quality items. I purchased a small blue vase similar to the one in the photo that I absolutely adore.
I Knit Too Many Scarves
April 6, 2009 9:11 pm PDT
I used to love playing with Legos as a kid...all those discrete units, amassed into perfectly organized structures. According to an article I once read in an airplane magazine (!), playing with Legos somehow prepares you to be a programmer. Weird, huh? Weirder still since that's how I make my living (programming, not playing with Legos). So what do Legos have to do with knitting? Well, in my opinion, knitting is my grown up version of playing with Legos -- all those discrete units, amassed into perfectly organized structures....
Knitting rules! It is portable, doesn't take up much space, and completely satisfies my desire to create something from nothing. My problem is that I've never really moved past the scarf phase. It's not for lack of knowledge or ability. Really! I just love knitting scarves. They are one-size-fits-all, don't require a lot of yarn and are spectacularly rectilinear. I don't mean to suggest that they don't require skill. My first scarf was knit so tightly it was more like some sort of fringed woolen neck armor. I've improved significantly since then. My problem is what to do with all the scarves I knit. Even if I were an avid scarf-wearer, there's no way I could justify the number of scarves sitting around my house. And I can only foist so many scarves on friends and relatives before I start to feel a little guilty. I mean seriously -- people wear scarves for three or four months out of the year. Even less in CA.
So what the hell do I do with them? Use them as party streamers, sew them together into a blanket, use them as cat toys? Maybe it's time to start a sweater or a nice fringed serape...or another scarf.Tiny Home
March 7, 2009 12:34 pm PST
I am unwittingly part of the Tiny Homes (aka Small House) movement. Citing environmental as well as economic concerns, the movement encourages people to build and buy small. Some take this mandate to the extreme, living in tiny 100 square foot cottages on wheels like those built by
Tumble Weed Tiny House Company.
I never intended to live in a tiny house. In my case, it was out economic necessity. In the extremely overpriced Bay Area housing market, buying a single family home on a single person income is a tall order. I could have purchased a condo with double the square footage and I sometimes wish I had done so. Instead I opted to buy a 650 square foot home that is nearly 100 years old.
I have mixed feelings about living in a small home. Sure, it is more affordable and I am doing a favor to the environment by living in an existing structure that requires fewer resources to maintain. However, 650 square feet, even for one person (and three cats), is hardly spacious. The reality is that finding a place for all my belongings and establishing a usable and comfortable space is a huge challenge. A little disorganization (see my previous post) looks like a big mess when it is housed in a 10 by 10 room. My bathroom is barely big enough to house the necessary fixtures, my washer and dryer are relegated to the back porch and my modestly sized furniture takes up an enormous percentage of my floor space. I understand the spirit of organizations like the
Small House Society, but the practicality is still up for debate.