Cold Weather Comforts

Since it's December, I can play Christmas music just like  My Mom used to do. We would grin and bear it but now I understand why she did it.  It's so uplifting.

I am counting my blessings as I got a last minute contract that brought it a little cash just before Christmas, my big boy is coming home and I am not working for the next month.  Today, it's gray and mild outside with just a little snow but I don't mind.  I'm inside doing housecleaning and knitting in rotation and enjoying my time alone before Vlad and Damien get back from work.

I'm knitting Churchmouse Yarn and Teas's interminable "Alexandra's Airplane Scarf".  It's just knit, knit, knit on circular needles with the finest Kidsilk Haze yarn.  BUT, I am doing the beaded version by inserting six beads every thirteenth row.
Where do the beads come from you ask?  Even if you didn't ask, I am going to tell you because there's a good story behind it.
This summer in Provence, while visiting with my friend Nelly, I asked her about the scrap of fabric with beads dangling from it that she'd offered to give me the previous year.  I must have been hit by lightning back then because I said no, that I wouldn't know what to do with it.

Turns out, it's a fabric segment from a 1920s FLAPPER DRESS!  After thinking about it for a year, I hoped and prayed that it was still available.  When I asked, Nelly just plucked it from a corner in her vast repository of antiques and said: "Here you go, I was keeping it for you!"

I have since started a board on Pinterest called Wearable Art where I dribble and drool over clothes that were made in a time when many gifted needleworkers made a life making beautiful clothes for other people.  Granted, these people can still be found today at Dior and Chanel...

Speaking of Dior, yesterday on Netflix I viewed a very interesting documentary called Dior and I, on the preparation of a "season" by the then new designer at Dior.  Raf Simons has since left the house and gone on to greener pastures but I must say that I loved watching the talent behind the famous couture name.  The buzzing back room "atelier" reunites a cast of very, very talented people who are given the task of making what the designer has in his mind...

On the same note, I also watched Iris a number of weeks ago.  It's a documentary about nonagenarian Iris Apfel who, despite her age, dresses to kill and is the most ardent connoisseur and flaunteur of accessories you could ever meet.

Two inspiring movies that make you want to engage your creativity and MAKE something.  I think making things is an integral part of our humanity and if we don't make something, a pie, a scarf, a dress, a tutor, a bench, a steam engine, a garden, a balloon animal or a pretty room, there's a big hole in your chest cavity that hurts until you can feast your eyes on the thing you made that delights you and others too.



Love,

Stella