an archived personal and craft blog from Elise Blaha Cripe.
Two goals this month!
I would love to finished my pair of Hello Sailor socks (the gym sock version) using the yarn from Farmer's Daughter Fibers sock squad.
And then I am hoping to make a Hinterland Dress from that blue floral cotton poplin. I purchased 3 meters of it from Blackbird Fabrics last November and with the goal of making it into a dress. I cut it this morning so I'm halfway there.
Let's go!
I have been making this favorite things list for EIGHT YEARS. Here is the first one when I was TWENTY-SIX. The gist is I try to share a number of "things" that were new to me/made me happy/bettered my life/etc over the year. I am turning 36 next week. Here are 35 things I found and loved this past year. (Some links are affiliate.)
Jungalow for Keds –– I love these shoes so much. Sold out in so many sizes, I know. I hope they bring them back.
an iPad stand –– in the before Covid times, the girls would watch a show while they had breakfast before we went to school. I used to come up with all sorts of balancing methods and finally realized for $15 I could just stop doing that. It was the first thing I bought when Paul deployed and I felt like Supermom. (LOL.)
backyard eggs –– we got chickens last spring! They LAY EGGS. (That ceramic tray is from this Etsy shop.)
this romper –– it's possible this is PJs? I wear it all day though.
our finished staircase –– maaaybe one of my favorite before and afters? How much better right?! Here's a link to the light and these are the primed planks we used.
native deodorant –– switched to this when my other stuff wore out and I'm a huge fan.
our kittens –– the Cripes got a million pets in 2020 including these perfect kittens. They are sisters (from same litter) and were adopted at 11 weeks from our local shelter. Poppy is the one with the spiral markings and Sugar has the white nose. Due to Covid, we picked them based on website photos and they turned out to be just the best decision of the year.
Taylor Swift's two albums –– according to my Spotify account I legally must put these on here. I loved them both though. (Also "I'm doing good; I'm on some new shit" is basically how I felt when I started this blog up in November after taking five years off.)
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi –– my favorite fiction book of last year.
pottery wheel –– I bought myself a Shimpo VL-Lite for Christmas and it's amazing. I took pottery classes back in 2016 and am so enjoying getting back into it. I throw in my garage and rent kiln space at a local place called Ceramic Heights.
blue splatterware glaze –– my favorite new glaze!
sourdough chocolate chip cookies –– I halve this recipe and otherwise follow it to a T. It's actual perfection.
cross stitching –– this was my very, very first hobby! My mom has always cross-stitched and I remember being little (6 or 7?) and learning how to make my crosses. I finished a big piece this year, started a second one and…then created my own pattern! More details coming in March.
Ellerie's giant art –– Ellerie wrote the very best note, told me it "came in the mail" and then was kind enough to let me frame it HUGE for our entry. (I resized it in Photoshop Elements and had it printed and framed by Framebridge.)
Untamed by Glennon Doyle –– my favorite memoir of the year.
Brother coverstitch machine –– I thought about this purchase for a very long time before making the jump. It's the machine that makes the hem of your garments sewn from knit fabric (think t-shirts, sweatshirts) look professional. I still have a lot to learn on it but so far, I love it. (And so do my knits.)
my journal –– I launched a journal this year with Chronicle Books! It's a two year journal with a spread per week to reflect and goal-set. I didn't know how much I would personally use a journal but can confirm it's one of my most used tools. I truly love it. I love taking the time weekly to think about where I am at and where I am going. I LOVE to see how my "thinking about" section changes. I love seeing that time is passing. Available wherever books are sold or here in my shop.
quip toothbrush –– after hearing about them for four years on podcasts, Paul and I swapped out our old toothbrushes for quips. I look forward to my next cleaning to see if it's actually working better than a normal brush but so far I love it.
Hinterland dress –– pattern of the year I think. I am looking forward to making a second one this spring.
Beauty Counter products –– so last year around this time, I had skincare routine that I loved, but then I got Countertime Tripeptide Radiance Serum for my birthday and became obsessed. Over the past year I have tried a bunch of Beauty Counter products and there are two I am thrilled with. Tripeptide Serum at night (after toner, before face lotion) and Counter+ All Bright C Serum in the morning before sunscreen. They are so pricey. But my skin has truly never looked or felt better and I love the ritual and scent of putting them on so much. (ps… I am not a BC consultant, but those are affiliate links.)
fake palm plants –– I had a real (bird of paradise) plant in our living room and it died a slow death. I decided to swap it out for a fake one and loved it so much I got a second of the exact same fake one for our bedroom. Ours is the XL size.
Amanda Gorman's poem –– like most of the world, I was completely captivated by Poet Amanda Gorman at the inauguration. I am looking forward to having The Hill We Climb in our library at home. I also adored this interview with Anderson Cooper. "Madam President Gorman, I like the sound of that." –– more of that energy, please.
tiny tiles quilt –– I think this is the first quilt I "made from a pattern" and am totally obsessed with it.
the Great face masks –– can't NOT have a face mask on this list. This one is my favorite and there are a lot of simple patterns. These ear loops are my go-to because you can adjust the size. (I should also note that this far into the pandemic, if I go in a store, I wear a medical mask either on it's own or under a cloth mask like this. I carry cloth masks on me and wear them at the park, if I am passing someone on a walk, etc.)
reading nook –– we realized one of my dreams for this house! Another before and after highlight. The shelves and cabinets are ikea. I had the cushions custom made by a local upholstery shop. ("But Elise, couldn't you have made those yourself?" "YES! But part of not burning out on your hobbies is knowing when to outsource.")
Herschel belt bag –– aka a fanny pack. I actually got this when I was 34 but I wear it ALMOST every day. Perfect for a phone, a CC, a key, a baggu bag, hand sanitizer and a mask.
magic loop knitting method –– I finally learned this from the I'm So Basic Sock pattern (it's free!). Can confirm my sock knitting is elevated.
gray Cline sweater –– I pulled out a homemade knit cardigan that I never wore to make my second Cline. It turned into such a great basic.
Come As You Are by Emily Nagoski –– my favorite non-fiction of last year. This is a book about sex and so much of it (brakes vs. accelerator… the flock of birds… etc) was just great and so helpful for talking and thinking about sex. But I also loved the chapter on stress cycles and more specifically closing a stress cycle. If you're just into learning about stress and not sex, Emily co-wrote the book Burnout that I hear is great.
Klum House Slabtown backpack –– over the summer I made a backpack from a kit! I haven't had a chance to take it anywhere yet, but I loved making it. The pieces come pre-cut which is just amazing and it was truly a "sewing is a super power" moment. (ps.. the dress in that photo is a favorite from Two Days Off Clothing.)
The Bones by Maren Morris –– this song is the only reason I made it through those final weeks of deployment. "Life sure can try to put love through but we built this right so nothing ever going to move it."
big blue painting –– I found a gigantic painting in the window of our local goodwill and walked it home, scraped off the thickly painted tigerlillys, painted it white and added blue stripes. I love the scale and the light wood frame.
my anniversary ring –– Paul and I hit ten years married this year! We didn't get close to the "celebration" we would have loved to have –– deployments are terrible! But Covid would have ruined our plans anyway! –– but we did have a duplicate made of my wedding ring. I wear them both now and nearly ten months later am still thrilled when I look down at my hands and see them together.
MAKE36 –– I spent over half of the last year working on a new project that launches Monday. Monday! More here, but the gist is: on the 22nd of each month for a year I am launching a new small batch product. There are going to be finished pieces but also one of my goals is to encourage YOUR creativity with this project. So there will be patterns and kits as well. It's going to be a huge challenge but I am so hopeful about it. I haven't been this excited about work since I was writing my book in 2018.
"Sometimes to take care of yourself, you have to be misunderstood." –– wow, I loved this reminder so much. Is 36 going to be the year I get comfortable with being misunderstood? Sounds hard. Sounds freeing. Let's try.
Just two garment projects planned this month!
I plan to use my February sock squad yarn (from Farmer's Daughter Fibers) to knit a pair of Hello Sailor socks (the gym sock version).
And then I would love to finally use the Elizabeth Suzann silk noil fabric I have been saving for a pair of Arenite pants.
Let's see how it goes.
I was hoping to finish three tops in January and I ended up finishing two and knitting two pairs of socks instead. Absolutely hyped though with what I got done.
The cardigan is the Cocoknits Sarah cardigan in bright blue Retrosaria Mungo yarn. It turned out so wearable! I love the fit and the color. (These are my jeans, I am 5'3" so they are not nearly as cropped on me. And these are my Keds.)
The sweatshirt is the Grainline Studio Linden made from this fleece for the main fabric and this rib for the collar, cuffs and hem. I would definitely recommend this fabric. Great colors and so soft. After much debate, I ended up stitching JOY (my 2021 One Little Word) along the neckline in quilting thread and I love it.
And the socks are two different (but very similar!) patterns. First the orange pair which I made from my first Farmer's Daughter Fibers Sock Squad package. I used the Wiksten sock pattern from the book Made By Hand. The second pair was my first experience knitting with the magic loop method and I used the free I'm So Basic Sock pattern by Summer Lee. The yarn for these is Lion Brand Mani-Pedi that I have had stashed for months.
I am currently thinking about February makes and will be back soon with my goals.
It's puzzle season! Normally, I borrow them from my library (they have an awesome puzzle exchange program) but our local libraries are closed for browsing due to Covid, so I am window shopping for more to do. Here's a round up of eight pretty ones –– we have the heart and the "love lives here" (both are great.) But I am new to custom puzzles! And double sided ones! It looks like the Galison double sided pieces have a matte side and a glossy side so it's easy to tell which goes with which puzzle (fun!).
Also, I can confirm it's nearly impossible to doom scroll while puzzling.
L-R, top-bottom: New York Times custom front page puzzle (500 pieces), Seltzer heart bouquet puzzle (634 pieces), Anne Bentley loves lives here puzzle (1000 pieces), Galison Frank Loyd Wright puzzle (1000 pieces), Galison Gray Malin double sided beach puzzle (500 pieces), Galison double sided cut flower garden puzzle (500 pieces), I See Me! personalized button puzzle (500 pieces), eeboo zodiac puzzle (1000 pieces).
Last July I shared six books I read and loved in the first half of 2020 and I am back with six more favorites (all fiction this time!). My goal last year was to read 100 books; I ended up finishing with 66. Twenty audiobooks were part of that total! I could have never gotten through so many without listening to nearly a third of them.
The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kid –– this is historical fiction told from the viewpoint of Jesus' wife, Ana. It felt old and also so unbelievably current. It was a book I still think about and any book I don't just forget when I finish is a winner.
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi –– probably my favorite of 2020. This is a story told over 300 years and through many generations. I think my favorite part is how repeatedly you were dropped into a new time and a new place and because the author can just write the story flowed so beautifully. I loved it. Couldn't put it down and immediately mailed it off to my mom to read with her book club.
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab –– I am new to V. E. Schwab's writing but I read three books by her this year! In addition to this one, I finished books #1 and #2 of her Villain's series. This book is not part of a series though and was my favorite. Like so many books I love, it spanned an epic amount of time. I listened to the audiobook version and would recommend that route if you're a listening fan. Excellent narrator.
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller –– Circe was one of my favorite books a few years back and this was just as great. I love a love story that isn't "boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back." (Am realizing now that the first four books on my list are all love stories that don't follow that formula.)
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng –– I think everyone read this in 2019? I was late to it and didn't watch the show that came out this year but finally wanted to see what the hype was about. The hype was worth it!
Blacktop Wasteland by S. A. Cosby –– this was the final book I read of 2020 and I finished on New Year's Eve. I raced through it (which is appropriate as so much of the plot centers on cars). I would describe this as a "heist book" and it's a thriller for sure, but there is so much heart in it. I loved it. Loved it. Read it! Or at least plan to see the movie. (From about page three on all I could think was "this must become a movie")
I know my book reviews are basically just "I loved this" and that's not super helpful but sometimes it's hard to put into words why a book clicks. For me, the question is always "is reading this more interesting than scrolling my phone?" I can promise that with these six, even is a scroll-heavy year like 2020, ABSOLUTELY YES.
I'm going to try to read 100 books again in 2021. (Honestly, why not?)
When I pulled out our decorations in November, I felt like my walls could use a few more Christmas pieces. The first idea was easy, fill the hallway frames with printable art. The second was a bit more tedious…cross-stitch…something.
I spent a hour or two looking for patterns before feeling very excited about the folk flowers pattern from Tiny Cross Stitch Co. I loved all the shapes so much and it felt like it had detail without too much detail. I decided to change the colors to fit a more Christmas-y theme. I had some embroidery floss at home already and made a note to pick up some red options and then got started!
I stitched my art on 14 count Aida cloth because I wanted it to be big. (I could have used 11 count and wound up with something even bigger.) The finished size is just under 15×15 inches.
The DMC floss I used is made up of six strands. Usually, for a cross-stitch project, you pull these strands apart to work with a finer piece of floss. I made a mistake and used three strands at a time instead of the recommended two for 14 count cloth. It worked okay, and the flowers look good, but it was a bit more tangle prone when I was filling in a block of stitches and trying to get 12 strands through the same hole.
I had a few requests for the floss colors I used… I used some old thread and don't have each exact number but these will get you close:
REDS: 321, 326, 347, 349, 817, 918
PINKS: 352, 351, 407, 3779
NEUTRALS: 3774, E3821 (metallic gold)
LIGHT GREENS: 469, 3348, 989
DARK GREENS: 319, 904
I started November 18 and finished on Christams Day. This project probably took me 125 hours. I don't know for sure, I never track stuff like this, but cross-stitching is, by nature slow. It's also, by nature, therapeutic and wonderful. It's a perfect pick-up and put-down project. It's great for overseeing distance learning or while in conversation or or while not scrolling your phone while your kids play at the park or while watching TV or while listening to a podcast or audiobook or (especially) when trying not to panic. I loved working on it so much and already miss it, truly.
When I was done, to clean it from 125 hours of hand oils and grime, I soaked it in water with a bit of dish soap (as recommended here) and then laid it flat to dry. I pressed it gently, took some photos, rolled it in a tube and sent it off to Framebridge to be framed.
I cannot wait to get it back and look forward to pulling it out each year with our Christmas decorations. Seeing that tiny "2020" in the corner will bring back so much. I hope it's an heirloom my girls want to hang in their future homes, but if not, no worries, it was a joy to make.
Usually, toward the start of a new year, I would have all sort of homemade garment goals. But this year, coming off a three month break from sewing and knitting, it's hard for me to picture what I want to make. So I thought instead I would set mini-goals throughout the year. Here are three garments –– currently in progress –– that I would like to complete in January 2021.
Grainline Studio Linden sweatshirt. This is cut and started. I plan to embroider a heart (over my actual heart) once it's fully sewn. The fabric is a bamboo/cotton blend. I used this fleece for the main fabric and this rib for the collar, cuffs and hem.
Sewhouse 7 Tabor v-neck top. These fabric pieces are also cut out! Just needs to be sewn together. It's view #4, the quarter length sleeve, big collar version in a black cotton knit.
Cocoknits Sarah cardigan. I am close to wrapping this up. Just 1 full sleeve, a cuff, and then some finishing to go. I am excited about how it's fitting (in the photo below it's inside out but you get the idea). The yarn is Retrosaria Mungo in bright blue and the color is more accurate below.
Honestly those sewing projects are probably just an hour each and the knitting will take about a week if I focused. Should be easy enough. I'll share an update at the end of January!
I thought it would be fun to catalog the garments I sewed and knitted in 2020. It was an interesting year for my clothes making hobby. I made a bunch of garments (mostly dresses!) while Paul was deployed and then hardly touched my sewing machine or knitting needles once he returned in late September. (Don’t worry, I am keeping my hands busy with a cross stitch project.) More than anything, I hope I have places to go next year so I can wear all these garments.
I will be back next week to share the projects I currently have in progress and the clothes I hope to make in 2021. But for today, here are the 20 items I made this past year. (I went back through my photos to pull these photos. It’s not all of them but close!)
TOPS (L-R, top to bottom): Sewhouse 7 Toaster sweater 2, Wiksten Shift short sleeve top, self-drafted black linen long sleeve, Natalie Ebaugh Solee top, Helen’s Closet Ashton top, Julie Hoover Cline sweater and (not pictured) Grainline Studio Linden sweatshirt.
BOTTOMS (L-R): True Bias Yari Jumpsuit (hacked into a pair of pants), Helen’s Closet Avery leggings, Sew Liberated Estuary skirt.
DRESSES (L-R, top to bottom): Tessuti Fabrics tie-dyed Lisa dress, Tessuti Fabrics rayon Lisa dress, True Bias hacked Nikko dress, McCall’s M7946 version D, French Navy Forsythe dress, Sew Liberated Hinterland Dress and (not pictured) Mimi G Style Jessica Dress.
ETC: (not pictured) Purl Soho boot socks, Megan Nielsen Patterns Collesloe swim top as a sports bra, Klum House Slabtown backpack
It's candle season! From the day daylight saving time ends to early March, I look forward to the ritual of lighting candles each night. My favorite taper candles are the dripless white ones from Trader Joe's and I stock up every season. (They sell out quick!) Here is a round-up of four beautiful taper candle holders, that would be perfect all winter long.
Clockwise from top left: Smith and the Magpie stoneware candle holders, Effortless Composition sculptural stoneware candle holder, Paddywax U-shaped taper holder, World Market flared whitewash wood candle holder
enJOY it 