Back in the saddle

Like a lot of you, I'm guessing, I've been an avid reader of magazines for years, always hungry for new ideas, continually on the hunt to feed my voracious visual appetite.  When this issue of Country Living was published in February of 1985, its cover article rang all my bells.  Colorful, graphic folk art living in a clean, uncluttered city apartment.  Over the years as I occasionally culled through my issues (alas, usually to make room for new ones,) I'd rip out favorite pages and file them for reference.  Decorating, recipes, antique quilts.  This past summer while prepping for the move, I went through them all and dumped most.  And came to a surprising conclusion.  For all of the trends I've enjoyed watching come and go, I really could have stopped with this issue.

   

I love this room!  While I'd now edit out some of the *stuff* and change out the couch and pillows, the basic premise is definitely my style.  Fresh flowers, ethnic and contemporary folk art, lots of books, rag rugs and a mix of new and antique furniture, all against a clean, light background. 

The cover photo always grabbed me, too...a view of the apartment's entryway.  That quilt and its audacious cheddar background!  How could I have resisted all of these years?

I've had a great week, tearing up the sewing room again.  And knitting, too.  Lots of evening mitten work.  Casting on, casting about.  Rip, rip, ripping.  But not what you think.  Now that I'm finally comfortable with two-color knitting, I want to really get serious about making pairs of mittens that I could actually use.  As in, would fit me.  Somewhat, at least.  And therein lies the rub.  Trying to find the right mix of stitch number, needlesize and yarn and then translating the complicated patterning (another thing I love...that wonderful, densely complicated patterning) to fit my small hands.

I've found the yarn...Finullgarn.  Wonderful color palette, a little more heft then the Satakieli (or that may just be in my head because I prefer the color range so much more.)  And since I have a hard time knitting two colors on slippery, metal dpns, I can't go any smaller than a size 0 in bamboo, wood or Inox.  So that's yarn and needles.  All week I've been playing with stitch numbers, casting on and knitting up, measuring against earlier tries, calculating, notetaking, referencing a teetering stack of mitten books.  And ripping out.  But not disappointedly...definitely in the spirit of research, which is pretty much concluded now.  (Lots to share, if there are prospective patterned mitten knitters out there who'd be interested.)  Now, on to some actual mittens!      

Comments

[Diane B.]

Nothing beats that cheddar color in a quilt--audacious indeed! I know what you mean about finding your style and sticking with it. I've got things I collected back in high school that I still love today.

[Jennifer]

Three cheers for cheddar! I have been saving images of quilts with cheddar in them for years. I also saved an article (from Quilter's Newsletter, maybe?) from a couple of years back about an antique quilt collector who goes after only cheddar quilts. Cheddar+houses=love!

[Lisa]

I identify with your mitten dilemna. The first pair of stranded mittens I made was for my then 8 year old sister. She grew into them by the time she was 18 :) They were a little, erh, big.

[Tonya R]

you and I have very similiar taste! I'd have to forego the fresh flowers (allergies and crazy cats) and would choose a funky rug rather than the rag rug (although I do have a couple of those), but other than that... good to go.

[Kathie]

Oh yes, the magazine addiction. In a spurt of life-simplifying a couple years ago, I tossed them all (and I had Country Living going back to issue #1). Wish I had taken the time to go through them like you did.

Glad to see you are tearing up the sewing room once again!

[gray la gran]

oh! oh! that's THIS house !!!

http://bemused.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2007/04/07/househunting.jpg

[Jane]

I love the orange fabric (and the schoolhouses you are making) - it's the same one I have on the back of my buxom belles quilt. Good to see it can do your good taste and my kitsch!

[Schnoobie]

Cheddar!! Cheddar!!! LOVE me some Cheddar!!!!! Have you seen the "new" Ford Mustang in Cheddar?? It's awesome...best way to get to that quilt shop NOW!!!!!!!!!

[Shannon]

I would love if you shared your knowledge about patterned mittens. I just started looking at them with more than a pacing glance as I feel I will soon be up to the challenge, but have no idea where to start. Unfortunately I think I actually have rather large hands for a woman although they only seem to be large in the palm with long, slender fingers -- none of it masculine. *phew*

[Kathy]

I LOVE Country Living. I've tried to infuse my 1960s multi-level (no character) home with the Country Living aura.

[Vicki]

Ride, cowgirl, ride!! Your energy charges every word in this post! Very fun.

[Loretta]

Oh, you bad, bad girl. Now you've made me rummage through the plastic bins of fabric mouldering in the basement, looking for the schoolhouse blocks made in exchange about 15 years ago. And that cheddar orange! Must have! Must make schoolhouse blocks, my way of course!

And I think I even have that magazine issue in the attic......

[Kay]

[cheddar-SCHOOLHOUSE-cheddar-SCHOOLHOUSE]

(That's the crowd, chanting impatiently.)

We're all waving our Bic lighters in the air. Bring on the cheddar schoolhouse!

xoxo Kay

[Kim]

Thanks for the post -- I'm strongly attracted to this version of country, too -- not cutesy and not cluttered. (I can do that last bit on my own.)