Hey we like your lyrics!

My friend Katharine and I are practicing our Adobe skills and making a tumblr dedicated to our favorite lines of our favorite songs. I just posted our first, featuring The Avett Brothers. Check it out here!

Life lately | Coffee & knitting & etsy sneak peek

Lately I've been snuggled up next to our space heater and this sweater (it's my favorite). The temperatures have dipped low, and so my baking and knitting habits are in full force. Last week, I baked a chocolate pecan pie and a regular pecan pie for Thanksgiving at work. They were both delicious and the leftovers are still mocking me sitting in our fridge.

I've been knitting up a storm so I can finally open up that etsy shop I've been talking about forjustaboutever. If you want a different outcome, you have to change your strategy so that's what I'm doing. I'm done just reading about artists and designers and feeling inspired, and I'm jumping in and learning all I can. My plan is to get at least one or two of everything I plan to open with ready to ship before I open up, so I have about a week left to go. If anyone has tips on opening an etsy shop, marketing, shipping, anything, I'm all ears! I've been scouring the etsy seller handbook and getting excited for this new venture. Needless to say, this year, I'm thankful for new beginnings.

Went | Fresh Pond

It's been a jam-packed couple of months. Usually it's summer that is busy, and then fall—Festa, the Big E, my birthday, and suddenly we are in the great lull that takes us into winter and the Holidays. But this year has been different. Between engagement parties, bachelorette parties, and weddings, we are only now finding our slower rhythm that accompanies colder weather. We are making home cooked meals again, finding time for the gym, and going to bed before 11. I am well into my third and fourth knitting projects, and I am sighing the great sigh of Autumn. 

This is all to say that we had a brief lull at the beginning of November. It was the weekend between the bachelorette party and the wedding, and though I had a second bachelorette party that night and Mike had a conference the next day, we spent a quiet Saturday morning wandering around Fresh Pond. I work down the street from this place, and only recently realized how expansive and beautiful it was. We caught it right at its peak, and I'm so grateful we got a glimpse of it before all the leaves are gone. 

Made | Capucine (A Hat, Not a Drink!)

I did it again! I knit an entire hat that fits my gigantic head! I've had this chunky mustard yarn for over a year now; it was one of those yarns I bought because I wanted to curl up next to it, but then I just couldn't find a project that lived up to its snuggliness. I'm glad I waited until I gave knitting a try again because this was worth the wait. This pattern is a mix between a hood and a hat—a hood hat, if you will. Though I'll warn you now that every time I say "hood hat," I think "hood rat." Unfortunate.

I used the Capucine pattern from Ravelry (add me!), and I loved it. I haven't added a pompom or tassels yet, and I'm not sure if I will. Maybe I'll just make a second one to try out those accessories on. 

This little lady knit up pretty fast—all in one Sunday while Mike was at a conference. I watched The Company Men and multiple episodes of How I Met Your Mother. I love how knitting makes me feel productive while I rot my brain with TV. Maybe I should invest in some audiobooks.

And now some strangely lit photos from my living room! 

And then, for some reason, this:

I'm in full-on winter knitting mode, and I have big plans for Christmas presents this year. I highly recommend this pattern if you're looking for something a little different than the usual knit hat. You can't really wear a ponytail or a bun with it, but really, what hat can you successfully wear an updo with? Just put your hair up/arms down when you get there. It's cold; nobody looks good.

The things I learned:

• When you don't have dpns in the right size needles, you can improvise with regular needles. It takes a lot more time and effort, but you can rig up any situation if you're willing enough.
• Knitting needles don't taste that great.
• I'm an awful self-photographer.

But seriously, this was such a simple project that after completing the Vogue trapper hat, this was a piece of cake. What are you knitting up these days? 

Smell my feet

Happy Halloween, y'all! Everyone's in great spirits here because of the big win last night, but I'm giddy at 7 in the morning because it's a day I get to dress up in a ridiculous outfit, plop a huge bowl of candy on my desk, and not disappear into my headphones and email for a day. I hope yours is full of all that Fall has to offer, and that at the very least, someone gives you some candy for free.

All of the burnt oranges.

Maybe it's just the awareness that comes as you get older, but this has been the most spectacular Fall I've experienced. Every day, just walking to work in the morning or walking home in the afternoons, I am struck by a certain patch of light or pile of leaves. This past weekend, which we spent in Brooklyn, I woke up each morning in awe of the view of Brooklyn and the ever shifting sunlight.

All photos taken with iPhone 5s.

Made | Knit Vogue Trapper Hat

Well I did it. Every year when the weather starts to cool, I break out my crochet hooks and piles of yarn and make scarves and hats for friends. Every year I get a little bored with crochet and envious of the tight, neat rows of the knitted variety. And every year I try to learn how to knit, end up with a strangely tensioned square, and quit before I can ever get the hang of it. 

Not this year, y'all. This year I went to the library and checked out an unassuming book called Learn to Knit, got some bamboo needles (instead of the slippery metal ones I've tried to learn on before), and signed up for Ravelry. I started on some simple socks, then switched to this Vogue trapper hat pattern from Craftsy. It knit up fairly quickly and without any unraveling (well, save a few stitches here and there when I got carried away and passed the stitch marker...). 

I love this pattern, though I regret not checking my gauge first (I know, I know!) because it came out a little big. The hat is for Mike in his favorite colors, but it fits pretty well despite being larger than intended. And it's warm! 

Here's the back of the hat. There are simple cables along the body of the hat! I watched a few YouTube videos and realized that cable needles/knitting isn't so scary after all! Exclamation points!

Here's the front! I love the ties on the sides and the front flap. 

I was worried I would run out of yarn and then Wednesday night I decreased to 50 stitches, then to 30, then to dons, then to 20, then I was done! With some yarn left over! I then proceeded to take a bunch of pictures and post them on Instagram. Mike was half-asleep, but I made him try the hat on anyway.

Here I am, beaming with pride at my first finished knitted project. I'm officially addicted!

Some more angles of the hat, courtesy of my mini tripod and camera remote. I have a newfound respect for people who take product photos for a living.

I think this will be my go-to pattern for Christmas this year. At $6 for the pattern download, it's definitely worth it if you need a cute warm hat for winter and you want to expand your knitting skills.

The things I learned:

• How to knit in the round using a stitch marker (yes, I'm a real newb)
• How to increase and decrease
• How to use a stitch holder (and what it is!)
• What a cable needle is and how to use it (and that you can use a crochet hook—very carefully—as a cable needle if you realize you need one at 10 at night)
• That I should test my gauge before jumping into a project
• What 2st RC and 2st LC means 
• That YouTube and the library are amazing resources for learning how to knit on the fly 
• I am the kind of person who says things like, "OK, let me just knit one more row!"

Went | Chamard Vineyards, Old Saybrook, CT

A couple weekends ago I went to a ridiculously large house on the water for a bachelorette weekend in Connecticut. It wasn't your usual bachelorette party, it felt more like a weekend-long slumber party with so many people I love. On Saturday we went out on the town of Old Saybrook, getting lunch at a biker bar before raising our pinkies and glasses to Katie at Chamard Vineyards. This was my first experience at a winery so I wasn't up on all of the wine jargon, but I found one that I liked, ordered a glass of it, and we all wandered around the property like it was our backyard. The place was gorgeous, as was the weather, and we sat on hay bales while Katie told us about all the things she loves about Emily. There's an unfortunate stereotype about bachelor and bachelorette parties, but this one busted that wide open for me. I left feeling refreshed and drunk on wine and love. The wedding is in a couple of weeks, and my bridesmaid dress just came in the mail! This weekend we're heading to New York for Jenna and Ron's engagement party, and these days, it seems that love actually is all around. 

Those who came before | Part II

You were wearing a Hawaiian shirt when I met you. Should I have taken that as a sign of the way things would go? In a way, I have you to thank for a lot of things—you pushed me to take chances, to go for what I actually want, to figure out what that is. Things were good while they lasted, and you left me wanting more, just from someone else. You clarified for me that my time is precious, that my love is valuable and should be given freely but consciously. We were not enough for each other, but I hope I was as much a step in the right direction for you as you were for me. You loosened me up, reminded me that I could catch someone's attention, dazzle them with my wit, keep them coming back for more. You were exactly what I needed at the exact time I needed it.

We planned a big trip. It was too early in our relationship, and when your friends bailed, I already had my passport and a knot in my stomach about whether or not it would be right. You distanced yourself from me as fun and casual turned to questions we were not ready to answer. You ended things cleanly, and I realized that—when you left and all I could think about was how I would lose the money I'd spent on my plane ticket—things were not right anyway. I pouted in Jenna's room and she said, "You didn't like him anyway!" I knew she was right, but I was accustomed to taking rejection personally.

I took that trip, my first time out of the country. Meg came with me instead, and our week in Costa Rica solidified our friendship in a way I will always be grateful to you for. I went beyond my comfort zone on that trip; I laid on beautiful beaches and read One Hundred Years of Solitude; I stayed up late and smoked cigarettes on the porch of our hotel while Meg slept. I went to dinner by myself and ordered wine and felt grown up. Meg and I ordered pina coladas and caiparinhas at a bar where locals stared and we giggled and did not care. We said, "I can't believe we're here!" over and over and we meant it. We went to a movie night at a cafe where we watched Slumdog Millionaire and ordered milkshakes. We hiked up the steepest hill to a waterfall. We saw monkeys in the trees on our way back. We feared for our lives in a chartered van up a mountain; we had to go to sleep to ease our anxiety about his driving. We had massages and spent way too much money on dinner and frozen drinks.

I don't think of you often, except when that Feist album comes on or that one Ingrid Michaelson song we used to sing together in that tiny room of mine at 20 Lopez. Or sometimes I think of that time we snuck into the chapel at MIT and you played piano while I sang at the top of my lungs, my voice echoing high into the ceiling and feeling so grateful to be alive in that moment. We thought we heard someone come in, so we snuck out the back way and ran down the hall until we collapsed on the back porch, the lawn stretching out before us like the night.

Those who came before was inspired by Brittany erin's beautiful series, My 7 Broken Hearts.