transitions

i am transitioning...

...to wordpress

i hope you visit me there:

www.tangledesign.net

love
ryan-ashley

stitches

a little sneak peak of the things in my 'finishing' pile...



these sweet things are going to be neckwarmers. i think i need to keep one for myself to wear to the art show sunday evening.

emiliana torrini

"dead duck"

this is what i've got on repeat right now...



i'm at hip replacements today, watching the store while franzi & kip are in new york buying lots of new goodies for the store to accommodate the spring weather we are so badly hoping for. the snow is beautiful. i love it. and i love the cold. i love jackets and coats and sweaters and knitwear, but the winter pushes me inside myself. i spend more time in bed than any other time of year. it's when i catch up on the seasons of television i have neglected throughout the year, watch movies i didn't have time to see in theatre, and write the letters i've been thinking about writing since the last time i said "goodbye."

i've written a couple of letters this winter. one got sent away, but for the other, i've got no number, and i've got no address.

that being said, this winter has been really good for me. i'm moving across town on saturday, into a place by myself and it couldn't come at a better time.

anniversary

ambitious

so....my list the other day was a bit ambitious. i'm still working through it.

i am SO excited about the art show this weekend! once again, it's at bobo gallery, sunday evening at 8 pm. there will be readers of poetry & personal essays, a story-teller, two photographers, a sculptor, and my drawings.

the show will be followed by a dance party, dj'd by the lovely eb.

shortly after the art show, in the beginning of february, there will be another benefit at hairspray in downtown asheville...a drag/burlesque show/friend auction of sorts. basically, a mash-up. as soon as i'm through moving (hopefully that will be the middle of next week) i will start feverishly working on the flyer for that and re-pursuing contacts in nearby cities for april rally plans. oh yes, rally plans. i am so excited about all that jufa is doing to promote change/public education and am really thankful to have become involved because i have been desperate to find a way to make/work toward real change in our community/world, but have had trouble realizing a focus for that passion. hopefully i'll have more news on the upcoming events and rally very soon.

{KNITTING}

this yarn is my new love...


aslan trends, royal alpaca


i have been knitting the sweetest, softest neck-warmers and hats. it's soft and light and really malleable while being super warm and great at holding shape.

today...

here is the breakdown, and i've got to stick to it.

}make magnets!
}finish drawings and frame them!!!!!
}make fabric neck-warmers and sew tags in, label them, etc
}put tags in knitted neck-warmers and prepare to take to atelier 24 &
}go by the dry goods shop and give leigh anne money for the book "is a boyfriend and a girlfriend" and pick up artist check
}pack up mannequin to take to elementality tomorrow
}make earrings
}call my bff, rachel burgess to talk some cross-continental gossip
}go to black mountain for some coffee and yarn
}hang with kate....possibly go hear some lit professors read at malaprops
}go see a band at bobo gallery
}oh yes, and explore the ins-and-outs of ravelry a bit more.

ok! go!

accomplishments

today i...

went to the gym
finished one and began another drawing
got my oil changed
bought new tires
finished a custom order
worked on returning e-mails
knitted
mailed rachel her long overdue package...

and tonight i will...
make magnets
meet with the art show participants to stake out wall space
knit some more

bobo art show

on january 16th, jufa ("just us for all") is putting on a benefit art show to raise the funds required for processing the non-profit status applications, as well as for transportation/supplies for a rally that will be taking place in raleigh sometime during april.

it's for a great cause and there's only a small donation of $5 requested upon entrance to the art show. it starts at 8 pm, and continues long into the night, as the show will be followed up by a dance party dj'd by eb bass. the show includes sam soper reading a personal essay, amy orenchuk's and delany brown's photography, jeni shepherd's sculpture and photography, lillian crutchfield's and holly garrell's poetry, fynn crooks' spoken word, and my drawings.

here is a sample of my work:

avett brothers

it pays to be nice.

one of my favorite customers at the dripolator offered my an extra avett brothers ticket tonight!

i'm exhausted, and feeling under the weather, and should probably just go home and go to bed, butttttt, i'm not going to do that.

i've never seen them before. i can't wait!

i feel this song in my chest....

....when i'm feeling really deeply

pad thai

i am so over peanut sauce...



and even peanut butter is losing its luster. all is not right with the world!

i used to crave it! i needed it! i have stood in kitchens and cleaned out entire jars of peanut butter...jars that weren't even mine! i've had serious issues with peanut butter. it's like a drug. and then when you add other foods to it....like noodles....forGET about it!

and then all of a sudden the other night when i ordered pad thai, all i could think of was the red curry rice and vegetable dish my friend ordered. i choked down my peanut-covered noodles with disdain for the chalkiness and saltiness of the sauce. the noodles were sticky in my mouth. i hardly ate half.

my tastes are changing. it scares me a little. this aversion developed strikingly close to the appearance of my first gray hairs. what else could change? what other childhood favorites are going to suddenly begin leaving bad tastes in my mouth?

***

i haven't had a drink in almost three weeks.
the quitting smoking is taking a bit longer, and i've definitely been cheating, but i haven't had a cigarette in a couple of days, and i don't want one.

i've got that winter feeling

it's cold here. it's been snowing off and on for the last week. my windshield has been covered in ice almost every morning, and all i have to clean it off with is the flat blunt edge of a plastic comb my step-father must have left in the car years ago. i went out to buy winter snow boots and bought puma high-tops, which are definitely not waterproof, instead. i'm going to hot yoga, to keep myself warm, and eating good food. by good, i mean i ate two toaster pastries for breakfast, and a pb & j for lunch, and i'll probably have pizza for dinner.

i'm knitting a lot, filling all those custom orders...thanks 'big crafty!'

i've also been making time, like i promised myself i would do when i left school, for my friends...for the people i can call when i'm feeling low and say, "let's craft and eat cookies and cry," and i know that, weather permitting, they will come.

i feel strangely at ease in the middle of what i see as a great earthquake. seismic waves crashing through the earth and splitting it into sides. this side, that side. my side, your side. everything is changing, and aside from my job and close friendships, i don't feel like i can consider very much else constant or stable.

i'm going home for christmas for a couple of days, and i'm sure i'll be walking right into the perfect picture of denial. the cheese & sausage balls, the christmas tree, the family pets, the family of four, the faux-finished kitchen walls, and the polished wood. the laugh lines, the crow's feet, the gray hairs, full glasses and silence. and from what i'm told, the "plan" is to go to the mall, my mother sister and i, on christmas eve day, to pick out our presents.

fotos, classes, bridge-mending, and self-love

i love blogging. i love writing. just recording, in general. i used to think, a long time ago, that i kept journals in order to go back. so i could go back to that page where i began the poem that would put me on the map...so i could return to the dog-eared page that had a list of bands somebody referred to me, and look them all up...so would be able to share the events of my life with somebody years from now, in precise detail....so i could re-read and conjure up memories with the clarity of recency.

the truth is, i never re-read. my life is a ball that rolls, and there isn't any time to go back. it gathers momentum, and it gathers mass, and there's no time to add to the verses of a love poem whose subject is no longer even relevant, and whose pages have buckled with the moisture from my hands and the weight from the books it's been shoved between in various bags.

my life is dangerously compartmentalized, and that fact has become glaring, blinding, in the recent months. i have strings and years of exciting, life-changing, vision-altering friendships and relationships that fit into little boxes on little time-lines and fit even smaller into the weeks and months of my very elaborate calendar. something begins, and it feels like my life, and i enjoy it, and then it ends and something else begins. if i were to go back through one of those journals of mine, it would probably be filled with hundreds of entries that begin the exact same way: "this new person is great....this job is great....this is the plan....here's what's next....this didn't work....nothing lasts...."

there has been no continuity. i fill my life with business busyness, and make little room for any-thing/body else, so that when they fall away, there's little deep impact...or so i think. for the last few months, i have begun to realize that the terseness of my time with these people/projects, and the casual nature with which i wave off the idea of any potential deep-rooted heartbreak or disappointment, has great impact. the impact of absence is great. the absence of that continuity, has had great, deep, impact.

because of these realizations, and all the mornings i spent convincing myself to leave bed once i realized how many bridges i needed to get to work on, i have been writing letters. most of them are in their baby-stages, and who knows when i'll be brave enough to send them all, but i've sent one, and already good things have come. i feel good. i've been writing to people, and taking pictures of the things i think are beautiful, and i really haven't been writing, because writing about people doesn't make them stay. writing in my journal about hurt feelings and disappointment isn't a conversation. it does no good. and nobody sees it. feeling sorry isn't an apology. it may not seem like there's a direct connection, but i've started going to yoga, and working out a lot. taking care of yourself, and loving yourself, i've found, makes it so much easier to love others, and to let others love you.

i had to move my studio space recently, and that's also why i haven't been posting here, or updating my etsy...but writing here keeps me honest. it keeps me on top of all the little things in the background that need to be done.

today i planned and added knitting classes to the dry goods shop class calendar, but i still need to...

}organize receipts
}take work to hip replacements & atelier 24
}update this 'ole thing with all the photos i've been taking
}clean my room
}buy toothpaste--i just ran out
}ask off work for days in january

oh yes, and recover from the big crafty...still working on that...

big crafty, ready yourself...

paper earrings. lightweight, sweet photos

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where have i been?

i have been paring off...paring off...
quitting jobs, quitting school, and spending all of my time in the studio. now that i only have one job, and am focusing on projects, i can't believe i ever did it. i can't believe i haven't gone crazy yet. i can barely find time to clean the dishes!

i sold my first item on etsy, moved into a wonderful house with the best room-mate i've ever had, finished my barista training, am preparing to meet with a photographer in the next couple weeks to get my etsy page up to par...

i need to write here more.

to do list for the next week...
1. finish knitted tie
2. organize studio space better
3. make jewelry
4. write patterns for knitted ties and patterns
5. paint the dining room
6. sketch out website ideas

pumpkin carving party tonight at the studio!!!

get knitty with it!

between moving and work changes, i have totally neglected getting together knitting nights for all you lovely stitchers! so...here we go...

this sunday, october 10, from 630-830 i'll be hosting the usual saturday morning "knitting q & a". hopefully, those of you who are tired at 10 o'clock saturdays from debauched friday nights, will be ready to go on a relaxing sunday evening. feel free to bring food and "drink" for yourself, your favorite "mix tape" (ipod), and your needy project. this time is also great if you're just having a little trouble understanding a new pattern or figuring out where you left off. e-mail me at tangle.design@gmail.com if you have any questions. sliding fee $5-10.

tuesday, oct. 12: 630-830: "knit, tipple, & talk"
bring spirits, bring needles, bring fibers, and friends. this is just an opportunity to get together with friends and commune over our newly awakened fervor for warm winter knitting. no charge. just bring yourself and some vittles.

there will be more classes to come near the end of october, and november. keep your eyes open for: "mist-take no more," "master that gauge swatch," "write your own hat pattern," and more!

all classes held at the dry goods shop in west asheville.

free neckwarmer pattern

for the pdf, visit my etsy!
and to purchase the item, it's also on etsy and at the dry goods shop...

the pattern:

materials:
cascade “eco +” yarn
US 13 needles

instructions:
1. cast on 44 stitches
2. knit for 52”
3. weave in loose ends, leaving one long one for seaming
4. put a single twist in knitted fabric before seaming, to create
a “mobius” illusion
5. seam 9” of ends together, leaving a slit to fit over the
shoulder

back on etsy!

so after a long hiatus, i finally got back into the picture-taking mood, and took a bunch of my new wares along with some pretty vintage finds.

here's a few...

knitting q & a

tomorrow morning from 10-12 at the dry goods shop, we are having a knitting q & a session. it's just a $5-10 donation for two hours of "help" from me. Basically, you can bring in a trouble project you have questions about, get reminders about how to read patterns, get started on something, or just come in and knit with the assurance that if something goes wrong, i'm here to help!

if you have questions, e-mail me at tangle.design@gmail.com

also, atelier 24 is having an opening tomorrow night from 6ish-9ish (i think!). wine and snacks are provided, along with artist meet & greets. i'll be there the entire time to answer any questions about my work, classes, or just to talk.

i am planning on starting to post a free knitting pattern on here every other week. it will be posted here, and on the dry goods blog. to learn more, take a class!

exposure

here are some articles that have recently been written about the studio i started working in at the beginning of august:

wnc magazine

verve magazine, the article "good & plenty

i am teaching a knitting class there on tuesday morning from 10-12, and a knitting q & a the following saturday (sept. 11) from 10-12. for more details, visit the dry goods blog. if you're interested in signing up, just shoot me an e-mail at tangle.design@gmail.com , or e-mail leigh anne through the store blog.

see you soon!