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Dear Kay,
I have 29 rows left to go on my Donegal sleeve. GROAN!
Love,
Ann
PS In cheerfuller news, I wanted to show you my new sofa, which is the suburban matron’s midlife crisis as expressed via upholstery.
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Its main function is as a display zone for my favorite thing you ever gave me, years ago. (Please keep trying to top this gift, but honestly I don’t think you can.)
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This is a Richard Saja altered toile pillow. I can’t tell you how many times it has made me laugh.
Here’s a little profile of this wonderful artist (NYT registration required.) And here’s a batch of Pinteresting Sajacity. This is what God made Pinterest for!

36 Comments

  • I admire the Star more and your dedication to it but I wouldn’t want it.
    I would quite like your new sofa, but Iman would destroy it (do your cats not wreck the upholstery?).
    I REALLY want that cushion! Love it!
    Happy weekend! X x x

  • Total non-knitting question: Your framed textiles — did you do them yourself or have professionally framed? (They are lovely & I am inspired to do something similar in my knitting space in our library!)

  • Jen–I just bought them at antiques shows and junk shops. I framed one of them–the tall vertical one. I think they stitched the sampler to a backing somehow with a clear plastic thread? Some of these frames are not what you’d call ARCHIVAL!

  • Oooh, focusing on tne sofa becuase ours are old and the dogs have wrecked them. Lovely room. I’m going to pretend mine looks equally calm and pretty.

  • I thought it was magic marker until I went to the Saja site. Hmmm – I wonder if there are toile scraps at the local upholstery shop???? We need some new pillows!

  • Oh my gosh, that made me laugh! It’s like a story-pillow: what happens when those blindfolds come off?! So many possibilities 🙂

  • Love the sofa. It looks cozy, like a good spot for a nap. You seem to be in the home stretch with your sweater. Will you feel guilty if you never wear it?

  • Love the sofa. It looks cozy, like a good spot for a nap. You seem to be in the home stretch with your sweater. Will you feel guilty if you never wear it?

  • Oh, that pillow is divine!

  • 29 more rows? Wow! You’re almost there!
    Then there will have to be something new about which to “groan”, as there will only be OOh’s and Ahh’s within a 100 mile radius of that sweater (even more when considering the scope of the internet).
    Can’t wait!
    LoveDiane

  • One comment on the upholstery: Scotchguard. Otherwise, you may regret your choice of colors. Heaven knows that stuff has saved me $$$ over the years.

  • Will it help you to finish the 29 rows if we all cheer, “Go! Go! Go!”
    I’ve always disliked toile (maybe because it’s all one color, and why use only 1 color when there are so many to use?), but toile with (thread) grafitti is an idea that I can get behind. 🙂

  • If you feel like easing out of colorwork gradually, may I suggest this? I just think it is one of the prettiest things I’ve ever seen, knitwise!
    http://www.riihivilla.com/evergreen-mitten-kit-p-919.html

  • The fingernails are what get me. What is UP with the fingernails.
    This cushion predates yet explains my Jack White obsession.
    For the record, I think that is the best present I ever got anybody.
    Glad you FINALLY got it its own sofa.
    HAPPY YOU KNOW WHAT DAY. xoxoxoxoxo
    P.S. I gave you that WHEN? and you finally blog it? INGRATE. Sofa not doing it for me! Sofa delayed is sofa denied!

  • Love it! And I’m loving the frequent posts!

  • Love it! And I’m loving the frequent posts!

  • “Sofa delayed is sofa denied.” LOL!

  • Your boys must be growing up rapidly if you can have that upholstery! Looks beautiful, especially with the wall art and cushions. BTW, I got Bowling Avenue from Amazon last week and am taking it on a trip to Florida next week. This may not sound like much to you but I tend to buy books and then keep them for years (literally) before I read them, so it is a big deal for me. I am so impressed with your sweater; I started it years ago and it took so long that the moths got to it (just saying that makes me feel sick) and I gave up and tossed it, in the interests of my sanity and all the other wool in our house! Love your blog, have been a lurker for years!

  • Your boys must be growing up rapidly if you can have that upholstery! Looks beautiful, especially with the wall art and cushions. BTW, I got Bowling Avenue from Amazon last week and am taking it on a trip to Florida next week. This may not sound like much to you but I tend to buy books and then keep them for years (literally) before I read them, so it is a big deal for me. I am so impressed with your sweater; I started it years ago and it took so long that the moths got to it (just saying that makes me feel sick) and I gave up and tossed it, in the interests of my sanity and all the other wool in our house! Love your blog, have been a lurker for years!

  • Are the 29 rows done, or are you saving them for the Oscars? “And the Best Fair Isle Sweater award goes to….Ann Shayne!” : )

  • Yes, a white sofa is indeed the hallmark of one’s entrance into matronhood: the children are grown enough to understand you need your space and prefer it clean, orderly and purty!
    Anybody else tripping on the curlique-d coincidence of pattern in the sweater held against the rug? The Irish! The Asians! Humans like complex patterns!
    Good times…

  • “…the suburban matron’s midlife crisis as expressed via upholstery.” I will be laughing with this one for quite a while. Not at, mind you. Definitely with.

  • The inches of the pattern do look groan-worthy, but the corrugated ribbing looks like fun. I’m cheering you on to that!
    I have some toile paper (never mind that adding a “t” effects a rather hilarious merrie mixup) made by a San Fran printer from olde blocks in my book making supplies stash. As soon as you’re done with your sweater, I’ll Sajafy it and send it on. How’s that for incentive to slog?
    xoc

  • I wouldn’t even attempt such an amazing sweater. You are a knitting goddess! And to pick it back up after all that time and still be able to figure out how to keep going! You can do it !!!!
    Can’t wait to see it finished!

  • Is it me, or is this the same couch as seen in ‘As Time Goes By’?

  • Is it me, or is this the same couch as seen in ‘As Time Goes By’?

  • Your couch looks very comfortable. The last time we bought a couch (back in 2004 – ack! feels like so long ago), we did a sit test on pretty much every non-leather couch on the showroom floor. If we didn’t want to get up, it was on the list of good couches. Very easy to please people we are!

  • Donegal. . . so beautiful. . .

  • Send it to me… I need another knitting job. I’m stuck on the couch with bronchitis… and I have just finished my 36th honey cowl. I’m officially overdosed.

  • The sleeve that is…

  • Oh, what a sofa! Please sign me up for suburban matronhood now.

  • Love this post. Also, you know I am in awe of your domestic powers but a cream colored fabric sofa with an altered toile art pillow in a home with 2 teenage boys? That is just…wow.

  • Love.That.Pillow. Want. (I know how to embroider; Mom taught me right. Must find toile.)

  • I swear, I have two identical sofas in my living room. Linen fabric, down wrapped cushions. They are lovely to curl up on with knitting. One of mine is 18 years old and I liked it so much I ordered another 8 years ago. (BTW-the Scotchguard treatment works great!)

  • First of all, thank you for introducing me to Richard Saja! That pillow (and all the stuff on Pinterest) are AWESOME SAUCE.
    Second of all, I laughed out loud at “suburban matron’s midlife crisis” – I just bought a new sofa for exactly the same reason.
    My day is made – thank you!

  • any man who says,
    “I love a well-managed slub,”
    is a very good man.

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