i wish life in the US was on sale.

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving, if you are American and celebrate it. Mine was pretty low key but nice and fun, and I of course ate a lot which is murder when you have GERD and feel like rubbish the day after. I admit, I was tempted by the barrage of high percentage sales in my inbox this morning, but I told myself, “no way in HELL!” and instead am observing Buy Nothing Day. The concept of Black Friday is so foreign to me, and yet when I see photos of one store a few neighborhoods over with people lined up around the block at 8pm last night, I realize this means I’m in the minority and that more people than not take advantage of Black Friday. I’m not going to say that you’re evil if you take advantage of it; we all like deals and if you need a big, important purchase it could be the cheapest it’s ever going to get. But this year there have been so many big issues around worker’s rights just before Black Friday, what with Papa John’s, Hostess, and Wal-Mart and all, that it seems particularly tasteless to attend Black Friday. And as far as internet sales go, people still have to work to fill those orders, so even though you don’t see them, it’s still a problem. Mainly, I just don’t NEED anything right now. I really wanted to get jeans for 60% off today, but I can’t warrant the purchase of another pair, no matter how cheap. It doesn’t help that last night my Oma was telling me that her first apartment in the city of Chicago after immigrating from Lithuania/Germany had no tub and no hot water–I have weird internal immigrant guilt even though my parents were born here!

Anyways, I spent my Black Friday enjoying my great apartment filled with colorful things that make me happy. Isa napped by my feet while I caught up on trashy television and worked on a knitting project with some chartreuse yarn I bought in Riga. I haven’t knit for ages but I picked it up again quickly after realizing that it is important to look up knitting stitch instructions in English Style–I cannot knit in Continental Style and most directions are as such. It’s a teeny square now but I want to make a braided head/earband for cold days when I want to pin my hair up while it is growing out. If I wear a hat, all the pins get stuck in it!

I also took some nice quality photos of some things around the house and recent projects.

Amazing laundromat chairs that my equally amazing friend Hillary repainted and gifted to us! Hillary just landed upon Seattle to start a new chapter of her life; I’ll miss her a lot but I hope to visit her as soon as I can!

My White sewing machine which I love to death. It was a gift from my dear friend Lauren’s mom, and it is a sturdy, all-metal machine! The new plastic machines weird me out. This thing is a tank!

A friend asked me to create some collars for her sisters for Christmas (I hope they don’t read my blog, hence why I haven’t named any names!). I’m quite happy with how they turned out; the herringbone one is super cute and I may need to make more. The yellow one is made from Marimekko remnants and is reversible!

This one is for me, made out of a Marimekko holiday remnant (to wear at work, I don’t get into “holiday” themes so much).

A knitting project on some Marimekko fabric next to a Tommi Musturi book.