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The book is arriving soon. Really soon. Before you know it, I'll be asking you to fork over some of your hard earned cash to read it. 


Until then, here's some free stuff.

16. TEMAZCAL 
   The heat was sweltering. The summer had been particularly rough and dry, and altogether uncomfortable. This was an angry heat, tailor-made for the suffering of those forced to live through it. In the backyard of the Jarvis family, tucked safely beneath the shade of a thick-trunked Oak Tree, sat the house of the family dog, Mr. Button. Built when Button was a pup, the years were noticeably rough on the modest dwelling. The rain had warped its walls and rusted the nails holding them perilously in place. Once a crisp, almost blinding shade of white, the paint had been peeling away for quite some time, exposing the worn and damaged wood beneath in softball sized clumps of pure ugly. The roof was little more than ragged jumble of partially rotted materials, and the likelihood of the structure's collapse grew substantially with every passing day. So pathetic was this shell of a once proud doghouse that Mr. Button had taken to lying outside rather than in. Even he was capable of understanding it was a disaster waiting to happen. 
   Despite the heat and the ever-present fear of being buried beneath a heap of rotted wood, jagged sheet metal and copper colored nail chips, eight year old Tommy Jarvis had been sitting cross-legged inside the funky-smelling piece of construction for hours. His hair was soaked with perspiration, his clothes drenched so thoroughly they could literally be ringed out. The dirt beneath him transformed into a moist, muddy-wet stew of yellow-tinted sweat and soil that smelled as bad as it looked. His throat was dry and his lips cracked to the point that that act of running his tongue across their surface no longer accomplished anything at all. 
   Despite his aching bones, and the fact that his vision had begun to blur, young Tommy had no intentions of leaving. 
   He was determined to remain exactly where he was. He wanted to sit there, and stay there, and keep himself angry, because anger was what he was feeling, and because it was all he wanted to feel. Would it have been possible, Tommy might have sat in that exact spot forever, until his skin peeled away, caught the breeze and fluttered off, until his bones turned to dust and became indiscernible from the ground beneath. 

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I was looking for a Team Kaleb button to show my Hourglass love yesterday and couldn't find one -- so I decided to make my own! While I was at it, I figured we would all want to show our Noah Shaw love before long, so I made one for The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer as well. Feel free to grab one, and please let me know in the comments which Team you choose!

that looks old, if I did it right.


I really had fun with this. I wanted to make something that looked vintage. Something cool you'd find at a good flea market or antique shop. Something that had a history, a life, memories. But of course its all new.

The body of the bag is hand knit in garter stitch, then woven with the same yarn, going up and down each row, vertically, if that makes sense. It gave the 'fabric' of the knitting much more oomph and strength. The yarn is cotton, and it tends to stretch if its not firmed up some. The weaving also gave it a different texture, which I like a lot. Now "plain" garter stitch looks unfinished to me!



The fringe is just the leftover woven ends, which I purposely left long. I split them apart and also added a couple extra lengths of other yarns for some variety.



I've had this fabric in my stash for a while. I just artistically stuffed it into the bag body, letting it overlap in front and back, and left the ends raw. There's a little wood button in front here, and some little stitching holding it in place in the back.




The handle is hand crocheted, and attached on both sides.

I also "aged" the bag and yarn just a hair in a couple of spots with brushed on coffee. Yes, coffee! Just a little bit.

What I love is that all the ends are frayed and raw and just "out there".

I might add a bit more to it, but I had to take a break. It might be done, I'm not sure. I have to live with it a day or two to know for sure.

I'd like to resurrect my Etsy shop (which has been in a coma for some months now) and wanted to come up with something new to sell. Thing is, these might be a bit pricey, since they're labor intensive. The knitted and woven body is the thing that really takes the time. Hmmm. I may have a hard time parting with this anyway because it looks way too cute hanging on the post of my black iron bed. So we'll see. (And yes, I know I need to do better pictures before I put this in my shop! Why are good digital pictures so hard to do?)

The heat has gone back to wherever it came from and everyone's feeling way better around here. It'll come back, but for now sanity has returned. I'll try not to whine so much next time around.

All images are © Paula Pertile and may not be copied or used for any reason.