How we bought an affordable 3-bedroom apartment in Manhattan. (PSST: SEWING ROOM)

Me, painting our new three-bedroom apartment bright orange and turquoise, as one does

Yeah, so, we bought a three-bedroom prewar apartment in Manhattan through an affordable housing organization. It was all rather sudden. We couldn't afford our neighborhood in Brooklyn anymore (see here for explanation of the below image)...

So we started hunting around in June and it looked like we were going to be moving to New Jersey or high up in the Bronx, and we kept applying to housing lotteries with no luck and all the waiting lists for Mitchell Lama buildings were YEARS long and then I randomly started reading about income-restricted HDFC coop affordable housing apartments...

And I came across an article about UHAB, a non-profit organization that fixes up dilapidated buildings and then sells the occupied apartments to current tenants and vacant apartments to moderate and low income families. What's especially cool about these apartments is that they are permanently affordable — they are real homes, not market-rate investments. Under new HDFC rules, they can only EVER be sold to families who fit the income restrictions for pretty much the exact price paid (plus inflation).

And I randomly called this organization and they had ONE three-bedroom apartment left for a family of our size and income in a building in Harlem and it could MAYBE be ours if we got our application in right away. So we stayed up all night assembling a massive pile of documents and bank statements and landlord letters and identity papers and paystubs and I messengered it over the next day.

After months of additional paperwork and various hurdles, it was done. We moved in September just in time for the start of kindergarten for Ms. Z and here I sit today in our new home in a 1910 elevator building in beautiful Hamilton Heights, Harlem.

So what about that sewing room, you ask?! Do such things exist in the isle of Manhattan?

Well, sort of. It's really a bedroom for one of the kids, but the little baby dude is still in a crib in our room for now, so I am going to temporarily luxuriate in the feeling of having an actual sewing room.

Except that it is just a big pile of boxes at the moment:

And the only thing I've actually sewn in there so far was a gusset to expand Z's Ghostbusters Halloween costume because we didn't have time for a new costume idea this year.

Because life these days has been all about the sleep-deprivation of being a full-time working mom with a nursing-through-the-night baby, plus some unpacking, painting, and assembling of furniture...

Ruby the Riveter: My dad helps Z assemble her IKEA Kura bed.

I can't complain though. I may be a sleep-deprived half-functioning zombie, but the little dude is CUTE. And massive. And outgrowing all of his hand-knits which I have not had time to replace with newer, bigger knits.

P.S. Dressmakers, Tailors, Milliners and a Cartoonist

AND to top it all off, the building has a cool history. Z loves that we live just blocks from the former home of famed Harlem Renaissance anthropologist and writer Zora Neale Hurston. Plus my amazing mom put her genealogy skills to use and dug up the census records for 1910, 1920 and 1930. Upon which I learned that amidst the early residents of our building were quite a few:

• dressmakers
• milliners
• tailors
• silk and fabric salesmen
• ... and even a well-known cartoonist!

So there you have it. It was MEANT TO BE. Now if I can just get around to hemming the curtains we hung up more than a month ago...

The ABC Toddler Tea Table (IKEA Hack by My Amazing Mom)

There's been a whole lot of sewing and knitting going on over here... I counted it all up and realized I'm currently super actively working on a pair of trousers, some toddler overalls, a Colette dress, a vintage Du Barry dress (more on that later—super exciting!), a hooded sweater AND a pair of mitered mittens... all in a sparse 1 - 2 hours per day. Now that I'm back into the making of things, I AM OBSESSED. Er... this is a familiar feeling.

Sadly, I have no finished objects to photograph this month—yet. But I do have a fabulous IKEA hack to show you, courteous of my amazing mom (last seen helping to solve a vintage sewing genealogy mystery at My Happy Sewing Place).

It started life as a $19.99 unfinished IKEA Lätt set. Little Ms. Z loved nothing better than sitting at her table and coloring with her crayons or partaking of imaginary tea:

It was unfinished and a little boring, so my parents took it home with them to give it a makeover, leaving Z the table my dad built for me and my brother when we were kids in the meantime. My mom stuck down some sticky foam letters and shapes she had lying around...

Then she spraypainted the Lätt red, creating an awesome relief effect (we're letting it air-dry for a while before Z gets it back, though, as I'm not sure of the paint's VOC levels). And she sewed little pockets for the chair backs for Z to keep her crayons in. Voila!

Oh, and just for fun, my mom also made some snow globes featuring photos of Z in the Tea Party dress I made for her—I believe glitter, glycerine and some cheap jars and vases from Michael's were involved:

P.S. Even if you're exclusively a sewer and not yarn-inclined, you might relate to this post by the Yarn Harlot on startitis and its aftermath.

Cursed Curtains

You know you haven't been sewing enough when you find yourself daunted by an IKEA curtain hemming project. When we bought said unfinished too-long cartoons, I cavalierly promised Cartoonist Husband that I'd have them hemmed in "ten minutes."

Several months and multiple gentle reminders later, Cartoonist Husband took Ms. Z out toddler shoe shopping (kid outgrows her shoes every three months!) so I could get back in touch with my sewing self.

It was not a happy reunion. I spent hours cursing over the curtains, wrestling them over the ironing board and cutting table and sewing machine, measuring and remeasuring, trying to get them just so. Minutes before my little family returned, I finally had them perfectly pressed and evenly top-stitched. Masheka began to hang them up, I began to bask in the satisfaction of a job well done...

Until I realized they were ten inches too long. AWESOME CAREFUL MEASURING JOB MIKHAELA.

But it did remind me of a few things. Like: I hate wrestling with fabric. I hate pressing and steaming and anything involving the iron.

And I love sewing.

Next post: my four projects suddenly in progress. (None of which are the too-long curtains, which I'm just leaving that way for now.)

Our Polka Dot Christmas

Miss Z and I rocked red and white polka dots, naturally.

"Da-Da" decked the curtain rod...

... and stoked the YouTube fire.

There was a pathetic little tree...

And homemade cookies for Santa.

Miss Z unstuffed her stocking...

Got a baby doll from her Grandmommy...

Sat (sort of) still for a family portrait....

And enjoyed her first Brooklyn blizzard (or snow, really).

And a well-deserved nap.

If you celebrate, hope you had a good one!

FO: Flutter-Sleeve Cardigan + Happy 30th Birthday to Me!

Sewing is still my favorite craft activity by far, but knitting wins hands down in the "activities appropriate for extremely tired pregnant ladies who need to keep their swollen ankles up on pillows all the time" department.

This one's from the UFO pile--I started knitting it in June 2008, but had to put it down in September 2008 when it was 90% complete due to repetitive stress issues in my wrists. A few months ago I dug it out and started working on finishing it bit by bit, an hour or two a week. I patiently knit up the button bands, seamed the shoulders, wove in the ends... and last night, I attached the buttons.

Of course, it's not actually a maternity sweater, so it should fit quite a bit better when I don't have a 37-weeks-pregnant belly!

• Pattern: Pam Allen's Flutter Sleeve Cardigan from the Spring 2008 issue of Interweave Knits. The flutter sleeves are knit as one with the body pieces. It's mostly stockinette, with a seed stitch border and ribbing at the waist to create shaping.
• Sizing: I like negative ease, so I made the smallest size--36" finished bust. I had a 38" bust at the time (it's 42" at the moment--thanks pregnancy hormones!) I didn't do any horizontal FBA action, but I did add vertical length over the front bust area with short rows--at least 1.5" if I recall.
• Yarn/Needles/Notions: I used 4.5 balls of Classic Elite Classic Silk Yarn (cotton/silk/nylon blend) in a teal color (color# 6949) with circular needles size 2.5, 4 and 5. The buttons are from M&J. Although this yarn is wonderfully soft, I think I'm through with cotton and/or silk blends--they just don't have enough give for my liking. I'll stick to wool and alpaca in future.
• Modifications: Besides adding short rows, I omitted the cuff/tab detail at the sleeve ends, and just did some more seed stitch.
• Here's a link to all the details on Ravelry (I've made it public so you can see it even if you're not a member).

I'm worried that I placed the buttons too low and overdid the short row FBA. I'll wait until the pregnant belly is mostly gone to be sure, but I have a suspicion that there needs to be a third button to fix the gaposis I've got going on over the bust--not that I have a clue as to how to add a buttonhole on a finished knit object!

Button detail:

Closer-in front view:

Back view:

Does it need a third button? Hmmm...

Side view:

Flat views:

Oh, in case you're wondering what's with the new backdrop--that's Cartoonist Baby's room/my parents's room (my mom is going to stay with us to take care of Cartoonist Baby when I go back to work) in progress.

Masheka painted it a beautiful shade of (low-VOC) "Sweet Butter" yellow, and we're working on adding art to the walls and setting up furniture, etc. Cartoonist Baby is going to sleep in a cosleeper next to our bed for at least 4 or 5 months, so we still have some time to get it all together. Here's a picture of one corner so far:

The rocking chair is the same chair my mom rocked me in when I was a baby--she just refinished and recovered it. The crib is IKEA's Gulliver crib in a wood finish (don't worry--we know there should be no stuffed animals or quilts in a crib when the baby is sleeping in it, they're just on display for now.) My amazing mom sewed the quilt and the Mei Tai style baby carriers hanging on the door.

Finally... I turned 30 today. I thought it would feel like a bigger deal than it did, but I'm way more focused on another upcoming birth day!

P.S. Cartoonist Baby is getting another cardigan too, as I mentioned before, Elizabeth Zimmerman's February Baby Sweater on Two Needles from Knitter's Almanac, made with some yarn I kettle-dyed a few years back. But I'm going slow to be careful with my wrists:

Declutter Overload: How to Say Goodbye to Yarn?

So with Cartoonist Baby scheduled to arrive in just 4-8 weeks, Cartoonist Husband and I have ramped up our mad decluttering frenzy (last mentioned here in the context of ruthless knit and woven fabric executions).

Our 850-square foot 2-bedroom Brooklyn apartment is fabulous, and quite large by New York standards. But like many artistic types, we have a serious clutter problem. Which we've been denying over the years by cramming everything we couldn't fit elsewhere into the guest bedroom closets and drawers--off-season clothes, Masheka's guitar, my college photography and anthropology projects, Masheka's college film reels, holiday decorations, fabric, yarns, camping equipment and travel gear, freelance cartooning files we have to keep for tax purposes, every single diary or sketchbook I've ever kept, old letters and mementos from friends and family, photo albums, art supplies...

And now it ALL has to go somewhere else--or just GO. Once Cartoonist Baby outgrows her bedside bassinet, that's going to be her room -- and my mother's room, since my amazing mom is going to be watching our girl during the week when my 12-week maternity leave is up.

The process has been agonizing, to say the least. Sure, we've made big strides in the following areas:

• Clothing clutter: We've taken at least 10 bags worth to the local Goodwill in the last four months alone. This is made easier by my pregnancy--I can't try things on and go "well, MAYBE that could work if I just..." No, it couldn't. And if something was already too small BEFORE I was pregnant, keeping it is just self-flagellation. I've also sold about 7 pairs of shoes on eBay, and donated 3 or 4 more to Goodwill.
• Furniture clutter. We replaced the HUGE drafting table in our bedroom with a teensy folding one--we do most of our art digitally now anyway. My parents replaced the king-sized guest bed with a comfy folding couch bed. My bedside table has made way for our Arm's Reach Mini Bassinet.
• Random things we haven't used in years clutter: Goodbye, George Foreman grill--the broiler works better anyway.
• Stuff we won't be using for a long time clutter: We've loaned the camping stuff to my parents indefinitely.
• Book clutter: We've gotten rid of over 150 books via Amazon and Goodwill... leaving just 1,600 stacked 2 or 3 deep on a multitude of bookshelves. Progress, right?!

Other areas? Not so much. Art supplies are hard--I find it physically painful to throw away or donate a perfectly nice box of partly-used artist's pastels... even though I haven't drawn with pastels in over 10 years. Sentimental and creative stuff is even harder--some objects can be quickly photographed and then trashed (set lists from punk shows I saw in my teens, weird quilts I made from old T-shirts), but what to do with my boxes of letters and diaries and photos? As for all the paper-based business and other files, we HAVE to keep them for tax and other purposes. But the file cabinet is already full...

So, we're working on it.

Which brings me to the subject I've been avoiding: the yarn stash. As much as it pains me, it has just GOT to go. Cartoonist Husband and I have eight large storage drawers in the giant wall-to-wall bookshelves my father built in the livingroom, and I am currently hogging six: four with fabric, patterns and sewing notions, and two with yarn. Some of which can be seen on my Ravelry stash page...

It's not that I don't knit at all anymore--but since an intense bout with repetitive stress injury two years ago, I am a GLACIAL knitter. In order to preserve my hands and wrists for graphic design and cartooning, I knit maybe 1-2 hours a week, usually just during my weekly knitting group. At that pace, I'll still be working from my existing stash when Cartoonist Baby has gone off to college. (Luckily, machine sewing doesn't bother my hands at all--there are too many different varied movements involved).

So most of the yarn has to go (with the exception of the stuff I handdyed, and the Malabrigo, and the alpaca and...). And I don't really have any experience with yarn destashing--is it worth my time and trouble to try and sell the stuff on eBay or Etsy, or should I just donate it? And if I donate it--where to? I asked my knitting group but most of them are wrestling with stash problems of their own and have different tastes.

Please don't mourn for my knitting--I can always buy yarn for a specific project when I need it. At my pace, there is never a yarn emergency where I could possibly be stuck without something to knit.

Also, renting storage space? NOT an option. We tried that before and it was just a clutter-enabling money suck. If something isn't beautiful or useful enough to fit in the apartment as it is, well--it's just got to go.