The Knitting Olympics were started by crafty Canadian blogger, Yarn Harlot. The rules: cast on your project during the opening ceremony and finish before the flame goes out. The Olympic catch? You have to define your project as a challenge. Not necessarily a crying your eyes out at 2am challenge (though Yarn Harlot details that here), but difficult enough to make you sweat a bit. Brilliantly, there's no hiearchy of prizes: every finisher gets the gold (alright!).

It was such a joy to swing by the New York outpost of the the Knitting Olympics. It's hard for me to describe events like this without sounding like a cornball. I get very mushy and change the world-ish when I see a group of knitters huddled around a table crafting together. Suddenly what was just a cafe with a startling number of beret-wearers in attendance becomes a super fun and lively communitity of crafters.

So much of that all-too-rare combination of cool and kind is thanks to organizer, Corinna Mantlo. Corinna is good with her hands (she's a part-time mechanic!) and clearly loves knitting, but the process is about something bigger for her, too. When she moved back to New York from New Orleans, Corinna started Booze and Yarn. Not any old Stitch 'N' Bitch, Booze and Yarn is a creative collective that is welcoming and generous: while everyone gets tipsy and chats, Corinna helps knitters fix their drunken mistakes and reminds you how to cast-off when you've reached the end of your scarf. Even complete greenhorns can show up, and Corinna will give you a free lesson. And another when you show up next week. And again the week after that. She does this just for the sake of alcohol, craftiness, and community; what's not to love?

Yoga mat carriers, sweaters, and conjoined teddy bears complete, each project-finisher got a custom-made "Knitting Olympics" patch. I have a feeling, though, that even the non-finishers didn't walk away empty-handed. Seriously, these knitters rock. Not least of all because many of the knitting projects were donated to Sue Rock Originals Everyone, a charity that benefits the survivors of domestic violence and their children.

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Hand's down, the biggest challenge in making an apartment look like a home is figuring out how to cover all those blank walls. Tapestries are so opium den and Monet posters are so wrong at this stage of life. I always cringe a little bit when the designers on Trading Spaces talk about "making art", but they may be on to something. If you can't afford to buy art on your assistant salary (and who can?), it just may be time to make some.

For those who don't/can't/won't draw, stencils are a gift from God. Lucky for you and me, the man who directs and edits these videos is also a cartoonist and kindly agreed to draw a really big horse. Download and print out our horse stencil (8 pages total) here:

horse stencil page 1
horse stencil page 2
horse stencil page 3
horse stencil page 4
horse stencil page 5
horse stencil page 6
horse stencil page 7
horse stencil page 8

If you're not an equine enthusiast, this place has a dazzling array of stencils.

From there, you'll need canvases. I bought mine at a big chain arts and crafts store as I suspected they would be cheap. And since the heavens were throwing me all kinds of crazy gifts, there was a sale: $2.99 for a 16"x20" canvas. I bought four.

If we could do this again, we'd transfer the paper stencil on to a large piece of plastic (available at craft stores) so the stencil wouldn't be quite so flimsy. If you do that, you could paint with acrylics and stencil rollers if you want, since plastic will stand up to a little more wear and tear. We decided to use spray paint and just taped down our paper stencil with masking tape. Then we touched up the final painting with a brush.

Since I have not previously extolled the virtues of spray paint, please let me do so now: spray paint is fast, easy, and calls for zero clean up. You just can't say that about many things in life.

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Fine, I'll admit it: I kind of like Valentine's Day. I've heard the drill that it's a fabricated holiday that too often involves drugstore chocolates and last minute roses picked up at the gas station, but as far as excuses for self-indulgence go, Valentine's Day ranks pretty high. One can happily buy herself some fancy chocolates, a dozen hot pink roses, and raise her glass to the best reading material there is, the book of love!

Romance is just thoughtfulness directed at someone you smooch. How about sending sweet nothings this year to the loves you don't lock lips with? They're your friends, and they gracefully put up with a lot. They help you pick the paint color for your bathroom, indulge your grandiose theories of what makes good art, and mail you perfect gold shoes just because. Have you told them lately that you love them? If you can't fete them in person with Rod Stewart and a sidecar, perhaps you should send them one of these rick rack valentines sealed with a kiss.

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By far, one of the best things about New York is the people watching. Waiting on a subway platform not too long ago, I developed a little crush on a girl next to me. She wore round toe pink flats, a vintage circle skirt with the intials of its first owner, long since gone, embroidered in a langourous scrawl, and a coat with pretty three-quarter length sleeves. Her hair was tied in a tight, high bun, and she wore a ribbon headband. The kicker, and the reason she's been the heroine of my daydreams of late, was the 60's paperback edition of Wuthering Heights she pulled out of her tapestry bag. She was a doll.

And so in honor of fashion week and the unique Brooklyn style we love so much, Sebastian and I took to the streets. We serendipitously ran into a woman who designs her own line of clothing. We were also reminded of the trusty chain standbys and why vintage items still steal my beating heart. And, suprisingly, we learned that men in skull caps are hot. I like to think people really got a spring in their step when we singled them out and cooed over their outfits. Because really, isn't what Mom said true: When you look good, you feel good.

We finished our fashion day feeling pretty damn good about ourselves when we left our first photo shoot with Kate and Camilla. They are terrifically fun and stylish themselves, and we drank champagne and ate cookies while they shot our Renaissance syle portraits. They even posted the pics on their Nerve photo blog.

I also just want to say that all the support and positive response we've had thus far means so much. We're having a blast putting these videos up every week, but it makes it about 1,000x better to know you are loving it, too!

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