first post

I've been wanting to write more about my knitting and sewing designs for a couple of years now. It started when i began designing my Hobbit Lass costume shortly after joining the NC Fellowship. After I was done I found that i couldn't stop designing and dreaming up new things to make. It's amazing to me that i moved to Charlotte, NC, in August of 2003, joined the group, attended a viewing of the Two Towers at our fearless leader's home, and i designed and completed a costume before October 31st when the group attended the Renn Faire in Huntersville. This was of course months before attending Trilogy Tuesday in Raleigh--in costume--with a lot of other kindred spirits (thanks so much to King Cardlothien who organized it for us).

Since then i've taken knitting up again and am sewing both projects that have been on the backburner for a couple of years and new ones. The NC Fellowship was a good place for me to become passionate about both or the above because so many of the people there were just as crazy as me (if not crazier) and wanted to have costumes just like i did. I learned a lot there and miss belonging to a group like that.

I have found that i still greatly want to share the entire experience with others. Because my focus has switched to blogging since then it seems natural to me to start sharing my ideas here. I'm all fired up from reading other peoples' knitting blogs and have been inspired by a lot of movies lately (as well as spoiler images for upcoming movies). I think that knitting and sewing will always be a part of my life... i don't know about costuming. It's important to me that, if i sew a costume, i can wear it in real life, too. Parts of my Hobbit lass outfit got a lot of wear for quite a while. If i'm going to make a costume i have to be comfortable wearing it in public or what's the point?

The name for this blog came from a strange but perfectly natural place... My sister and i have had a secret syntax for a long time; it's not that we've made up a language, it's just that we know each other so well and are passionate about so many of the same things that we can talk to each other kind of in code. You wouldn't want to play Taboo with us while we are on the same team (we slaughtered the other team at a New Years party a couple of years ago)! We spent last spring break in Yuma and i quickly got fed up trying to find a single swimsuit that would modestly and attractively fit a young woman who has DD or DDD breasts. I finally said that i'd just have to design my own suit and market it to the public along with a line of clothes and lingerie. That evening we came up with a name for such a store: Big Tracts of Land.

Fans of Monty Python and the Holy Grail may understand the reference: at one point in the film a young man is being coerced into marrying a woman with "big tracts of land" by his father. When you see the bride it's obvious that land isn't the only thing she's well endowed with. It was just a joke but i fell in love with the idea. The funny thing is that my sis is pregnant and now having the same trouble finding stuff that fits because of her new size. Now i'm not planning to sell anything here, but i just thought it would still be a good title for showing off the stuff my sister and i have made. Who knows how long this site will last or where it will go, i'm just full of tmi on the subject to comfortably stay quiet.