Engagement | Jessie + Drew

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But I love your feet
only because they walked
upon the earth and upon
the wind and upon the waters, 
until they found me. || Pablo Neruda

The drive to the Rappahannock River is a drive I love taking and I always welcome any excuse to take it. Especially on a beautiful mid October day that allows for rolled down windows during the scenic drive.
Jessie and Drew will be getting married in the same place and on the same day these were taken, next October.
Such a sweet little detail in their love story.
A love story I can't wait to continue documenting.

OOAK Knits | The Mandalay Vest

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The Mandalay Vest
 

Inspired by a beautiful house somewhere on the coast in Maine. 

A place of peace and comfort. 

A place that feels like home. 

Yarn origin: Richmond, VA

A photo posted by Leney (@agirlnamedleney) on

This vest is one of my absolute favorite pieces from the first run of one-of-a-kind knits.
I'm having a hard time parting with it to be honest. I love it's geometric design, inspired by the layered siding of that lovely little house in Maine. It's a statement piece that would go with pretty much anything you wanted to pair it with.

While the majority of my knitting is done at home, occasionally a project will wander out with me on various adventures, to and from different places here and there.
One of the noteworthy places this vest went was to the movie theatre to watch Arcade Fire's documentary: The Reflektor Tapes.
Arcade Fire is one of my favorite bands. In fact their song, Keep The Car Running, is pretty much my anthem and mirrors one of the ideas and sentiments behind my OOAK knitwear being inspired by my travels.
Pieces made on the road.
Telling of the things I see and experience. 
Always being ready for anything.
Wherever adventure awaits.
Keep the car running.

If you'd like to invest in this piece and be the owner of it's unique story you can do so by heading to the shop listing for it below

I'm going to be releasing new one-of-a-kind knits on a regular basis so this is only the start!
I just have to say again for the hundredth time how excited I am about this new aspect of my business and I can't wait to grow more as an artist and a story teller through this process.
Thank you all for your kind words and support on the unveiling thus far. It means the world to me.
xo

Why one-of-a-kind?

These pieces are inspired by...
the places i’ve been,
the people i’ve met,
the words i’ve read,
the images i’ve created.

All of which are unique, to themselves, their own, one-of-a-kind. 
Much like you are.

I believe that your clothing, what you wear, says a lot about you.
It adds to your story, your make-up, who you are as an individual.

And so, shouldn’t those pieces in and of themselves hold a story all their own?
I think so.
That’s why my knitwear is one-of-a-kind. 
Each design is a piece of art.
Each piece tells a story. 
Of a person. A place. An experience. An idea.
When you own one of these pieces you are the only one to own it.
Aside from me, the creator, you hold it’s story. 
You are now the caretaker of it’s story. 
And it, in turn, becomes a part of yours.
The Stories The Things We Own Tell.
I think they're terribly important, though often overlooked. 
I find that the things we invest in are the things we cherish and value most. Which in turn speaks to what kind of individual we are. What we put stock in. Who we want to be.

You can also read more about why here.

// Photos by Meagan Abell //
 

My Hustle

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this is my hustle.
this is how i work and move and progress.
this is how i make the motion of going forward. of growing. of changing. of being somewhere different than i presently was a moment ago.
this is my going-through-motions. 
this is my taking-action.
this is my ambition.

Lifestyle | The Wright Sisters

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The Secret Garden was what Mary called it when she was thinking of it. She liked the name, and she liked still more the feeling that when its beautiful old walls shut her in no one knew where she was. It seemed almost like being shut out of the world in some fairy place. The few books she had read and liked had been fairy-story books, and she had read of secret gardens in some of the stories. Sometimes people went to sleep in them for a hundred years, which she had thought must be rather stupid. She had no intention of going to sleep, and, in fact, she was becoming wider awake every day which passed. || Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

There's something irreplaceable and unchangeable about the bond of sisters.
The unconditional love and you-knew-me-when. The shared experiences from the very-most-possible-beginning of things. That built in best friend you'll never be without. 

Spending the afternoon with these two woodland fairies was the best possible reminder of why I love doing what I do. For it's this kind of photography, lifestyle photography, the capturing things just-so and as-they-happen, that's my favorite.
And I think this session with these two beautiful souls is going to be a favorite of mine for quite sometime. 

The Classics Collection | A Knit Lookbook

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Excited to announce part 1 of 2 in regards to the new direction I'm going with my knitwear! 

In the past I've made seasonal lines or collections of knitwear.
My most recent ones for example were: Gypsy Soul and On The Road.
While I contemplated making new lines for this year, something just wasn't clicking for me every time I set to working on it. 
I realized that every time I phased out a line of knitwear, there were always key pieces that were popular and still frequently asked for even after taking them down from the shop. 
I realized too that I had my own favorite designs that I myself loved most and chose first when heading out the door, even though I was continually making new knits for myself. 
And so it dawned on me that what I needed to do was just give the people (and myself for that matter) what they wanted.
The cozy accessories that go with everything.
The designs you invest in.
The pieces that become your favorite, well loved, and worn over and over.
The knits you always reach for over all the others time and time again.
The Classics.

And so I present to you, eight timeless pieces carefully selected from my past knitwear collections.
Each simple and minimal in their design, yet versatile in that they're able to be knit in one of 5 neutral colors so as to readily go with anything you own.

If this concept and collection had a sound, as my visual work so often does for me, it would be the hesitant stop-start bubbling of coffee brewing on a Monday morning, chilly waves lapping at a driftwood strewn shore, shrouds shifting against a tall mast on a docked boat, a momentary torrential rainstorm in the middle of a summer-almost-fall day, the low rumbling familiarity of a voice belonging to someone you love, and if it had a mix tape it would sound something like this.

The Classics Collection | A Knit Lookbook

Flawed

admitting your flaws doesn’t make you more flawed.
admitting your flaws often points out your strengths.
my flaws: they’re ten-fingered-spread-eagled declarations of this-is-me. they’re a part of me but they don’t define me. 
they’re not permanent. they’re changeable. adjustable. i can grow in and out of them and become victorious over any of them, should i set my mind to it. 

i think we not only do ourselves, but everyone around us, a great service by saying on occasion: “this was hard” 
“this was ugly” 
“i failed” 
i don’t believe that fighting against our negative parts includes ignoring and covering them up and piling on the positive. 
sometimes it’s pointing them out. 
saying: this-is-how-it-is. 
so that you can acknowledge. 
recognize, deal with it, and move on. 
it makes the positive more beautiful once you’re able to recognize and point out the negative.
or so i feel.