Look Who Came Home!

It's my mojo, it seemed to find its way back home.  At first I thought it smelled the yummy butternut squash soup I was making or it wanted shelter before the Nor'easter hit town but then I remembered what really brought it scampering home.

I won a contest over Talk Crafty To Me ,  after several days of  recapping all sorts of craft books to inspire you there was a contest for a $25 Amazon gift card to spend on some crafty books and I won! I have had
The Big Ass Book of Crafts in my amazon wish list for a long time so I think I may finally get that. And we all know that I love me some knitted toys and I have admired Rebecca Danger's monsters for a while now so I am pretty excited for her book Big Book of Knitted Monsters that is coming out in January. Any other must have craft books that people out there just adore?

I also think my mojo came back because it knew Ariel was headed to town. Arriving 24 hours earlier than I expected (not that she arrived early just that I am a bit of an idiot), we have already spent some of those 24 hours eating awesome burgers, drinking cocktails with names like The Ditzy Blond and The Petite Flower and plotting a possible trip to Webs. A good day by all standards.  Only a true knitting friend understands the importance when you say you are contemplating a sweater (really it's been ages since I did a big project) and it involves steeking.

O' Where O' Where Did My Mojo Go?

Somewhere in the past month or so I lost my knitting mojo. Actually not just my knitting mojo but my mojo in general. Friends moving away, people you care for in pain, the days getting shorter....sigh.  I am not even sure I lost my mojo. I think that it ran away and is currently riding the rails with a red handkerchief tied to a stick over its shoulder. (Yes, my mojo is a 1930's hobo, what of it?)

There are some good tidings coming soon because my pal Ariel is heading to town and I sense there will be some knttin', eatin', drinkin' fun to be had.

But in the meantime I figured I'd think of some stuff that tickles my fancy and maybe entice my mojo to come home where I have homemade applesauce waiting for it.

Apparently pickling is contagious. My sister started it, then me and now my brother has joined the bandwagon and made a batch which were apparently awesome. Even my dad is considering pickling the green tomatoes that they had to take in when they had a frost up in Maine. For some reason this really makes me giggle since even though I know that my dad can cook, the image of him using measuring spoons is such a weird one.He is definitely a shaker top his spices directly onto a slab of meat kind of guy.

Getting tickets to the Amy Sedaris reading in November. Amy Sedaris is coming to town to do a reading for my local bookstore and tickets went quickly. When I called they had only 8 left and I was glad to snag 2. I think she is so funny and wacky and we share a love of the googly eyes so that must make us kindred spirits. I think if I pick up a copy of her new book Simple Times:Crafts for Poor People, my mojo will respond well to that.

Weekly Photo Assignments at Smarts & Crafts.com  I am not sure when I started reading the blog of this San Francisco store.  I am sure that it was mentioned on some other blog I read. The store  looks so cool and I will totally  visit when/if I get out that way. But what I really like is that each week they give out weekly photo assignments. Assignments are things like "something orange" or "something sweet" or "your morning coffee". I don't manage to do it every week but I try to keep the assignment in the back of my head and remember to throw my camera in my bag and it forces me to stop and take pictures of things I normally wouldn't (i.e. not yarn or yarn based items). And I like to look at the other people's photos to see how they interpreted it. Assignments are given out on Fridays when the previous week's photos are posted.

And of course, squash with google eyes.

In a bit of a Pickle

It seems all summer blogs I've been reading have had someone pickling stuff, craft blogs, knitting blogs everyone must have had their gardens run over with cucumbers.  So when my CSA share started to fill up with cukes that just looked like they were born to pickle I knew what I had to do...read more blogs. I have never pickled anything before so I have no idea what I was doing.

I read a gazillion recipes and although my sister had decided to go with the tried and true voice of Alton Brown I followed the recipe of the one of my food blogs I really enjoy but never actually make any of the recipes.  So using Coconut & Lime's recipe I made my first refrigerator pickles and pickled green beans. Actually made I made them last week but I wanted to wait until tasted them I boasted of my pickle prowess. And it turns out I rock,  the beans are really yummy and dilly and crisp. Now that I have a whole bunch of jars and spices I am eyeing everything and thinking "Can I pickle that?"

Ubiquitous Baby Knits

I've got some friends who are knocked up so it's time to work on some knits for the wee ones. My usual go-to is a toy but I figured I'd go for something different. Well, different for me, really these are some of the most knit patterns out there and you know why? Because they are so frakkin' cute.

This set is for my college roommate who is not due until October so it is really odd of me to be so ahead of the game.  Everything is knit with Tahki Cotton Classic with just a bit of Knit Picks Shine Sport of the green parts.

The Kid's Fruit Cap - I figure we can say it's a blueberry. The hat seems amazingly small to me but after putting out a call to my friends on facebook asking them to compare newborn heads to various fruits i.e. melons, grapefruits etc...it probably is not too small after all.

Saatje Booties (although I actually used the Fleegle Seamless Version - because avoiding seaming is always better) Yes, the buttons are little blue apples and as far as I know there are no blue apples but hey, they are cute and I was sticking with the fruit theme. And buying them  gave me an excuse to go Windsor Button and hang out at the counter fondling the Malabrigo lace weight.

Camp LiSaLa

It all started over a sushi dinner with my friends Lisa and Laurel. I mentioned how my niece was going to Girl Scout Camp and had come home with her sit-upon and my sister mentioned this on her facebook page and all sorts of people chimed in about summer crafts of their youth. This began a conversation that had to go for almost a half hour of all the things we made.  We decided we needed a camp craft day to relive our youth and really I just love any excuse to play with googly eyes and pompoms.

First Lisa and I took a trip to the craft store where we went a little crazy picking up some supplies.

We did some tried and true classics like corn husk dolls jersey loop potholders, god's eyes and gimp lanyards (somehow managed to not snap a picture of the lanyards or god's eyes - I blame the Moscow Mules Lisa mixed up instead of taking responsibility for my slacking off on photo-taking)

I was disappointed when I had gone to the supermarket in preparation for craft day and they didn't have a macaroni letters. So I had to decorate my picture frame with this new fangled sparkly letters instead. But on the plus side, I was able to sneak some googly eyes on them.

Then our new pompom pals took a stroll in the backyard to sun themselves on a leaf and make some new friends.

A simply great day with wonderful weather, tasty food and drink, amazing company and googly eyes. Really what else could a girl ask for? I am thinking a second session of camp may be in order since this one was so much fun and we still have 990 popsicle sticks to use up!

Odds and Ends

I swear this recent sock-knitting binge is going to end soon, I mean it has to, doesn't it?  I was looking through my stash and figured I could eek out a pair of anklets from the leftovers of my Endpaper Mitts project.  The pattern is the Pom Pom Peds knit up in Valley Yarn's Huntington. I was so concerned that I was going to run out of the grey that I started the toe on the first sock a bit early and the sock is a teensy bit short. And did I run out of yarn, noooo, of course there's still some leftover.

I then had to decide on what to cast on next.  I was on ravelry playing around with all the new pattern categories and found this super simple crochet necklace.  I dug down into the big old Rubbermaid tub of stash and found this bag of gold and silver metallic yarns that my grandma had given me. To put in perspective how long this stuff has been kicking around her place I am pretty certain some of the thicker gold yarn was used to make my Barbie a very fabulous skirt/sweater set with matching set of luggage. In the bag there was some thin silver almost thread weight yarn and with some beads from the bead stash, voila! a super simple necklace made up of three strands. I like it so much I can actually see myself wearing it out of the house (I have a bad tendency to make jewelry and then never wear it - stupid, stupid, stupid).  Anyway, I am pretty glad to have actually use some of grandma's yarn - she will be thrilled to know I got some use out of it.

Too Hot to Knit

Hi, I would have written this post sooner but it's been hot and humid and sticky and icky for quite a few days now and I don't deal with heat all that well sometimes.  It makes me cranky and sleep funny and I forget to eat and then get crankier and a bit woozy because I forgot to eat. I am also pretty sure a large portion of my blood stream has been replaced with a mix of iced coffee and iced tea. Yes, I realize that the large intake of iced caffeinated beverages may have something to do with the sleeping funny thing but we'll ignore that for now -I am pretty sure logic does not survive in high humidity. But today is cooler and my CSA veggies have been washed and tucked in to their crispers so now I can post. 

I spent the 4th of July weekend up in Maine. Luckily I was not told about the recent bear sighting on my folks front lawn until after I was already up there or I may have begged off.  It was one of those "Didn't we tell you about the bear? Your brother knows about the bear." I get to hear about the trip to Costco so my Dad can get white fish but they forget to mention a bear!! Apparently some crankiness lingers....maybe I should have another iced coffee.  Anyway....I saw no bears just the usual finch and chickadees and a special treat. 

A robin had build her nest on the edge of the garage and we spend the first few days checking up her three baby birdies, we watched Mama come by with some tasty food, and then them venturing out on the ledge and stretching their wings.  But when we woke up on the 4th we discovered two of the birdies had their own independence day of sorts and had taken off.  Leaving just one little birdie, sulking that he had been left all alone.

Don't worry by the end of the day he too had left to join his Mama and siblings up in the trees somewhere.

Back in knitting news, I finished up yet another pair of socks. Seriously, they are the crack of the knitting world. I may need an intervention. This time it's Spring Forward  knit in TOFUtsies.  I think a solid colorway may show off the pattern better but I since this is mainly a non-wool yarn I am excited that I may actually be able to wear a pair of my hand-knit socks sometime before October although clearly not for a while.

Here my sock takes in the view of the lake from the deck. Trust me there's a lake out there past the trees.

My friend Lisa came back from Maryland Sheep and Wool a few months back with beautiful raw silk from Tess Designer Yarns and cast on right away to knit Summit. Turns out they have a retail shop in Portland. Cut to me spending a large amount of time admiring the beautiful colors and chatting away with the dyer herself (not Tess by the way), Melinda.  I really went in with the mindset to buy some of the raw silk to knit up Summit myself since I just adore the pattern and have had it queued since it that edition of knitty came out. But somehow I  ended up with this GORGEOUS 100% silk in this fabulous brass colorway as a belated b-day gift from my mom. It has less yardage than the raw silk so I may make a smaller version of Summit or find another pattern or just clutch it close to me muttering "precious" as I did for the first few hours after I got it.  Really the picture does not do it justice it is luminous and so amazing to touch.....

Sarah's Crafty Calendar - Summer Edition

So I was chatting with some of my knitting friends and mentioned how there were some crafty events coming up and totally confusing myself on which one was on which day and where so I figured I'd organize myself so I don't miss anything as I recently did with the Coolidge Corner Art Fest :( and share the details with my peeps.

Sowa Open Market - every Sunday crafty delights in South Boston/South End. While there are some local farmers and bakeries who set up there really is not a lot of food so get lunch at some place fabulous in the South End first. (May I suggest the crab cakes at Stephi's on Tremont?)  Check the site to make sure they're not closed on holidays and for directions and parking (yes, parking!) details.  Oh, and for some folks who I know head to Rhode Island quite a bit, they do have a sister market in Providence.

Boston Handmade Marketplace - July 10 Union Square, Somerville. I've never been to this small market but there be live music and demos from the Common Cod Fiber Guild (of which I am a member) so go learn how to knit or spin or appreciate wooly goodness!

Art Beat - July 17th - Davis Square Yes, it's going to be hot it always is, but just cool yourself off with a mango lassi from Dali and enjoy the music, crafts, activities for kids (if you're into that kind of thing) and food. Yummy, yummy food. Davis Square restaurants set up shop in carts on the street so you can get your Redbones pulled pork sandwich while walking.

Boston Bazaar Bizarre Summer Fair - August 21, Union Square Somerville I believe this is their first summer fair but their winter show is always such so fun and have artists I really like that I am excited they are doing a warm weather fest. 

There all nice and neat. 

Seriously, another Knit Chicken?

Clearly I have a problem.  (And to my sister who had the thought "Just one?" a second ago, I'll get you for that, beware you may be forced to laugh at something so hard a beverage comes out your nose.) Anyway, back to my problem, it's the damn knit toys!  I can't stop making them.  I see this pattern by Susan B. Anderson for chickens and I think that's a cute pattern. But nothing I really need to make. But then looking through the projects on ravelry I see the chicken made with these great charts that a ravelry user has been so gracious as to put up on her blog. 

There is something about the colors and the wing pattern that reminds me of this set of chicken knick-knack things that my grandmother used to have on top of her fridge and suddenly I really wanted to make this bird. Ah, nostalgia.  The fact that I happened to have all the colors I needed  just hanging around in my stash made it a done deal. 

Since the last thing I need is another stuffed animal in my place and he's a bit too country to fit with my style the chicken will soon be crossing the road and traveling up to Maine to enjoy the simple life of my folks place there. 

The charts are available here at rav member, ElleM's blog. You still need to buy the original pattern, the blog just has the charts for the stranded design.

I would say this is the last toy I will be knitting for a while but my mom just asked if I'd make a toy for the grand-daughter of one of her friends.  And seriously can I stop knitting toys for longer than a few months? Apparently not.

Oops, I Did It Again

Crazy as it sounds, well at least to me, I knit a second pair of socks. And again,I enjoyed it, this may become a habit.  I dug down into my stash and found my Flying Happy Jenny yarn.  I think this yarn had been waiting to be made into socks and I just didn't know it until now. It is Knitpicks Bare, that Jenny had dyed for me a few years ago. 

Based on recommendations from my sock-loving friends I knit Charade, a super popular sock pattern.  It's a a free ravelry download so click here to check it out. You know why it's a super popular? Because it's a really good pattern. It's easy to memorize, keeps you interested, looks great, an all-around good pattern.  I made a few tweaks just to adjust for my weird feet and they fit amazingly well.  I also made the cuff a bit shorter because I don't really like tall socks and I used an eye of partridge heel just because I kept reading people mention it in the rav forums and wanted to see what the difference was between the other heel I did.  I think it's just a bit prettier and I am sure there is something about how the heel wears but since it's 80 degrees here I am not wearing these soon to test that out.

A Place to Hang my Hat

Just over a year ago I saw this diy project for cute hooks on Design*Sponge, one of my favorite design blogs.  I figured that seems like something I can do and put it in the back of my head for future reference. 

Then I went to Brimfield last May and picked up the vintage hooks I could use for this.  Spring turned to summer, summer to fall and yada yada yada.  Last month I finally got to a big old home improvement store to get some wood and have it cut to size.  Annoyingly none of my small hardware stores sell lumber or cut it down if needed.  Oh  did I remember to buy screws to fit in the hooks while I was there? Of course not, back to the local hardware store I go.  Then I had to buy cute paper. I had seen something I liked at Paper Source and now of course it was gone, so I checked another store, also gone.   Grrrr.... For a straight forward project with not many materials I sure was was hitting a lot of stores.

So I took to the internet and started looking for pretty wrapping papers, I wanted something with red and it seemed everything was Christmas-y or just fugly.  Then I came across Smock Paper  located in upstate NY they print on bamboo paper and are amazingly eco-conscious and most importantly have gorgeous stuff! I checked to see if any local stores carried their products and turns out there were a couple including a really cute paper store that I had no idea existed in Beacon Hill, Rugg Road Paper Company.  After looking at all their yummy papers I still ended up going with the Blossom paper from Smock.

Really, buying the materials was so much more of an ordeal then the actual project.  I pretty much followed the tutorial to the letter except I did decide to seal my paper with Modge Podge.  Yet another trip out for supplies since all I had on hand is gloss Modge Podge and I really wanted a matte finish.

I modge podge, I drill, I screw and I am done! All ready to hammer to the wall.  I take out the tool box and I don't have nails long enough! Seriously?!? One last trip to the hardware store and now it is really done! Yay!!!

Look at My Foot!

My trip to the Dark Side is complete, I have finished my first pair of socks. And *gasp* I enjoyed it. 

I definitely did learn a bit along the way. They are a teeny bit big since I was so afraid of them being too small. They are definitely not perfect, the first one has a serious pointy toe. Oh and how does one get that last stitch when you're doing the kitchener stitch to be tight? I seem to always end up with that last loop flying around. Then on the second one I was about half-way through kitchener'ing (that's a verb right?) when I realized I was doing it the wrong direction and would only have worked if my toes were moved by 90 degrees and then it would be seriously hard to walk. My feet are wonky but not that much.  I do understand now the serious pride at being able to turn a heel.  I found myself thinking things like "sure that person can do such and such (insert impressive achievement here) but can they make a sock? Doubt it!"

I also got to experience trying to take photos of my feet. It seemed to work best with me upside down with my legs propped on the back of the sofa and my head resting on the ottomon. Should anyone from the apartment building across the street happened to look at that time they must have been seriously confused, all the more since it was at something like 6:30am on a Saturday.

Since I normally wear short socks, anklets and such, I am now scouring these kinds of patterns on rav.  If anyone has a favorite or a favorite spring sock yarn let me know. It's finally too warm to wear wool socks here! Except my folks did say the got 2 inches of snow this weekend in Maine.  Really, winter is over now!

It's Flooding in Boston, but I Hear Hell May Have Frozen Over

My knitter's block has not really not wanted to un-block. I made several attempts at casting on only to rip everything out. Nothing was working. I had to try a new tact.

Did you ever see that Seinfeld episode where George decides to do the exact opposite of what his natural instincts tell him to do? I decided to give that a whirl. So what is the item I never, ever,ever knit? That I have stubbornly refused to knit.   Altogether now boys and girl- SOCKS! 

Yes, I decided to knit socks. (Somewhere in San Francisco, Ariel is cheering). I went to my LYS and I scanned their wide selection of sock yarns.  My instincts pulled me to my familiar favoite colorways, blues, blue and green, blue and purple, do you see a trend? And it struck me again - opposite! No blues, no quiet, muted nature or jewel tones. I had to go for loud and bright to break me from this block.

So I picked this skein I would normally never buy.  Look it has orange and a bits of pink! I don't wear/knit orange or light pink.

I have cast on the plain old sock recipe in The Yarn Harlot's Knitting Rules.  Well actually I cast on and frogged and cast on again, and then knit a whole bunch and ripped back to the ribbing and changed needles sizes. First they were going to be too big, then too small, then too big again, and I mutter about my fat calves and freakishly wide feet but I kept knitting. I was determined and it helped that I was like a small child and really wanted to see what happened next with the self-striping yarn. 

Here's a pic of where I am so far.  I just finished turning the heel which was far less stressful than I anticipated.

Fiber-y Videos

Okay, just cause I haven't been knitting recently does not mean I have shunned all things sheepy and wool related.  Here are a few of my favorite videos of late.

 

Carve Me out a Bit of Inspiration

For some reason February is never a good month for me. It is the New England winter without the holidays of December or the optimistic brand new year-ness of January. And this year was no exception. While we didn't get hit with the snow that the mid-Atlantic did, the bitter cold seemed to freeze any creative inspiration I had. I couldn't figure out what to knit for the Knitting Olympics and while I watched my fair share of aerials and speed skating and I did not once pick up a pair of knitting needles.

Last week March finally arrived and with it came temperatures in the 40's and my niece's birthday. I always try to make at least a portion of her gift.  She is still into fairies and since I already knit her little fairies last year so I had to come up with something else this year. I figured some rubber stamps in the fairy motif would add to her drawings. 

Hopefully, this will re-spark my creativity and get me back to stitching or knitting or what have you,

Mary, Skeletons and Bacon, oh my!

I can show off some embroidery I did now since my friend has received her gifts.  A few years back I was sitting at my weekly Stitch n Bitch and I was working on some embroidery instead of my usual knitting. And it struck me as funny because all these knitters kept saying "oh my that looks so complicated, too hard for me" and they were totally serious.  Included amongst them was my friend Ariel who was probably in the middle of knitting socks on size 2 double pointed needles.
Any one who has visited Ariel's place soon notices her collection of religious and Day of the Dead well, stuff so I knew the Dia de Los Muertos patterns from Sublime Stitching would be just up her alley. I stole this first photo from her blog she took because for the life of me I could not get a decent shot of the skeletons. I embroidered these and then made them into teeny pillows and while I am proud of my embroidery, my sewing skills are still a bit well, sucky. It's not my fault, the sewing machine is possessed!

And for some added silliness, I crocheted up some bacon 'cause also if you know Ariel you know how she feels about bacon. 

Totoro and his Mittens

Last month Craftzine had this post showing Totoro mittens, and I immediately thought of my cousin who is a big fan of Totoro.  The next day I get an email from said cousin hinting strongly that she loves those mittens and she did have a birthday in January.....

(By the way, Totoro is from Hayao Miyazaki’s Japanese animated film "My Neighbor Totoro".  I have it on my Netflix queue but there is a Loooooong Wait for it. )

Since it does not take a whole lot of arm twisting to get me to A) Make something cutesie and B) Knit stranded mittens - I knew what what my next project would be. I had some Berroco Ultra Alpaca in Winter White leftover from the scarf I had made my cousin for Hannukah so her new mittens will match perfectly. I headed downtown to my LYS to pick up a blue or grey and found this great new colorway of Ultra Alpaca called Blue Steel.  A great color (I like greys) and the added bonus of sounding like a cheesy 80s action movie. Then woman ringing up my sale asked my what I was making, it turns out she is a huge Miyazaki fan and was thrilled to talk knitting and japanese film. 

I seemed to bang out the mittens pretty quickly, there are some long floats that you have to deal with but otherwise a straightforward knit.  I think they are pretty sweet.

After the mittens were done I still had a ton of Blue Steel left over so I scanned through rav and found the cutest stuffed Totoro.  Turns out a ingenious ravelry user had adapted the stuffed cat, Kate from Knitty into Totoro and was kind enough to put all the changes in her project notes (I love rav).  I got this guy done in one night of insomnia with just some detail work to be done the next day.  He is pretty frakkin' adorable if I do say so myself.

Elijah & Sheldon

I am a bit late with these guys but a friend of mine had twin boys a few months back and I am just finishing up their gifts now.  Initially, I scoured ravelry looking at patterns for sweaters, hats, blankets but then I realized I love knitting toys but really don't want to keep them so this was the best of all worlds.  I feel a kinship to the new baby boys since it turns out I was there when my friend started labor, she was completely unphased and was sure it was Braxton Hicks (um, it wasn't)  and we kept chatting away.  Her boys arrived bright and early the next morning - on my birthday. Well, our birthday now.

First there is Sheldon the Turtle. I have wanted to knit this up since that issue of Knitty came out.  I even used the recommended yard and colors. It's actually a bit fiddly for a toy, there's some crochet in there, applied i-cord but it was all worth it. I love that you can take his shell on and off.  There are a whole bunch of examples on ravelry where people have made other outfits for him, lions, cowboy, police, Santa even ick a bat.  He's like his very own Village People.

Then there is Elijah.  This adorable elephant is done with no seaming at all.  Yay, for that! More than once I thought about how her design process must have worked because there are some ingenious parts to it. Since it involved knitting the limbs by picking up stitches I found it easier to use *gasp* DPNs instead of Magic Loop.

The two have become fast friends already and I look forward to hearing of their adventures with my friend's little boys.

Present for Me

I posted previously some handmade gifts that I made but now I have show off the handmade that I got!!! 

While I was knitting away on my sister's radishes she was busy putting the finishing touches on my awesome new apron. 



I had seen some cool vintage styled aprons around at craft shows and on etsy and I thought well hell, I could do that. But then I realized my sister sews far better than I do and she knows how to use them pattern-y things and to cut fabric straight and do all the things that I tend to screw up when I sew.   So I hinted that this would be something I might like.   And by hinting I really mean saying, "Hey, you can make me this for my birthday/Hannukah/other gift giving opportunity!" 

Apparently forcing her to shop for fabric is similar to asking a knitter to shop for yarn not a big hardship for her there; something tells me she probably picked up a little something for herself along the way.

It's got some red to match the KitchenAid mixer (doesn't everyone accessorize to match their appliances?) and I totally never would have thought of florals for me but they are bright and happy and offset with polka dots (sis loves polka dots) and I love it. You can't really tell from the photo but it skirts out so I totally feel like I am channeling my inner Betty Draper from Mad Men when I wear it. Now I just have to get around to doing some cooking....