novamade

things to do in northern cali when you're crafty

I spent last week in northern California and due to having limited internet access took an unintentional blog break.  My apologies, I am working to catch myself up on your lives, projects and what-not.  But I wanted to share some of my doings with you, as most of them are of a somewhat crafty nature that you may or may not be interested in.

So here is my list of things that I did and things that you can do as well if you find yourself in northern California and you are crafty (if you are celebrating your birthday, that sort of helps too).

Pebble Beach, California. Wollmeise Gloria Cowl.

Start and finish knitting a Gloria Cowl (details here) to give to a friend for her birthday.  My friend is named Kathy, your friend can be named something else.

Artfibers in San Francisco, California.

Have your friend (Kathy) take you to local-to-her yarn shops like ImagiKnit and ArtFibers.  Acquire pretty things that make you smile.

If you are bloggy, take the opportunity to meet up with a knit bloggy friend and her beau. Especially if said knit bloggy friend is a birthday twin and is like some sort of long lost crafty twin of sorts. Apologize profusely for exposing your knit bloggy friend to your tired tyrannical toddler.

Rangsiwan meets a very tired Little Sir.

Because you can, go to a fabric store, there are lots of them in San Francisco.  If for some reason you, like me, are planning some sort of novelty quilt requiring 21 shades of silk dupioni, you should go to Fabrix like I did.

And since there is a Kinokuniya in San Francisco, you should go there and buy some Japanese craft books, especially if you can not decipher Japanese.  It makes crafting interesting.

And because you neither speak nor read Japanese and you bought a bunch of books written in that particular language, you should probably get some written in English (or whatever your primary language is) just to balance things out.

Whether you are crafty or not, you should take time to smell the roses (or whatever flora is at your disposal).

Pacific Grove, California.

And don't forget to take time to experience wonder.

Jellyfish at Monterey Aquarium in Monterey, CA.

When you return home, get giddy about the books you received for your birthday from friends near and far.

Utilize the book about pies as soon as possible, you know, if you are so inclined. 

Pineapple pie, a very sweet sweety pie.

So yes, good trip, I have a few more trips to California scheduled for the summer, but I am thinking they will not be as acquisition-friendly as this one, a birthday celebration is a great way to justify stash enhancements of all sorts.  While I usually kick off my birthday celebration on Cinco de Mayo and count up to my birthday (are you not doing this as well?), Special K suggested that we start the celebration on my actual birthday this year and add 8 days to it, isn't he sweet?  So with that said, I am still celebrating.  Though right now, I am trying to get my back to stop hurting after incorrectly lifting heavy boxes of books and documents at work.  I am also going to think about happy things, like friends in Philly having lots of fun.  And knitting, because I can do that lying down.

Hey, happy knitting, quilting, sewing, or pie baking!

trains need homes too

So yesterday I shared what I thought was an fo photo session of the tomten that almost killed my knitting mojo.  I was feeling all puffed with pride, so much so that I didn't give a second thought to Little Sir's reading selection for bedtime last night.

After we read about Corduroy and his pocket, Little Sir began his strategic assault on why his tomten needed pockets (culminating in the statement that "trains need homes too").  Of course they do.

Rockstars don't need pockets, I mean seriously, did the Biscuit ask for pockets?  Probably not, because he, you see, is a rockstar.  Little Sir is really a prepster who was posing.  He got his haircut and gone were his rockstar delusions.  So here is my kid, with a sweater his mom knit for him.  With pockets.

Or rather, a home for trains.

I did a pair of afterthought pockets and now the prepster is willing to go folksy and wear his tomten with a smile.  It all came down to pockets, you see.  Honestly, it's a good thing we can't go to MDSW this year, because he would be sporting the tomten no matter what the thermometer might read (and there would be trains in the pockets, of course).  Our absence from said happy event is probably best for all parties concerned.

After all this, I needed pie.  Or rather, a quick french berry tart with red currant glaze.  All is now well with the world.

Dorie wanted to send me some baking from her home to mine.  Just FYI, Dorie Greenspan is my new baking hero.

If you are interested in the details behind the afterthought pockets that made me Little Sir's hero (for about 5 minutes) I wrote it up in a tutorial, see the post below.  I think I am all done talking about the tomten now (you are all probably sick of reading about it too).  Now it's time to move on.

tutorial: afterthought pockets

I was really nervous about doing an afterthought pocket, to be honest.  The idea of snipping my knitting, quite frankly, makes me want to vomit.  But when you need a pocket, you need a pocket.  I am not sure if what I did was "right" perse; but, when all was said and done there were a pair of pockets on a sweater that were pocketless at the beginning of my pocket-making journey. 

After all was said and done, doing afterthought pockets are kind of easy.  You just need to get past the whole fear of cutting your knitting.  If you, like me, would like to see the steps of making an afterthought pocket on an actual knitted project (as opposed to a swatch or something like that), here you are:

1) Figure out where you (or whoever you are making the sweater for) want the pockets to be situated.  The sweater wearer will undoubtedly have strong feeling about the pocket placement.

2) Mark the center of the top of where your pocket(s) should be.

3) Cut Snip (sounds cheerier) the marked top center pocket stitch.

4) Unravel an equal number of stitches to the left and right of the marked stitch, I ended up unraveling a total of 13 stitches (I took these pictures when I was being stupid, so there are only 10 in the photos (pretend like you see 13, please)--so not enough.  Firstly, not evenly unraveled.  Secondly, a gauge swatch could have been useful here, I guess).  Again, my pockets were to accomodate a toddler's sweater knit in bulkier yarn.  If you knit a gauge swatch, it could actually come in handy at this point for guestimation of how much you need to unravel.  You know, if you are into that whole knitting a gauge swatch thing.  As an aside, leave the "live ends" from your unraveling intact, they will come in handy at the end to tighten things up.

5) Put the live stitches that are exposed from your unraveling in needles.  You will have a top live stitch row and a bottom one.

6) With another needle, bind off the stitches on the bottom needle in applied i-cord.  I used the directions on applied i-cord bind-off on knitty.com (scroll down).  Do whatever works for you.  You just want a good tough "border" on that pocket that won't stretch out with use.

7) Now we are going to knit some stockinette.  With another needle, you are going to take the live stitches on the top (now only) needle and knit a "patch."  This is your pocket you are knitting now, actually.  You should increase evenly to give yourself a pocket with a width that accomodates hands, candy, coins, trains, or whatever you and yours decide to house in your pockets.  When it's a suitable lenth, bound off.  The stockinette side is going to be the inside of the pocket, so yay, stockinette smoothness.  Knit the edge stitches in garter stitch to prevent rolling (or not, if you just want a special sort of challenge).

8) Almost there, let's attach the pocket.  Get a needle, it's time to sew.  Sew around the edges by picking up ridges from the sweater and your new pocket patch.  In some corners of the globe, they call this seaming.  I just call it attaching the pocket.

9) Weave in your ends and admire your handiwork.  It's a thing of beauty, indeed.

10) If you are opting for a pair (or more, I don't know, go crazy) of pockets, repeat steps 3-9.

11) Pop something in your pocket and pat yourself on the back.  You snipped your knitting and produced a place to keep hands warm and collect the detritus of everyday life.  Go, you knitting rock star.

This is my first tutorial.  I have no idea if it will be beneficial to anyone, but there it is.  I am not one to presume to tell anyone how to knit, but I like to see things spelled out sometimes; and, I figure there has to be at least one other person like me who wants to see this process written out and photographed.  I am not saying what I did is perfect or the "correct way" to produce an afterthought pocket.  It is simply what I did to slap some pockets on my kid's sweater.   If you have questions, e-mail me, I feel pretty good about the cutting your knitting for pockets thing now. 

the tomten session

So you know that kid in The Opinionated Knitter.  The rockstar modeling the tomten?  Yeah, that one.  My original intent was not to replicate the rockstar; but, who am I to argue with laundry day and my kid's rockstar tendencies?

So IT is done.  And it is, in a word, HUGE.  It's really noticeable when all zippered up (zipper chosen by his hipness, himself).  I intended to make it big enough for wear next year, but it might be part of the fall and early winter wardrobe for the next two years.  Maybe.  Some would say it's dowdy...

As excited as Little Sir is about the zipper, I think even he recognizes that rockstars can not rock the casbah in dowdy duds.  The fact that I zipped it up in the first place was an afront to his coolness.

It's not so bad unzippered though, right?

I thought I could get away with leaving off the pockets.

This may not be the case.  And you know those rockers, they can by so demanding; and, they can also be challenging to photograph.  They never really listen, and they often insist on dancing (which may take the form of jumping).

And then they realize that it's hard to rock a jacket-y sweater when it's all spring-like.

Mostly I am including this shot so you can see that the "right side" has been made the inside; and the "wrong side" is now the right.  You know me, I am so edgy.

And so is Little Sir, when I said, "give me GQ" (like he would even know what that means...), it was clear that he was so over this photo shoot.  Because like a true rockstar, he stormed off the set.

Deets in the gallery.

on productivity

I have written many blog posts in my head, I just haven't actually typed and posted them.  We have all been there, right?  I have been too busy actually doing stuff to talk about it, I think every now and then we crafty folk need to do that; do the thing and not talk about it so much (or, if you are like me, obsess over other people's amazing craftiness to the point of inertia, or something like that).

Over the past weekend I went to New Hampshire to craft my little heart out, it has sort of re-energized the craft of crafting for me.  It was supposed to be a knitting weekend; but, I spent a goodly amount of time making buttons.  With clay.  And a toaster oven.

I just think it's funny that one can make buttons with a toaster oven.

 

But maybe that is just me.

These buttons are not assigned to any sort of project at the moment (none of them, and there are a lot of them).  Should you have any great contribution to make to spark my creativity, do share.  I am almost at the edge of being "all tapped out."  Almost.

 

I am particularly proud of my shawl pins.  I know the sticks look like carrots.  Try imagining them with some sort of earthy twig found while taking some walk down some path somewhere.  I know, it's hard to see past the carrots.

But I did also do some knitting; or rather, I did some weaving of ends on knitting.  You know that tomten with the 50 bajillion ends?  Ends woven, surplus cut.  The fact that there is now the zipper and pockets to contend with is something to think on later.  Let's focus on the positive, shall we?  Ends woven.  Surplus cut.

Such a feat deserves a fitting celebration, like pie.  Truly great and excellent pie.

Like carmelized orange tart with blackberry puree (go and print the recipe, I will wait).  Delicious.  Perfection in pie form, really.

Okay, back to the doing.

sorry papa, i had to make pie

In a fit of avoidance (you have no idea), I went through my stash last night to start a new project (this is ridiculous on so many levels).  I really didn't have anything in mind, I was going to let the yarn inspire me.  When all was said and done, I realized that everything I pulled out was green. 

I wish I could say it was Project Spectrum that inspired this color frenzy (it's just a happy coincidence, really); but, I just figured out that every year, about a month before my birthday my affinity for the color green increases exponentially.  I try to incorporate it into everything.  So why fight it?

And going to Webs with my friend Kathy over the weekend didn't help either (they are having a pretty big sale right now, if you are interested in that sort of thing).  Also, Kathy gave me an early birthday gift.  A bajillion yards of laceweight forest green baby alpaca.

That's a whole lotta green.  Enough for an Icarus.  Um two Icaruses...

And then there is this:

I received this sock yarn in a wee trade with Christy recently.  I really love it, and have been saving it for the perfect pattern.  I have a particular pattern in mind for the sock yarn; but, if you can think of something better, please share your suggestion.  It needs to be something that would maintain my interest...because I tend to get bored with socks and my interest usually wanes after the completion of the first sock (in case you hadn't noticed).  This waning interest in sock knitting is a problem since I have an unspeakable amount of sock yarn in the stash.

Oh, so those limes...  I used them to make a tart.  Shocking, I know.

Good, but not great; but, anything would be better than last week's disaster.  It's the Key Lime Tart from the April 2007 Everyday Food magazine (a lot of the older recipes are available online, but I love flipping through the magazines).  I really just had to make something with limes in it.  A mojito might have been a better idea though (hmmm, Mojito Monday...it sort of has a nice ring to it).  I think Papa would definately approve.

my new favorite socks

It's a shame that I didn't finish these socks sooner.  They are fabulous (if I do say so myself)!

I figured with the big goodbye to Magknits, it was time to put the Snickets to bed.  The fact that I started them last July was also a factor.

I knit the first one fairly quickly (for me).  But the second one lagged.  I have noticed that I procrastinate finishing projects when there is something about them that I dread.  Oh, have you noticed that too?  In any case, with these socks, I was not particularly excited about the short row heel.

This is my first (and probably last, if I can help it) short row heel.  Like Opal, I am a heel flap kind of girl.  But I figured that I would at least give it a try so I could say I did a short row heel and give myself ample justification for complaining about it.  That being said, these are still my newest favorite socks. 

The pattern is great (hopefully the designer will offer it through Ravelry or elsewhere); but, the yarn....well, it's out of this world, people.  They are nice and cozy...just in time for summer.  These socks will probably see the most action after summer (the season that hasn't quite arrived in my corner of the woods yet) wraps up.

So when fall rolls around again, I well be suitably prepared.

I will post details on the Rav (Ravelraiser, are you in the know?) and in the gallery for those who are not yet Ravel-ing.

procrastination in e major

This post might make you wonder about me a little; but hey, I walk around wearing chocolate as an accessory, so there you are...

Because I have become an expert in the fine art of project avoidance and procrastination in general, I thought I would deliver today’s post in song (or lyrics), to the tune of the Major General Song with some a ton of variation here and there (with apologies to Gilbert and Sullivan and to you, really).

I am a fine example of a modern knit-procrastinator

I have so many ufo’s they can’t be counted with a calculator

There is a tomten needing ends weaved in

But weaving ends does not make me grin

Even though it involves touching wool

And though that usually makes me drool

I just don’t think weaving ends is that cool.

To avoid weaving in my ends

I make the most of gifts from friends

Kirsten sent me merino, take a look at this:

I spun the wool and set the twist

I really think it’s fabulous

I have no idea what to do with it

I don’t want to let it sit

But I try to be good and put it down

Then I pick up the tomten and go to town

But I want to knit everything I see—

This has been made worse by Ravelry.

Instead of weaving in my ends

I imagine purchasing new project bins

And filling the bins with yarn I do not need

Due to my very slow knitting speed

And my stash is larger than it seems

It is the stuff of knitting dreams

I’m not complaining

I’m just saying

I have a lot to occupy my time

And fitting in all my interests is an uphill climb

To achieve some balance I try and take a rest

But my conscience always becomes a pest

And I think about the tomten sitting in the wings

I know all the other projects are really flings

But every time I take time to sit

I find a way to procrasti-knit

In my weaker moments I rediscovered the quilting bug

Because to me, sending a quilt is just like sending a hug

I sew badly but make great haste

I take the time to pin and baste

And when it’s time to bind the quilt

I leave that too to try and spin some silk

(My procrastination knows no bounds

It’s not as bad as it probably sounds)

When my hands get tired, I turn to the internet

There’s so much inspiration there, I kind of need some limits set

First Brooke began her weaving kick

Her work is so amazing it kind of makes me sick

I would love to weave things half as good

But I don’t weave and instead of knitting as I should

I troll the web for some sort of simple loom

Special K says, “you’re crazy we have no room”

But I think something small and simple would be fine

And it would likely not take up a lot of time

And time is quite the commodity

But still I return to the internet to scope what else there is to see

But I try to avoid spending more time on Ravelry

And then I go to flickr and note that Mandy dyed some wool

That struck me as really cool

Have you seen the singles, I don’t think the yarn will pool

When all is said and done, I just go and bake a pie for fuel

Because it’s Wednesday and I am a pie-baking fool

And I am still avoiding all those ends

I need to find a way to make amends

But there are so many ends to weave in it’s ridiculous

They make me feel like Sisyphus

But I am not discouraged because I like to procrasti-knit

And I’ll always find a way to let the knitting sit

It’s not as though I’ll every quit

Because I love knitting and it loves me

But weaving ends is as dull as dull can be

And I’d rather ignore all the ends I see

But then Little Sir gives me a face

And it puts me in my place

So I pick up the knitting and weave in ends

Keeping in mind advice from friends

I’ll finish the tomten, but bit by bit

Because I’ll still be prone to procrasti-knit.

I know.  It’s a special kind of crazy.  Info about today’s pie is in flickr.  Things should return to normal (which for me, admittedly, is still a little crazy) at the end of the week.  There may even be an fo!  No, not the bain of my existence tomten...

hello, my name is sisyphus

I think it's safe to say that this sweater falls into the "it seemed like a good idea at the time" category.  Not since the yellow shawl masquerading as a baby blanket have I been thrust into such depths of knitting inertia.  I knit the tomten.  The sleeves want to be seamed, and i-cord or some such thing wants to be attached as does a zipper.  None of these things can happen until I weave in the ends. 

 

There are 122 ends to weave in.  I am so desperate to procrastinate the weaving in of ends that I have resorted to passing the time by counting the ends instead of knitting them.  That is just pathetic.  Even Special K is impressed with my procrastination avoidance of the Sisyphean task of end weaving.  On a recent trip to Vermont I spent 8 hours (that's a pair of socks for some of you!) just sitting in the car.  The tomten was in the bag by my feet and there it stayed.  The ends, they knock the wind out of me a little.  So that is the Sisyphean state of things.

You know what isn't a Sisyphean task for me?  Making pies. I am sure you weren't expecting that segue at all. 

So in the wee hours of the morning today, last night (whatever) I made a pie.

I already mentioned that my recipe resources for pie were starting to dry up, (this isn't totally true, I am just picky) so I subjected you to a tart last week, albeit a very pretty one (if I do say so myself, and I do).  So today I made a pie with nuts.  I have to come clean here and tell you, I am not so much into the nut pies.  I think this is colored by childhood memories of going to pick pecans (a popular thing to do in the south) with my grandparents and then returning from the farm to crack and shell them.  My nimble 6 year old hands wanted to be doing something else, I am sure.  And my formative years didn't feature as much culinary appreciation as you might expect (shocking, I know), so my enthusiasm was understated, to say the least. 

Also, I find nut pies really sweet (corn syrup, anyone?).  But I will make a nut pie if tradition dictates, as evidenced by my pecan pie making for Thanksgiving for the last 7 years.  Last year, this pecan pie baking culminated in a discussion between Special K, my dad and yours truly where we all came to the conclusion that NONE OF US even liked pecan pie.  Super, I have been wasting valuable pie making time on a pie that no one cares for.  You may remember that I made Elinor's husband's chocolate pecan pie and raved about it, well that is different, it's a chocolate pie with pecans, so different (seriously, make it and you will see and taste the difference).  I am yammering on about this so you will understand, I approach the nut pie family with a significant amount of trepidation.  But when I stumbled on this recipe, I thought it was a must make, it's not every recipe that gets a 100%-I-would-make-this-again approval rating from those in the epicurean know.  Bourbon Walnut Pie.

It's like pecan pie; but, instead of pecans, there are walnuts.  And there is bourbon.  Hence the name.

Not being one to go nutty (heh) over nut pies, I have to say this pie is pretty incredible.  It's first selling point: it's ridiculously easy to make.  If nut allergies weren't an issue, Little Sir could make this pie; and, he isn't even two yet.  As flavors go, I was pretty blown away.  I decided to be different and try the prescribed crust which tasted good, but was the epitome of irritation to manipulate into the pie plate (so okay maybe Little Sir wouldn't have a lot of success with the dough part, but anyone over the age of ten should be okay, particularly if you are not me).

The cloying sweetness that most nut pies exhibit was somehow tempered by the (I think, relatively low amount of) bourbon.  And if you add the vanilla ice cream, as you should because that is what pie a la mode is all about, it's mind blowing-ly good.  It's so good, I think even Sisyphus could somehow accomplish (or ditch) his task of boulder rolling if he knew that this pie was his prize.  That said, perhaps I should start weaving in some ends, because there are only 122 of them...that is pretty finite, I guess.

pie, cakes, a scarf, and happiness: things i made this week

Hi, remember me?  I'm the insane person who bakes a pie every Wednesday.  Were you wondering where your weekly dose of pie was?  It's a bit late, but hey, better late than never, right?

This week, I decided to take a lesson from Chuck and put some Gruyere cheese in my pie crust.  I can think of no words to articulate how good this was.  The pie was a pear pie; just pears, no berry funny business to detract from the subtle pear flavors. 

The grated Gruyere seemed to help bring out the subtlety of the fruit and it was beyond fantastic.  I used the Pate Brisee pastry dough recipe from Joy of Cooking--the 1972 reprint (my standby pie crust) and just threw some grated Gruyere in the dough.  This is a first for me, but I didn't measure the amount.  I just grated until my happiness meter hit "happy".  I can not wait to try this with apple pie...it would probably be good with strawberry pie too....hmmm.

 

So yes, if you are a pie baker, you are not living until you toss some Gruyere in the pie crust of your fruited pie.  Seriously, what are you waiting for, THAT was your invitation!

And then there was cake, there were two cakes actually; but, since one was made from a box (at Special K's request, honestly, I have no idea), I am going to talk about the cake that rates.  I made the American Chocolate Layer Cake from Maida Heatter's Cakes book.  This cake is all kinds of fantastic.  It was made for Special K's birthday, which we sort of celebrated after his birthday when he returned from a trip to California (we had the boxed one for his actual birthday, a fact that I am really embarrassed to admit, sigh).

It was delicious (the baked from scratch one, not the boxed one--which was passable, but come on it was from a box!).  And here is the thing about Maida's (we are so on a first name basis right now) cake, one slice is really two slices.  Because it's four layers.  I don't think anyone needs a four layer cake; but, I have a feeling, deep down, everyone kind of wants one.

And since a birthday offers a knitter a great opportunity to give a knitted gift, I knit the boy a scarf. 

I can't really say anything about this scarf that has not been said before.  "Noro is great...knitting it was a breeze...it knit up so fast, I didn't even realize the passage of time...the stripes are fun..." etcetera, etcetera.  If you really need the details, they are in the 2008 gallery.

Seriously, it was a quick knit that has been done for a while, I enjoyed knitting it and I will likely knit another at some point.  The best part, Special K loves it.  And hopefully, he will be able to convince Little Sir to share the scarf, because the kid loves it too; and, sharing doesn't seem to be something he is interested in right now.

Back off, this is MY scarf.

I also spent some time at Webs learning to spin over the past weekend; but, that is a story for another time.  A gastroenteritis-afflicted (fun times!) Little Sir is waking up and wants the mom, because I am, truly, so much fun. 

I hope your weekends are full of football, snacks, pie, cake, knitting, crafting or whatever makes you jolly.