novamade

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.

new adventures in scarf production

I like scarves.  I think they are very useful, and sometimes they are even pretty.  And while I like the idea of making my own scarves, my laziness usually got the better of me in the endeavor of actually making them, particularly because I thought I was limited to knitting scarves.  I don't really enjoy knitting scarves, I have said it before.  But weaving a scarf?  Well, this is an entirely different matter.

   

I won't wax poetic about the process of weaving, other knitters have done so much better than I could hope to.  I will simply say that weaving a scarf takes much less time (at least in plain weave/tabby) than knitting a scarf would (unless that scarf was knitted in bulky yarn on size 17 needles, of course...well, no, probably not even then).

This scarf was simple to weave, I alternated colors in the warp (the vertical part of the weave structure) and then alternated the weft (the horizontal part).  I will put more details in the gallery of goods.

I could have just woven a test piece, but I don't like to waste  energy (some would call this efficiency--I will call it what it is, it's laziness).  Also, I figured I would either get it or I wouldn't, I think I got it.  And now Little Sir has a scarf (it's not without its imperfections; but, he is 2, he doesn't really care about the flaws, or rather, the design features).  So yes, now I am a weaver.  Much to Little Sir's chagrin.

Clearly, he is very excited about my new weaving skills. 

If you haven't figured it out yet, I tend to be the sort of person who goes "all in" on something.  I don't like to do things half way (because really, if I am going to exert the energy, I might as well make it count for something).  But with the weaving, I did test the waters with a used loom from ebay first...before I bought a Kromski Harp (Special K and I will be putting it together this weekend, one of us is very excited about it). I wanted a little more width for weaving (I am thinking wrap as opposed to blankets).  If you are interested in weaving and would like to "test the waters" on my Spear's Size 4 Rigid Heddle loom (16" width), e-mail me, we can discuss a trade of some sort.  I would love to "share the joy" as they say.

I think it's very likely that I will be weaving many more scarves.  I find weaving soothing; and, I really like scarves and I am so excited that I have found another way to make them...faster and more happily.

i am like a magpie

And to me, the equipment of fiber arts are like so many shiny baubles.

I could look at Brooke's amazing work for only so long.  I will be honest and say that I never really thought about weaving until Brooke started posting her weaving (which is sublime, really).  So I ordered a "vintage" rigid heddle loom off of ebay, pulled out some stash yarn that I figured would never get used otherwise and started weaving.  Keep in mind, I had no idea what I was doing.

I think the chain of events was only a little hasty, a tad--a smidgen, really.  One decision that was really hasty was trying to rush summer, or at least the taste of summer.  If you live in the northeast and you are buying nectarines in early April, you are not getting ripened-to-perfection local produce, just FYI.  It is likely not going to be tasty, thus making anything made with said produce not-so-delicious either.

While the cream cheese pastry was good, the filling of the pie was horrible.  I am going to take the high road and say it was me and not the recipe.  I shouldn't have used fruit I didn't have a good feeling about.  I also shouldn't have rushed the process or the individual steps (of which there were many).  Next week, I am going to do something with chocolate...or maybe I will do a savory pie, you know, just to shake things up a little.

Okay, there is still time to do some knitting.  So yeah, I am going to go and do that since I am, you know, a knit blogger and everything.

ketchup and caramel

Hey, Little Tomato, ketchup!  Actually, catch up.  I was going through some pictures and realized that I never posted pictures of a quilt I finished last month.

I made this quilt for a special little guy named Dru.  I was sending a quilt for his new little brother, Marley, and I didn't want him to be left out.

Also, the quilt that I originally started for Dru before he was born two years ago crawled under a rock in my basement (aka "craftland" or my "studio", you pick) and died.  Seriously. I lost it.  A whole quilt waiting for binding.   But that is okay, I like this one better (with the exception of the center strip that taunts me with its imperfections even now).  I'll put further information in the gallery, should you be so inclined to know it.

The perfect quilt for a lil' cowpoke (which just seems so much funnier to say--and type-- than cowboy).  Little Sir helped pick out the Robert Kauffman prints, which were floating around in a local Jo-Ann's for whatever reason.  I like the bright vibrant colors of this quilt.  They are fun.

You know what else is fun?  Caramel (I know, terrible segue).

Today/tonight (details), I made you a Carmelized Nut Tart.  This is a great tart/pie.  You probably have everything you need for this tasty treat in your cabinets.  You can sub in any sort of combination of nuts and it tastes amazing (probably because of the caramel).  I also made the crust called for in the recipe which provides the most unexpected and tantalizing dose of cinnamon to which compliments the earthiness of the nuts and the sweetness of the caramel perfectly.  Sublime.  And easy; actually, quite easy.