Coming very soon–a new knit baby hat pattern. This is the adorable Lars from my neighborhood–I grabbed him at our neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt and got permission from his mama to use him as a model. He’s wearing the new hat knit in lusciously soft Yak Yarn from Bijou Basin Ranch.
p.s. We have a winner! The winner of the Denim Apron Kit is Steel City Knitter–congratulations!
If you are in the DC Metro area this weekend, consider stopping by the Takoma Park Community Center on SUNDAY Saturday (Thanks, Cici!) afternoon for the Homespun Yarn Party:
What: Yarn Party! Check out local yarn vendors, sit and knit, meet new people!
Who: All your favorite local yarn dyers and spinners, plus some extra crafty goodness! And all our knitting/crocheting/spinning friends (you!) of course!!
Where: 7500 Maple Avenue | Takoma Park, MD | 20912 — Metro accessible, plenty of parking!
When: March 30, 2008 – 2 PM to 6 PM
Why: Who needs an excuse to get together and craft?! We wanted to get together and spread some fiber love!
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I’ll be there selling real-live-paper (recycled, of course) versions of the patterns you can normally only get via PDF, and you’ll be able to touch and try on many of the sample garments, including the Half Crazy Sweater, and many others. I’m even debuting two new patterns at the Party: the Men’s Raglan and the Antique Triangle Lace Shawl. If you bring hook and yarn (or buy it there), and want to learn to crochet, I’ll get you started.
Hope to see you there!
In other fiber-y news, the irrepressible Marly over at Yarn Thing interviewed me last week for her Podcast! (This despite being in a car accident the day of our originally scheduled interview–she’s fine). Marly also just got her first design accepted at Interweave Crochet–woohoo! Listen Tomorrow for the podcast. If you haven’t ever listened to Yarn Thing before, you should check out some of the archived episodes with fun interviews with Robyn Chachula, Kim Werker and more. Marly is so personable and fun, and gets us all giggling.
Speaking of podcasts, when I got asked to be on Marly’s show, I started listening to podcasts again after a long hiatus. I really have only had one that I consistently loved, and that was Cast On. In the past few months some new ones of note have sprouted up. I discovered (late, I know), Stash and Burn, and I enjoy it, but not as much as the new YKnit–a podcast by two men knitters in San Francisco. YKnit is extremely well produced and funny. They just interviewed Jess and Casey from Ravelry last week. Jess and Casey–congratulations–you sounded so eloquent and thoughtful about Ravelry, it was really nice to listen to.
–Don’t forget–you still have a few hours to comment on and win the Apron Kit!–
On my last trip to the thrift store I found this dated, yet adorable kit, and couldn’t resist, even tho’ I”m not a fan of sewing. This cute apron pattern is already drawn onto the denim fabric, and the embroidery thread is included too.
I’m going to give it away to one of you dear readers. I’ll pick a name randomly from the comments to this post, by midnight tomorrow (EST).
Have fun!
Jeff Werner notes that when he saw this lampshade that contains a slow-working knitting machine, he assumed it was designed and produced by a guy. Jeff says on his blog: “I was also surprised it was made by a woman. I suppose my sexism assumed the technical machinery of Sleeping Beauty (and any steampunker or techie would like this one, including its RadioHead fridge-like buzzing) meant it was created by a man. My friend, a girl, countered: it’s knitting, of course it’s by a girl.”
Selma and I wondered what happens when the lamp shade reaches the floor. It would be cool if you could incorporate this concept into clothing–a sweater that knits itself while you’re wearing it?
[via Boing Boing]
So, the pile you see here is only the yarn that needs to be crocheted before the end of the month… And maybe that’s not all of it.
Beyond April 1, I have a vest and another sweater with yarn already waiting in the wings. The upside is, that big pile of wool in the center of the photo is Lorna’s Laces new Green Line–100% organic merino in the gorgeous hand-dyed color “Dusk.” I can’t wait to dig my hook into it… So, I’ll probably be crocheting more than blogging over the next few weeks, but I’ll try and update with some preview shots as I can.
My friend Corrine is visiting next week. A few years ago, she taught me to knit and I taught her to crochet, and the last time she was here, I taught her to crochet socks. She’s told me that she has created a fun knit-crochet sock I’m looking forward to photographing for your viewing pleasure, and she’s also working on hairpin lace jewelry, so stay tuned!
As soon as I saw the PlushForm, I was already collecting ideas about how to use this new fun craft material–a “plushie blank,” ready for any kind of make-your-own-toy project.
From the company’s press release:
Plushform is ready to go right out of the box. The stuffed and sewn DIY plush has a water-based primed surface making it extremely smooth and suitable for practically any medium. Acrylic, oil and spray paint, pencils, pens, markers, watercolor – whatever you want. The Plushform shape is stuffed just right, making it soft enough to feel like a plush toy, but firm enough to make drawing and painting comfortable.
It’s the balance of Plushform’s materials and shape that offers everyone the best of both worlds. The unique canvas-like skin is an ideal surface on which 2D artists can illustrate, while its 3-D shape and manipulability via sewing, applique and numerous other additive methods encourages alteration and sculptural creation. Sew on extra limbs as needed. Deconstruct and reconstruct parts. Glue on shapes and other objects wherever you want. You can even buy multiple Plushforms and sew them together to make something entirely new. The possibilities
are truly limitless with Plushform.
The form is set to retail for $20 and other shapes, may follow this first one.
Last Thursday, we had a little crafty get together in honor of Emily’s birthday. I tried to find the brownie recipe I had come up with last summer, but it may have gotten recycled…
So I started again from the same inspiration recipe, and came up with the following:
Emily’s Fudgy Vegan Brownies
1/2 c. firm tofu
1/2 c. soy milk
1/2 c. applesauce
1 T. vegetable oil
1/4 c. peanut butter (or other nut butter)
1 T vanilla
1 3/4 c sugar
2/3 c. cocoa powder
1 c. flour
1 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1 c. chocolate chips
Purée the tofu and soymilk in a blender or food processor.
Add applesauce, oil, vanilla and peanut butter. Mix until smooth.
In a separate bowl, combine sugar, cocoa powder, flour, and salt. Whisk to combine.
Mix wet and dry, just until combined. Add chocolate chips.
line an 8×8 pan with parchment paper, and pour the batter into the pan (it will be thick). I use a big piece of parchment to make a “sling” in the pan, that way, I can just lift the whole pan of brownies out of the dish to cool.
These make a very “tall” brownie–you could make these in a 9×13 pan for a thinner brownie if you wanted.
Bake at 350 for abut 25 minutes, or until batter is set, and top of brownie springs back when pressed gently. (You don’t want to overcook them–they’ll be too dry).
Enjoy!
Look at these adorable hand made stitch markers I got on Etsy from Girl on the Rocks. They have decreases on them, so they’re a fantastic way of marking your socks or lace patterns.
Theresa over at Knitting Underway has been wanting to make the St. Brigid sweater from Alice Starmore’s Aran Knitting
Fair use is a concept of copyright law designed to allow comment, criticism or parody. It also applies to an individuals ability to use a work for personal study.
When a book is part of a “public archive” like a library, it’s acceptable to copy a small portion of it for your own personal use. When, however, the book is out of print and not available at a “reasonable” price, then it can be acceptable to make a reproduction of the entire work, provided, again, that the copy is only for your own, personal use.
There’s a nice, clear article on the Stanford University web site that goes into much more detail about libraries and fair use. Here’s a short excerpt:
Copying a complete work from the library collection is prohibited unless the work is not available at a “fair price.” This is generally the case when the work is out of print and used copies are not available at a reasonable price. If a work, located within the library’s collection, is available at a reasonable price, the library may reproduce one article or other contribution to a copyrighted collection or periodical issue, or a small part of any other copyrighted work, for example, a chapter from a book. This right to copy does not apply if the library is aware that the copying of a work (available at a fair price) is systematic. For example, if 30 different members of one class are requesting a copy of the same article, the library has reason to believe that the instructor is trying to avoid seeking permission for 30 copies.
Happy Reading!
