I’m in travel limbo. I got back from a week-long trip on Sunday, and we leave tomorrow for a month. I feel like I’m moving stuff from one suitcase to another. But really, there’s a lot more to it than that, involving many loads of laundry and trying on summer clothes to remind myself what fits (both me and the kids).

Selma and I spent the last week in Tatitlek, Alaska. Tatitlek is a tiny native Alaskan community with a population of about 130. Each year they host Tatitlek Cultural Week when they invite students from all over the state to come and learn native Alaskan cultural traditions: dance, language, craft, subsistence living.  Selma is a member of the Cordova native dance troop and the group was invited to attend. I went along as chaperone. I have tons to say about the experience, it was wonderful and we are looking forward to doing it again next year. But right now I’m finishing an edit of my book and packing for our next big adventure which is a month-long trip to the east coast. I’ll leave you here with a little slideshow of our trip and I hope I can write more about it soon.

In other news, Twitter has helped me solve a knitting mystery. My grandmother e-mailed me a scan of a dishcloth because I had seen it at her house last summer and I wanted to decipher the stitch. OK, I don’t know what’s stranger about that last sentence-the idea of scanning a dishcloth, or the fact that My grandmother, who will be 93 this summer knows her way around a scanner and e-mail. Either way, I was impressed with her mac skills.

Here’s the dishcloth:

My twitter knitting sluth buddies @sbutterAmfly and @sandysays have guessed that it’s a brioche stitch, and I tend to agree. The most likely one is Moss Brioche. I’m looking forward to trying it out to make sure. This will make a good plane project as we leave again tomorrow. This time the trip includes my 15-year college reunion, a long-awaited visit to DC (where I get to go to the Stitch and Pitch game AND to my old knitting group!), as well as TNNA. Whew! I hope I’ll be able to pick up the pace of posting too. Be sure to check out my twitter stream for mini-updates between posts.

Later this week, guest blogger Kristi Porter will be writing about her inspiration behind the creative production of her new book Knitting in the Sun.

Is it spring that’s giving me the attention span of a gnat? I’m not sure, but luckily, I’ve been finding projects to match. Rachel over at CraftZine posted a link yesterday to Kootoyoo’s blog-where Kirsty shows a very pretty granny square necklace made simply with embroidery thread. I kept thinking about it all day, how nice and simple it was; how I have lots of embroidery thread and how I have tiny steel hooks which I inherited from my grandmother and never use. Last night when it was way to late, I made one little square with some size 5 thread and hook.

It turned out about the size of Kirsty’s. I decided I wanted a smaller one, and dug up some size 8 thread I had bought when I thought I was going to teach myself needle tatting (I still will, someday). I used a size 8 steel hook and got a much smaller square which seemed more my size. In the dim light, the tiny stitches were a little hard on my eyes, but I think in daylight, that wouldn’t be a problem.

Here are the two squares together for scale:

Of course, I couldn’t get by with just using what was in my stash. I quickly realized that I needed some thinner and more interesting threads to play with. Today I went to The Net Loft and got 6 colors of hand-dyed Valdini Pearl Cotton Thread in size 8 and size 12, and I’m going to experiment a little with other motifs using Edie Eckman’s Beyond-the-Square Crochet Motifs book for inspiration.

I’m going to be travelling with Selma on Sunday to Tatitlek, a very tiny remote town up the coast from Cordova. They’re hosting a week of traditional arts and culture and they’ve opened it up to some students in the area. Selma was invited because she’s part of the Cordova native dance troop. I’m going as a chaperone. I’ll bring the thread projects with me because they’re small and portable. I’m looking foward to learning some new crafts while I’m there too.

Yesterday I was teaching at The Net Loft when I had one of those strange convergences whereby the need for something springy to wear (brought on by a bit of rainy weather) and the urge to crochet a quick project ended hitting me right as I walked past the cubby of Noro Silk Garden. (I swear, I didn’t plan this, I even had to buy a hook as I had only brought one with me for a lace project).

I didn’t mean to scowl, but it was cold and wet, and I’m not so good at the hasty self-portrait. This was before I blocked the scarf. It’s crocheted with a point at one end beginning with just one v-stitch and increasing in each row until I had 8 v-stitches. I then worked even putting in a keyhole (basically a buttonhole made by chaining and skipping stitches) after a few rows. Then I continued to work even in v-stitches until the scarf was about 36″ long. I finished the crocheting in about 2 hours, it was a nice change from the hard to see lace-mohair that I’ve been working on.

After about 3 inches of work on the little scarfette, my friend Becca had to put down the socks she was knitting and go get her own ball of Silk Garden to make a scarf too. So now there are two of these scarves in Cordova. (It takes a wee bit more than one ball to get the length and width I wanted, but you can get two scarves easily from three balls, so Becca plans to make one in the color I used yesterday and I’ll do likewise with her color).

I washed it last night in Unicorn Fibre Wash. I knew that Noro was pretty minimally processed (there were lots of twigs to be removed while I was crocheting), but I was still suprised at the amount of actual DIRT that came out while I soaked it. It’s much softer after blocking. I hard blocked it with pins, but I’m actually planning to wet it again and re-scrunch it a bit, because I like it’s rustic, scrunched up look better.

Selma was home from school today recovering from a stomach bug, and by evening she was feeling better and looking for something yummy to eat that wouldn’t be to hard to digest. She requested gingerbread, and this is what I came up with after reading quite a few recipes (looking for one that used only ingredients already in my pantry). I was inspired by a Blackstrap Gingerbread on Jennifer’s awesome Recipes from the Vegan Lunchbox, and adapted it to fit our tastes and available ingredients.  Jennifer likes her gingerbread with lemon sauce. I’m more traditional and serve it with applesauce (which is also good for ailing tummies).

Gingerbread

Preheat oven to 350F
Grease and flour an 8″ glass baking dish

DRY
1 3/4 c + 2T flour
1/2 c. whole wheat flour
2 T tapioca flour
1 1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
2 t ground ginger
1 t cinnamon
1/8 t salt

WET
3/4 c unsulfured molasses
1/4 c honey
1/2 c canola oil
1 c hot water (I don’t know the science behind using hot water, but so many of the gingerbread recipes I read included it, that I’m using it too)

In a medium bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. In a smaller bowl, stir together wet ingredients. Once oven is preheated, combine wet with dry and stir until smooth. Pour into prepared baking dish and bake 30-40 minutes or until done.

Enjoy with applesauce while still warm!

Congratulations to Betty Crowther and Juliann the winners of the Get Hooked book giveaway. I’ve e-mailed you both to get your addresses. Happy Monday!