Month: November 2008

Thank you everyone for your readership, for your support, for sharing your creative ideas in the comments on the blog. I wish you a colorful and happy Thanksgiving.

If you had asked me a year ago, I never would have guessed that my most-used handmade item would be my tea cozy, but it is! I make a big pot of tea each morning and my cozy keeps it warm for a long time. I’ve finally uploaded the pattern, so you can make one too.

Sombrero Tea Cozy on Flickr.

buy the pattern

Here’s a version my friend Deneen crocheted for her tiny 1-cup tea pot (just a coincidence we used the same colorway?)

A student from my beginning crochet course made the sides longer and uses it for her coffee press. What handmade items do you use every day?

This week I promised myself I’d get a jump on using the week’s veggies before they became less appealing in the fridge. I made chili earlier in the week with some of them, and today, I was craving stew–like a hearty thick stew someone might be making if they eat beef, which I don’t. I’m bringing the result to a potluck this afternoon (yes, they do have  a lot of potlucks around here!) and so I don’t forget what I did, I’ll share the recipe with you.

Ingredients

1 medium onion, diced
4 medium carrots, diced
1 small bunch of celery, diced including tops
1 medium sweet potato peeled and diced
3 golden beets, peeled and diced
(Here you could substitute any squashy or potato-y thing for the sweet potatoes and beets)
1 cup wild rice (I used a wild rice blend)
1 cup butler foods soy curls re-hydrated with 2 cups warm water (You could substitute 2 cups of seitan or a can of your favorite kind of beans)
3 T olive oil
1/2 cup flour
3 cubes bullion
1 cup red wine (I used a syrah)
2 t fresh thyme leaves (dry would work fine too)
2 qts water
Salt and Pepper to taste

Sauté onion in olive oil for 5 minutes. Add carrots, and celery, and thyme and continue cooking for another 10. Add sweet potatoes and beets. Add flour let the flour brown for 2-3 minutes. Deglaze the pan with the red wine. Add water and bullion. Add rice and simmer until rice is cooked. Add soy curls. Continue cooking until veggies are soft. Season to taste with salt, pepper and more wine as needed.

The new Twist Collective is out. I’m so excited because I’ve been sitting on this little secret since June, and I was losing the ability to keep it to myself: Twist has Crochet! When I met Twist Collective’s Kate Gilbert and Julia Farwell Clay this summer the first thing I thought was “wow.” They were getting ready to launch the first issue of their new magazine and they really had it all together with a fabulous presentation for advertisers and contributors alike. They were passionate about the new publishing model they had constructed and l was pleased when the first issue launched that it looked like they were meeting with success. Of course, when we got to talking, I immediately started asking them about crochet in Twist, and they both were interested and open to giving it a try. We talked about starting with a project that would be accessible and appealing to their mostly knitter audiance. The Elissa Hat and Scarf is made with sock yarn (wonderful squishy sock yarn from Pagewood Farm ). The stitch pattern is simple and fun to learn and easy to memorize. The pattern is being made available free until February 2009.

James grabbed this shot right before I sent the set off back in August. One of the wonderful things about working with Twist, is unlike other publications, I’ll get it back, eventually!

The whole winter issue is full of glorious patterns. I love the felted Heroine coat by Jennifer Lippman Bruno, and the collar and herringbone pattern on Stormsvale by Robin Melanson is dramatic and inspiring. The Gytha hooded pullover looks so wearable and fun to knit; and the I love the patterning of the Postwar Mittens.

I also wrote a short article for the issue, kind or an open letter to knitters who have yet to pick up the hook. (Thanks to the members of SSK for being the inspiration for my article opener!) For most of you dear blog readers, the article is preaching to the converted, but the sentiment, that you need to approach any new skill with a beginners mind and heart (watch a kid learn something new–they are ready for multiple failed attempts before eventual success) has helped me when I need to learn new things, like my recent dip into the waters of spinning.

This is Kris Kokborg. She’s one of the intrepid citizens of Cordova who does just about everything. She participated in the Mushroom Dying workshop I took. She heads the 4H Summer Music camp. She knits and spins and dyes her own yarn. In fact she recently spun, then knit then copper-dyed a sweater for her husband Eric.

On Saturday, Cordova Arts and Pageants, an organization that brings performers and artists to town for concerts and workshops held a Wearable Art Show as a fundraiser. I recently volunteered to help them out, and I offered to MC the event in a not so subtle attempt to get out of making a piece for the show. The theme of the show was recycled materials. There were some amazing entries, from a Warhol-inspired campbell soup-can dress to a recycled full-metal bikini.  Since this is a fiber blog, let’s focus on Kris’s knitted ensemble.

The entire outfit is made from reclaimed grocery sacks. The skirt is knitted in strips and sewn together. Kris had been chatting with me about the outfit and asking if I had any ideas for the bodice. I mentioned the idea of fusing the bags, and she ran with it, looking up instructions on the internet, she created the top with a quilt-inspired design and then punched holes around the arm opening, picked up stitches with more plastic bag yarn and knit down for the cap sleeves. There’s fishermen’s lead line strung through the bottom of the skirt to give it shape and stretch it out a bit. The hat is crocheted, and she’s wearing an old piece of net as a shawl. You can see other entries and all my photos from the event on flickr.

Also last week, my girl scout troop learned to sew. They made hats out of polar fleece sewing up one seam, creating a drawstring top and sewing buttons onto the brim. Everyone finished the project, and they seemed quite pleased with themselves.

I’ve been feeling a bit neglectful of blogs lately, both in posting and in reading because my attention has been drawn more to other online sources of information such as twitter, facebook, flickr, etc. Especially Twitter–the instantaneous nature and the short amount of time that Twitter takes to use has made it especially appealing lately. To that end, I’ve been procrastinating today trolling for ways to effectively collect all of my online activity. I haven’t found any ideal solutions, but I have created a “friendfeed,” so all my online activities are captured in one place and so I can follow other online friends. If you visit my actual blog page, you can see my feed in the sidebar; if you use an RSS reader, you can go to my feed page.

I have nine teddy bear garments to crochet between now and the end of November, so I’d better get back to it.

Pearl is ready for her close-up, but I have a feeling the news media might have other things to cover today. Nonetheless, my new book, Knits for Bears to Wear is officially released today. (A friend of my mom’s in upstate New York even confirmed a sighting in the wilid). Pearl did insist that I clean up the mess in my studio just in case a rogue reporter mistakenly stumbled on over to Cordova. I am excited about the book launch–we’ll be having a party to celebrate at my local yarn shop, The Net Loft on November 19th.

The book has over 20 outfits for soft toys–that’s right, they don’t have to be for bears. The patterns can fit bears, American Girl Dolls, and any soft toy. Each pattern can be easily customized to exactly fit your toy with a simple little “customizing sidebar” we built into each pattern. You do a couple of easy calculations, and you’re ready to knit!

I also, can finally tell you that I’ve been asked to do a sequel to Knits for Bears. A yet-to-be-titled Crochet for Bears book will be out in spring of 2010. I’m working on it now, and without the wonderful group of sample knitters I had helping me with Knits for Bears, it is a little more challenging, but I’m delighted to be designing on a small scale again–it’s a process that allows for creativity in ways that human garments do not.

OK, back to my regularly scheduled obsessive watching of the election results!