This is kind of the perfect image for today…

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My girl, playing an old resonator guitar, outside, in Alaska, in February. The guitar, the scooter, the garage, even the vest on her back belong to our friend John who was taking a break from repairing shoes in his garage shoe shop to jam with our friend Reed. Or maybe he was taking a break from jamming to work on some shoes, which is how Selma sweet talked her way into the resonator and the vest.

Food for Adventurers, Part 1

Salmon & Cheese Egg Muffins

Lately, I’ve been musing about how to feed those I love this summer as they wander off to various adventures at land and sea. I want treats that are not only delicious, but also nutrition-packed and portable. Somebody shared a recipe the other day, and my first thought was: that would be delicious with smoked salmon. So, I went and created my own version of savory, eggy muffins with an Alaskatarian twist. Frankly, my brood are all off on adventures right now and I have the kitchen to myself for days, so I’ll probably freeze the ones I didn’t gobble up for dinner.

This is a flourless recipe, but you wouldn’t notice that if I hadn’t told you. The muffins are made with almond meal and flax meal–you could easily use a cup of whole wheat flour instead of the nut and seed meals if that sounded yummier or just easier to you.

Salmon & Cheese Egg Muffins

Preheat the oven to 350F.

1/2 c. almond flour
1/2 c. flax meal
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. dried dill weed
several grinds of cracked pepper.

Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.

4 eggs
1 T. olive oil
1/2 c. manchego cheese, shredded
4 oz. soft goat cheese (chèvre) crumbled in 1/2 inch chunks (you can substitute cream cheese)
1 jar of smoked red salmon

Whisk together the eggs and oil in a separate bowl. Stir the egg mixture into the dry ingredients until combined. Gently stir in the salmon, cheese, and goat cheese, so the cheeses and salmon stay in large chunks. Pour the batter into a greased muffin tin. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing the muffins from the tin.

Serve hot or at room temperature. To store, cool completely and wrap tightly before freezing muffins individually.

Makes about 10 muffins.

Meet Grantangle

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This cozy shawl accompanied me around Juneau and on trips this spring, and because the yarn was sent to me without a label, I didn’t even know what I was working with. Except that is was silk. And wool. And lovely. I was thrilled to find out that it was Carpet Bag. One of the new yarns from Mrs. Crosby.

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The shawl had its debut at the recent TNNA (needle arts trade show) in Indianapolis, but I wasn’t able to tell you about it until now, because it’s just been published in the most recent issue of Knitty. (Yes. Crochet in Knitty. I know. I’m still giddy about the concept, and so grateful to editor Amy Singer for allowing Miriam Felton and I to show how knitting and crochet play well together.)

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Our current column is a step-by-step guide to creating your first granny square. And then, to get lots of practice while creating something pretty and wearable, there’s Grantangle, which isn’t a square, it’s a rectangle using the granny stitch.

Miriam and I will be talking more about granny squares in our blogs, including stories of our grandmother’s granny squares, so stay tuned.

So you want a ukulele?

I’m so glad! The more the better. The ukulele is an amazing little instrument because in a matter of minutes you can be making music and singing with friends. Of course, like any instrument you can spend time and effort to become more proficient, but you’ll be having fun right away.

There are so many options… how do you choose? To me, it seems similar to any purchase you care about. You buy the best that you can afford. Set your budget ahead of time. If you know you can only spend $100, visit a music store (better with a friend who can already play a little) and strum a few. See which instruments sing to you. Sing back! See which ones you like to sing with. A caveat to that is–if you’ve got money to burn, you may want to hold back in the beginning and get a nice, affordable ukulele. When you feel more proficient, no matter what you bought first, you’re going to want another, and another. There are lots of varieties of ukes. Begin with a soprano or a concert. I really like the Cordoba CM 15. You can find it in a package for under $100 that includes a case and a tuner.

Even if you’re buying an instrument for a really young child, I recommend not buying a toy. For about fifty dollars, you can have a ukulele that is pleasant to play and will last a kid until they are good enough to want something better. Try the Makala a plywood uke made by Kala.

Like I said, you can go to a music store to try out ukes. You can also find a ukulele jam in your area. Try googling “ukulele jam” and the name of your town. In Juneau, the Jambusters meet on Sundays from 11-1 at the Prospector Hotel Restaurant. All are welcome. You get a chance to see a lot of different ukes at a jam, and most of the time, folks will let you hold and strum them too. It’s a great way to check out what you might want and hear what musicians have to say about them.

UPDATE: Do consider used ukuleles. Borrow one from a friend that might be collecting dust. Check Craigslist and garage sales. Instruments that are cared for get better with age. If you buy an old instrument, put new strings on it, and it might really shine.

If you have more questions, feel free to ask in the comments!

Monday Haiku

 

taps on my skylight
mist hangs on backlit feathers
does he want to come in?

 

It’s still National Poetry Month! I had to drop out of the 30/30 challenge, but I’m diving back in for the last few days because who doesn’t love a rush to the finish. There’s a rookery in the trees behind my house. I have a great view from the bathroom windows. Last spring they were so raucous that they would wake my son early in the mornings. Usually, I feel a bit like I’m spying on them, when I watch their movements and meanderings, but today, one of the crows turned the tables.

Here’s some crow on a skylight entertainment that I found on the Internet when I was looking for a photo to go along with this post:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH0PImQZtGw

Doing thing backwards, Music, and National Poetry Month Day 7

Jake and Roxy

Today my poetry prompt was to write a reverse acrostic. Acrostic is a type of poetry where usually the first letter of each line ends up spelling out a word or phrase. This prompt breaks the rules a little (I love breaking the rules) and puts the “secret” word or phrase at the end of each line. It’s harder for me to think of words that end in a given letter rather than begin with one. The challenge is fun, and Scrabble came to my rescue.

Tonight is the first night of the 40th Annual Alaska Folk Festival. Folk fest is a week jam packed with music, far-flung friends visiting, late night jams, dances and little sleep. I wonder how much poetry I’ll be writing in the next week. I know I’ll be getting some crocheting in while I sit and listen to music. That’s a good thing, I have a deadline for my Knitty column coming up soon.

What I have is really just an attempt rather than a finished poem, but in the spirit of the 30/30 Poetry Month challenge, I’ll share it here.

Music Tonight

Voice intermingles with voice and with
The sound of fingers on a
String. Heads together, lean in closer,
Listen to the strum,
And the sound of the piano,
Find the note that rings when
He sings. You fly.

National Poetry Month, Day 4. Trolling in my notebook.

We have this book called The Daily Poet: Day-By-Day Prompts For Your Writing Practice. It’s like an almanac of poetry prompts. Today’s prompt asks you to dig through your journal or notebooks for inspiration. So I trolled through the little moleskine in my backpack and grabbed phrases I liked. Can you tell that most of the notes in this notebook are from writing workshops I’ve taken lately?

Scrawled.

What I mean to say is,
Sentiment demands
A clear eye.

Broadsided.
Unscripted moments.
The act of omission.

Lay your hand on the page,
and see what feels hot.
Seduce your subject.

If anyone asks you
to smoke with them,
say yes.

The mind’s a fine
and private place.
A map of misreading.

Writing is not a refuge.
I can see that you are.
You’re better than this.

 

Will National Poetry Month wake up this sleepy blog?

Is this thing on?

I know this has been a rather quiet blog over the past year or so. I’ve been wanting to blog, but not just about fiber stuff. My creative work has been focused a lot on writing, and I wasn’t sure this was the venue. But I also don’t really want to have a new blog. I like this one. So, I’m just going to let it be my place to write about whatever I feel like.

It’s national poetry month. I am not a poet, but I live with one. Selma writes and performs poetry, and I love what she writes. She challenged me to write a poem a day with her. I’m such a beginner at poetry that it’s liberating, I don’t worry about being successful. I just get to play with words. We’re on day three. It’s great to have a writing partner here in the house with me. I think Selma may post her poems too at some point. Here’s a round-up of what I’ve done so far.

Day One — I discovered Google Poetics and wrote that day’s “poem” accordingly.

the first thing I rememberI also discovered Stitchomancy and played around with that, but didn’t come up with a poem to share.

The next day, Day 2, I played with blackout poetry–creating  a poem by selecting words in a book and blacking out the remaining works. Christine Byl shared this technique in a poetry workshop I took from her in February.

Here’s the text of “Exit,” when you take it out of the book. Actually, that was fun too, because I got to play with the line breaks and punctuation.

Exit

Shut up and keep absolutely still.
Let it ring, frozen to the marrow
of my bones like the crack of doom.

Heels clicking, whispered hoarsely
In a mad rush, silent as memories
Rushed toward the second story.

At the first faint squeal
For the love, scarcely breathing.
Enough to arouse the dead.

Today is Day 3, and Selma challenged me to write a poem in the shape of something. She go the idea from a poetry prompt book we have. I’ll talk more about that another day. Here’s what I came up with. “Sky’s Excuse” is inspired by one of my favorite students.

Want to play too? Write a poem and post a link to it in the comments.

Inspiration in the Mail

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New craft books are published every day. I love looking at them all, but the ones that really get my attention are stitch dictionaries. I use them for ideas when I’m designing, and I like just paging through them.

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This one, Crochet Stitch Dictionary, new from Interweave, by Sarah Hazell has 200 stitches and combines color photos, charts, and written instructions.

It’s National Crochet Month!

Read to the end of the post for a special Coupon Code!

Thank you to Amy and Donna over at Crochetville for inviting me to be part of the amazing blog tour that she’s arranged in honor of National Crochet Month.

The tour is part crochet-evangelism and part promotion for our chosen charity. The bloggers participating chose Project Night Night to support and promote this month. Here’s what Amy had to say:

“As a group, the participating designers selected a very special charity to support this month: Project Night Night, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that provides over 25,000 Night Night Packages each year to homeless children. Each package consists of a new sturdy tote bag with a new security blanket, an age-appropriate children’s book, and a stuffed animal. These comfort objects help to reduce the trauma of homelessness for the children served by Project Night Night. Both the handmade blankets and stuffed animals provide the children with objects of love and security.”

I love the idea of sharing comfort through crochet to children in need.

I began crocheting when I was eight years old. My grandmother taught me basic stitches, and as soon as I learned to make a hat, I was hooked. Hats have always been my favorite things to make. They’re small, portable, easy and the design possibilities are endless. So today I wanted to highlight three FREE hat patterns (well, one is a headband) that I have available. Beyond hats, they’re connected because they all feature color work. Fair isle, tapestry or stranded crochet are some of my favorite techniques. I love seeing patterns appear in fabric, and I love how, if you know the techniques, you can even “doodle” and design as you go.

Here’s my first offering. The Happy Valentine’s Day Hat is worked in Tapestry Crochet–a technique I learned from Crochet Guru Carol Ventura.

In this tutorial I have a little you tube video that demonstrates my color-changing technique.

Next up is a little headband that I designed for my friend Angela. I actually have made this in knit and crochet, and I love both versions. It’s inspired by the colors of Northwest Coast and Alaska Native art.

Lastly, another nod to love in Sara’s Hat, which I designed as a gift for my sister-in-law and later published on Craft.

I hope you enjoy these free patterns and, if you visit my Ravelry Store between now and the end of the month you can get ONE FREE copy of any of my patterns with the purchase of any other pattern. Just use the coupon code: AOHCROMO. Happy National Crochet Month!